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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 5, No. 163, 01-08-28Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 5, No. 163, 28 August 2001CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIA REJECTS COUNCIL OF EUROPE VIEW ON KARABAKH ELECTIONSThe Armenian Foreign Ministry on 27 August said that Yerevan does not agree with the view expressed by the Council of Europe that local elections in the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic are illegitimate and will undermine the peace process, Interfax reported. The ministry said that the people of Nagorno-Karabakh will be exercising their "legal right in correspondence with international standards" when they go to the polls on 5 September. PG[02] ARMENIA, YUGOSLAVIA SIGN MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COOPERATION ACCORDForeign Minister Vartan Oskanian on 27 August met with Yugoslav officials in Belgrade and signed a cooperation calling for expanded military- industrial cooperation, Noyan Tapan reported. PG[03] U.S. WILL BACK AZERBAIJAN IN THE EVENT OF CONFLICT WITH IRANVisiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Elizabeth Jones said in Baku on 27 August that the United States remains concerned about "provocative" Iranian incidents in the Caspian region and that Washington would render political support to Baku should a conflict arise between Azerbaijan and Iran, Turan reported. Meanwhile, the news service reported the same day, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asegi said that Jones's statements were themselves a provocation intended to "strain Tehran-Baku relations" She made her remarks after meeting with President Heidar Aliev and also with members of the Azerbaijani political opposition. Meanwhile, Azerbaijani Space TV the same day reported that Baku officials had explained the closure of a street near the U.S. Embassy in the Azerbaijani capital by suggesting that there was a foreign terrorist threat against it. PG[04] BAKU PAPER SUGGESTS ARMENIA MAY WORK WITH IRAN AGAINST AZERBAIJANAccording to an article in "Ekho" on 25 August, "any escalation in either the Caspian or Karabakh disputes" could trigger a "domino effect," with Armenia seeking to work with Iran against Azerbaijan. If Azerbaijan gets locked in a conflict with Iran, Armenia may take advantage of that by taking some action in Karabakh, while if the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resumes, Iran may play a spoiler role, the paper said. PG[05] NEW AZERBAIJANI JOURNALIST LEAGUE ESTABLISHED"Yeni Azerbaycan" on 25 August reported that a group of journalists have set up the League of Independent Journalists to deal with the problems faced by the country's independent media. League Chairman Xalid Niyazi said that "the trouble with existing unions of journalists is that they have politicized their activities and become offshoots of the opposition." PG[06] MORE PARTICIPANTS OF 1995 COUP ATTEMPT REPORTED UNDER ARREST"Yeni Musavat" reported on 25 August that officials of the National Security Ministry have begun the mass arrest of people in Calilabad believed to have been involved with the 1995 coup against the Baku authorities. Reportedly those in detention have been arrested not for their direct involvement in the coup but rather for their current ties with the Xatai district prosecutor, Mahir Cavadov, who did participate in the coup and now lives in Iranian exile. PG[07] SHEVARDNADZE PLEDGES PEACE, UNIFICATION OF GEORGIAIn his weekly radio interview broadcast on Georgian State Radio on 27 August, President Eduard Shevardnadze said that he has worked closely with Anri Djergenia, the prime minister of the Abkhaz separatist government, to calm the recent flare-up in relations between Tbilisi and Abkhazia. (Djergenia expressed his admiration for Shevardnadze's role, Interfax reported the same day. But Prime News reported that Abkhaz leaders were skeptical about the Georgian leader's intentions and peace proposal.) Shevardnadze added that "the conflict in Abkhazia is a permanent time bomb not only for Georgia but also for the Abkhaz people, other neighboring peoples, and I would say Russia as well." He said he will soon issue a program for peace and is prepared to meet with the Abkhaz leadership to overcome the divisions in Georgia because his "supreme objective" is to restore Georgia's "territorial integrity." PG[08] SHEVARDNADZE SAYS HIGHER TARIFFS FOR AZERBAIJANI OIL AND GAS 'DESIRABLE'In response to a World Bank letter (see