RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 92, 00-05-12

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RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 4, No. 92, 12 May 2000

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT, REPUBLICAN PARTY AGREE ON CANDIDATE FOR

[02] ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT FACTION TO FORM POLITICAL PARTY

[03] FORMER ARMENIAN RULING PARTY ELECTS 'TEMPORARY' LEADER

[04] ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER DISCUSSES RELATIONS WITH TURKEY

[05] NEW IRANIAN AMBASSADOR ARRIVES IN YEREVAN

[06] AZERBAIJANI PARLIAMENT PASSES ELECTION LAW AMENDMENTS IN

[07] GEORGIA'S NEW STATE MINISTER OUTLINES PRIORITIES

[08] UN EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER DELAY IN ABKHAZ SETTLEMENT

[09] GEORGIA AGAIN DENIES HOSTING MERCENARIES FOR CHECHNYA

[10] LITHUANIAN PRESIDENT IN KAZAKHSTAN

[11] KYRGYZ AUTHORITIES, OPPOSITION AGREE TO HOLD ROUNDTABLE

[12] KYRGYZSTAN TO RESETTLE ETHNIC KYRGYZ FROM TAJIKISTAN

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[13] CROATIAN PARLIAMENT PASSES MINORITY RIGHTS LAW

[14] CROATIAN GOVERNMENT BLOCKS SALE OF NEWSPAPER

[15] FORMER SLAVONIAN POLICE CHIEF CHARGED

[16] CHALLENGES TO MILOSEVIC EVEN IN HOMETOWN?

[17] SERBIAN OPPOSITION PLANS MORE RALLIES

[18] OPPOSITION TO UNITE IN OTPOR?

[19] MOBILE TELEPHONES BANNED IN YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT OFFICES

[20] MONTENEGRO TO 'DEFEND ITSELF'

[21] KOSOVARS MOURN SLAIN LEADER

[22] WHO KILLED COMMANDER DRINI?

[23] SERBS STONE U.S. PEACEKEEPERS...

[24] ...AND MUSLIM WOMEN

[25] MACEDONIA SIGNS TRADE PACT

[26] ROMANIAN MONEY-LAUNDERING CHIEF SUSPECT INTERVIEWED ON

[27] ...AFTER FRENCH INVESTIGATORS QUIZ MORE FORMER OFFICIALS

[28] LUCINSCHI DID NOT CONSULT EU EXPERT COMMISSION

[29] BALKAN AIRLINE PILOTS END STRIKE

[30] BULGARIAN OPPOSITION MOVES NO-CONFIDENCE VOTE

[C] END NOTE

[31] REPRESSION BY SELECTIVE PROSECUTION

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT, REPUBLICAN PARTY AGREE ON CANDIDATE FOR

Robert Kocharian has endorsed the candidacy of

Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) chairman Andranik Markarian

as prime minister, but the People's Party of Armenia, its

partner in the majority Miasnutiun parliament bloc, has not

yet done so, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported on 11 May,

quoting an unnamed senior parliament official. Sources in the

presidential administration declined either to confirm or

deny that report. LF

[02] ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT FACTION TO FORM POLITICAL PARTY

members of the second-largest parliamentary faction,

Kayunutiun (Stability), intend to form an eponymous political

party, faction leader Vartan Ayvazian told journalists on 11

May. He said that move will simply formalize the existing

situation, as "we already operate like a party." Most

Kayunutiun deputies are independents elected in single-

mandate constituencies. The party will have a "social-

democratic" orientation and will lobby for strengthening the

regulatory role of the state in the country's economy,

RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Alluding to rumors that

Kayunutiun may turn its back on its previous informal

alignment with the majority Miasnutiun faction and pledge its

open support for President Kocharian, Ayvazian said that "a

new majority" may soon emerge within the parliament. LF

[03] FORMER ARMENIAN RULING PARTY ELECTS 'TEMPORARY' LEADER

board of the Armenian Pan-National Movement (HHSh) on 11 May

elected former Foreign Minister Alexander Arzoumanian as its

"temporary" chairman, replacing former Interior Minister Vano

Siradeghian, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Siradeghian is

believed to have fled Armenia last month after parliamentary

deputies voted to lift his immunity in order to enable him to

be taken into custody for the duration of his ongoing trial

on charges of commissioning several contract killings (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 4 and 6 April 2000). HHSh board member and

former deputy parliamentary speaker Ara Sahakian said in

Yerevan last month that the party has become "a hostage" to

Siradeghian, Groong reported, citing Snark of 17 April.

