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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 241, 00-12-14Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 4, No. 241, 14 December 2000CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN OFFICER ARRESTEDColonel Avag Khachatrian, who is on the staff of the Armenian Defense Ministry, was arrested in Yerevan on 9 December on suspicion of illegal arms trading, Armenpress and ITAR-TASS reported. A search of his apartment and garage yielded large quantities of weapons and ammunition, together with $105,000 in cash. LF[02] ARMENIA, U.S. SIGN MILITARY COOPERATION AGREEMENTSenior U.S. and Armenian military officials signed a cooperation agreement for 2001 in Yerevan on 13 December, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. The agreement covers 19 "engagement activities" and will help the Armenian military to prepare for possible humanitarian operations and familiarize its top brass with the status and structure of armed forces in the West. An analogous agreement with Azerbaijan will be signed on 14 December. General Charles Simpson, who signed the agreement on behalf of the U.S., told journalists that Washington has no intention of establishing a military presence in the South Caucasus. He also said that the U.S. could participate in an eventual peacekeeping operation in Nagorno-Karabakh only with the consent of the states involved. LF[03] FORMER KARABAKH DEFENSE MINISTER SEEKS MEETING WITH PRESIDENTSamvel Babayan, the former defense minister and commander of the army of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, wants to meet with the enclave's President Arkadii Ghukasian in an attempt to prove that he was not involved in the 22 March bid to assassinate the latter, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported on 13 December. Babayan was arrested in late March and charged with masterminding that attack (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 24 March and 5 April 2000). Babayan told Armenian parliamentary deputies who visited him in detention on 11 December that he believes Ghukasian has been misinformed about his ongoing trial. LF[04] ABDUCTED UN OBSERVERS RELEASED IN GEORGIAThe two UN military observers abducted in Abkhazia's Kodori gorge on 10 December were released unharmed three days later, following negotiations between their kidnappers and Georgian presidential representative Emzar Kvitsiani, Caucasus Press reported. Reuters quoted Georgian presidential spokesman Kakha Imnadze as saying that no ransom was paid. Imnadze also said he does not know the identity of the abductors. LF[05] GEORGIA SIGNS NEW GAS PSACanArgo Norio LTD, a subsidiary of Canada's CanArgo Energy Corporation, signed a Production Sharing Agreement on 12 December with the state-owned Georgian Oil, according to a CanArgo press release. The agreement is to develop two blocks adjacent to the Ninotsminda field, where CanArgo began commercial gas production in December 1999. All gas from that field is sold to the U.S. company AES to fuel the Gardabani power station south of Tbilisi, which AES owns. CanArgo also announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Georgian Oil on joint activities in oil and gas development in Azerbaijan. LF[06] KAZAKHSTAN'S PRESIDENT, U.S. OFFICIAL DISCUSS OIL EXPORTElizabeth Jones, the former U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan who is the recently appointed adviser on Caspian energy issues to U.S. President Bill Clinton, met with President Nursultan Nazarbaev and other senior Kazakh officials in Almaty on 13 December to discuss the possibility of extending to the Kazakh port of Aktau the planned Baku-Ceyhan export pipeline for Caspian oil, Interfax reported. Jones told journalists after her talks with Nazarbaev that the Kazakh president expressed support for the project. She added that Azerbaijan has calculated that 80 percent of the pipeline's throughput capacity of 1 million bpd (barrels per day) would be used for the export of oil from Azerbaijan's sector of the Caspian and the remainder for Kazakh crude. LF[07] COMMUNISTS IN QARAGHANDY PREVENT DISMANTLING OF LENIN STATUECommunists in the town of Qaraghandy in eastern Kazakhstan have formed a human chain around the statue of Lenin on the town's central boulevard to prevent it being removed to the city outskirts, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported on 13 December. Also on13 December, the leader of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, Serikbolsyn Abdildin, protested to the Kazakh parliament's lower house over the decision of the Qaraghandy municipal authorities to relocate the town's Lenin Museum. Abdildin said those plans constitute "vandalization of a historic monument." Qaraghandy was the location of one of the USSR's most infamous Stalinist labor camps. LF[08] KYRGYZ PRESIDENT EXPLAINS DRAFT LAND LAW...Addressing the lower house of the Kyrgyz parliament on 13 December, President Askar Akaev again proposed that the five-year moratorium imposed two years ago on the sale and purchase of land be lifted, Interfax and RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. He said he will present a draft bill on that issue before the end of this year. But at the same time, Akaev