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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 171, 00-09-05Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 4, No. 171, 5 September 2000CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIA, GEORGIA DISAGREE OVER WHETHER DROUGHT WILL CAUSE FAMINEA spokesman for the Armenian Ministry of Agriculture on 4 September rejected as "overly exaggerated" the International Committee of the Red Cross's prediction that this summer's drought may lead to famine in Armenia, Interfax reported. He admitted that the drought has caused $40 million in damage and the loss of 40,000 tons of crops, but he denied that there is a resulting threat of famine. In neighboring Georgia, where drought-related damage is estimated at more than $200 million, Agriculture and Food Minister David Kirvalidze said the Red Cross prognosis of famine "is true," according to Interfax. Both the Armenian and the Georgian leadership appealed last month to the international community for relief and food aid (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 August 2000). LF[02] KARABAKH CELEBRATES INDEPENDENCE ANNIVERSARYThe unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic on 2 September marked the ninth anniversary of its declaration of independence, Armenian agencies reported. Speaking at a reception to mark that date, Karabakh President Arkadii Ghukasian affirmed that the declaration of independence did not constitute an end in itself. "We will never relinquish our people's dream-- reunification with Armenia," Noyan Tapan quoted him as saying. Ghukasian also unveiled a monument in Shushi to former Armenian Premier and Defense Minister Vazgen Sargsian, one of the participants in the 1991-1994 fighting. On 3 September Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Markarian, who represented the Armenian leadership at the anniversary celebrations, signed an agreement with Nagorno-Karabakh Premier Anoushavan Danielian on inter- governmental cooperation in the spheres of industry, power engineering, trade, tourism, and the social sector, according to Snark on 4 September, as cited by Groong. LF[03] AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT DECRIES OPPOSITION TO KARABAKH PEACESpeaking at Baku airport on 4 September before leaving for New York, where he will attend the UN Millennium Summit, Heidar Aliev confirmed that he will meet later this week with his Armenian counterpart, Robert Kocharian, to resume their ongoing talks on approaches to resolving the Karabakh conflict, Turan reported. But Aliev also accused unidentified forces of seeking to obstruct a solution to the conflict. The "Turkish Daily News" on 5 September quoted Aliev as complaining that the international community refuses to hold Armenia responsible for its "occupation" of Azerbaijani territory. Turan said that Azerbaijan will demand at the summit that Armenia comply with four 1993 UN Security Council resolutions calling for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian forces from Azerbaijani territory. LF[04] ANOTHER AZERBAIJANI NEWSPAPER EDITOR INTERROGATED IN PLANE HIJACK CASEGunduz Tahirli, editor of the independent newspaper "Azadlyg," was questioned for almost three hours on 4 September about the abortive 18 August attempt by a member of the opposition Musavat party to hijack an Azerbaijani internal flight, Turan reported. On 5 September, National Security Minister Namik Abbasov denied that the health of arrested "Yeni Musavat" editor Rauf Arifoglu has deteriorated since his arrest on 22 August, "525 gazeti" reported. Arifoglu, who suffers from a duodenal ulcer, has declared an indefinite hunger strike. Meanwhile, a senior Azerbaijani airlines official on 4 September blamed the hijack on inadequate security screening at Nakhichevan airport, saying officials should have noticed the suspicious behavior of the lone hijacker, Mehti Huseynli. LF[05] SEVERAL DEPUTIES DEFECT FROM GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT MAJORITY FACTIONAt least seven deputies representing the Union of Citizens of Georgia have quit that faction to form a new one, Caucasus Press reported on 1 September. They include the former chairman of the parliamentary Committee for Economic Policy and Reforms, David Gamkrelidze. LF[06] KAZAKHSTAN'S POPULATION DOUBTS EXISTENCE OF INTER-ETHNIC HARMONYThe results of an opinion poll conducted in Almaty in mid-June indicate that few respondents are convinced by official denials that any tensions exist between the country's ethnic groups. The results of the poll were summarized by "Kontinent" in its August issue. The number of