 |
Compact version |
|
 |
        |
|
 |
||
|
Friday, 22 November 2024
|
||
 |
 |
|
|
|
RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 116, 99-06-15Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 3, No. 116, 15 June 1999CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN, AZERBAIJANI TROOPS CLASHAzerbaijani and Karabakh Armenian forces engaged in a four-hour exchange of fire on 14 June close to the northeastern border of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Azerbaijani agencies said that 300 Armenian troops mounted an offensive using firearms, mortars, and heavy machine guns in a series of unsuccessful attempts to capture Azerbaijani positions, but retreated after sustaining severe casualties. According to an Armenian Defense Ministry spokesman, Armenian forces opened fire in order to repulse an Azerbaijani attack. He said two Armenian soldiers were wounded in the fighting. Azerbaijani sources give their losses as two killed and four wounded. The exchange of fire was the most serious incident on the line of contact since the summer of 1997. LF[02] U.S. AMBASSSADOR HOPES FOR AMENDMENTS TO AZERBAIJANI ELECTION LAWStanley Escudero said after a two-hour talk with first deputy parliamentary speaker Arif Ragimzade that the U.S. government "is absolutely confident" that deputies will introduce four unspecified amendments to the law on municipal elections before it is passed in the third and final reading, Turan reported on 14 June. Opposition deputies have criticized the bill as undemocratic. LF[03] AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT NOT TO ATTEND LUXEMBOURG SUMMIT?Turan on 14 June quoted unnamed sources as saying that on his doctors' advice, President Heidar Aliev will not travel to Luxembourg to attend the 22 June summit of Transcaucasus presidents. Prime Minister Artur Rasizade will represent Azerbaijan at that meeting, which Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze told journalists on 14 June is of a "consultative" character. The main objective of the meeting is the ratification of agreements between the three South Caucasus states and the European Union. Aliev was also scheduled to discuss the Karabakh conflict with his Armenian counterpart Robert Kocharian. LF[04] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT UNDERSCORES TIES WITH RUSSIASpeaking at a press briefing in Tbilisi on 14 June, Eduard Shevardnadze called for a "radical overhaul" of relations with Russia, insisting that "no one is driving Russia out of Georgia," Interfax and ITAR-TASS reported. Shevardnadze said that Georgia is "open for cooperation with Russian businessmen, politicians, the military." The previous day, Georgian parliamentary chairman Zurab Zhvania had similarly expressed regret that Russia's policies towards Georgia are counterproductive and serve only to undermine bilateral cooperation, according to "Dilis gazeti" of 14 June. LF[05] U.S. INVESTIGATES KAZAKHSTAN'S URANIUM SALESA spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan told journalists on 14 June that the U.S. Trade Department has not yet completed the investigation begun earlier this year into allegations that Kazakhstan has violated a 1992 pledge not to sell uranium on the world market at "dumping" prices, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported. Kazakh National Atomic Company official Murat Zhakishev and Kazakhatomprom Vice President Viktor Yazikov have both denied that Kazakhstan was violating the 1992 agreement. Interfax on 11 June reported that the U.S. has already imposed anti-dumping sanctions on Kazakhstan's uranium suppliers, adding that Kazakh uranium is being sold in the U.S. at 15 percent less than world prices. LF[06] KYRGYZSTAN AGAIN WITHOUT GASIntergas, the Kazakh company that supplies gas from Uzbekistan to Kyrgyzstan, again cut supplies to northern regions of Kyrgzystan, including Bishkek, on the morning of 14 June, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. The Kyrgyz government owes Intergas some $3.2 million for past deliveries, and Intergaz has halted supplies several times earlier this year because of Bishkek's failure to meet that debt. A senior Kazakh government official had assured the Kyrgyz government in late May that there would be no further disruptions in supplies. LF[07] KYRGYZ PREMIER'S VISIT TO UZBEKISTAN POSTPONEDA visit to Tashkent by Amangeldy Muraliev scheduled for 12 June has been postponed indefinitely, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported on 12 June. No explanation has been given for the postponement. LF[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[08] SERBIAN FORCES RETREAT FROM