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OMRI: Daily Digest, Vol. 3, No. 4, 97-01-07
From: Open Media Research Institute <http://www.omri.cz>
Vol. 3, No. 4, 7 January 1997
CONTENTS
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] U.S. TO SEEK PROSECUTION OF GEORGIAN DIPLOMAT . . .
[02] . . . AMID CALLS TO SUSPEND U.S. AID TO GEORGIA.
[03] RUSSIA, AZERBAIJAN TALKS.
[04] TAJIK TALKS OPEN IN IRAN.
[05] TRIAL OF TURGUNALIYEV CONTINUES IN KYRGYZSTAN.
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[06] BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA NEEDS $1.4 BILLION FOR RECONSTRUCTION IN 1997.
[07] CONTROVERSY OVER INDEPENDENT TV STATION IN BOSNIA.
[08] CROATIAN INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS OPENED.
[09] HUGE ORTHODOX CHRISTMAS EVE MARCH IN BELGRADE.
[10] WILL FEDERAL YUGOSLAV ARMY UNITS MOVE AGAINST MILOSEVIC?
[11] BOSNIAN SERB LEADERS OPPOSE MILOSEVIC.
[12] OLD GUARD OUSTED AT ROMANIAN NATIONAL TV.
[13] UKRAINE TO SUPPORT MOLDOVA'S TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY.
[14] DOBREV NOMINATED AS BULGARIAN PREMIER.
[15] WILL A WAVE OF PROTESTS IN SOFIA OVERFLOW BULGARIA?
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] U.S. TO SEEK PROSECUTION OF GEORGIAN DIPLOMAT . . .
The United States will ask the Georgian government to waive immunity for a
diplomat to allow his prosecution in the U.S. for a car accident in
Washington that caused the death of a 16-year-old American girl, Western
agencies reported on 6 January. Georgi Makharadze, 35, reportedly triggered
a five-car crash while drunk. The U.S. State Department said it is awaiting
police reports and a decision from the attorney general, expected on 7
January, on whether to begin criminal proceedings against Makharadze. An
unidentified White House official told AFP that if the Georgian government
declines the request "we will ask the government to remove the diplomat
from the country." Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze has sent a letter
of condolence to the family of the dead girl and said Makharadze "should
take responsibility." -- Emil Danielyan
[02] . . . AMID CALLS TO SUSPEND U.S. AID TO GEORGIA.
A Republican senator urged President Bill Clinton to suspend aid to Georgia
unless the latter strips Makharadze of diplomatic immunity, Reuters
reported on 6 January. In a letter to Clinton, Senator Judd Gregg said that
would be the only "strong" and "appropriate" action for the U.S.
government. A spokesman for the Georgian embassy in Washington did not
comment on Gregg's letter but said any decision on a waiver of immunity
will be a "decision between the two governments." Georgia is slated to get
$30 million in financial aid from the United States for the 1997 fiscal
year. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said the United States
expressed "very, very serious" concern to the Georgian ambassador, but
defended diplomatic immunity "as a concept." -- Emil Danielyan
[03] RUSSIA, AZERBAIJAN TALKS.
A Russian delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Valerii Serov is in Baku
for talks on a wide range of bilateral, as well as CIS-related, issues,
Russian media reported on 6 January. Talks are expected to focus on
bilateral trade and economic cooperation, the repayment of Azerbaijan's
debts to Russia, and the time-frame and volume for Azeri oil to be
transited via Russian territory. Both Azerbaijan and Russia have announced
that their respective segments of the 1411 km-long Baku-Novorossiisk
pipeline are ready to carry Azeri oil to international markets, Russian
agencies reported. Azerbaijan wants to start pumping some 30,000 metric
tons of oil in February. -- Lowell Bezanis
[04] TAJIK TALKS OPEN IN IRAN.
With a ceasefire agreed in Moscow in December by Tajik President Imomali
Rakhmonov and United Tajik Opposition (UTO) leader Said Abdullo Nuri still
holding, delegations from both sides met in the Iranian capital Tehran on 6
January, international media reported. The talks, delayed by one day, are
to discuss the formation of a National Reconciliation Commission which is
to help pave the way for new parliamentary elections within 12-18 months.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati welcomed members of the
delegations and called on them to "be forgiving and show understanding."
AFP reports that the formation of the commission dominated the first day of
the talks, with the government delegation rejecting a proposal for 40% of
the commission to be made up of UTO representatives. Talks are scheduled to
continue all this week. -- Bruce Pannier
[05] TRIAL OF TURGUNALIYEV CONTINUES IN KYRGYZSTAN.
