RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 148, 99-08-02

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RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 3, No. 148, 2 August 1999

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIA SAYS TIES WITH RUSSIA TO CONTINUE AT 'HIGH LEVEL'

[02] AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION CALLS FOR RECONVENING PARLIAMENT

[03] AZERBAIJANI JOURNALISTS PROTEST TV STATION CLOSURES

[04] AZERBAIJAN GRADUATES FIRST OFFICERS

[05] UN EXTENDS ABKHAZ MANDATE, IGNORES TBILISI ON ETHNIC

[06] U.S. DEFENSE CHIEF PRAISES GEORGIA

[07] GEORGIAN DEPUTIES SEEK CLOSURE OF RUSSIAN BASES

[08] GEORGIA CANCELS ROUNDTABLE IN ETHNIC ARMENIAN AREA

[09] KAZAKHSTAN, RUSSIA STILL DISAGREE ON BAIKONUR

[10] KAZAKHSTAN PRESIDENT PUTS OFF SALE OF FARM LAND

[11] KAZAKHSTAN INCREASES URANIUM PRODUCTION

[12] KYRGYZSTAN TO BUY GAS FROM KAZAKHSTAN

[13] BISHKEK MAY RE-REGISTER HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE

[14] TAJIK OFFICIAL DENOUNCES UZBEK 'CRIMINAL GROUPS'

[15] TAJIK OPPOSITION MAY LEAVE ELECTORAL COMMISSION

[16] UZBEKISTAN TO RAISE WAGES, PENSIONS

[17] ERK SAYS UZBEK PRESIDENT BENEFITED FROM BOMBINGS

[18] UZBEK DENOUNCES 'POISONOUS' RUSSIAN IDEOLOGY

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[19] U.S. FORCES PROTECT FLEEING SERBS

[20] BOMB ATTACK ON SERBIAN CHURCH

[21] BLAIR URGES END TO VIOLENCE

[22] KOSOVA'S THACI SLAMS RUSSIANS...

[23] ...WHILE RUSSIA CALLS THACI REMARKS 'UNACCEPTABLE'

[24] SARAJEVO SUMMIT UNDERSCORES POLICY DIFFERENCES

[25] SERBIA'S AVRAMOVIC: MILOSEVIC MUST GO SOON

[26] SERBIAN POLICE IN SCUFFLE WITH OPPOSITION

[27] SFOR DETAINS BOSNIAN SERB WAR CRIMES SUSPECT

[28] CROATIA'S TUDJMAN BLASTS HAGUE TRIBUNAL

[29] WESTENDORP IMPOSES BOSNIAN PUBLIC BROADCASTING LEGISLATION

[30] HUNGARIAN FOREIGN MINISTER IN ROMANIA

[31] ROMANIAN RULING PARTY REACHES COMPROMISE ON LEADERSHIP

[32] MOLDOVAN PARLIAMENT APPROVES NEW VERSION OF PRIVATIZATION

[33] BULGARIAN DEPUTY STRIPPED OF PARLIAMENTARY IMMUNITY

[C] END NOTE

[34] IMPLICATIONS OF A ROMANIAN COURT DECISION

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIA SAYS TIES WITH RUSSIA TO CONTINUE AT 'HIGH LEVEL'

cooperation in the military sphere between Yerevan and Moscow

will continue "at a high level," ITAR-TASS reported. Foreign

Minister Vartan Oskanyan said these ties have deep historic

roots and will grow even stronger in the future. Meanwhile,

Defense Minister Vagarshak Aratyunyan stressed that this

cooperation is not directed at any third country, adding that

officers from the two countries work closely together: "We

have all come out of the same school. We have served together

and graduated from the same schools. We have the same

mentality. And there are no problems in relations." PG

[02] AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION CALLS FOR RECONVENING PARLIAMENT

