RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 69, 00-04-06

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

RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 4, No. 69, 6 April 2000

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT SPEAKER'S BODYGUARD COMMITS MANSLAUGHTER

[02] AZERBAIJAN, TURKEY SIGN FURTHER MILITARY COOPERATION

[03] ARMENIAN MINORITY CALLS ON GEORGIA TO ACKNOWLEDGE 1915

[04] ADJAR LEADER TO QUIT GEORGIAN PRESIDENTIAL RACE?

[05] WORKERS MOVEMENT LEADER ARRESTED IN KAZAKHSTAN

[06] KAZAKHSTAN LAUNCHES CRACKDOWN ON CUT-PRICE OIL SALES

[07] KAZAKHSTAN DRAFTS PROGRAM TO CUT UNEMPLOYMENT

[08] COURT PROCEEDINGS AGAINST KYRGYZ OPPOSITION LEADER RESUMED,

[09] KYRGYZ PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE GUILD FORMED

[10] TAJIK, BELARUS PRESIDENTS SIGN FRIENDSHIP, COOPERATION

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[11] FRENCH LEADERS DETERMINED TO ARREST KARADZIC

[12] KARADZIC'S WIFE APPEARS AT RALLY

[13] BELGRADE WANTS HAGUE TRIBUNAL ABOLISHED

[14] MORE INCIDENTS AGAINST ALBANIANS IN SERBIA

[15] FATHER SAVA WARNS CRITICS

[16] SERBIAN OPPOSITION REMAINS HAMSTRUNG

[17] SESELJ SUPPORTERS OUST PRIVATE MEDIA FROM LEGISLATURE

[18] DJUKANOVIC SAYS MONTENEGRO WILL NOT BE PROVOKED

[19] MACEDONIA WANTS KFOR TO BETTER CONTROL BORDER

[20] DEL PONTE PRAISES CROATIAN GOVERNMENT

[21] CROATIAN PARTIES AGREE ON APPONTMENTS

[22] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT IN ROMANIA

[23] ROMANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER IN GERMANY

[24] FORMER ROMANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER DENIES ROLE IN 'HOT LINE'

[25] ROMANIAN SUPREME COURT CHAIRMAN DIES

[26] MOLDOVAN CABINET APPROVES PRIVATIZATION BILLS

[27] BULGARIA TO RECEIVE AID FROM GERMANY

[C] END NOTE

[28] POLAND RECEIVES MIXED SIGNALS OVER EU ENTRY

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT SPEAKER'S BODYGUARD COMMITS MANSLAUGHTER

Khachatrian and head of his bodyguard service, shot and

killed a man during an argument on the street in Yerevan

during the night of 4-5 April, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau

reported. Babasian was subsequently detained by police.

Khachatrian left Armenia on the evening of 4 April for an

official trip to Australia. Since his appointment five months

ago, he has been repeatedly criticized for incompetence and

inappropriate behavior (see "RFE/RL Caucasus Report," Vol. 3,

No. 14, 6 April 2000). LF

[02] AZERBAIJAN, TURKEY SIGN FURTHER MILITARY COOPERATION

Azerbaijani Deputy Defense Minister Colonel Mamed

Beydullaev and Colonel General Baha Tuzuner, who is commander

of the Turkish ground forces, signed a protocol in Baku on 5

April on training military personnel, Interfax and Turan

reported. LF

[03] ARMENIAN MINORITY CALLS ON GEORGIA TO ACKNOWLEDGE 1915

Some 200 representatives of the majority ethnic

Armenian population of Samtskhe-Djavakheti in southern

Georgia held a protest demonstration in the regional center

of Akhalkalaki during Georgian President Eduard

Shevardnadze's election campaign visit there on 4 April,

Caucasus Press reported on 5 April, citing "Rezonansi." The

protesters called upon the Georgian leadership to acknowledge

as genocide the killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey in

1915. They also demanded measures to improve social and

economic conditions in the region (see "End Note," "RFE/RL

Newsline," 20 September 1999). LF

[04] ADJAR LEADER TO QUIT GEORGIAN PRESIDENTIAL RACE?

state television reported on 5 April that Aslan Abashidze,

chairman of the Supreme Council of the Adjar Autonomous

Republic, will announce on 6 April his decision to withdraw

his candidacy in the 9 April Georgian presidential poll,

according to Caucasus Press. Abashidze had held talks on 5

April in Batumi with Georgian parliamentary speaker Zurab

Zhvania, whom former Batumi Mayor Tamaz Kharazi had accused

in 1997 of plotting to oust Abashidze (see "RFE/RL Newsline,"

