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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 1 No. 3, 97-04-03
RFE/RL NEWSLINE
Vol. 1, No. 3, 3 April 1997
CONTENTS
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] DE CHARETTE IN TRANSCAUCASUS.
[02] NEW REVELATIONS ON RUSSIAN ARMS SHIPMENTS TO ARMENIA.
[03] KURDS PROTEST IN ALMATY.
[04] KAZAK PRIVATIZATION CREATES "GHOST TOWNS."
[05] UYGHURS CALL FOR COORDINATED ACTION.
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[06] PRESSURE MOUNTS TO SEND INTERVENTION FORCE TO ALBANIA.
[07] GREECE TO HELP ALBANIA.
[08] ALBANIA LETS KING COME HOME.
[09] BOSNIAN, CROATIAN UPDATE.
[10] STRIKE HITS MONTENEGRO.
[11] MACEDONIAN MINISTER RESIGNS.
[12] VAN DER STOEL ON HUNGARIAN MINORITY IN ROMANIA.
[13] ROMANIA TO RETURN JEWISH PROPERTY?
[14] ROMANIAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT REFUSES TO RULE ON NATIONALIST
POLITICIAN'S IMMUNITY.
[15] OECD ON BULGARIAN REFORMS.
[16] BULGARIAN PRESIDENT TO VISIT RUSSIA?
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] DE CHARETTE IN TRANSCAUCASUS.
French Foreign Minister Herve de Charette says a settlement of the Karabakh
conflict is one of France's foreign policy priorities, Russian and Western
agencies reported. He also expressed the hope that agreement can be reached
by the end of this year. De Charette met earlier this week with Azerbaijani
President Heidar Aliev and Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrossyan. De
Charette and Aliev pledged support for expanding bilateral relations,
particularly in the exploitation of Azerbaijan's Caspian oil.
[02] NEW REVELATIONS ON RUSSIAN ARMS SHIPMENTS TO ARMENIA.
Moskovsky komsomolets has published the results of its investigation into
the clandestine deliveries of Russian arms to Armenia, including a detailed
list of the hardware involved. Lev Rokhlin, chairman of the Russian State
Duma Defense Committee, told a closed Duma session on 2 April that the
shipments cost Russia more than $1 billion. The Azerbaijani news agency
Turan quoted Georgian Minister of State Niko Lekishvili as telling a
Georgian newspaper that the arms were channeled through Georgia, but
Defense Minister Vardiko Nadibaidze denied this was the case.
[03] KURDS PROTEST IN ALMATY.
Ethnic Kurds marched through downtown Almaty earlier this week to protest
the municipal authorities' decision to withdraw permission for a
celebration marking the spring holiday Nowruz, RFE/RL reported. The Yakbun
association, which represents Kazakstan's 35,000 ethnic Kurds, organized
the march. Participants carried Kurdish flags and portraits of Kurdish
Workers' Party leaders. Some 5,000 ethnic Kurds from Moscow, Central Asia,
and Western Europe had been invited to attend a celebration in the city's
sports palace on 31 March. One city administration official said the
celebration was cancelled because of purerly technical considerations, but
another told Interfax that the celebration had an "anti-Turkish character
which infringes on the interests of friendly Turkey."
[04] KAZAK PRIVATIZATION CREATES "GHOST TOWNS."
Leonid Solomin, chairman of Kazakstan's Independent Trade Unions'
Confederation, says the sale of leading industries to foreign investors has
created 'ghost towns' throughout the country, Reuters reported. Solomin
notes that in 56 towns that were busy industrial centers during the
communist era, enterprises have closed under new ownership. He adds that
these companies are mainly in the energy sector and have been sold off at
'give-away prices.' In 1996, privatization revenues totaled 31.1 billion
tenge ($414 million) or 4.3 times the previous year's figure, Interfax
reported. Also in 1996, over 4,000 state enterprises and organizations were
sold to private owners, bringing the total of private enterprises in
Kazakstan to some 20,000.
