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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 232, 00-12-01Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 4, No. 232, 1 December 2000CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIA, TURKMENISTAN DISCUSS BILATERAL COOPERATION...Visiting Ashgabat on 29 November, Armenian President Robert Kocharian discussed with his Turkmen counterpart, Saparmurat Niyazov. CIS and regional affairs, including the Karabakh conflict and the war in Afghanistan, according to Snark and Turkmen Television, cited by Groong on 30 November. They also assessed the prospects for economic cooperation, including in the energy field. ITAR-TASS quoted Kocharian as saying after those talks that one of the issues discussed was possible Armenian participation in developing Turkmenistan's Caspian hydro-carbon deposits. The two presidents signed an agreement on legal assistance and a memorandum on the restructuring of Armenia's outstanding $12.7 million debt to Turkmenistan for gas supplies in 1994-1995, which is to be repaid over the next four years, according to Interfax. LF[02] ...PONDER REVIVAL OF TRILATERAL COOPERATION WITH IRANKocharian and Niyazov also discussed the prospects for trilateral cooperation in the energy field with Iran, Groong quoted Armenian Energy Minister Karen Galustian as telling Snark on 30 November. Galustian explained that the three countries will determine whether their power systems can work in parallel, which would make possible the transfer of energy between the three countries. Armenia's energy grid has worked in tandem with that of Iran since 1998. Niyazov said the three countries will also explore the possibility of exporting Turkmen gas to Armenia via Iran, according to Interfax. The three countries signed several cooperation agreements in 1997, but over the past two years Armenia has given greater priority to trilateral cooperation with Iran and Greece. LF[03] AZERBAIJANI OFFICIAL RULES OUT TALKS ON PARLIAMENT BOYCOTTRamiz Mekhtiev, who heads the Azerbaijani presidential administration, told journalists in Baku on 30 November that his office has no intention of holding talks with opposition deputies who have announced a boycott of the newly elected legislature, Turan and Interfax reported. Ten of the 12 opposition candidates elected on 5 November have said they will not participate in sessions of the new legislature as they believe the outcome of the poll was falsified to ensure the continued domination of the ruling Yeni Azerbaycan Party. LF[04] U.S. CITIZEN MURDERED IN AZERBAIJANThe chief of the U.S. Republican Institute's Azerbaijan program, John Michael Alvis, was found stabbed to death in his Baku apartment on 30 November, Turan reported, quoting Baku police chief Major-General Magerram Aliev. Aliev said robbery was the probable motive for the killing. LF[05] DAMAGE, DEATH TOLL FROM AZERBAIJANI EARTHQUAKE GROWPresident Heidar Aliev said in Baku on 30 November that the earthquake that hit the city and neighboring Sumgait five days earlier caused damage estimated at "scores of millions of dollars" and that the country may have to ask the international community for financial aid to repair that damage, ITAR-TASS reported. On 26 November, Aliev had said the quake did not cause any large-scale destruction (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 27 November 2000). Meanwhile the death toll from the tremor has risen to 31, according to Turan. LF[06] RUSSIAN PRESIDENT PREVIEWS VISIT TO AZERBAIJAN...Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his Azerbaijani and Georgian counterparts in Minsk on the eve of the CIS summit, ITAR-TASS reported on 30 November. Putin discussed with Aliev the preparations for his visit to Baku in early January, the Karabakh conflict, and cooperation in the energy sector, ITAR-TASS reported. Aliev's son Ilham, who is vice president of Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR, said in Baku on 30 November that Azerbaijan may resume the export of oil via the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline, according to Turan. Putin positively assessed bilateral cooperation in combating crime and terrorism. LF[07] ...DISCUSSES VISA REQUIREMENT WITH GEORGIAN COUNTERPARTPutin and Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze discussed economic cooperation, the future of the four Russian military bases in Georgia, and tensions in bilateral relations resulting from Moscow's insistence on imposing a visa requirement for Georgian citizens travelling to Russia (see "RFE/RL Caucasus Report," Vol. 3, No. 46, 1 December 2000). Describing the conversation as "good" and "useful," Shevardnadze said he and Putin agreed on the need to draft within 30-60 days a new basic treaty on cooperation. That document would supersede the accord signed in 1994, which has not been ratified by either parliament. Shevardnadze also said that he anticipates that the visa regime will be "temporary," but