RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 56, 00-03-20

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

RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 4, No. 56, 20 March 2000

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT CRITICIZES CABINET'S ECONOMIC POLICY...

[02] ...AS YERKRAPAH REAFFIRMS SUPPORT FOR PREMIER

[03] ARMENIAN OFFICIAL SOUNDS ALARM OVER OUT-MIGRATION

[04] RUSSIAN STATE DUMA ACCUSES GEORGIAN COUNTERPART OF ANTI-

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[05] MONTENEGRIN PRESIDENT WARNS OF CIVIL WAR...

[06] ...WHILE NATO, EU WATCHING TENSE SITUATION IN MONTENEGRO

[07] SERBS PROTEST YET ANOTHER BLOW AGAINST INDEPENDENT MEDIA

[08] SERBIAN OPPOSITION LEADER VOWS MAJOR PROTESTS

[09] YUGOSLAV COMMANDER ANNOUNCES ARMY TO BE REORGANIZED

[10] UN OFFICIAL IN KOSOVA SAYS ETHNIC RECONCILIATION

[11] YUGOSLAV ARMY GENERAL WARNS KOSOVAR ALBANIANS, NATO

[12] OSCE WARNS BOSNIA IT MUST HOLD ITS OWN POLLS

[13] UN HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES WELCOMES CROATIAN, BOSNIAN

[14] ACCUSED WAR CRIMINAL TO FIGHT EXTRADITION TO THE HAGUE

[15] ALBANIA SEIZES RUSSIAN CARGO SHIP

[16] ROMANIA'S DEMOCRATS OPT FOR STAYING IN RULING COALITION

[17] GAZPROM AGREES TO POSTPONE MOLDOVAN CURRENT DEBT PAYMENT

[18] BULGARIAN, MACEDONIAN PREMIERS TRY TO DEFUSE TENSION

[C] END NOTE

[19] EU ENLARGEMENT NEGOTIATIONS: A DIFFICULT PATH TO TREAD

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT CRITICIZES CABINET'S ECONOMIC POLICY...

factions in the parliament, President Robert Kocharian

criticized the cabinet's economic track record, in particular

public-sector wage arrears, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported.

Also on 17 March, Yerevan Mayor Albert Bazeyan, who is a

senior member of the Yerkrapah Union of veterans of the

Karabakh war, tendered his resignation to Kocharian but was

subsequently persuaded by other Yerkrapah members, including

recently appointed Deputy Defense Minister General Manvel

Grigorian, to withdraw it, according to Snark. Bazeyan told

RFE/RL the following day that he had been upset by criticism

of him aired by the independent television station A1+. LF

[02] ...AS YERKRAPAH REAFFIRMS SUPPORT FOR PREMIER

Grigorian and other senior Yerkrapah members promoted by

Kocharian several days earlier pledged their continued

support for Prime Minister Aram Sargsian, RFE/RL's Yerevan

bureau reported, quoting unidentified Yerkrapah members.

Grigorian reportedly assured Sargsian that he and his fellow

generals would never turn against Sargsian because of their

personal loyalty to his murdered brother and predecessor

Vazgen, who founded the Yerkrapah Union. On 18 March, Defense

Minister Vagharshak Harutiunian denied that he had considered

resigning to protest not having been informed by Kocharian in

advance of the impending promotions. LF

[03] ARMENIAN OFFICIAL SOUNDS ALARM OVER OUT-MIGRATION

economic and social conditions in Armenia do not improve over

the next five to10 years, another 500,000-700,000 people are

likely to leave the country, Noyan Tapan reported on 17

March, citing a recent report by the head of the Department

for Refugees Affairs and Migration, Gagik Yeganian. The

report put the number of people who left Armenia in 1999 at

between 75,000-85,000 and in 1997-1998 between 30,000-40,000.

As of 1 January 2000, the population of Armenia was

3,803,000. LF

[04] RUSSIAN STATE DUMA ACCUSES GEORGIAN COUNTERPART OF ANTI-

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[05] MONTENEGRIN PRESIDENT WARNS OF CIVIL WAR...

said in an interview on 20 March that Yugoslav President

Slobodan Milosevic is trying to "create a civil war from

which he can completely distance himself," AP reported.

