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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 5, No. 12, 01-01-18Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 5, No. 12, 18 January 2001CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] COUNCIL OF EUROPE VOTES TO ADMIT ARMENIA, AZERBAIJANThe Council of Europe Ministerial Committee voted unanimously on 17 January to admit Armenia and Azerbaijan as the 42nd and 43rd members of that organization, AFP reported. The formal accession ceremony is to take place on 25 January. The Council had set conditions in June 2000 for both countries' admission, including the requirement that the 5 November parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan be free and fair (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 June 2000). The OSCE monitoring mission concluded, however, that both the 5 November ballot and the 7 January repeat elections in 11 constituencies failed to reach international standards for free and fair elections. LF[02] NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL ENDS VISIT TO AZERBAIJANLord George Robertson held talks in Baku on 17 January with Azerbaijani parliament speaker Murtuz Alesqerov and with Defense Minister Colonel General Safar Abiev. Abiev said that Azerbaijan sees participation in European security structures and cooperation with NATO as crucial to its security, and NATO membership as "a long-term prospect," Reuters reported. Robertson, for his part, told Abiev that military reform is a necessity for all of NATO's partners, and that delaying making cuts in Azerbaijan's armed forces will only make that process "more painful," according to ITAR-TASS. Robertson also told journalists that he sees no reason why increased cooperation between Azerbaijan and NATO should negatively affect Azerbaijani-Russian or NATO-Russian relations, according to AFP. Before leaving the same day for Ashgabat, Robertson also met behind closed doors with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Vilayat Quliev. LF[03] AZERBAIJAN TO REPAY ENERGY DEBTS TO IRANPresident Heidar Aliev on 17 January signed a decree obliging the state oil company to pay off Azerbaijan's $44.3 million debt to Iran for electricity supplied to the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan, Turan reported. The debt will be paid in quarterly installments of $2.768 million over a period of four years. Until 1998, Azerbaijani had paid for those energy supplies with shipments of heating oil. Iran had demanded that it be repaid in two years. Iran suspended energy supplies to Nakhichevan last month, having threatened to do so in August because of Azerbaijan's accumulated debts. LF[04] AZERBAIJANI OFFICIAL SEEKS TO ALLAY PRESS FEARSAli Hasanov, who heads the public-political department within the presidential administration, denied on 17 January opposition charges that the Azerbaijani leadership is seeking to muzzle the independent press by creating an artificial shortage of newsprint, Turan reported. He explained that it had been decided to impose 18 percent VAT on goods imported from Russia beginning on 1 January 2001, but that implementation of that decision had been postponed indefinitely following the visit to Baku last week of Russian President Vladimir Putin. LF[05] TOP RUSSIAN, GEORGIAN SECURITY OFFICIALS MEETGeorgian National Security Minister Nugzar Sadjaya met in Moscow on 17 January with Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Ivanov to discuss security issues in the Caucasus and Georgia's debts to Russia, Russian agencies reported. Ivanov told journalists after that meeting that Moscow is willing to facilitate the implementation of any agreements on resolving regional conflicts within the CIS that are worked out by the parties to those conflicts, including by providing peacekeeping forces. That formulation would appear to preclude such a role for Russia in implementing conflict settlements brokered by international organizations such as the UN and OSCE. The former is currently engaged in mediating in the Abkhaz conflict, while the OSCE supports the ongoing talks between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan aimed at resolving the Karabakh conflict. Ivanov also said that the four signatories (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Russia) to the 1996 Kislovodsk declaration on peace in the Caucasus will convene a summit later this year. LF[06] RELATIVES OF ABDUCTED SPANIARDS MEET WITH GEORGIAN OFFICIALSRelatives of the two Spanish businessmen abducted in late November near Tbilisi (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 1 December 2000) met in Tbilisi on 17 January with Georgian Interior Ministry officials to discuss the search for those two men, Caucasus Press reported. They told Georgian journalists that none of the relatives of the two kidnapped men has made any contact with the kidnappers. Georgian Interior Minister Kakha Targamadze had complained last week that relatives of the two men had embarked on negotiations with the kidnappers in Russia, thereby complicating efforts by the Georgian police to secure the men's release (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 12 January 2001). LF[07] GEORGIAN LEFT, RIGHT WING OPPOSITION STAGE SEPARATE PROTESTSSeveral hundred people participated in a meeting in Tbilisi on 17 January convened by the People's Patriotic Union, an umbrella organization uniting left-wing political parties, to demand the return to Georgia of former National