he did not specify a time frame for its abolition. However, Caucasus Press on 1 December quoted Russian Premier Mikhail Kasyanov as saying the visa requirement may be lifted "in a year or two." The daily "Rezonansi" on 1 December quoted an unnamed member of the state chancellery staff as saying that Putin offered to drop the visa requirement if Georgia agrees to join the Russia-Belarus Union State, according to Caucasus Press. LF[08] TWO SPANISH BUSINESSMEN ABDUCTED IN GEORGIATwo Spanish businessmen were abducted on the outskirts of Tbilisi on 30 November by four armed masked men, two of whom are believed to be Chechens, ITAR-TASS and Caucasus Press reported. The men's car was later found abandoned in Akhmeta Raion, which borders on Chechnya. No ransom demand for the two Spaniards has yet been received. LF[09] KAZAKH OPPOSITION AGAIN SLAMS LAW ON LAND OWNERSHIPSeveral hundred members of Kazakh opposition parties staged a demonstration in Almaty on 30 November to protest the law on land ownership passed by the lower chamber of the parliament two weeks earlier, RFE/RL's bureau in the former capital reported. The demonstrators appealed to the upper chamber of the parliament to consider the opposition parties' alternative draft when debating the bill, which has never been published for nationwide discussion. LF[10] KAZAKHSTAN STANDS UP FOR ANIMAL RIGHTSA villager from southern Kazakhstan's Chimkent Oblast has been charged with cruelty to animals after beating a neighbor's donkey to death, Reuters and Interfax reported on 30 November. Killing animals is punishable under Kazakhstan's Criminal Code by a fine or up to two years' imprisonment. LF[11] KYRGYZ PRESIDENT AMNESTIES SIX MEN CONVICTED FOR ASSASSINATION PLOTAskar Akaev on 30 November amnestied six men found guilty by a Bishkek court in September of plotting to assassinate him, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reported. One week earlier, the court had slashed the men's original jail terms by more than half (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 27 November 2000). But Akaev did not amnesty opposition Erkindik Party leader Topchubek Turgnaliev, who was arrested in court when summoned as a witness in the trial of the other six men and subsequently charged with masterminding the assassination plot. Turgunaliev's 16-year sentence has been commuted to six years. LF[12] TWO KYRGYZ JOURNALISTS CHARGED WITH DIVULGING STATE SECRETSThe chief editor and a journalist for the independent Kyrgyz newspaper "Delo Nomer" were charged on 29 November with divulging state secrets in an article the newspaper published in July on the trial of former Vice President Feliks Kulov, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. Kulov was accused of abuse of his official position while serving as national security minister but was subsequently acquitted. LF[13] HEPATITIS EPIDEMIC REPORTED IN KYRGYZSTANSome 2,900 inhabitants of the Talas Oblast of northwest Kyrgyzstan, most of them children, have contracted hepatitis-B, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported on 30 November. Two people have died of the disease, which officials say results from poor sanitary conditions and a lack of pure drinking water. LF[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[14] KOSOVA COMMANDER SAYS NATO DETAINING GUERRILLAS...Italian Lieutenant-General Carlo Cabigiosu said in Prishtina on 30 November that ethnic Albanian guerrillas have attempted to enter southwestern Serbia from Kosova but that NATO seeks to prevent them from doing so. "We are detaining people trying to cross the border illegally, and we have been confiscating quite an amount of weapons that were directed into that zone," AP reported. The news agency added that Cabigiosu's remarks were the first explicit admission by a leading NATO commander that fighters of the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja, and Bujanovac have entered Serbia from Kosova (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 30 November 2000). Elsewhere, a KFOR spokesman said that two companies of British troops will shortly deploy to the U.S. sector in Kosova, which borders southwestern Serbia. He declined to say exactly what tasks they will have and when they will be deployed, Reuters reported. PM[15] ...AS NATO LEADER WARNS KOSOVAR 'EXTREMISTS'Cabigiosu spoke during a visit to Kosova by NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson and U.S. General Joseph W. Ralston, who is the alliance's top commander. Robertson said that unnamed "extremists... should be isolated, and they should be condemned both privately and publicly by all the leaders here. With the wind of change blowing in Serbia, the international community will not easily understand and certainly won't accept the actions of these extremists," AP reported. PM[16] SERBIAN LEADER WANTS ARMED ALBANIANS TO QUIT SERBIAMilomir Minic, who is the prime minister in Serbia's transitional government, said in Bujanovac on 30 November that armed Albanian fighters should leave the region as a first step to re-establishing peace there, an RFE/RL correspondent reported. Minic stressed that the foreign forces based in Kosova "bear full responsibility" for the entry of the fighters into the demilitarized zone along the province's border with Serbia. PM[17] IS U.S. BEHIND SERBIAN UNREST?Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica's Democratic Party of Serbia said in a statement in Belgrade on 30 November that "we would really like to know how it was possible that more than 1,000 ethnic Albanian guerrillas, armed with heavy weaponry, crossed through the American-controlled sector of Kosovo," AP reported. Elsewhere, Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj said that the U.S. "organized the intrusion of Albanian terrorists into southern Serbia" as part of what he called a U.S. plan to detach the region from Serbia. He added that Washington plans to remake Yugoslavia into a four-part federation following the 23 December Serbian elections. Seselj said that the four component parts will be Serbia, Kosova, Montenegro, and Vojvodina, "Vesti" of 1 December reported. He did not say what evidence he has for his theory. PM[18] ALBANIAN GOVERNMENT CALLS FOR CALMThe Albanian government said in a statement on 30 November that it "shares the concern of its international partners about the danger of new sources of war... The episodes of violence compromise the position and interests of Kosova and the Albanian civilian population in the area... The Albanian government hopes that the new Belgrade leaders will respect the relevant agreements and renounce the mistaken policies their predecessor has applied in these areas," Reuters reported. PM[19] TENSIONS MOUNT OVER YUGOSLAV NATIONAL BANKYugoslav Prime Minister Zoran Zizic of Montenegro's Socialist People's Party (SNP) and Serbia's Democratic Party leader Zoran Djindjic both warned Mladjan Dinkic, who is the new governor of the Yugoslav National Bank, that he must "bear the consequences" if he continues to reject the appointment of the SNP's Vuk Ognjanovic as his deputy, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported from Belgrade on 30 November (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 30 November 2000). Ognjanovic, for his part, denied Dinkic's charge that he bears responsibility for the hyperinflation during 1992 and 1993, "Vijesti" reported. Dinkic nonetheless stands by his refusal to name Ognjanovic as his deputy, "Vesti" reported. Dinkic said that he prefers to have the SNP's Radivoje Rasovic in that post. In related news, on 1 December, Dinkic said that he plans to make the dinar internally convertible by 15 December ahead of Belgrade's rejoining the IMF. He added that an unspecified "floating rate" will be introduced for the dinar after 1 January, Reuters reported. PM[20] RUSSIA CUTS BACK GAS DELIVERIES TO YUGOSLAVIAA spokesman for the gas monopoly Gazprom said in Moscow on 30 November that his company has cut its daily gas shipments to Yugoslavia from 4.2 million to 3 million cubic meters, Reuters reported. He added that the reason is that Yugoslavia has yet to make clear how and when it will pay for the gas shipments, which Russia resumed in November after a break of more than four months. PM[21] SERBIAN JUSTICE MINISTER SAYS MILOSEVIC MUST GO TO HAGUESead Spahovic, who is one of three interim Serbian justice ministers, said in Belgrade on 30 November that "the Hague[-based war crimes tribunal] is the only court with enough resources and competence to put [former Yugoslav President Slobodan] Milosevic on trial." Spahovic stressed that "no president--not even Kostunica--has the right to decide [the issue]. This is a matter for the judiciary, the law, and the state prosecutor... [Yugoslavia lacks] independent judges, prosecutors, and attorneys...as well as even the technical means to protect witnesses. To put Milosevic on trial here would simply be an impossible undertaking," AP reported. In a clear break with Kostunica's views, Spahovic stressed that "as a nation, we have to make it [explicitly] clear once and for all that the Hague court is no anti-Serb monster. It is a legitimate and legal court that must be respected by all countries." Spahovic also said that Milosevic must be tried for war crimes and that it is not morally acceptable to try him on a lesser charge (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 November 2000). PM[22] NEW MACEDONIAN LEGISLATIVE MAJORITY FORMEDPrime Minister Ljubco Georgievski formed a new parliamentary majority of at least 66 out of 120 deputies on 30 November, following the defection of the Democratic Alliance (DA) from the governing coalition the previous week. The new majority includes three Liberal deputies and an unspecified number of independents and dissident DA members, Reuters reported. The parliament voted to replace the five DA members of the outgoing cabinet. Sava Klimovski, who belongs to the DA, resigned