stipulated that restrictions are needed, in particular to preclude the purchase of land by foreign citizens and companies and to impose a tax that would preclude the emergence of "rich landowners" who would speculate in land. Akaev said only persons who had lived in rural areas for a minimum of two years will be eligible to buy land, but he did not explain how impoverished farmers would manage to do so. The lifting of the moratorium on land ownership is one of the conditions set down by an IMF mission that recently visited Kyrgyzstan for resuming loans to that country, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported, quoting unnamed Kyrgyz experts. LF[09] ...CALLS FOR AMENDMENTS TO DRAFT BUDGET...Akaev also told the Legislative Assembly on 13 December that the government's draft budget for 2001, which has already been submitted to parliament, needs amending, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. Akaev said that revenues are likely to fall short of the planned level by 600 million soms (about $12.5 million), while expenditures will probably exceed the draft target by 700 million soms. Akaev nonetheless advocated increasing expenditure on defense and security from the planned 579 million soms to 879 million soms. He added that this year expenditures in that sphere amounted to 810 million soms compared with the planned 350 million. The parliament has already once increased planned revenues for next year by 875.8 million soms to 11.6 billion soms (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17 November 2000). LF[10] ...AND NEW, OR HIGHER, TAXESAkaev also asked parliamentary deputies on 13 December to increase the retail trade tax rate from 2 percent to 5 percent and either to increase the land tax or to consider introducing a new tax on food production, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. He offered two alternative draft bills, asking deputies to pass one of them before the end of the year, together with a third draft bill introducing a new tax on real estate. Local experts told RFE/RL that the land tax, the rate of which varies according to the region of the country and the quality of the land in question, could be doubled. If the parliament rejects that option, the alternative tax on food production could be two to three times higher than the current land tax, those experts calculated. LF[11] UZBEKISTAN TO INTRODUCE TRANSIT VISAS FOR TAJIK CITIZENSAs of 1 January 2001, citizens of Tajikistan will need a transit visa in order to cross the territory of Uzbekistan, Asia Plus-Blitz reported on 14 December quoting the Tajik Foreign Ministry. The two countries introduced a mutual visa requirement in September (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 September 2000). LF[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[12] ANGRY SERBS BLOCK NIS-SKOPJE ROADFor the second consecutive day, several thousand angry Serbs blocked the main highway connecting Nis in southern Serbia with Skopje, AP reported on 14 December. Participants said that they want to call attention to what they termed the presence of armed ethnic Albanian formations in the demilitarized buffer zone bordering Kosova, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. AP wrote that supporters of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic organized the protest in order to put pressure on the new government in the runup to the 23 December Serbian elections. The atmosphere in the area is "very tense," "Danas" reported. PM[13] SECURITY COUNCIL SLAMS VIOLENCE IN SOUTHERN SERBIAThe UN Security Council has "condemned acts of violence by armed groups in southern Serbia and reiterated their call for an immediate cessation of violence," Reuters reported on 13 December. Russian Ambassador to the UN Sergei Lavrov, who chairs the council, added that the diplomats "support" measures by NATO to prevent further infiltration of ethnic Albanian guerrillas into the demilitarized zone. Lavrov said that the council will meet on 19 December to discuss the situation in southern Serbia. On 13 December, Kostunica called on that body to hold an "emergency meeting" and appealed to "the international community...to fulfill its obligations" to promote peace and security in the area. PM[14] KOSTUNICA PROMISES SERBIA'S MINORITIES NEW LAWKostunica said in Belgrade on 13 December that the authorities will soon propose new legislation aimed at clarifying the rights of the country's ethnic minorities, "Danas" reported. He stressed that Yugoslavia is "the most multi-ethnic of all the former Yugoslav republics." The new law will include provisions for regional and local autonomy, as well as for voting rights. Previous policies aimed at discrimination and assimilation will stop, he told the OSCE's visiting ethnic minority affairs representative, Max van der Stoel. PM[15] HAGUE PROSECUTOR TO VISIT SERBIACarla Del Ponte, who is the Hague-based war crimes tribunal's chief prosecutor, said in Nairobi, Kenya, on 13 December that she will visit Belgrade in January 2001, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. She said that she will tell Kostunica that Serbia must cooperate with the tribunal and extradite Milosevic to The Hague. Kostunica regards the tribunal as an instrument of U.S. foreign