Security Minister Igor Giorgadze, Caucasus Press reported. Giorgadze fled Georgia in September 1995 after the failed car-bomb attempt to kill then parliament speaker Eduard Shevardnadze, and was subsequently accused of organizing that attack. Also on 17 January, right-wing parties staged a march along Tbilisi's main boulevard to the parliament building to demand the release of all political prisoners. Five prisoners at the Rustavi penal colony have embarked on a hunger-strike to demand the release of 49 persons they consider political prisoners, while two imprisoned supporters of deceased President Zviad Gamsakhurdia have threatened suicide unless they are released by 1 February. Participants in both demonstrations called on President Shevardnadze to resign, RFE/RL's Georgian Service reported. LF[08] KAZAKHSTAN'S PRESIDENT CALLS FOR LOWERING UNEMPLOYMENT, INFLATIONSpeaking at a 17 January cabinet session in Astana that focused on preparations for celebrating the 10th anniversary of Kazakhstan's independence, President Nursultan Nazarbaev said efforts must be made to create new jobs, including by reviving dormant industrial enterprises, Interfax reported. He noted with approval that the official unemployment rate fell from 4 percent to 3.5 percent in 2000, but said it must be lowered further to 3 percent this year. Observers estimate that the true unemployment figure in Kazakhstan is far higher. Nazarbaev characterized lowering inflation as the cabinet's "second most important task." He described last year's annual inflation rate of 9.8 percent as "low,"" but added that all families are nonetheless concerned by the increase in prices for food, household and medical services. LF[09] KAZAKHSTAN'S RUSSIANS WANT PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION IN GOVERNMENTRepresentatives of organizations representing Kazakhstan's Russian population, including Lad (Harmony) and one of the two organizations claiming to represent the Semirechie Cossacks, decided at a meeting in Almaty on 14 January to create a new political party named the Russian Party, Russian community spokesman Gennadii Beliakov told RFE/RL's bureau in the former capital on 17 January. The primary objective of the new party will be to lobby for proportional representation for Russians in state and government bodies. Russians currently account for approximately 30 percent of Kazakhstan's 15 million population. LF[10] ECO OFFICIAL VISITS KYRGYZSTANAbdulrahim Ghavahi, who is secretary general of the Economic Cooperation Organization that Kyrgyzstan joined in 1992, met in Bishkek on 16 January with President Askar Akaev to discuss transport projects within the ECO and the security situation in Central Asia, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. Ghavahi also met with Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Muratbek Imanaliev. LF[11] U.S. DEFENSE OFFICIAL VISIT TAJIKISTANU.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Jeffrey Starr met in Dushanbe on 17 January with Tajikistan's Defense Minister Sherali Khairullaev to discuss regional security, the situation in Afghanistan, the prospects for bilateral military cooperation, and for Tajik participation in NATO's Partnership for Peace program, AP and ITAR-TASS reported. Starr noted Tajikistan's key role in ensuring stability in Central Asia. Tajikistan is the only former Soviet republic that did not sign up for NATO's Partnership for Peace program in 1994. Starr also discussed on 17 January with Tajik Deputy Prime Minister for Defense and Security Saidamir Zuhurov regional security issues and cooperation to counter illegal drug trafficking, Asia Plus-Blitz reported on 18 January. LF[12] TAJIK ECONOMY CONTINUES TO RECOVERTajikistan's GDP grew in 2000 by 8.3 percent to 1.8 billion somonis ($800 million), Interfax reported on 17 January. Industrial output rose by 10. 3 percent year-on-year to 1.36 billion somonis, while agricultural production increased by 12.4 percent despite last summer's severe drought. While GDP growth was over double the 1999 figure of 3.7 percent year-on-year, the 1999 figures for GDP, industrial output, and agricultural production were still only 34 percent, 38 percent, and 57 percent of the indicators for 1990, prior to the collapse of the USSR and the outbreak of civil war in Tajikistan. Foreign trade turnover in 2000 increased by 8 percent, and Tajikistan ended the year with a foreign trade surplus of $104 million. LF[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[13] NO BREAKTHROUGH IN TALKS ON YUGOSLAV FEDERATIONMontenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, Serbian Prime Minister-designate Zoran Djindjic, and Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica reached no agreement in Belgrade on 17 January in talks aimed at bridging differences on the future of Serbian-Montenegrin relations (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17 January 2001). Djindjic said: "We have started the talks on the two platforms to try to find the lowest common denominator and have come to a point of major divergence on the status of the future union. At the moment, we are in a position where we don't have the impression we've reached a compromise. But there is a readiness to talk about the possible scenarios," Reuters reported. PM[14] SERBIAN LEADER SEEKS TO PRESERVE REMNANTS OF YUGOSLAV STATEDjindjic stressed that "the world will see us as a region that is disintegrating while Europe is integrating," Reuters reported from Belgrade on 17 