RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 120, 00-06-21

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RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 4, No. 120, 21 June 2000

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] LAWYER DENIES ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT SHOOTING SUSPECTS ACTED TO

[02] KARABAKH ELECTION RESULTS ANNOUNCED...

[03] ...AS AZERBAIJAN SAYS POLL WAS INVALID

[04] SOUTH CAUCASUS PRESIDENTS DISCUSS REGIONAL CONFLICTS WITH

[05] PUTIN SOFTENS RHETORIC TOWARD GEORGIA

[06] NEW GEORGIAN AGRICULTURE MINISTER OUTLINES REFORM PROPOSALS

[07] ADJARIA AGAIN ON COLISION COURSE WITH TBILISI

[08] LARGE WEAPONS CACHE DISCOVERED IN KYRGYZSTAN

[09] CIS PEACEKEEPING OPERATION IN TAJIKISTAN TO BE TERMINATED

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[10] DEL PONTE: KOSOVARS MAY FACE WAR CRIMES CHARGES

[11] HOLBROOKE SLAMS HAGUE TRIBUNAL'S CRITICS

[12] HAGUE'S JORDA WARNS AGAINST DEAL WITH MILOSEVIC

[13] MONTENEGRO CHARGES SIX IN DRASKOVIC CASE...

[14] ...PRESENTS EVIDENCE AGAINST THEM

[15] DRASKOVIC WAITS IN MONTENEGRO

[16] SERBIAN COUPLE SHOT IN PRISHTINA

[17] SERBIAN AUTHORITIES TAKE MORE STEPS AGAINST OPPOSITION

[18] EU: ALL BALKAN STATES ARE POTENTIAL CANDIDATES

[19] CROATIA READY FOR EU'S SECOND ROUND OF EXPANSION?

[20] MACEDONIAN DRUG HAUL

[21] MOSTAR BUS LINKS BOTH HALVES OF TOWN

[22] PADDED ACCOUNTS IN REPUBLIKA SRPSKA?

[23] ROMANIAN OPPOSITION'S VICTORY IN LOCAL ELECTIONS RUNOFF

[24] ...BUT PEASANT PARTY LEADER REFUSES TO STEP DOWN

[25] EUROPEAN COURT TO EXAMINE MOLDOVAN COMPLAINTS

[26] NATO COMMANDER PAYS 'SURPRISE VISIT' TO BULGARIA

[C] END NOTE

[27] THE NEW CENTRALIZER

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] LAWYER DENIES ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT SHOOTING SUSPECTS ACTED TO

Nairi Hunanian, the leader of the five gunmen who shot

eight people dead in the Armenian parliament building on 27

October, continues to maintain that he was not acting on

anyone's instructions, his lawyer, Artashes Pahlavuni, told

RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau on 20 June. The military

investigators charged with the case initially assumed that

the gunmen were acting on orders and that the shootings were

intended as part of a coup attempt. Pahlavuni said Hunanian

has compiled a 100-page testimony expanding on his initial

statement that desperation and anger at the deteriorating

economic situation prompted him to mastermind the killing of

Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsian. The investigation into the

shootings is expected to be completed shortly, but the trial

of Hunanian, his four accomplices, and several persons

accused of abetting them is unlikely to begin before October.

LF

[02] KARABAKH ELECTION RESULTS ANNOUNCED...

heads the Central Electoral Commission of the unrecognized

Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, has confirmed the preliminary

results of the parliamentary poll two days earlier, ITAR-TASS

reported on 20 June. Of the 33 deputies, all of whom were

elected in single-mandate constituencies, 13 represent the

Democratic Artsakh party, which supports the leadership of

President Arkadii Ghukasian, Nine are from the Armenian

Revolutionary Federation--Dashnaktsutiun, one belongs to the

center-right Armenakan party, and the remainder are

independents, most of whom support Ghukasian. Of the 19

deputies to the outgoing parliament who contested the poll,

six were re-elected, including speaker Oleg Esayan. Davidian

said that the poll was valid but conceded there were

inaccuracies in voter lists. LF

[03] ...AS AZERBAIJAN SAYS POLL WAS INVALID

published in the official newspaper "Bakinskii rabochii" on

20 June, Azerbaijan's Central Electoral Commission said the

Karabakh poll was not valid as the enclave's former

Azerbaijani population were not able to cast ballots, AFP

reported. In 1988, Azerbaijanis accounted for approximately

20 percent of the population of the Nagorno-Karabakh

Autonomous Oblast. The statement described the poll as "an

attempt to give an air of legitimacy to a criminal regime."

