RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 104, 00-05-30

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RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 4, No. 104, 30 May 2000 Report," Vol. 3, No. 21, 26 May 2000). LF

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT REJECTS U.S. CRITICISM OF HUMAN RIGHTS

[02] ...SAYS TURKEY'S HELP NEEDED TO RESOLVE KARABAKH CONFLICT

[03] KYRGYZ JOURNALIST AWARDED

[04] NEW KYRGYZ PROSECUTOR-GENERAL VOWS CRACKDOWN ON CORRUPTION

[05] KAZAKHSTAN'S PREMIER AGAIN BEMOANS SLOW-DOWN IN

[06] TAJIK PRESIDENT MEETS WITH UN OFFICIALS

[07] TURKMEN PRESIDENT REJECTS OSCE PLEA FOR CLEMENCY FOR

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[08] MONTENEGRO NOT TO ARREST MILOSEVIC

[09] SERBIAN STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES IN MONTENEGRO

[10] DID IVANOV SNUB SERBIAN OPPOSITION?

[11] SERBIAN OPPOSITION TO REORGANIZE?

[12] BOSNIAN SERB LEADER IN THE HAGUE

[13] ANOTHER MASS GRAVE FOUND NEAR SREBRENICA

[14] IRANIANS DROWN TRYING TO REACH CROATIA

[15] KOUCHNER WANTS KOSOVA'S SERBS TO REGISTER FOR ELECTIONS

[16] KOSOVA SERBS ANGRY AFTER KILLINGS

[17] ALBANIA, BULGARIA TO CRACK DOWN ON CRIME

[18] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT ORDERS INVESTIGATION INTO INVESTMENT

[19] COMMISSION ENDS DRAFTING AMENDMENTS TO MOLDOVAN

[20] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT BACKS ILASCU GROUP JUDICIAL RETRIAL IN

[21] BULGARIAN PRESIDENT URGES LAWMAKERS TO REVIEW LENGTH OF

[22] EU SIGNS LOAN FOR BULGARIAN NUCLEAR MODERNIZATION

[C] END NOTE

[23] PUTIN'S 'PERESTROIKA' UNDERMINES RUSSIAN CONSTITUTION

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT REJECTS U.S. CRITICISM OF HUMAN RIGHTS

In an address to the Azerbaijani people on 28

May, the anniversary of the 1918 Declaration of the

Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, Heidar Aliev said that the

U.S. Congress Helsinki Commission's criticism last week of

the political and human rights situation in Azerbaijan was

unfair and lacking objectivity, Turan reported. He said such

organizations should instead focus on the violations of the

rights of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis forced to

flee their homes during the war over Nagorno-Karabakh. During

a five-hour hearing convened by that commission in Washington

on 25 May, prominent Azerbaijani opposition politicians

accused the Azerbaijani leadership of establishing an

authoritarian regime and rejecting amendments proposed by the

OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights to

the election law currently being debated in parliament. They

also claimed that there are 50 political prisoners in

Azerbaijan. LF

[02] ...SAYS TURKEY'S HELP NEEDED TO RESOLVE KARABAKH CONFLICT

Ismail Cem, Aliev said he hopes for progress in resolving the

Karabakh conflict, adding that the OSCE Minsk Group is

expected to present a new draft peace plan shortly, Turan

reported. Aliev said he plans to meet on the sidelines of the

CIS June summit with his Armenian counterpart, Robert

Kocharian, to continue their discussion of ways to resolve

the conflict. In his radio address the previous day, Aliev

said he and Kocharian had several times been close to

resolving the conflict but that the "destructive position" of

the Armenian side prevented a solution. He said Turkey's

assistance is essential in order to resolve the conflict.

Aliev also expressed the hope that recently elected Turkish

President Ahmed Necet Sezer's first foreign visit will be to

Azerbaijan. Cem, for his part, pledged Ankara's support in

the Karabakh peace process and for Azerbaijan's full

membership in the Council of Europe. LF

[03] KYRGYZ JOURNALIST AWARDED

Women's Media Foundation has bestowed its prize for this year

on Zamira Sadykova, founder of the opposition weekly

newspaper "Res Publika," RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported on

29 May. The foundation noted Sadykova's courageous

journalistic work under continued pressure and persecution

from the Kyrgyz government. Sadykova has twice been sentenced

to imprisonment for libel. "Res Publika" suspended

publication two months ago after being fined for slander (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 3 April 2000). LF

[04] NEW KYRGYZ PROSECUTOR-GENERAL VOWS CRACKDOWN ON CORRUPTION

his priorities are fighting corruption, smuggling, and

economic crime, Interfax and RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau

reported. He said a total of 213 government officials were

arrested on charges of economic crime between January 1999

and March 2000 and that 164 criminal cases have been opened.