KOSOVA...A spokesman for German peacekeepers said in Prizren on 15 June that all Serbian military, police, and paramilitary forces have left the area. A Defense Department spokesman noted in Washington the previous day that Serbian forces are "making a strong effort" to withdraw from Kosova in accordance with the deadlines set down in the recent agreement between Belgrade and NATO. The spokesman noted that "the roads are jammed [and Serbian commanders] are having a hard time getting [their forces] out." In Peja, AP reported that some of the retreating Serbs engaged in a "final spree of burning, shooting, and alleged rapes." One Serbian officer said: "We're finishing up." PM[09] ...AS CIVILIAN EXODUS MOUNTSThousands of Serbs continue to flee Kosova on 15 June (see "RFE/RL Newsline, " 14 June 1999). It is unclear how many intend to leave permanently and how many want to stay temporarily in Serbia or Montenegro to see how the situation in Kosova shapes up. Momcilo Trajkovic, who is the leader of the Serbian Resistance Movement in Kosova and a critic of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, called on the international community to protect the remaining Serbs. He stressed that the Serbs will have no choice but to defend themselves if they feel they are in danger, the Belgrade daily "Danas" reported on 15 June. Trajkovic urged Serbs to stay and work for a political solution in the province. He also warned Belgrade politicians not to use the Serbs of Kosova for their own political purposes. PM[10] WHAT IS GOING ON IN DECAN?An unspecified number of fighters of the Kosova Liberation Army (UCK) attacked several ethnic Serbian villages in the Rahovec and Decan areas, prompting Serbs to seek refuge in local monasteries, "Danas" reported on 15 June. Some 200 villagers took refuge in the Decan monastery alone. Two days earlier, Bishop Artemije, who is the leading Serbian Orthodox cleric in the province, said in a statement that KFOR "is arriving too slowly" to protect Serbs. It is not clear whether peacekeepers have meanwhile reached the monasteries. PM[11] ETHNIC ALBANIANS CELEBRATE IN PRIZRENThousands of Kosovars staged a massive street party in Prizren to celebrate the departure of Serbian troops and the arrival of German KFOR peacekeepers, Deutsche Welle reported on 15 June. One Kosovar told "The New York Times" that the Serbs "will never come back. Kosova is Albanian." He added that "ninety percent" of the Serbian population "has bloody hands." PM[12] EVIDENCE OF ATROCITIES MOUNTSDutch peacekeepers found some 20 charred bodies in a village near Prizren, Reuters reported on 15 June. The UCK tipped the Dutch off about the atrocity. German KFOR troops found a mass grave in the area containing 71 bodies, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. Elsewhere, both U.K. and U.S. peacekeepers found further evidence of mass burials in the province, the BBC reported. In Kacanik, British troops continue to put together details of the apparent "mass slaughter" of Kosovars by Serbian forces this spring, "The Guardian" wrote (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 14 June 1999). NATO officials said they are concerned that Kosovars will inadvertently destroy evidence of war crimes in their haste to give victims a decent burial. Observers note that the villagers are generally simple people with little understanding of the role and practices of forensics. PM[13] NATO ARRESTS UCK FIGHTERS IN DEATH OF SERBBritish KFOR troops arrested five suspected UCK guerrillas in Prishtina in conjunction with the shooting death of a Serb the previous night, a British military spokesman said in London on 15 June. The spokesman stressed: "What we're trying to achieve is a stable situation. People wandering around with weapons and shooting at us or each other is clearly not acceptable." PM[14] ANNAN PRESENTS KOSOVA ADMINISTRATION PLAN TO SECURITY COUNCILUN Secretary-General Kofi Annan presented his finalized plan for a civil UN administration for Kosova to the Security Council on 14 June, Reuters reported. The plan puts the EU in charge of reconstruction and gives the OSCE primary responsibility for establishing democratic institutions, organizing elections, and monitoring human rights. The UNHCR will take charge of the resettlement of refugees and displaced persons. The UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo [UNMIK] will administer the police, justice, schools, public transport, telecommunications, and power plants. An international police unit of up to 2,000 will oversee the establishment of a Kosova police force. On 12 June, Annan appointed UN Undersecretary- General Sergio Vieira