The case against Topchubek Turgunaliyev, chairman of the Erkin Kyrgyzstan
Party, continued in Bishkek municipal court on 6 January, RFE/RL reported.
Turgunaliyev is facing embezzlement charges for the misappropriation of $10,
000 from the Bishkek Humanitarian University when he was its rector in
1994. State prosecutor Marat Kenjakunov asked the court to seize all
Turgunaliyev's property and sentence him to a 12-year term in prison. Timur
Stamkulov, the former commercial director of the university, is a
codefendant and Kenjakunov asked for him to be sentenced to seven years in
jail. Turgunaliyev's lawyers argue that Turgunaliyev is a political victim,
noting that the trial is taking place in a criminal not a civil court and
pointing out that Turgunaliyev was taken into custody at a December
demonstration where a new movement "For Deliverance from Poverty" was
founded. -- Bruce Pannier and Naryn Idinov
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[06] BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA NEEDS $1.4 BILLION FOR RECONSTRUCTION IN 1997.
The World Bank said on 3 January that foreign donors will need to provide
$1.4 billion this year to sustain reconstruction and the return of refugees
in Bosnia-Herzegovina, international agencies reported. A donor conference
in Brussels on 9-10 January will assess progress and set priorities for
1997. According to the World Bank's director for Bosnia, Christine Wallich,
priorities will shift from emergency intervention to sustainable
reconstruction, targeting infrastructure, refugee resettlement, job
creation, and financial institutions, AFP reported. The World Bank alone
plans to approve some $160 million in low-cost loans. Out of $5.1 billion
pledged in aid to Bosnia by foreign donors in four years, $1.2 billion was
spent in 1996. But Wallich warned that is only a fraction of what is needed
in Bosnia, where war damage is estimated at $20 billion. -- Daria Sito
Sucic
[07] CONTROVERSY OVER INDEPENDENT TV STATION IN BOSNIA.
Kosta Jovanovic, news director of TVIN, Bosnia's internationally funded
independent television network, said on 7 January that TVIN was resuming
broadcasting after having stopped on 1 January due to satellite problems,
Oslobodjenje reported. But when the station went silent, the Bosnian
Federation's state-run media launched a campaign saying that the station
had stopped broadcasting because of a financial scandal in which local
stations contributing to TVIN's broadcast were cheated, AFP reported on 5
January. Jovanovic said the accusations were a deliberate attempt to
discredit the network before the Brussels fund-raising conference. In other
news, Bosnia-Herzegovina is supposed to take up the presidency of the
Central European Initiative (CEI) in 1997, AFP reported on 4 January. --
Daria Sito Sucic
[08] CROATIAN INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS OPENED.
President of the Croatian Constitutional Court Jadranko Crnic on 6 January
opened the new Croatian Institute for Human Rights in Novi Vinodolski,
Novi List reported the next day. Crnic came on behalf of President Franjo
Tudjman and said that respect for human rights is the greatest legacy of
Croatian history. The institute is a non-governmental organization founded
by the law schools from major Croatian cities and Croat-held Mostar in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as the Police Academy, the Croatian Bar, and
others. Meanwhile, State Attorney Anto Klaric, on his return from
Strasbourg where he reported to the Council of Europe on human rights in
Croatia, said that Croatia has been watched through a magnifying glass,
Slobodna Dalmacija reported on 7 January. Klaric said the international
community deputies have lost sight of who is an aggressor and who is a
victim. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[09] HUGE ORTHODOX CHRISTMAS EVE MARCH IN BELGRADE.
A crowd of at least 200,000 people walked through the Serbian capital to
St. Sava's cathedral to mark Orthodox Christmas Eve in yet another day of
protests against the cancellation of the 17 November local election
results. The protest was typically good-natured and peaceful, except for a
reported small explosion at the headquarters of JUL, the small left-wing
party led by Mirjana Markovic, the wife of Serbian President Slobodan
Milosevic, AFP noted on 7 January. After Patriarch Pavle said mass at the
cathedral, opposition leaders made speeches outside and presented 5,000
gift boxes for the children of their supporters. The usually
uncommunicative police had earlier assured the demonstrators that they
would not interfere with Christmas processions. -- Patrick Moore
[10] WILL FEDERAL YUGOSLAV ARMY UNITS MOVE AGAINST MILOSEVIC?
