RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 106, 00-06-01

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

RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 4, No. 106, 1 June 2000

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] NEW ARMENIAN BLOC HOLDS FIRST CONGRESS

[02] ARMENIAN WAR VETERANS STILL INTENT ON OUSTING PRESIDENT

[03] SENIOR OSCE OFFICIAL DISCUSSES ELECTION LAW IN AZERBAIJAN

[04] CAR BOMB KILLS GEORGIAN DEFENSE MINISTER'S BROTHER

[05] CIS EXECUTIVE SECRETARY VISITS GEORGIA

[06] GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT RATIFIES PIPELINE AGREEMENT

[07] OSCE CHAIRWOMAN IN KYRGZYSTAN

[08] OPPOSITION KYRGYZ POLITICIAN SUES ELECTION COMMISSION

[09] CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST KYRGYZ HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST

[10] TAJIKISTAN DENIES GUERRILLA PRESENCE ON ITS BORDER WITH

[11] UZBEKISTAN DENIES VIOLATING AFGHANISTAN'S AIR SPACE

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[12] FAILED ATTEMPT TO ARREST PLAVSIC?

[13] SFOR DENIES BID TO SEIZE PLAVSIC

[14] DJUKANOVIC AIDE SHOT DEAD...

[15] ...AS SOME BLAME MILOSEVIC

[16] KOSOVA SERBS BURN NORWEGIAN KFOR VEHICLE

[17] DRASKOVIC PRAISES RUSSIAN ROLE IN SERBIA...

[18] ...WHILE DJINDJIC, PERISIC BLAST IT

[19] SERBIAN POLICE HOLD DRASKOVIC'S BODYGUARDS

[20] BELGRADE STUDENTS CALL OFF PROTEST

[21] YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER IN SOUTH AFRICA

[22] CROATIA, MONTENEGRO SIGN AGREEMENT

[23] NEW GOVERNEMENT FOR ZAGREB

[24] TUDJMAN'S SON: GOVERNMENT LEAVING CROATIA WITHOUT SECURITY

[25] ROMANIAN DEFENSE COUNCIL SAYS BANK CRISIS WAS 'THREAT TO

[26] ...WHILE RULING PARTY POINTS FINGER AT OPPOSITION...

[27] ...AND INVESTIGATION LAUNCHED INTO FUND OFFICIALS

[28] GAGAUZ-YERI ASSEMBLY THREATENS RETALIATION

[29] BULGARIA 'WORRIED' ABOUT LIBYAN TRIAL

[C] END NOTE

[30] CABAL AND LOVE--CZECH STYLE

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] NEW ARMENIAN BLOC HOLDS FIRST CONGRESS

