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OMRI Daily Digest, Vol. 2, No. 177, 96-09-12
From: Open Media Research Institute <http://www.omri.cz>
Vol. 2, No. 177, 12 September 1996
CONTENTS
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] GULIEV RESIGNS FOR "HEALTH REASONS."
[02] KAZAKSTAN ROUNDUP.
[03] HUMAN RIGHTS CONFERENCE IN TASHKENT.
[04] UNESCO PLEDGES HELP FOR TURKMENISTAN.
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[05] BOSNIAN SERB LEADER CONFRONTS SERB UNITY...
[06] ...BUT IS THE SERBIAN PRESIDENT FINESSING THE ISSUE?
[07] OPINION POLLS AHEAD OF BOSNIA'S ELECTIONS.
[08] INTER-ENTITY VOTER ROUTES AGREED.
[09] BOSNIAN REFUGEE VOTER TURNOUT 75 PERCENT SO FAR.
[10] KOSOVAR SHADOW STATE PREMIER ON SCHOOL AGREEMENT WITH SERBS.
[11] MENINGITIS EPIDEMIC STIRS CONTROVERSY IN BUCHAREST.
[12] CONFERENCE ON MINORITIES ENDS IN BUCHAREST.
[13] DNIESTER LEADER REPLIES TO SNEGUR'S MESSAGE.
[14] BULGARIA DENIES HOSTING SOVIET NUCLEAR WEAPONS.
[15] UPDATE ON BULGARIAN GRAIN CRISIS.
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] GULIEV RESIGNS FOR "HEALTH REASONS."
Azerbaijani parliament chairman Rasul Guliev resigned from office on 11
September, Russian and Western media reported the same day. His resignation
had been expected to be the locus of a stormy extraordinary session of the
parliament, the Milli Mejlis, but the matter was wrapped up in 15 minutes when
Guliev asked to resign due to ill health, ITAR-TASS reported. Parliament
accepted his resignation in a vote of 98-8, with four abstentions. During his
speech, Guliev pledged his full support to Azerbaijani President Heidar Aliev,
who was in attendance. It has been rumored that Guliev is to serve as
Azerbaijan's ambassador to Norway. A Norwegian company, Statoil, is part of
the international consortium involved in exploiting three oil fields off
Azerbaijan in the Caspian Sea. -- Lowell Bezanis
[02] KAZAKSTAN ROUNDUP.
Almaty's city authorities on 9 September refused to allow the Center of
Russian Culture of Almaty to stage a demonstration in front of the U.S.
Embassy, RFE/RL reported. The demonstrators intended to protest the recent
U.S. airstrikes on Iraq. In other news, Rakhmankul Berdibay has been elected
president of the recently founded Baba Turkti Shashti Aziz Foundation, RFE/RL
reported on 12 September. Baba Turkti Shashti, whose mausoleum is in Chimkent
along with a foundation of the same name, is revered as the common ancestor of
the Karakalpak, Nogay, Tatar, Kazak, Kyrgyz, and Bashkort peoples. Meanwhile,
a training school for sergeants, manned by instructors from the U.S. and
Turkey, is to open in Kazakstan, the Turkish Daily News reported on 12
September. The 100-student school is to form the backbone of the Kazakstani
army's non-commissioned officer corps. -- Lowell Bezanis and Merhat
Sharipzhan
[03] HUMAN RIGHTS CONFERENCE IN TASHKENT.
A three-day OSCE-sponsored conference on human rights--bringing together non-
governmental organizations operating in Central Asia, government officials,
and government-selected media representatives--opened in Tashkent on 11
September, Western agencies reported. Human rights are far from respected in
Central Asia with print and broadcast media carefully censored or directly
controlled by the government and minimal tolerance shown for political
opposition. Among a litany of other human rights violations, AFP noted that 40
journalists have been killed in Tajikistan since 1992, some 30 prisoners of
conscience are presently in Uzbek jails, and 600 prisoners died in Kazakstani
jails of tuberculosis last year and another 101 were executed. The venue of
the conference is considered a further signal of Uzbekistan's desire to soften
the regime's image abroad. -- Lowell Bezanis
[04] UNESCO PLEDGES HELP FOR TURKMENISTAN.
Turkmen President Saparmurad Niyazov and UNESCO Director-General Federico
Mayor signed a memorandum of cooperation in Paris on 11 September, ITAR-TASS
reported the same day. According to the agency, UNESCO is to help Turkmenistan
reform its education system, train journalists, create a management
information network, support national radio programming, establish various
cultural programs aimed at the protection of historical sites, and analyze the
environmental problems of the Caspian Sea. -- Lowell Bezanis
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[05] BOSNIAN SERB LEADER CONFRONTS SERB UNITY...