Following discussions between army Chief of Staff Gen. Momcilo Perisic and
student leaders on 6 January, the army issued a letter saying the military
will not allow itself to be used against peaceful protesters (see OMRI
Daily Digest, 6 January 1996). The text stated that problems must be
solved by peaceful and constitutional means, Nasa Borba wrote on 7
January, thereby ruling out the possibility that Milosevic could rely on
the army to crush dissent as he did in March 1991. The London daily The
Independent, moreover, reported on 7 January that at least some units may
be ready to turn on Milosevic if he tries to declare a state of emergency,
AFP wrote. The Serbian leader has never gotten on well with the military,
which resents his building up a powerful police force as his own Praetorian
Guard. -- Patrick Moore
[11] BOSNIAN SERB LEADERS OPPOSE MILOSEVIC.
Aleksa Buha, who succeeded Radovan Karadzic as head of the Serbian
Democratic Party (SDS), in his Christmas message on 6 January called on
Milosevic to avoid bloodshed and respect the election results. Buha said:
"It is stupid to stubbornly refuse to recognize what the laws of
civilization dictate," AFP and Nasa Borba reported. Republika Srpska
President Biljana Plavsic repeated her earlier declaration of support for
the students. There has long been little love lost between Milosevic and
the Pale leadership, which feels that the Serbian president has repeatedly
betrayed vital Bosnian Serb interests for his own political purposes.
Milosevic backed opponents of the SDS in last September's Bosnian
elections. -- Patrick Moore
[12] OLD GUARD OUSTED AT ROMANIAN NATIONAL TV.
Stere Gulea, the director-general of Romania's national television (TVR),
on 6 January announced sweeping top-level personnel changes, Romanian and
Western media reported. Eight senior news executives were replaced in the
biggest shake-up at TVR since the fall of the communist regime. The new
head of the Information Department is Alina Mungiu, a respected journalist
and political analyst. TVR is the only Romanian station with nationwide
coverage and the main source of information for isolated rural areas. Under
former leftist President Ion Iliescu, TVR was often accused of blatant pro-
government bias. The former ruling party, the Party for Social Democracy in
Romania, described the changes as "political purge." -- Dan Ionescu
[13] UKRAINE TO SUPPORT MOLDOVA'S TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Hennady Udovenko on 6 January said that Ukraine
"takes the Moldovan side" on the issue of settling the conflict between
Moldova and its breakaway Dniester region, Western agencies reported. The
comment was made one day after Moldovan President-elect Petru Lucinschi met
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma in Odessa. During the Sunday unofficial
talks, Lucinschi called on Kuchma to mediate more actively in the peaceful
settlement of the dispute. On his part, Kuchma reportedly expressed
Ukraine's support for Moldova's territorial integrity. -- Zsolt Mato
[14] DOBREV NOMINATED AS BULGARIAN PREMIER.
The Executive Bureau of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) on 7 January
nominated Interior Minister Nikolay Dobrev for the post of prime minister,
Reuters reported. On 6 January, Dobrev had agreed to be the BSP nominee for
that post, although he had previously said that he wanted to stay on as
interior minister, RFE/RL and Pari reported. Dobrev now has to be
approved by the BSP's parliamentary allies -- the Bulgarian Agrarian
People's Union "Aleksandar Stamboliyski" and the Political Club Ekoglasnost
-- and by the parliament. Dobrev will succeed Zhan Videnov, who resigned as
premier in December. Dobrev, who emerged as an outspoken Videnov critic at
the recent BSP congress, has support within the party but also within the
population for his fight against corruption and organized crime, but
critics of his nomination pointed out that he lacks experience in economics
or finances . -- Stefan Krause
[15] WILL A WAVE OF PROTESTS IN SOFIA OVERFLOW BULGARIA?
More than 30,000 people demonstrated on 6 January in front of the local BSP
headquarters in Plovdiv, Bulgarian media reported. "If we have to die,
we'll die out on the squares," Plovdiv Mayor Spas Garnevski of the Union of
Democratic Forces said. The rally follows a mass rally of 40,000 of the
"new majority of the hungry" organized by the opposition in Sofia on 3
January. Further rallies are planned for the next few days in Sofia, Varna,
Burgas, Lovech, and Montana. Krastyo Petkov, chairman of the Confederation
of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria, said his group will support the
civil protests, Trud reported on 7 January. His statement contradicts an
earlier Duma report that Petkov would guarantee the civil peace needed
for the functioning of a new BSP government. -- Maria Koinova in Sofia
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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