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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 9, 00-01-13Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 3, No. 9, 13 January 2000CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN OFFICIAL SAYS PARLIAMENT KILLINGS MAY HAVE BEEN COUPATTEMPTArmenia's chief military prosecutor, Gagik Jahangiran, told journalists in Yerevan on 12 January that investigators are close to concluding that the 27 October parliament shootings constituted a coup attempt, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. He characterized the killings as "part of a single scenario" that was not implemented in full. The five gunmen, led by Nairi Hunanian, were given "false promises," Jahangirian said. He did not elaborate. He added that he cannot exclude that one or two more officials will be arrested in connection with the shootings. Sixteen persons have been detained to date on suspicion of involvement in the killings. Reuters quoted Jahangirian as saying that the shootings had originally been planned for 13 October but the gunmen had not been able to get past security guards and enter the parliament building on that day. LF [02] AZERBAIJAN SUSPENDS OIL EXPORTS VIA RUSSIAAzerbaijan's state oilcompany SOCAR on 10 January halted crude exports through the Baku- Novorossiisk pipeline because of inadequate supplies, Interfax reported on 12 January. An aide to SOCAR President Natik Aliev told the agency that SOCAR is delivering the 10,000-11,000 tons of crude it currently produces daily to domestic refineries so that fuel oil for electricity-generating purposes can be produced. Meanwhile, the Azerbaijan International Operating Company has informed the Russian pipeline concern Transneft of its interest in using the available Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline capacity. AIOC already exports its offshore oil via the pipeline from Baku to the Georgian Black Sea terminal at Supsa. LF [03] RUSSIAN OFFICIALS SAY GEORGIAN CLAIMS OF ARMS SMUGGLING FABRICATEDRussian Defense Minister Igor Sergeev said on 12 January thatjudging by information he has at his disposal, Georgian claims that Russian troops stationed in that country attempted to sell weapons to the Chechens are untrue. After talks earlier that day with Georgian security officials, Lieutenant-General Vladimir Andreev, who commands the Russian forces stationed in Georgia, told ITAR-TASS that those officials had failed to present any evidence to substantiate the charges. Andreev pointed out that the truck allegedly transporting the arms, which featured in video footage shown on Georgian Television on 11 January, bore Georgian, rather than Russian military license plates. Colonel Aleksandr Lutskevich, who heads the press service of the Transcaucasus Group of Russian Forces, said the Georgian officials were unable to name either the persons who supplied the weapons or their clients in Chechnya, Caucasus Press reported. LF [04] PARLIAMENT DEPUTIES IN KAZAKHSTAN DEMAND GOVERNMENT INVESTIGATIONINTO MIG SALESAn unspecified number of parliamentary deputies signed a statement on 12 January demanding that the government investigate whether two men charged with the illegal sale to North Korea of 40 MiG fighter aircraft were acting at the government's behest, Reuters reported. Defendant and Chief of General Staff General Bakhytzhan Ertaev had told the court the previous day that in arranging the deal he was simply acting on orders from his superiors, including then Defense Minister Mukhtar Altynbaev (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 and 12 January 2000). Parliamentary deputy Serik Abdrakhmanov argued that Ertaev should not be prosecuted for following government instructions. The trial was adjourned to 18 January after Ertaev was hospitalized on 11 January with heart problems. LF [05] OPPOSITION PARTIES UNDER PRESSURE IN KYRGYZSTANKyrgyzstan'sCentral Electoral Commission has warned Feliks Kulov, chairman of the Ar-Namys (Dignity) Party, not to engage in premature electoral campaigning, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported on 12 January. The warning came after an interview with Kulov was published in the "Asaba" weekly newspaper on 12 January. The commission has refused either to register the party list, which Kulov heads, submitted by Ar-Namys for the 20 February parliamentary elections, or to register Kulov as a candidate in a single-mandate constituency in Talas Oblast. Also on 12 January, Alevtina Pronenko, a leading member of the El (Bei-Bechara) opposition party, told RFE/RL that her party has still not