Djukanovic, quoted in the Viennese daily "Der Standard," said

Milosevic will "create internal conflicts." Djukanovic

stressed the republic's plans to hold a referendum on

independence if Belgrade does not embrace democracy and free

market reforms. But he said his government is not "going to

be overly hasty" in holding the vote because "Milosevic would

use our nervousness as an alibi to intensify the crisis." The

EU external relations commissioner, Gunnar Wiegand, said on

17 March in Brussels that the EU Commission will ask EU

member states for additional financial aid for Montenegro at

a foreign ministers' meeting on 20 March. He called the

situation in the republic "very serious." PB

[06] ...WHILE NATO, EU WATCHING TENSE SITUATION IN MONTENEGRO

March that the alliance is watching the situation in

Montenegro with "growing concern," dpa reported. Robertson,

speaking at a two-day meeting of Balkan officials to discuss

the Balkan Stability Pact, said he publicly calls on Yugoslav

President Slobodan Milosevic to "end the economic blockade of

Montenegro." That embargo, he said, is "a provocation, which

seeks to undermine the authority" of Montenegrin President

Milo Djukanovic's government. Robertson's predecessor and the

EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said the EU "will

not tolerate the creation of any problem in Montenegro."

Solana said his message is directed at Milosevic. The

conference was attended by the premiers of Albania, Bulgaria,

Croatia, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, and one member of the

Bosnian presidency, who all declared in a statement that

Montenegro should remain within the Yugoslav federation. PB

[07] SERBS PROTEST YET ANOTHER BLOW AGAINST INDEPENDENT MEDIA

Serbian town of Kraljevo on 19 March to protest the closure

of Kraljevo Radio-Television the previous day, Reuters

reported. More than 10,000 people rallied on 18 March after

authorities had dismantled the main transmitter of the

opposition-run television and radio station. Ivan Rajovic,

the news editor of the station, said the shutdown was

probably punishment for the five days of protests by local

army reservists against frequent call-ups. The Federal

Telecommunications Ministry said the transmitter was taken

away because the broadcaster did not have a valid license.

The ministry has closed down four local radio and three

television stations in the last 10 days. PB

[08] SERBIAN OPPOSITION LEADER VOWS MAJOR PROTESTS

said the opposition in Serbia is planning mass protests in

the near future, Reuters reported. Djindjic made his remarks

on Russian public television. He said the opposition will

launch a civil campaign aimed at bringing new elections and

economic changes. Djindjic pledged that the opposition will

not indulge in violence in its campaign. Serbia's factional

opposition is due to meet this week to decide on a united

plan for protests. PB

[09] YUGOSLAV COMMANDER ANNOUNCES ARMY TO BE REORGANIZED

Army General Staff Commander Colonel-General Nebojsa Pavkovic

said on 18 March that the military's leadership is planning

to reorganize the army, the news agency Beta reported.

Pavkovic said the goal of the reorganization is the creation

of a "small, flexible, mobile, and more modern army" capable

of "meeting all challenges." Pavkovic made the remarks at a

ceremony in Belgrade marking Military Education Day and the

150th anniversary of the founding of the first military

academy in Serbia. PB

[10] UN OFFICIAL IN KOSOVA SAYS ETHNIC RECONCILIATION

Bernard Kouchner said in an interview published

on 18 March that despite progress, reconciliation between

Serbs and ethnic Albanians in Kosova is "absolutely

impossible." Kouchner, who was speaking in an interview with

the French newspaper "L'Humanite," said that such steps as

the reopening of schools and the formation of a banking

system were improvements that received little attention. But

he said the hatred between Serbs and ethnic Albanians is

"extremely strong..., it's true that today reconciliation is

absolutely impossible." He added "who is crazy enough to

think that in eight months we could have done what they

haven't been able to do in Ireland for 30 years?" He said

multiethnicism is possible but that "peaceful coexistence"

must be first established. PB

[11] YUGOSLAV ARMY GENERAL WARNS KOSOVAR ALBANIANS, NATO

Army Staff Commander Nebojsa Pavkovic warned that further

problems with ethnic Albanians in southern Serbia could

jeopardize the safety of NATO troops in Kosova, AP reported.

