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OMRI Daily Digest, Vol. 2, No. 148, 96-08-01
From: Open Media Research Institute <http://www.omri.cz>
Vol. 2, No. 148, 1 August 1996
CONTENTS
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] GEORGIAN OPPOSITION DOWN BUT NOT [YET] OUT.
[02] KARABAKH DIPLOMACY.
[03] AZERBAIJAN, IRAN SIGN SECURITY AGREEMENTS.
[04] UZBEK GANG LEADERS SENTENCED TO DEATH.
[05] UN OBSERVERS STILL HAVEN'T REACHED TAVIL-DARA.
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[06]
KORNBLUM MEETS WITH BOSNIAN SERBS.
[07] WORLD BANK APPROVES $75.6 MILLION FOR BOSNIA'S RECONSTRUCTION.
[08] WILL SEPARATIST BOSNIAN CROATS GIVE UP THEIR STATE?
[09] SERBIAN PREMIER IN KOSOVO.
[10] MACEDONIA, BRITAIN SIGN DEFENSE AGREEMENT.
[11] SLOVENIAN NAVY ACQUIRES VESSEL.
[13] ROMANIAN ROUNDUP.
[14] MOLDOVAN PARLIAMENT CHAIRMAN MEETS COMMUNISTS.
[15] BULGARIAN UPDATE.
[16] U.S. EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER ALBANIA'S "AUTHORITARIAN TENDENCIES."
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] GEORGIAN OPPOSITION DOWN BUT NOT [YET] OUT.
Leading figures from the 14 Georgian political parties not represented in the
new parliament, who joined forces to create a Coordinating Council, met in
Tbilisi on 31 July to discuss Georgia's future territorial-administrative
system, the Abkhaz conflict, and the Russian military presence in Georgia, NTV
reported. The opposition parties in question take a markedly harder line on
all these issues than does the Georgian leadership. On 30 July, the deputy
chairman of the Round Table/Free Georgia coalition (originally headed by now
deceased ex-president Zviad Gamsakhurdia) told BGI that the Georgian
authorities were trying to prevent the coalition from participating in the
September parliamentary elections in Adzharia, in what he claims is an ongoing
campaign of reprisals against Gamsakhurdia's supporters. -- Liz Fuller
[02] KARABAKH DIPLOMACY.
Outgoing Russian co-chairman of the OSCE "Minsk Group" Vladimir Kazimirov
arrived in Stepanakert on 31 July to introduce his successor, former Russian
Ambassador to Zimbabwe Yurii Yukalov, to the leadership of the self-proclaimed
Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, Noyan Tapan reported. Kazimirov, whose departure
from the Karabakh negotiating process was announced after the last round of
talks in Helsinki in early July, characterized the prospects for a settlement
of the Karabakh conflict as "favorable," despite the fact that the Azerbaijani
side displayed such intransigence at last month's round that no date has been
set for a resumption of talks. Kazimirov and Yukalov travel to Yerevan on 1
August and are scheduled to meet with Azerbaijani President Heidar Aliev in
Baku on 2 August, according to Noyan Tapan quoting the Azeri wire service ANS-
Press. -- Liz Fuller
[03] AZERBAIJAN, IRAN SIGN SECURITY AGREEMENTS.
Azerbaijan's Interior Minister Ramil Usubov and his Iranian counterpart, Ali
Mohammed Besharati, signed two cooperation agreements in Tehran on 30 July,
the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran first network (monitored by the BBC)
reported the same day. The first agreement covers the creation of a border
commission and the relaxation of customs and border regulations, and would
seem to undercut the second, which is on increasing cooperation to combat drug
abuse. -- Liz Fuller
[04] UZBEK GANG LEADERS SENTENCED TO DEATH.