people polled was not specified. Only 4.2 percent of those questioned believed that inter- ethnic harmony exists in Kazakhstan, while 23.1 percent said it does not exist and a 30.7 percent could give no definite response but were inclined to doubt its existence. Asked to identify reasons for the deterioration in inter-ethnic relations, 24.1 percent of those questioned attributed that trend to the official policy of "Kazakhization" of the upper echelons of the country's leadership. Sixty-eight percent of the Kazakhs polled said they consider it appropriate that Kazakh be designated the sole state language, whereas 73.9 percent of the non-Kazakhs polled said there should be two state languages. LF[07] LULL REPORTED IN FIGHTING IN KYRGYZSTAN...General Bolot Djanuzakov, who is secretary of the Kyrgyz Security Council, told journalists in Bishkek on 4 September that there was no fighting on Kyrgyzstan's southern border with Tajikistan that day or on 3 September. But he noted that on 3 September, Kyrgyz war planes continued to bombard suspected positions held by fighters from the banned Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, RFE/RL's bureau in the Kyrgyz capital reported. Djanuzakov put the number of invading militants killed since the first incursion on 11 August at 62. Some 30 Kyrgyz servicemen have officially been reported killed over that period, although some observers believe that figure is higher. Also on 4 September, First Deputy Defense Minister Nurdin Chomoev told a session of the upper chamber of the parliament that the fighting has depleted the Defense Ministry's budget, noting that $2 million was spent on the war in August alone. LF[08] ...AS UZBEK TROOPS CONTINUE 'MOPPING UP'Members of the Uzbek military group coordinating actions against the IMU said on 4 September that Uzbek helicopters had flown massive bombing raids that day against concentrations of IMU fighters hiding in mountainous border regions, ITAR-TASS reported. They attributed the fighters' continued presence in Uzbekistan to their anticipation of reinforcements and said that Uzbek troops will continue combing villages, caves, and ravines in the Sarias and Uzun Raions of Surkhandarya Oblast until all the IMU fighters have been eliminated. LF[09] KYRGYZ OPPOSITION PROTESTS ASSASSINATION CASE SENTENCERepresentatives of several Kyrgyz political parties and NGOs have written to President Askar Akaev to protest the 16-year sentence handed down on 1 September to opposition Erkindik party chairman Topchubek Turgunaliev, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 4 September 2000). Turgunaliev was found guilty of masterminding a plot to assassinate Akaev. Erkindik's ruling board has accused presidential administration head Misir Ashyrkulov of fabricating the criminal case against Turgunaliev and his alleged accomplices. It has also demanded Ashyrkulov's dismissal. LF[10] INCUMBENT QUALIFIES TO CONTEST KYRGYZ PRESIDENTIAL POLLPresident Akaev on 4 September passed the mandatory Kyrgyz language examination for presidential candidates, despite some grammatical and spelling errors, Reuters and Interfax reported. Of the 19 presidential hopefuls, 12 have sat the language examination to date, of whom five failed. Only two candidates have been officially registered to contest the 29 October ballot: People's Party leader Melis Eshimkanov, who owns the opposition newspaper "Asaba," and Ata-Meken party leader Omurbek Tekebaev. LF[11] TAJIK OPPOSITION CALLS FOR HALT TO NEW FIGHTINGThe Islamic Renaissance Party has appealed to the Tajik government to cease its ongoing hostilities in Tajikistan's eastern Darband region against opposition forces led by United Tajik Opposition field commander Mullo Abdullo, ITAR-TASS reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 4 September 2000). The IRP noted that in the past, the government has always sought a political solution to such clashes, which the IRP attributed to the government's failure to implement provisions of the 1997 peace agreement on the disarmament of armed opposition groups and their recruitment into either the army or the Interior Ministry forces. LF[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[12] MILOSEVIC DENIES INVOLVEMENT IN ABDUCTION OF OPPONENTThe independent news agency Beta reported on 4 September that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic told former Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov that he was not behind the disappearance of former Serbian President Ivan Stambolic. Gligorov was asked by Stambolic's wife, Kaca, to telephone Milosevic to find out if he has any information on Stambolic. Serbian