RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 5, No. 175, 01-09-14

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From: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>

RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 5, No. 175, 14 September 2001

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIA CALLS FOR COORDINATED RESPONSE TO GLOBAL TERRORISM...

[02] ...WHILE KAZAKHSTAN ADVOCATES 'NEW APPROACHES'...

[03] ...AND UZBEKISTAN AGAIN PROPOSES INTERNATIONAL ANTITERRORIST CENTER

[04] SCO CONDEMNS TERRORISM, PLEDGES READINESS TO COMBAT IT...

[05] ...SEEKS TO ACCELERATE ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

[06] ARMENIAN OFFICIAL RULES OUT INCREASE IN PENSIONS THIS YEAR

[07] GEORGIAN OPPOSITION BEGINS CAMPAIGN TO FORCE SPEAKER'S RESIGNATION

[08] KAZAKH PRESIDENT, CHINESE PREMIER MEET

[09] KYRGYZSTAN RELOCATES BORDER GUARDS DIRECTORATE TO SOUTH

[10] INTERNATIONAL MEETING IN TAJIKISTAN DISCUSSES AFGHAN SITUATION

[11] TAJIK PRESIDENT, INDIAN FOREIGN MINISTER MEET

[12] TURKMEN PRESIDENT MAKES DEBUT AS NOVELIST

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[13] SOLIDARITY WITH U.S. IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

[14] MACEDONIAN ALBANIAN GUERRILLA LEADER SENDS CONDOLENCES TO U.S.

[15] ROBERTSON URGES MACEDONIAN LEGISLATORS NOT TO DELAY

[16] MACEDONIAN TIMETABLE ON TRACK?

[17] MACEDONIAN ALBANIAN PARTIES OPPOSE REFERENDUM

[18] MACEDONIAN DEFENSE MINISTER: FORCES WILL RETURN TO FEBRUARY POSITIONS

[19] SLOVENIA OFFERS TO MEDIATE IN SERBIAN-MONTENEGRIN DISPUTE

[20] REGISTRATION OF KOSOVA SERBS PROCEEDING APACE

[21] CROATIAN TENNIS STAR DRAFTED INTO ARMY

[22] PNTCD RIFT CREATES MORE WAVES

[23] ROMANIAN PARLIAMENT CONDEMNS ATTACKS ON U.S., LIBERALS PROPOSE DEATH PENALTY

[24] BULGARIA CONSIDERS BUYING F-16S TO ACHIEVE NATO STANDARD

[C] END NOTE

[25] RUSSIANS ASK WHETHER SCHOOLS CAN BE REFORMED

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIA CALLS FOR COORDINATED RESPONSE TO GLOBAL TERRORISM...

capacity as rotating chairman of the CIS Collective Security Treaty, Armenian

President Robert Kocharian proposed that the six signatories to that accord

(Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan) should offer

to provide collective support for coordinated international measures to clamp

down on the "rapidly growing danger of international terrorism," RFE/RL's

Yerevan bureau reported. The six signatories to the treaty termed the struggle

against "international terrorism and extremism" as one of their main priorities

at a session in Yerevan in May 2001. LF

[02] ...WHILE KAZAKHSTAN ADVOCATES 'NEW APPROACHES'...

Chairman Marat Tazhin told Interfax on 13 September that the terrorist attacks

in the U.S. make it necessary to rethink how terrorism arises and spreads. He

said his agency engages in a regular exchange of information with the

intelligence services of unspecified other countries on terrorist plans to

destabilize the situation in Central Asia. LF

[03] ...AND UZBEKISTAN AGAIN PROPOSES INTERNATIONAL ANTITERRORIST CENTER

September that Uzbekistan has already twice raised the question of establishing

an international antiterrorism center under the auspices of the UN, Interfax

reported. LF

[04] SCO CONDEMNS TERRORISM, PLEDGES READINESS TO COMBAT IT...