de Mello of Brazil as interim special representative. FS[15] MORE REFUGEES RETURN TO KOSOVA FROM ALBANIAHundreds of refugees returned to Kosova despite efforts by UCK soldiers to stop them from doing so until conditions are safe, AP reported. Meanwhile, many Albanian inhabitants of villages in the border region returned to their homes, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from Tirana. The border region was mostly calm with the exception of an exchange of fire near the village of Letaj, but no details are available. Serbian forces fired several artillery shells into Dobruna in the same area, which is the site of a UCK base. Another RFE/RL correspondent reported that many UCK fighters came down from the border region into Prizren to look for their families and inspect their homes. FS[16] IMF GIVES NEW LOAN TO ALBANIAOfficials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) told Reuters in Washington that they have given a $12.9 million loan to Albania. The IMF will also increase the credits available to Albania under a 1998 agreement by $13.1 million to $60.6 million. IMF officials said the impact of the refugee crisis on Albania's inflation and economic growth will be small because other foreign donors are covering most refugee-related costs. The IMF officials issued a statement saying that if "the refugees...have returned home by early 2000, foreign direct investment resumes, and fiscal consolidation and structural reforms continue as programmed, growth is expected to average 7 to 8 percent a year, while inflation stabilizes at industrial country levels." FS[17] MILOSEVIC LAUNCHING CAMPAIGN?Milosevic made a rare public appearance on 14 June, ostensibly to inaugurate the reconstruction of destroyed bridges in Novi Sad. He praised what he called the unity and determination of the population during the NATO air strikes. Some 10,000 people turned out to greet him, state-run television reported. He moved about in the crowd with what the "Berliner Zeitung" called the appearance of a politician on the stump. Elections are not due until 2000, but the opposition wants them to take place this fall. PM[18] DJUKANOVIC: MIXED MESSAGE ON INDEPENDENCEMontenegrin President Milo Djukanovic said in Bucharest on 14 June that his mountainous republic will continue to work for reform, democracy, and the promotion of good relations between Balkan countries, Romanian Television reported. He stressed that Montenegro will realize its aims, with or without Serbia. He added, however, that the time is not yet ripe for holding a referendum on independence and that he does not consider independence the only way to achieve his goals, the Romanian broadcast quoted him as saying. PM[19] MEIDANI: BOTH KOSOVA AND MONTENEGRO MUST BE INDEPENDENTAlbanian President Rexhep Meidani said in Bonn that both Kosova and Montenegro should become independent of Yugoslavia, the "Berliner Zeitung" reported on 15 June. He urged that all European countries become part of one federal state on the U.S. model. He stressed that an independent Kosova and Montenegro integrated into a united Europe would be a factor for stability. PM[20] KOSCHNICK CALLS FOR FIRMNESSHans Koschnick, who is Germany's special envoy for the Balkans and a former EU administrator in Mostar, told the "Berliner Zeitung" of 15 June that it is "impossible" to use compromise as a means of solving difficulties in the Balkans. He stressed that a willingness to compromise with the parties on the ground will be taken by each of them as a sign of weakness. Any partition of Kosova will lead to demands for a wholesale redrawing of frontiers on the peninsula, Koschnick warned. He stressed that refugees will gladly go home once they feel they will be secure there. He urged that international reconstruction aid be well coordinated and that it be extended to the Serbs as well. PM[21] BOSNIAN SERB MINE CLEARERS FOR KOSOVAAn official of the UNHCR told Reuters in Sarajevo on 14 June that a group of Bosnian Serb mine-clearing specialists will soon leave for Kosova. "It is quicker to send people from here now than to train people" from Kosova, the official said. The German non- governmental organization HELP will help organize the mission. HELP sponsors two Serbian, two Croatian, and two Muslim demining teams in Bosnia, and may send some of the Croats and Muslims to Kosova as well. PM[22] ROMANIA REFUSES RUSSIAN OVERFLIGHTS TO KOSOVAPresident Emil Constantinescu on 14 June said Romania is refusing a Russian request to allow overflight transportation of troops to Kosova without prior approval of those flights by the UN Security Council, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. "Even