An Uzbek court sentenced five members of a criminal gang to death after they
were found guilty of murdering 25 local farmers, ITAR-TASS reported on 31
July. Based in a village outside of Tashkent, the gang met with individual
farmers on the pretext of buying their produce and then killed them, taking
the food. The victims' bodies were dumped in the Keles River late last year
(see ). Other gang members were given prison terms. -- Roger Kangas
[05] UN OBSERVERS STILL HAVEN'T REACHED TAVIL-DARA.
Despite several attempts at fixing the positions of combatants in the Tavil-
Dara region, UN observer teams had not entered the area as of 30 July,
according to the opposition's Radio Voice of Free Tajikistan as monitored by
FBIS. The UN teams were to determine the locations of the warring factions at
the time the ceasefire came into effect on 20 July. The opposition radio
report claimed that two UN teams had been turned back at Garm and Khovaling.
Another team was stopped by the Tajik army, which, according to the radio
broadcast, "turned them back with the threats, violence and kind of treatment
so characteristic of them." The report claimed this was the last attempt by UN
teams to implement their part of the Ashgabat agreement which should have
taken place on 23 July. -- Bruce Pannier
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[06]
KORNBLUM MEETS WITH BOSNIAN SERBS.
U.S. assistant Secretary of State for Canadian and European affairs John
Kornblum on 31 July met with top Bosnian Serbs to remind them that indicted
war criminal Radovan Karadzic must stay out of politics, AFP reported. A U.S.
official said the talks focused on the need for the Bosnian Serb leadership to
respect an agreement with U.S. envoy for Bosnia Richard Holbrooke on
Karadzic's withdrawal from all political activities. However, Karadzic's
photographs still appear in the Republika Srpska media, and he is reported to
have attended closed meetings of the ruling Serbian Democratic Party. Last
week Holbrooke announced that Kornblum would attempt to force Karadzic to
leave his base in Pale, but press reports did not specify whether the issue
was raised at the 31 July meeting. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[07] WORLD BANK APPROVES $75.6 MILLION FOR BOSNIA'S RECONSTRUCTION.
The World Bank has agreed to grant Bosnia-Herzegovina $75.6 million in credits
to finance five reconstruction programs, AFP reported on 31 July. The projects
involve de-mining, housing reconstruction, electricity production, employment,
and the demobilization and reintegration of 425,000 Bosnian army soldiers. The
loans are interest-free and will mature in 35 years. In other news, Biljana
Plavsic, acting president of the Republika Srpska, on 30 July began her
campaign for the September general elections by touring Serb-held towns in
northwestern Bosnia, Onasa reported. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[08] WILL SEPARATIST BOSNIAN CROATS GIVE UP THEIR STATE?
Separatist Bosnian Croats have agreed to transform their mini-state, Herceg-
Bosna, into a "political community," Croatian radio reported, citing a
comminque adopted by the Bosnian Croat leadership. But Croatian leaders in
both Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia were unavailable to clear up ambiguities
in the comminque, AFP reported on 31 July. Bosnian Vice President Ejup Ganic,
speaking in Zagreb on 31 July, remarked that Zagreb's position on Herceg-Bosna
remains unclear, adding that Croatian President Franjo Tudjman has "not
promised to agree to the dissolution of Herceg-Bosna, but we will see [what
happens] in the next five to six days." Meanwhile, Tudjman is scheduled to
arrive in the U.S. on 1 August for what local media describe as " a working
visit" and meetings with President Bill Clinton. -- Stan Markotich
[09] SERBIAN PREMIER IN KOSOVO.
Mirko Marjanovic, addressing ethnic Serbian "business leaders and political
officials" in the predominantly ethnic Albanian province of Kosovo on 30 July,
described Kosovo as an "integral and inalienable" part of Serbia. Marjanovic
said his government's priority was to advocate policies promoting "peace, the
rule of law, economic prosperity and the fight against crime,...[and] equality
for all citizens." The premier also said that the leadership of the Kosovar
shadow state "has put [ethnic Albanians] in a very difficult situation by
implementing polices of self-imposed isolation," Tanjug reported. -- Stan
Markotich
[10] MACEDONIA, BRITAIN SIGN DEFENSE AGREEMENT.