He estimated the total financial damage to the state as a

result of those crimes at 105 million soms (about $2.2

million). LF

[05] KAZAKHSTAN'S PREMIER AGAIN BEMOANS SLOW-DOWN IN

Qasymzhomart Toqaev told a cabinet meeting on

29 May that the pace of privatization must be stepped up,

ITAR-TASS reported. He said revenues from privatization

during the first three months of this year amounted to only

11 percent of the planned amount. Two weeks earlier, Finance

Minister Mazhit Esenbaev had similarly told the parliament

that the budget may collect only two thirds of planned

privatization revenues this year as a result of the previous

government's decision to drop four large metallurgical

combines from the list of enterprises to be privatized.

Toqaev called last month for an investigation into the

activities of the previous heads of the Finance Ministry's

Property and Privatization Committee (see "RFE/RL Newsline,"

12 April 2000). LF

[06] TAJIK PRESIDENT MEETS WITH UN OFFICIALS

met in Dushanbe on 29 May with UN Special representative for

Tajikistan Ivo Petrov and newly appointed UN Development

Program coordinator Matthew Kahane, Asia Plus-Blitz and ITAR-

TASS reported. Petrov informed Rakhmonov that the UN Security

Council failed at its 12 May session to reach a decision on

the nature of the future UN presence in Tajikistan following

the expiry of the mandate of its observer mission there.

Echoing Petrov's 24 May statement that Tajikistan needs

substantial economic aid (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 25 May

2000), Rakhmonov told Kahane that his agency should focus on

job creation, developing agriculture, combatting drought and

attracting foreign investment in Tajikistan. Rakhmonov and

Petrov agreed that the UN should play a greater role in

seeking to end the civil war in Afghanistan. LF

[07] TURKMEN PRESIDENT REJECTS OSCE PLEA FOR CLEMENCY FOR

Visiting Ashgabat on 29 May on the first

leg of a tour of the Central Asian states, Austrian Foreign

Minister and OSCE chairwoman in office Benita Ferrero-Waldner

asked President Saparmurat Niyazov to release Mukhametkuli

Aymuradov and Shagildy Atakov, according to an RFE/RL

correspondent travelling with the OSCE delegation. Aymuradov

was sentenced in 1995 to 15 years imprisonment on charges of

activities aimed at overthrowing the constitutional order,

while Atakov was imprisoned last year on charges of

swindling, which the OSCE considers were fabricated in

retaliation for his involvement with a Baptist congregation.

In addition, Ferrero-Waldner raised the case of Pirkuly

Tanrykuliev and Nurberdy Nurmamedov, who have also been

jailed for their political engagement. She expressed

disappointment after the meeting at Niyazov's rejection of

her plea for clemency. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[08] MONTENEGRO NOT TO ARREST MILOSEVIC

Vujanovic said in Podgorica that "no one in Yugoslavia,

Montenegro, or the international community could seriously

expect Montenegrin authorities to arrest [Yugoslav President]

Slobodan Milosevic and extradite him to The Hague," AP

reported on 30 May. Vujanovic added, however, that he hopes

Milosevic will not visit the mountainous republic "in the

near future." The prime minister's statement comes in

response to recent remarks by a prominent Montenegrin

supporter of Milosevic that the Yugoslav president has

accepted an invitation to visit Montenegro and that

Milosevic's backers know the Montenegrin government will be

under international pressure to arrest him (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 29 May 2000). Elsewhere, Miodrag Vukovic, who is

an aide to Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, said that

any visit by Milosevic to Montenegro would be a

"provocation," "Vesti" reported on 30 May. Vukovic added that

Milosevic should come to Montenegro only as a private citizen

and not expect to be officially welcomed as president. PM

[09] SERBIAN STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES IN MONTENEGRO

in Podgorica on 29 May with unnamed representatives of the

Serbian Otpor (Resistance) student movement. One Otpor member

told the private Beta news agency that the Montenegrin

authorities regard Otpor as "one of the democratic forces in

Serbia." The Montenegrin authorities have met previously with

many Serbian opposition leaders and provided them with refuge

and moral support. But Djukanovic and other Montenegrin

leaders have stressed that the Serbs must democratize Serbia

by themselves (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 26 May 2000). PM