policy and not a legal international body. It is widely believed in Serbia that Kostunica agreed to a request by Milosevic not to extradite him in return for the former dictator's decision to step down peacefully in October. PM[16] POLITICAL ROW CONTINUES IN CROATIA OVER HAGUE TRIBUNALPresident Stipe Mesic said in Palermo, Italy, on 13 December that the Croatian authorities must cooperate fully with the Hague-based war crimes tribunal (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 12 December 2000). Mesic stressed that it would be unwise of the government to repeat the mistake of the late President Franjo Tudjman and not fully cooperate with the tribunal, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. Mesic added that he knows that the tribunal is preparing indictments against six Croatian generals and two civilians in connection with alleged war crimes against Serbs during and after the Croatian army's 1995 offensives against Serbian rebels. Meanwhile in Zagreb, Prime Minister Ivica Racan pledged full cooperation with The Hague and denied comments by Deputy Prosecutor Graham Blewitt that the Croatian government knows who the eight suspect war criminals are, "Novi List" reported on 14 December. Racan added that, in a telephone conversation, Mesic denied media reports that he criticized the government. PM[17] BOSNIAN SERB PLEADS GUILTY IN THE HAGUEStevan Todorovic pleaded guilty in The Hague on 13 December to a single charge of war "crimes against humanity," or ethnic cleansing, in Bosnia in 1992-1993. He faces a sentence of up to 12 years in prison, AP reported. Todorovic's move was a plea bargain, according to which he also dropped a charge against NATO peacekeepers for "illegally" arresting him. In return, the court dropped 26 additional charges against Todorovic. His charge against NATO had resulted in an end in June to arrests of war crimes suspects by peacekeepers, AP added. The tribunal relies on peacekeepers to arrest war crimes suspects. PM[18] BOSNIAN SERB PARTY CHANGING ITS WAYS?Leaders of Radovan Karadzic's Serbian Democratic Party confirmed in writing on 13 December that the party supports the 1995 Dayton peace agreements, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported from Sarajevo. Christian Schwarz- Schilling, who is the international mediator for Bosnia, said in Banja Luka that the participation of the SDS in the government is "acceptable" to the international community, provided that the SDS respects democratic principles and the Dayton agreements. In recent months, leaders of the SDS have repeatedly asserted that their party has nothing more to do with Karadzic and that it accepts the Dayton agreements. Several representatives of the international community in Bosnia are not so sure (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 13 December 2000). PM[19] ITALY PRAISES SLOVENIAN ROLE IN COMBATING ORGANIZED CRIMEItalian Interior Minister Enzo Bianco said at a conference on organized crime in Palermo on 13 December that Slovenia's anti-Mafia cooperation with Italy is "exemplary," "Dnevnik" reported. In preparation for its membership in the EU and NATO, Slovenia has stressed concrete, practical steps of cooperation with its immediate neighbors. PM[20] ROMANIAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT REJECTS EXTREMIST'S APPEALThe Constitutional Court on 13 December rejected an appeal by the Greater Romania Party to annul the results of the 10 December runoff because of alleged fraud, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. The ruling is final. MS[21] FUTURE PREMIER WANTS 'ROMANIAN PROGRAM' OF GOVERNANCE...Responding to the recent evaluation by the IMF of his country's performance and to the fund's recommendation that the budget deficit not exceed 3 percent of the GDP (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 13 December 2000), Adrian Nastase said on 14 December that his government's program will be a "Romanian one." He said his Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR) is "informed" about the positions of international financial lenders but "for now, we are working on a program whose political, economic, and social priorities will respond to the mandate we received from voters." The PDSR had already announced that it will seek a new agreement with the IMF, providing for a 4-4.5 percent deficit. Nastase also said that the State Ownership Fund will be restructured and transformed into an Agency for Privatization and State Assets. MS[22] ...RENEWS CONTACTS WITH OPPOSITION PARTIESPDSR and National Liberal Party representatives met on 13 December to discuss the envisaged agreement on parliamentary cooperation and said they are both satisfied with the results of the meeting, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. Among other things, the two sides agreed on setting up a joint commission to examine possible constitutional amendments and election laws. Nastase later met with Democratic Party leader Petre Roman to discuss the proposed agreement and decided to continue consultations. MS[23] MOLDOVA RETALIATES OVER POLISH VISA REQUIREMENTThe government will introduce as of 14 February the visa requirement for Polish citizens, Infotag reported on 13 December. The decision was taken in response to the Polish