elections, the 20 deputies who are members of the Democratic

Bloc have called for an extraordinary session to debate the

matter, the Turan news agency reported on 31 July. PG

[03] AZERBAIJANI JOURNALISTS PROTEST TV STATION CLOSURES

independent journalists' organization of Azerbaijan, issued a

statement on 31 July denouncing official interference that it

said has led to the closing of four of the eight local

television stations in the country, the Turan news agency

reported. Meanwhile, an Azerbaijani court fined the

opposition newspaper "Sharg" for insulting parliamentary

speaker Murtuz Aleskerov. And seven members of the

Azerbaijani People's Front were arrested in Nakhchevan on 30

July, Turan said. PG

[04] AZERBAIJAN GRADUATES FIRST OFFICERS

Azerbaijan Military Academy graduated its first class,

including 30 officers from the academy itself and another 13

from its special courses on strategic research and state

defense management, Turan reported. Defense Minister Safar

Abiyev told the graduates that he believes they "will play an

important role in raising the fighting efficiency of the

country." PG

[05] UN EXTENDS ABKHAZ MANDATE, IGNORES TBILISI ON ETHNIC

On 30 July, the UN Security Council extended the

mandate of UN military observers in the Georgian-Abkhaz

conflict zone until 31 January 2000, Prime News reported. But

the resolution failed to include a finding that Abkhazia is

guilty of engaging in ethnic cleansing. Georgia sought such a

finding, but the Russian Federation indicated it is opposed.

PG

[06] U.S. DEFENSE CHIEF PRAISES GEORGIA

Tbilisi on 1 August, U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen

praised Georgia for its progress in all areas and said it is

up to Tbilisi to decide whether to replace Russian bases with

American ones. Cohen indicated that Georgia could seek NATO

membership in the future. And he signed agreements to

increase military cooperation, including supplying

helicopters to improve security at Georgia's borders, Prime-

News, Georgian radio, and ITAR-TASS reported. PG

[07] GEORGIAN DEPUTIES SEEK CLOSURE OF RUSSIAN BASES

parliament's Defense and Security Committee on 30 July called

for the closure of Russian military bases in Gudauta and

Vaziani, Prime News reported. The committee said the former

should be closed because it is contributing to a continuation

of the Abkhaz conflict and the latter because its nearness to

Tbilisi raises questions as to its purpose, "especially under

circumstances when there have been instances of illegal arms

trade and the sheltering of terrorist groups on the territory

of the base." The committee took no position on the Russian

bases in Akhalkalaki and Batumi. PG

[08] GEORGIA CANCELS ROUNDTABLE IN ETHNIC ARMENIAN AREA

authorities on 30 July cancelled a roundtable of academics to

have been held in the predominantly Armenian area of Javakh,

Noyan Tapan and Caucasus Press reported. It explained that

move by saying the forum might exacerbate ethnic tensions

there. The Georgian authorities suggested that a roundtable

including the same people be held in Tbilisi in the fall. PG

[09] KAZAKHSTAN, RUSSIA STILL DISAGREE ON BAIKONUR

of talks between Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation has

reduced the number of disputed issues related to Moscow's use

of the Baikonur cosmodrome, ITAR-TASS reported on 31 July.

Among the issues still to be resolved include the weight of

launch vehicles and the scheduling of launches. PG

[10] KAZAKHSTAN PRESIDENT PUTS OFF SALE OF FARM LAND

protests in several cities across the country, Nursultan

Nazarbaev said on 30 July responded to one of the protestors'

demands by saying it is "perhaps premature" to sell

agricultural land, Kazakhstan television news reported.

According to RFE/RL's Kazakh Service, the demonstrators also

are calling for an end to operations at Baikonur, free

transit for the elderly and handicapped, payment of all back

wages and pensions, and the resignation of Nazarbaev. PG

[11] KAZAKHSTAN INCREASES URANIUM PRODUCTION

National Atomic Company forecast on 30 July that it will

produce 37 percent more uranium in 1999 than it did last

year, Interfax-Kazakhstan reported. PG

[12] KYRGYZSTAN TO BUY GAS FROM KAZAKHSTAN

30 July that it plans to purchase natural gas from Kazakhstan

at a price lower than it has been paying to Uzbekistan, with

which Bishkek has had some difficulties, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz

Service reported. PG

[13] BISHKEK MAY RE-REGISTER HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE

Askar Akaev has promised Jerzy Wieclaw, the head of the OSCE

office in the Kyrgyz capital, that his government will re-

register the Kyrgyz Committee for Human rights in the near

future, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service Reported. The committee was

registered in 1996 but stripped of that registration in

September 1998. Meanwhile, in what may prove to be a related

development, Akaev vetoed legislation governing non-

commercial organizations. PG

[14] TAJIK OFFICIAL DENOUNCES UZBEK 'CRIMINAL GROUPS'