Arzoumanian said he hopes to cooperate with several smaller

center-right parties that split from the HHSh in the 1990s.

Those parties plan to convene a demonstration in Yerevan on

12 May to protest the present administration's policies. LF

[04] ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER DISCUSSES RELATIONS WITH TURKEY

Parliamentary Cooperation Committee chair Ursula Schleicher

in Yerevan on 10 May that Turkey's ongoing economic blockade

of Armenia undermines stability in the South Caucasus, Snark

and Noyan Tapan reported. Oskanian also said that recognition

by Turkey of the Armenian genocide was one of the conditions

laid down in 1987 for that country's admission to the EU.

Noting Turkey's ongoing insistence that the normalization of

relations with Armenia is contingent on a solution to the

Karabakh conflict, Oskanian stressed that "the Karabakh

problem is to be resolved between Armenia and Azerbaijan,

[between] Azerbaijan and the [unrecognized] Nagorno-Karabakh

Republic, but Turkey has nothing to do with this." LF

[05] NEW IRANIAN AMBASSADOR ARRIVES IN YEREVAN

interregnum, Mohamed-Farhad Koleini arrived in Yerevan on 11

May to take up the duties of Iranian ambassador, RFE/RL's

Yerevan bureau reported. He told journalists that there are

no political implications to the interval between his

predecessor's departure and his arrival in the Armenian

capital. Koleini predicted that joint energy sector and

transport projects, including the planned gas pipeline from

Iran to Armenia, will give fresh impetus to bilateral

relations. LF

[06] AZERBAIJANI PARLIAMENT PASSES ELECTION LAW AMENDMENTS IN

By a vote of 90 to seven, deputies approved on

11 May the draft amendments to the election law submitted by

President Heidar Aliev, Turan reported. Most opposition

deputies abstained from the vote. Parliamentary speaker

Murtuz Alesqerov said that no changes will be made to the

numbers of deputies to be elected under the proportional (25)

and majoritarian (100) systems but that other proposed

changes may be taken into account during the second reading

on 12 May. Opposition deputies have criticized the draft

amendments, which they claim render the law even less

democratic than before. LF

[07] GEORGIA'S NEW STATE MINISTER OUTLINES PRIORITIES

Arsenishvili told parliamentary deputies after they approved

his nomination on 11 May that he considers his primary tasks

to be implementing economic reform, combating the shadow

economy, and resolving social problems, including the payment

of pensions and wage arrears and creating new jobs, Russian

agencies reported. Arsenishvili condemned political intrigues

in the economic sector as "ruinous" for Georgia. Also on 11

May, parliamentary deputies approved President Eduard

Shevardnadze's proposal to amend the structure of the

government, reducing the number of ministries from 21 to 18

(not 22 to 19, as erroneously reported in "RFE/RL Newsline,"

11 May 2000). LF

[08] UN EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER DELAY IN ABKHAZ SETTLEMENT

statement released in New York on 11 May, the UN Security

Council noted that the failure of the Georgian and Abkhaz

leaderships to agree to a solution to the deadlocked

conflict, including the status of Abkhazia vis-a-vis the

central Georgian government, has "an unfavorable effect" on

stability and the economic and humanitarian situation in the

region, Caucasus Press reported. The statement calls on both

sides to "show [the] political will" required to break the

deadlock and to complete work on and sign the draft agreement

on peace and the non-resumption of hostilities and the

protocol on repatriation and measures to restore the Abkhaz

economy. It also calls on both sides to ensure the safety of

members of the UN Observer Mission in Georgia, several of

whom were abducted in October 1999 (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 14