Republika Srpska's (RS) acting President and the Serbian Democratic Party's
(SDS) candidate for RS president Biljana Plavsic has again spoken out on the
question of a Greater Serbia. Plavsic, in remarks reported by Nasa Borba on
12 September, observed that there is "no peace without the unity of all Serb
lands." Plavsic also went on record as saying that the RS "has only that
sovereignty which is afforded it by the Dayton peace, and for now we are happy
with that." Nevertheless, she said "there won't always be this kind of anti-
Serb climate in the world," implying that her commitment to partitioning
Bosnia remains solid. -- Stan Markotich
[06] ...BUT IS THE SERBIAN PRESIDENT FINESSING THE ISSUE?
But there is open speculation that Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic is
influencing parties under his control in the Republika Srpska to address, or
specifically to evade, the issue of the Bosnian Serb entity's status. On 12
September Nasa Borba reported that Milosevic recently held a closed-door
meeting with officials from the Socialist Party of the Republika Srpska (SPRS),
including its chairman, Zivko Radisic, who subsequently dropped his candidacy
for the RS presidency. Radisic maintains he was not forced to withdraw his
candidacy, but only that Milosevic asked him to mute any rhetoric dealing with
"the issue of unity with Serbia because they [Milosevic's governing Socialist
Party of Serbia] are under great international pressure to recognize Bosnia
and Herzegovina." The limelight and the politicking of dealing with the
RS's status, noted Nasa Borba, was the "hot chestnut [Milosevic] tossed
into Plavsic's hands." -- Stan Markotich
[07] OPINION POLLS AHEAD OF BOSNIA'S ELECTIONS.
A survey in September of 517 voters in the Bosnian federation conducted by the
Sarajevo magazine Dani and the U.S. Information Agency indicated that 54.8%
would vote for the ruling Muslim Party of Democratic Action (SDA), 17.2% or
the opposition parties' coalition Joint List, 12.3% for former Prime Minister
Haris Silajdzic's Party for Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1.3% for the Liberal Party,
and 0.1% for the Women's Party, Onasa reported. It also revealed that in the
Bosnian presidential elections 63.2% would vote for incumbent President Alija
Izetbegovic, 23.1% for Silajdzic, and 5.8% for Social-Democratic Party
candidate Sead Avdic. A poll of 1,000 Bosnian Serbs in the Republika Srpska
conducted by the Bijeljina Extra Magazine indicated that 37.4% would vote
for the ruling Serbian Democratic Party (SDS), 16.8% for the opposition
coalition Alliance for Peace and Progress (SMP), and 16.4% for the opposition
Democratic Patriotic Bloc (DPB). In the presidential race, 30.1% would vote
for DPB's president Predrag Radic, and 29.4% for Biljana Plavsic from the SDS,
Nasa Borba reported. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[08] INTER-ENTITY VOTER ROUTES AGREED.
Interior ministers of the Bosnian Federation and the Republika Srpska on 10
September agreed on 19 routes across the entity line that voters could take to
cast ballots in Bosnia's general elections on 14 September, Onasa reported.
Bosnian Serb Interior Minister Dragan Kijac predicted that about 350,000
people would cross inter-entity borders that day. People will be able to cross
the borders only in approved vehicles. The three officials in a joint
statement assumed joint responsibility for ensuring maximum police presence
along the agreed routes "to provide for the safety of all citizens." According
to the agreement, voters have to return to their entities immediately after
casting their ballots, and rallies and demonstrations are forbidden on
election day. The mass movement of people will be closely watched by IFOR
forces. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[09] BOSNIAN REFUGEE VOTER TURNOUT 75 PERCENT SO FAR.
The OSCE said that three-quarters of the nearly half million Bosnian refugees
registered to vote abroad have already cast their ballots for Bosnia's
elections, AFP reported on 10 September. The figure of 75% is provisional,
because voting slips are still arriving, and the final tally would be known
only the day after the vote in Bosnia itself. Of 58 countries that accepted
Bosnian refugees, Austria has the highest voter turnout with 86%, followed by
Germany with 83%, and Serbia-Montenegro with 73%. Some 140,000 other Bosnians
living abroad have registered to vote in person on 14 September in Bosnia. --
Daria Sito Sucic
[10] KOSOVAR SHADOW STATE PREMIER ON SCHOOL AGREEMENT WITH SERBS.