announcement that Moldovan citizens will need visas to enter that country as of the same date. MS[24] PATRIARCH MAXIM SUPPORTERS PROTEST IN SOFIASome 2,000 Orthodox clergy and Church members marched in Sofia on 13 December to protest the government's refusal to register the Holy Synod headed by Patriarch Maxim, AP reported. A new law on religious organizations requires that all Churches renew their registration, but the government refuses to register the synod, citing an administrative court ruling that there are two Orthodox Churches in the country. Patriarch Pymen, who headed the dissenting Church and accused Maxim of collaboration with the communist regime, died earlier this year. MS[C] END NOTE[25] CHORNOBYL CLOSURE THREATENS NEW TOWN'S LIVELIHOODBy Lily HydeLast weekend, the town of Slavutych was full of children, both local and from other nuclear towns around Ukraine. Families toured exhibitions in Slavutych's Palace of Culture. Costumed dancers prepared for a concert. And cafes and restaurants were full with visiting journalists, choirs, or official delegations. It may be the final burst of energy before this town dies: On 15 December, when the Chornobyl power plant finally shuts down, most of the town's inhabitants will lose their jobs. Slavutych was built 12 years ago to house workers from the Chornobyl nuclear plant, which in 1986 became the site of the world's worst civilian nuclear accident. Until a few years ago, it was one of the wealthiest towns in Ukraine, and its population is still one of the youngest: a third of its 26,000 inhabitants are children. The clean, new schools and playgrounds are located just 40 kilometers from Chornobyl. But the danger of persistent radiation is the last thing the Slavutych population worries about. Although townspeople assisted in the clean-up after Chornobyl's fourth reactor blew up in 1986 and some are now invalids as a result, many feel a worse disaster is on the way--when the plant closes its doors for good. Serhiy Kasyanchuk, deputy director of the town's Palace of Culture, told RFE/RL that "100 percent of the inhabitants of Slavutych oppose the closure of Chornobyl. The station could work until 2012, and a lot of people are worrying about what they will do for a piece of bread, a roof over their heads. Our town is the youngest town in Ukraine and maybe in the whole [former] USSR. It would be shameful if it had the same fate as Pripyat." Most of Slavutych's residents originally lived in the town of Pripyat, which had to be evacuated after the disaster. Pripyat, like Slavutych, was once also a special "new" town, housing mostly well-paid workers from the nuclear industry. The dislocation and loss Slavutych's residents suffered then makes the threatened social destruction of Slavutych even more poignant. Viktor Odinitsya is director of the UN Development Program's Social and Psychological Center in Slavutych. He said that the townsfolk have already lost their workplaces once, their family connections, and their friends. "They lost everything to come here to a new town, where they adapted to new conditions, established new relations. And we want to force a new Pripyat on them. Do we want to make them live through that again? No one wants that. They want to live here, have a family, have a home which they have made their own." The UNDP center was originally set up seven years ago to offer psychological help to people suffering radiation fears. But it soon found a more useful role--helping people overcome uncertainty. Ukraine has been dragging its heels over the closure of Chornobyl since the early 1990s. Odinitsya told RFE/RL that people who come to the UNDP center ask "What shall I do? Should I build a house or not? Should we buy a garage or not? Should we have a child or not?' The worst thing today is that people don't know what is awaiting them in the future, and so they can't plan." The immediate future for most people is still unclear. Although the Chornobyl plant will close, it's not certain where many residents will go to find new jobs. Some 2,000 people are expected to find employment decommissioning Chornobyl and repairing the shelter over its destroyed fourth reactor. But Slavutych's jobless rate is still expected to climb to more than 20 percent from its present 6 percent. Some of the initial support will come from joint Ukrainian-foreign assistance to provide training and jobs. The Ukrainian government has also established a Special Economic Zone around Slavutych. It has 22 registered enterprises, with hundreds of new jobs projected. To date, only a small number of those jobs have been created, but Slavutych's mayor, Volodymyr Udovychenko, remains upbeat. "Altogether there are 227 new work places in Slavutych. Is that a small number or a lot? I'm told it's only a few, but I think it's a lot because they are high-tech jobs, where you can earn good wages for our time, about 100 dollars (a month). I would say Slavutych is on the right road, and that's the most important thing." Nevertheless, about a quarter of the inhabitants say they will leave Slavutych to seek work elsewhere. The author is an RFE/RL correspondent based in Ukraine. 14-12-00 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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