and 18 October 1999). LF

[09] GEORGIA AGAIN DENIES HOSTING MERCENARIES FOR CHECHNYA

"absurd and groundless" allegations by Russian First Deputy

Chief of Army General Staff Colonel General Valerii Manilov

that some 1,500 mostly Arab mercenaries are currently in the

Pankisi gorge close to Georgia's border with Chechnya,

Caucasus Press reported. Manilov had claimed that the

mercenaries are waiting for the snow to melt in order to

cross into Chechnya. LF

[10] LITHUANIAN PRESIDENT IN KAZAKHSTAN

on 11 May, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev and his

visiting Lithuanian counterpart, Valdas Adamkus, signed

agreements on technical, scientific, and cultural cooperation

and on joint measures to combat organized crime and drug-

trafficking, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported. Nazarbaev said

later at a joint press conference that Kazakhstan could

export some 60,000 tons of oil each month to Lithuania only

if it concluded an additional agreement with Russia.

Lithuania had hoped to secure at least 4 million tons. Russia

recently increased Kazakhstan's annual export quota by 3

million tons, but 2 million tons is to be transported via the

new bypass pipeline from Makhachkala to Novorossiisk (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 20 April 2000). Nazarbaev expressed the

hope that Lithuania will agree to transport goods to China

and Southeast Asia via Kazakhstan, according to Interfax.

Trade turnover between the two countries has increased

significantly over the past three years, reaching $95.8

million in 1999. LF

[11] KYRGYZ AUTHORITIES, OPPOSITION AGREE TO HOLD ROUNDTABLE

agreed during talks on 10 May to convene a roundtable

discussion in early June, Interfax and RFE/RL's Bishkek

bureau reported the following day. Nine representatives each

from the leadership, the opposition, and NGOs, including

President Askar Akaev, will participate in the discussion,

and all 29 registered Kyrgyz political parties will be

invited to attend. The OSCE will also be represented. The

participants will focus on the outcome of the contentious

February-March parliamentary elections and measures to ensure

the fairness of the upcoming presidential poll. LF

[12] KYRGYZSTAN TO RESETTLE ETHNIC KYRGYZ FROM TAJIKISTAN

deal with the applications of some 1,600 ethnic Kyrgyz

residents of neighboring Tajikistan's Gorno-Badakhshan

Autonomous Oblast to emigrate to Kyrgyzstan, RFE/RL's Bishkek

bureau reported on 11 May, citing the government press

service. The would-be emigres cite the worsening economic

situation in Tajikistan as the reason why they wish to leave

the country. The commission will travel to Kyrgyzstan's Osh

Oblast later this month to identify villages where the

immigrants could be resettled. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[13] CROATIAN PARLIAMENT PASSES MINORITY RIGHTS LAW

