RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 25, 00-02-04

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From: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>

RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 4, No. 25, 4 February 2000

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN, RUSSIAN OFFICIALS DISCUSS ANTI-TERRORISM MEASURES

[02] SLOVAK GOVERNMENT DELEGATION SIGNS COOPERATION AGREEMENTS IN

[03] AZERBAIJAN TO CLOSE DOWN THREE INTERNET PROVIDERS...

[04] ...AS ARMENIA ACCUSES AZERBAIJANI HACKERS OF HUMAN RIGHTS

[05] AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION PARTY RE-REGISTERED

[06] RUSSIA AGAIN VIOLATES GEORGIAN AIRSPACE

[07] GEORGIAN, ABKHAZ OFFICIALS SIGN PROTOCOL ON EXCHANGE OF

[08] JAPAN TO REBUILD OIL REFINERY IN KAZAKHSTAN

[09] UNEMPLOYMENT RISING IN KYRGYZSTAN

[10] TAJIK PRESIDENT SOLICITS OSCE ASSISTANCE FOR DEMOCRATIC

[11] UZBEKISTAN APPROVES DEFENSE DOCTRINE

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[12] RENEWED VIOLENCE IN DIVIDED KOSOVSKA MITROVICA

[13] SERBIA IMPOSES BLOCKADE ON MONTENEGRO

[14] BELGRADE AUTHORITIES SLAM CRITICISM OF AUSTRIA

[15] CROATIAN POLICE ARREST HDZ BUSINESSMAN IN HUGE FRAUD CASE

[16] BOSNIAN ENVOY PLEDGES BETTER RELATIONS WITH CROATIA

[17] BOSNIAN HDZ TO SPLIT?

[18] SREBRENICA SURVIVORS FILE CHARGES IN THE HAGUE

[19] SAROVIC ENDS BID FOR BOSNIAN SERB PRESIDENCY

[20] ROMANIAN GOVERNMENT APPROVES MEDIUM-TERM DEVELOPMENT

[21] ROMANIA, U.S. TO BOOST COOPERATION

[22] FORMER ROMANIAN PREMIER 'EXPLAINS' JOINING FAR-RIGHT PARTY

[23] WORLD BANK PLANS LARGE LOAN TO BULGARIA

[C] END NOTE

[24] PLANNING UNDER WAY TO PRESERVE KOSOVA'S CULTURAL HERITAGE

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN, RUSSIAN OFFICIALS DISCUSS ANTI-TERRORISM MEASURES

Vladimir Rushailo met with President Robert Kocharian,

Premier Aram Sargsian, and his Armenian counterpart, Haik

Harutiunian, to discuss the threat of terrorism, ITAR-TASS

reported. Following a 3 February joint meeting of the boards

of the two countries' Interior Ministries, Rushailo told

journalists that they will soon undertake more joint

operations against criminal groups operating in Russia and

Armenia and to curb arms smuggling, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau

reported. Also on 3 February, visiting Russian Security

Council Secretary Sergei Ivanov and his Armenian counterpart,

Serzh Sarkisian, signed a memorandum on increased cooperation

in the spheres of defense, security, and commerce. LF

[02] SLOVAK GOVERNMENT DELEGATION SIGNS COOPERATION AGREEMENTS IN

Slovak Foreign Minister Eduard Kukan held talks in

Yerevan on 2 February with his Armenian counterpart, Vartan

Oskanian, on expanding economic cooperation, TASR and

Armenpress reported. The two ministers also signed a protocol

of cooperation between their respective ministries. The same

day, Slovak Economy Minister Lubomir Harach and Armenian

Minister of Industry and Trade Karen Jshmaritian discussed

cooperation in the energy and nuclear power sectors and in

the production of synthetic rubber and chemicals, according

to Noyan Tapan. On 3 February, Kukan met with President

Kocharian and with parliamentary speaker Armen Khachatrian,

whom he assured of Slovakia's support for Armenia's bid for

acceptance into full membership in the Council of Europe. LF

[03] AZERBAIJAN TO CLOSE DOWN THREE INTERNET PROVIDERS...