RFE/RL Newsline, 27 August 2001), President Shevardnadze said that higher tariffs for Azerbaijani oil and gas transiting Georgia are "desirable," Turan news agency reported. He said that the accord between the two countries will specify that Georgia is not only a transit but also a consumer country. PG[09] KHOROG CONFERENCE DISCUSSES WATER, ENERGY PROBLEMS IN CENTRAL ASIAAn international conference on water and energy problems ended its sessions in Khorog in eastern Tajikistan on 26 August after three days of discussion, Tajik Radio reported on 27 August. Experts from across Central Asia as well as Russia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan took part in discussions about coping with the increasingly severe water shortages in the region. PG[10] U.S. TRAINS CENTRAL ASIANS TO COMBAT WEAPONS SMUGGLINGEighty Central Asian border guards and customs officers are undergoing training in Texas to learn how to detect components of weapons of mass destruction that might be smuggled through their territories, Interfax- Kazakhstan reported on 27 August. PG[11] KAZAKHSTAN TO SELL URANIUM TO CHINAThe Kazakhstan national atomic energy company plans to begin selling uranium to China, Kazakh commercial TV reported on 27 August. The two countries plan to set up a joint venture to process uranium in southern Kazakhstan "in the near future," the television channel said. PG[12] KAZAKH POLICE CLAIM SUCCESS IN FIGHTING ORGANIZED CRIME"Kazakhstanskaya pravda" on 24 August reported that Kazakhstan's Interior Ministry has successfully eliminated 86 organized crime groups as well as 21 bandit formations over the last few months. Moreover, the paper said, the ministry has compiled an exemplary record in bringing to trial those responsible for organized criminal activities, including contract killings. Meanwhile, the Justice Ministry announced that it has approved the right of courts to conduct trials when defendants are being held far from the courtroom, Interfax-Central Asia reported on 27 August. PG[13] NAZARBAEV SAYS HIS PRIORITIES ARE ATTRACTING INVESTMENT, IMPROVING DEFENSEAt a meeting with his ministers on 27 August, President Nursultan Nazarbaev said that his priority tasks for 2002 are to increase foreign investment in Kazakhstan and strengthen the country's defense capabilities, Interfax- Central Asia reported. PG[14] NAZARBAEV DEDICATES STATUE TO KAZAKH STRUGGLE AGAINST DJUNGARSPresident Nursultan Nazarbaev on 27 August dedicated a statue to the struggle of the Kazakh people against the Djungarian attacks in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, Interfax-Central Asia reported. "A people must know their history," Nazarbaev said. They must know that "there is strength in unity, in trusting one another, in the equality of all peoples who live in the country." PG[15] KYRGYZSTAN'S AKAEV CALLS FOR FIGHTING EXTREMISM BY IMPROVING PEOPLE'S LIVESIn an interview published in "Izvestiya" on 27 August, President Askar Akaev said the best way to fight extremism is to increase the standard of living of the population. He said that poverty is first and foremost a political problem in current conditions and that it must be fought. The same day, however, Akaev's officers arrested six supporters of the religious party "Khizbut Takhrir," Interfax reported. PG[16] TAJIK MEN AVOID SERVICE, DESERT WHEN DRAFTEDTajik radio on 27 August said that young Tajik men increasingly avoid military service by going abroad to look for work and that those who are drafted frequently desert. PG[17] TURKMEN PRESIDENT GETS ANOTHER AWARDTurkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov on 27 August was presented with the Tolstoy Gold Medal of the International Association of Children's Funds for his work in reducing the number of orphans and providing support for parents, Interfax reported. PG[18] UZBEKISTAN MARKS NAVAYI ANNIVERSARYPresident Islam Karimov on 27 August led Uzbeks in marking the 560th anniversary of the birth of Mirali Shir Navayi, whom the Uzbeks identify as the founder of their national literature, Interfax reported. Karimov has said in recent days that Navoi ranks with Russia's Aleksandr Pushkin and should be at least as well known. PG[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[19] NATO COLLECTS 'BIG STUFF' IN MACEDONIABritish Major Alexander Dick said at Otlja, just west of Kumanovo, on 27 August that guerrillas of the National Liberation Army (UCK) surrendered an impressive array of weapons on the first day of Operation Essential Harvest, Reuters reported. He added: "It's been a very good operation today and we hope it will continue like this... We have gathered in a good number of weapons today, but more importantly some big stuff. It's pleasing to see that some of it is in very good condition, practically new." Dick noted that the haul included about 300 assault rifles -- including Kalashnikovs in good condition -- 50 antipersonnel mines, 20 antitank mines, 60 to 80 light machine guns, an antitank weapon, 10 to 15 rocket launchers, and 10 to 20 mortar bombs. PM[20] MIXED SIGNALS FROM MACEDONIAN AUTHORITIES OVER COLLINS' DEATHIn a statement in Skopje on 27 August, Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski condemned the killing of British sapper Ian Collins by a gang of youths (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 27 August 2001), Deutsche Welle's "Monitor" reported. Trajkovski stressed that such violent incidents only help those who want to attain their political goals through violence. He later told British Prime Minister Tony Blair that there will be a full investigation, "The Independent" reported. Macedonian government spokesman Antonio Milosovski, however, criticized NATO for not informing the Macedonian authorities quickly of the killing, "Monitor" reported. He added that NATO hampered the police investigation by moving Collins' vehicle before police arrived. Milosovski said that it is "too early" to catch the killers. Observers note that in most cases of violence, the authorities are quick to blame and hunt for "Albanian terrorists" without much of a prior investigation. It is not clear why the security forces, whose supporters feel are capable of crushing an armed insurgency, cannot identify and catch a group of teenagers. PM[21] WITNESS SAYS MACEDONIAN TEENAGERS KILLED BRITISH SOLDIER"The Daily Telegraph" on 28 August quoted a local teenager with a Slavic name as saying that he saw the killing and that "a group of Macedonian teenagers" had been throwing stones at passing vehicles. A NATO spokesman said that the youths surrounded Collins' Land Rover "in a threatening manner" after hitting it. "The Independent" reported that a Macedonian policeman was 500 meters from the scene of the attack. It is not clear why he did not intervene and arrest the youths. The same daily quoted Macedonian Television as identifying the youths as ethnic Macedonians. PM[22] BRITISH SOLDIER'S DEATH THE RESULT OF MACEDONIAN GOVERNMENT 'HATE CAMPAIGN'?The "Daily Telegraph" reported from Skopje on 28 August that "the death of sapper Ian Collins after a mob attack in the suburbs of Skopje follows a venomous anti-Western campaign orchestrated by hard-line ministers in the Macedonian government." The daily specifically mentions Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski and Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski in this respect (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 5 June and 24 August 2001). One Macedonian special forces vehicle has "NATO Killers" painted on it. Some individual local people told the British reporter that "NATO has done a lot of evil things here" and "we've seen what they've done in Kosovo and Bosnia. They helped the Albanians and Bosnian Muslims and banished the Serbs. They're playing the same game here." "The Independent" quoted an unnamed off-duty Macedonian army captain as saying, "If I saw NATO soldiers here now, I would kill all of them myself." PM[23] SAPPER'S DEATH PART OF ORGANIZED ANTI-WESTERN MACEDONIAN VIOLENCEBritish Major Neil Peckham told RFE/RL in a telephone interview from Skopje on 27 August that Collins' death fits into an emerging pattern of violence. "There are indications that it is part of a pattern against NATO vehicles that has been building up over the past few weeks... There have been other instances of NATO vehicles, i.e., green [colored] military vehicles, being targeted by unknown individuals, the dropping of projectiles off road bridges, and throwing projectiles at the vehicles as well." Peckham added that "the [NATO] military police are in close coordination with the Macedonia police, and the investigation is ongoing." Security precautions for NATO personnel have been stepped up. PM[24] FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SERVICES PLAYING A ROLE IN MACEDONIAN POLICIES?In a discussion of the number of weapons that the Macedonian government wants NATO to collect from the UCK, Milosovski mentioned that the government's estimate was drawn up by "officials in the Macedonian secret service...