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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 235, 99-12-06Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 3, No. 235, 6 December 1999CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT ENDORSES NEW GOVERNMENT'SPROGRAMThe parliament on 3 December failed to challenge the program submitted the previous day by Prime Minister Aram Sargsian's new cabinet, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Sargsian, for his part, expressed thanks for deputies' unanimous support, which he said "gives me more strength." His program draws heavily on the policies outlined by his murdered brother and predecessor, Vazgen Sargsian. It focuses on a continuation of market reforms, a crackdown on corruption and the shadow economy, and the restoration of political and economic stability. LF [02] ARMENIAN KARABAKH VETERANS CRITICIZE PRESIDENTAt the fourth congress of the Yerkrapah Union of Veteransof the Karabakh war, which took place in Yerevan on 2-3 December, the organization's deputy chairman, Albert Bazeyan, accused President Robert Kocharian of exacerbating political disputes and of failing to guarantee political stability in Armenia, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Bazeyan also strongly condemned what he termed official media "propaganda" directed against the army in the wake of the 27 October parliamentary shootings in which Premier Vazgen Sargsian, Yerkrapah's first leader, was killed. Addressing the 800 delegates to the congress on 3 December, Minister for Industrial Infrastructure Vahan Shirkhanian, a former deputy defense minister, called for Kocharian's resignation and new presidential elections. But that demand did not figure in the final resolution adopted by the congress. LF [03] AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT, OPPOSITION COMMENT ON U.S.CONCERNPresident Heidar Aliev told journalists in Baku on 2 December that he believes the concern over human rights violations in Azerbaijan expressed in a 10 November letter from a group of 14 U.S. Congressmen is misplaced, Turan reported. Aliev likewise rejected the congressmen's fears that the 12 December municipal elections will not be democratic, adding that Azerbaijan will not bow to instructions from other countries. Opposition Musavat Party chairman Isa Gambar told Turan the following day that Aliev was wrong to argue that the elections are Azerbaijan's internal affair. Azerbaijan National Independence Party chairman Etibar Mamedov predicted that falsification of the poll is inevitable. LF [04] BULGARIAN PRESIDENT CONCLUDES AZERBAIJAN VISITVisiting Baku on 2-3 December, Petar Stoyanov held talkswith his Azerbaijani counterpart Aliev and parliamentary chairman Murtuz Alesqerov on expanding bilateral cooperation, especially in the sphere of transportation within the framework of the EU TRACECA program, Turan reported. Stoyanov also affirmed Bulgaria's willingness to participate in the transportation of Azerbaijan's Caspian oil shipped from the Georgian terminal at Supsa to the Bulgarian port of Burgas, noting that the signing last month of framework agreements on the construction of the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline do not render redundant plans for a Burgas- Aleksandropoulis pipeline. Stoyanov said Bulgaria will support Azerbaijan's efforts to be admitted as a full member of the Council of Europe. LF [05] CONFUSION OVER ALLEGED CHECHEN THREAT TOMOSCOW'S EMBASSY IN GEORGIAQuoting an unidentified source in the Russian Foreign Ministry, ITAR-TASS reported on 3 December that Moscow is considering evacuating dependents of the staff of its Tbilisi embassy because of an anticipated Chechen terrorist threat. The Georgian Foreign Ministry issued a statement the same day saying that it has increased security measures at the embassy's request but that the measures requested by the embassy far exceed those required to deflect a potential attack and are aimed at creating the impression that the Georgian authorities cannot ensure security in the country. But an embassy spokesman denied any knowledge of any heightened danger or that instructions were received to evacuate non-essential personnel. LF [06] KAZAKHSTAN'S PRESIDENT MEETS WITH FOREIGNINVESTORSSpeaking at a session in Almaty on 3 December of the Foreign Investors' Council, Nursultan Nazarbaev predicted that GDP should increase by 1 percent in 1999, compared with a fall of 2.5 percent the previous year, Reuters reported. He further noted that gold and foreign currency reserves are rising and that the national currency is stable, but also conceded that economic recovery could be jeopardized by the negative trade balance or by acute social problems. LF [07] KAZAKHSTAN TO RECEIVE NEW EBRD LOANSNazarbaevalso met on 3 December in Almaty