received a formal ruling from the Supreme Court barring El (Bei-Bechara) from contesting the elections (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 3 and 5 January 2000) . Until the party receives such a written ruling, it cannot appeal the ban. LF [06] U.S. CONDEMNS UZBEK PRESIDENTIAL POLLU.S. State Departmentspokesman James Rubin on 12 January described the Uzbek presidential election three days earlier as "neither free nor fair," adding that voters were offered "no real choice" and opposition parties were not permitted to register or nominate presidential candidates. He said the U.S. regrets that the Uzbek leadership failed to comply with its commitments as an OSCE member state. Incumbent Islam Karimov was reelected in the 9 January poll with 91.9 percent of the vote. His only opponent, philosophy professor Abdulkhafiz Djalalov, received 4.17 percent (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 January 2000). LF [07] U.S. WATCHDOG APPEALS FOR IMPRISONED UZBEK JOURNALIST'S RELEASETheCommittee to Protect Journalists on 12 January sent a letter to President Karimov asking him to ensure the release from jail of ailing 63-year-old journalist Shadi Mardiev. Mardiev, who worked for the state-run Samarkand radio station, was sentenced in June 1998 to an 11-year prison term on charges of defamation and extortion. He was arrested in November 1997 after airing a program implicating a Samarkand prosecutor in corruption. LF [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[08] UN SECURITY COUNCIL BLASTS BOSNIAN LEADERSHIPThe Security Councilon 12 January voted unanimously to demand that the members of the three-strong Bosnian joint presidency implement pledges they made in New York last November to further develop joint institutions in keeping with the 1995 Dayton agreement (see "RFE/RL South Slavic Report," 13 January 2000). Council President and U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke told reporters: "I am here today to express our considerable annoyance at the delays.... The joint presidency, its central institutions, and many attributes of a single, sovereign, centrally-governed state...have not been fulfilled," Reuters reported. Holbrooke, who was the architect of the 1995 peace agreement, noted that the return of refugees and displaced persons is proceeding too slowly. He also criticized powerful local nationalist warlords for blocking implementation of the Dayton agreement. Holbrooke stressed that such individuals are "just criminals, crooks, disguising their crookedness under the guise of...nationalism." PM [09] BOSNIAN SERBS BLOCK JOINT BORDER PATROL FORCEEthnic Serbiandeputies in the joint legislature voted on 12 January to block the establishment of a multi-ethnic border police force for all of Bosnia-Herzegovina (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 12 January 2000). Alexandra Stiglmayer, who is the spokeswoman for the international community's Wolfgang Petritsch, said in Sarajevo that Petritsch is likely to soon set up the force by decree. Petritsch and his predecessor Carlos Westendorp have used their wide-ranging powers to implement key measures blocked by nationalists in the legislature. The joint border police force is one of the central institutions that the three members of the presidency promised last November to set up. On 13 January, Petritsch said that he will set up the force by decree and will not allow "a few individuals" to stand in the way of "an entire country's progress." PM [10] BOSNIAN POLICE TO EAST TIMORBosnian Ambassador to the UN MuhamedSacirbey said in New York on 12 January that 21 civilian police, including Muslims, Serbs, and Croats, will soon join UN peace- keeping operations in East Timor. Critics charge that the rules governing the selection process made it impossible for young men, among whom unemployment is a particularly serious problem, to qualify. PM [11] BOSNIAN SERB WEEKLY TO SUE DODIKThe directors of the independent"Reporter" said in Banja Luka on 12 January that they will sue Prime Minister Milorad Dodik for recently saying that the weekly "works against the interests of the Republika Srpska," RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM [12] OSCE WARNS HERZEGOVINIAN HDZOSCE spokeswoman Tanya Domi said inSarajevo on 12 January that the international community may disqualify the Herzegovinian branch of the Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ) from participating in the April local elections in five districts it controls. She said that the HDZ has failed to remove from office five mayors whom Petritsch and the OSCE previously fired. PM [13] CROATIA'S GRANIC: 'I'D DO BETTER WITHOUT THE HDZ'Mate Granic, whois the HDZ's candidate in the 24 January Croatian presidential elections, said in Zagreb on 12 January that he has appealed to leading HDZ politicians to end their public feuding (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 12 January 2000). Granic added that the daily arguments between prominent HDZ politicians are harming his candidacy and that he has slipped into third place in the opinion polls as a result. He told "Jutarnji list" that he is confident that he could have won the presidency in the first round had he run as an independent. As recently as early December, Granic led in opinion polls. PM [14] RACAN: CROATIAN GOVERNMENT COALITION PACT IN PLACEPrime Minister-designate Ivica Racan said in Zagreb on 12 January that his two- party coalition and its smaller four-party coalition ally have reached a six-point agreement on the functioning of the new government. The text will be made public soon, ahead of the nomination of individuals to fill the 17 cabinet posts. He added that the government will make decisions by majority vote, rather than by consensus, and that no party will have more seats than are justified by the results of the 3 January parliamentary elections. He did not provide any details or mention the names of any prospective cabinet members. Observers note that Racan previously refused demands by the four smaller parties that decisions be reached by consensus and that each of the six parties have an equal number of cabinet posts (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 7 January 2000). PM [15] ANNAN CALLS FOR RENEWAL OF PREVLAKA MANDATEUN Secretary-GeneralKofi Annan on 12 January proposed to the Security Council that it extend by six months its mandate for peacekeepers on the Prevlaka peninsula. Prevlaka is Croatian territory that controls access to Yugoslavia's only deep-water naval base, which is in Montenegro's Kotor Bay. Montenegrin officials recently proposed that Zagreb and Podgorica settle the dispute between themselves, charging that Belgrade has deliberately blocked a solution, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM [16] EU OIL DELIVERIES REACH SERBIAN CITIESSome 14 trucks carrying EUheating oil reached Nis while another four arrived in Pirot on 12 January (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 January 2000). Reuters reported from Belgrade that the EU is unlikely to expand its Energy for Democracy program to include other cities, as opposition political leaders have urged it to do. PM [17] GENERAL PERISIC TAKES ISSUE WITH SERBIAN OPPOSITIONFormer Chief-of-Staff General Momcilo Perisic, who is now an opposition politician, told "Vesti" of 12 January that he did not sign the recent opposition declaration because the signatories did not call for ousting Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic by "using institutions provided by the political system" (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 11 January 2000). Perisic noted that he nonetheless agrees with most of the opposition declaration and will continue to work with the signatories. Perisic stressed that Milosevic should be made to answer to the parliament for having violated the constitution. Once that process is completed, then there will be a legal basis for calling elections, the general continued. He added, however, that if democratic means prove ineffective in ousting Milosevic, then "other methods" remain. He did not elaborate. PM [18] MONTENEGRO TO TRY WAR CRIMES SUSPECTJustice Minister Dragan Socsaid in Podgorica on 12 January that Montenegrin authorities will try Veselin Vlahovic, who is otherwise known as Batko, for having allegedly committed war crimes in Bosnia during the 1992-1995 conflict (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 December 1999). Soc added that the Hague-based war crimes tribunal informed the Montenegrin authorities that the tribunal "is not interested" in trying Vlahovic itself, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM [19] THREE MACEDONIAN POLICE KILLED IN ALBANIAN DISTRICTUnknown gunmenfatally shot three Macedonian police in the primarily ethnic Albanian village of Aracinovo near Skopje on 11 January. The police were checking for stolen vehicles in the village, which is believed to be the center of a Kosova-based crime and smuggling network, AP reported. President Boris Trajkovski met later with Interior Minister Dosta Dimovska and urged an "uncompromising" approach toward crime. Arben Xhaferi, who heads the ethnic Albanian party that belongs to the governing