Wing Forces, which is composed of four small right-wing

parties that split in the late 1990s from the then ruling

Armenian Pan-National Movement, held its founding congress in

Yerevan on 29 May, RFE/RL's bureau in the Armenian capital

reported. The more than 1,000 participants adopted a

statement accusing President Robert Kocharian of having

"seized power" in February 1998 and the present Armenian

leadership of rolling back political and economic reform and

making Armenia "an obstacle to regional integration." David

Shahnazarian," the leader of the 21st Century party, who ran

unsuccessfully against Kocharian in the March 1998

presidential poll, also accused the president of planning to

resolve the Karabakh conflict by means of a territorial

exchange that would entail ceding Armenia's southern Meghri

region to Azerbaijan. The Armenian leadership has repeatedly

denied that it would ever agree to such an exchange of

territory. LF

[02] ARMENIAN WAR VETERANS STILL INTENT ON OUSTING PRESIDENT

12 members of the Yerkrapah Union of veterans of the Karabakh

war who quit the majority Miasnutiun parliamentary bloc and

the second-largest Kayunutiun faction last month to protest

Andranik Markarian's appointment as premier told RFE/RL's

Yerevan bureau on 31 May that the primary objective of their

new Hayastan parliament faction will be to force Kocharian's

resignation. Hayastan leader Miasnik Malkhasian on 31 May

accused Miasnutiun of an "unprincipled" move in agreeing to

cooperate with Kocharian on the formation of a new

government. LF

[03] SENIOR OSCE OFFICIAL DISCUSSES ELECTION LAW IN AZERBAIJAN

on 31 May with parliamentary speaker Murtuz Alesqerov and

with opposition party leaders to discuss possible amendments

to the country's election legislation proposed by the OSCE's

Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, Turan

reported. Also discussed were the Karabakh conflict,

Azerbaijan's quest for full membership in the Council of

Europe, and its participation in European security

structures. LF

[04] CAR BOMB KILLS GEORGIAN DEFENSE MINISTER'S BROTHER

Tevzadze died and two of his relatives were injured when his

jeep was blown up in Tbilisi on the morning of 1 June,

Caucasus Press reported. Guram Tevzadze, whose brother David

is defense minister, headed the NGO Tanadgoma, which provides

supplies to the Georgian armed forces. The organization

figures prominently in repeated charges of embezzlement

within the Defense Ministry (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 6

December 1999 and 19 January 2000). LF

[05] CIS EXECUTIVE SECRETARY VISITS GEORGIA

31 May, Yurii Yarov met with Georgian President Eduard

Shevardnadze to discuss preparations for the 21 June CIS

summit, in particular the planned CIS free trade zone, which

the Georgian parliament has not yet endorsed, Caucasus Press

reported. Yarov also discussed with both Shevardnadze and

with Minister for Conflict Resolution Malkhaz Kakabadze and

UN Special Representative for Abkhazia Dieter Boden the

prospects for a greater CIS input toward resolving the Abkhaz

conflict, which he vowed to make a priority. Speaking to

journalists after those talks, Yarov denied that the Russian

air force is planning air strikes against suspected Chechen

guerrilla bases in Georgia's Pankisi gorge. He also denied

that the Russia-Belarus Union is intended as an alternative

to the CIS. Nor, he added, will the anticipated visa

requirement for Georgians visiting Russia and vice versa

contribute to the breakup of the CIS. LF

[06] GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT RATIFIES PIPELINE AGREEMENT

the package of agreements on construction of the Baku-Ceyhan

export pipeline for Caspian oil, Caucasus Press reported.

Georgia stands to earn up to $62.5 million in annual transit

fees from oil transiting that pipeline. In Baku, Valekh

Alesqerov, who is a senior official of the state oil company

SOCAR, said that the governments of the three states that the

pipeline will cross (Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey) will

not have to meet any of the estimated $2.4 billion

construction costs. Those costs will be borne by a special

consortium, still to be formed, which will seek loans from

international financial institutions. He expressed the hope

that some oil from Kazakhstan will also be exported via the

Baku-Ceyhan route. LF

[07] OSCE CHAIRWOMAN IN KYRGZYSTAN

OSCE chairwoman Benita Ferrero-Waldner held talks in Bishkek

on 31 May with the chairmen of both chambers of Kyrgyzstan's

parliament and with President Askat Akaev, RFE/RL's bureau in

the Kyrgyz capital reported. Ferrero-Waldner told journalists

that she discussed three issues with Akaev: regional

security, regional cooperation, including in the rational use

of water resources, and the progress of democratic reforms in

Kyrgyzstan. She also raised with Akaev the cases of arrested

opposition Ar-Namys party leader Feliks Kulov and of El (Bei

Bechara) leader Daniyar Usenov, who was sentenced in April to

three years' imprisonment. Ferrero-Waldner said the OSCE will

convene a conference in Tashkent in October to focus on

security problems in Central Asia, Reuters reported. LF

[08] OPPOSITION KYRGYZ POLITICIAN SUES ELECTION COMMISSION

leader Usenov told RFE/RL on 31 May that he brought legal

proceedings against the Central Electoral Commission two days

earlier. The commission had barred Usenov from contending the

12 March parliamentary runoff election in a constituency

where he won the majority of votes during the 20 February

first round, claiming that he had falsified his income and

property declaration (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 6 and 13 March

2000). LF

[09] CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST KYRGYZ HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST

In an e-mail message to international human rights

organizations on 31 May, which was forwarded to "RFE/RL

Newsline," Ramazan Dyryldaev, the chairman of the Human

Rights Movement of Kyrgyzstan, said that he was informed

earlier that day by a Bishkek district prosecutor that

charges of failing to comply with an earlier court order are

being prepared against him. Dyryldaev characterized these

charges as part of a broader campaign to neutralize all

opposition figures and NGOs in the runup to the presidential

elections scheduled to be held later this year. LF

[10] TAJIKISTAN DENIES GUERRILLA PRESENCE ON ITS BORDER WITH

Adylbek Kadyrbekov, the deputy governor of

Kyrgzystan's southern Batken Oblast, which borders on

Tajikistan, told RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service on 31 May that some