[10] DID IVANOV SNUB SERBIAN OPPOSITION?

the private Belgrade daily "Danas" asked on its front page on

30 May, following the visit of several top Serbian opposition

leaders to Moscow the previous day (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29

May 2000). The leaders met with Russian Deputy Foreign

Minister Aleksandr Avdeev, but Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov

was "too busy" to see them, Reuters quoted unnamed Foreign

Ministry officials as saying. The ministry issued a statement

calling for "the prompt return of the Studio B television

station to its owner, [which is] the Belgrade city council."

Representatives of the opposition Yabloko party discussed the

current situation in Yugoslavia with the visitors and called

on the Russian president and government to "support human

rights in Yugoslavia," "Danas" reported. The daily

"Izvestiya" criticized the Foreign Ministry for what it

called "supporting Milosevic," "Vesti" reported. PM

[11] SERBIAN OPPOSITION TO REORGANIZE?

the leaders of the Alliance for Change, said in Belgrade on

29 May that the opposition's disappointingly small rally

there two days earlier may be the "swan song" of the

opposition in its present form (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 May

2000). Batic argued that the opposition may need to "regroup"

if it continues to remain ineffective and unable to agree on

a common platform, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. He

did not elaborate. PM

[12] BOSNIAN SERB LEADER IN THE HAGUE

Luka and the Hague-based war crimes tribunal was on the

agenda of talks between Republika Srpska Prime Minister

Milorad Dodik and the tribunal's president, Claude Jorda, on

29 May. This is the first visit by a top Bosnian Serb

official to the tribunal. Dodik also met with unnamed

indicted war criminals at a seaside prison. The Bosnian Serb

leader said that the tribunal must demonstrate that it seeks

to determine responsibility for war crimes committed by

individuals of any nationality. He argued that many Serbs

regard it as an anti-Serbian "political tribunal" and feel

that the "whole [Serbian] nation is on trial here," AP

reported. Dodik added that peacekeepers in Bosnia should

arrest former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and

General Ratko Mladic, both of whom have been indicted by the

tribunal, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM

[13] ANOTHER MASS GRAVE FOUND NEAR SREBRENICA

heads the Bosnian government's commission on missing persons

from the 1992-1995 war, said in Sarajevo on 29 May that

experts have found the remains of some 80 people in a forest

between Srebrenica and Bratunac. He added that identification

of the bodies will begin in approximately three weeks. PM

[14] IRANIANS DROWN TRYING TO REACH CROATIA

spokesman said in Banja Luka on 30 May that police have found

the bodies of four Iranians in the Sava River and that an

unspecified additional number of Iranians are believed to be

hiding on Bosnian Serb territory. The spokesman ruled out any

terrorist links, adding that the Iranians sought to reach

Croatia and Italy via Bosnia, AP reported. Meanwhile on an

Italian ship off the Istrian coast, Croatian police found 240

kilograms of cocaine with a street value of nearly $9

million, Reuters reported on 29 May. The Croats acted on a

tip from U.S. drug authorities. PM

[15] KOUCHNER WANTS KOSOVA'S SERBS TO REGISTER FOR ELECTIONS

in Kosova, said in Sofia on 29 May that he hopes the Serbian

authorities will allow Serbian refugees from Kosova to

register with UN officials there by 11 July. He added that he

also hopes to convince Serbs inside and outside Kosova that

it is in their interest to register and vote. Several local

Serbian leaders have called for a boycott of the registration

process until the UN and NATO guarantee the safety of

Kosova's Serbian minority and enable the refugees to return.

