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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 245, 00-12-20Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 4, No. 245, 20 December 2000CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN COMMUNISTS CONDEMN MINISTER'S DISMISSALParliament deputy Gagik Tadevosian (Communist Party of Armenia) on 19 December expressed his regret at the dismissal the previous day of Minister of Local Government Leonid Hagopian, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Hagopian, the only Communist minister in Prime Minister Andranik Markarian's cabinet, was dismissed following his election as a member of Armenia's Academy of Sciences. The Communists claim that Hagopian disagreed with the government's economic policy and was himself willing to quit. Tadevosian said Markarian's decision was dictated by "political expediency, " and shows that Markarian no longer needs broad multi-partisan support for his cabinet. He added that his party will now have, and make use of, greater freedom to criticise the cabinet and its policies. President Robert Kocharian on 18 December named Ararat governor Hovik Abramian, a senior member of Markarian's Republican Party of Armenia, to succeed Hagopian as minister. LF[02] KARABAKH PRESIDENT ANNOUNCES GOVERNMENT CHANGES, PRAISES ARMYAt an18 December meeting in Stepanakert with the commanders of the Nagorno- Karabakh Defense Army, Arkadii Ghukasian, the president of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, promised sweeping changes in the structure and composition of the enclave's government, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported the following day. Ghukasian pledged to ensure that "democracy takes root" in the enclave. He also praised the unrecognized republic's top brass for "considerable progress" in boosting military discipline. He said recent maneuvers show that the armed forces "continue to enhance their combat readiness and are totally prepared to repulse the enemy if need be." LF[03] IRAN DENIES AGREEING TO BUY GAS FROM AZERBAIJANAn unnamed Iranian Foreign Ministry representative has denied that Tehran has held any talks with Azerbaijan on purchasing Azerbaijani gas, Turan reported on 19 December quoting IRNA. Interfax last week quoted Azerbaijan's President Heidar Aliev as having told visiting Turkish Deputy Energy Minister Yurdakul Yigitguden that if Turkey does not make a firm commitment to buy gas from the Shah Deniz Caspian field, Baku will consider selling it to Iran, which, Aliev was quoted as saying, has already agreed to purchase it (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 15 December 2000). LF[04] RUSSIA APPROVES DRAFT BORDER AGREEMENT WITH GEORGIAThe Russian government has approved a draft agreement with Georgia redefining the competence of the two countries' officials in guarding their joint border, ITAR-TASS and Caucasus Press reported on 19 December. Both sides will appoint a representative who will liaise with his opposite number to resolve border violations and other incidents. The draft is based on, and presumably augments, two comparable agreements signed two years ago (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 5 November 1998). LF[05] FIRE DESTROYS GEORGIAN AUDIT CHAMBER RECORDSA fire that broke out late on 19 December in the Georgian Audit Chamber building in Tbilisi destroyed the agency's computer center and part of its archives, Interfax and Caucasus Press reported. Georgian Interior Minister Kakha Targamadze said he believes the blaze was accidental, while Audit Chamber Chairman Sulkhan Molashvili said he does not rule out arson. Speaking at RFE/RL earlier this month, a prominent Georgian political analyst characterized the Audit Chamber as one of the most corrupt agencies in Georgia. LF[06] KYRGYZSTAN LIFTS EMBARGO ON SALE OF AGRICULTURAL LAND...The lower chamber of Kyrgyzstan's parliament voted on 19 December to amend the Land Code, lifting the moratorium imposed two years ago on the sale and purchase of farm land, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. The amendment will take effect on 1 September 2001 after being signed into law by President Askar Akaev. Of the chamber's 60 deputies, 52 attended the session; 36 supported the proposed amendment, nine voted against, one abstained and a further six did not take part in the vote. Akaev, who was present at the vote, thanked deputies for approving the amendment which, he said, "will allow rural Kyrgyz, who account for 65 percent of the country's population, to exercise their constitutional right to own land," Reuters reported. Akaev predicted that the reform will boost agricultural production by 7-9 percent. LF[07] ...UPS ALLOWANCES FOR