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OMRI Daily Digest, Vol. 2, No. 144, 96-07-26
From: Open Media Research Institute <http://www.omri.cz>
Vol. 2, No. 144, 26 July 1996
CONTENTS
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] 6,000 PRISONERS AMNESTIED IN KAZAKHSTAN.
[02] TAJIK OPPOSITION ASSAULTS KOMSOMOLABAD . . .
[03] . . . AND FIGHTING REPORTED NEAR DUSHANBE.
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[04] BOSNIAN PRIME MINISTER PLEDGES END TO HARASSMENT OF SERBS.
[05] IRANIAN DELEGATION IN SARAJEVO.
[06] DEADLINE FOR BOSNIAN REFUGEE VOTERS EXTENDED.
[07] EU DELEGATION IN ZAGREB TO PRESSURE CROATS.
[08] MOSQUE SET ABLAZE IN CROAT-CONTROLLED TOWN.
[09] BREAKTHROUGH IN RUMP YUGOSLAV-BOSNIAN RELATIONS?
[10] ROMANIA UNHAPPY WITH HUNGARIAN RESPONSE.
[11] ROMANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ENDS U.S. VISIT.
[12] MOLDOVAN PREMIER MEETS WITH KUCHMA.
[13] PIRINSKI SAYS HE WON'T RESIGN.
[14] BULGARIA FINALLY ADOPTS COAT OF ARMS.
[15] VAN DEN BROEK IN ALBANIA.
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] 6,000 PRISONERS AMNESTIED IN KAZAKHSTAN.
According to a presidential decree signed by Nursultan Nazarbayev on 25 July,
6,000 prisoners will be freed and others will have their sentences reduced,
Reuters reported. The decree, which takes effect on the first anniversary of
the current Kazakh Constitution, is also designed to help reduce overcrowding
in the country's prisons. Interior Minister Kairbek Suleimenov noted that
Kazakhstan's crime rate dropped by 6.7% during the first six months of 1996
compared to the same period last year, adding that this stability makes such
an amnesty possible. Previous reports by international organizations, such as
Amnesty International, have been critical of Kazakhstan's overcrowded and
disease-infested prisons this past year. -- Roger Kangas
[02] TAJIK OPPOSITION ASSAULTS KOMSOMOLABAD . . .
Units of the Tajik opposition attacked the city of Komsomolabad, ITAR-TASS
reported on 25 July. Under cover of darkness, opposition fighters assaulted
the city, killing two government soldiers before being repelled. Battles are
being fought in several areas of the Tavil-Dara region, south of Komsomolabad
and this latest attack may have been a diversionary tactic. -- Bruce
Pannier
[03] . . . AND FIGHTING REPORTED NEAR DUSHANBE.
Fighting was reported in villages as close as 10 kilometers east of the Tajik
capital Dushanbe, according to an ITAR-TASS report on 25 July. The report did
not specify which villages but mentioned that armed groups under the
leadership of "chieftains" Mansur and Rakhmon were in control of the villages.
Tajik government forces are said to have dislodged the groups from their
positions, killing nine. Further east, opposition forces are claiming to have
taken the stretch of the Dushanbe-Khorog highway between the towns of Faizabad
and Obigarm, according to the Radio Voice of Free Tajikistan as cited by the
BBC. Faizabad is about 55 kilometers east of Dushanbe. -- Bruce Pannier
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[04] BOSNIAN PRIME MINISTER PLEDGES END TO HARASSMENT OF SERBS.
Hasan Muratovic told UN special envoy Iqbal Rizah and the head of the UN
police force in Bosnia, Peter Fitzgerald, that he will personally attend to
the security situation of the 8,000 Serbs still left in the Sarajevo suburbs.