LF

[04] SOUTH CAUCASUS PRESIDENTS DISCUSS REGIONAL CONFLICTS WITH

Armenian President Robert Kocharian and his

Azerbaijani counterpart, Heidar Aliev, met one-on-one in

Moscow on 20 June ahead of the CIS summit and then jointly

with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the Karabakh

conflict, Russian and Azerbaijani agencies reported. No

details of those talks were disclosed. Georgian President

Eduard Shevardnadze later joined the three heads of states

for talks on regional conflicts, strengthening security in

the South Caucasus, and cooperating to fight international

terrorism, according to Interfax. In a joint statement, the

four presidents "expressed their readiness to consider

specific steps for settling bilateral and multilateral

relations, which will provide for the regulation of the

conflicts in the region," Caucasus Press reported. They also

welcomed international initiatives aimed at expediting a

solution to those conflicts. The four presidents pledged to

meet regularly at least twice a year on the sidelines of CIS

summits. LF

[05] PUTIN SOFTENS RHETORIC TOWARD GEORGIA

with Georgian President Shevardnadze, Putin hinted that

Russia may reconsider its proposal last November to introduce

a visa regime with Georgia, Caucasus Press reported (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 4 November 1999). Putin said Russia "does

not want to create difficulties" for residents of the two

countries by doing so. He also said that Moscow is ready to

consider Georgian proposals on rescheduling payments of its

debts. Putin said Moscow is interested in a swift settlement

of the Abkhaz and South Ossetian conflicts as stability in

the Caucasus is beneficial to Russia. Both presidents greeted

the decision of the CIS foreign ministers, who met in Moscow

on 20 June, to extend until 31 December the mandate of the

CIS peacekeeping force in Abkhazia. Putin and Shevardnadze

also agreed on the need to continue talks on the terms of the

withdrawal of Russia's military bases from Georgia. LF

[06] NEW GEORGIAN AGRICULTURE MINISTER OUTLINES REFORM PROPOSALS

warned that he intends to replace his deputies and advisers

and to implement structural reform within the ministry,

Caucasus Press reported. He said that he envisages the

ministry as flexible and working "on European principles" to

provide prompt and effective assistance to Georgia's farmers.

Kirvalidze also hinted that he will lobby for a reduction of

value-added tax on agricultural produce, noting that the

present rate of 20 percent is a deterrent to small farmers to

increase production. LF

[07] ADJARIA AGAIN ON COLISION COURSE WITH TBILISI

may exacerbate longstanding tensions between Adjaria and the

central Georgian government, Adjar Supreme Council chairman

Aslan Abashidze told journalists in Batumi on 20 June that he

intends to raise customs duties to compensate for the revenue

shortfall in the national budget, Caucasus Press reported.

Georgian Minister for Economic, Trade and Industry Vano

Chkhartishvili commented that altering customs tariffs is the

prerogative of the national parliament. LF

[08] LARGE WEAPONS CACHE DISCOVERED IN KYRGYZSTAN

guards have discovered more than 3 tons of arms hidden near

the village of Khadji-Achkhan in Batken Oblast, Interfax

reported on 20 June. The cache included four grenade

launchers, several missile launchers, and a large number of

anti-personnel and anti-tank mines. LF

[09] CIS PEACEKEEPING OPERATION IN TAJIKISTAN TO BE TERMINATED

in Moscow on 20 June not to renew the mandate of the CIS

peacekeeping force deployed in Tajikistan since 1993, Russian

agencies reported. Colonel General Leonid Ivashov, who heads

the Russian Defense Ministry's Department for International

Military Cooperation, said that peace process in Tajikistan

has reached a stage where peacekeeping activities need to be

replaced by concerted efforts by the country's police and

armed forces to combat "international terrorism" and

"extremism." Kyrgyz Presidential spokesman Osmonakun Ibraimov

had told journalists in Bishkek the previous day that

Kyrgyzstan would like the CIS peacekeeping force to remain in

Tajikistan "to provide security and stability" in Central

Asia, Interfax reported. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[10] DEL PONTE: KOSOVARS MAY FACE WAR CRIMES CHARGES

Ponte, who is the chief prosecutor for the Hague-based war

crimes tribunal, said in Prishtina on 21 June that "we are

investigating [Kosova Liberation Army's (UCK)] activity

during the [1998-1999] conflict. Our mandate is always to

look at the highest responsibility in the chain of command,

and that is also the case for the [UCK]," AP reported. She

mentioned that her experts are investigating five specific

incidents, but she did not elaborate. She noted that

prosecutors are considering "additional indictments of Serbs

and non-Serbs, especially [ethnic] Albanians." Referring to

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, Del Ponte said that

her investigators are "also investigating the criminal

responsibility of Milosevic for [the wars in] Bosnia and

Croatia." She mentioned the "possibility of further

counts...against Milosevic," whom the tribunal indicted in

May 1999 in connection with atrocities in Kosova. PM

[11] HOLBROOKE SLAMS HAGUE TRIBUNAL'S CRITICS

the UN Richard Holbrooke said in New York on 20 June that

charges by Belgrade, Moscow, and Beijing that the tribunal is

anti-Serb are "not only not proven--they are not accurate."