down the Intrans and Baknet companies and the Azeurotel joint

venture on the grounds that they have been operating without

the required licenses, Groong reported on 3 February, citing

the 1 February "Zerkalo." Company representatives told the

newspaper, however, that they have repeatedly applied to the

ministry for registration but have been refused. LF

[04] ...AS ARMENIA ACCUSES AZERBAIJANI HACKERS OF HUMAN RIGHTS

The blocking by Azerbaijani hackers of Armenian

Websites that provide information about the Nagorno-Karabakh

conflict constitutes a violation of the right of access to

information, Snark on 31 January quoted the Armenian Foreign

Ministry as saying. Armenian Television's Website is among

those to fall victim to this practice. LF

[05] AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION PARTY RE-REGISTERED

Justice on 3 February formally registered the Democratic

Party of Azerbaijan, Turan reported. The party was founded

and originally registered in 1992 but had its registration

revoked by the Ministry of Justice in 1995. Party secretary

Aydyn Kuliev told RFE/RL's Baku bureau on 3 February that he

does not think the ministry's decision reflects a change in

the authorities' attitude toward the party, one of whose co-

chairmen is former parliamentary speaker Rasul Guliev. Kuliev

attributed the decision to re-register the party to the

campaign it has waged to that end in recent months and to the

pressure of public opinion both in Azerbaijan and abroad (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 7 January 2000). LF

[06] RUSSIA AGAIN VIOLATES GEORGIAN AIRSPACE

protested to Russia after two Russian military helicopters

entered Georgian airspace near the Georgian-Chechen border on

3 February, Interfax reported. A Georgian border guard

official said the two aircraft were apparently on a

reconnaissance mission. Last year, Russian combat helicopters

twice targeted Georgian villages close to the border with

Chechnya, but no one was injured in either incident (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 23 August and 18 November 1999). LF

[07] GEORGIAN, ABKHAZ OFFICIALS SIGN PROTOCOL ON EXCHANGE OF

Georgian Minister of State Vazha Lortkipanidze,

accompanied by several senior military and security officials

and by UN Special Representative Dieter Boden, traveled to

Sukhum on 3 February for talks with Abkhaz President

Vladislav Ardzinba and Prime Minister Vyacheslav Tsugba,

Caucasus Press reported. The Abkhaz side had proposed the

talks in the hope of stabilizing the tense situation on the

border between Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia, where rival

groups of Georgians and Abkhaz are demanding the release of

co-ethnics held by the other side (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 1

and 2 February 2000). The two sides finally signed a protocol

pledging an exchange within two days of all persons taken

hostage in the past two months. They also agreed to withdraw

all illegal armed formations from the conflict zone within

one month and to draw up, with the help of the UN Observer

and CIS peacekeeping forces, a register of the armed forces

in the conflict zone. The number of those forces may not be

increased. LF

[08] JAPAN TO REBUILD OIL REFINERY IN KAZAKHSTAN

Bank of International Cooperation has approved funding for a

$450 million project whereby Japan's Marubeni company will

rebuild the Atyrau Oil refinery, Interfax reported on 3

February. The reconstruction will increase the refinery's

annual capacity and boost product yield from crude oil, which

is currently 42-29 percent. Japan's involvement in the

project has been criticized by Atyrau Governor Imangali

Tasmagambetov, who told Interfax last month that the refinery

could meet the costs of reconstruction itself over a five-

year period if it functioned at full capacity. In 1999,

Tasmagambetov said, the refinery operated at only 38 percent

of its capacity. Similarly, the Pavlodar refinery stood idle

for much of last year because of limited supplies of crude

oil. LF

[09] UNEMPLOYMENT RISING IN KYRGYZSTAN

Employment said on 2 February that some 62,000 people are

currently registered as unemployed, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau

reported. In October 1999, Labor and Social Affairs Minister

Imankadyr Rysaliev had given the number of people officially

registered as out of work at 56,000. Local observers say the

figure is closer to 1 million of the country's 4.8 million

population. Of the 6,000 people who underwent retraining

courses last year, approximately half subsequently found new

jobs. Only 10 percent of those registered as unemployed drew

unemployment benefits last year, although that allowance has

been increased from 150 soms to 250 soms ($5.5). LF

[10] TAJIK PRESIDENT SOLICITS OSCE ASSISTANCE FOR DEMOCRATIC

Imomali Rakhmonov on 3 February assured visiting

OSCE Secretary-General Jan Kubis that he will do everything

in his power to ensure that the upcoming parliamentary

elections are democratic. At the same time, he requested the

help of the OSCE in achieving that objective, ITAR-TASS and

Asia Plus-Blitz reported. Rakhmonov also expressed an

interest in possible OSCE assistance in post-conflict

rehabilitation. Kubis, who in 1998-1999 served as the special

representative in Tajikistan of the UN secretary-general,

also met on 3 February with Tajik Foreign Minister Talbak

Nazarov and with National Reconciliation Commission Chairman

Said Abdullo Nuri to discuss the situation in the country. On

4 February, ITAR-TASS quoted a German Embassy official in

Dushanbe as saying that the German government has allocated

$100,000 to finance the activities of the joint UN/OSCE

commission that will monitor the parliamentary elections. The

Iranian Embassy has donated 20 tons of paper to the Central

Commission for Elections and Referenda, according to Asia

Pluz-Blitz. LF

[11] UZBEKISTAN APPROVES DEFENSE DOCTRINE

Security Council on 3 February approved a new, "exclusively

defensive" military doctrine that demonstrates the country's

"peace-oriented policy," Interfax reported. That document

lays down guidelines for a fundamental reform of the armed

forces. Council members stressed the threat posed to Central

Asia by "the criminal aspirations of radically-oriented

extremist forces" that promote international terrorism and

religious extremism. They also advocated coordinated measures

by the states of the region to counter that threat. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[12] RENEWED VIOLENCE IN DIVIDED KOSOVSKA MITROVICA

angry ethnic Albanians stoned French military vehicles and

blocked their paths in Kosovska Mitrovica on 4 February, AP

reported. French peacekeepers then broke up the crowd by

firing tear gas. At 9:00 p.m. local time the previous

evening, unknown assailants shot two ethnic Albanians dead.

Half an hour later, a grenade attack on a Serbian cafe

injured up to 15 people. Then at 10:00 p.m. local time,

unknown persons killed an ethnic Albanian woman. Shortly

afterward, unidentified individuals hurled a grenade into a

second Serbian cafe, wounding some 10 people, Reuters

reported. Angry Serbian and Albanian crowds then confronted

each other on the bridge that links the two halves of the

divided city. The incidents came in the wake of a rocket

attack on a UN bus in which two elderly Serbs died (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 3 February 2000). PM

[13] SERBIA IMPOSES BLOCKADE ON MONTENEGRO

closed the border with Montenegro for the transport of all

goods on 3 February, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported.

Belgrade has periodically imposed a blockade on truck traffic

with the mountainous republic as part of the ongoing cat-and-

mouse maneuvering between the political leaderships in

Belgrade and Podgorica. PM

[14] BELGRADE AUTHORITIES SLAM CRITICISM OF AUSTRIA

who is the spokesman for Yugoslav President Slobodan

Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia, said in Belgrade on 3

February that recent international criticism of Austria and

Freedom Party leader Joerg Haider is similar to the criticism

that Serbia has received abroad "for years." Dacic stressed

that "all that is happening in regard to Austria is only

another example of interference in the internal affairs of

other countries, because...anything is possible in today's

Europe, which serves America and not itself." He added that

any country that does not accept Washington's "new world

order" can expect to be internationally isolated. Elsewhere,

far-right Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj said this

party "does not have any particular sympathy for Haider"

because he is not pro-Serbian. "If he would have changed his

position on the Serbian question we would have sympathized

with him," Reuters reported. Observers note that Serbs living

in Austria generally reject Haider, whom they regard

primarily as a xenophobe. PM

[15] CROATIAN POLICE ARREST HDZ BUSINESSMAN IN HUGE FRAUD CASE

with Slovenia on 3 February, hours after Zagreb police issued

a warrant for his arrest. Kutle and three other top officials

of the financially troubled Tisak printing and news

distribution firm are suspected of illegally transferring

some $6 million from Tisak to several companies owned by

Kutle. The businessman told "Jutarnji list" that he is

innocent and that he "never took anything from Tisak." Zagreb

police chief Zdenko Senicnjak told Reuters that police had to

wait for the recent change of government before they could

act against Kutle and his associates. Observers note that

Kutle's is but the best-known case of a businessman

embezzling huge sums under the protection of powerful

politicians belonging to the Croatian Democratic Community

(HDZ), which held power from 1990 to its defeat in January

2000. Kutle and his associates have been linked to other

cases of fraud or embezzlement, including the collapse of the

Dubrovacka Banka. PM

[16] BOSNIAN ENVOY PLEDGES BETTER RELATIONS WITH CROATIA

Ambassador to Croatia Hasan Muratovic spoke with Deputy Prime

Minister Slavko Linic in Zagreb on 3 February about

"improving economic relations," RFE/RL's South Slavic

Service. In Sarajevo, Bosnian Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic

said the Bosnian government should make improving relations

with Croatia its top priority in the wake of the HDZ's

defeat. PM

[17] BOSNIAN HDZ TO SPLIT?