legislature approved a package of government proposals on 11

May to guarantee minority rights according to European

standards. The measures deal with minorities' cultural,

educational, and linguistic rights and restore an earlier law

that guarantees proportional representation in the parliament

to minorities who constitute more than 8 percent of the

population, which in practice means the Serbs. The Serbs made

up 12 percent of the population in 1991, but most fled to

Serbia or Bosnia after the 1995 Croatian army offensives that

recaptured rebel territory. Many Serbs now wish to return or

have already done so. Should they make up 8 percent by the

next census, they could have 19 out of 151 legislative seats,

which is more than some smaller parties in the governing

coalition have, AP reported. "Vecernji list" wrote that the

new legislation is more liberal than that in most European

countries. The government's new budget earmarks just under $3

million for minority affairs, the largest share of which goes

to the Serbs, "Jutarnji list" reported. PM

[14] CROATIAN GOVERNMENT BLOCKS SALE OF NEWSPAPER

corruption agency has obtained a court ruling to block the

sale of "Vecernji list" to a major Austrian media company,

"Novi List" reported on 12 May. Deputy Prime Minister Slavko

Linic said that the move is designed to protect foreign

investors while the anti-corruption agency investigates the

previous government's sale of shares in "Vecernji list" to an

offshore company in the Virgin Islands. The sale of the mass-

circulation daily in 1997 is under public scrutiny because of

new evidence suggesting that political corruption was

involved (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 2 May 2000). PM

[15] FORMER SLAVONIAN POLICE CHIEF CHARGED

district attorney in Osijek formally charged Dubravko

Jezercic, who is the former police chief in that town, and

his aide with blackmail and fraud in an effort to acquire

property. This is the latest of many cases of corruption

involving officials of the former government that have

emerged since the elections in January and February. PM

[16] CHALLENGES TO MILOSEVIC EVEN IN HOMETOWN?

prosecutor Jovo Stanojevic has submitted his resignation,

Radio B-292 reported on 11 May. He did not give a reason. The

broadcast added that five of his deputies have also offered

to quit. Meanwhile, the authorities suspended city judge

Djordje Jankovic for participating in a recent demonstration.

A local human rights lawyer told the radio that these latest

developments indicate that even legal officials in the

"bastion of the regime were fed up with pandering to illegal

demands of the regime made for private interests." Elsewhere,

Otpor activist Momcilo Veljkovic began a hunger strike on 12

May to protest his detention by police. PM

[17] SERBIAN OPPOSITION PLANS MORE RALLIES

opposition groups agreed in Belgrade on 11 May to hold a

major protest in the capital on 15 May. Democratic Party

leader Vojislav Kostunica said that the rally will be "one in

a series" that will also include a protest in Pozarevac,

Reuters reported. He stressed that holding a rally in

Milosevic's home town is a "matter of honor" after the regime

prevented the opposition from holding a rally in Pozarevac on

9 May (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 May 2000). Elsewhere,

Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic denied that

the rally had been blocked. He stressed that the police were

only trying to ensure citizens' safety. "Traffic controls,

identity checks, [and vehicle] ownership checks are frequent

and normal everywhere in the world," he said. PM

[18] OPPOSITION TO UNITE IN OTPOR?

Cacak and heads the New Serbia party, said in Jagodina on 11

May that all opposition parties should "freeze" their

activities and unite behind the Otpor (Resistance) student

movement, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. He stressed

that the regime "will not be able to do anything" against a

movement whose leaders are aged between 15 and 30 years.

Elsewhere, Bogoljub Arsenijevic Maki, who is known as the

Serbian Robin Hood, said that only civil disobedience and not

elections can unseat the regime, "Vesti" reported on 12 May.

Finally, two unidentified assailants beat up Otpor activist

Dejan Veljovic in Belgrade. PM

[19] MOBILE TELEPHONES BANNED IN YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT OFFICES

government has banned mobile telephones and pagers in

official buildings, Radio B-292 reported from Belgrade on 11

May. The move is designed to protect official secrets against

"foreign spies and their local agents," the broadcast added.

PM

[20] MONTENEGRO TO 'DEFEND ITSELF'

told "Vesti" in Podgorica on 11 May that his government

reserves the right to defend itself. He added that Montenegro

will increase the size of its police force if the government

feels that that is necessary to deal with threats from

Belgrade and its Montenegrin backers. He dismissed charges by

the federal army that the Montenegrin authorities have

trained an elite unit of snipers to liquidate army officers

(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 May 2000). Prime Minister Filip

Vujanovic similarly denied the army's charge, RFE/RL's South

Slavic Service reported. PM

[21] KOSOVARS MOURN SLAIN LEADER

ethnic Albanians attended the funeral of the slain former

commander of the Kosova Liberation Army (UCK), Ekrem Rexha,

in Prizren on 11 May (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 May 2000).

Lennart Myhlback, who heads the local UN administration,

stressed that Rexha was a leader who knew what Kosova needed

to build its future. Bernard Kouchner, who is Kosova's UN

administrator, called Rexha "an important ally for all those

working for peace, tolerance and reconstruction" in Kosova,

Reuters reported. PM

[22] WHO KILLED COMMANDER DRINI?