if the UN gave that permission, the request would have to follow the same procedure as that which has applied to the NATO overflight request, that is to say it would have to be approved by the parliament," Constantinescu said. In other news, U.S. President Bill Clinton on 14 June phoned Premier Radu Vasile, thanking him for the position adopted by Bucharest in the Kosova conflict. MS[23] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT INTERVENES IN LABOR CONFLICTRepresentatives of the teachers' trade unions will meet on 15 June with Premier Vasile in an attempt to end the teachers' strike. The move follows President Constantinescu's intervention one day earlier. The president met with the unions' leaders and phoned Vasile in their presence, requesting the resumption of the parleys between the government and the strikers, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. MS[24] ROMANIAN SENATOR CALL FOR ANTONESCU'S REHABILITATIONSenator Ion Moisin, a member of the ruling National Peasant Party Christian Democratic, demanded on 14 June that the Senate pass a resolution for the rehabilitation of Romania's wartime leader, Marshal Ion Antonescu, Mediafax reported. He said Antonescu had been "a great Romanian patriot, who fought for his country till his death." Antonescu was executed in 1946 as a war criminal. Moisin said that unlike the recently- rehabilitated Romanian spy chief, General Ion Mihai Pacepa, who served the Communist regime, Antonescu "fought against the USSR, and liberated Bessarabia and Bukovina." He also denied Antonescu bore any responsibility for the Holocaust, claiming that "on the contrary, he saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of Jews, refusing to carry out Adolf Hitler's order to send them to Germany." Moisin's demand was supported by independent Senator Sergiu Nicolaescu. MS[25] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT ASKS CONSTITUTIONAL COURT TO RULE ON REFERENDUMPresidential spokesman Anatol Golea on 14 June told journalists that President Petru Lucinschi will ask the Constitutional Court to rule whether the resolution adopted by the parliament on 10 June is in line with the constitution. The resolution says a referendum is invalid if less than 60 percent of eligible voters participate in it and was adopted in reaction to the Central Electoral Commission's validation of the 23 May non-binding referendum on changing the parliamentary system into a presidential one (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 7 and 8 June 1999). Golea also hinted that Moldovan parliament members were behind a declaration adopted by the Central European Initiative at its Prague meeting of 6-8 June that stated "concern over political developments in Moldova, where parliamentary democracy is endangered by anti- democratic, authoritative tendencies that could lead to destabilization." MS[26] BULGARIA DENIES MOSCOW REQUEST FOR AIR SPACEGovernment spokeswoman Stoyana Georgieva on 14 June said the government will withhold permission from Russia to use its air space for flights to Kosova until NATO and Moscow reach an agreement on the implementation of the international peacekeeping operation in that region, Reuters reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 14 June 1999). Georgieva also said that the Bulgarian government has "many times said that a partition of Kosovo would be against Bulgaria's national interests." In other news, an RFE/RL correspondent in Sofia on 14 June reported that a two-week NATO naval exercise began off the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. Participants include the U.S., Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria. MS[C] END NOTE[27] IS ROMANIA THE FUTURE OF SLOVAKIA?By Michael ShafirAn interesting analysis of the Slovak parliamentary and presidential elections has been recently provided by two members of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Jan Buncak and Valentina Harmadyova. The two Slovak sociologists, unlike other analysts of the Slovak scene, do not believe that the victory of the four-party coalition in the ballot conducted for the legislature last autumn, or Rudolf Schuster's May victory over former Premier Vladimir Meciar in the presidential elections are an indication of the Slovak electorate's move to the right of the political spectrum. Buncak and Harmadyova point out that there are right and left forces both in the new coalition and in the opposition, as they emerged after the parliamentary ballot. The real confrontation, the two sociologists show, is between approaches to reform. One orientation is to the West, the other towards an "own