Prime Minister Abdurakhmon Azimov told Interfax on 1 August

that some Uzbek citizens living illegally in eastern

Tajikistan are members of criminal groups and are "armed to

the teeth." While he gave no figures concerning such groups,

approximately 500 Uzbek citizens are known to have refused to

register with the Tajik migrant commission, the news agency

added. PG

[15] TAJIK OPPOSITION MAY LEAVE ELECTORAL COMMISSION

Tajik Opposition will pull out of the Central Electoral

Commission unless a UTO representative is appointed deputy

chairman of that group and at least 25 percent of CEC staff

in the capital and in the regions, Asia Plus reported on 30

July. Meanwhile, the UTO said that it is not yet in a

position to say that it no longer has any armed formations,

Interfax reported. PG

[16] UZBEKISTAN TO RAISE WAGES, PENSIONS

issued a decree raising wages, pensions, and student stipends

as of 1 August, ITAR-TASS reported on 31 July. The decree

sets 1,750 soms (approximately $13 U.S.) per month as the

minimum wage. This is the second such increase so far this

year. PG

[17] ERK SAYS UZBEK PRESIDENT BENEFITED FROM BOMBINGS

in the newspaper of the Erk Democratic Party, which has been

banned in Uzbekistan, says that President Islam Karimov "hit

the jackpot" as a result of the 16 February bombings, Iran's

Mashhad radio in Uzbek reported on 28 July. That is because

the bombings gave him the chance to introduce a "terror

movement" of "unprecedented oppression." Erk said that "if it

was not Karimov himself who organized these bombings, then

most likely he is currently handing out rewards to those who

did. PG

[18] UZBEK DENOUNCES 'POISONOUS' RUSSIAN IDEOLOGY

radio commentator on 27 July said that the Uzbek people must

be "vigilant" against "pseudo-cultural goods brought from

Russia" that "are aimed at making the people spiritually

blind and deaf," BBC monitoring reported on 31 July. The

speaker said that this "poisonous ideology" is being brought

in "by colonialists" and has already overwhelmed Kazakhstan.

PG

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[19] U.S. FORCES PROTECT FLEEING SERBS

helicopters prevented ethnic Albanians from attacking a

convoy of 450 Serbs in 150 automobiles and tractors on 1

August. The Serbs had requested protection as they fled north

from Zitinje, in southeastern Kosova. They told reporters

that they no longer feel safe in their ethnically mixed

village. Local ethnic Albanians said that some of the Serbs

had earlier looted Kosovar homes. The Albanians added that

they intend to take back their property if they see any Serb

trying to leave with it, Reuters reported. PM

[20] BOMB ATTACK ON SERBIAN CHURCH

that damaged the unfinished Prishtina Serbian Orthodox

Cathedral on 1 August. No one was injured. The UN's Bernard

Kouchner said that "there are people who want to destroy,

symbolically, Orthodox churches. I find this behavior

absolutely unacceptable." Serbian Orthodox Father Sava, who

favors reconciliation between Serbs and ethnic Albanians,

added that "Albanian extremists are organizing a systematic

campaign of destruction of Orthodox churches, with the

intention to blot out all traces of Serbian existence" in the

province. Sava added that "we very much wonder why [the

attack] could not have been prevented," AP reported. Work on

the cathedral began in 1996. PM

[21] BLAIR URGES END TO VIOLENCE

Blair visited Prishtina on 31 July and urged local Albanians

that "justice must apply to all people whatever their race,

whatever their religion, whatever their class, whatever their

background," AP reported. Blair met separately with both the

Kosova Liberation Army's (UCK) Hashim Thaci and his main

rival, Ibrahim Rugova. He also met with local Serbian

politicians and leaders of the Serbian Orthodox Church, who

have expressed increasing concern about the revenge attacks

against Serbs. Father Sava told Blair that Albanian looters

recently destroyed or damaged 35 medieval Serbian Orthodox

churches. He stressed that these buildings "survived 500

years of Turkish occupation but not the 40-something days of

peace with the international peacekeepers." FS

[22] KOSOVA'S THACI SLAMS RUSSIANS...