21 and 22 October 1997). Shevardnadze is scheduled to travel

to Batumi on 6 April, where he will meet with Abashidze. LF

[05] WORKERS MOVEMENT LEADER ARRESTED IN KAZAKHSTAN

Movement leader Madel Ismailov was arrested in Almaty on 6

April and will be charged with participating in the

unsanctioned pensioners' protest in that city on 30 March,

RFE/RL's bureau in the former capital reported. Meanwhile

Irina Savostina, who heads the Pokolenie movement to defend

pensioners' rights, told RFE/RL that she intends to request

political asylum in the Russian Federation because of the

increasing oppression of opposition activists by the Kazakh

authorities. LF

[06] KAZAKHSTAN LAUNCHES CRACKDOWN ON CUT-PRICE OIL SALES

the ongoing investigation into the sale of oil below world

prices is encountering fierce resistance from oil companies,

Reuters reported. Losses to the state budget from such sales

in the past are estimated at several hundred million dollars.

Toqaev had announced in February the creation of a

commission, which he chairs, to investigate such abuses (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 24 February 2000). LF

[07] KAZAKHSTAN DRAFTS PROGRAM TO CUT UNEMPLOYMENT

government plans to finalize within 10 days measures to

reduce poverty and unemployment, Asia Plus-Blitz reported on

5 April. Prime Minister Toqaev told a cabinet session the

previous day that it is planned to reduce unemployment by 21

percent by the end of 2002, from 13.5 percent to 9 percent of

the able-bodied population. First Deputy Prime Minister

Aleksandr Pavlov had said earlier that priority will be given

to ensuring that at least one member of every household has a

job, "Nezavisimaya gazeta" reported on 1 April. Toqaev also

said that the percentage of budget spending on unemployment

and other social benefits will be raised from 0.8 percent to

1 percent. He said that the government must not incur any

arrears in such payments. LF

[08] COURT PROCEEDINGS AGAINST KYRGYZ OPPOSITION LEADER RESUMED,

A Bishkek district court on 5 April opened

proceedings against opposition El (Bei Bechara) chairman

Daniyar Usenov for assaulting a businessman at Bishkek

airport in 1996, RFE/RL's bureau in the Kyrgyz capital

reported. That case had been closed last fall after the

businessman withdrew his suit against Usenov but was reopened

in February 2000. The 5 April court proceedings were

suspended after 30 minutes when Usenov rejected the defense

lawyer proposed by the court and was arrested on charges of

obstructing the course of justice. He was released on 6

April, however, reportedly on instructions from Kyrgyz

President Askar Akaev. U.S. State Department spokesman James

Rubin had called on 5 April for Usenov's immediate release.

LF

[09] KYRGYZ PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE GUILD FORMED

Bishkek on 5 April, Kyrgyz human rights activists formed the

Guild of Prisoners of Conscience of Kyrgyzstan, RFE/RL's

Bishkek bureau reported. Oppositionist Topchubek Turgunaliev,

who has been designated a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty

International, was chosen to head the guild's Coordinating

Council. LF

[10] TAJIK, BELARUS PRESIDENTS SIGN FRIENDSHIP, COOPERATION

Imomali Rakhmonov and Alyaksandr Lukashenka signed

a friendship and cooperation agreement in Dushanbe on 5

April, together with other accords intended to create a legal

basis for expanded cooperation in the spheres of the economy,

science, technology, transport, and communications, Asia

Plus-Blitz reported. Rakhmonov accepted an invitation to

visit Belarus next month. The two presidents had met for one

hour the previous day to discuss bilateral relations. Also on

5 April, the two countries' defense ministers, Colonel

General Sherali Khairulloev and Aleksandr Chumakov, met to

discuss military cooperation both within the CIS Collective

Security Treaty and on a bilateral basis. Belarus is

currently training Tajik air force specialists in the use of

air defense weapons. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[11] FRENCH LEADERS DETERMINED TO ARREST KARADZIC

President Jacques Chirac said in Paris on 5 April that top

war criminals should be arrested in Bosnia, adding that

"justice must be done." Defense Minister Alain Richard told a

cabinet meeting that "France believes that arresting [former

Bosnian Serb leader Radovan] Karadzic is a major goal and

remains an objective to which it is determined to

contribute," Reuters reported. Richard also noted that French

peacekeepers are participating in the arrest of war criminals

"at least as much as the British and Americans." French

troops led the operation on 3 April to arrest Karadzic's

former deputy, Momcilo Krajisnik (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report,"

4 April 2000). PM

[12] KARADZIC'S WIFE APPEARS AT RALLY

attended a rally of her husband's Serbian Democratic Party

(SDS) in Pale on 6 April. AP reported that it was her first

appearance "in years at such a large public gathering."