1,000 Islamic rebels are currently concentrated on the Tajik

side of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border and could invade Kyrgyzstan

at any time. But he said Kyrgyz troops are prepared to repel

such an incursion. President Akaev, accompanied by the

ministers of defense and security, visited Batken on 27 May

to address a meeting of defense and security personnel. Also

on 31 May, Tajik Foreign Ministry spokesman Igor Sattarov

denied the Kyrgyz allegations, affirming that "at present

there are absolutely no terrorists or any other kind of armed

groups [in Tajikistan] which could threaten the security of

neighboring republics," Reuters reported. LF

[11] UZBEKISTAN DENIES VIOLATING AFGHANISTAN'S AIR SPACE

Uzbek Foreign Ministry on 1 June denied reports circulated

the previous day by the Afghan Islamic Press that five of its

aircraft violated Afghanistan's air space north of Mazar-i-

Sharif on three occasions during the previous two days, ITAR-

TASS reported. The Taliban had warned Uzbekistan against

repeating those incursions and deployed artillery on hills

close to the Afghan-Uzbek border. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[12] FAILED ATTEMPT TO ARREST PLAVSIC?

Luka on 1 June that "several" unidentified, uniformed men

tried the previous day to enter the apartment building where

former Republika Srpska President Biljana Plavsic lives. In

front of the building stood a "jeep with dark windows and

diplomatic license plates," the daily added. Eyewitnesses

told "Vesti" that they believe the men were foreign special

troops sent to arrest Plavsic, presumably under a secret

indictment from the Hague-based war crimes tribunal. The

daily reported that Plavsic and the Bosnian Serb police had

apparently been warned of the attempt in advance because the

number of police in her building had been increased that day

to "at least 10" from the usual two. Several hours after

Bosnian Serb police prevented the uniformed men from entering

the building, Plavsic left her flat "visibly angry and with a

large police escort." Bosnian Serb police made no official

statement, but an unidentified police official told "Vesti"

that "everything points to an attempt to arrest" her. PM

[13] SFOR DENIES BID TO SEIZE PLAVSIC

31 May, an unidentified spokesman for NATO peacekeepers

denied that there had been an incident involving SFOR and

Plavsic, REFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. Observers

note that there has long been speculation in Serbian and

Bosnian Serb media as to whether Plavsic might have been

secretly indicted by the tribunal for her role in the Bosnian

Serb leadership early in the 1992-1995 war. She broke with

her former hard-line allies and began cooperating with the

international community well before the conclusion of the

Dayton agreement in 1995. She subsequently appeared publicly

with many Western leaders, including U.S. Secretary of State

Madeleine Albright, who praised Plavsic. PM

[14] DJUKANOVIC AIDE SHOT DEAD...