DISABLED, ORPHANSAllowances for the disabled and for orphans will be raised by 50 percent in 2001, from an average 149 soms ($3) per month to 225 soms, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported on 19 December quoting the government press service. Next year's budget allocates 106 million soms for such payments. Also on 19 December, Finance Minister Sultan Mederov told parliament that his ministry can allocate only 2 million soms instead of the planned 5 million to enable Kyrgyzstan's estimated 19,000 veterans of World War II to buy a horse and cart. He did not offer a reason for the 50 year delay in introducing that benefit. LF[08] TWO IMPRISONED TURKMEN DISSIDENTS REPORTED TO HAVE RECANTEDOfficial Turkmen media on 15 December broadcast what were said to be statements of repentance by two prominent critics of the country's leadership, RFE/RL's Turkmen Service reported. Nurberdy Nurmamedov, an activist of the pro-democracy group Agzybirlik, was sentenced in February 2000 to five years' imprisonment on charges of hooliganism and conspiracy to murder (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 28 February 2000). Physician Pirimguli Tanrykuliev, was jailed for eight years in 1998 on charges of misappropriating state funds after he informed members of the international community that he planned to run for president. Observers in Ashgabat believe the two men may be eligible for amnesty. Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov has announced that some 10,000 persons serving sentences for minor offenses will be released later this month to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 27 October 2000). LF[09] HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH SLAMS ABUSES, TORTURE IN UZBEKISTANThe New York-based Human Rights Watch on 19 December released a 62-page reported detailing and condemning police brutality in Uzbekistan against persons under arrest, Reuters reported. The report criticized the Uzbek government for routinely failing to investigate such abuses or punish those responsible. The report focuses specifically on the mass arrests, especially of religious dissidents, that followed the February 1999 car bombs in Tashkent. It noted a rise over the past three years in deaths in custody. Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth arrived in Tashkent on 19 December to discuss the report's findings with senior government officials, Interfax reported. LF[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[10] YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT WANTS TO 'CLEANSE' ZONE OF GUERRILLASVojislav Kostunica told reporters in Belgrade on 19 December that it is in his country's interest to "cleanse" the demilitarized zone in southwest Serbia of "terrorists," RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. He was presumably referring to the ethnic Albanian Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja, and Bujanovac. He added that it is not realistic to expect a complete revision of the Kumanovo agreements that ended Serbian authority in Kosova in 1999. Kostunica stressed, however, that he wants to reduce the size of the demilitarized zone so that Serbian forces can remove "terrorists" hiding there (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 19 December 2000). PM[11] SECURITY COUNCIL SLAMS 'ALBANIAN EXTREMIST GROUPS' IN SERBIAThe UN Security Council approved a statement on 19 December condemning violence by armed Albanians in southern Serbia, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from New York. The statement, which was read aloud by Russia's representative in the UN Security Council, Sergei Lavrov, also urged that armed Albanian groups in southern Serbia be dissolved and their members made to leave the area. The statement appealed to Kosovar leaders to "contribute to the stability of the situation." Deputy U.S. Ambassador James Cunningham nonetheless added: "We would caution against exaggerated charges and calls for military action that have emanated from some on both sides of the Kosovo border." PM[12] YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER SEEKS TO CALM SITUATIONGoran Svilanovic told the Security Council on 19 December that his "government is prepared to take all necessary measures to integrate the local Albanian population and help them participate actively and be represented in local and central authorities, as well as in other walks of life. [This includes especially the] police, health care, education, et cetera," an RFE/RL correspondent reported. Svilanovic added that "no solution can be achieved without dialogue and negotiation. A loss of momentum may bring about the deterioration of the situation and lead to unforeseeable