RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 165, 99-08-25

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RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 3, No. 165, 25 August 1999

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN, KARABAKH PRESIDENTS MEET

[02] AZERBAIJANI FOREIGN MINISTER VISITS GEORGIA...

[03] ...DISCUSSES GUUAM

[04] AZERBAIJAN'S CENTRAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION REJECTS CHARGES

[05] ABKHAZIA PUTS GEORGIAN FISHING CREW ON TRIAL

[06] FIRING OF TOP KAZAKH OIL OFFICIAL CLARIFIED

[07] KYRGYZ TROOPS FAIL TO RELEASE HOSTAGES...

[08] ...AS ABDUCTORS' IDENTITY REMAINS UNKNOWN

[09] POET SUGGESTS TURKMEN PRESIDENT SHOULD RETAIN POST FOR

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[10] RAHOVEC BLOCKADE CONTINUES

[11] IS UCK HEADING FOR AN OPEN CONFRONTATION WITH KFOR?

[12] KOSOVA TRANSITIONAL COUNCIL DISCUSSES CANTONIZATION...

[13] ...BUT VEDRINE OBJECTS

[14] BELGRADE WANTS END TO UN CUSTOMS SERVICE...

[15] ...AND NATO PRESENCE

[16] SERBS CONTINUE TO LEAVE KOSOVA

[17] SERBIAN GENERALS WARN OPPOSITION

[18] U.S. ENVOY MEETS SERBIAN OPPOSITION LEADERS

[19] SERBIAN UNIONS GIVE MILOSEVIC ULTIMATUM

[20] MONTENEGRIN LEADERS IMPATIENT WITH SERBIAN OPPOSITION

[21] VOJVODINA DAILY ON STRIKE

[22] AUSTRIA ARRESTS SERBIAN WAR CRIMES SUSPECT

[23] GREEK PRIME MINISTER PLEDGES TO LEGALIZE ALBANIAN

[24] ...WANTS YUGOSLAVIA INTEGRATED INTO EUROPE

[25] ROMANIAN DEPUTY APOLOGIZES FOR ANTI-SEMITIC REMARK

[26] ROMANIAN OPPOSITION WALKS OUT OF PARLIAMENT

[27] BULGARIAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT REJECTS OPPOSITION APPEAL

[C] END NOTE

[28] GERMANY WARNS AGAINST RUSSIAN SPYING

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN, KARABAKH PRESIDENTS MEET

with Arkadii Ghukasian, president of the unrecognized

Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, in Yerevan on 24 August and

briefed him on his 22 August meeting in Geneva with his

Azerbaijani counterpart, Heidar Aliev, RFE/RL's Yerevan

bureau reported. Kocharian and Ghukasian focused on

"measures aimed at strengthening the cease-fire along

Karabakh-Azerbaijani section" of the line of contact, the

Armenian presidential press service said. They also

stressed the "need to resume peace negotiations within the

framework of the OSCE's Minsk Group and Karabakh's full

participation in that process," according to the press

service. LF

[02] AZERBAIJANI FOREIGN MINISTER VISITS GEORGIA...

Tbilisi on 23-24 August, Tofik Zulfugarov held talks with

his Georgian counterpart, Irakli Menagharishvili,

parliamentary speaker Zurab Zhvania, Minister of State

Vazha Lortkipanidze, and Georgian President Eduard

Shevardnadze, all of whom underscored the broad convergence

of geopolitical and economic interests between the two

countries, Caucasus Press and Turan reported.

Menagharishvili noted that friendship and cooperation

between the two countries contribute to regional stability

and security. In a joint statement, the two ministers

pledged their governments' mutual support for their

integration into European and Euro-Atlantic structures.

Zulfugarov noted Georgia's interest in the planned Baku-

Ceyhan and Trans-Caspian pipeline projects. He also told

journalists that he does not exclude the possibility of

Azerbaijani peacekeeping troops being deployed in Abkhazia.