[and] corresponds to the investigations made by other international organizations and secret services," Deutsche Welle's "Monitor" reported on 27 August. He did not specify which foreign "secret services" he had in mind, or what role they might play in shaping the attitudes and policies of the Macedonian government (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 31 July and 14 August 2001). PM[25] LONDON DAILY: MACEDONIAN MINISTER TOOK PART IN ATROCITY"The Daily Telegraph" reported on 26 August that its journalists have seen a film made by Macedonian Television showing Interior Minister Boskovski present during "the worst alleged atrocity in the six-month conflict with ethnic Albanian rebels." The incident took place in Ljuboten following the killing by a land mine of eight Macedonian soldiers nearby (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 10 and 13 August 2001). PM[26] U.S. WANTS MACEDONIA TO INVESTIGATE COLLINS' DEATHState Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington on 27 August: "We extend our condolences to the family of the British soldier and to the family of those killed in the explosion [near Tetovo]. We expect Macedonian authorities to conduct full investigations... We condemn the violence over the weekend, particularly in this circumstance [of the start of Essential Harvest]. Macedonia needs calm in order to proceed with disarmament and with the political action that's necessary" to implement the comprehensive settlement, Reuters reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 27 August 2001). PM[27] RFE/RL TO LAUNCH MACEDONIAN BROADCASTSRFE/RL President Thomas A. Dine announced on 27 August in Washington that RFE/RL will begin broadcasting in Macedonian on 1 September. RFE/RL's programs in Serbian and Albanian already have a significant audience in Macedonia. But by adding broadcasts in Macedonian, he continued, RFE/RL hopes to provide all of Macedonia's linguistic communities a balanced view of local, regional, and international events -- something currently lacking in Macedonia's media landscape. "RFE/RL's experience elsewhere shows that such broadcasts can play an important role in promoting stability and democracy," Dine said. He added that he is confident that the new Macedonian broadcasts will have the same effect. The three daily 15-minute news programs will be broadcast in Macedonia on the Kanal 77 network of 19 FM stations. The Macedonian-language programs will be created by members of RFE/RL's South Slavic broadcast service, with both ethnic Albanian and Macedonian stringers reporting from locations throughout Macedonia. MZ[28] KFOR DETAINS MORE GUERRILLAS FROM MACEDONIANATO-led peacekeepers arrested 35 suspected UCK fighters as they entered Kosova from Macedonia, bringing the number detained in the course of a 48- hour period to 200, AP reported from Prishtina on 28 August (see RFE/RL Newsline," 27 August 2001). PM[29] PRO-BELGRADE PARTY SAYS ALBANIANS TRYING TO SPLIT MONTENEGRODragan Koprivica of the pro-Belgrade Socialist People's Party (SNP) said in Podgorica on 27 August that a recent violent robbery at Plav near the Kosova border by persons who did not speak Serbo-Croat shows that "Montenegro is unstable. Mentors from Kosovo and Albania have instructed local Albanians to push for an independent Montenegro," dpa reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 27 August 2001). But Igor Luksic, a spokesman of President Milo Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) said, "Koprivica is in the twilight zone." Gazim Hajdinaga, an ethnic Albanian political leader and the government's minister for minorities, stressed that the "Albanians will push for their goals only in legal institutions." PM[30] YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER CALLS COUNTRY 'SEMI-MAFIOSO STATE'Speaking at Alpbach, Austria, on 27 August, Goran Svilanovic said that Serbia has "to go through what is usually called a transition process. Being foreign minister but not a career diplomat, I tend to call it a semi- mafioso state... The real issue is whether we are going to reach within a year or two the point of stable political institutions and an integrated economy, or if we shall end up in the muck of crime and corruption. That is the basic challenge for all of us," Reuters reported. He added that "the real challenge for the country is organized crime." Svilanovic said that there are three interconnected structures in Serbia: the old regime of President Slobodan Milosevic, the new authorities, and organized crime. He added that "the three