released in Almaty on 14 September at the end of their two-day meeting, the

prime ministers of the six member states of the Shanghai Cooperation

Organization (SCO) -- Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and

Uzbekistan -- condemned the 11 September terrorist attacks in the U.S. as "a

barbaric act defying the fundamentals of human civilization," and pledged to

cooperate closely with all states and international bodies to combat the

"serious threat to humanity" that terrorism represents, Reuters reported. LF

[05] ...SEEKS TO ACCELERATE ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

premiers signed a memorandum intended to serve as the basis for "full- blooded"

economic interaction, dpa and ITAR-TASS reported. Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji

told journalists that the economies of the six states are "mutually

complementary." He added that priority will be given to jointly developing the

oil and gas sector, transport infrastructure, and "creating flows of

commodities, services, and investments" between SCO member states. LF

[06] ARMENIAN OFFICIAL RULES OUT INCREASE IN PENSIONS THIS YEAR

possible for the Armenian government to raise pensions before the end of this

year, Social Welfare Ministry official Artem Asatrian told Noyan Tapan on 13

September. Asatrian said the current minimum pension is 2,860 drams ($5.20) and

the average monthly pension is 4,600 drams as compared with 2,200 and 4,404

drams respectively in April 1999. Armenian Revolutionary Federation --

Dashnaktsutiun parliament faction head Aghvan Vartanian argued earlier this

month that it is quite feasible to raise pensions immediately by between 30- 50

percent. LF

[07] GEORGIAN OPPOSITION BEGINS CAMPAIGN TO FORCE SPEAKER'S RESIGNATION

parliamentary opposition has taken speaker Zurab Zhvania up on his pledge to

resign from that post if 100 deputies append their signatures to a demand that

he do so, Parliament deputy speaker Vakhtang Rcheulishvili told Caucasus Press

on 13 September (see "RFE/RL Caucasus Report," Vol. 4, No. 31, 10 September

2001). Rcheulishvili did not, however, reveal how many deputies have already

signed that demand. Meanwhile, at a two-hour meeting on 13 September with

visiting Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Chairman Lord Russell-

Johnston, opposition legislators argued that responsibility for endemic

corruption in Georgia lies with the ruling Union of Citizens of Georgia,

Caucasus Press reported. "Industry Will Save Georgia" faction head Gogi Topadze

said corruption is the reason why the huge amounts of aid the West has given

Georgia have produced no noticeable improvements in the situation there. LF

[08] KAZAKH PRESIDENT, CHINESE PREMIER MEET

Chinese Premier Zhu on the sidelines of the 13-14 September SCO summit in

Almaty, ITAR-TASS reported on 14 September, quoting Kazakhstan's Foreign

Minister Yerlan Idrisov. Just as Prime Minister Toqaev had done when meeting

with Zhu two days earlier (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 13 September 2001), Idrisov

positively assessed the current trend of Kazakh-Chinese relations, ITAR- TASS

reported. He noted the huge unused potential for cooperation in the oil and gas

sector and the power industry. Interfax reported on 10 September that Zhu and

Nazarbaev would discuss the project to build an oil export pipeline from western

Kazakhstan to China, but it is not clear whether they did so. An agreement in

principle to build such a pipeline was signed four years ago, and Nazarbaev

reaffirmed his commitment to implementing that project when visiting Beijing in

November 1999. However, a Chinese oil company official said in March of this

year that construction is unlikely to start in the foreseeable future (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 29 November 1999 and 30 March 2001). In recent months Kazakh

officials have repeatedly expressed support for the alternative Aqtau-Baku-

Ceyhan export route. LF

[09] KYRGYZSTAN RELOCATES BORDER GUARDS DIRECTORATE TO SOUTH

Akaev has issued a decree ordering the relocation of the headquarters of the

Defense Ministry's Border Guard Directorate to the town of Osh in southern

Kyrgyzstan, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported on 13 September. The transfer is to

be completed by 1 October 2002. LF

[10] INTERNATIONAL MEETING IN TAJIKISTAN DISCUSSES AFGHAN SITUATION

closed doors in an emergency session in Dushanbe on 13 September, officials from

Russia, India, Iran, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan discussed the likely impact on

future developments in Afghanistan of the 9 September bid to assassinate

Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud, Reuters and Russian agencies

reported. They also discussed possible military and technical assistance to the

embattled Northern Alliance. General Muhammad Fahimkhan, who was selected the

same day to replace Massoud as military commander of the Northern Alliance, was

introduced to participants. Fahimkhan is 44 years old and a graduate of the

theological faculty of Kabul University; he served under Massoud fighting

against Soviet troops during the 1980s, Interfax reported. LF

[11] TAJIK PRESIDENT, INDIAN FOREIGN MINISTER MEET

on 13 September with visiting Indian Foreign Minister Omar Abdullah to discuss

implementation of previous agreements on cooperation, measures to combat

terrorism and drug trafficking, and regional security, including the situation

in Afghanistan, Russian agencies reported. LF

[12] TURKMEN PRESIDENT MAKES DEBUT AS NOVELIST

President Saparmurat Niyazov has been published in Ashgabat, Interfax reported

on 12 September. The work is based on diaries Niyazov kept during the late 1980s

after he was elected First Secretary of the Communist Party of Turkmenistan. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[13] SOLIDARITY WITH U.S. IN FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