UN International Police Task Force (IPTF) spokesman Alexander Ivanko noted
that some of the Serbs, who withstood intimidation by their own people last
winter, now feel so harassed by Muslim thugs that they want to leave, Nasa
Borba and Onasa reported on 26 July. Ivanko added that because of Muratovic's
pledge, IPTF, IFOR and federal police have started patrols in the suburbs of
Osjek and Ilidza. Meanwhile in Banja Luka, the international ombudsman's
office opened its first branch on Serb-held territory to investigate human
rights abuses, Onasa reported on 25 July. -- Patrick Moore
[05] IRANIAN DELEGATION IN SARAJEVO.
Vice President Hasan Habibi arrived in Bosnia with a high-level delegation,
Oslobodjenje reported on 26 July. He was met by Muratovic and will also have
talks with President Alija Izetbegovic. Cultural and economic issues will top
the agenda, especially Iranian assistance for post-war reconstruction. Tehran
has already pledged $50 million in aid, and an economic agreement is expected
to be signed following the first meeting of the new bilateral commission. Iran
provided the mainly Muslim government army with weapons during the war and
there is a hard-line faction in the governing Party of Democratic Action that
is sympathetic to Tehran. But the vast majority of Bosnian Muslims are a
secular, European people who want no part of Islamic fundamentalism. --
Patrick Moore
[06] DEADLINE FOR BOSNIAN REFUGEE VOTERS EXTENDED.
The OSCE's Bosnian office announced on 25 July an extension of the deadline
for voter registration of Bosnian refugees abroad from 31 July to 5 August,
Reuters reported on 26 July. Bosnian state television said the foreign
ministry had asked the OSCE for an extension after finding that only 7% of
eligible refugee voters has signed up as of 22 July. Around 1.4 million
Bosnian refugees are dispersed in more than 35 countries, making it difficult
for them to find out about the procedure for registration. -- Daria Sito
Sucic
[07] EU DELEGATION IN ZAGREB TO PRESSURE CROATS.
An EU delegation left for Zagreb on 25 July to hold talks with Croatian
President Franjo Tudjman on the Mostar crisis, AFP reported. The EU apparently
hopes that Tudjman will pressure the Mostar Croats to participate in the new
city council they have boycotted, citing election irregularities. Bosnian
Federation Vice President Ejup Ganic, meanwhile, called an EU threat to
withdraw its mission by 4 August unless the Croats play by the rules a "bad
sign," Onasa reported. The Croatian Democratic Community said it would refuse
to prolong the EU mandate unless the dispute over the ballot has been cleared.
-- Fabian Schmidt
[08] MOSQUE SET ABLAZE IN CROAT-CONTROLLED TOWN.
A mosque was set on fire on 25 July in the town of Prozor in central Bosnia,
the Sarajevo daily Oslobodjenje reported the next day. Unidentified
assailants broke into the mosque, dumped gasoline and set it ablaze. The
mosque's inside was reportedly destroyed. The town had a 37% Muslim population
before the war, Oslobodjenje reported. In other news, a Bosnian railroad
official announced that the railroad from Sarajevo to Mostar, along with the
destroyed Mostar train station, will reopen next week for the first time since
the war, international agencies reported on 26 July. -- Daria Sito
Sucic
[09] BREAKTHROUGH IN RUMP YUGOSLAV-BOSNIAN RELATIONS?
Rump Yugoslav media continue coverage of reactions to the two-day visit to
Belgrade by a fifteen-member Bosnian delegation, headed by Bosnian Vice
President Ejup Ganic (see OMRI Daily Digest, and ). Nasa Borba on 26 June
reported remarks by Kasim Trnka, delegate member and Bosnia- Herzegovina's
ambassador in Zagreb. According to Trnka, the landmark Belgrade visit failed
to generate any substantial political breakthroughs, and any "establishing of
bilateral diplomatic relations between Bosnia and Herzegovina and [rump]
Yugoslavia will have to wait." According to Trnka, Belgrade's insistence that
Bosnia drop its "charges of genocide," and rump Yugoslavia's insistence on
recognition as the successor state of Tito's Yugoslavia continue to block
diplomatic progress. -- Stan Markotich
[10] ROMANIA UNHAPPY WITH HUNGARIAN RESPONSE.