Some Georgian politicians are lobbying energetically for

the withdrawal of the present Russian peacekeeping force

deployed under the aegis of the CIS. LF

[03] ...DISCUSSES GUUAM

August that the legal basis for the GUUAM grouping

(Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Moldova) is

almost complete, according to Caucasus Press. He said that

more active military cooperation between GUUAM's members

cannot be excluded, adding that such cooperation "should

cause no anxiety to Russia, as it will be purely defensive

in character." Meeting with Zulfugarov the following day,

Minister of State Lortkipanidze called for intensifying

economic, political, and military-strategic cooperation

among GUUAM members, saying there should be no "serious

limitations" on the group's development. Shevardnadze

likewise noted the need to activate cooperation within the

parameters of GUUAM. Speaking to journalists in Kyiv on 18

August following talks with his Moldovan counterpart. Petru

Lucinschi, Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma said there is

"no need" to discuss turning GUUAM into either a political

or military alliance. LF

[04] AZERBAIJAN'S CENTRAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION REJECTS CHARGES

The Central Electoral Commission issued a

statement on 24 August dismissing three opposition party

leaders' allegations against long-time commission chairman

Djafar Aliev as slander, Turan reported. Etibar Mamedov,

Nizami Suleimanov and Ashraf Mehtiev, all of whom

unsuccessfully contended the October 1998 presidential

election, claimed that Veliev said in an interview with the

independent ANS TV station that 12-15 percent of the

ballots cast in that poll were falsified. They demanded the

opening of criminal proceedings against Veliev. The 24

August statement denied that Veliev had given an interview

to ANS or made any such a comment on the elections. All

three defeated candidates dispute the official outcome of

the poll, in which Aliev was reelected for a second term

with 76 percent (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 15 October 1998).

LF

[05] ABKHAZIA PUTS GEORGIAN FISHING CREW ON TRIAL

begun at Abkhazia's Supreme Court of nine crew members of a

Georgian fishing vessel intercepted in April in what

Abkhazia claims are its territorial waters, Caucasus Press

reported on 25 April. The Abkhaz authorities offered to

release the men in exchange for the release of four Abkhaz

held hostage in western Georgia by Georgian guerrillas, but

the guerrillas rejected that proposal (see RFE/RL

Newsline," 14 April and 28 June 1999). LF

[06] FIRING OF TOP KAZAKH OIL OFFICIAL CLARIFIED

Qapparov was fired as president of the state KazakhOil

company because he opposed the proposed sale of part of

Kazakhstan's 25 percent stake in the Tengizchevroil joint

venture, Interfax reported on 24 August quoting an unnamed

KazakhOil official (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 24 August 1999).

Qapparov reportedly objected that the sale would weaken

Kazakh positions on the domestic oil extraction market. The

KazakhOil source said that Qapparov also objects to a

second deal whereby the Canadian firm Hurricane

Hydrocarbons will transfer 49 percent of its shares in its

daughter company Hurricane Kumkol Munai to the oil refinery

Shymkentnefteorgsintez in return for a stake in that

facility. Qapparov reportedly argued that such deals give

rise to monopolies in the oil industry. LF

[07] KYRGYZ TROOPS FAIL TO RELEASE HOSTAGES...

troops exchanged fire on 24 August with the militants

holding a police general and four Japanese geologists

hostage in southern Kyrgyzstan's Batken Raion, killing 10

of the guerrillas. Those troops failed, however, to release

the hostages. Kyrgyz President Askar Akaev assured Japanese

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi by telephone on 24 August that