Ceku suggested at the funeral in Prizren on 11 May that

unnamed individuals opposed to Rexha's moderate polices are

responsible for the death of the man better known locally as

Commander Drini. Ceku stressed that "the future of Kosova

cannot be built on murders and an absence of security. Nobody

is going to allow" such lawlessness to continue, "The New

York Times" reported. Several of Rexha's relatives said that

his political opponents had recently threatened his life.

Some 30 police have been assigned to the case. PM

[23] SERBS STONE U.S. PEACEKEEPERS...

jeered at U.S. peacekeepers in two separate incidents near

Viti in southern Kosova on 11 May, AP reported. In one of the

incidents, the peacekeepers were guarding a Serbian Orthodox

Church when the crowd attacked them. PM

[24] ...AND MUSLIM WOMEN

May that an apparently organized group of 150 Bosnian Serbs

stoned four busses carrying Muslim women refugees who had

come to visit their former homes in Bratunac. Police detained

22 of the attackers and expect to make additional arrests,

the spokesman added. PM

[25] MACEDONIA SIGNS TRADE PACT

trade agreement with the four-member European Free Trade

Association in Geneva on 11 May, Reuters reported.

Impoverished Macedonia is keen to promote economic relations

with developed countries. PM

[26] ROMANIAN MONEY-LAUNDERING CHIEF SUSPECT INTERVIEWED ON

In an interview with the private Pro-TV, Adrian

Costea said on 11 May that his relation to former President

Ion Iliescu and incumbent President Emil Constantinescu can

be described as "that of counselor" and that his ties with

former Foreign Affairs Minister Teodor Melescanu were "ties

of friendship." Costea said he can also "assume paternity"

over the setting up of Melescanu's Alliance for Romania

Party, Mediafax reported. Costea's mandate as a presidential

counselor was prolonged after the 1996 elections and only

recently terminated. Melescanu on 11 May said in Oradea that

he is "ready to assume full responsibility" for having issued

a diplomatic passport to Costea, who "was entitled to the

document as a presidential counselor." He also said the

affair "has been triggered by those who now fear losing the

elections." MS

[27] ...AFTER FRENCH INVESTIGATORS QUIZ MORE FORMER OFFICIALS

affairs in Nicolae Vacaroiu's cabinet, and Dan Nicolae

Fruntelata, state secretary in the same cabinet, were

questioned by French investigating judges on 11 May about

their role in the money-laundering affair, RFE/RL's Bucharest

bureau reported. Hrebenciuc said that the contract under

which Costea received large sums of money for the photograph

album on Romania had been "perfectly legal" and that after

the change of government in 1996, the contract was prolonged

by the new cabinet. If that contract was illegal, Hrebenciuc

said, his successor, former government secretary-general

Remus Opris, must also be indicted. Opris responded that the

money to Costea did not come from the state budget but from

the now bankrupt Bancorex Bank, on the orders of the previous

government. He added that he will sue Hrebenciuc. MS

[28] LUCINSCHI DID NOT CONSULT EU EXPERT COMMISSION

Commission of constitutional experts on 11 May asked

President Petru Lucinschi and parliamentary chairman Dumitru

Diacov to cease debate on changing the constitutional system

until the commission's experts have concluded an examination

of the proposed changes. The commission said that the draft

law sent by Lucinschi to the Constitutional Court (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 9 May 2000) is different from the draft