Russian KFOR soldiers after they briefly detained UCK General

Agim Ceku on 31 July near Kijeva. Ceku heads the guerrillas'

general staff. Thaci said that "as [prime minister of the

UCK-backed] provisional government of Kosova, we condemn this

act as premeditated, with a political aim.... It shows our

doubts about Russian troops' participation within KFOR were

correct," Reuters reported. Thaci warned that "we will defend

our honor" if such incidents occur again. A KFOR spokesman in

Prishtina said, however, that the soldiers detained Ceku to

check his identification and to verify whether he had KFOR's

permission to wear a UCK uniform. Ceku was traveling with

four armed bodyguards and was not carrying the card

authorizing him to do so. FS

[23] ...WHILE RUSSIA CALLS THACI REMARKS 'UNACCEPTABLE'

Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on 1 August in

Moscow calling Thaci's complaints "unacceptable and

impermissible." The statement says that "the impunity of the

UCK, carrying out illegal violent acts against local Serbs,

has reached the point where its leaders are already making

public threats against the international peacekeepers.... Any

pretence on the part of the UCK that it is somehow in charge

of the situation in Kosova and controls territory in the

province directly contradicts UN Security Council resolution

1244...and other documents describing the status and tasks of

international peacekeepers." FS

[24] SARAJEVO SUMMIT UNDERSCORES POLICY DIFFERENCES

President Bill Clinton, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder,

and several other Western leaders joined many of their Balkan

colleagues in signing a declaration on Balkan regional

development in Sarajevo on 30 July (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 30

July 1999). EU countries issued a separate statement blaming

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for Serbia's isolation.

Russia had refused to approve any explicit reference to

Milosevic in the declaration (see Part 1). Elsewhere, unnamed

U.S. officials called on the EU to follow Washington's lead

and "lift trade controls on Balkan products." The officials

stressed that EU countries "must bear the lion's share of the

burden" in the reconstruction and development of the Balkans.

After the conference, EU aid coordinator Bodo Hombach denied

charges by unnamed critics that the summit was only a "media

spectacle," the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" reported on

2 August. Official Belgrade media slammed the gathering as

"anti-Serbian." PM

[25] SERBIA'S AVRAMOVIC: MILOSEVIC MUST GO SOON

Avramovic told AP in Belgrade on 1 August that Milosevic must

resign by late September if Serbia is to receive sufficient

international aid in time for the winter. He argued that any

attempt at reform with Milosevic still in power would be

"like building a house on a landslide." Avramovic is a senior

banker whom many observers believe will head the first post-

Milosevic government, PM

[26] SERBIAN POLICE IN SCUFFLE WITH OPPOSITION

August, an unspecified number of police beat several persons.

Those protesters had sought to prevent the police from

interfering with efforts by opposition activists to collect

signatures on a petition calling for Milosevic to resign.

Following the incident, officials of the opposition

Democratic Party said they will press legal charges against

the local chief of police and several of the police involved

in the scuffle, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. In

Leskovac and Valjevo, several hundred demonstrators demanded

Milosevic's resignation. In Nis, a hunger strike staged by 14

army reservists for back wages entered its seventh day. PM

[27] SFOR DETAINS BOSNIAN SERB WAR CRIMES SUSPECT

General Javier Solana said in Brussels that NATO peacekeepers

in Bosnia detained indicted war criminal Radomir Kovac on 2

August. Solana added that NATO officials will soon send Kovac

to the Hague-based war crimes tribunal. Kovac is a former

police official and paramilitary leader whom the court

indicted in connection with the alleged systematic rape of

Muslim women in Foca during the 1992-1995 war. PM

[28] CROATIA'S TUDJMAN BLASTS HAGUE TRIBUNAL

on 30 July, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman denied recent

charges by a Hague tribunal prosecutor that he is responsible

for Bosnian war crimes (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 1 August

1999). "That accusation...is as much surprising as it is

completely unfounded. Croatia, and I personally, have done

everything to defend Bosnia," AP reported. Tudjman also

charged that "those dilettantes in The Hague" failed to take

note specific actions he took on Bosnia's behalf. Tudjman

recalled that he urged local Croats to vote in Bosnia's 1992

referendum on independence from the former Yugoslavia and

that Croatia was the first country to recognize independent

Bosnia. He stressed that "Croatia and Bosnia are so linked

that they cannot exist one without another." Earlier that

day, he and Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic signed an

agreement defining the border between the two states. PM

[29] WESTENDORP IMPOSES BOSNIAN PUBLIC BROADCASTING LEGISLATION

community's chief representative in Bosnia, Carlos Westendorp

decreed measures establishing a single public broadcasting

service for the entire country, Reuters reported from

Sarajevo on 31 July. The service will provide newscasts to

television stations both in the mainly Muslim and Croatian

federation and in the Republika Srpska. The new service will

represent Bosnia in the European Broadcasting Union and

consequently have the rights in Bosnia to broadcast

international sporting events. Westendorp's office said in a

statement that he decreed the legislation "following the

failure of the relevant local authorities" to agree on a

number of unspecified issues "vital to the continued

implementation" of the 1995 Dayton peace agreement. Austria's

Wolfgang Petritsch will shortly take up his post as

Westendorp's successor, the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung"