opposition parties say they believe Milosevic is behind the disappearance of his former mentor turned foe, while state media say the abduction is related to Stambolic's business activities. Milosevic reportedly blamed Stambolic's family for not reporting his disappearance until seven hours after it occurred, saying that the delay would have given kidnappers time to leave the country. Witnesses say they saw Stambolic forced into a van at gunpoint while jogging in Belgrade on 25 August. PB[13] BELGRADE POLICE TAKE BRITONS, CANADIANS OUT OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENTThe lawyers for two British policemen and two Canadians arrested and charged with terrorism last month said their defendants have been moved out of solitary confinement cells, Reuters reported on 5 September. The four, who were working in Kosova, were arrested in Montenegro, where they said they were on vacation. They were reportedly found with detonation devices. No charges have been filed against any of them. The prosecution has 15 days after the end of the investigation into the case to decide whether to press charges against them. The investigation concluded on 28 August. Britain and Canada have repeatedly called on Belgrade to release the men. PB[14] SERBIAN POLICE RAID OTPOR OFFICESPolice raided the Belgrade headquarters of the student group Otpor (Resistance) on 4 September, confiscating election materials and computers, AP reported. Gradimir Nalic, a lawyer for Otpor, said the raid was the government's attempt to "strike at the heart of Otpor." Student leader Vukasin Petrovic said police burst into the offices and removed all campaign material and the group's computers before ransacking the premises. The state news agency Tanjug said the raid was part of "regular activities" during which propaganda belonging to the "illegal, mercenary, pro-NATO" Otpor organization was confiscated. It added that "measures in accordance with the law will be taken." Later the same day, Otpor offices in Mladenovac, near Belgrade, were also raided. PB[15] GREEK FOREIGN MINISTER PLANS PRE-ELECTION VISIT TO BELGRADEThe Greek Foreign Ministry said on 4 September that George Papandreou will visit Belgrade before the 24 September elections to encourage all sides to make use of "the historical opportunity" and take part in democratic elections, AP reported. Greece, which was highly critical of the NATO-led bombing of Yugoslavia last year, is Belgrade's main ally within the EU. PB[16] UN SAYS IT WILL ALLOW YUGOSLAV VOTE TO BE HELD IN KOSOVAThe UN administration in Kosova (UNMIK) said on 4 September that it will not help organize Yugoslav federal elections in the Serbian province but will allow them to take place, Reuters reported. Bernard Kouchner, the head of the UN mission in Prishtina, said "these so-called elections are not fair, open, and democratic...and UNMIK will not support them. But we'll offer security for the people [who wish to vote]." Kouchner said Yugoslav officials have neither informed him of plans to open voting booths in Kosova nor asked for assistance in setting them up. Kouchner said the Yugoslav elections are a provocation to "undermine our very important elections" scheduled for 28 October. PB[17] UN SUSPENDS PRISON CHIEF AFTER BREAKOUTUNMIK head Kouchner said on 4 September that he has suspended the director of a prison in Mitrovica from which 13 Serbs successfully escaped (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 4 September 2000), Reuters reported. Kouchner said he feels "humiliated, frustrated, and guilty" about the jailbreak. He added that "people will be punished." The prison head is U.S. police officer Vincent Ducellier. Kouchner said the remaining 32 prisoners in the jail will be moved to other places. One of the escaped prisoners, Vekoslav Simic, who was being held for war crimes, has telephoned a relative in Mitrovica to say that all 13 of the escapees have fled Kosova, Reuters reported on 4 September. PB[18] SRPSKA WEEKLY PUBLISHES LIST OF INDICTED BOSNIANSThe independent weekly "Reporter" has published a Republika Srpska Defense Ministry list of 74 Bosnians thought to have been indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal at The Hague, Reuters reported on 4 September. Of the 74 listed, 70 are Bosnian Serbs. The newspaper also names the towns where 64 of those on the list are reportedly living or hiding. Nine on the list have been publicly indicted by The Hague, but the others are believed to be on the sealed list of indictments. The newspaper did not specify why the list was drawn up but said it was based on information from Goran Neskovic, a lawyer