January. Djukanovic made no statement to the press but previously said that the former Yugoslavia must continue the ongoing process of dissolution before Serbia and Montenegro can establish relations on a new footing (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 28 November 2000). Djindjic also said on 17 January that if Yugoslavia breaks up, "Kosovo will become a problem zone again," AP reported. The regime of former President Slobodan Milosevic used similar domino-style arguments against the democratic dissolution of the former state, as though preserving unity were an end in itself. In any event, Kosova's 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority wants nothing short of independence (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 22 December 2000). U.S. Professor Steve Hanke, who is Djukanovic's chief economic advisor, recently told RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service that a peaceful parting of Serbia, Montenegro, and Kosova would enable each of the three entities to concentrate on its crucial internal problems. PM[15] COURT GIVES GREEN LIGHT TO SERBIAN GOVERNMENTThe Serbian Supreme Court overruled challenges by Vojislav Seselj's Radicals against the results of the 23 December elections, thereby enabling Djindjic and his coalition partners to begin forming a government, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported from Belgrade on 17 January. A new government could be in place as early as 25 January. PM[16] TOP SERBIAN PRIZE TO RFE/RL JOURNALISTThe jury voted unanimously on 17 January to award the Jug Grizelj prize, Serbia's most prestigious distinction for journalism, to RFE/RL's Omer Karabeg for his weekly Radio Most (Bridge) series, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. Radio Most brings together individual experts and political figures from different former Yugoslav republics and with differing points of view to discuss timely topics. Most appears in English translation in RFE/RL's "South Slavic Report" (http://www.rferl.org/southslavic/). Most is also regularly reprinted in several periodicals in the region. Collections of Most have twice appeared as books, including a collection of Serbian-Albanian dialogues on Kosova (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 22 December 2000). PM[17] SERBIAN POLICE SUSPEND 22 FROM PRESEVO FORCEThe Interior Ministry has suspended 22 Presevo-area policemen, a defense lawyer told Reuters in Bujanovac on 17 January. Lawyer Milan Krstic added: "All the suspension rulings lack a legal basis and have been brought in an illegal way." Local police chief Novica Zdravkovic said that some of the men had taken part in a recent roadblock protest and that others had been lax in carrying out various duties, including failing to adequately inspect vehicles crossing the border with Kosova. Some of those suspended are department heads. Local Albanians have frequently accused the police of behaving in a high-handed manner. PM[18] DEL PONTE SAYS YUGOSLAVIA'S KOSTUNICA 'NOT A PRIORITY'A spokeswoman for Carla Del Ponte, who is the Hague-based war crimes tribunal's chief prosecutor, said on 17 January that a meeting with Kostunica is "not a priority" for Del Ponte (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17 January 2001). Florence Hartmann, the spokeswoman, said that Del Ponte will hand her sealed indictments to Djindjic instead, Reuters reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 16 January 2001). Hartman added that "those arrest warrants are a chance for the Yugoslav authorities to prove they are committed to full cooperation" with the tribunal. During the recent Serbian election campaign, Kostunica frequently said that bringing former President Slobodan Milosevic to justice was "not a priority" for him. PM[19] SERBIA'S DJINDJIC TO PROSECUTE MILOSEVICAP reported from Belgrade on 18 February that it has obtained a document signed by Djindjic in which he promises to prosecute Milosevic for "serious crimes." The document does not elaborate on the nature of the crimes. Djindjic calls on the authorities to be thoroughly professional in preparing and prosecuting the case. He stressed that "the aim is to show with this example our determination" to demonstrate top standards of professionalism and the rule of law. PM[20] MS. MILOSEVIC COMES BACK TO SERBIAInterior Minister Zoran Zivkovic told Reuters on 17 January that Mira Markovic arrived at the Belgrade airport on a flight from Moscow that morning. She then passed through passport and customs controls. Ms. Milosevic flew to the Russian capital the previous Friday after boarding an Aeroflot flight from the VIP lounge without passing through the customs or passport controls. Unconfirmed press reports suggested that she met in Moscow with her son, Marko, who may be planning a return from voluntary exile (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17 January 2001). The government was widely criticized in the media for allowing her to leave the country. PM[21] ITALY CALLS ON MONTENEGRO TO BACK TOBACCO SUITItalian Finance Minister Ottaviano Del Turco appealed to the Montenegrin authorities on 17 January to join an EU lawsuit accusing two U.S. tobacco firms of complicity with cigarette smugglers. He added that "Montenegro would be sending a clear signal by adhering to the lawsuit. They have to get it out of their heads that they can receive EU economic aid while protecting smugglers," AP reported. Del Turco charged that the companies are "flooding" Montenegro with cigarettes in the knowledge that they will then be smuggled into third countries, such as Italy. "Every Montenegrin citizen would have to smoke 10 cigarettes simultaneously 24 hours a day for 20 years for all that stock to be sold there," Del Turco charged. Montenegro has filed a protest with Italy in denying recent accusations by Del Turco linking Djukanovic himself to a well-known smuggler (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 12 January 2001). PM[22] BOSNIANS WARY OF KOSTUNICA'S VIEWS...Some recent remarks by Kostunica have led many Bosnians to suspect that he does not respect the unity and independence of that country, Reuters reported from Sarajevo on 17 January. The Yugoslav president is slated to go to Sarajevo on 19 January. Kostunica said recently that the Yugoslav president and parliament never endorsed the 1995 Dayton peace accords, which require signatories to cooperate with the Hague-based war crimes tribunal (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 16 January 2001). Shortly after replacing Milosevic as Yugoslav president, Kostunica visited the Republika Srpska for the reburial of a nationalist poet without first calling on the Sarajevo authorities (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 23 October 2000). In an apparent effort to clarify his views, Kostunica told "Dnevni avaz" of 18 January that he regards the Dayton agreements as "one of the constitutions under which Yugoslavia has to live." PM[23] ...AS POLITICIANS MAKE CLEARHalid Genjac, who is the Muslim member of the joint presidency, called Kostunica's initial remarks on the non-ratification of Dayton and some other unspecified statements from Belgrade "a serious blow, not only to efforts to advance bilateral relations, but for stability and peace in the region." Foreign Minister Jadranko Prlic, who is an ethnic Croat, said that Bosnia will not let itself be "manipulated because of the internal [political] needs of a neighboring state." PM[24] MESIC REBUKES HERZEGOVINIANSCroatian President Stipe Mesic told "Slobodan Bosna" of 18 January that the Herzegovinian branch of the Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ) is behaving childishly by refusing to accept that its opponents have a majority in the Bosnian federal parliament (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17 January 2001). Mesic added that the HDZ's behavior reminds him of the late President Franjo Tudjman's refusal to accept defeat in a Zagreb municipal election and invite the winners to form a government. PM[25] PROSECUTOR LAUNCHES INVESTIGATION OF CROATIAN MEDIA BOSSESThe Zagreb county Prosecutor's Office has begun looking into charges that Ninoslav Pavic, several other media tycoons, and some key businessmen close to Tudjman tried to establish a monopoly on the media for the benefit of the HDZ, "Republika" reported on 18 January. PM[26] CROATIAN SYNAGOGUE TO BE REBUILTThe Zagreb Jewish community plans to rebuild the centrally-located synagogue destroyed by the pro-Axis Ustasha regime in 1941, "Vecernji list" reported on 18 February. The small community hopes for financial assistance from abroad as well as from the city administration. The building will be located at Praska ulica 7 off Jelacic Square. PM[27] ROMANIAN LOWER HOUSE APPROVES LOCAL PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION LAWIn the absence of the boycotting deputies from the Greater Romania Party, the Chamber of Deputies on 18 January approved the Local Public Administration Law (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17 January 2001). The vote was 211 for, one abstention, and none against, Mediafax reported. On 17 January, Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania deputy Ervin Szekely expressed approval of the way the ruling Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR) has promoted the law in the legislature. He praised the act as "a gain for democracy" and "a PDSR contribution to the respect of minority rights," RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. MS[28] ROMANIAN COMMUNISTS WANT CEAUSESCU TO HAVE 'CHRISTIAN BURIAL'Romanian Workers' Party Chairman Ion Cristian Niculae on 17 January said he has obtained the agreement of Elena Barbulescu, the sister of executed dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, to have his remains exhumed and is now seeking the agreement of the dictator's daughter, Zoe. Niculae said there are three main reasons for which he wants the earthly remains of Ceausescu and his wife Elena exhumed, and one of them is to "give them a Christian burial." The two were militant atheists who ordered the destruction of numerous churches. The other two reasons, he said, are that there is a suspicion that they were executed before their trial on 25 December 1989 and that Elena should be laid besides her life companion, Mediafax reported. Earlier this month, Niculae said he wants the exhumation to confirm whether the dictatorial couple was tortured before being shot. MS[29] BULGARIAN RADIO, TV COUNCIL HITS BACK AT PROTESTING JOURNALISTSThe National Council for Radio and Television, in a statement released on 16 January, rejected the demand of a group of Bulgarian radio journalists that it resign because it has failed to select a new radio director. The journalists said the selection criteria had been changed at the orders of Prime Minister Ivan Kostov. The council said the journalists' demand for the council to resign was not a "Prague-style" protest aimed at