consequences. Such a course of events may not only aggravate the situation in Kosovo-Metohija, but also jeopardize the democratic process in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and affect the stability of the region as a whole." Serbia votes in parliamentary elections on 23 December. Some Serbian conspiracy theorists suggest that supporters of the former regime or "dark forces" in the U.S. may be behind the disturbances, "Vreme" noted on 14 December (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 19 December 2000). PM[13] NATO PEACEKEEPERS ARREST 13 IN KOSOVABritish KFOR troops arrested 13 ethnic Albanian males in the early hours of 20 December southwest of Prishtina, AP reported. The KFOR soldiers also seized a quantity of weapons, including seven machine guns, five AK-47 assault rifles, 50 hand grenades, and 30 rocket-propelled grenade warheads. A British KFOR spokesman said that the arrests are "particularly significant in that this is why these troops were [recently] sent there, to stop weapons going across the boundary," Reuters reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 December 2000). The Albanians, who did not resist arrest, are being questioned at the U.S. base at Camp Bondsteel. PM[14] UN POLICE STATION ATTACKED IN KOSOVAUnknown persons attacked a UN police station in Zubin Potok, west of Mitrovica, during the night of 19-20 December, Reuters reported. The attackers used gunfire and hand grenades in the assault, which left four police cars damaged and one van destroyed. Police have since resumed patrols in Zubin Potok and in Leposaviq, where a Serbian crowd recently attacked peacekeepers after the arrest of a Serb for drunk driving (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 December 2000). PM[15] YUGOSLAV LEADER SAYS MILOSEVIC SHOULD BE TRIED AT HOMEKostunica told the Paris daily "Le Figaro" of 19 December that the Hague- based war crimes tribunal is "too narrow" to deal with "everything that happened on the territory of the former Yugoslavia and all the complex relations" in the region. He suggested that former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and suspected war criminals from other former Yugoslav republics be tried in their respective home countries. He cited Guatemala and South Africa as examples of such an approach. The president told "Vreme" of 14 December that alternatives to the Hague court must be found. Kostunica has frequently said that he regards the tribunal as an anti- Serbian arm of U.S. foreign policy. This was also the position of the Milosevic regime. Kostunica suggested in his interview with "Vreme" that the U.S. has too much blood on its hands from the Vietnam conflict to be justified in passing judgments on others. PM[16] YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT WANTS 'HARMONIZATION' WITH MONTENEGROPrime Minister Zoran Zizic told EU officials in Belgrade on 19 December that the Yugoslav government wants to "harmonize" relations with Montenegro. The process will include adopting a new federal constitution, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. The Montenegrin government's position is that Serbia and Montenegro can discuss any future ties only as two sovereign and internationally recognized states. The EU has been adamant in stressing to Montenegrin authorities behind the scenes that they must remain within some sort of Yugoslavia. PM[17] ELECTORAL REFORM, MONTENEGRIN STYLETwo deputies from the Liberal Alliance have proposed that in any proposed referendum on independence, voters over 60 years of age receive only one- half vote each, "Danas" reported from Podgorica on 20 December. PM[18] FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLICS END FIRST SESSION OF ASSETS TALKSInternational mediator Sir Arthur Watts said in Brussels on 19 December that he is pleased with the outcome of the first two-day round of talks between delegations from the five former Yugoslav republics, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. The delegations will continue negotiations on dividing former Yugoslavia's $100 billion in assets, perhaps in Ljubljana in February. PM[19] HAGUE COURT'S DEL PONTE TO VISIT CROATIAChief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte will arrive in Zagreb in early January to help clear up outstanding issues between the tribunal and the Croatian government, "Jutarnji list" reported from Zagreb on 20 December (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 19 December 2000). Defense Minister Jozo Rados told the daily that there are several very big differences between the two sides, and that the tribunal has not respected previous understandings between them. PM[20] CROATIAN PHARMACEUTICALS FIRM BUYS BRITISH COMPANYIn