He added that he can hardly "wait for the day" when former

Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and General Ratko

Mladic appear in The Hague. Holbrooke stressed that "long-

term peace and stability in the Balkans will not be possible

as long as the current leadership in Belgrade is in power,"

Reuters reported. PM

[12] HAGUE'S JORDA WARNS AGAINST DEAL WITH MILOSEVIC

on 20 June, Chinese envoy Shen Guofang "lectured" Hague

tribunal President Claude Jorda, Reuters reported. Shen told

Jorda that the tribunal has become "a political tool [against

the Serbian leadership]...because you are affected too much

by politics." Russian Ambassador to the UN Sergei Lavrov said

that the tribunal has taken an "anti-Serb line." Later at a

press conference, Jorda denied that charge. Referring to a

recent story in the "New York Times" about a possible deal to

allow Milosevic to go into exile without fear of prosecution,

Jorda said that such a move "would be a severe blow" to the

tribunal (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 20 June 2000). Jorda

stressed that "Milosevic...is an indicted criminal. He should

be at The Hague." Meanwhile in Athens, a government spokesman

denied any Greek role in possible negotiations over

Milosevic's future, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported.

PM

[13] MONTENEGRO CHARGES SIX IN DRASKOVIC CASE...

police filed charges in Podgorica on 20 June against six

Serbs from the Belgrade area in connection with the recent

attempt on the life of Serbian opposition leader Vuk

Draskovic (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 20 June 2000). Two of

the six, namely the brothers Milan and Ivan Lovric, are in

custody. Vladimir Jovanovic and Dusan Spasojevic remain at

large, as are two other persons whose names have not been

released. The Lovric brothers are slated to testify in a

Podgorica court on 21 June. The Montenegrin police appealed

to their Serbian colleagues to help arrest the four persons

who are on the run. The Serbian police have not responded to

Podgorica's request, the BBC's Serbian Service reported. PM

[14] ...PRESENTS EVIDENCE AGAINST THEM

representatives said in Podgorica on 20 June that they know

where the assailants lived while stalking Draskovic in Budva

and carefully planning the attempted killing. The police

found nearby the 7.65 millimeter Beretta gun used in the

assault, which the Lovrices, Jovanovic, and Spasojevic

allegedly carried out. They fired eight bullets at Draskovic

as he was watching television. The police findings are summed

up in a three-page report. PM

[15] DRASKOVIC WAITS IN MONTENEGRO

Budva under heavy police protection, RFE/RL's South Slavic

Service reported on 20 June. He is recovering from slight

wounds, including a pierced left earlobe and a grazed right

temple. He told reporters that he will stay in Budva and

conduct the affairs of his Serbian Renewal Movement from

there for at least the time being. In Belgrade, Democratic

Party leader Zoran Djindjic told "Blic" of 21 June that

Draskovic has broken off all contact with other opposition

leaders, with whom he had planned to discuss a common

election strategy. PM

[16] SERBIAN COUPLE SHOT IN PRISHTINA

wounded a Serbian couple in central Prishtina on 20 June, a

KFOR spokesman said the following day. Both victims are now

in stable condition, Reuters reported. Del Ponte and Bernard

Kouchner, who is the UN's chief civilian administrator in

Kosova, condemned the shooting. PM

[17] SERBIAN AUTHORITIES TAKE MORE STEPS AGAINST OPPOSITION

Andjelkovic, who was Milosevic's last governor of Kosova,

sued the private Belgrade daily "Glas javnosti" on 20 June

for $6,000 in damages. The newspaper had printed comments by

moderate Kosova Serbian leader Rada Trajkovic, who noted that

"those [Serbian] officials who betrayed and abandoned the

province have fled to posh hotels and mountain resorts," AP

reported. Slavoljub Kacarevic, who is editor-in-chief of

"Glas javnosti," told a Belgrade court that Andjelkovic's

name did not appear in the article. Elsewhere, a military

court stripped former General Momcilo Perisic of his title of

general of the reserves. The former head of the general staff

frequently criticizes Milosevic and heads a small opposition

party. PM

[18] EU: ALL BALKAN STATES ARE POTENTIAL CANDIDATES

the 15 EU member-states said in a statement in Santa Maria da

Feira, Portugal, on 20 June that all former Yugoslav

republics are potential candidates for EU membership. "This

is the first time in official [statements] that we talk

[about them] as potential candidates," EU Commission

President Romano Prodi told journalists, according to

Reuters. The leaders also expressed support for the Serbian

opposition but warned Kosovar Albanian leaders that

"extremist violence will not be tolerated." French President

Jacques Chirac, whose country will take over the rotating EU

chair on 1 July, said that he will go ahead with plans for an

EU-Balkan summit later this year (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 20

June 2000). He added that it will probably take place in

Zagreb. It is not yet clear who will be invited, but the list

will include members of the Serbian opposition as well as the

Montenegrin authorities. PM

[19] CROATIA READY FOR EU'S SECOND ROUND OF EXPANSION?