[05] UYGHURS CALL FOR COORDINATED ACTION.
Representatives of the Uyghur diaspora in Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia,
Turkey, and Uzbekistan, have called for concerted action to oppose China's
policy toward the Xinjiang/Uyghur Autonomous Republic, ITAR-TASS reported.
The call was made at a recent meeting in Moscow of Uyghurs, a Turkic group
of Muslims. Uyghurs and ethnic Chinese have recently clashed in several
cities in Xinjiang. China's Uyghurs are seeking their own independent
state.
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[06] PRESSURE MOUNTS TO SEND INTERVENTION FORCE TO ALBANIA.
The Italian and Albanian prime ministers have agreed to work quickly to get
troops to the strife-torn country. To ease tensions between the two
neighbors in the wake of last Friday's maritime disaster, Italy has agreed
to raise the sunken vessel and compensate families of the victims. OSCE
representative Franz Vranitzky said in Rome yesterday that the
"indispensable" force should be on the ground within 10 to 14 days. He
added that "the United Nations have given us three months" and stressed the
international community must not repeat the mistakes it made in dealing
with the former Yugoslavia. Vranitzky argued that "Albania has need of aid,
of restoring public order, of economic reconstruction, and [of] restoring
confidence in its political system."
[07] GREECE TO HELP ALBANIA.
Athens is also interested in helping its neighbor restore its economy,
police, and army, Prime Minister Kostas Simitis told his Albanian
counterpart, Bashkim Fino, in Athens yesterday. Once the situation has
stabilized, Greece will provide $74 million in aid, including compensation
to those who lost money in failed pyramid schemes. Greece fears an influx
of refugees and ultimately regional destabilization unless Albania becomes
stable and reasonably prosperous. In Tirana, police were deployed outside
the U.S. embassy to control crowds of youths following the spread of false
rumors that the U.S. will admit those wanting to flee the
anarchy. Meanwhile, the Socialists have agreed to end their 11-month
boycott of parliament in order to help the country "emerge from the
crisis," party leader Fatos Nano said.
[08] ALBANIA LETS KING COME HOME.
King Leka's office in Johannesburg, South Africa, says the Albanian
government decided Tuesday to let the heir to the throne return to the
country he last saw in 1939 as a newborn baby. The son of the late King Zog
I has not yet decided when to take up the offer, but he has been paying
increasing attention to Albanian affairs in recent years, AFP reported on 2
April. He will have to work hard if he wants to become a serious political
player, however. The tiny monarchist parties are given to fighting among
themselves, and the regionally-based House of Zogu never had a chance to
develop into a national institution during Zog's shaky decade-long reign.
[09] BOSNIAN, CROATIAN UPDATE.
In Pale, a police spokesman said the Croats are blocking the return of
Serbian refugees to Drvar, RFE/RL reported. The west Bosnian town had a 97%
ethnic Serb population before the breakup of Yugoslavia, but the Serbs fled
during the 1995 Croatian offensive. Meanwhile, in the Slavonian region of
Hrvatska Dubica, identification begins today of the remains of 56 Croats
massacred by the Serbs in 1991.
[10] STRIKE HITS MONTENEGRO.
Some 1,800 workers at the Radoje Dakic big metallurgical enterprise are on
strike to demand back wages and that management be punished, RFE/RL
reported. The aging communist-era plant was crippled by economic sanctions
against federal Yugoslavia, and most of its workers are now either laid-off
or underemployed. Also in Podgorica, President Momir Bulatovic's office
yesterday denied reports that he is in poor health. The president is
engaged in a battle of wills with Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic and other
government officials opposed to close ties to Serbian President Slobodan
Milosevic.
[11] MACEDONIAN MINISTER RESIGNS.