everything will be done to secure the hostages are released

unharmed. Akaev told journalists in Bishkek on 25 August

that the guerrillas have received reinforcements from

neighboring Tajikistan, Reuters reported. He estimated

their strength at 350-400. LF

[08] ...AS ABDUCTORS' IDENTITY REMAINS UNKNOWN

Tajik presidential press spokesman Zafar Saidov again

denied any connection between the hostage-takers in

southern Kyrgyzstan and the United Tajik Opposition,

claiming that the guerrillas are part of ethnic Uzbek field

commander Djuma Namangani's private army, which UTO

formations helped to drive out of Tajikistan, according to

Interfax. Saidov added that the guerrillas belong to the

so-called Movement for the Islamic Resurrection of

Uzbekistan. But a senior Kyrgyz trade official told

Interfax on 24 August that the kidnappers have links with

the Islamic Hizb-ut-Tahrir (Liberation Party) group

headquartered in Pakistan. He said that organization

recently intensified its operations in Uzbekistan with the

aim of creating an Islamic state in the Fergana valley. LF

[09] POET SUGGESTS TURKMEN PRESIDENT SHOULD RETAIN POST FOR

In an article published recently in "Neitralnyi

Turkmenistan," Durdymuhammet Kurbanov, a former press

spokesman to Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov,

proposed that the country's constitution be amended at the

next parliamentary session, which will take place in

December, to allow Niyazov to occupy that post for life,

Reuters and Interfax reported on 24 August. At present, one

individual may serve only two consecutive presidential

terms. Niyazov was elected president in 1992 for a five-

year term, which was prolonged in a referendum two years

later. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[10] RAHOVEC BLOCKADE CONTINUES

Albanians continued to block roads leading to Rahovec on 25

August, AP reported. The previous day, negotiations between

Dutch, German, and Russian KFOR officials and

representatives of the Albanians had yielded no results.

Protest leader Agim Hasku said the protests will continue

until KFOR gives up plans to deploy Russian troops there.

He added: "We told [KFOR] that the Russians will only

destabilize the situation." Hasku accused Russian

mercenaries of committing atrocities in the region during

the recent conflict. He stressed that "the Russians can be

sent where there were no massacres committed by Russians.

Why station them here, where so many crimes were committed

by Russians?" In the Serbian quarter of the city, several

hundred Serbs rallied in support of the Russians. FS

[11] IS UCK HEADING FOR AN OPEN CONFRONTATION WITH KFOR?

"Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" on 25 August reported that

the Kosova Liberation Army (UCK) issued orders in Rahovec

two days earlier that all shops, restaurants, and cafes

must close and that only food stores can remain open. The

daily noted that the UCK thus "artificially increased the

pressure in Rahovec and mobilized the inhabitants [to take

part in] the road blocks." He added that "on one hand, the

Russian troops can hardly fight their way through. On the

other hand, KFOR cannot allow the UCK to tell them what to

do. The issue in Rahovec is who will have the final say."

FS

[12] KOSOVA TRANSITIONAL COUNCIL DISCUSSES CANTONIZATION...

for "cantonization" high on the agenda of the third

meeting of the Kosovar transitional council on 25

August, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported.

Kosovar Serbian leader Momcilo Trajkovic recently

unveiled the plan (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 August

1999). Trajkovic told RFE/RL's South Slavic Service on

24 August that the plan calls for setting up five

large multi-ethnic cantons, in each of which

"decisions will be made by consensus." He added that

"we have asked for extra-territorial status for

monasteries, so that they can belong to Serbia or

Serbian cantons..... The [demographic] basis of

cantonization will be the situation [that existed]

before the NATO bombing." And he stressed that

"cantonization is a means and not our goal. It is a

means to create a multi-ethnic [Kosova]." FS

[13] ...BUT VEDRINE OBJECTS

Vedrine said in Prishtina on 24 August that the

cantonization of Kosova is not provided for by UN Security

Council Resolution 1244, Reuters reported. He stressed that

"it is not an advisable way of organizing things. But

saying this does not prevent us from dealing with the

underlying issue, which is security.... If this idea is

once again in the forefront, it is precisely because the

safety of Serbs, who...are scattered, has not been

guaranteed." Vedrine was visiting Kosova with his German

counterpart, Joschka Fischer. Fischer told RFE/RL's South

Slavic Service that "after all the horrible events, after

all the years of repression and apartheid policy by

Belgrade toward the Kosovar Albanian population, we cannot

expect the implementation of the peace process and the

transition from violence to democracy to be without

difficulties." FS

[14] BELGRADE WANTS END TO UN CUSTOMS SERVICE...