his post as speaker of the parliament. The new foreign minister is Sergan Kerim. Besnik Setai will head the Economics Ministry. Earlier in the week, Georgievski sacked 10 DA managers of state-run companies. The changes come following months of public feuding between the nominal allies Georgievski and Vasil Tupurkovski of the DA. PM[23] CROATIAN BUDGET CUTSThe government agreed on 30 November to cut its planned 2001 budget of $6 billion by about $300 million because of falling revenues, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM[24] INCIDENT OVER CROATIAN-SLOVENIAN BORDERThe Croatian embassy in Ljubljana rejected a Slovenian protest note on 30 November after the Croatian authorities issued a court summons to a man in one of two contested villages along the Dragonja River, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. The man rejected the summons on the grounds that he lives in Slovenia and not Croatia. PM[25] NEW SLOVENIAN GOVERNMENT TO MEETThe new government of Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek is slated to hold its first meeting on 1 December after being approved by the parliament the previous day, Ljubljana Radio 24-UR reported. Dimitrij Rupel heads the Foreign Ministry. PM[26] ROMANIA RELEASES FINAL ELECTIONS RESULTSThe Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR) received 37 percent backing in the 26 November Senate ballot and 36.6 percent in the vote cast for the Chamber of Deputies the same day. The Greater Romania Party (PRM) was backed by 21 percent and 19.4 percent, respectively, the Democratic Party by 7.5 percent and 7 percent, and the National Liberal Party by 7.4 percent and 6.8 percent. The Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania was the only other party that managed to pass the 5 percent electoral hurdle, receiving 6.9 percent in the Senate ballot and 6.8 percent in the Chamber of Deputies vote. With 36.3 percent backing, PDSR candidate Ion Iliescu will face PRM candidate Corneliu Vadim Tudor (28.3 percent) in the 10 December presidential runoff. MS[27] ROMANIAN LOCAL POLITICIAN ASSASSINATEDSorin Moldovan, deputy chairman of the Hunedoara County branch of the PDSR, was assassinated on 30 November by a masked assailant, who shot him in the head as he was getting into his car. The killer managed to flee. It is unclear whether the murder was politically motivated. Moldovan, a local businessman, was head of the Hunedoara customs office and was sentenced to three years in prison in 1997 for bribe-taking. The sentence was later lifted by the Supreme Court, Mediafax reported. MS[28] ROMANIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE ALLEGES HIS LIFE THREATENEDTudor has canceled his participation in festivities in Alba Iulia marking Romania's national day (1 December), alleging that his life is being threatened by "thousands of agitators" from the PDSR "armed with sticks, chains and other weapons," RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported on 30 November. The PDSR responded that the allegations are "completely false" and "an absurd attempt to manipulate public opinion, as well as an instigation to intolerance and violence." Mediafax also reported that Tudor has sent George W. Bush a letter saying he is the son of a Baptist preacher and that his Baptist relatives live in Texas. Tudor has often emphasized his adherence to the doctrines of the Romanian Orthodox Church. MS[29] U.S. SIGNALS CONCERN OVER ROMANIAN EXTREMIST UPSURGEThe U.S. wants strong ties with Romania but such relations depend on the latter's post-electoral leadership's commitment to "European norms," an RFE/RL correspondent in Washington reported on 30 November, citing the State Department. A spokesman for that department hinted that Romania could suffer a fate similar to that of Austria, which was isolated by the other EU members after the far right Freedom Party joined the government coalition. The spokesman said the nature of ties with Romania will depend on that country's commitment to "common European and Euro-Atlantic standards of democracy, respect for the rule of law and human rights, including the rights of minorities." MS[30] ILASCU RESIGNS AS MOLDOVAN DEPUTYIlie Ilascu, who has been imprisoned in Tiraspol since 1992, has sent a letter to the Moldovan parliament in which he submits his resignation as a deputy, RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau reported on 30 November. Ilascu was recently elected as a member of the Romanian Senate on the lists of the PRM; his mandate in the Romanian parliament can be validated only if he renounces his official position in Moldova. MS.