with EBRD head Horst Koehler to discuss cooperation, Interfax reported. Agreements were signed whereby the EBRD will advance loans totaling $160 million to Kazakhstan's railways and energy sectors and Kazakhtelecom. LF [08] KAZAKHSTAN NOT TO DEPORT SEPARATISTS TO RUSSIAThe Russian citizens arrested last month in Ust-Kamenogorskfor allegedly plotting to seize administrative buildings in eastern Kazakhstan and declare a Russian Altai Republic will not be deported to Russia, Interfax-Kazakhstan reported on 3 December quoting a local Kazakh security official (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 23 and 24 November 1999). Nor does Kazakhstan plan additional security on its border with Russia, another Kazakh security official told the agency. LF [09] KYRGYZ GOVERNMENT SUBMITS AMENDED DRAFTBUDGETThe Kyrgyz parliamentary press service announced on 3 December that the government has amended the draft budget for 2000, which deputies had rejected on 15 November, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 16 November 1999). Projected revenues and expenditures are cut by some 10 percent and now stand at 9.769 billion soms ($217 million) and 9.58 billion soms respectively. Deputy Dosbol Nur Uulu told RFE/RL that the new draft does not address deputies' demands for an increase in pensions and the minimum monthly wage. Also on 3 December, First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Silaev ordered ministers and enterprise heads to pay all wage and pension arrears and social allowances by the end of the year. Those debts total $12.3 million. LF [10] ANOTHER PROTEST DEMONSTRATION IN KYRGYZCAPITALGroups of 200-300 Bishkek residents blocked major highways in the city on 2-3 December to protest the government's failure to negotiate an agreement with Uzbekistan on the resumption of natural gas supplies for heating purposes, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. A similar protest took place one week earlier (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 November 1999). Uzbekistan halted gas supplies in mid-November in retaliation for Kyrgyzstan's $4 million unpaid debts for previous supplies. LF [11] TAJIK OPPOSITION PARTY RE-REGISTEREDThe Ministry ofJustice on 3 December formally registered the Democratic Party of Tajikistan (Almaty platform), Asia Plus-Blitz reported. The Democratic Party of Tajikistan first registered in September 1991 but was banned in June 1993, after which it split into two groups. One group distanced itself from the United Tajik Opposition and was registered in 1995 as a new organization, the Democratic Party of Tajikistan (Tehran platform.) The Ministry of Justice lifted its ban on the Democratic Party of Tajikistan (Almaty platform) and three other parties in August (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 12 August 1999). LF [12] UZBEKISTAN HOLDS PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONSMorethan 93 percent of Uzbekistan's 12.7 million electorate cast their votes on 5 December in elections to the 250-deputy parliament. All seats were contested in single-mandate constituencies. Five political parties, none of which is in opposition to the country's leadership, contended the poll. The OSCE sent only a 17-person assessment mission, rather than a fully-fledged observer mission, saying that given the ban on two opposition parties the election process could not be considered democratic. LF [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[13] TRAJKOVSKI WINS MACEDONIAN PRESIDENTIAL VOTE...Boris Trajkovski of the center-right Internal MacedonianRevolutionary Organization (VMRO-VPMNE) defeated Social Democrat Tito Petkovski on 5 December by a margin of some 69,000 votes. Trajkovski told supporters in Skopje: "It is time for us to deal with a serious matters now that this long, long process is over. The stability and security of the country have been preserved," Reuters reported. The election was a partial re-run of the 14 November ballot, which the Social Democrats claimed involved fraud in some 230 polling stations, primarily ones in areas inhabited by the ethnic Albanian minority (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 November 1999). The latest vote yielded almost identical results to the earlier ballot. Trajkovski's party is the senior partner in the governing coalition, which also includes the Democratic Alternative and Democratic Party of the Albanians. PM [14] ...BUT WILL SOCIAL DEMOCRATS ACCEPT?SocialDemocratic officials said in Skopje on 5 December that the latest round of voting contained "widespread irregularities," AP reported. They added that they will demand that the Supreme Court declare the ballot invalid. Earlier that day, several Albanians told Western news agencies that they believe the Social Democrats do not recognize the