Slovak path," the latter being embodied by Meciar and his Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS), but also including such rightist parties as the Slovak National Party. Schuster's own political views, they point out, would place him more on the left side of the political spectrum, yet that part of the Slovak left has apparently concluded that only emulation of the West in introducing reform can take Slovakia out of the economic dead end which it had reached under Meciar's rule. Precisely the opposite is true for the other side of the spectrum. The opposition, Buncak says, though divided between left-center and right oriented streams, is nonetheless "united by the unwillingness to accept standard methods and by the effort to seek an original Slovak solution." Harmadyova points out that psychological, rather than political factors, play an important role in this cleavage. The "Slovak-oriented" side, she says, is also connected with "the traditional Slovak countryside community." It is made up of "people who accept changes only with difficulties." Both sociologists conclude that the division reflected in the last elections is more one between town and countryside orientations. Three caveats arise here, however. First, there is nothing either new, nor indeed originally Slovak about this division. "Urbanists" and "populists" have been known to confront one another under different names through the eastern part of the European continent for longer than a century. Second, Buncak and Harmadyova overlook what political scientists call the "performance" criterion. After all, Meciar and his HZDS lost the elections not because the structure of the population underwent a radical change in the last four years, but simply because the "Slovakia's way" recipe had produced nothing but an economic dead end combined with increasingly apparent evidence of corruption among Meciar cronies. Finally, they also fail to consider the ethnicity factor. It is not an exaggeration to state that it was the Hungarian vote that decided the outcome of both elections and that this vote cut across the classical town- village division. These caveats, in turn, are food for thought for further speculation. If the town-countryside division could be overcome due to the "performance criterion," this means the outcome of the elections is also easily reversible. In other words, unless the four-party coalition implements its intentions and proceeds to austerity measures and radical reforms, then in four years the electorate will remember the former and fail to benefit from the latter. "Declarations of intent" are simply destined to be short-lived, as the Romanian case amply demonstrates. In that country, the Democratic Convention of Romania (CDR) in 1996 had displaced the Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR), whose social base, like that of the HZDS, is in the countryside and in smaller urban settlements, precisely because of the "performance record" of the PDSR. Now, most polls indicate that the PDSR and its leader, former President Ion Iliescu, are likely to win the next elections. Instead of having implemented its program, the CDR, fearing social unrest at the earliest stage of its rule, has plunged the country into the "NATO membership" substitute. Having failed to achieve the latter, it is now left without credibility (and probably running out of time) for its capacity to lead the way to the former. Slovakia may be more fortunate, for the government of Premier Mikulas Dzurinda has made admission to the EU "fast track" group, rather than NATO membership, its main target, and that, in itself, calls for "performance evidence." But as viewed by the EU, such evidence must come not only in economic, but also in political form. And above all, the Slovaks are expected by the EU to pass a minority-language bill. As in Romania, where the Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania has been a member of the coalition but encountered difficulties in achieving concrete results in the legislation it wants to promote for the benefit of this minority, in Slovakia the Hungarian Slovak Coalition, having once joined the government, is facing opposition in the same quest. It might not be a bad idea for Bratislava to take a better look at Bucharest. It will find a lot of similarities, starting from the inapplicability of the classic left-right spectrum to believers in "Romania's way," a category uniting leftists and rightists alike. This glance may help the Slovaks avoid repeating the mistakes of their Romanian peers. 15-06-99 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
|
|
 |
|
 |
 |
|
All Rights Reserved.