[31] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS INTERRUPTED ON PROCEDURAL GROUNDSParliamentary chairman Dumitru Diacov halted the procedure for the election of Moldova's new president on 1 December, after parties of the center-right coalition backing Pavel Barbalat walked out. Those parties were protesting the fact that deputies representing the Party of Moldovan Communists, who back Vladimir Voronin, failed to respect the secret ballot and instead cast votes by raising their hands, Flux reported. MS[C] END NOTE[32] DIVISION OVER CONSENSUSBy Paul GobleMoscow's decision to block an OSCE declaration about Chechnya, Georgia, and Moldova has generated a sharp reaction from Western governments and raised questions about the future of the OSCE and East-West relations. Most of the 55 countries represented at an OSCE ministerial meeting in Vienna earlier this week were sharply critical of Russian actions in Chechnya as well as Moscow's slowness in reducing the number of its troops in Georgia and withdrawing them from Moldova, as it had promised to do at the OSCE Istanbul summit last year. They sought to issue a joint OSCE statement on all three issues. But Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov was able to prevent OSCE action by refusing to join a consensus, as required by the rules of that organization. As a result, the two-day meeting broke up without a joint declaration. Instead, Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner, whose country currently chairs the pan-European organization, issued a less authoritative chairman's summary. At the sessions in Vienna earlier this week, Western diplomats sharply criticized the Russian Federation for its approach in Chechnya. But Ivanov lashed out at his interlocutors, complaining that the West has adopted a double standard on ethnic conflicts and noting that Moscow is not prepared to take lessons on how to behave from anyone. Despite the tone of these remarks, Western participants at the meeting said Ivanov had reaffirmed that Moscow would live up to its promises about troop reductions and withdrawals in Georgia and Moldova. And they suggested that other differences between Moscow and the West on questions such as the political situation in Belarus could be addressed in the future. But the Russian foreign minister's sharp response to criticism about Russian actions in Chechnya, his government's unwillingness to allow OSCE observers to visit there, and above all, Moscow's decision to block an OSCE consensus suggest that the Vienna meeting is likely to cast three shadows on the OSCE for some time to come. First, this latest standoff in Vienna recalls the way in which this organization functioned at the end of the Cold War. Known at that time as the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, the group seldom was able to reach agreement because the Soviet delegations routinely refused to join the consensus that existed among most other countries. At that time, Moscow typically sought to have others, such as its East European satellites, take the lead in denying consensus when the Soviet leadership sought to improve East-West ties. Only when it lacked such allies, when tensions were high, or when it wanted to make a more dramatic point did the Soviet delegation take the lead in doing so itself. By staking out such a tough position now, the Russian government highlights its own isolation not only within the OSCE but more broadly and thus makes East-West cooperation on these and other issues less rather than more likely. Second, the near unanimity of the non-Russian delegations on Chechnya and elsewhere may make some of the individual governments involved more willing to speak out against Russian behavior than they have been up to now. Again, during the period leading up to the end of the Cold War, that is precisely what the CSCE routinely did. By highlighting what was then called "consensus minus one"--that is, consensus by all members except the Soviet Union--the CSCE emboldened its members to speak and act on their own and at other forums. That, in turn, sometimes forced Moscow to modify its position. And third, the division over consensus in Vienna this week seems certain to have yet another consequence for the organization itself, one that could either lead to the renewal of the OSCE or contribute to its eventual demise. For much of the last decade, the Russian authorities and some in Western Europe have urged that the OSCE, rather than NATO or any other organization, should serve as the foundation of European security. But Ivanov's ability to block action simply by using the organization's own requirements for consensus raises serious questions about whether the OSCE could ever play that role. Some countries may now call for moving beyond consensus to some system of majority or super-majority vote, but Ivanov's rhetoric suggests that Russia would be among those opposing such a move. There is thus little opportunity for such reforms anytime soon. Meanwhile, the OSCE appears likely to be entering a new period of difficulties, one in which divisions between East and West on key issues will prevent the formation of the consensus on which that organization ultimately relies. 01-12-00 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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