are so much interconnected that sometimes you do not know who you are talking to." PM[31] BRITISH DAILY ALERTS SERBIAN AUTHORITIES TO PRESENCE OF WAR CRIMINAL"The Guardian" reported on 27 August that Serbian authorities have "agreed to act" after its journalists found Misko Nisavic running a driving school in Kragujevac. Nisavic is wanted by both Belgrade and The Hague for his role in the massacre of 49 ethnic Albanian civilians in March 1999 in Suhareka, Kosova. PM[32] REPORT: SERBIAN MEDIA STILL FAR FROM FREEThe Serbian NGO ANEM said in a report on 27 August that the media are threatened by the "conscious determination of the new people now wielding political power in the country to retain certain mechanisms formerly used...by the Milosevic regime to exert pressure on the media." PM[33] IMF CHIEF NEGOTIATOR JOINS TALKS IN ROMANIANeven Mates, the chief IMF negotiator for Romania, on 27 August joined the parleys with Romanian authorities on the envisaged 2002 budget, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. Finance Minister Mihai Tanasescu said he believes a "letter of intent" can be agreed upon by the end of the week and the IMF's executive board will be able to approve a new standby agreement in September. The negotiations are now concentrating on the government's wage policy and on its privatization program. MS[34] ROMANIAN COURT SLAPS PNTCD CIORBEA WINGThe Bucharest Municipal Tribunal on 27 August ruled that the 2 June merger of the National Peasant Party Christian Democratic (PNTCD) and the National Alliance Christian Democratic (ANCD) is null and void and refused to strike the ANCD from the list of existing parties, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. The court based its decision on the fact that Victor Ciorbea, the former leader of the ANCD, signed the request to register the merger both in the name of that party and in the name of the PNTCD, of which he was elected chairman following Andrei Marga's resignation from that post on 6 July. The decision can be appealed within five days. If it remains in force, it would have far-reaching implications, because all of the decisions taken by the Ciorbea wing of the PNTCD after 6 July -- including the expulsion from the party of some formerly prominent leaders -- would also be nullified. Ciorbea told journalists that the court's decision was due to "political pressure on the judiciary," while Calin Catalin Chirita, the secretary-general of the Marga-Lupu-Chirita wing of the PNTCD, said the decision "puts an end to all the illegalities committed by Victor Ciorbea." MS[35] ROMANIAN SENATE APPROVES EXTENDING TERM OF PROPERTY RESTITUTION DEMANDSThe Senate approved a governmental ordinance on 27 August that extends by three months the deadline for submission of demands for the restitution of real estate seized by the former communist regime. The new deadline is 14 November. Greater Romania Party (PRM) Chairman Corneliu Vadim Tudor spoke against extending the deadline, saying that not only the ordinance, but the restitution law as a whole "must be destroyed before it destroys us as a country." The Chamber of Deputies must vote on the deadline's extension. MS[36] SALE OF RACIALIST BOOK BANNED IN ROMANIA?AFP reported on 27 August that the sale of the chauvinist book "The Nationalist" by PRM deputy Vlad Hogea has been banned, but there is no confirmation of this decision from Romanian sources (see End Note). The agency cited Iasi prefect Corneliu Rusu-Banu as saying, "So long as I am prefect, I will not allow such a book to be sold in the bookshops of Iasi." Earlier, PRM Senator and Deputy Chairman Gheorghe Buzatu, who published the book at an institute he heads in Iasi, said the launching of a second run of the book has been postponed (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 23, 24, and 27 August 2001). MS[37] MOLDOVA MARKS INDEPENDENCE DAY IN GLOOMY MOODMoldova marked the 10th anniversary of its independence on 27 August with a military parade in Chisinau, but in his message to the nation President Vladimir Voronin said there is not much that Moldovans can cheer about, RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau and international agencies reported. Voronin said that Moldova's achievements since its declaration of independence are "an illusion" and "there are few reasons to celebrate." He said real independence "requires above all the well-being of citizens" and the identification of citizens with their state. He said it is "no secret" that in recent years not only national minorities