a world in which Western companies seem to buy up Eastern European ones on a regular basis, Croatia's Pliva company bought Pharmascience UK Limited for nearly $6 million, dpa reported from Zagreb on 19 December. Pliva officials said that they want to strengthen their company's position in Western markets. PM[21] MACEDONIAN PRIME MINISTER TO MEET CHINESE LOCAL LEADERSIn yet another sign that Skopje plans to switch diplomatic recognition from Taipei back to Beijing, Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski will soon meet with a delegation of local government officials from Nanjing, Makfax news agency reported on 19 December (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 December 2000). PM[22] CONSTRUCTION TO START ON MACEDONIAN ALBANIAN UNIVERSITYThe construction of Macedonia's private Albanian-language university will begin in Tetovo in February at an estimated cost of $22 million, MIC news agency reported from Skopje on 19 December (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 May 2000). Funding will come primarily from Western governments and NGOs. PM[23] BAD START FOR SLOVENIA'S TELECOMThe firm Telekom Slovenije is expected to enter 2001 with debts of roughly $32 million, "Dnevnik" reported on 20 December. The telecommunications market will be opened to competition on 1 January. PM[24] ILIESCU SWORN IN AS ROMANIA'S PRESIDENTIon Iliescu was sworn in as Romania's new president on 20 December, at a joint meeting of the two houses of the parliament. He called for national unity to prevail in the effort to revive a "disastrous" economy, hobbled by years of bungled reforms, Reuters reported. Iliescu said the top priority in foreign policy will be to speed up negotiations on Romania's EU accession and on joining NATO in 2002. MS[25] CONSTANTINESCU BIDS FAREWELL TO ROMANIANSIn a televised speech on 19 December, outgoing President Emil Constantinescu said that during the electoral campaign "hate and lies" were used by critics of himself and the outgoing government. He said he did not respond because he wanted to be "president of all Romanians." His silence ends with the end of his mandate, Constantinescu said. He harshly attacked those who "come forward with the claim that we had taken over [in 1996] a prosperous country, with an efficient economy and with rules respected by all, and are leaving behind a country in ruins." "At the end of four years in office, my adversaries must admit at least one thing: they have succeeded in gathering the support of hate, but failed to make me hate anyone," he said. MS[26] NASTASE CONFIRMS INTENTION TO REPLACE NATIONAL BANK CHIEFAdrian Nastase, Romania's likely new premier, on 19 December said he intends to appoint Party of Social Democracy in Romania member Florin Georgescu as the new National Bank governor, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. Outgoing Premier Mugur Isarescu said several times he would return to that post, of which he is chairman on leave. MS[27] ROMANIA ABOLISHES VISA REQUIREMENT FOR EU CITIZENSThe outgoing government on 19 December abolished visa requirements for citizens of EU countries, Mediafax reported. Also on 19 December, the European Commission handed to the authorities in Bucharest a questionnaire on fulfillment of conditions for the abolition of visa requirements for Romanian citizens traveling to EU countries. The commission said it expects Romania to reply by 15 January 2001. MS[28] BOYCOTT OF MOLDOVAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS WIDENSFormer President Mircea Snegur on 19 December announced that his Democratic Convention of Moldova (CDM) has decided to boycott the new round of presidential elections scheduled for 21 December, RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau reported. The CDM has 14 seats in the parliament. Snegur said that if fewer than 61 lawmakers participate in the round, another date will have to be set for it, and "until then we have more time to prepare and, implicitly, find new candidates." It is still unclear whether the Democratic Party, which has 17 seats in the legislature, will join the boycott. The Party of Democratic Forces (9 seats) and the Popular Party Christian Democratic (8 seats) have also announced they will not participate in the ballot. Thirteen deputies are independent, of whom five are loyal to President Petru Lucinschi. The Communists have the largest group, with 40 seats. MS[29] BULGARIAN CHILDREN GET EXTENDED CHRISTMAS VACATIONBulgarian schools are closing for nearly one month over the Christmas holidays, to save fuel costs, AFP reported on 19 December. The Education Ministry announced that children will get 25 days off, almost double the regular vacation, because many schools, especially