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OMRI Daily Digest, Vol. 2, No. 123, 96-06-25
From: Open Media Research Institute <http://www.omri.cz>
Vol. 2, No. 123, 25 June 1996
CONTENTS
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] GEORGIAN DEMONSTRATORS PROTEST HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS.
[02] UNEMPLOYMENT IN KAZAKHSTAN.
[03] NIYAZOV: CORRUPTION WIDESPREAD IN MILITARY.
[04] UZBEKISTAN STRIKES DEALS WITH U.S. COMPANIES.
[05] CRANS-MONTANA CONFERENCE FRUITFUL FOR KAZAKHSTAN, KYRGYZSTAN.
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[06] BIGGEST MASS GRAVE TO DATE UNCOVERED NEAR SARAJEVO ...
[07] ... WHILE EXHUMATION SET TO BEGIN IN SREBRENICA AREA.
[08] BIGGEST WAVE OF EVICTIONS IN BANJA LUKA SINCE DAYTON.
[09] KARADZIC 'AHEAD OF THEM ALL?'
[10] BILDT MEETS SERBIAN PRESIDENT.
[11] SLOVENIA, CROATIA MARK FIVE YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE.
[12] MACEDONIAN PRESIDENT IN STRASBOURG.
[13] MACEDONIAN RULING PARTY WANTS STATE MEDIA HEAD DISMISSED.
[14] TENSION OVER MOLDOVAN DEFENSE MINISTER POST ESCALATES.
[15] UPDATE ON BULGARIAN GRAIN SHORTAGE.
[16] SCANDAL OVER BULGARIAN AMBASSADOR TO TIRANA.
[17] OSCE SUPPORTS NEW ELECTIONS IN ALBANIA.
[18] SENIOR LEADER OF BALLI KOMBETAR RESIGNS OVER ELECTION FRAUD.
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] GEORGIAN DEMONSTRATORS PROTEST HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS.
Georgian human rights activists staged a demonstration outside the EU mission
in Tbilisi on 24 June to protest human rights violations by the Georgian
government, specifically the death sentence passed last week on Badri Zarandia,
who in 1992-1993 was military commander of the pro-Gamsakhurdia stronghold of
Zugdid in western Georgia, Radio Rossii reported. Zarandia has been subjected
to torture while in detention and subsequently had one leg amputated. --
Liz Fuller
[02] UNEMPLOYMENT IN KAZAKHSTAN.
A survey by Almaty's independent Giller Institute has disputed the claim of
the Employment Section in Kazakhstan's Ministry of Labor that unemployment in
the country is 3.6%, ITAR-TASS reported on 22 June. The Giller Institute
survey, conducted in eight major oblasts, shows that 28.8% of the 1,513
respondents admitted to having no fixed jobs in the course of several months.
Sociologist Leonid Guryevich, the director of the Giller Institute, told ITAR-
TASS that the unemployed in Kazakhstan number about 1 million, and not 236,000
as claimed by the Ministry of Labor. The survey noted that about 29% among the
unemployed survive by selling crops grown in dachas, over 27% are engaged in
re-selling foodstuffs and other goods, another 27% have irregular income and
the remaining 13% survive with help from relatives and friends. -- Bhavna
Dave
[03] NIYAZOV: CORRUPTION WIDESPREAD IN MILITARY.
Turkmenistan's President Saparmurad Niyazov criticized "widespread" corruption
among the republic's military and law enforcement officials, ITAR-TASS
reported on 21 June. According to the report, monitored by the BBC, Niyazov
signed a decree which would strip negligent and corrupt personnel of their
positions. When speaking to an enlarged session of the Defense and National
Security Council one day earlier, he cited links between officials and the
criminal world and demanded urgent measures to strengthen discipline. --
Lowell Bezanis
[04] UZBEKISTAN STRIKES DEALS WITH U.S. COMPANIES.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov on 24 June attended a ceremony hosted by the
Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and witnessed the signing of a
protocol which will give his country $400 million, ITAR-TASS reported. The
state-owned oil and gas company Uzbekneftegas signed agreements with Texaco to
manufacture and sell lubricants in Central Asia, and also established a joint
venture with the American Enron company to develop natural gas deposits. --
Bruce Pannier
[05] CRANS-MONTANA CONFERENCE FRUITFUL FOR KAZAKHSTAN, KYRGYZSTAN.
The presidents of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev and Askar
Akayev, attended the international conference at Crans-Montana, Switzerland,
and received the 1996 prize of the Crans-Montana foundation, RFE/RL reported
on 24 June. The conference is an opportunity to court investment from
companies around the world and the Central Asian presidents, along with their
advisors, received positive signs from companies mainly dealing in oil and
mineral wealth. Private meetings were held with potential investors from
Singapore, Japan, and Iran as well as Europe. -- Bruce Pannier
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[06] BIGGEST MASS GRAVE TO DATE UNCOVERED NEAR SARAJEVO ...