such as Ukrainians, Russians, Gagauz, or Bulgarians have felt "aliens in their own state," but so have Moldovans themselves. He said the "primary task" of the government is to "regain our motherland," as "no state can be fully sovereign if a large part of its population lives under the rule of some self-proclaimed independent authority." He also said the authorities must offer society "a realistic and long-term development program" that leaves "room for all citizens," and to intensify efforts to eradicate corruption and poverty. MS[38] U.S. SENATOR SAYS CONGRESS MAJORITY SUPPORTS BULGARIA'S NATO MEMBERSHIPVisiting U.S. Senator John McCain on 27 August said in Sofia that a majority in the U.S. Congress backs Bulgaria's accession to NATO and that the Atlantic alliance must expand to "create an inviolable zone of stability and democracy," BTA reported. McCain said he considers Bulgaria's chances of joining NATO to be "very good, although a lot more must be done" by the country to promote that goal. McCain met with Prime Minister Simeon Saxecoburggotski and was decorated by President Petar Stoyanov with the Order of the Balkan Range in recognition for his contributions to the development and promotion of Bulgarian-U.S. relations. MS[39] BULGARIAN HELSINKI COMMITTEE CRITICIZES PRISON CONDITIONSHelsinki Committee Chairman Krassimir Kanev told journalists on 27 August that the conditions in Bulgarian prisons are deteriorating, BTA reported. Kanev said that while penitentiary administration staff members have recently received pay raises of 50 percent, less money is being provided for the maintenance of prisons and the budget allocated to food for prisoners has dropped by 29 percent. Money for the repair of prisons has been halved and there are reports of countrywide corruption among prison wards, he said. Kanev also said prison authorities monitor inmate correspondence routinely, rather than for valid reasons and in exceptional cases alone, as stated by the law. MS[C] END NOTE[40] ROMANIAN AUTHORITIES LAUNCH PROBE INTO CONTROVERSIAL BOOKBy Eugen TomiucThe Romanian Prosecutor-General's Office on 22 August launched a probe into the publishing of a book that many believe contains texts inciting anti-Semitism and racial hatred. The inquiry follows protests from leaders of the Jewish, Romany, and Hungarian minority communities, which appear to be the main targets of the book. The federation of Romania's Jewish communities issued a statement the same day that said the book amounts to a "grave incitement to interethnic and racial hatred" and violates the Romanian Constitution's ban on anti-Semitic and racist material. The statement urges authorities to take action in line with Romanian law -- which provides penalties of up to five years in prison -- for those found guilty of distributing Nazi or anti-Semitic propaganda. The controversial book is "The Nationalist," written by Vlad Hogea, a 24- year-old deputy of the ultranationalist Greater Romania Party (PRM). It contains a collection of essays, most of which were originally published in magazines run by PRM leader Corneliu Vadim Tudor -- a communist poet turned ultranationalist who lost the presidential election to Ion Iliescu in December of last year, and whose picture is featured on the book's cover. Other "essays" included in the volume were originally published in the local version of the tabloid "Atac la persoana" (Attack on Persons) in the northeast town of Iasi. The former owner of that tabloid is a known anti- Semite who has represented the PRM in parliament since the 2000 elections. "The Nationalist" has yet to hit the shelves, but some 1,000 copies have already been printed ahead of its official launching on 25 August, and excerpts have appeared in the Romanian media. Bucharest dailies are reporting that "The Nationalist" contains such chapter titles as "These Jews Who Rule Us" and "White-Romanian-Christian- Nationalist." It also reportedly includes the phrase "whoever fights the Jews, fights the devil," which Hogea says is borrowed from Julius Streicher, a prominent Nazi official executed for war crimes in 1946. The book has alarmed Romania's small Jewish community, which now numbers some 12,000 and which saw an estimated half of its pre-World War II population of 800,000 deported or killed under the rule of pro-Nazi dictator Ion Antonescu. But Hogea maintains that, despite quoting a notorious figure like Streicher, he is not himself an anti-Semite. He told RFE/RL that even though he is a nationalist, he is not biased against any