Jovanovic, who is Yugoslavia's chief envoy to the UN, sent

a letter to the world organization on 24 August to demand

an end to the UN's customs service. He stressed that the

existence of the service violates Yugoslav sovereignty and

Belgrade's June agreement with NATO. He noted that customs

agents collect duties on goods coming from Serbia into

Kosova, which Belgrade points out is still legally part of

Yugoslavia. In early August, UNMIK installed customs

controls on Kosova's borders with Macedonia and Albania to

collect urgently needed revenues and stop the influx of

uncontrolled and untaxed imports. Serbian authorities have

repeatedly called for Serbian customs agents to return to

the province (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 26 July 1999). PM

[15] ...AND NATO PRESENCE

commands southern Serbia's Third Army, said that "our

country has the right to demand that the international

forces leave [Kosova] and let us make order the way it

should be. I am convinced it will happen soon," AP reported

from Belgrade on 25 August. He predicted that clashes

between NATO and UCK forces will become more frequent in

the near future. PM

[16] SERBS CONTINUE TO LEAVE KOSOVA

Janowski said in Geneva on 24 August that only 30,000 Serbs

remain in Kosova. He added that each exodus of Serbian

civilians triggers the next one. PM

[17] SERBIAN GENERALS WARN OPPOSITION

published a letter in the mass-circulation Belgrade daily

"Blic" on 24 August saying that the army will quash any

politically inspired violence. The military leaders added

that any political change must come through "democratic

means" and not through street protests. The generals

criticized retired General Momcilo Perisic, who is their

former chief but now leads an opposition party. They

accused him of "receiving instructions" from NATO during

the Atlantic alliance's recent bombing campaign. PM

[18] U.S. ENVOY MEETS SERBIAN OPPOSITION LEADERS

who recently replaced Robert Gelbard as U.S. special envoy

for the former Yugoslavia, met in the Montenegrin resort of

Budva on 24 August with several Serbian opposition leaders.

They included Democratic Party leader Zoran Djindjic, the

Social Democrats' Vuk Obradovic, and the Alliance for

Change's Vladan Batic. It is unclear who also attended. The

Serbian Renewal Movement's Vuk Draskovic was not invited,

RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. Batic later told

the private BETA news agency that Washington wants the

fractious opposition to overcome its differences. At the

same time, the U.S. seeks to identify and promote any rifts

within government ranks, he said. Batic added that the

opposition leaders agreed to meet again with Dobbins but

did not set a date. PM

[19] SERBIAN UNIONS GIVE MILOSEVIC ULTIMATUM

Free and Independent Labor Unions issued a declaration in

Belgrade on 24 August calling on Milosevic to resign by 10

September (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 14 July 1999). If he does