Lucinschi sent to the expert commission. In sending the draft

to the court, Lucinschi claimed the Venice commission had

given it the green light. Following the appeal, the

parliament on 11 May decided to suspend the debate on

changing the country's constitutional system, Flux and

Infotag reported. MS

[29] BALKAN AIRLINE PILOTS END STRIKE

national carrier Balkan Airlines on 11 May ended a nine-day

strike after accepting an agreement proposed by the company's

management, AP reported. Bozhidar Danev, head of the

Bulgarian Industrialists' Association, who mediated in the

conflict, did not specify the details of the agreement. On 10

May, Prime Minster Ivan Kostov had cut short a visit to

Finland to deal with the strike, BTA reported. MS

[30] BULGARIAN OPPOSITION MOVES NO-CONFIDENCE VOTE

Socialist Party (BSP) and the Euroleft on 10 May submitted a

no-confidence vote in Ivan Kostov's cabinet. BSP leader

Georgi Parvanov said "corruption has engulfed the whole state

machine" and is "at the core of all woes of derailing

reforms, poor management of state enterprises, lack of a

social policy...and lack of foreign investment," Reuters

reported. The ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms

did not support the motion, which has little chance of

passage. The motion must be debated within 72 hours of its

submission and the vote must take place within 24 hours of

that debate. MS

[C] END NOTE

[31] REPRESSION BY SELECTIVE PROSECUTION

Newly inaugurated Russian President Vladimir Putin

appears to have embarked on a strategy long favored by

authoritarian leaders: the selective prosecution of his

opponents for legal violations.

That chilling conclusion, only four days into Putin's

term, is suggested by the 11 May police raid on a major

Russian media group that has long been critical of Kremlin

policy in general and of Putin's approach to a variety of

issues, in particular.

Early on 11 May, armed tax police searched the

headquarters of the Media-Most Group, headed by Vladimir

Gusinskii. This group controls NTV, the radio station Ekho

Moskvy, the daily "Segodnya," and the weekly magazine

"Itogi." The Federal Security Service (FSB) said that the

raid was intended to find evidence of tax irregularities or

what an FSB spokesman insisted was "a regular financial

offence." Later the same day, FSB officials reported finding

not only the evidence they said they were looking for but

indications of other criminal activity, including the use of

unauthorized eavesdropping devices.

But Gusinskii and his supporters, who have often been

the objects of official attention for their critical coverage

of the government, viewed the police action in a very

different way. Gusinskii himself suggested that "it is

obvious that what is happening is a factor of political

pressure." And another Media-Most leader, Igor Malashenko,

said the action "contradicts the norms of Russia's

constitution and is against freedom of speech."

Because of the nature of the Russian political and

economic system over the last decade, both the FSB and

Gusinskii are right in some sense.

Given confusion over tax policies and the underlying

corruption of Russian society, virtually no firm in that

country has always been able or willing to conduct its

affairs in full compliance with the law. consequently, the

authorities are likely to be able to find evidence justifying

prosecution almost anywhere they choose to look.

But it is precisely because the authorities have the

possibility to pick and choose whom they will prosecute that

Gusinskii and the Media-Most team have the better argument.

They properly point out that they have been singled out from

among all the other potential targets of investigation. And

they plausibly suggest that the government has done so not

out of a concern for law enforcement but rather to build its

power.

Even a cursory examination of the Russian media scene

suggests that Gusinskii's group is no more "illegal" than

that of other media barons, but Media-Most distinguished

itself from other such holdings: it has been very critical of

the Kremlin. The 11 May raid suggests that the Kremlin has

decided to respond to that criticism and to do so in an

ostensibly respectable way by using the provisions of the law

itself rather than brute force to move against freedom of the

press and those who seek to defend it.

Such a strategy has three major advantages for a leader

like Putin, who has made it clear that he wants to ensure his

control. First, it can be used to silence or break those who

oppose his regime, either by drawing them into legal cases or

financially ruining them.

Second, actions of this type intimidate other groups

that might be thinking about opposing him. The latter can see

what the costs of such an approach are and may therefore

decide to remain silent or otherwise go along with the

regime.

And third, because such actions are cloaked in a mantle

of legality, they often escape any criticism from democratic

governments. Such governments can and do say to themselves

that the Russian police are, after all, only enforcing the

law.

But for all three of these reasons, this "legal" threat

to media freedom and to other forms of freedom that rely on

it may be even more insidious than the direct application of

force. Thus, the 11 May raid on Media-Most may prove an even

more significant turning point in Russia's political

development than Putin's inauguration as president four days

earlier.

12-05-00

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

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