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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 176, 00-09-12Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 4, No. 176, 12 September 2000CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN COALITION PARTIES DISCUSS CONDITIONS FOR CONTINUING COOPERATIONRepresentatives of the Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) and the People's Party of Armenia (HZhK) have held talks on clarifying their respective conditions for continued cooperation within the majority Miasnutiun parliamentary bloc, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported on 11 September. Parliamentary deputy speaker Tigran Torosian (HHK) said his party does not want to end that cooperation but that its continuation requires greater support by the HZhK for the government's policies. He further hinted that if Miasnutiun collapsed, the HHK would demand that controversial HZhK parliamentary speaker Armen Khachatrian be replaced. LF[02] AUTHORITIES PROHIBIT PROTEST PICKETS ON BEHALF OF ARRESTED AZERBAIJANI JOURNALISTThe Baku municipal authorities has rejected a request to stage protests on 12-13 September against the arrest of opposition "Yeni Musavat" editor Rauf Arifoglu, Turan reported on 11 September. A committee established earlier this month to defend Arifoglu's rights had requested permission to stage protests outside the state television and radio building and the Prosecutor- General's Office (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 September 2000). LF[03] AZERBAIJANI COMMUNIST LEADER DENIES PLANS TO ALIGN WITH RULING PARTYSeyran Veliev, who is press secretary for the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, told Turan on 11 September that the party has no intention of merging with the ruling Yeni Azerbaycan party. In its 11 September issue, the newspaper "Bu Gun" had quoted Communist Party leader Firudin Hasanov as saying that his party is considering a merger with Yeni Azerbaycan. LF[04] AZERBAIJAN REQUESTS AID TO COUNTER DROUGHT DAMAGEPresident Heidar Aliev has written to the World Bank requesting assistance to counter the effects of the worst drought to hit Azerbaijan for 20 years, AFP reported on 11 September, quoting an unnamed Ministry of Agriculture official. That official estimated that some $35-40 million are needed to provide help for rural families as well as buy seeds and fertilizers and protect crops. Prime Minister Artur Rasizade, in a letter to the UN, estimated the total damage at more than $100 million. Georgia has estimated drought damage at more than $200 million and Armenia at $40 million. Both countries have similarly appealed to international agencies for help (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 August and 5 September 2000). LF[05] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT WARNS AGAINST PROTEST DEMOS...Eduard Shevardnadze told journalists in Tbilisi on 11 September that protests such as that by residents of the west Georgian town of Tkibuli (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 September 2000) risk destabilizing the domestic political situation and jeopardizing international financial aid, AP reported. Shevardnadze also said that Georgia is gradually emerging from its ongoing economic crisis. Two weeks earlier, Interfax had quoted him as saying that "recent positive tendencies," including a 9 percent increase in industrial output during the first six months of the year and 2.8 percent GDP growth over the same period, show that Georgia has already overcome that crisis. LF[06] ...AS GUERRILLA LEADER ISSUES ULTIMATUMDato Shengelaia, one of the leaders of the "Forest Brothers" Georgian guerrilla organization, which sporadically terrorizes the population of southern Abkhazia, issued an ultimatum on 12 September to the director of the Zugdidi city market in western Georgia to lift the recently imposed ban on the sale of smuggled food, Caucasus Press reported. Georgian parliamentary deputy Tengiz Djgushia had accused Shengelaia in June of complicity in smuggling across the internal border between Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia, after which Djgushia and his family received repeated threats (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 and 13 June 2000). "Rezonansi" on 11 September reported that the grandfather of Djgushia's wife had been abducted from his home in southern Abkhazia several days earlier. LF[07] GUUAM TO ACQUIRE NEW MEMBER?Shevardnadze also told journalists in Tbilisi on 11 September that Romanian President Emil Constantinescu has informed him that Romania is ready to submit a formal request to join the GUUAM grouping, Interfax and Caucasus Press reported on 11 September. Romania is the first non-Soviet successor state to state its readiness to join Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Moldova in that alignment. LF[08] COURT ANNULS KYRGYZ OPPOSITION LEADER'S ACQUITTAL...Kyrgyzstan's Military Court on 11 September annulled the acquittal of former Vice President and opposition Ar-Namys party chairman Feliks Kulov, Interfax and RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. The court called for Kulov to be retried, this time by the Bishkek City Court, and for him to give a written pledge not to leave Bishkek. After a six-week trial, the court last month found Kulov not guilty of abusing his official position as national security minister (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 8 August 2000). Kulov has formally stated his intention to contest the 29 October Kyrgyz presidential poll. LF[09] ...AS OFFICIAL HINTS AT CLEMENCY FOR A SECOND OPPOSITIONIST...Kyrgyz presidential spokesman Osmonakun Ibraimov told RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau on 11 September that he