not meet that deadline, the unions will decide on launching

a general strike, which in Serbia means short protests

rather than a complete stoppage, Reuters reported. The

independent unions are deeply divided, just like the

political opposition. State-run unions have a much larger

membership. PM

[20] MONTENEGRIN LEADERS IMPATIENT WITH SERBIAN OPPOSITION

that Milosevic is not strong enough to defeat the

opposition. Soc fears, however, that the opposition will

lose its battle "because of its own incompetence," AP

reported. He added that he believes that "widespread

poverty and public pressure" will force Draskovic and

Djindjic to sink their differences and form an alliance to

oust Milosevic. Draskovic has rejected any such alliance

(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 23 August 1999). PM

[21] VOJVODINA DAILY ON STRIKE

language Novi Sad daily "Magyar Szo" began a strike for

back pay on 24 August. The workers also demand that the

staff have greater control over the paper's finances,

RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM

[22] AUSTRIA ARRESTS SERBIAN WAR CRIMES SUSPECT

chief prosecutor Louise Arbour said in The Hague on 25

August that Austrian authorities have arrested Bosnian Serb

General Momir Talic. She said Talic, whom the court

indicted secretly, is wanted for crimes committed against

Muslims and Croats in the Prijedor area during the 1992-

1995 conflict. PM

[23] GREEK PRIME MINISTER PLEDGES TO LEGALIZE ALBANIAN

Kostas Simitis said in Tirana on 24 August

that "we are moving towards the legalization of those

immigrants who already have a job or are in the process of

getting one. In future, [proof of employment in Greece]

should be a precondition for those who come," Reuters

reported. Simitis signed two cooperation agreements with

Albania's Prime Minister Pandeli Majko. Under the terms of

one of those agreements, Greece will donate $1.5 million

for infrastructure projects in southern Albania, $500,000

of which will be used in border areas where the Greek

minority lives. Greece and Albania also agreed to jointly

patrol the Corfu Straits. FS

[24] ...WANTS YUGOSLAVIA INTEGRATED INTO EUROPE

said that "it is time for all Balkan countries to be

integrated into Euro-Atlantic structures.... I mean all

countries, without exceptions, regardless of who's the head

of that country," AP reported. Simitis added that Balkan

borders should not be changed. Majko, however, said that

"according to the Albanian government, the essence of the

[regional] stability pact is the respect for the new Balkan

realities, created after the conflict in Kosova." Majko

also said that "in today's Serbia, the main problem is not

Milosevic, because it is clear to everybody who Milosevic

is. The main problem in Serbia today is the opposition,

which does not present a clear and democratic alternative."

FS

[25] ROMANIAN DEPUTY APOLOGIZES FOR ANTI-SEMITIC REMARK

letter addressed to Petre Roman, Party of Social Democracy

in Romania (PDSR) deputy Miron Mitrea apologized for his

anti-Semitic remark directed at the Senate chairman,

Romanian media reported on 24 August. Mitrea said the

remark had been "cited out of context." Adrian Nastase,

PDSR first deputy chairman, said on 24 August that Mitrea

was misquoted, but he added that if he made the remarks, he

"will be sanctioned." The daily "Cronica romana" quoted

deputy Dorel Dorian, who represents the Federation of

Jewish Communities in the parliament, as saying that Roman,

whose mother was a Gentile, is not a Jew. "If he wanted to

convert, he would be turned down," he commented, adding

that Roman has "a greater chance of become Romania's

patriarch than its chief rabbi" (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 23

August 1999). MS

[26] ROMANIAN OPPOSITION WALKS OUT OF PARLIAMENT

representing the PDSR, the Greater Romania Party, and the

Party of Romanian National Unity walked out of the Chamber

of Deputies on 24 August to protest the chamber's decision

not to debate their amendments to the restitution laws

currently under debate, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported.

Nastase told journalists that the parliamentary majority

wants to " restore pre-WWII conditions, when 5 percent of

the population owned 95 percent of the national wealth."

The Hungarian Democratic Federation of Romania said it will

support the government-proposed restitution laws only if

that legislation extends restitution to properties

confiscated by the Communists from the Churches. MS

[27] BULGARIAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT REJECTS OPPOSITION APPEAL

opposition Socialist Party's appeal against the recently

amended law on local elections, which the parliament has

passed, BTA reported. The Socialists challenged the

provision obliging candidates to state whether they were

informers or on the payroll of the communist secret police,

arguing that the requirement limits constitutional rights.

The court ruled that the provision does not disqualify

candidates from running but has "a moral character." The

Socialist also appealed the provision abolishing the

election of councilors in settlements with a population of

fewer than 500. The court ruled that it is the parliament's

prerogative to decide on such administrative matters. MS

[C] END NOTE

[28] GERMANY WARNS AGAINST RUSSIAN SPYING

Germany's intelligence service has warned that as many

as 200 Russian agents may be actively collecting military

and economic secrets in the country.