September in Croatia, Bosnia, and Montenegro, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service

reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 12 and 13 September 2001). At 12:00 p.m. local

time, three minutes of silence were officially observed. Bosnian Prime Minister

Zlatko Lagumdzija said that the central government and the authorities in both

entities support the U.S. in the fight against terrorism, "Oslobodjenje"

reported. He added that he expects no changes in U.S. policy in Bosnia. On 13

September, the Yugoslav government met in a special session to condemn the

terrorist attacks and offer support in catching those responsible. "Vesti"

published statements from numerous Serbian politicians against the attacks.

Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic said that terrorism affects everyone and will

force changes in old security concepts as the world enters a new century. Vuk

Draskovic of the Serbian Renewal Movement argued that "what happened in the U.S.

should act as a signal to the entire world to settle accounts with terrorism."

PM

[14] MACEDONIAN ALBANIAN GUERRILLA LEADER SENDS CONDOLENCES TO U.S.

political leader of the ethnic Albanian guerrillas of the National Liberation

Army (UCK), sent a telegram to President George W. Bush and the American people

to extend his condolences, Makfax reported on 13 September. He said: "With deep

pain and much concern we [share] the hard tragedy caused by the enemies of the

American people and state. This blow also hit the entire Albanian people in

Macedonia... We condemn the acts of terrorism and deeply sympathize with you."

PM

[15] ROBERTSON URGES MACEDONIAN LEGISLATORS NOT TO DELAY

George Robertson said in Skopje on 14 September: "I've come to see that the

peace process is on track and to give encouragement to the politicians in

Macedonia to keep on with that process...to ensure peace and security for this

country and the wider region. Two-thirds of the weapons have been collected and

destroyed [in Operation Essential Harvest] so [NATO] has done its job with

efficiency... I would be very concerned if there were going to be delays in

[the political] process," Reuters reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 13 September

2001). Robertson added that "this has been a black week for the world. The

events in New York and Washington have cast a shadow not just across America but

across the Balkans as well." An unnamed "high-ranking Macedonian security

official" told that news agency that Robertson "is going to pressure the

government to get moving with the parliamentary procedure on changing the

constitution and pushing through an amnesty" for the UCK fighters. PM

[16] MACEDONIAN TIMETABLE ON TRACK?

26 September, and two days later the parliament is scheduled to have approved

constitutional amendments that will raise the status of the large Albanian

minority, Reuters reported from Skopje on 13 September. NATO spokesman Mark

Laity said that the disarmament process continues to be disrupted by Macedonian

paramilitaries who "do not appear to be answerable to local [police or army]

commanders." Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski said that he has no knowledge

of such illegal activities and will stop them if the accusations are proven.

Parliament speaker Stojan Andov told AP that the second phase of the

parliamentary debate will end on 20 September and that discussions on the

amendments will have to wait until after the disarmament process is over and

Macedonian forces have entered areas now controlled by the UCK. He added that

unnamed Western officials have threatened to "impose a financial blockade on

Macedonia" if parliament were to hold up the overall peace process. PM

[17] MACEDONIAN ALBANIAN PARTIES OPPOSE REFERENDUM

parliament indefinitely postponed debate on a proposed referendum on the

constitutional changes, Reuters reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 13 September

2001). Western officials and ethnic Albanian political leaders had warned that

such a discussion threatened to derail the peace process. Arben Xhaferi, who

heads the Democratic Party of the Albanians (PDSH), said that the Albanians

might hold a referendum of their own to decide what constitutional changes they

want if the Macedonians hold a referendum on the proposed amendments, AP

reported. Observers note that even though Macedonia's main political leaders

have all signed the political settlement, many politicians' behavior is heavily

influenced by the fact that elections are scheduled for January 2002 (see

"RFE/RL Balkan Report," 17 and 21 August 2001). PM

[18] MACEDONIAN DEFENSE MINISTER: FORCES WILL RETURN TO FEBRUARY POSITIONS

meeting of the National Security Council, Defense Minister Vlado Buckovski said

in Skopje on 12 September that security forces will return to their positions of

5 February -- at the beginning of the Albanian uprising -- once the disarmament

process is completed, Deutsche Welle's "Monitor" reported. He stressed that it

would amount to accepting an ethnic partition of the country were the forces to

return only to their front-line positions of 5 July. He added that a plan is

being drawn up for the return of security forces to guerrilla-held areas, and

that the process of the forces' return will last until the end of November.