and killed Goran Zugic in Podgorica late on 31 May. The

killer escaped, but police are conducting a search for one

man whom eyewitnesses clearly saw kill Zugic, Reuters

reported. Zugic was security adviser to Montenegrin President

Milo Djukanovic and a former police chief in the coastal town

of Herceg Novi. It is unclear what the motive for the killing

might be. The BBC's Serbian Service reported that murder may

be linked to the lucrative smuggling trade between Italy and

Montenegrin ports. Reuters noted that Zugic was politically a

thorn in the side of local supporters of Yugoslav President

Slobodan Milosevic. Gangland-style slayings of politicians

and underworld figures have been no rarity in Serbia in

recent years, but this is the first such execution-style

killing of a public figure in Montenegro. PM

[15] ...AS SOME BLAME MILOSEVIC

Vickovic told Reuters on 1 June: "Both Serbia and Montenegro

have lost the thin line between politics and crime." Rifat

Rastoder, who is a deputy speaker of the parliament, was

blunt in his remarks to AP: "It was a classic politically-

motivated assassination, with all the characteristics of [the

recent] series of murders in Serbia. It is a direct and

desperate attempt to transfer Serbia's shotgun policies to

Montenegro and create conditions for the imposition of a

state of emergency and dictatorship" by Milosevic, Rastoder

added. PM

[16] KOSOVA SERBS BURN NORWEGIAN KFOR VEHICLE

local Serbs surrounded a vehicle carrying an unspecified

number of Norwegian peacekeepers in the village of Babin Most

on 31 May. Details of the incident are unclear, but two

soldiers were slightly injured before the Serbs set the

vehicle alight. The KFOR troops were investigating the drive-

by shooting of a Serb in that same village earlier in the

day. French peacekeepers stopped a car carrying two badly

wounded men, one of whom later died. The two are the primary

suspects in that killing. Reuters reported that attacks on

Serbs by ethnic Albanians "sometimes provoke spontaneous

protests by local Serbs, who block roads or take out their

anger on KFOR soldiers." PM

[17] DRASKOVIC PRAISES RUSSIAN ROLE IN SERBIA...

Renewal Movement's Vuk Draskovic, who epitomizes the

nationalist, anti-Western elements in the opposition, said in

Moscow on 30 May that "if there is any voice today that has

to be respected, it is the voice of Russia," RFE/RL's South

Slavic Service reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 30 May 2000).

He told reporters that Russian officials back his call for

early elections and an end to repression. Russian Foreign

Ministry statements did not support Draskovic's claims,

however, Reuters reported on 29 May. PM

[18] ...WHILE DJINDJIC, PERISIC BLAST IT

Zoran Djindjic said in Belgrade on 31 May that Russian

officials are using double standards by "trying to protect a

state based on the rule of law and independent media at home

while showing an understanding" for the oppressive Milosevic

regime. He was particularly critical of the Russian military,

who recently played host to indicted war criminal and Defense

Minister Dragoljub Ojdanic. Djindjic also noted that "in

contrast with Russian diplomats, who have to think something

over five times before coming to an agreement with us,

Westerners act much more decisively.... After Milosevic's

inevitable exit, Serbs won't forget that Moscow, by not

deciding to completely break with him, had prolonged the

regime's agony," AP reported, citing "Kommersant-Daily" (see

also Part 1). Former General Momcilo Perisic, who was not

present in Moscow, called the Russian treatment of the

opposition delegation "a slap in the face" for the

opposition, "Vesti" reported on 1 June. PM

[19] SERBIAN POLICE HOLD DRASKOVIC'S BODYGUARDS

four of Draskovic's personal security guards at Belgrade

airport on 31 May while they were waiting for him to return

from Moscow. Police said that the men were carrying weapons,

which they are not legally entitled to do, Reuters reported.

Draskovic charged that the real reason for the arrests was

"to create a scandal and leave me unprotected to make it

easier for anyone who would like to kill me [to do so] and

finish the job they failed to do last October." Draskovic has

accused the authorities of having tried to kill him in a

mysterious road accident in October 1999. PM

[20] BELGRADE STUDENTS CALL OFF PROTEST

university students decided on 31 May to end protests in view

of a lack of support from their colleagues (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 24 May 2000). Only 10 students turned out for what

proved to be the final rally, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service

reported. PM

[21] YUGOSLAV FOREIGN MINISTER IN SOUTH AFRICA

met with Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad and other,

unnamed officials in Johannesburg on 31 May in a previously

unannounced visit, AP reported. No details of the talks are

available. The Serbian private media have often suggested

that South Africa and China are possible places of exile for

Milosevic, should he try to leave the Serbian political

scene. PM

[22] CROATIA, MONTENEGRO SIGN AGREEMENT

officials from the Dubrovnik area in Croatia and Herceg Novi

in Montenegro approved a one-year project for the Dubrovnik

water plant to supply Herceg Novi with fresh water for

$45,000 per month, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported

from Cavtat on 31 May. PM

[23] NEW GOVERNEMENT FOR ZAGREB

Zenko from the Social Liberals as its president on 31 May.