considers the 16-year jail sentence handed down to opposition politician Topchubek Turgunaliev too severe, but he added that neither the government nor the presidential administration is empowered to infringe on the independence of the judiciary. Turgunaliev was found guilty of having recruited semi-literate herdsmen to assassinate President Askar Akaev last year (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 4 September 2000). The verdict was based on testimony given by one man, who later withdrew his statements. Ibraimov hinted that Akaev may soon make "a special statement" on the Turgunaliev case. LF[10] ...AND PLEDGES TO HOLD FAIR ELECTIONSIbraimov told journalists in Bishkek on 11 September that the 29 October poll must be "fair and transparent" in order to establish Kyrgyzstan's international reputation as a democratic country, according to Interfax. He argued that the mandatory Kyrgyz language test for presidential hopefuls is justified because "a presidential candidate must have a perfect command of the language if he does not want to humiliate the nation." President Akaev passed that test, despite some grammatical errors (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 5 September 2000). Ibraimov pledged that all candidates will enjoy equal rights. Also on 11 September, parliamentary deputy and opposition Kairan El party leader Dooronbek Sadyrbekov announced that he is quitting the presidential race because local authorities are doing all in their power to thwart the presidential campaigns of any challengers to the incumbent president, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. LF[11] KYRGYZ TROOPS KILL MORE ISLAMISTSKyrgyz government troops and police on 11 September surrounded and killed seven Islamic militants who had crossed the border into Djalalabad Oblast from neighboring Uzbekistan, a spokesman for the oblast governor told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service. Two police officers were killed and two wounded in that operation. LF[12] UZBEK PRESIDENT SAYS U.S. READY TO HELP WIPE OUT BANNED ISLAMIC MOVEMENTOn his return from the UN Millennium Summit in New York, Islam Karimov told journalists that U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had assured him that Washington considers the banned Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan a terrorist organization, Interfax reported. The Russian agency quoted Karimov as saying Albright told him the U.S. is ready to offer political, moral, and, if necessary, material assistance to fight the militants. LF[13] UZBEKISTAN PROTESTS BAN ON OLYMPIC COACHThe Uzbek government on 11 September formally protested the Australian government's refusal to allow boxing coach Gafur Rakhimov to enter Australia with other members of Uzbekistan's Olympic team, AP reported. According to "Nezavisimaya gazeta" the next day, the reason for the ban was Rakhimov's links to organized crime as alleged by a U.S. journalist citing the memoirs of a French businessman. Also on 11 September, an Uzbek Olympic official said Uzbek boxing official Sergei Voynov is being treated for a skin disorder with a human growth hormone that customs officials confiscated from him when he arrived in Sydney last week (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 7 September 2000). LF[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[14] WESTERN OFFICIALS CONSIDER RESPONSE TO POSSIBLE VIOLENCE IN MONTENEGROEU External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten, U.S. National Security Adviser Samuel Berger, and Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott have discussed possible responses to any attempt by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to use violence against the Montenegrin authorities in the runup to the 24 September Yugoslav federal elections. After meeting with the U.S. officials in Washington on 11 September, Patten said: "Clearly we are concerned about the pressures which have been applied to [the Montenegrin] government by Belgrade," Reuters reported. "I assume Mr. Milosevic knows how strongly we feel about Montenegro's continuing freedoms but I don't think it would be wise to say any more than that," he added. Observers note that there is widespread speculation in the former Yugoslavia that Milosevic might try to oust the Montenegrin government by force if Belgrade believes that Washington is too preoccupied with the November elections to oppose him. PM[15] MONTENEGRIN PRESIDENT: YUGOSLAV ELECTIONS LACK LEGAL BASISMilo Djukanovic said in Podgorica on 11 September that his government will not take part in the 24 September elections because the Belgrade authorities violated the constitution in setting down the legal framework for the vote (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 4 August 2000). He denied charges made by Milosevic supporters that the Podgorica government is boycotting the vote because Djukanovic fears defeat, Montena-fax reported. Djukanovic stressed that an election victory by an opposition candidate over Milosevic's supporters will not lead to democracy in Serbia because the legal basis of the vote is flawed. Elsewhere, talks collapsed between supporters and opponents of the government on monitoring the elections. Critics charged that Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic personally overruled his supporters, who were prepared to strike a deal with the government, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM[16] MORE NATO TROOPS FOR KOSOVAMilitary leaders of the Atlantic alliance agreed near Athens on 11 September to send another four battalions of peacekeepers to Kosova in the runup to the 24 September elections, Reuters reported. The troops will come from France, Italy, Greece, and the U.K. PM[17] KOSOVA PLANNING CHIEF