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OMRI Daily Digest, Vol. 2, No. 166, 96-08-27
From: Open Media Research Institute <http://www.omri.cz>
Vol. 2, No. 166, 27 August 1996
CONTENTS
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] ARMENIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN GETS UNDERWAY.
[02] TWO IRANIANS SHOT DEAD IN YEREVAN.
[03] CONGRESS OF UZBEK PATRIOTIC SOCIETY.
[04] ATTACK REPORTED 100 KM FROM DUSHANBE.
[05] NAZARBAYEV AND KAZAKSTAN'S FUTURE.
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[06] BOSNIAN VOTE POSTPONED. The OSCE commissi
[07] BILDT DENIES ELECTION DAY DEAL WITH BOSNIAN SERBS.
[08] RUMP YUGOSLAV TRADE DELEGATION IN SARAJEVO.
[09] MONTENEGRIN PRESIDENT ON ZAGREB-BELGRADE ACCORD.
[10] ROMANIAN CABINET GIVES DETAILS OF POPULIST MEASURES.
[11] MOLDOVA MARKS FIVE YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE.
[12] BULGARIAN SUPREME COURT REHABILITATES WAR-TIME POLITICIANS.
[13] NEW LIBERAL FORMATION TO EMERGE IN BULGARIA?
[14] ALBANIAN SOCIALISTS WRAP UP CONGRESS.
[15] ALBANIA PRAYS FOR MOTHER TERESA.
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] ARMENIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN GETS UNDERWAY.
Campaigning for the 22 September Armenian presidential election got underway
on 23 August, Western agencies reported. While hitherto observers have
unanimously predicted that incumbent Levon Ter-Petrossyan will be reelected, a
recent poll of 1,000 residents of Yerevan revealed that 23.9% of respondents
intended to vote for former Prime Minister and chairman of the National
Democratic Union Vazgen Manukyan, 16.5% for Ter-Petrossyan and 8.2% for
Communist Party leader Sergei Badalyan, according to Noyan Tapan on 26 August.
Seven candidates are contesting the election. -- Liz Fuller
[02] TWO IRANIANS SHOT DEAD IN YEREVAN.
Armenian police are investigating the shooting deaths in Yerevan's central
Republic Square on 24 August of two Iranian businessmen, ITAR-TASS and Noyan
Tapan reported. The killer, a young man in combat fatigues, escaped by car.
Armenian-Iranian relations deteriorated last year after the murder of an
Iranian lorry driver in southern Armenia. -- Liz Fuller
[03] CONGRESS OF UZBEK PATRIOTIC SOCIETY.
The first congress of the Vatanparvar [patriot] organization was held in
Tashkent on 23 August, Uzbek Television (first channel) reported the same day.
According to the BBC-monitored report, the organization is the successor to
the Voluntary Society for Cooperation with the Army, Air Force and Navy
(DOSAAF). The organization's principal mission, to train youth for service in
the armed forces, remains unchanged. A report read at the congress noted the
organization lacked a clear understanding of its task now that Uzbekistan is
independent. -- Lowell Bezanis
[04] ATTACK REPORTED 100 KM FROM DUSHANBE.
A convoy of Tajik government soldiers was ambushed on the road leading to the
Tavil-Dara area on 24 August, ITAR-TASS reported. One soldier was killed and
four wounded when elements of the Tajik opposition opened fire on the convoy
near the town of Chorsada, 100 kilometers northeast of the capital Dushanbe.
The Russian newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda speculated in its 23 August issue that
the opposition is attempting to gain control over the mountainous regions of
Tajikistan and split the country. Meanwhile, on the diplomatic front, the
opposition's Radio Voice of Free Tajikistan dismissed an offer last week by
Tajik Foreign Minister Talbak Nazarov to include members of the opposition in
the government. "Such statements by the leaders of the regime are made on the
advice of Moscow," the radio said. -- Bruce Pannier
[05] NAZARBAYEV AND KAZAKSTAN'S FUTURE.