minority group. "I am Romanian, and I am a nationalist. I accept my condition, and I am proud of it. But I am not an anti-Semite, because I cannot be against a community -- be it a racial, ethnic, or religious community," he said. Hogea, whose PRM party holds one-fourth of the seats in Romania's parliament, introduced a bill in May providing for wider social integration of Romania's almost 2 million Roma. The party quietly withdrew the bill from parliament several weeks later. But Hogea's book lashes out against the very people he said he had wanted to help with his bill. In the book, according to the published excerpts, he calls the Roma "a black tide that poisons the ocean" and warns that "unless we stand up against this wave of dirt which is gradually covering us, we risk becoming a minority in our own country." Prominent minority leaders in Romania say racial hatred is not uncommon at high levels of Romanian officialdom. "There is a certain amount of racism and xenophobia at a high level, within very important state institutions," said deputy Nicolae Paun, who represents the Roma in parliament. "Such reactions, whether in the media or in racist books such as this, will not help Romania in its competition for integration in the civilized world, in the Euro-Atlantic structures." Paun's accusations are tied to the fact that the controversial book has appeared under the auspices of a research institute affiliated with the Romanian Academy. The academy recently issued a statement denying it approved the book's publication. But the academy has been at least indirectly involved. The research institute, located in Iasi, is led by Gheorghe Buzatu, a controversial historian who is also a PRM senator and deputy speaker of Romania's Senate, the upper chamber of parliament. Corneliu Ciocanu -- a former far-right leader -- is also among its researchers. Buzatu, who is also a top PRM aide, has personally endorsed both the book and its author, whom he calls "an exceptional young man." Both Hogea and the PRM leadership deny any connection between the book and the party's official position. But ethnic minority leaders say the volume is, in fact, a party manifesto. Over the last decade, the PRM has frequently targeted the country's 1.7 million Hungarians. Prominent members of Romania's ethnic Hungarian party, the UDMR -- an ally of the ruling Social Democrats since early 2001 -- are now demanding that the government condemn both Hogea's book and his party. UDMR Senator Peter Eckstein Kovacs tells RFE/RL that the Romanian leadership must stand firm against xenophobia and extremism. "The [political] majority, and above all the [governing] Social Democrat Party, must express very clearly their position regarding this book and the xenophobic and anti-Semitic ideas it contains. It must be publicly acknowledged that this is the position of a party which should not exist in the political life of a democratic country." But author Hogea said the inquiry launched by the authorities is a violation of his constitutional right to free speech. He accuses the government of trying to destroy him and said he will appeal to international organizations for support. "I will contact all enlightened nationalists in the civilized world who can help me protect my right to free speech, and I will launch a very strong campaign on the Internet," Hogea said. "I will translate excerpts from my book into English, and I will popularize them internationally. I will appeal to Western institutions." Hogea's case is not the first of its kind in Romania. Another inquiry is under way after the Supreme Court earlier this year asked prosecutors to investigate the availability of Nazi and other anti-Semitic propaganda -- including Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" -- at an international book fair in Bucharest. And recently, PRM leader Tudor publicly apologized on behalf of one of his party colleagues who had published a book containing two jokes about the Holocaust. The book was withdrawn from publication, but not before some 20, 000 copies had been sold. Tudor has so far remained silent on the controversy surrounding "The Nationalist." But one of his more notorious publications, the magazine "Greater Romania," recently launched a violent attack against the Jewish community, saying its protests over Hogea's book are an attempt to stifle free speech in Romania. Eugen Tomiuc is an RFE/RL correspondent. 28-08-01 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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