Kouchner has said repeatedly that organizing local elections

in the fall is one of his top priorities. PM

[16] KOSOVA SERBS ANGRY AFTER KILLINGS

shot and killed three Serbs, including a four-year-old boy,

in Cernica on 28 May. Two additional Serbs are being treated

for wounds at the nearby U.S. Camp Bondsteel. A NATO

spokesman said in Prishtina that an ethnic Albanian suspect

remains at large. Almost all of Cernica's 600 Serbian

inhabitants attended the funeral of the three victims the

following day. The villagers were "distraught and angry," AP

reported. Moderate Kosovar Serb leader Momcilo Trajkovic said

that "it is high time" for Serbs to reconsider their

continued participation in Kouchner's interim administrative

council. In Mitrovica, local Serb leader Oliver Ivanovic told

a protest meeting of about 1,000 Serbs that Serbs in Kosova

must "guard their own houses and streets." KFOR strictly

forbids the formation of local paramilitary groups. PM

[17] ALBANIA, BULGARIA TO CRACK DOWN ON CRIME

Meidani and his Bulgarian counterpart, Petar Stoyanov, agreed

in Tirana on 29 May to step up cooperation in combating

prostitution, drug trafficking, and other crimes affecting

their two countries. Stoyanov discussed with several top

Albanian officials improved coordination on joint projects

within the framework of the EU's Stability Pact. On 30 May,

Stoyanov is slated to visit the port of Durres, which will be

linked to Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Turkey by an east-west

highway to be built largely with EU funds. PM

[18] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT ORDERS INVESTIGATION INTO INVESTMENT

Speaking on Romanian Radio on 29 May, President

Emil Constantinescu said he has ordered the government to

open an investigation into the circumstances that prompted

the collapse of the National Investment Fund (FNI) and the

illegal withdrawal of deposits from the fund after it had

been temporarily closed. He said he had ordered the

Intelligence Service to investigate whether the crisis is

"jeopardizing national security" and whether it had been

purposely provoked. Ruling coalition parties and the

opposition have accused each other of having provoked the

crisis. As thousands of people demonstrated in various

cities to demand the return of their investments in the

FNI, a rumor prompted withdrawal demands from account

holders with the Commercial Bank. Bank officials gave

assurances that the bank is not in danger of collapsing. MS

[19] COMMISSION ENDS DRAFTING AMENDMENTS TO MOLDOVAN

The joint commission on drafting amendments

to the constitution has ended its work, having reached

compromises among its members on most of the points on the

agenda, RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau reported on 29 May. The

commission, which is composed of three representatives of

the parliament, three of the president and one of the

Council of Europe's Venice Commission of constitutional

experts told journalists that some points remain to be

decided by the parliament. The commission is recommending

that the legislature vote confidence in the premier instead

of the government as a whole and that the formation of the

government follow his being installed in office. The

premier is to be appointed by the president and present the

government team to the president for approval. The cabinet

does not need to have its program approved by the

parliament before it is sworn in. Venice Commission

representative Giorgio Malinverni said the proposed system

resembles "the [semi-presidential] French system." MS

[20] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT BACKS ILASCU GROUP JUDICIAL RETRIAL IN

Presidential spokesman Anatol Golea on 29

May said that President Petru Lucinschi considers the idea

of having the case of the Tiraspol-imprisoned group

reviewed in a third, OSCE-member country to be "a

reasonable compromise," RFE/ RL's Chisinau bureau reported.

Romania recently proposed that the case be retried in

Poland (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 May 2000). MS

[21] BULGARIAN PRESIDENT URGES LAWMAKERS TO REVIEW LENGTH OF

Petar Stoyanov on 29 April asked the

parliament to reconsider a recent law shortening military

service, AP reported. He said his intervention was prompted

by Bulgarian military leaders' opposition to the law. Under

the new law, as of 1 October 2001 service is to be cut to

nine months for most soldiers and six months for those with

a university degree. In 1998, military service was reduced

from 18 months to 12 months and from 12 months to nine

months for university graduates. MS

[22] EU SIGNS LOAN FOR BULGARIAN NUCLEAR MODERNIZATION

Solbes, EU commissioner for economic and monetary affairs,

has signed a $212 million loan approved last month for the

modernization of the Kozloduy nuclear power plant, dpa

reported on 29 May. The same day, the Bulgarian River

Shipping Corporation warned that the country's idle Danube

ship owners will not survive more delays in clearing the

Yugoslav section of the river, AP reported. The corporation's

executive director, Dimitar Stanchev, said the ship owners

cannot survive another winter like the last one. His remarks

were prompted by an earlier statement of a Danube Commission

official, who had said in Budapest that the reopening of the

waterway navigation system will be delayed by one year. MS

[C] END NOTE

[23] PUTIN'S 'PERESTROIKA' UNDERMINES RUSSIAN CONSTITUTION

In an article in the 11 May issue of the newspaper

"Sovetskaya Rossiya," legal scholar Georgii Shakhnazarov

offers proposals for constitutional reform that deserve

serious consideration as President Vladimir Putin seeks to

rework the Russian political system. Shakhnazarov, currently

with the Gorbachev Foundation and formerly an adviser to the

former Soviet president, has in the past argued that the

Russian Constitution should be amended to reduce the strong

powers the president enjoys.