reported on 2 August in an interview with him. PM

[30] HUNGARIAN FOREIGN MINISTER IN ROMANIA

July and 1 August toured settlements in Transylvania

inhabited by ethnic Hungarians and met with leaders of the

Hungarian ethnic minority. On 30 July, he told journalists

that Hungary does not promote border revision and that such

fears on the Romanian side are due to "incorrect information"

or are "fueled by circles with a vested interest." Martonyi

said he and his Romanian counterpart, Andrei Plesu, agreed

that a Hungarian consulate will be opened in Miercurea Ciuc

in 2000. He said there are still "problems" in bilateral

relations stemming from the discrepancy between declarations

and their implementation. In this context, he pointed to the

restitution of Church property and the setting up of a

Hungarian-language state university. Martonyi also said he

and Plesu agreed that the planned Budapest-Bucharest highway

must pass through Transylvania and "serve the interests" of

its population. MS

[31] ROMANIAN RULING PARTY REACHES COMPROMISE ON LEADERSHIP

Minister Radu Vasile and National Peasant Party Christian

Democratic (PNTCD) chairman Ion Diaconescu agreed on 31 July

to postpone the election of a new party leadership until an

extraordinary party congress scheduled for 2001. According to

the party's statutes, the new leadership is to be elected in

January 2000. Vasile provoked an uproar within the party when

he said he will not lead the PNTCD during the parliamentary

elections scheduled for 2000 unless he is appointed party

chairman. The two PNTCD leaders also agreed that the party

will decide on coalition partners only after the

parliamentary elections. Vasile said in an interview with

Reuters on 29 July that he may opt for a coalition

partnership with "leftist parties." The declaration was

criticized by other PNTCD leaders and welcomed by Party of

Social Democracy in Romania chairman Ion Iliescu. MS

[32] MOLDOVAN PARLIAMENT APPROVES NEW VERSION OF PRIVATIZATION

The parliament on 30 July approved a new version of the

bill on the privatization of the Moldtelcom company. An

absolute majority of all deputies voted in favor of the bill,

after the Constitutional Court declared invalid a bill

approved earlier. The new version of the bill drops the

provision granting the winner of Moldtelcom's privatization

tender the right to operate mobile telephones as well. Also

on 31 July, parliamentary chairman Dumitru Diacov, changing

his previous position on the privatization of the Tirex-

Petrol company, sent the bill on that company's privatization

to President Petru Lucinschi for promulgation. The

legislation provides for a Romanian consortium to take a 51

percent stake in Tirex-Petrol in exchange for paying part of

Moldova's electricity delivery debt to Romania (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 23 and 29 July 1999). MS

[33] BULGARIAN DEPUTY STRIPPED OF PARLIAMENTARY IMMUNITY

parliament on 31 July voted 190 to seven with 12 abstentions

to strip Euroleft deputy Tsvetelin Kanchev of his

parliamentary immunity (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 28 July 1999).

The legislature went on to approve by 134 to 81 with six

abstentions that Kanchev be detained immediately. Prosecutor-

General Nikola Filchev, in a letter to the parliament, said

Kalchev is suspected of "serious crimes," including

racketeering and the "threat of battery and murder," an

RFE/RL correspondent in Sofia reported. MS

[C] END NOTE

[34] IMPLICATIONS OF A ROMANIAN COURT DECISION

The Supreme Court's recent decision to sentence Generals

Victor Athanasie Stanculescu and Mihai Chitac to 15 years in

prison and the responses to that decision raise several

questions. The most obvious is why the judiciary waited

nearly a decade to put the two generals on trial. After all,

it was an "open secret" that they had been executing the

orders of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu when they led the

attempt to quash the December 1989 popular revolt in

Timisoara, which triggered the toppling of the communist

regime.