The council also voted in the Social Democrats' Milan Bandic

as mayor. PM

[24] TUDJMAN'S SON: GOVERNMENT LEAVING CROATIA WITHOUT SECURITY

former head of the Croatian Intelligence Service (HIS), told

"Slobodna Dalmacija" of 1 June that recent changes in the HIS

amount to its destruction (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 25 May

2000). Tudjman charged that the government is eliminating

proven institutions and has no idea of what to put in their

place. He added that President Stipe Mesic acted illegally in

recently publishing the transcripts of several of the late

president's taped conversations (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report,"

2 May 2000). PM

[25] ROMANIAN DEFENSE COUNCIL SAYS BANK CRISIS WAS 'THREAT TO

Meeting on 31 May under the

chairmanship of President Emil Constantinescu, the National

Defense Council announced it will set up a commission to

work with the Prosecutor General's Office in order to

establish the reasons that led to the collapse of the

National Investment Fund (FNI). The council recommended

that the cabinet initiate legislation regulating investment

schemes. And it added that the recent panic around the

alleged imminent collapse of Commercial Bank had been a

"threat to national security." The council did not

elaborate. Media reports said the destabilization attempt

had been masterminded in Bucharest, noting that anonymous

phone callers had urged holders of accounts with the bank

to close those accounts, while an attempt had been

undertaken to disrupt communications between the Bucharest

headquarters of the main savings bank CEC and its branches.

The IMF, meanwhile, has extended until 7 June Romania's

$540 million stand-by credit. MS

[26] ...WHILE RULING PARTY POINTS FINGER AT OPPOSITION...

Chairman Ion Diaconescu said on 31 May that the main

opposition Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR) was

behind the recent attempts to destabilize the country's

economy. Diaconescu said it was not by chance that those

attempts occurred before the IMF was due to decide on

extending the stand-by credit and before the upcoming local

elections. He said the PDSR was hoping to deflect attention

from scandals in which it was involved, including the

Moscow-Bucharest hot-line and the Adrian Costea money-

laundering affair, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. The

PDSR rejected the accusations and said those scandals were

fabricated by the PNTCD before the 2000 ballots in order to

deflect attention from its failures in governing the

country. MS

[27] ...AND INVESTIGATION LAUNCHED INTO FUND OFFICIALS

on 31 May launched a criminal investigation into six

suspended senior FNI executives. Interior Minister

Constantin Dudu Ionescu said the former manager of the

fund, Ioana Maria Vlas, "has been traced," but he did not

elaborate. According to media reports, Vlas flew from Sofia

to Tel Aviv and from there to Venezuela. Meanwhile, an

opinion poll conducted by Metromedia Transylvania shows

PDSR Chairman Iliescu has 51 percent backing as the

country's next president while the PDSR enjoys the greatest

support of any political party (47 percent). MS

[28] GAGAUZ-YERI ASSEMBLY THREATENS RETALIATION

Assembly of the Autonomous Gagauz-Yeri region on 31 May

approved a resolution accusing the central government of

failing to implement the provisions of the agreement on its

autonomous status. The assembly warned against this

"adventurous policy" and said it will demand the status of

a "third equal partner," alongside Tiraspol and Chisinau,

in negotiations on the "joint common state." It also said

it may refuse to allow the region to participate in the

2000 presidential elections if Chisinau "does not stop its

economic and financial blockade of Gagauz-Yeri," Infotag

reported. The resolution was approved after the parliament

in Chisinau refused to approve the duty-free import from

Turkey of diesel fuel granted to the region as

"humanitarian aid." The government said it was informed

about the transport only when it was already on its way to

Moldova. MS

[29] BULGARIA 'WORRIED' ABOUT LIBYAN TRIAL

spokesman Radko Vlaikov on 31 May told journalists that

Bulgaria is "worried" that the trial of six Bulgarian

nationals, scheduled to begin on 4 June in Libya, will not be

fair, Reuters reported. The five nurses and one doctor are

accused of having deliberately infected children in a

Benghazi hospital with the HIV virus that causes AIDS; if

convicted, they will face the death sentence. Vlaikov said

the Libyan authorities have denied the defendants the right

to meet with their lawyers and have ignored Bulgaria's

questions over whether force has been used against them to

extract confessions. MS

[C] END NOTE

[30] CABAL AND LOVE--CZECH STYLE

Two hundred and sixteen years have passed since

Friedrich von Schiller wrote "Cabal and Love," sometimes

translated as "Intrigue and Love," which used to be staged

with great success by Prague's German-language theater. While

that theater no longer exists, cabal is definitely not absent

from another stage in Prague--the political one. What may be

more difficult to find there, however, is love.