In an interview on Kazak TV on 21 August monitored by the BBC, President
Nursultan Nazarbayev said he would like to see more ethnic Kazaks return to
Kazakstan and called upon the government and the people to help "to return our
brothers living abroad." He said some 200,000 people had returned to Kazakstan
in the last 2 to 3 years. The issue of resettlement of Kazaks was being
discussed with Mongolia and Karakalpakistan and the Kazakstani president said
he had also broached the question with Chinese President Jiang Zemin during
the latter's visit to Almaty in July. -- Bruce Pannier
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[06] BOSNIAN VOTE POSTPONED. The OSCE commissi
on charged with monitoring the 14 September elections in Bosnia has announced
today that the municipal part of the ballot will be postponed, international
and local media reported. This move comes in response to evidence that
pressure and coercion have been used against Bosnian Serbs in the Republika
Srpska and especially in Serbia to register to vote in key towns that had
large Muslim populations before the war but are now mainly Serb. The UNHCR
pointed out that the Serbs are using registration to consolidate the ethnic
partition of the country, Oslobodjenje reported. The Muslim Party of
Democratic Action had threatened to boycott the ballot if the municipal
elections are not delayed. Top Bosnian Serb officials argue, however, that the
vote must go ahead on schedule, Nasa Borba added. It is unclear who will
supervise or provide security for a postponed ballot, which is not envisaged
in the Dayton agreement. -- Patrick Moore
[07] BILDT DENIES ELECTION DAY DEAL WITH BOSNIAN SERBS.
The international community's High Representative Carl Bildt has written the
acting president of the Republika Srpska, Biljana Plavsic, denying reports
from Pale about an alleged agreement between his office and the Serbs, Nasa
Borba reported on 27 August. According to the reports, Bildt had agreed to
Serb demands that would limit cross-border freedom of movement on election day
in violation of the Dayton agreement. Meanwhile, the OSCE has ruled that 1,470
out of 5,010 of the SDA's candidates are ineligible because their names do not
appear on the 1991 census rolls, Onasa noted on 26 August. Some 100 candidates
of the opposition's Joint List are also out of the running, including two of
its leaders, Zlatko Lagumdzija and Bogic Bogicevic. Finally, former Premier
and Party for Bosnia and Herzegovina leader Haris Silajdzic told the BBC that
the confusion surrounding the vote is a legacy of the communist past, which
will go away only with time. -- Patrick Moore
[08] RUMP YUGOSLAV TRADE DELEGATION IN SARAJEVO.
Federal Deputy Premier Nikola Sainovic headed a trade delegation that met with
Bosnian government officials on 26 August, Oslobodjenje reported. The
mission was the first of its kind since the Bosnian war broke out in 1992.
Returning a visit by a Bosnian trade group to the rump Yugoslavia (SRJ) on 23
July, the delegates met with Bosnian Premier Hasan Muratovic and President
Alija Izetbegovic, among others. Tanjug quoted Sainovic as saying that a
consensus on several economic issues had been reached and that the Yugoslav
national airline, JAT, may begin services to Sarajevo by next week. Muratovic
commented that it had been agreed that experts would meet "to define a [joint]
payments system and to define border crossings and procedures," Reuters
reported. AFP observed that no progress was made toward reaching an agreement
on establishing diplomatic relations. -- Stan Markotich
[09] MONTENEGRIN PRESIDENT ON ZAGREB-BELGRADE ACCORD.
Momir Bulatovic, in a 25 August interview with TV Montenegro, hailed the
signing of the accord normalizing relations between Zagreb and Belgrade (see
). But he stressed the agreement was a breakthrough because Croatia had agreed
for the first time to define the strategic Prevlaka peninsula as "a disputed
issue." He went on to note that "we are reaching the stage where we can argue,
using historical and other factors, that Prevlaka belongs to its hinterland."
He added that for now Prevlaka belongs "to neither Montenegro nor Croatia, as
it continues to be monitored by UN observers." Meanwhile, Nasa Borba on 27
August suggested that TV Montenegro news reports have "falsified" accounts of
the agreement by claiming it paved the way for territorial claims against
Prevlaka. -- Stan Markotich
[10] ROMANIAN CABINET GIVES DETAILS OF POPULIST MEASURES.
A senior Romanian official on 27 August elaborated on the government's plans
to freeze prices for basic consumer goods until 1 January 1997. Gheorghe Oana,
secretary of state at the Finance Ministry, told Jurnalul national that the
government is trying to keep down prices on various goods and services,
including energy, fuel, food products, public transportation, and rents. A
government decree issued on 23 August also guarantees savings of up to 10
million lei ($3,166) in the event of a bank's collapse. The package is clearly
designed to polish the image of the ruling Party of Social Democracy in
Romania ahead of the November parliamentary and presidential elections. The
party fared poorly in local elections in June and saw its popularity sink
further following massive price hikes for energy, fuel, and bread in July. --
Dan Ionescu
[11] MOLDOVA MARKS FIVE YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE.