KILLEDUnknown persons shot and killed Rexhep Luci in the stairway of his Prishtina apartment building on 11 September, AP reported. The head of the province's reconstruction and development agency had actively campaigned against illegal construction activity. NATO peacekeepers and UN police are investigating the murder. Unidentified persons killed "Rilindja" journalist Shefki Popova in Vushtrri on 10 September. PM[18] BALKAN STABILITY PACT SUMMIT OPENS IN CROATIAN CAPITALHeads of the legislatures of the countries participating in the EU's Balkan Stability Pact began a three-day meeting in Zagreb on 12 September. The 45 participants will discuss the role that legislatures can play in implementing projects agreed on through the pact and in promoting Euro- Atlantic integration. Bodo Hombach, who is the coordinator of the pact, urged participating governments to create a more favorable climate for investments, dpa reported. The pact is a clearing house and coordinator for projects aimed at promoting democracy and development in the Balkans. Critics charge that it is a costly talking-shop that has produced few, if any, concrete results. PM[19] LORD JOHNSTON: NO BALKAN PEACE WITH MILOSEVIC HEADING SERBIALord Russell Johnston, who is the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, told the Zagreb gathering of legislative leaders on 12 September that "the people of Serbia, and the entire free world with them, are holding their breath" in the runup to the elections. Russell Johnston added: "Let us face it. Until Milosevic and his coterie are removed from power, stability will be undermined in the Balkans," AP reported. Referring to the elections, Russell Johnston argued that "we may be betting against the odds [that Milosevic will lose], but the hope is there." Russell Johnston nonetheless concluded that "we should harbor no illusions of Milosevic playing fair, least of all in the event of him losing the ballot," Reuters reported. PM[20] CROATIA TO REPAIR DESTROYED HOMES BY 2003Prime Minister Ivica Racan said in Zagreb on 11 September that by the beginning of 2003, the government will complete its program to rebuild or repair homes destroyed or damaged in the 1991-1995 conflict, Hina reported. Racan also said that the government will continue its financial support for war veterans. He added, however, that the government expects those administering the programs to show "more responsibility" for their actions than in the past. Veterans' affairs programs have been tainted by charges from those opposed to the late President Franjo Tudjman that the programs have offered Tudjman's supporters the opportunity to engage in corruption. PM[21] SLOVENIAN PARTIES VOW TO KEEP FOREIGN ISSUES OUT OF CAMPAIGNRepresentatives of the parties represented in the parliament agreed in Ljubljana on 11 September not to allow foreign policy questions to become a source of contention among themselves in the runup to the 15 October legislative elections, "Dnevnik" reported. The political leaders agreed that they will not be drawn into a discussion with conservative Austrian politicians such as Joerg Haider, who have called on Slovenia to repudiate the World War II-era AVNOJ decrees, under which members of the German minority lost their property and were expelled from the former Yugoslavia. Janez Jansa's Social Democrats did not take part in the meeting of the party leaders, arguing that issues from the first half of the 20th century are of no concern in the 21st century. Observers note that there is general consensus on key foreign policy issues in the country of 2 million people and widespread concern that foreigners not be allowed to pit Slovene against Slovene. PM[22] PRIVATE SECURITY COMPANY BEHIND ROMANIAN TRADE UNION LEADER'S MURDERPolice on 11 September said the murder of Virgil Sahleanu last week was the result of a plot involving the manager of a private security company and the Tepro director general to "intimidate and if necessary assassinate" the Iasi trade union leader. Sahleanu had opposed a deal whereby the security company would guard the Tepro pipe company in Iasi, saying employees can guard the factory themselves. As a result, the security company lost a 480 million lei ($21,000) contract. President Emil Constantinescu called on the government to approve legislation making private security companies subject to "legal transparency" in order to avoid similar incidents in the future. MS[23] ROMANIAN SHIPPING COMPANIES LIFT DANUBE BLOCKADEShipping companies on 11 September lifted a four-day blockade of the River Danube after the government agreed to cancel debts and exempt the firms from fuel taxes, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. The blockade began on 8 September to protest the losses suffered by the companies as a result of Yugoslavia's failure to clear up the Danube for navigation. The river has been obstructed by the debris of bridges destroyed last year by NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. Romanian shipping companies say they have been forced to lay off more than 3,500 employees and have suffered losses amounting to $150 million. MS[24] BULGARIA, ROMANIA DISCUSS ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMSBulgarian Environment Minister Evdokia Maneva met with her Romanian counterpart, Romica Tomescu, in Sofia on 8 September to discuss environmental problems affecting the two countries, in particular the Romanian Turnu Magurele chemical plant, which pollutes Bulgarian settlements across the River Danube, and the controversial Kozloduy nuclear power plant, AP, BTA, and Romanian Radio reported. The two ministers later visited the Bulgarian town of Russe and the Romanian town of Calarasi. Tomescu protested Bulgaria's failure to inform Romania about the incidents at