Supporters chanted her husband's nickname, "Rasko." She told

reporters that her family fears for her husband's arrest but

added, "We have confidence in God and we pray." She lamented

the arrest of Krajisnik, adding that "a man who signed the

Dayton Peace Agreement [in 1995] together with [U.S.

President Bill] Clinton was arrested in the way they arrest

Mafiosi. But the Americans can only do it that way. We,

however, are decent people and will wait for the [8 April

local] elections. The results will show our victory," Zelen-

Karadzic added. PM

[13] BELGRADE WANTS HAGUE TRIBUNAL ABOLISHED

of the federal government, Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin

Jovanovic sent an appeal from Belgrade to the UN Security

Council demanding that the UN abolish the Hague-based war

crimes tribunal. Jovanovic stressed that the tribunal has "no

legal basis" and that its sole purpose is to conduct

"genocide against the Serbian people." In related news,

Krajisnik telephoned his brother Mirko in Pale from The Hague

to arrange the hiring of defense lawyers. Momcilo told Mirko

that he does not want to deal with any papers from the

tribunal without a lawyer, "Danas" reported on 6 April. PM

[14] MORE INCIDENTS AGAINST ALBANIANS IN SERBIA

shot and killed Ismet Aliu in the Dobrosin area of

southwestern Serbia's Presevo Valley on 4 April, AP reported

two days later. A NATO spokesman in Prishtina gave no details

of the incident, but "Koha Ditore" reported that Aliu was "on

patrol" when he was shot. The Dobrosin area is part of a

demilitarized zone in which ethnic Albanian guerrillas are

active. In another incident, police "abducted" and briefly

detained Fahri Musliu, who is an ethnic Albanian

correspondent for Voice of America, in Belgrade on 6 April.

Sonja Biserko, who heads the Serbian Helsinki Committee, said

that he had recently received threatening telephone calls and

that several unidentified men had tried to enter his flat the

night before he was abducted. This is the first recent case

in Serbia of an abduction of a journalist working for a

foreign broadcaster, AP added. PM

[15] FATHER SAVA WARNS CRITICS

for Serbian Orthodox Archbishop Artemije and a leader of

Kosova Serbs opposed to Yugoslav President Slobodan

Milosevic, said at Gracanica monastery on 5 April that pro-

Milosevic Serbs have a right to visit the monastery and make

their political views known. He warned them, however, that

they must behave appropriately when visiting a monastery and

not swear or smoke there, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service

reported. Sava spoke after some 100 pro-Milosevic Serbs

staged a protest at Gracanica against Sava's and Artemije's

recent decision to participate in the UN's provisional

advisory council in Kosova as observers (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 3 April 2000). Elsewhere, Sava appealed to the

Serbian diaspora to act responsibly in their support of

political causes in the former Yugoslavia. He said that it is

all too easy to engage in militant rhetoric if one is sitting

"in a comfortable chair" in Western Europe far from the harsh

realities of Kosova, Bosnia, or Krajina, "Vesti" reported on

6 April. PM

[16] SERBIAN OPPOSITION REMAINS HAMSTRUNG

Serbian opposition have still not agreed among themselves who

will speak and in which order at the mass protest meeting

slated for 14 April in Belgrade, "Vesti" reported on 6 April.

Such seemingly petty questions of precedence and status have

for years prevented the opposition leaders from sinking their

differences and working together to oust Milosevic. PM

[17] SESELJ SUPPORTERS OUST PRIVATE MEDIA FROM LEGISLATURE

of the Culture and Information Committee an unspecified

number of reporters from the dailies "Danas," "Glas

javnosti," and "Blic" at the request of deputies from

Vojislav Seselj's Radical Party. The ban on 5 April also

affected reporters from the Beta and Fonet news agencies and

Studio B television, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported.