The answer is that the Romanian judicial system was not

allowed to pursue the perpetrators of the crimes committed

during the popular revolution. The Party of Social Democracy

in Romania (PDSR), the Greater Romania Party and the Party of

Romanian National Unity--the three opposition parties in the

parliament are right when they claim that the court's

decision is a "political one." But it is political only in

the sense that it reverses their earlier objection to let

justice be done. As long as they had been in power, the

investigation into the December 1989 events was never

completed for alleged "lack of evidence." Romanian democracy,

whose "birth certificate" was marred by the mock trial of

Ceausescu and his wife, continued in a judicially ambiguous

limbo. Even those members of the Ceausescu leadership

sentenced to prison terms immediately after the overthrow of

the former regime were freed from jail on health grounds, and

most remained at liberty till after the 1996 elections.

One should avoid concluding from this "evidence" that in

order to legitimize their rule, Romania's post-1989 leaders

had staged the resistance to the revolution. The jury is

still out on that question. But it is beyond doubt that

Stanculescu (who first became minister of industry and later

defense minister) and Chitac were associated with the post-

revolutionary regime of Ion Iliescu and Petre Roman. This

common past must make Iliescu and Roman (despite their having

since parted political ways) to wonder whether they will not

be the ultimate targets of an all-out judicial campaign. And

even if the two former allies were to be pronounced innocent

by a court of justice, they would be unlikely to survive the

ordeal politically.

This may explain PDSR deputy chairman Adrian Nastase's

denunciation of the sentence as attesting to a "political

war" in which the two generals are "just the first two

victims" and Iliescu and Roman the ultimate ones. By the same

token, Defense Minister Victor Babiuc commented initially

that the verdict was "not just a legal mistake" and a

"blunder with strong political bias" but was aimed at

"discrediting the army as a whole." It would be a mistake,

however, to suggest that in responding this way, Babiuc was

putting party interests (as one Roman's deputies in the

Democratic Party) above professional ones (he is a lawyer by

training). Babiuc's main objection was to the "institutional

implications" of the sentence.

First, as both Babiuc and Chief of Staff General

Constantin Degeratu pointed out, the verdict questions the

very principle on which armies are supposed to function--

namely, carrying out orders. Indeed, the court, rejecting the

two generals' plea that they had obeyed orders, ruled that

"military discipline excludes blind subordination and does

not annul responsibility for a crime." This issue has haunted

military and military-like structures ever since the

Nuremberg trials and cuts across party lines.

For example, Interior Minister Constantin Dudu Ionescu,

taking a stand very different from that of other National

Peasant Party Christian Democratic leaders, revived a

proposal he had first made in 1998. It was the

"responsibility of the political class," he said at the time,

to find a way out of the haunting legacy of December 1989 by

agreeing to amnesty those involved in the events of that

time. And Ionescu, who was briefly defense minister when the

Democrats walked out of the coalition in February 1998, had

become even more convinced of his "solution" when Interior

Ministry forces sent to stop the miners' march on Bucharest

in January this year reportedly hesitated about obeying their

superiors lest they be accused by a PDSR successor government

of having implemented "criminal orders."

Second, the court ruled that the Ministry of Defense

must pay compensation to relatives of those killed or wounded

in 1989. Babiuc said the ministry will appeal the ruling,

which, in his opinion, affects the Romanian army's honor,

transforming it into a collective accomplice to a crime. Some

observers even argued that the army's budget should not be

slashed as a result of the compensation ruling, particularly

at a time when the army is undergoing reform under

considerable budgetary restraints.

None of these arguments, of course, carries any real

weight. Stanculescu and Chitac were brought to justice for

individual, not collective, deeds. Carrying out the orders of

a democratically elected government is not, and cannot be

considered tantamount to implementing the orders of a

dictator and thus does not undermine hierarchical principles.

Moreover, it is not the army but the "body politic" that

assumes responsibility by compensating the victims of 1989,

and it is certainly not those victims who have to carry the

mundane burden of budgetary constraints. Democratic justice,

after all, is also guided by moral responsibilities. Whether

those responsibilities can triumph in the fast-approaching

election year in a country where the army rates in opinion

polls as one of the two state institutions enjoying almost

unanimous confidence is a matter that the pending appeal of

the sentence will help clarify.

02-08-99

Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
URL: http://www.rferl.org

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