Buckovski said that an armed international presence would be acceptable

providing it has a UN mandate and limits its tasks to securing the borders with

Kosova, Serbia, and Albania. PM

[19] SLOVENIA OFFERS TO MEDIATE IN SERBIAN-MONTENEGRIN DISPUTE

Minister Dimitrij Rupel offered his government's good offices to help resolve

the dispute between Belgrade and Podgorica over the future of their relations,

RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported from Podgorica on 13 September. Also in

the Montenegrin capital, Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic called on Djindjic to

sent representatives to discuss the future of relations with the Montenegrin

government. Djindjic has previously said that he will not negotiate with

Montenegro without Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica. In Belgrade, leaders

of the Serbian and Montenegrin parties in the governing Yugoslav coalition

failed to resolve their differences but said they will try again in yet another

meeting. PM

[20] REGISTRATION OF KOSOVA SERBS PROCEEDING APACE

supervising the 17 November general elections in Kosova, said in Prishtina on 13

September that 130,000 Serbs have registered to vote, RFE/RL's South Slavic

Service reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 7 September 2001). About half of those

registered live within the province, while the other half are living in Serbia

or Montenegro. PM

[21] CROATIAN TENNIS STAR DRAFTED INTO ARMY

tennis star Goran Ivanisevic received his call-up papers for the military, AP

reported from Zagreb. After passing his physical, Ivanisevic said that he has no

preference as to which branch of the service he would like to join. He noted

that he has poor vision, however, and that he'd "totally miss something the size

of a house" if sent to the artillery. As a professional sportsman he is exempt

from the normal one year of military service, but he will have to report to the

military authorities whenever he is in Croatia and undergo six months of basic

training starting 27 November. PM

[22] PNTCD RIFT CREATES MORE WAVES

September having known that National Peasant Party Christian Democratic (PNTCD)

leader Victor Ciorbea has been forbidden to leave the country, Mediafax

reported. Nastase was reacting to a letter sent by PACE Popular Party Christian

Democratic (PPCD) Chairman Hans-Gert Poettering protesting restrictions that

were allegedly imposed on Ciorbea's family preventing them from leaving Romania.

Poettering said this reminds him of restrictive measures taken 10 years ago,

"measures contrary to the attitude expected from an [EU] candidate country."

Nastase canceled a meeting with Ciorbea scheduled for 14 September in order to

ensure the cabinet's impartiality until a final verdict is handed down in the

legal dispute between the two factions. The PNTCD is torn by an internal rift

between two factions contesting leadership. Nastase previously deplored the

"internationalization" of the PNTCD's internal conflict (see "RFE/RL Newsline,"

5 September 2001). ZsM

[23] ROMANIAN PARLIAMENT CONDEMNS ATTACKS ON U.S., LIBERALS PROPOSE DEATH PENALTY

condemning the terrorist attacks against the United States and called on

democratic countries to act together against all forms of terrorism, Romanian

media reported. The government declared 13 September a day of mourning. During

the debate in the Senate, the upper chamber of parliament, National Liberal

Party Chairman and former Justice Minister Valeriu Stoica called on the

government to ask the Council of Europe to establish death penalties for

terrorist attacks. He said such acts should be considered acts of war. ZsM

[24] BULGARIA CONSIDERS BUYING F-16S TO ACHIEVE NATO STANDARD

Nikolai Sinarov said in Sofia on 12 September that Bulgaria is planning to buy

F-16 jet fighters to upgrade its air force as part of its bid to achieve NATO

membership, Reuters reported. Svinarov said in an interview that "a small army

with high military capability compatible with NATO armed forces is our goal." He

added that the costs of the fighters would be high and that the country might

need to upgrade and sell its MIG-29s in order to have the necessary funds to buy

the new planes. Bulgaria has 21 MIG-29s but only three are airworthy as the

others lack spare parts. Svinarov said Bulgaria hopes to reduce its armed forces

from some 77,000 now to about 63,000 by the NATO summit in Prague in 2002. PB

[C] END NOTE

[25] RUSSIANS ASK WHETHER SCHOOLS CAN BE REFORMED

The Soviet Union guaranteed free education for everyone. The quality of

education system had long been a point of pride for Russians; they believed it

was one of the best in the world.