Bosnian forensic and judicial experts and a U.S. forensic anthropologist from
the Hague-based war crimes tribunal have uncovered the bodies of 47 Muslim men
in the hamlet of Ravne. The men came from the village of Ahatovici and were
killed by Serbs on 14 June 1992, AFP reported on 24 June. The story came to
light because eight Muslims escaped from the bus in which they and the victims
were held as the Serbs raked it with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms
fire, Reuters added. The Serbs left the bodies in the bus, but Muslims from
Ravne buried the victims a few days later. -- Patrick Moore
[07] ... WHILE EXHUMATION SET TO BEGIN IN SREBRENICA AREA.
The UN Office for Human Rights in Sarajevo agreed that a Finnish expert team
will begin on 25 June to exhume the remains of bodies in the area of
Srebrenica, Oslobodjenje reported on 24 June. The Finns will work in the
region of Kravice, where several thousand men are believed to have been killed
when the former enclave was overrun by Serbs in July 1995. The team will also
examine and attempt to identify the remains so that they may be given proper
burials by their kin or by the Bosnian-Herzegovinian government, UN spokesman
Alexander Ivanko said. The team will act within the mandate of UN Special
Reporter on Human Rights, Elizabeth Rehn and UN expert on missing persons
Manfred Novak, AFP reported. The project, sponsored by the Finnish and Dutch
governments, is to be completed in four weeks. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[08] BIGGEST WAVE OF EVICTIONS IN BANJA LUKA SINCE DAYTON.
Kris Janowski, UNHCR spokesman in Sarajevo, said at least 30 Muslims were
evicted from their homes in Serb-controlled Banja Luka over the weekend of 22-
23 June in the biggest wave of "ethnic cleansing" since the Dayton peace
accord was signed, Oslobodjenje reported on 25 June. Janowski said the UNHCR
has no evidence that the Serb police are behind the evictions "but they
obviously cannot control it." Meanwhile, the head of the NATO-led
Implementation Force in Bosnia, U.S. Admiral Leighton Smith, warned Serb
Parliament Speaker Momcilo Krajisnik at a meeting in Pale that he was not
satisfied with the Serbs' treatment of Bosnian Muslims, AFP reported on 24
June. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[09] KARADZIC 'AHEAD OF THEM ALL?'
According to recent polling data garnered from ten towns in the Republika
Srpska by Ekstra Magazin, Radovan Karadzic's Serbian Democratic Party
remains "ahead of them all" in voter preference, Nasa Borba reported on 25
June. A plurality of 40.5% of decided voters would reportedly cast their
ballots for the SDS in upcoming elections, while only 17.5% would back the
Milosevic-sponsored Socialists. In third place, gaining the support of 11% of
those polled, is the Serbian Radical Party of accused war criminal Vojislav
Seselj. Some 30.5% of those polled, presumably the plurality, dubbed Karadzic
"the personage of confidence," while only 14% said they had confidence in
Milosevic. -- Stan Markotich
[10] BILDT MEETS SERBIAN PRESIDENT.
The international community's High Representative Carl Bildt met on 24 June
with Slobodan Milosevic in what local Belgrade media described as "unscheduled
talks." Reuters, citing Beta, noted that the discussions dovetailed with other
talks between Milosevic, senior rump Yugoslav, and Bosnian Serb officials,
including Bosnian Serb vice-presidents Biljana Plavsic and Nikola Koljevic.
According to Reuters, the talks took place amid "weekend reports that the
forced removal of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was imminent." Bildt
emerged from the meetings observing that Karadzic's unwillingness to declare
his refusal to run in upcoming Bosnian elections is "dangerous for the future
of Republika Srpska." -- Stan Markotich
[11] SLOVENIA, CROATIA MARK FIVE YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE.
On 25 June 1991 legislatures in Ljubljana and Zagreb voted for independence
from Yugoslavia, regional and international media recall. The dissolution of
Josip Broz Tito's state began in 1987 with the rise to power in Serbia of
Slobodan Milosevic on a platform of militant nationalism. After he
subsequently failed to take control of the Yugoslav federation, he hamstrung
its normal operations and blocked all attempts at constitutional reform. First
Slovenia and Croatia, and then Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, were left
with no choice but to declare independence or find themselves part of a
greater Serbia. Belgrade's armed forces first fought a short and unsuccessful
war against Slovenia. Subsequent conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia lasted much
longer because Belgrade had armed and organized the Serbian minorities in
those two republics. -- Patrick Moore
[12] MACEDONIAN PRESIDENT IN STRASBOURG.
Kiro Gligorov, addressing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
on 24 June, said Macedonia will not give up its name because this would amount
to the "capitulation of our nation," Nova Makedonija and RFE/RL reported.
But he repeated that Macedonia is willing to make a compromise with Greece
that does "not mean the loss of our national identity." Gligorov said his
government remains committed to democracy, adding that peace and security in
the Balkans can be promoted only if all sides accept that the former
Yugoslavia disintegrated and that the forceful creation of a new state entity
in the region is impossible. Gligorov said Bosnian Serb civilian leader and
indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic must stand trial if the people of the
former Yugoslavia are to be reconciled. He also urged the council not to delay
admitting Croatia as a member. -- Stefan Krause
[13] MACEDONIAN RULING PARTY WANTS STATE MEDIA HEAD DISMISSED.
The Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) wants the dismissal of
Macedonian Radio and Television (MRT) Director Melpomeni Korneti, Nova
Makedonija reported on 25 June. The party blamed Korneti for failing to
present a report on MRT's activities in 1995. The matter was discussed in
the parliamentary electoral committee and within the parliamentary factions,
but no decision was taken. Observers see Korneti as the victim of a struggle
between the SDSM and the Liberal Party (LP), of which she is a member. The LP
was part of the ruling coalition until February. LP Chairman Stojan Andov, in
a 21 May interview with Flaka, accused the government of trying to remove
all people associated with the opposition from positions in the state
apparatus. -- Stefan Krause
[14] TENSION OVER MOLDOVAN DEFENSE MINISTER POST ESCALATES.
Defense Minister Gen. Pavel Creanga told a staff meeting that he would call a
company to arms to protect his department if President Mircea Snegur tried to
oust him, BASA-press reported on 24 June. Creanga claimed that Snegur was
contemplating "anti-constitutional steps" to force him out of his job, and
quoted a presidential decree issued last week that further curtails his
powers. The president warned the parliament on 20 June that, if Creanga is not
replaced, he could be forced to "assume direct control" over the armed forces
(see )--a prospect Creanga described as "alarming." Creanga was dismissed by Snegur on 15 March for allegedly encouraging corruption, but was later reinstated following a Constitutional Court ruling. -- Dan Ionescu
[15] UPDATE ON BULGARIAN GRAIN SHORTAGE.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Development Rumen Gechev on 24
June admitted that 1.5 million tons of wheat might have to be imported this
year to compensate for an expected record low yield, Western media reported.
Deputy Agriculture Minister Rumen Popov said that this year's wheat crop is
expected to be only about 2.5 million tons, compared to 3.2 million tons in
1995 and around 5 million tons annually in the 1980s. Meanwhile, President
Zhelyu Zhelev's agricultural advisor, Rumen Hristov, said the price of bread
and other foodstuffs might more than triple by the end of the year, Trud
reported. He said $100 million will be needed for wheat imports, and another
$170 million for the import of corn. Rationing of bread is continuing in a
number of villages and towns. -- Stefan Krause
[16] SCANDAL OVER BULGARIAN AMBASSADOR TO TIRANA.
Stefan Naumov reportedly terrorized employees at Bulgaria's Tirana embassy and
threatened them with death, 24 chasa reported. Foreign Ministry spokesman
Panteley Karasimeonov on 24 June said the ministry received a letter from
Tirana embassy staff charging that Naumov threatened his subordinates at an 18
June official dinner that "their bones will be scattered all over the place
and that no one will cross the borders of Mother Albania alive." Karasimeonov
said proceedings against Naumov are under way. Foreign Ministry, intelligence,
and presidential officials will go to Tirana to investigate the charges. The
Foreign Ministry asked Zhelev to recall Naumov, who has been in Tirana since
1990. Meanwhile, Naumov told Kontinent that the accusations are unfounded
and that some people want him removed for political reasons. Naumov claimed
that he himself was threatened by his driver in 1994. -- Stefan Krause
[17] OSCE SUPPORTS NEW ELECTIONS IN ALBANIA.
In a 24 June meeting with representatives of eight Albanian political parties,
the Albanian Central Electoral Commission, and the Council of Europe, the OSCE
delegation suggested the government hold new elections. It advised the
Albanian parties to "consider whether new elections, after a reasonable but
limited period of time, under improved conditions and in the presence of
international observers, would serve the interests of Albania," AFP reported.
The OSCE delegation added that "although the lawfulness of the newly elected
Albanian Parliament cannot be questioned, the electoral process included
several aspects and incidents which severely question the credibility of the
democratic process." Opposition representatives demanded new elections and
argued that the election results posed an institutional threat to Albania.
After the meeting, OSCE Deputy Secretary-General Penti Vaananen said new
elections were unlikely because the ruling Democrats object, Reuters reported.
-- Fabian Schmidt
[18] SENIOR LEADER OF BALLI KOMBETAR RESIGNS OVER ELECTION FRAUD.
Abaz Ermenji, World War II-era leader of the Albanian National Front and post-
communist leader of its political successor party, has resigned in protest
over Balli Kombetar's participation in the new parliament despite allegations
of widespread election fraud. Dita Informacion on 23 June published
a declaration by Ermenji to the party's national council in which he charged
the rest of the party leadership with ignoring his objections and justifying
what he called a "coup d'etat against free elections." Ermenji noted that he
and party deputy leader Hysen Selfo issued a declaration to the Central
Electoral Commission on the day of the 26 May elections calling them
fraudulent and demanding a new ballot. However, the party daily Balli i
Kombit later called the elections a victory over communism. -- Fabian
Schmidt
Compiled by Steve Kettle and Tom Warner
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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