Albanians' right to take part in political life. Observers suggested that a victory for Petkovski could have strained relations between the ethnic Macedonians and the Albanians, who constitute about 23 percent of the population. During the campaign, Petkovski made many statements that offended Albanian public opinion. PM [15] OSCE REPORT: SERBIAN VIOLENCE IN KOSOVA WASPLANNEDThe OSCE released a report in Vienna on 6 December that argues that the "cycle of violence has not yet been broken" in Kosova. The study shows that the violence committed by Serbian forces in the first half of 1999 was part of a deliberate, planned campaign aimed at driving the ethnic Albanian majority from the province. "Everywhere the attacks on communities appear to have been dictated by strategy, not by breakdown in command and control," the report noted. Violence by ethnic Albanians is also discussed, but the study notes that "the sheer scale and the involvement of the [Serbian] state make the [violence carried out by Serbian forces] of a structurally different order" than that committed by Albanians. The report highlights the deliberate killing of children, the elderly, and the disabled by Serbian forces as well as violence against elderly Serbs by Albanians. PM [16] SERBIAN POLICE ARREST KOSOVAR DEFENSE LAWYERNatasa Kandic, who is one of Serbia's leading human rightsactivists, told Reuters in Belgrade on 5 December that police arrested Teki Bokshi two days earlier. The ethnic Albanian is a defense attorney for some 2,000 Kosovars being held in Serbian jails. He was travelling back to Belgrade from visiting clients in Sremska Mitrovica at the time of his arrest. Kandic added that she does not know where Bokshi is being held. She stressed that she believes that the police are trying to "stop our work" in defending ethnic Albanians in court. PM [17] KOSOVAR 'GOVERNMENT' TO ISSUE PASSPORTSThe self-styled "provisional government of Kosova," which is backed by the former Kosova Liberation Army (UCK), said in a statement in Prishtina on 4 December that it will soon issue passports. The move follows an earlier announcement by the UCK-backed government that it will issue identity cards, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. Neither the government nor its documents are recognized by the international community, including the UN civilian administration in Kosova. The Belgrade authorities recently reported that they have issued 5,000 Yugoslav passports and 600 identity cards to Kosovars in the past three months. PM [18] EU OIL TRUCKS REMAIN STUCK ON SERBIAN BORDEREUofficials decided in Brussels on 3 December to send the 14 trucks carrying fuel oil for Nis and Pirot back to Macedonia from the border crossing into Serbia, where Serbian customs officials have blocked their entry (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 2 December 1999). Serbian customs personnel refused, however, to allow the trucks to return to Macedonia. Meanwhile, the EU must pay Serbian customs $64 per truck each day in "parking fees," Reuters reported. Michael Graham, head of the EU mission in Belgrade, told AP on 5 December that the incident is an expression of Belgrade's "ill will." He commented that "if this were an isolated question, I wouldn't be so worried, but it's not. This delay came after a series of other obstacles." Nis Mayor Zoran Zivkovic added that "the dirty game continues." PM [19] DRASKOVIC PARTY TO SHUN SERBIAN SHADOW CABINETDragoslav Avramovic, who is former governor of the NationalBank and one of Serbia's most popular public figures, said in Belgrade on 4 December that he does not object to proposals from some opposition leaders to form a shadow cabinet. Avramovic has been widely discussed as the most likely candidate to head any government formed by the opposition. Predrag Simic, who is an adviser to the Serbian Renewal Movement's (SPO) Vuk Draskovic, said his party will not participate in a shadow government, which Simic called "a waste of time and energy." Observers suggest that the SPO still hopes to cut a deal with the regime, with which it shares a nationalist and anti-Western outlook. Draskovic served as Yugoslav deputy prime minister until 28 April 1999. PM [20] ALBANIAN DEMOCRATS TRADE CHARGES OFCORRUPTIONGenc Pollo, who is a former top aide to Democratic Party leader and ex-President Sali Berisha, said in Tirana on 5 December that Berisha "used family members to pocket large amounts of money from local businessmen and buy property in New York," dpa reported. Pollo also charged that Berisha made $100,000 from a now defunct pyramid investment company and had other questionable business interests. The Democratic Party said in a statement that Pollo's charges are "fabrications." Two days earlier, a spokesman for Berisha said that Pollo has dubious business connections