for Momcilo Krajisnik, who is currently being detained at The Hague. Krajisnik is a former close associate of former Bosnian Serb leader and indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic. PB[19] POLICE UNCOVER FRAUD AMONG CROATIAN ARMY OFFICERSCroatian military police have found that 70 out of 151 high-ranking army officers who have been investigated thus far have faked injuries to gain higher pensions and other perks, the daily "Jutarnji list" reported on 4 September. Ivica Pancic, the minister responsible for war veterans, said "one-third of the invalid certificates should be immediately canceled." The government began the investigation after noticing an unusually large number of invalid soliders from the wars of Yugoslav succession. PB[20] FARMERS BLOCK HIGHWAY SEEKING STATE FUNDSA group of farmers used tractors to block the main highway in the Pakrac region of Croatia on 4 September to protest the government's failure to pay for wheat supplies, AP reported. Hundreds of farmers joined the protest and vowed to maintain the blockade until they are paid for this season's harvest. They also demanded protection from cheap agricultural imports. PB[21] ROMANIAN LEFTISTS TO RUN JOINTLY IN ELECTIONSParty of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR) leader Ion Iliescu and the leaders of the Social Democratic Party (PSDR), Alexandru Athanasiu and Tudor Mohora have reached an agreement to run on joint lists in the November parliamentary elections, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported on 4 September. The PSDR will join the Social Democratic Pole, established earlier by the PDSR and the Romanian Humanist Party, and will receive between 10 and 20 places on joint lists, in accordance with 3.5 percent of the vote the PSDR received in the 2000 local elections. The PDSR and PSDR are to merge after the general elections. Also on 4 September, PDSR First Deputy Chairman Adrian Nastase announced that former Foreign Minister Adrian Severin has joined the PDSR. Severin was expelled from the Democratic Party in 1998 and was elected chairman of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly earlier this year. MS[22] GAGAUZ-YERI DEFIES MOLDOVAN LEADERSHIP OVER TRANSDNIESTER CELEBRATIONSA delegation from the Gagauz-Yeri Autonomous region participated in the celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the breakaway region in Tiraspol on 2 September, RFE/RL's Chisinau Bureau reported. Mikhail Kendegelian, chairman of the autonomous region's Popular Assembly, said the Gagauz people "will never forget that when nationalist Moldovan forces started marching south in order to strangle our liberty-loving people, the Transdniestrians leaped to our help." Kendegelian added that "the friendship between Komrat and Tiraspol will last forever, having been cemented by the blood spilled in 1992." Dumitru Petrenco, counselor to Premier Dumitru Braghis, responded that Kendegelian's statements in Tiraspol "can be viewed only as a provocation" aimed at "undermining the process of a settlement of the Transdniester conflict." MS[C] END NOTE[23] THE STRUGGLE TO ESTABLISH THE WORLD'S LARGEST ORTHODOX CHURCHBy Taras KuzioDuring the synod of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) in Moscow from 18-20 August, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Aleksii II denounced calls to "confine the Church within the framework of the Russian Federation." The State Duma backed the ROC's geopolitical pretensions within the CIS by allocating 6 million rubles ($216,000) to the ROC in Ukraine this year. In early August, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma sent a letter to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, asking Russia to return mosaics and frescoes from the Mykhaylivskyy Golden- Domed Cathedral in Kyiv. So far, he has received no response. The cathedral was built from 1108-1113 and destroyed on the orders of Josef Stalin in 1934. Some of the surviving treasures were looted by the Nazis but returned in the late Soviet era. The cathedral was rebuilt from 1996-1999 with Kyiv city funds and is now under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarch (UOC-KP). The reconstruction of the cathedral has been seen as direct competition to the rebuilding of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, backed by Mayor Yurii Luzhkov. "Kommersant-Daily" deemed the Ukrainian cathedral's construction politically motivated because "Ukraine is pretending to be the successor to the whole tradition of Kyiv Rus." The ROC stands to lose the most from the unification of Ukraine's three Orthodox Churches into an independent (autocephalous) Church because Kyiv would resume its historical leadership among eastern Slavs as the direct descendant of Kyiv Rus and the Kyiv Metropolitanate (the city of Moscow was founded 600 years after Kyiv). The ROC is also concerned about maintaining its influence. In the former USSR, two-thirds of ROC parishes were in Ukraine; today half of ROC parishes remain within Ukraine's borders. According to the Oxford-based Keston College, the ROC has a greater number of parishes outside the Russian Federation and within the former USSR (more than 9,000) than within the Russian Federation itself (7,000). In Ukraine, whose population is three times smaller than Russia's, there are two times as many Orthodox parishes as in the Russian Federation (14,000). This makes the Ukrainian Orthodox Churches potentially the largest Orthodox community of believers in the world. Of the 14,000 Orthodox parishes in Ukraine, 8, 000 come under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarch and the remaining 6,000 fall under that of the UOC-KP and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC). The combined total of nearly 15,000 ROC parishes within the former USSR gives the ROC the clout to back its historical claim of leadership within the Orthodox world as the "Third Rome." The "Second Rome" (Constantinople, known by its Turkish name of Istanbul) is therefore subordinate to itself. Ukraine, with its large Orthodox community, is key to the struggle between the ROC and the Patriarch of Constantinople for leadership and influence over the world's Orthodox believers. Of particular concern to the ROC is Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew I's declaration in June that Ukraine lies within its canonical territory. That claim, which is backed by the Greek, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Georgian Orthodox Churches, is based on Constantinople's non- recognition of the forcible transfer of the Kyiv Orthodox Metropolitanate to Moscow in 1686, making the ROC's control over Ukraine uncanonical in the eyes of Constantinople. In 1924, Constantinople Patriarch Grygorii revived the Kyiv Metropolitanate by creating the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church (PAOC) at a time when 6 million Ukrainians lived in Poland. The UOC-KP and UAOC claim to be canonical descendants of both the Kyiv Metropolitanate and the PAOC and thus back Constantinople's jurisdiction over Ukraine. Ukrainian Orthodox Churches in North America came under the Patriarch of Constantinople's jurisdiction in 1995. The ROC rejects any claims by Constantinople over Ukraine and describes its two rivals in Ukraine as "schismatics," demanding that they return to the bosom of the only "canonical" Church. As in Belarus, the ROC in Ukraine has allies among the left and pro-Slavic union political groups, and, ironically, its most ardent supporter is the Communist Party of Ukraine. It is therefore not surprising that the August Moscow synod refused even to discuss a request by President Leonid Kuchma, the metropolitan, and all but two of the bishops of the ROC in Ukraine to grant it autonomy. Kuchma sees the granting of autonomy as a step toward the unification of the ROC in Ukraine with the UOC-KP and UAOC into an autocephalous Orthodox Church. All opinion polls conducted in Ukraine since 1992 give majority support among Orthodox believers to the UOC-KP. Confusion among many Orthodox believers is due to the fact that the ROC in Ukraine was registered as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in 1990, even though it has never possessed any kind of autonomous status and is merely an exarchate of the ROC. Some 200 of the 1700 Orthodox parishes in Galicia, for example, belong to the UOC (ROC). In an interview in "Tserkalo Tyzhden" in August, Patriarch Filaret of the UOC-KP said he believes that 60-70 per cent of the ROC in Ukraine would agree to join a united Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The establishment of such a Church would make Ukraine home to the largest Orthodox Church in the world, and Constantinople would have found itself a new ally in its historical struggle with the ROC for leadership over Orthodox believers. Such a move would also seriously damage the movement for eastern Slavic union within Ukraine, as the autocephalous wing of Ukrainian Orthodoxy supports Ukraine's integration into Trans-Atlantic and European structures. The author is an honorary research fellow at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta. 05-09-00 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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