in small towns and villages, cannot meet heating prices. Some schools have already spent their entire annual budget for heating. MS[C] END NOTE[30] THE DAYS OF THE CHEKISTSBy Paul GobleEight-three years ago, on 20 December 1917, the Soviet secret police was founded. How Moscow celebrates that event may provide important clues as to the direction the Russian government is heading. Six weeks after the October 1917 revolution, Vladimir Lenin created the first Soviet secret police, the Extraordinary Commission or Cheka. Under Joseph Stalin, that day became a holiday called "the Day of the Chekist." And throughout the Soviet period, officers in Moscow's variously named intelligence agencies proudly called themselves "Chekists" in honor of that name. But after the fall of the Soviet Union, fewer people did so openly and officials did little or nothing to mark that anniversary--until last year, when then Prime Minister and now President Vladimir Putin took part in a ceremony marking the event, telling the Chekists they should be proud of their work. Later, he went even further and said that no government, let alone his own, could get along without secret agents. Since last year's commemoration of the creation of an institution that Lenin said was bound by no law except the defense of the revolution, Putin, himself a former KGB intelligence officer, has chosen many people with intelligence backgrounds to work for him as aides, as representatives to the regions, and as his preferred candidates for governorships and other senior positions. Indeed, Putin's suggestion that his own promotion reflected "a successful penetration operation" of the Russian government by the country's security services frightened many Russian democrats and others involved in the defense of human rights in that country. Such groups have been concerned because of their conviction that Putin has selected precisely those former intelligence officers who at the end of the Soviet period worked to stifle dissent and human rights. Writing in the current issue of the "Moscow Times," sociologist Boris Kagarlitskii argues that the interaction at the end of the Soviet period between the KGB and democrats who failed to understand the distinction between necessary intelligence functions and security activities that threaten society has left Russia with "a security apparatus that is worse than the one [Russia] had under [CPSU General Secretary Leonid] Brezhnev." Kagarlitskii suggests that the antipathy between the intelligence operatives and the democrats led not to the depoliticization of an agency that advertised itself as "the sword and shield" of the Communist Party but rather to the proliferation of special security services, public and private, most of which remain the tools of the powerful and are unconstrained by legal regulation. With the KGB itself in a shambles at the end of Mikhail Gorbachev's reign in office, "every agency of government felt the need to create its own armed security organization," Kagarlitskii says. "It became a status symbol." At the same time, he notes, "former KGB officers opened a host of private security agencies, most of which then formed their own close ties with various parts of the state structure." These two developments combined with the intense hostility of many democratic reformers to any intelligence operation to produce a disaster. Because "the generation of KGB agents who experienced Gorbachev's reforms moved to the private sector," Kagarlitskii says, "their places were filled by newcomers" who lacked the experience of the reform period and had no one to guide them in their work. As a result, he argues, "the 'psychological type' of this newcomer is closer to the NKVD standard of the 1930s than to the Western image of an intelligence professional," a pattern that by itself invites the kinds of abuses that post-Stalinist leaders worked so hard to contain lest they themselves fall victim to them. If Russia had "a political structure or any working democratic institutions," Kagarlitskii continues, they might prove "capable of controlling the secret police [and] protecting society from political repression." But in the absence of such structures and institutions, he insists, Russian society and Russia's fragile democracy remain at risk on this "Day of the Chekist" as on other such days in the past. Given the restoration of other Soviet-era symbols in recent weeks, how the Russian government marks this holiday is likely to serve as a litmus test for the prospects of democracy and freedom in a country where the Cheka in the past regularly worked to suppress both. 20-12-00 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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