Pavkovic said in an interview with the Belgrade daily

"Vecernje Novosti" that "KFOR must know that in the event of

an escalation of aggression against Yugoslavia, [NATO has

possible] hostages in Kosovo." Pavkovic said the military is

not currently mobilizing troops in response to the activity

of ethnic Albanian rebels in southern Serbia but that it "is

monitoring the situation." In other news, Serbian police

released seven Czech NATO peacekeepers on 18 March who were

detained after they strayed across the Kosova border. PB

[12] OSCE WARNS BOSNIA IT MUST HOLD ITS OWN POLLS

OSCE, Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said

in Sarajevo on 17 March that the Bosnian parliament must pass

a law on holding its own elections or have the law decreed by

the international community, Reuters reported. The divided

Bosnian parliament has twice refused to discuss the bill, the

passage of which is a prerequisite for membership in the

Council of Europe. Elections in postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina

have been funded and run by the OSCE since 1995. Robert

Barry, the OSCE mission head in Bosnia, said the member

states of the OSCE "are not eager to go on paying bills for

the elections indefinitely." Ferrero-Waldner also urged

citizens of Bosnia to vote for change in the 8 April local

elections. The call echos the OSCE's controversial slogan for

the ballot, "Vote for Change." PB

[13] UN HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES WELCOMES CROATIAN, BOSNIAN

Sadako Ogata said on 17 March that she

supports pledges by Croatia's new government to allow the

return of Serbian refugees to their pre-war homes in Croatia,

AP reported. Ogata spoke to reporters after a meeting with

Croatian President Stipe Mesic in Zagreb. Ogata said the

UNHCR will provide full support for Croatia's attempts to

receive international financial aid to facilitate the

returns. In Laktasi, Bosnia two days later, Ogata urged the

Croatian and Bosnian governments to work together toward the

return of refugees. She said only 25,000 Muslim and Croatian

refugees have returned to their homes in the Bosnian Serb

republic since the signing of the Dayton agreement five years

ago. PB

[14] ACCUSED WAR CRIMINAL TO FIGHT EXTRADITION TO THE HAGUE

attorney for Bosnian Croat Malden "Tuta" Naletilic said on 19

March that he will use "all means" to try to postpone his

client's extradition to The Hague, AP reported. The attorney,

Kresimir Krsnik, was responding to reports in Croatian

newspapers that Naletilic will be transfered to The Hague in

the coming days. A spokesman for the war crimes tribunal said

the court has provided guarantees for Naletilic's health

during the trip. The accused war criminal has severe heart

problems and has undergone two operations in the last several

months. PB

[15] ALBANIA SEIZES RUSSIAN CARGO SHIP

seized a Russian cargo ship on 17 March for violating the

country's territorial waters, Reuters reported. Police said

the vessel, with a crew of 15, was sailing from Montenegro in

an area often used by tankers to smuggle fuel into Albania.

The captain is being questioned. PB

[16] ROMANIA'S DEMOCRATS OPT FOR STAYING IN RULING COALITION

Democratic Party's National Coordination Council on 17 March

voted by 414 to 94 to continue the party's participation in

the ruling coalition, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported.

Observers note that the next coalition crisis is looming

large following Democratic Party leader Petre Roman's

rejection of a demand by the National Liberal Party that a

package of laws on reforming the judiciary system be passed

by a procedure called "assumption of government

responsibility." Under this procedure, the parliament would

be considered to have approved the package if a no-confidence

vote is not moved against the cabinet. Roman said on Romanian

television that the package is too important to be passed

without debate in the legislature. MS

[17] GAZPROM AGREES TO POSTPONE MOLDOVAN CURRENT DEBT PAYMENT

payment of its $4 million debt for deliveries in 2000.

Chisinau will pay for those supplies on 15 April. Gazprom has

agreed to accept monthly, instead of semi-monthly, payments

and to increase the volume of deliveries after 1 April 2000,

Flux reported on 18 March. However, ITAR-TASS the same day

reported that the current debt totals $11 million and the

total debt $760 million, of which nearly $500 million is owed

by the separatist Transdniester authorities. And the

following day, the Russian news agency reported that Gazprom

is now demanding that Tiraspol clear its debt by paying for

the maintenance of the Russian contingent in the region and

by using funds from the sale of ammunition that had belonged

to the former 14th Army and was subsequently transferred to

the separatists. MS

[18] BULGARIAN, MACEDONIAN PREMIERS TRY TO DEFUSE TENSION

Budapest after meeting with his Bulgarian counterpart, Ivan

Kostov, that "there is no anti-Bulgarian campaign in

Macedonia," BTA reported. Georgievski said that some

"individual organizations" have protested the recent

outlawing of an ethnic Macedonian party in Bulgaria ( see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 3 and 10 March 2000), but he noted that