Now he turns that argument on its head. Russia's

problem, he argues, is not that the president is too

powerful. The country, according to Shakhnazarov, needs such

a chief executive and voters support that. Unfortunately, a

strong parliament and judiciary do not balance the

presidency, and consequently there is no real system of

checks and balances.

Shakhnazarov proposes expanding Article 80, Paragraph 3

of the constitution, under which the president "defines the

basic guidelines for the state's domestic and foreign policy"

to include the Federal Assembly. The government would be made

more accountable to the legislature. The role of the bloated

presidential administration, in recent years a powerful

political force, would be curtailed. The only direct

constitutional reduction of the president's powers, according

to Shakhnazarov's proposals, would be the simplification of

the impeachment process, virtually impossible under the

current system. Such changes, Shakhnazarov argues, would help

Putin restore the "normal legal order" for which Russian

society is yearning. They also would help the new president

achieve the policy goals he has established.

Shakhnazarov's proposed amendments are unlikely to

receive much attention in the Kremlin. Having inherited a

flawed constitution designed to codify the personal authority

of his predecessor, Putin has preferred to revise that

document through legislation and presidential decrees rather

than by the complicated amendment process. In most

constitutional systems, Putin's ambitious plans--to alter the

composition of the Federation Council, reorganize the country

into seven super-regions administered by presidential

appointees, and streamline the mechanism for removing local

governors--would be fundamental enough to require

constitutional amendment and months of national debate. The

Putin administration correctly, though unwisely, argues that

in Russia this restructuring does not require constitutional

amendment.

Such changes, however, drastically shift the balance of

power between the center and the regions. If they are ordered

from above, rather than resulting from amendments to the

constitution or through a referendum, they are far more

likely not to work as intended, if they take hold at all.

This approach further diminishes the rule of law.

Another problem is that Putin's "perestroika" seems to

reflect a vertical view of political power that routinely

relies on strong--sometimes coercive--executive authority to

attain its goals. This orientation, as social scientist

Virginie Coulloudon has recently pointed out, is shared by

many Russian elites, from the new president to Anatolii

Chubais. Even if its goals, such as a free market, are

laudable, it reflects suspicion of political pluralism, the

separation of powers (which would be strengthened by

Shakhnazarov's proposals), and the resolution of conflicts

through negotiation and consensus.

In this regard one of the most interesting aspects of

Putin's proposals to bring the regional governors to heel has

been the extent to which it has been welcomed by so-called

"democrats" in the Moscow establishment. While many regional

governors are indeed corrupt, as these supporters of

centralization point out, they probably are less so than

numerous officials in Moscow, where the temptations are far

greater. Moreover, if the goal of the federal reorganization

is to improve local governance, subordinating the governors

to the Kremlin is likely to be less effective than making the

regional leaders more accountable to their local

constituencies.

The current Russian Constitution, like basic laws

elsewhere, seeks to balance liberty and order. Thus, the

government embraces the principles of popular consent, the

separation of powers, and federalism. Popular consent was

expressed by the direct election of the State Duma. The

sharing of political authority among three branches of the

federal government was intended to reduce the prospects for

tyranny. Federalism gave both national and regional

governments independent authority. In such systems, political

conflict is intended to be--and usually is--healthy.

These principles have never had deep roots in Russia.

The many flaws in the current constitution--including the

imbalances that Shakhnazarov discusses--have further impaired

such values. On 24 May, Sergei Medvedev, Putin's first deputy

chief of staff, expressed his high regard for the country's

constitution and added that the "political regime in Russia

was and is democratic." At the same time, he urged the Duma

to pass the president's federal reorganization passage to

stabilize the situation in the country and restore the

vertical hierarchy of power.

The problem for Putin is that stability is not usually

ensured by centralizing power. And even when the constitution

is deeply flawed, such an approach is rarely more legitimate

or effective.

The author is associate director of RFE/RL's Broadcasting

Division.

30-05-00

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

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