coalition, said it would be "dangerous and irresponsible" to give "political connotations" to the incident. PM [20] VATICAN: ROMAN CATHOLICS UNDER PRESSURE IN KOSOVAVatican Radioreported on 12 January that Roman Catholic Kosovars say they are under increasing pressure from "Muslim extremists" among their fellow ethnic Albanians. The broadcast added that Roman Catholic churches in Peja and Prizren have been desecrated recently. Kosova's Roman Catholic community is small but influential because of its links to its co-religionists abroad. PM [21] EU COMMISSION PRESIDENT TELLS ROMANIA EU INTEGRATION WILL BEDIFFCULTArriving in Bucharest on 12 January, EU Commission President Romano Prodi said the union is "fully committed" to enlargement but no one must be surprised "if the integration process is difficult." Prodi, who is accompanied by EU Commissioner for Enlargement Guenter Verheugen, is to meet with members of the cabinet and President Emil Constantinescu on 13 January, Romanian radio reported. Also on 12 January, Constantinescu met with Foreign Minister Petre Roman to discuss ways of coordinating EU integration between the office of the president and the ministry. MS [22] ROMANIAN RULING PARTY CONTINUES TO BE TORN BY CONFLICTThe NationalPeasant Party Christian Democratic (PNTCD) leadership failed on 12 January to agree on a date for electing a new Standing Bureau, RFE/RL's Bucharest Bureau reported. Party chairman Ion Diaconescu favors postponing the vote on a new bureau until after the 2000 parliamentary elections. Other members of the leadership, however, want the bureau to be elected by the party's highest forum, the Permanent Delegation, at the end of January. The party is to elect, among others, a new secretary-general, replacing former Premier Radu Vasile, who has been expelled from the PNTCD. Following the six-to- six vote on 12 January, the decision will be left to the Permanent Delegation meeting at the end of the month. MS [23] FORMER ROMANIAN PREMIER LEAVES RIGHTIST UMBRELLA-FORUMNationalAlliance Christian Democratic (ANCD) Chairman Victor Ciorbea on 12 January said his party will no longer participate in the forum of center-right parties that is being sponsored by the Civic Alliance Movement. Noting that these parties continue " to make concessions" to their coalition partners, he said the ANCD is not willing to participate in the forum simply "to shoot a family photo." Ciorbea also said the choice of Mugur Isarescu as premier demonstrates that the Democratic Convention of Romania and President Constantinescu "continue to make concessions" to the Democratic Party and that "the leader of the present cabinet is in fact Petre Roman," who, together with then President Ion Iliescu, had appointed Isarescu as National Bank governor in 1990. MS [24] BULGARIA SUSPENDS PRIVATIZATION OF DEFENSE INDUSTRY PLANTSDefenseMinister Boyko Noev has ordered a temporary halt to the privatization of military industries pending a review by his ministry of the privatization process, BTA reported on 12 January. The decision was taken following a meeting between Noev and representatives of trade unions in the defense sector. Noev noted that once privatization is resumed, the process will be "as transparent as possible." He said that it is "certain" that none of the military repairs companies will be sold, adding that possibilities for securing contracts from Germany to modernize and overhaul MiG-29 aircraft are being investigated. MS [C] END NOTE[25] RUSSIANS SHOW LITTLE FAITH IN TRADE UNIONSby Tuck WesolowskyFor many Russians, trade unions are a curiosity at best and an irritant at worst. With membership down, trade unions in Russia are struggling to regain the faith of the rank and file. A 1996 poll showed only 7 percent of Russians trusted labor unions. Much of the Russian public has grown weary and lost hope following 10 years of mostly unsuccessful economic reforms. Millions of people go without pay for months on end. Millions more are unemployed. Just how many are currently jobless is unclear because tens of thousands have been ordered to take unpaid administrative leave, swelling the ranks of the "hidden unemployed." Others work part-time at crumbling industries. Many Russians interviewed on the streets of Moscow say they feel a sense of utter hopelessness, and few have any faith in organizations, such as unions, that promise to make things better. That sense of hopelessness extends to many union members themselves. Workers are leaving unions in growing numbers. Russia's Federation of Independent Trade Unions boasted of representing 60 million of Russia's 73 million