But after the 1991 Soviet collapse, education declined as scarce resources

were diverted to other sectors of the economy. Schools were deprived of

resources and common teaching standards eroded.

Those were the problems the high-level State Council attempted to address

in late August when it gave tentative approval to a long-term education reform

plan. The council meeting brought together President Vladimir Putin as well as

cabinet members and state governors.

The core of the plan is to raise the amount of money channeled into

education and to raise teachers' salaries.

Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matvienko said that under the proposed

plan the government would allocate about 56 billion rubles ($1.9 billion) from

federal and regional budgets to reform the system over the next five years.

Education Minister Vladimir Filipov said monthly salaries for teachers

would be doubled to 1,200 rubles to 2,450 rubles ($50-$75) a month. Teachers are

among the poorest paid workers in the country.

Angelina Burdena, a schoolteacher from Tyumen in Siberia, tells RFE/RL

it's impossible to survive on such low wages. She said she keeps cattle at her

home to help feed her family. Burdena said after so much work she has little

time left to prepare her lessons.

The situation is not much better in Russia's large cities. "The teachers'

wages are so low. A teacher has to work many hours to have more or less a normal

wage," said Svetlana Ryazanova, who teaches in city school No. 325. "A wage can

range from 1,500 rubles to 3,000 rubles. It depends on the amount of hours a

teacher works. A teacher has to work 26 to 30 hours to have a wage of 3,000

rubles [about $100]."

Ryazanova said she welcomes the proposed 50 percent pay raise, but said

it's still not enough.

Olga Leontova, a schoolteacher from Moscow, said that as a result of the

low wages, she considers teaching a hobby, not a job. She said she could never

afford what she called a "pleasure" if her husband didn't earn enough money to

feed their two children.

Education Minister Filipov said the low wages have encouraged many

students to avoid the profession. He said only about 50 percent of university

students who study teaching actually go on to teach in schools.

The reform plan also calls for extending the length of primary and

secondary education from 11 years to 12 years, and for introducing a system of

standardized tests for entering universities.

Both proposals face strong opposition and are not likely to be implemented

soon, but if it were, few parents appear enthusiastic about their child spending

an additional year in school.

"[This new] system is too long. More subjects will be [introduced]...more

than children need at their age," said Galina Nazarova while shopping for a

school uniform for her son Dima.

According to Nazarova, an additional downside to an extra year would be

that Dima, as a male, would face the prospect of being conscripted into the

military immediately following the completion of his degree.

Russian children typically enter school at age seven, and the 12-year

system would mean that most would finish at 18. Young men at that age are

subject to the draft unless they have certain exemptions, such as being admitted

to a university.

In regard to the standardized entrance exams for universities, the plan's

authors believe such a move would reduce the incidences of students paying

bribes in exchange for admittance to universities.

Under the current system, Russian universities administer their own

entrance exams.

That system has encouraged the development of a "cottage" industry of so-

called tutors who provide lessons to help students gain admission. In reality,

those "lessons" are often bribes paid to members of the selection board.

Nastya is a second-year student at the Faculty of Economy. She said her

parents paid about $50 per hour to a faculty professor. In turn, the professor,

a member of the board of examiners, helped her pass the admission exam.

Nastya said at her school it is impossible to pass the exam without paying

money. She said her admission cost her parents about $2,500 in "lessons."

Dmitrii Sergeev, a father of two, is pessimistic that the proposed

standardized exams would change anything. "There will be [corruption], I'm

sure," he said. "If it disappears from the universities, it will [reappear] at

the schools [where the exams would be administered]."

Nikita Alekseev of the Russian Academy of Education concured. "In our

country, it is possible to falsify anything. So there will be a lot of good

students, with very good marks [but all this will be false]," Alekseev said.

"How can university teachers work with them? This is a problem. [This reform] is

not part of our tradition, since [in Russia] universities are used to selecting

the students."

On the contrary, Alexander Gavrilov, the spokesman with the Moscow

Education Committee, said his organization supports standardized testing,

arguing that "We think it might help eliminate [students] paying bribes to be

admitted to an institute or a university." However, Gavrilov added, "Moscow is

not taking part in the experiment, since we believe [that it still needs to be

worked out]."

Francesca Mereu is an RFE/RL correspondent.

14-09-01

Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
URL: http://www.rferl.org

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