the government "distances itself from such aggressive and

extreme positions." Kostov said the planned visit by

Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov to Macedonia will be the

best way to show that the "people in Bulgaria and Macedonia

want our common interests to be put in the foreground, laying

aside any artificially fanned confrontation." Both premiers

were attending the Budapest conference on the Balkan

Stability Pact. MS

[C] END NOTE

[19] EU ENLARGEMENT NEGOTIATIONS: A DIFFICULT PATH TO TREAD

Substantive membership negotiations are due to begin

next week between the EU's Executive Commission and the five

second-wave Eastern European candidate countries--Bulgaria,

Romania, Slovakia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

The EU divides accession negotiations into 31 subject

areas, which it calls chapters. The commission has proposed

that for each of those five countries, the talks initially

cover at least five chapters: small business, education,

science, external relations, and common security policy.

These are seen as the easiest of the chapters, largely

because EU members and the eastern applicants already have

much in common in those areas.

Bulgaria has been offered negotiations in an additional

area, cultural and audio-visual policy. Slovakia, Latvia, and

Lithuania have been offered that area plus competitions

policy and statistics.

Over the coming months and even years, negotiations will

be opened on all the chapters. However, the term

"negotiations" is somewhat exaggerated in this context, since

the process largely consists of the EU side explaining what

the candidates have to do to meet EU norms in each of the

given areas. As one Brussels-based Bulgarian diplomat,

Vesselin Valkanov, told RFE/RL, "These are not classic

negotiations, you are not sitting there bargaining in the

true sense of the word. You are an applicant, and the rules

of the club are as follows, so basically if you are aspiring

to become a member of this particular club, you will have to

accept the rules that are being laid out for you, and not

only for you, but for those who are already members of the

club."

Commission officials have made clear that the EU will

maintain a hard line and that there will be no softening of

requirements for the less advanced second-wave countries. The

EU's new chief negotiator on enlargement, Eneko Landaburu of

Spain, says the thousands of pages of the EU body of rules

must not only be adopted by candidates but also put into

practice in reality.

Landaburu says there can be no "handouts" to the future

members. What counts, he says, is their state of

preparedness, for their own sake and the sake of present EU

members. Valkanov said that "on the bulk of the rules, or the

so-called acquis communautaire, there won't be any

bargaining, simply we must find ways to incorporate them in

our legislation and to also effectively to implement them in

our daily work in Bulgaria, and not argue whether we accept

them or not."

In specific cases where a candidate considers that

applying the rules is especially difficult, it can ask for a

transition period after accession to give it more time to

reach compliance. Diplomats say that it is at this point that

the only real bargaining enters the whole process: namely

over the terms and length of transition periods. First-wave

candidate Hungary, for instance, has asked for 35 such

periods.

For its part, the EU has made clear it does not favor

many transition periods, and even when allowed such periods

must be limited in time and scope. In theory, candidates can

go a step further and ask for a "derogation," meaning a

permanent exemption from EU rules in a particular area.

However, one EU official said all the eastern candidates were

told from the start that no derogations are expected.

None of the first-wave countries (Poland, Hungary,

Slovenia, Estonia, and the Czech Republic) have asked for

derogations during their two years of negotiations, and the

official said none are expected from second-wave candidates.

Not all the candidates are happy about the EU's hard

line, as some see undertones of political self-interest to

it. Front-runners like Hungary hint that this approach by

Brussels could be designed to slow entry. EU enlargement

negotiator Landaburu denies that political pressure has any

impact on the enlargement process. But it is clear that

pressure exists in many forms.

One example is provided by the foreign minister in

Austria's controversial new rightist government, Benita

Ferrero-Waldner. She says Austria wants a period of

restriction on the movement of people and services from the

east into the EU in order to protect Austrian jobs and

companies. Germany also favors such a restrictive period.

Senior EU figures, including Landaburu and Enlargement

Commissioner Guenter Verheugen, are adamant that setting

dates for the entry of new members is a pointless exercise at

this stage. In short, it seems that the second-wave countries

have a long haul ahead of them.

20-03-00

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

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