PM

[18] DJUKANOVIC SAYS MONTENEGRO WILL NOT BE PROVOKED

President Milo Djukanovic said in Brussels on 5 April that

"we are conscious that time is on our side...and that's why

we are trying very hard to avoid all the pitfalls that the

Belgrade regime has created for us. We are confident that any

escalation would play into their hands and would be to our

detriment. I'm confident that we'll succeed." Djukanovic

stressed that Montenegro's government is "trying to be a

responsible government, which will not make nervous moves or

provoke instability," Reuters reported. PM

[19] MACEDONIA WANTS KFOR TO BETTER CONTROL BORDER

Boris Trajkovski's office sent a statement to KFOR commander

General Klaus Reinhardt on 5 April calling on peacekeepers to

better control the Kosova-Macedonian border and prevent

incidents. The move came several days after unidentified

persons briefly detained four Macedonian soldiers after they

strayed into Kosova on 2 April, Reuters reported. In

Prishtina, Reinhardt said that he "will not allow [Kosova] to

become a safe haven for bandits and criminals." The men who

detained the soldiers demanded the release of Xhavit Hasani,

a Macedonian-born Albanian whom many Kosovars regard as a

hero of the 1999 conflict. The UN authorities in Kosova

recently deported Hasani to Macedonia, where he is wanted for

murder. The four Macedonian soldiers were freed on 3 April

after Hasani was let out of prison on $100,000 bail and

allowed to return to Kosova, AP reported. PM

[20] DEL PONTE PRAISES CROATIAN GOVERNMENT

is the chief prosecutor of the Hague-based tribunal, said in

Zagreb that she is "very happy" about the new government's

cooperative attitude toward the tribunal. She said that she

"got a lot of documents" during her visit (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 5 April 2000). She refused to provide any details

of possible sealed indictments of high-ranking Croatian

officials. Del Ponte added, however, that she spoke to

Justice Minister Stjepan Ivanisevic about an unspecified

number of sealed indictments and that he knows the names of

those indicted, "Jutarnji list" reported. PM

[21] CROATIAN PARTIES AGREE ON APPONTMENTS

governing parties agreed in Zagreb on 5 April to soon make

appointments to leading government agencies, in which each

party will have a prescribed percentage of top jobs. The

agencies involved deal with military affairs, privatization,

the police, the railways, the posts and telecommunications,

and the state insurance firm, "Jutarnji list" reported. PM

[22] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT IN ROMANIA

Romania, Robert Kocharian met with his Romanian

counterpart, Emil Constantinescu, on 5 April to discuss

bilateral economic relations, collaboration within the

framework of the TRACECA and INOGATE projects, and Romanian

support for Armenia's quest to join the Council of Europe.

They also touched on the role Romania might play in seeking

a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict when it takes

over the OSCE rotating chairmanship in 2001. The two

presidents agreed that Romanian free zones can serve as

transit-bases for Armenian exports to Europe. Robert

Nazarian and Traian Basescu, who head the joint inter-

governmental commission, signed two agreements on

agricultural cooperation, Mediafax reported. MS

[23] ROMANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER IN GERMANY

his German counterpart, Joschka Fischer, on 5 April to

discuss ways to improve economic cooperation as well as

Romania's bid to join the EU, the Balkan Stability Pact,

and the blockage of shipping on the River Danube since the

NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia. The two ministers also

discussed German aid to Romania to deal with environmental

problems, an RFE/RL correspondent in Berlin reported. MS

[24] FORMER ROMANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER DENIES ROLE IN 'HOT LINE'

Alliance for Romania (APR) Chairman

Teodor Melescanu, who was foreign minister in Nicolae

Vacaroiu's cabinet, has denied reports that he played any

role in the talks with Russia on establishing a "hot line"

between Bucharest and Moscow. Melescanu, who is the APR

candidate in the 2000 presidential contest, said the fact

that presidential counselor Constantin Degeratu revealed on

the eve of the election campaign that such discussions had

taken place proves that Constantinescu is attempting to

manipulate the electorate and "inflate" the scandal.

Melescanu also backed the Party of Social Democracy in

Romania's demand that a parliamentary investigative

commission be set up to find out how secret documents were

leaked from the Foreign Ministry to Constantinescu and were

used by him in his 1996 presidential campaign, RFE/RL's

Bucharest bureau reported on 5 April. MS

[25] ROMANIAN SUPREME COURT CHAIRMAN DIES

a heart attack on 6 April at the age of 61, AP reported.