Kozloduy, which the Bulgarian media reported last week. He also demanded that Romanian experts be granted access to Kozloduy. Maneva said radiation leakages resulting from those incidents were small and had no impact outside the plant itself. She said a report has been prepared and will be submitted for discussion by experts in the two countries. MS[25] PRESIDENT TO RESUME MOLDOVAN CONSTITUTIONAL BATTLEReturning from the UN Millennium Summit on 11 September, Moldovan President Petru Lucinschi said he will soon resume contacts with the parliament in an attempt to find a "mutually acceptable solution" to the constitutional crisis, RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau reported. Should this solution prove unattainable, Lucinschi said, he will "insist" that a referendum be held in which the electorate chooses between his proposal to expand the presidential prerogatives and the parliament's decision to transform Moldova into a parliamentary republic. Lucinschi added that Moldova will continue to insist that negotiations with Tiraspol be conducted "solely on the principle of Moldova's territorial integrity." He said Chisinau is "not ready to agree to the federalization" option. MS[C] END NOTE[26] FIGHTING FUNDAMENTALISM WITH SUFISMby Paul GobleTashkent is actively promoting the ideas of an Islamic sect with deep roots in Uzbek society in order to render its citizens immune against the appeals of Islamic fundamentalism. This use of a mystical trend in Islam to fight an inherently political one appears to have achieved some success, but it may ultimately backfire on the Uzbek authorities. Najmiddin Kamilov, a senior Uzbek official who has written widely about Sufism, said last week that by promoting the Naqshbandi Sufi order, which has advocated adapting Sunni Islamic precepts to local popular practices, "our people and our army will be stronger and better able to defend the homeland." Kamilov's views were echoed by Vernon Schubel, a Western specialist on Islam who teaches at Ohio's Kenyon College. He noted that Islamic fundamentalists "see Sufism as a pollution of Islam, so to put Sufism forth as the real Central Asian Islam is a way of combating other forms of political Islam." He added that he believes the Uzbek government views this approach "as a kind of inoculation." Among the steps taken by the Uzbek authorities are the promotion of scholars who advocate Naqshbandi ideas, the erection of billboards featuring quotations from the 14th century founder of that mystical group, and renaming the main street in Bukhara. In Soviet times, that avenue bore the name of Vladimir Lenin. Now, it is called Bahauddin Naqshbandi Prospect in honor of the order's founder. What makes these actions stand out is that the Uzbek authorities, from President Islam Karimov down, have repeatedly attacked fundamentalist Islam as a threat to stability there. They have banned fundamentalist religious literature and arrested Islamic activists. And in recent weeks, they have suggested that fundamentalism is behind the current military insurgency across Central Asia. During the 1970s and 1980s, many Soviet officials and Western scholars identified Sufism in general and the Naqshbandi order in particular as a threat to stability in Central Asia and the North Caucasus. Historically, they noted, many of the most committed opponents of Russian rule in these areas were Naqshbandi followers, and consequently, they suggested, the spread of Sufism within "underground" Islam pointed toward a revolution. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many officials in the new Central Asian countries initially adopted a rather undifferentiated approach to any kind of Islamic belief beyond the officially approved religion that they felt they could control. But during the last few years, the governments of these countries have begun to make some critical distinctions, most importantly between fundamentalists who seek to create a theocratic state and thus challenge current political arrangements and others, such as at least some followers of the Naqshbandi order, who according to Komilov, have "adapted to local circumstances." Followers of this group, Kamilov argues and Schubel concurs, are less likely to be attracted by the political program of fundamentalist groups that reject the veneration of local saints, object to special local pilgrimages, and abhor the respect the Naqshbandi followers have for many pre- or non-Islamic practices. Indeed, in Uzbekistan at least, they argue, Naqshbandi beliefs can serve almost as a national faith. But in many respects, this attempt to use Sufism to combat fundamentalism is fighting fire with fire. While followers of the two trends dislike one another and disagree on many theological and practical points, they have in common a distaste for many of the actions and corruption of the successor regimes in Tashkent and elsewhere in Central Asia. Moreover, the two groups share an underground kind of organization: fundamentalism, because of its radical rejection of all civil authorities, and the Naqshbandi Sufi order, because its propagation has always been based on groups of the followers of a particular saintly leader. By their very nature, such organizations are often beyond the control of the state. Not surprisingly, the Uzbek government has tried in the past to block the formation of such orders lest they become a threat to the regime. But in promoting the ideas of the Naqshbandi order, Tashkent may find that its success in seeking to shield its citizens from fundamentalism will not provide the guarantee it seeks to allow it to control an increasingly numerous, impoverished, and restive population. 12-09-00 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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