The amendment to the electoral law passed by the Chamber

of Deputies at the end of last week is illustrative of this

state of affairs. A majority of 117 out of the 163 deputies

present approved that amendment, which is likely to have a

major impact on the composition of the country's lower house.

Its passage was ensured by the "opposition agreement" under

which the minority Social Democratic (CSSD) cabinet of Milos

Zeman rules with the tacit support of the largest opposition

formation, the Civic Democratic Party (ODS). There is little

love lost between these two formations, yet from the start of

their "unholy marriage" they announced their intent to

introduce constitutional changes whose undeclared purpose was

to weaken potential rivals and President Vaclav Havel's

powers.

The problem with constitutional change is that under

Czech law, these require a three-fifths majority in both the

Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate. The CSSD and the ODS

do not have such a majority in the upper house. This explains

why the law curtailing Havel's prerogatives, which was

approved in January 2000 by the chamber, has stalled in the

Senate. To circumvent such problems, the electoral system was

changed in such a way as to keep the existing proportional

system but alter it drastically. This was no longer a

"constitutional change," as envisaged by the ODS, when it

called for replacing the proportional system with that of

single-district simple majority. Rather, it was called an

"amendment" to existing legislation and thus can be passed

with a simple majority by both chambers.

The main change rests in a "gerrymandering" trick:

instead of the previous eight electoral districts, there will

now be 35 in which deputies are to be elected according to

the D'Hondt, rather than the previously used Hagen-Bischoff

system of proportional distribution. The D'Hondt system

favors larger formations, and since the number of districts

has increased almost fourfold, smaller parties will find it

harder to gain representation. This is because a smaller

district will now sends fewer deputies (approximately six)

than previously to the 200-seat parliament, whereas under the

previous distribution system, smaller formations could still

gain representation if they received single-digit support.

Those formations are now less likely to be represented in the

parliament, even if they pass the (unchanged) 5 percent

electoral hurdle.

But the hurdle was also raised de facto, since under the

"amended" legislation, an alliance of parties, which

previously required a minimum of 7 percent to gain entry to

the chamber, can now require as much as 20 percent to do so,

depending on the number of members in the alliance. A two-

party alliance now requires 10 percent backing, three parties

require 15 percent, and four parties and more 20 percent.

This change is obviously aimed at the four-party coalition

comprising the opposition Freedom Union, the Christian

Democratic Party, the Civic Democratic Alliance, which is

represented only in the Senate, and the extraparliamentary

Democratic Union.

This provision is very much reminiscent of what former

Slovak Premier Vladimir Meciar tried to do before the

elections that he lost, prompting the unification of the

opposition parties. It is unclear whether the same would

happen in the case of the "four-party" coalition. For now,

however, that coalition seems "safe," even under the amended

legislation: according to opinion polls, it has a good chance

of overcoming the new minimal threshold.

Even so, it is obvious that the new distribution system

would have a significant impact on the parties'

representation in the chamber. According to figures

calculated by the Czech Academy of Sciences and cited by CTK

on 26 May, the CSSD would have received 102 seats under the

new system (compared with the 74 it has now) and the ODS

would have obtained 86 seats (63). The smaller Christian

Democrats and Freedom Union would have received seven

(instead of 20) or one (instead of 19), respectively, had the

new system been in place in 1998. Some may even claim that it

is not "Cabal and Love" but rather an earlier play by

Schiller that best describes this situation--except that in

"The Thieves," written in 1781, the German poet and

playwright obviously admired his heroes.

The cabal, however, has not ended with the passage of

this legislation. According to Ivan Langer, ODS deputy

chairman, his party might decide to include in its platform

for the 2002 parliamentary elections a recommendation that

the country's president be popularly elected and the

prerogatives of both that office and those of the premier

strengthened. In fact, Langer spoke about introducing a

"chancellor-type" of government.

At first glance, this is contradictory. How could a

popularly elected president with wider prerogatives be

compatible with legislation advocating the weakening of the

presidential powers? It must not be forgotten, however, that

Havel's mandate ends in early 2003 and that ODS Chairman

Vaclav Klaus might run for that post. In which case, Langer,

Klaus's "crown prince," would certainly not mind becoming the

Czech Republic's first "chancellor." The performance

continues, no matter which of the two Schiller plays one opts

for.

01-06-00

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

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