Bujar Bukoshi voiced careful optimism about the latest agreement between
Kosovar shadow state President Ibrahim Rugova and Serbian President Slobodan
Milosevic allowing Albanian children to return to school (see ), Illyria
reported on 10 September. He said it would be a "significant moment in our
political movement" if Albanian children returned to school. But Bukoshi also
warned against "uncontrolled euphoria," noting that Belgrade had signed and
then broken agreements before. He predicted Belgrade will put forward
"substantial problems and obstruction" when it comes to implementing the
agreement and noted that the agreement contained many "ambiguities leaving
room for different interpretations." Bukoshi charged that Kosovo's Albanians
gained nothing from the agreement while Milosevic manipulated all the parties
involved to score points both at home and abroad. -- Stefan Krause
[11] MENINGITIS EPIDEMIC STIRS CONTROVERSY IN BUCHAREST.
Bucharest's mayor Victor Ciorbea on 11 September announced that the start of
the new school year would be delayed from 16 September until 1 October because
of a meningitis epidemic that has swept through Romania since early August,
Radio Bucharest reported. But Romanian Education Minister Liviu Maior said on
the same day that mayors do not have the competence to interfere in the
functioning of the educational system. The controversy appears to be of
political nature, since Ciorbea is a member of the opposition Democratic
Convention of Romania. Meanwhile, the epidemic of meningitis and meningo-
encephalitis continues to spread. According to the latest data released by the
Health Ministry, 414 cases have been registered until 11 September, of which
50 are children. The epidemic has resulted in 21 deaths so far. -- Dan
Ionescu
[12] CONFERENCE ON MINORITIES ENDS IN BUCHAREST.
The third international meeting of government offices for ethnic minorities
questions ended in Bucharest on 11 September, Radio Bucharest reported. The
two-day conference, sponsored by the Council of Europe (CE) and the Executive
Commission of the European Union, was attended by delegations from 17 former
communist countries from Central and Eastern Europe. This year's seminar,
presided over by CE Deputy Secretary-General Peter Leuprecht and Viorel
Hrebenciuc, Coordinator of the Romanian government's Council for National
Minorities, focused on the implementation of the CE Convention for the
Protection of National Minorities, as well as on cooperation among
governmental offices dealing with minorities. -- Dan Ionescu
[13] DNIESTER LEADER REPLIES TO SNEGUR'S MESSAGE.
In a letter addressed to Moldovan President Mircea Snegur, the president of
the self-declared Dniester Moldovan Republic, Igor Smirnov, suggested that
they resume talks only after the signing of a memorandum on the normalization
of relations between the two sides, Infotag reported on 11 September. Smirnov
repeated earlier accusations that the present deadlock in negotiations was
caused by Moldova's reluctance to sign the memorandum. His letter came in
reply to a 3 September message from Snegur, urging the Dniester leadership to
resume talks on the region's future legal status within the Republic of
Moldova, as well as regular summit meetings. Infotag also reported that
Moldovan and Dniester experts will meet in Tiraspol on 16 September to
continue drafting the status, after a break of more than two months. -- Dan
Ionescu
[14] BULGARIA DENIES HOSTING SOVIET NUCLEAR WEAPONS.
The Defense Ministry on 11 September dismissed as "pure insinuation" a report
in Moscow's Komsomolskaya Pravda that Soviet nuclear missiles were stationed
in Bulgaria in the 1980s, Bulgarian and international media reported. The
Russian daily cited a former Soviet Army captain's assertion that he served in
a "super-secret base" near the resort of Borovets, 60 kilometers from Sofia,
which he claims contained 70 nu-clear warheads. President Zhelyu Zhelev and
Chief of General Staff Tsvetan Totomirov in a joint statement denied the
report and suggested someone might want to cause friction between Bulgaria and
its neighbors Greece and Turkey, which are named as possible targets in the
Russian publication. Former communist dictator Todor Zhivkov also dismissed
the report, while then-Defense Minister Dobri Dzhu-rov did not comment. Komso-
molskaya Pravda said former Soviet Defense Minister Dmitrii Yazov confirmed
the existence of the base. -- Maria Koinova and Stefan Krause
[15] UPDATE ON BULGARIAN GRAIN CRISIS.
Agriculture Minister Krastyo Trendafilov and Trade Minister Atanas Paparizov
on 11 September informed the BSP Executive Bureau about efforts to ensure
sufficient grain supplies, Pari reported. Trendafilov said that currently 130,
000 tons of grain are being imported and a further 680,000 tons were purchased
domestically. He assumed responsibility for ensuring the bread supply of Sofia
and some mountainous regions. He said that other regions should take care of
their problems by themselves, claiming that there are large amounts of grain
in private bakeries and households. He said Bulgaria wants to import more
grain, but needs credits because the government does not want to strain
further the balance of payments. Paparizov called the grain problem short-term
and financial. The grain and bread shortage that started at the beginning of
1996 has so far caused the resignations of two agriculture ministers. --
Stefan Krause
Compiled by Victor Gomez and Saulius Girnius
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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