Macedonian Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski has accepted the resignation
of Construction Minister Jorgo Sundovski, Nasa Borba reports
today. Sundovski was eased out of office as part of Crvenkovski's
anti-corruption campaign following the recent collapse of the TAT pyramid
scheme. Media in the former Yugoslavia have linked Sundovski and other
prominent figures to TAT, but Sundovski earlier denied charges of
wrongdoing.
[12] VAN DER STOEL ON HUNGARIAN MINORITY IN ROMANIA.
Max van der Stoel, OSCE commissioner for national minorities, says his
meeting yesterday with Bela Marko, chairman of the Hungarian Democratic
Federation of Romania (UDMR), was 'the most encouraging' he has ever had
with a Hungarian minority leader in Romania. He added that the government's
line on minorities was 'courageous.' Marko told Van der Stoel that the
UDMR's participation in the governing coalition may lead to a resolution of
the Hungarian community's problems. But he added that legal solutions are
still being sought to enable the implementation of national rights. Van der
Stoel also met with Premier Victor Ciorbea, with whom he discussed
primarily inter-ethnic relations. Ciorbea assured the commissioner of the
government's good- will on the issue of minorities, RFE/RL's Bucharest
bureau reported.
[13] ROMANIA TO RETURN JEWISH PROPERTY?
Senate Chairman Petre Roman says the restitution of Jewish property
nationalized by the fascist and communist regimes is 'no particular
problem.' Roman was talking yesterday in Bucharest to Menahem Ariav, head
of an association representing Israelis of Romanian origin. Roman noted the
restitution of nationalized property belonging to individuals must be
settled through legislation that applies to all those forced to leave the
country. He said he opposed 'hasty solutions' that might trigger 'tensions'
but stressed that the 'illegality' of the property confiscation must be
made clear, RFE/RL's bureau in Bucharest reported. Earlier this week,
Foreign Minister Adrian Severin said the restitution of Jewish property is
a necessary act of justice that would help Romanians come to terms with
their history, the independent news agency ARPress reported.
[14] ROMANIAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT REFUSES TO RULE ON NATIONALIST
POLITICIAN'S IMMUNITY.
The Constitutional Court says it is not within its competence to rule on
the appeal by 43 senators contesting the parliamentary procedure used to
lift the immunity of Greater Romania Party Chairman Corneliu Vadim Tudor,
Radio Bucharest reported. Nevertheless, the court said immunity is renewed
if a deputy is re-elected and that lifting it requires the whole procedure
to be repeated. The parliamentary majority last month ruled that the
decision to lift Tudor's immunity, taken by the previous legislature, was
still in force.
[15] OECD ON BULGARIAN REFORMS.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says Bulgaria
needs to follow a comprehensive reform course to overcome its current
crisis, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from Paris. An OECD economic
survey says the reform process begun in Bulgaria some years ago has
foundered and that the country is mired in crisis when much of Central and
East Europe is achieving stability and growth. The OECD proposes a 14-point
program designed to help the Bulgarian economy, including the reform of the
banking sector, the closure of loss-making enterprises, and the
introduction of measures to restore foreign and domestic confidence in the
economy. The report says Bulgaria will not be able to do everything alone
and calls on the international community to offer generous support to
Sofia.
[16] BULGARIAN PRESIDENT TO VISIT RUSSIA?
Petar Stoyanov has raised with the Russian ambassador to Sofia the
possibility of visiting Moscow, RFE/RL's correspondent in the Bulgarian
capital reported. The President's Office said the visit depended on
Moscow. Stoyanov's scheduled visit to Moscow in late January was canceled
because of President Yeltsin's illness. Caretaker premier Stefan
Sofiyanski is scheduled to visit the Russian capital before the end of this
month. In other news, Stoyanov has invited Pope Paul John II to visit
Bulgaria. Foreign Minister Stoyan Stalev told BTA before departing for
Turkey earlier this week that the most important issue on his agenda is
Turkish support for Bulgaria's quest to join NATO.
Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
URL: http://www.rferl.org
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