on 4 February that Bosnian Foreign Minister Jadranko Prlic,

who is also a member of the Bosnian HDZ's presidency, will

soon form his own party, to be called the Croatian People's

Union (HNU). The newspaper quoted unnamed Croatian sources as

saying that Prlic and some of his associates have concluded

that the defeated Croatian HDZ and its Bosnian affiliate are

no longer capable of defending the interests of Bosnia's

Croats. Observers note that the Bosnian HDZ has long been

dominated by the hard-line nationalists from Herzegovina.

Several prominent moderate Croat leaders from Bosnia proper

have left the HDZ over the years, including Stjepan Kljuic

and Kresimir Zubak. PM

[18] SREBRENICA SURVIVORS FILE CHARGES IN THE HAGUE

of Srebrenica and Podrinje Association, which is based in the

Bosnian town of Vogosca and represents the survivors of the

1995 Srebrenica massacre, filed a "criminal complaint" on 4

February with the Hague-based war crimes tribunal. The

Mothers of Srebrenica said in a statement that they want an

investigation of the role that several UN and other

international officials played in the fall of Srebrenica and

the massacre that followed, in which Serbian forces killed

approximately 7,000 Muslim males. Those charged include

Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Kofi Annan, Yasushi Akashi, General

Bernard Janvier, General Rupert Smith, Thomas Karremans,

Thorvald Stoltenberg, Carl Bildt, Lord Owen, and General Sir

Michael Rose. PM

[19] SAROVIC ENDS BID FOR BOSNIAN SERB PRESIDENCY

Srpska Vice President Mirko Sarovic said in Banja Luka on 3

February that he will remain in that office, the private Beta

news agency reported. Observers note that in effect, the

announcement ends his bid to take over the presidency. The

international community's Wolfgang Petritsch recently called

the bid "illegal" (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 27 January 2000).

PM

[20] ROMANIAN GOVERNMENT APPROVES MEDIUM-TERM DEVELOPMENT

The government on 3 February approved the medium-

term development strategy aimed at accelerating Romania's

accession to the EU, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 3 February 2000). The government also

approved setting up a commission, chaired by Prime Minister

Mugur Isarescu and Academician Tudor Postolache, to work out

the program that is due to be submitted to the EU in March.

And it gave the go-ahead to establish an agency for the

protection of abandoned children, in line with EU demands.

President Emil Constantinescu, who chaired the government

meeting, said at a joint press conference with Isarescu that

Romanians "know where they are headed, know the rules," and

cannot allow the effort to join the EU to be "derailed." He

urged his countrymen to accept the envisaged austerity

measures. MS

[21] ROMANIA, U.S. TO BOOST COOPERATION

State Thomas Pickering and Foreign Minister Petre Roman on 3

February signed a " framework-convention" for enlarging the

two countries' "strategic partnership," RFE/RL's Bucharest

bureau reported. They agreed to increase economic cooperation

and boost efforts to promote regional stability and military

relations as well as combat "unconventional risks." On 4

February, a joint U.S.-Romanian peace-keeping exercise was

scheduled to begin at three airfields in Romania. MS

[22] FORMER ROMANIAN PREMIER 'EXPLAINS' JOINING FAR-RIGHT PARTY

Minister Radu Vasile said he is "not aware" of the fact that

the Romanian Right Party, which he and his supporters joined

earlier that day, had "a reputation of [promoting]

extremism." If this is the case, he noted, "our joining the

party will transform it." Earlier on 3 February, Vasile was

elected chairman of the party, which subsequently changed its

name to the Romanian People's Party. AFP reported that the

party's manifesto says the formation espouses nationalism,

close links with the Orthodox Church, authoritarianism, and

the "rejection of multi-culturalism." MS

[23] WORLD BANK PLANS LARGE LOAN TO BULGARIA

planning to lend Bulgaria $ 200 million in several tranches

this year, the bank's chief representative for Bulgaria,

Andrew Vorkink, told BTA on 2 February. Vorkink spoke with

journalists after talks in Sofia with Deputy Premier Petar

Zhotev. He said the bank considers that Bulgaria's handling

of projects financed by it has improved and that all of the

10 projects now under way are being satisfactorily

implemented. Three years ago, Vorking said, 40 percent of the

projects launched were considered by the bank to have been

unsatisfactorily implemented. MS

[C] END NOTE

[24] PLANNING UNDER WAY TO PRESERVE KOSOVA'S CULTURAL HERITAGE

The Council of Europe is developing a plan to preserve

Kosova's cultural heritage, the destruction of which is

defined by the UN's war crimes tribunal as a war crime.