Deputy Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu said on 24 July that Romania was
dissatisfied with the Hungarian reply to its demand for clarifications
concerning the statement released 5 July in Budapest on the Hungarian
government's support for autonomy of ethnic Hungarian abroad, an RFE/RL
correspondent in Bucharest reported. Comanescu said the statement created
tensions, as did the announcement that Budapest is going to allot a fixed
percentage of its budget to assist Hungarians living in neighboring countries.
-- Michael Shafir
[11] ROMANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ENDS U.S. VISIT.
Teodor Melescanu returned to Bucharest on 25 July from a 10-day lobbying trip
to the United States, Radio Bucharest and Reuters reported. Melescanu, who met
with U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, U.S. legislators, and other
senior officials, said he was confident about Romania's prospect of being
among the first former communist countries to be admitted into NATO as a full
member. He reaffirmed Romania's opposition to a gradual expansion of the
alliance that he said would create a new divide in Europe. -- Dan
Ionescu
[12] MOLDOVAN PREMIER MEETS WITH KUCHMA.
Andrei Sangheli met with Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma on 24 July in Foros,
a resort in Crimea, BASA-press reported the following day. The two discussed
economic cooperation, including cooperation in the energy sector; the
implementation of the bilateral free-trade agreement; the mutual recognition
of property rights; and the transit of Moldovan goods through Ukrainian
territory. The sides reportedly agreed upon the volume and the conditions of
deliveries of Ukrainian coal, but no precise data were released on the amount
of coal the Moldova plans to import this fall or next spring. According to
official statistics, Moldova imported some 2 million tons of Ukrainian coal in
1995. -- Dan Ionescu
[13] PIRINSKI SAYS HE WON'T RESIGN.
The Bulgarian Socialist Party's presidential candidate, Foreign Minister
Georgi Pirinski, said on 25 July that he will not withdraw his candidacy
despite a Constitutional Court ruling that effectively bars him from the
presidency (see ), Duma reported. He accused the court of taking political
decisions and of exceeding its mandate. Pirinski said "The situation in the
country is complicated and tense enough and the Constitutional Court decision
... adds more tension between state institutions and society." -- Stefan
Krause
[14] BULGARIA FINALLY ADOPTS COAT OF ARMS.
The parliament on 25 July adopted a new coat of arms, 24 chasa and
Standart reported. Some 110 deputies voted for the Socialist proposal, 11
voted against, and seven abstained. The total number of deputies is 240. The
coat of arms depicts a golden lion rampant in a dark red shield. The
opposition walked out before the vote to protest the fact that the lion is not
crowned. The opposition had demanded that the pre-1946 coat of arms of the
monarchy -- which depicts three crowned lions -- be restored and that a
referendum be held if consensus is not reached among the deputies. They argue
the crown is a sign of state sovereignty, while most Socialists say it
symbolizes the monarchy and is inappropriate for a republic. -- Stefan
Krause
[15] VAN DEN BROEK IN ALBANIA.
EU commissioner for External Affairs Hans van den Broek arrived in Tirana on
25 July to discuss with President Sali Berisha the current political and
economic situation in Albania and its relations with the EU, AFP reported. He
will also hold talks with Prime Minister Alexander Meksi and Foreign Minister
Tritan Shehu. Van den Broek declined to comment on the content of the talks.
He was also scheduled to meet Albania's opposition parties and ambassadors
from the EU's 15 member states. Van den Broek will later fly to Macedonia for
meetings with President Kiro Gligorov and Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski. --
Fabian Schmidt
Compiled by Victor Gomez and Pete Baumgartner
News and information as of 1200 CET
This material was reprinted with permission of the Open Media
Research Institute, a nonprofit organization with research offices in
Prague, Czech Republic.
For more information on OMRI publications please write to info@omri.cz.
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