safeguarding freedom of speech but an attempt to eliminate the council and "restore direct political dictates over the mass media," RFE/RL's Sofia bureau reported. The council was set up in 1998 as an independent body, and Socialist opposition leader Georgi Parvanov said that he will disband it if his party returns to power. MS[30] KOSTOV SAYS BULGARIA'S PROGRESS TOWARDS EU MEMBERSHIP IS UNDERESTIMATEDPremier Kostov, in an interview with the German daily "Financial Times Deutschland," on 16 January said Bulgaria's progress towards meeting the criteria for EU membership is "not yet fully recognized," BTA reported. Kostov said the financial and monetary systems have been "radically changed" and the national currency is stable. In terms of harmonization of legislation with that of the EU, he said, Bulgaria ranks second to only Hungary. Kostov said Sofia wants the EU to assess country performances in line with their respective achievements or failures, and not by "patching them up into groups." MS[C] END NOTE[31] Duma to Discuss Kremlin Bill to Overhaul Political PartiesBy Sophie LambroschiniOn 17 January, Russia's State Duma began its first session of the new year, during which it is expected to discuss a controversial draft bill presented by President Vladimir Putin intended to overhaul the country's more than 270 political parties. The Kremlin, supported by the Central Electoral Commission, the bill's main author, argues Russia's unsupervised 273 parties should be streamlined. That, it says, would ensure more effective and democratic elections, with only about a dozen active parties. But opponents of the bill argue the government is actually hoping to use the law to gain control over Russian political life, and that it could paralyze the development of political organizations in Russia. The version of the bill officially proposed to the Duma by Putin on 25 December reflects plans voiced by the president as early as last February. At a meeting that month of the parliamentary Unity movement that Putin's team created to support him, the then acting president announced his intention of reorganizing Russia's motley collection of political movements into a two- or three-party system. Putin told that meeting "Only a small number of parties can have real influence in society. In practice, it's just not possible any other way. A functioning party system has two or three parties. This does not mean, of course, that other parties will have no influence on the state. I think that in our state there's enough work for everyone." The Kremlin bill would allow a party to be suspended if it were found to violate federal law. The bill also says an organization will only be given the status of a political party -- and the right to take part in elections - - if it has at least 10,000 registered members spread out over more than half of Russia's 89 regions, and no less than 100 members in each region. Present legislation does not impose any such criteria for forming a political party. The bill's supporters say it would promote the participation of what they call real and representative parties. They say this would put an end to the practice of many tiny groups, which call themselves parties, of profiting illegally from benefits such as free airtime during election campaigns that they use for promoting themselves. But reducing elections to a fight between a handful of parties is exactly what the bill's opponents -- mostly liberal deputies from smaller political groups such as Yabloko and the Union of Right Forces -- are afraid of. Few opponents deny that the existing Perestroika-era legislation on political parties needs to be amended. But they argue the Kremlin's medicine is worse than the illness it is seeking to cure. They say that instead of encouraging the development of civil society through political parties, the bill would in effect asphyxiate it in order to establish Kremlin control. Independent Duma deputy Vladimir Ryzhkov says the Kremlin is now simply reproducing in the political sphere Putin's program -- reflected in his media policy and centralization plans -- of imposing what Ryzhkov calls a "harsh vertical [scheme] of power." He says the Kremlin is using the bill to create a political system from the top down where the communists and the pro-presidential Unity group will be the only significant parliamentary forces left. Vladimir Lysenko is a Duma deputy with the small Russian Regions group and co-author, with Ryzhkov, of an alternative law that would guarantee the existence of multiple parties. Lysenko says "For the communists, [Putin's bill] would really be a great law because they are a mass party, compared to others. [The bill would give] the Communist Party a whole series of advantages compared to the younger parties that have appeared recently and don't yet have [the same institutional base and mass] membership as the communists." Ryzhkov notes there is no Green Party in Russia. But, he says, with the further development of civic society and environmental consciousness, such a political group could be formed. Still, Ryzhkov adds, it would take time for a nascent Green Party to rally members throughout Russia's vast territory. Therefore, he argues, the limits set by the Kremlin's bill would make it much harder to create a Green Party in the foreseeable future. Sophie Lambroschini is a Moscow-based correspondent for RFE/RL. 18-01-01 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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