On the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Republic of Moldova's declaration
of independence, President Mircea Snegur told a gathering on 26 August that
the country has won broad international recognition, local media reported. But
he criticized the slow pace of economic reform, which, he said, has led to "an
abrupt fall in living standards and an increase in unemployment." Also on 26
August, Snegur replied to a group of deputies from the ruling Agrarian
Democratic Party who had attacked him for having decorated signatories to the
1991 independence declaration. Among those who had signed were members of the
Popular Front, an organization that later opted for an overt pro-Romanian
policy. Snegur described the attacks as "a gross political provocation" and
"an irresponsible appeal for a further split in society." -- Dan Ionescu
[12] BULGARIAN SUPREME COURT REHABILITATES WAR-TIME POLITICIANS.
The Supreme Court on 26 August lifted sentences that the so-called People's
Court had handed down against leading politicians in war-time Bulgaria,
Standart reported. It rehabilitated the three regents for the infant Tsar
Simeon, three prime ministers, 10 advisers to Tsar Boris III, and 35
ministers. They were the most prominent of the more than 100 defendants in the
first and biggest communist show trial to take place in Bulgaria in 1944-1945
for bringing about Bulgaria's involvement in World War II on the side of
Germany. Of the 51 rehabilitated, 33 were sentenced to death, while the
remainder received prison terms. From 1946 to 1948, the People's Court carried
out 135 trials against 11,122 defendants, of whom 2,730 received death
sentences and in addition an unknown number perished without trial. Prosecutor-
General Ivan Tatarchev asked for the sentences to be declared null and void.
The Socialist daily Duma ran a front-page headline claiming that "The
Supreme Court Rehabilitates Fascism." -- Stefan Krause
[13] NEW LIBERAL FORMATION TO EMERGE IN BULGARIA?
Chief Mufti Nedim Gendzhev has said incumbent President Zhelyu Zhelev and
former interim Prime Minister Reneta Indzhova will register as presidential
and vice presidential candidates in September, Duma reported on 27 August.
Trud, however, noted that Zhelev will abide by an opposition agreement
whereby he will not run following his defeat in the primaries to Petar
Stoyanov of the Union of Democratic Forces (SDS). The same newspaper noted
that Indzhova will be the presidential candidate of a Liberal Bloc that will
soon be founded and in which Zhelev will play a prominent role. Anastasiya
Dimitrova-Mozer, who was recently sacked as leader of the Bulgarian Agrarian
People's Union (see ), is also expected to participate in that new group.
According to Kontinent, New Choice, the Radical-Democratic Party extraneous
to the SDS, and New Democracy will be the main parties constituting the
Liberal Bloc. -- Stefan Krause
[14] ALBANIAN SOCIALISTS WRAP UP CONGRESS.
The Albanian Socialist Party's annual congress ended on 26 August in Tirana,
international agencies reported. No successor was named for deputy leader
Servet Pellumbi, who resigned the previous day in protest at party leader
Fatos Nano's reform proposals (see ). It is unclear who will be elected to
succeed Pellumbi, although Luan Hajdaraga, Namik Dokle, and Ilir Meta --
former party deputies -- are the most likely candidates. All three were among
those elected to a 101-member steering council, which, in turn, will elect a
secretary-general and two secretaries in the next few days. Several former
ministers who served in the Nano government formed in May 1991 are also on the
council. -- Fabian Schmidt
[15] ALBANIA PRAYS FOR MOTHER TERESA.
Albanian President Sali Berisha has said his country is praying for Nobel
Peace Prize laureate Mother Teresa, Reuters reported on 26 August. The world
famous missionary, who was born Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu to Albanian parents in
Skopje, marks her 86th birthday on 27 August. Berisha said in a telegram that
Albanians "unite in prayer and hope for your quick recovery and full health so
you may continue your humane and divine mission." Mother Teresa was
hospitalized on 20 August and diagnosed with malaria, a chest infection, and
an irregular heart beat. Her Missionaries of Charity opened a branch in Tirana
following the end of communism. -- Fabian Schmidt
Compiled by Steve Kettle 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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