Visiting British Defense Secretary Michael Portillo and Macedonian Defense
Minister Blagoj Handziski on 31 July signed a defense cooperation agreement,
AFP reported. Portillo said Britain will help Macedonia remain independent and
sovereign. An official Macedonian statement said the agreement "aims at
integration of Macedonia into Europe's collective defense and security
system." -- Stefan Krause
[11] SLOVENIAN NAVY ACQUIRES VESSEL.
A 29-meter military patrol boat, equipped with two 20-millimeter canons,
arrived in the port of Koper on 31 July, STA reported that same day. The
vessel--the independent Slovenian Navy's first-ever ship[12] --
was purchased from an Israeli firm in 1993 but could not be delivered until
recently owing to the internationally imposed arms embargo on all republics of
the former Yugoslavia. -- Stan Markotich
[13] ROMANIAN ROUNDUP.
Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu described his one-day official visit to
France on 31 July as part of a lobbying drive for Romanian membership in
European and Euro-Atlantic structures, Radio Bucharest reported. Melescanu was
received by French Premier Alain Juppe, and his French counterpart, Herve de
Charette, with whom he agreed to set up a working group on bilateral economic
cooperation. Meanwhile, an accord on the use of Western European Union (WEU)
documents enters into force on 1 August, Radio Bucharest reported. The new
accord allows Romania to use confidential information from the WEU, the
military arm of the EU. -- Dan Ionescu
[14] MOLDOVAN PARLIAMENT CHAIRMAN MEETS COMMUNISTS.
Petru Lucinschi on 31 July met with the leadership of the Communist Party of
Moldova (PCM), BASA-press reported. PCM Chairman Vladimir Voronin said after
the meeting that Lucinschi was clearly seeking the Communists' support in the
run-up to the presidential elections, though he did not say as much. Voronin
added that Lucinschi, who was a Central Committee Secretary of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union in its final days, should first clarify his own
"contribution to the collapse of the party and, implicitly, of the Soviet
Union" before counting on the PCM's support. -- Dan Ionescu
[15] BULGARIAN UPDATE.
The Bulgarian Socialist Party and its two tiny coalition partners--the
Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union "Aleksandar Stamboliyski" and the Political
Club "Ekoglasnost"--have signed an agreement endorsing Foreign Minister Georgi
Pirinski and Culture Minister Ivan Marazov as their joint presidential and
vice presidential candidates, Duma reported on 1 August. In other news, Social
Minister Mincho Koralski has announced that the minimum wage will rise from 4,
000 leva ($21.40) to 5,500 leva on 1 October, 24 chasa reported. The minimum
pension will be increase from 2160 to 2760 leva and the maximum pension from
6480 to 8250 leva. Subsidies for the socially needy will also be raised.
Meanwhile, prices for electricity, fuel, and heating went up by 22-23% on 1
August (just one month after the last hike), while average bread prices
increased by 51.8% over the past two weeks. -- Stefan Krause
[16] U.S. EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER ALBANIA'S "AUTHORITARIAN TENDENCIES."
U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher on 31 July expressed disappointment
with developments in Albania, RFE/RL reported. Christopher told the U.S. House
of Representatives' International Affairs Committee that Albania is not
moving toward democracy as vigorously as it should. He added that he is
"profoundly disturbed" by recent authoritarian tendencies there. Congressman
Tom Lantos questioned whether the U.S. should continue to provide Albania with
economic assistance, saying Albania should be pressed to establish an
independent judiciary, a free press, and equal rights for the Greek minority.
Meanwhile, the Albanian parliament has invited the Council of Europe, the
European Parliament, and the OSCE to send observers to monitor the 20 October
local elections, AFP reported. It also ratified the European Convention for
the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the European
Convention on the Ban of Tortures. -- Stefan Krause
Compiled by Victor Gomez and Jan Cleave
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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