The move comes after more than half a year in which the

UN administration in Kosova (UNMIK) has virtually neglected

the province's war-damaged monuments, museums, and libraries.

The Council of Europe and the European Commission have

agreed to establish a high-level group of experts to prepare

a detailed survey of the damage and destruction to the

architectural and archaeological heritage of all ethnic and

religious groups throughout the region. Once they complete

the survey this spring, they will establish a list of

priorities and set up teams of experts from local,

provincial, and federal (Yugoslav) levels, representing all

groups in Kosova, to draw up by this summer proposals for

action.

Since the arrival last June of the NATO-led peacekeeping

force, KFOR, protection of cultural monuments has been

limited to Serbian Orthodox churches. Nevertheless, more than

50 churches in Kosova have been damaged by vandalism since

June.

By far the most thorough survey to date of the

destruction of Kosova's cultural heritage has been conducted

by a Harvard University librarian, Andras Riedlmayer, and two

architects, an American and an Albanian. They spent three

weeks in Kosova conducting a survey of architectural

monuments, libraries, historical archives, public records,

and museums. One of the survey's goals is to assess damage

and reconstruction efforts and to identify projects and

institutions in need of assistance.

Riedlmayer says that Serbian forces in 1998-1999 caused

widespread destruction to some 500 villages in Kosova and

severely damaged or destroyed more than 200 mosques or one in

three Muslim houses of worship. The Serbs also gutted the

overwhelming majority of some 500 defensive stone towers

known as kullas, traditionally inhabited by large Kosovar

Albanian families.

Riedlmayer also notes that the destruction of Serbian

Orthodox village churches in Kosova since the end of the war

is a tragedy. But as he puts it, "it is also wrong to

ignore...the massive and deliberate destruction of Albanian

religious and cultural heritage by Serbian police, soldiers,

and paramilitaries."

Another purpose of the survey is to gather evidence for

the Office of the Prosecutor of the UN's war crimes tribunal

in its investigations into war crimes allegedly committed by,

among others, Yugoslavia's indicted President Slobodan

Milosevic.

"The deliberate destruction of cultural property without

overriding military necessity is a war crime," Riedlmayer

notes. "And the indictment against Milosevic actually

specifies among the charges the destruction of cultural and

religious heritage. On the other hand, when we talked to the

Prosecutor's Office at The Hague they told us that they had

no one with either the time or the expertise on their side to

look into this."

The Hague tribunal last May indicted Milosevic and five

other senior Serbian and Yugoslav officials with "criminal

responsibility for violations of the laws or customs of war."

The tribunal's statute says this includes "seizure of,

destruction or willful damage done to institutions dedicated

to religion, charity and education, the arts and sciences,

historic monuments and works of art and science."

Riedlmayer's survey team visited some 80 sites and

collected documentation on another 120. His preliminary

report in mid-December alleged that there was a clear pattern

of Serbian forces systematically targeting mosques in Kosova-

-including a number of important monuments from the 15th and

16th centuries. According to the survey, "in the majority of

cases, it was evident...that this was not collateral damage

from fighting between Belgrade's forces and the Kosova

Liberation Front (UCK) rebels, nor the result of NATO's

bombing."

Riedlmayer comments that "Given that on any kind of

population basis, Belgrade's claim to sovereignty over Kosova

is rather weak..., heritage has played a disproportionate

role in the politics of Kosova, at least since the 1980s....

Then when Belgrade took over direct rule in 1989 and 90, one

of the first things that happened was a revision of the

listed monuments in Kosova."

Riedlmayer says the California-based Packard Humanities

Institute has given a grant of $24,000 to pay for material

and labor to conserve Kosova's 100 most-endangered buildings

until funding for reconstruction becomes available.

The author is an RFE/RL correspondent based in Prague.

04-02-00

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

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