workers in 1992. Reliable figures put the number now at below 40 million, and independent studies confirm a decline of some 25 percent. Russia is not alone in seeing a decline in union membership. Membership figures are down worldwide as the economy moves away from the industrial sector--a traditional union stronghold--to the service sector. But some of the biggest declines have taken place in Eastern Europe, where unions are still tainted by their association with former Communist regimes. The number of workers in labor unions in Eastern Europe has fallen by around 36 percent in recent years. A report by the International Labor Organization says much of the decline can be attributed to the fact that union membership in many countries is no longer seen as virtually obligatory. But even if more employees in Russia wanted to join unions, it's uncertain whether employers will be keen to allow them. According to a 1998 report on worldwide labor rights by the Brussels-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), employers typically obstruct unionization, especially in newly created commercial organizations. In Yekaterinburg, Russia, the 250 workers at the Coca-Cola bottling plant voted last June to form a union. But just months after creating the union, the same employees withdrew their support. The workers say they backed down after the multinational soft-drink manufacturer made it clear they must quit the union or lose their jobs. The company even barred their elected shop steward from the shop floor, according to the Moscow bureau of the Geneva-based International Union of Food and Allied Workers' Association (IUF), with which the Coca-Cola bottlers were affiliated. The workers complained to the local prosecutor's office, which, following an investigation, backed their charges that Coca- Cola management had violated their rights by pressuring them to abandon the union. The case took on an international dimension when the IUF's Geneva leadership sent an official complaint to Coca-Cola. Despite these efforts, the union has not been reinstated. Workers are not the only ones being intimidated. Union activists trying to organize their colleagues routinely face being sacked, demoted, or even killed, according to the ICFTU report. Last January, Gennadii Borisov, the leader of Moscow's Vnukovo Airlines Technical and Ground Personnel Union, was found murdered in the entrance to his apartment. He was the second union leader at Vnukovo to be killed in less than five years. To many Russian labor specialists, the country's current labor woes are rooted in the Soviet past, when under the all-encompassing All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, unions formed a "troika" with management and party apparatchiks to ensure fulfillment of the five-year economic plan. As U.S. academic Linda Cook of Brown University notes in her book "Labor and Liberalization: Trade Unions in the New Russia," the major responsibility of trade unions in Soviet times was to mobilize workers for production, not to defend their interests against management. But during the Soviet era, trade unions had relatively few levers to motivate workers to produce better or more, according to Frank Hoffer, the ILO Workers Activities Senior Specialist in Moscow. Hoffer says in his paper "Traditional Trade Unions During Transition and Economic Reform in Russia" that working harder and better rarely meant higher wages, which were tightly controlled by plan requirements. On the other hand, poor work performance, with few exceptions, did not result in an employee's being sacked. The unions' main role was to oversee and dispense the carrots- -valued goods and services--to employees at the workplace. Among other things, unions determined and paid pensions, controlled benefits from social insurance funds, and established eligibility for state welfare benefits. They also looked to management for cooperation, not for conflict. Strikes were unheard of. Brown University's Cook says the image of a cozy union- management relationship lingers till this day. But, she says, some recently created independent unions have succeeded in attracting new members. Cook notes independents have done well among workers who have demonstrated solidarity and militancy in the past--like the coal miners. The independents have also had some success in industries that employ well-educated workers or produce goods that are essential for the economy. The author is an RFE/RL correspondent based in Prague. 13-01-00 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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