and illegally acquired two "luxury apartments" in central Tirana. Pollo is a member of the parliament but resigned his party offices after failing to defeat Berisha for the party chairmanship in October (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 4 October 1999). PM [21] CROATIAN GOVERNING PARTY WANTS VALENTIC ASPRIME MINISTER...The Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ) said in a statement on 3 December that it will nominate former Prime Minister Nikica Valentic to head a HDZ-led government after the 3 January elections. The statement added that Vladimir Seks will become speaker of the parliament if the HDZ wins the vote. The BBC's Croatian Service noted on 6 December that the HDZ is apparently influenced by unspecified recent public opinion polls that rate Valentic as the most popular prime minister and Seks as the most competent faction manager in the parliament. PM [22] ...BUT WHAT ABOUT GRANIC?RFE/RL's South Slavic Servicenoted on 3 December that missing from the list of top candidates is Foreign Minister Mate Granic. Recent polls in "Jutarnji list" show that he is the only HDZ leader who could possibly defeat Social Democrat Ivica Racan in a presidential election. Valentic told "Jutarnji list" of 6 December that Granic would be the best presidential candidate for the HDZ in a post-Tudjman era. Valentic added that he is confident that he and Granic as top candidates will enable the HDZ to "obtain 5 to 10 percent more votes" than would otherwise be the case. PM [23] ROMANIAN RAILWAY WORKERS GO ON STRIKERailwayworkers throughout Romania went on strike on 6 December to demand a 70 percent wage increase and improved working conditions. As a result of their action, some 60 percent of railway traffic in the country came to a standstill. The previous day, Transportation Minister Traian Basescu offered to raise wages by 20 percent, but the unions rejected the offer. Basescu said if the government met the union's demands, prices for train tickets would go up by 40 percent, which he described as "unacceptable now, when Christmas is coming," AP reported. While passenger train conductors have declared an unlimited strike, freight train conductors were expected to go back to work later in the day on 6 December. VG [24] ROMANIA HOOKED UP TO SOYUZ PIPELINERomanianPresident Emil Constantinescu on 3 December attended a ceremony to open a new pipeline connection to the Soyuz gas pipeline that runs from Russia through Ukraine to Romania, ITAR-TASS reported. The new pipeline connection will allow Romanian to increase the annual amount of gas it imports from Russia by 2.3-4 billion cubic meters. VG [25] OSCE MISSION HEAD REACTS TO TRANSDNIESTERCOMPLAINTSThe head of the OSCE permanent mission to Moldova, William Hill, said the fact that Transdniester officials did not sign the OSCE agreement on the withdrawal of Russian troops from the breakaway region of Moldova does not mean that the agreement does not apply to the region, Infotag reported on 3 December. Hill was responding to complaints about the deal by Transdniester leader Igor Smirnov, who declared it "invalid" because no representatives from the region signed it (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 2 December 1999). "Not all countries signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the Helsinki document either, but they are binding for all," Hill said. VG [26] BULGARIA ASKS TO BE REMOVED FROM EU VISABLACKLISTBulgarian Prime Minister Ivan Kostov on 3 December said his country's accession to the EU would secure greater public support if the EU eased visa restrictions on Bulgarians, BTA reported. Kostov was speaking upon his return from a visit to the Netherlands and Belgium, where he brought up the issue with the leaders of those two countries and European Commissioner Romano Prodi. VG [C] END NOTE[27] A DECADE OF DISAPPOINTMENTSBy Paul GobleThe fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 unleashed great expectations that the world was entering a new period of democracy, free markets, peace, and stability. But despite the undeniable progress almost everyone has made, the decade since that time has brought even greater disappointments, both in the countries that languished under communist domination as well as in those that had actively fought that political system. Such a sequence, of course, is typical of periods of massive change. As the Polish writer Adam Michnik points out in the current issue of the American journal "Dissent," "any great social change unleashes great expectations. And therefore, of course, it leads to great disappointments. This particular decade of disappointed expectations has had the unintended consequence of focusing attention on three aspects of the communist experience in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe that many participants in and analysts of these developments have until now been largely unwilling to confront. First, communism was far more insidious, pervasive, and evil than even many of its sharpest critics have been prepared to acknowledge. As a result, overcoming its consequences requires a far greater effort over a longer period than many had earlier assumed. Not only did the communist regimes of the region kill millions of people and destroy their physical environment in the name of a supposedly higher good--something even former Communists now acknowledge; these regimes deformed the mental and moral make-up of the people living under them. The communist authorities were ultimately unsuccessful in reducing everyone to the status of "Homo Sovieticus." Had they been able to achieve that objective, these regimes might have survived far longer than they did. But they did have a major impact on those over whom they exercised their power, as any comparison of pre-communist and post- communist periods in these countries shows. Many of the most committed anti-Communists, however, had assumed that formally replacing communism as the ruling ideological system with democracy and free market economics would be sufficient to overcome up to seven decades of communist indoctrination. Second, Soviet domination of this region was never only about communism, and resistance to that domination was never only about communism, either. Instead, it was about nationalism and patriotism, values that the Soviet system sometimes actively exploited and at other times even more actively opposed. There remain enormous differences between those countries where indigenous groups imposed communism and those where a foreign occupying power did so. In the former, many people viewed the communist government as somehow their own, even if they hated it for what it did. In the latter, far more people viewed it as what it was, an occupying force that they would ultimately overthrow. During the communist period, this difference helped explain the pride many Russians took in the achievements of the Soviet state, even if they were suffering as much as anyone else from its rule. And it explains some of the impetus behind East European resistance to communist occupation, not only in 1956 and 1968 but in the struggle to overthrow communism a decade ago. But as important as these differences were in Soviet times, they have become even more significant in the post- communist period. It has proved far less difficult for those societies that always viewed communism as something foreign to turn away from than it has been for those that saw communism as part of their own national patrimony. To a large extent, this national dimension of communism and its collapse has been either ignored or downplayed by all involved. Any mention of it inevitably reopens the question of just what the Cold War was in fact about. And any discussion of this dimension of that conflict opens a variety of broader historical issues that political leaders both in the East and West believe are best resolved by being ignored. Third, the struggle between those who did the oppressing and those who were oppressed did not end just because the Berlin Wall fell and those who had called themselves Communists now call themselves something else. Largely because neither the international community nor the people in many post-communist countries were prepared to acknowledge the impact of communism on the minds and behavior of people living under it, there has been no genuine de-communization either of personnel or of ideas in the governing stratum. In many post-communist countries, especially those in which communism was viewed as something indigenous rather than imposed, the same people are in office today as under communism. They now style themselves as democrats, but in many cases they behave in ways little or no different from when they called themselves something else. And equally important, the people living under their rule continue to suffer from many of the things they suffered from in the past, even if those responsible now use different words. In some countries, like Uzbekistan, a new GULAG is being constructed; in others, the continuities with the past are less striking but equally significant. As a result, those concerned about human freedom are increasingly being forced to recognize that the defeat of communism did not mark the final victory in that struggle. Not surprisingly, some of them have grown discouraged and even opted out. But a growing number of people now understand that they must continue the fight, lest the victory of a decade ago be undermined by their own inaction or the actions of others. 06-12-99 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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