During the 1990s, Moisescu held several top legal positions,

including that of prosecutor-general. He was appointed to

head the Supreme Court in June 1998. VG

[26] MOLDOVAN CABINET APPROVES PRIVATIZATION BILLS

government on 5 April approved plans for the privatization of

the wine and tobacco industries, BASA-Press and Flux

reported. The plans call for the sale of 51 percent of shares

in the wine and tobacco companies. The state is to retain a

34 percent stake in each company and 15 percent will be sold

to each company's employees at a nominal price. The IMF has

set the privatization of these two industries as a pre-

condition for granting credits to Moldova. VG

[27] BULGARIA TO RECEIVE AID FROM GERMANY

Bulgaria with DM 30.3 million ($14.9 million) to support

economic reforms, BTA reported. Bulgarian Deputy Economy

Minister Hristo Mikhaylovski was in Germany on 4 April to

sign a protocol on that assistance. In other news, the Irish-

American company Cable Bulgaria will invest $200 million over

three years in the development of a national cable television

and Internet service in the Balkan country, AP reported.

Cable Bulgaria is owned by Ireland's Ganley Group and

Catamount Partners L.P., a U.S. investment fund controlled by

the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. VG

[C] END NOTE

[28] POLAND RECEIVES MIXED SIGNALS OVER EU ENTRY

By virtue of its spectacular progress in economic reform

and its enthusiastic desire to join Western structures,

Poland has always been regarded as a leading candidate for

quick entry into the EU.

Already a member of the NATO alliance, Poland has set

its own target date of January 2003 for accession to the EU.

It is one of five Central and East European "front-runners"

that have been negotiating with Brussels for the past two

years. (The others are Hungary, the Czech Republic, Estonia,

and Slovenia.)

For its part, the EU's Executive Commission has always

declined to set an entry date for any of the candidates,

although it maintained a generally encouraging tone. But

there have recently been confusing signals about the position

of Poland.

Guenter Verheugen, the EU's commissioner for

enlargement, said in an interview with "Uniting Europe" last

week that Poland is not "predetermined" to be in the first

wave of accession. Theoretically seen, he said, "Poland could

even be the last of all to join."

In diplomatic circles where words are weighed, such a

formulation is striking. It follows Verheugen's comments the

month before in Warsaw when he said Poland could miss the

2003 deadline, as it had fallen behind in developing its

legislative program. Also in Warsaw, Ricardo Levi, the

spokesman for Commission President Romano Prodi, mused aloud

about the possibility of a first-wave entry without Poland.

Verheugen has since made an effort to backtrack, in an

evident attempt to smooth ruffled feathers. In an interview

with the "Financial Times" on 4 April, he said it is his

personal objective to ensure that Poland is among the first

new members. He said there is no change in the commission's

strategy and no one need be nervous. The enlargement process

is "irreversible," he commented.

So why the sudden swing in tone? Poland's Ambassador to

the EU Jan Truszczynski told RFE/RL that there is "no reason

to believe that Poland has ceased to be one of the leaders in

the league of candidates." He admitted that there are delays

of "several months," in legislation in some important areas,

including telecommunications but stressed that work is now

being speeded up.

The ambassador, like other Polish officials, says it is

"unthinkable" that Poland should be left out of the first

wave. So what has caused EU officials to think the

unthinkable? The most likely answer is agriculture. EU member

states have not yet been able to decide how--or even whether-

-the terms of the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) can

be extended to Eastern candidates.

The CAP is an extremely expensive instrument of

financial support for EU farmers. It consumes half the entire

EU budget and is deeply unpopular in international trade

circles, where it is seen as posing unfair trade competition.

Extending the system to Poland's 2 million farms, most

of them smallholdings worked at subsistence level, would

probably bring the CAP to the point of collapse. Moreover,

present member states would revolt at having to pay so much

for Poland.

Verheugen foreshadowed the difficulties when he said

last month that member states will not be able to formulate a

full, common negotiating position on agriculture until at

least the end of this year, despite the fact that

negotiations with Poland and the other front runners are set

to open this June.

Verheugen has moved to put the ball in Warsaw's court,

by saying the Polish government will have to come up with a

clear concept on restructuring its agriculture. But as

Ambassador Truszczynski says, the EU, too, must do its part.

He says Brussels is reluctant to get down to the hard

talking: "They have to start proposing the solutions they

have been signaling for quite some time already. We have to

start discussing substance, this substance has not yet been

the subject of discussion, the member states preferring until

now to ask additional questions, to demand additional

explanations from all the candidates."

One possible solution in Poland's case would be to

consider most of the farms not to be farms at all in terms of

the CAP. Fewer than half a million farms in Poland are

considered commercially viable. These could be subsidized

under the CAP, while the other 1.5 million properties, which

are often not much more than family plots, could be helped

under other EU funds, for instance for social development in

rural areas.

What now appears clear, for Poland and for the other

candidates, is that the agriculture issue is one with a

potential to upset previous perceptions about who is leading

in the EU accession stakes.

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

06-04-00

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

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