The warning came from Germany's counter-espionage

organization, the Office for the Protection of the

Constitution. A spokesman recalled that since 1995 it has

regularly warned German industry and business that Russia

is as interested in collecting commercial information as it

is in learning German and NATO military secrets. In 1996,

the counter-intelligence organization published a pamphlet

warning industry against Russian espionage.

A spokesman who spoke with RFE/RL on the condition of

anonymity said the organization's warnings have "often not

been taken seriously enough." He added that "the evidence

indicates that too often information about new technology

and other secrets is not sufficiently protected against

espionage from within the company."

The government's security adviser, Ernst Uhrlau, said

a few days ago that an "energetic protest" was made in

Moscow against Russia's continuing espionage activities,

despite Germany's massive financial assistance to the

Russian economy. But commentators noted that Uhrlau's

predecessors, and even former Chancellor Helmut Kohl, made

similar protests without any apparent effect. Kohl raised

the issue at a November 1997 meeting in Moscow with Russian

President Boris Yeltsin.

Uhrlau said it is unlikely that Germany will impose

economic sanctions on Russia, as has been demanded by the

chairman of the parliamentary internal affairs committee,

Wilfried Penner. But Penner has said he may ask questions

about the damage caused by Russian espionage in an open

session of the parliament.

The latest warning about Russian espionage in Germany

follows the arrest of two men alleged to have passed to

Russia secret military information.

One of them, Peter Sommer, is a 52-year-old engineer

at Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace (DASA), which has research

contracts for various military projects. He is said to have

been active since 1997 and is suspected of having stolen

studies about the latest developments in military

helicopters and anti-tank weapons and possibly information

about the weaponry carried by the new fighter aircraft, the

Eurofighter.

The other man accused is a 39-year-old landowner in

Lower Saxony, Michael Koch. The authorities believe it was

he who persuaded Sommer to obtain the information. Koch is

the son of an arms dealer who was formally accused in 1979

of trying to recruit former German officers for the Libyan

army of Muammar Gaddafi.

The Federal Prosecutors Office has declined to give

details of the case while investigations continue. But

lawyers for the two say Koch is suspected of having tried

to recruit several people to obtain sensitive information.

When Koch was arrested in Hannover on July 28 he was

allegedly about to leave for Moscow with a briefcase full

of secret documents. The head of the provincial security

organization in Lower Saxony, Rolf-Peter Minnier, told

journalists that with Koch's arrest "we caught a really big

fish."

Koch appeared in the Federal court in Karlsruhe last

week but refused to make a statement. He and Sommer are

detained in separate prisons. Officials say they are

unlikely to go on trial until next year.

The counter-espionage organization says it is also

worried about economic espionage. Its spokesman said Russia

appears to be interested in new technology in industry, in

computer technology, micro-electronics, and in gene

technology. "Apparently, the goal is to improve Russia's

economy by obtaining information about Western advances in

the industrial, scientific, and electronic fields," he

added.

Russia makes no secret of its activities. A Russian

Federation law obliges the foreign intelligence service to

"support the economic development and scientific progress

of the country." German newspapers frequently report that

President Yeltsin endorsed economic espionage for the good

of the country in a speech to Russia's Security Council in

February 1996. But German officials concede that in many

cases, Russia now obtains its economic information through

joint ventures with German companies.

By the same token, the German counter-intelligence

agency says other countries are also active in trying to

obtain information in Germany about Western technology.

Among them are Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and China.

Moreover, accusations have also been made against the

U.S., which maintains a Cold War electronic listening

station at Bad Aibling, near Munich, and in some other

parts of the country. Some German politicians charge that

the U.S. monitors phone conversations and other

communications inside German industry. The chairman of the

parliament's Internal Affairs Committee, Wilfried Penner,

renewed those charges last week.

The author is an RFE/RL correspondent based in Munich,

Germany.

25-08-99

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

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