Russell Johnston, who heads the Council of Europe's

parliamentary assembly, told the Croatian parliament on 20

June that Croatia has experienced a "very big change" in its

relations with Brussels and Strasbourg since the country's

elections in January and February. He noted that the new

Croatian leaders are "much more open" and reform-oriented

than were their predecessors, AP reported. Croatia is quickly

catching up with Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria,

Slovakia, and Malta, which are the countries considered

potential candidates for a "second wave" of EU expansion, he

argued. He also commented that war crimes were committed by

neither Serbs nor Croats but rather by bad people, "Jutarnji

list" reported. PM

[20] MACEDONIAN DRUG HAUL

kilograms of hashish from a truck crossing the border from

Albania near Struga on 20 June, AP reported. A police

spokesman said that the drugs have a street value of about $1

million and that the Albanian truck driver is under arrest on

charges of drug trafficking. Impoverished Albania has in

recent years become one of the Balkans' main producers of

cannabis. PM

[21] MOSTAR BUS LINKS BOTH HALVES OF TOWN

since the Muslim-Croat conflict began in Bosnia in 1993, a

bus route was opened on 20 June to link Croatian western

Mostar with Muslim eastern Mostar, RFE/RL's South Slavic

Service reported. Even though that conflict ended in 1994 and

the Croats and Muslims became nominal allies, the border

between east and west Mostar has remained tense. PM

[22] PADDED ACCOUNTS IN REPUBLIKA SRPSKA?

June that it has obtained access to a confidential internal

report suggesting that large sums of money have been

misappropriated in the government of Prime Minister Milorad

Dodik. The report noted that the government spends $800 per

day on flowers and that its daily allowance for public

affairs expenses is $2,300. The daily added that if the

figures were correct, it would mean that the government

bought at least 47 large bouquets of flowers per day at local

prices. PM

[23] ROMANIAN OPPOSITION'S VICTORY IN LOCAL ELECTIONS RUNOFF

According to the official results of the local

election runoff on 18 June, the opposition Party of Social

Democracy in Romania came first, with 714 mayoralties out of

the 2,249 being contested, Mediafax reported. The Democratic

Party came second with 386 mayoralties, followed by the

Alliance for Romania (253), the National Liberal Party (212),

independent candidates (126), the Democratic Convention of

Romania (125), the Greater Romania Party (61), and the Social

Democratic Party (54). The Romanian National Party won 52

mayoralties, the Socialist Labor Party 47, the Party of

Romanian National Unity 42, and the Hungarian Democratic

Federation of Romania 38. Turnout was 46.9 percent. MS

[24] ...BUT PEASANT PARTY LEADER REFUSES TO STEP DOWN

Peasant Party Christian Democratic Chairman (PNTCD) Ion

Diaconescu, who is also head of the Democratic Convention of

Romania, said in an interview with the BBC on 20 June that he

does not intend to step down as a result of his formation's

poor showing in the local elections. The octogenarian

Diaconescu was responding to a Mediafax report saying that

five "younger leaders" of the PNTCD intend to meet with

Diaconescu on 21 June to demand that he "assume

responsibility" for the electoral debacle. Diaconescu said

only the PNTCD congress is entitled to replace the party's

leader and that congress has been postponed until 2001,

following this year's general elections. In other news, the

Conel electricity state company workers on 20 June

"suspended" their strike after talks with Prime Minister

Mugur Isarescu. MS

[25] EUROPEAN COURT TO EXAMINE MOLDOVAN COMPLAINTS

Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg will soon examine the

complaint against the Moldovan and Russian governments about

the continued detention in Tiraspol of members of the "Ilascu

group." The complaint was filed by the wives of the

detainees, among whom is Ilie Ilascu. Lucius Wildhaber,

chairman of the court, said on 20 June in Chisinau that the

court will examine the "Ilascu case," regardless of whether

Tiraspol accepts or rejects a recent Romanian proposal (also

backed by Chisinau) to have the case reviewed in an OSCE

country. Wildhaber said the court will also examine the

complaint filed by the Bessarabian Metropolitan Church

against the government's refusal to recognize it. He

recommended that the case be settled "amiably" out of court,

Romanian Radio reported on 21 June. MS

[26] NATO COMMANDER PAYS 'SURPRISE VISIT' TO BULGARIA

appointed NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Joseph

Ralston arrived in Sofia on 20 June for what Reuters reported

is a "surprise visit." He told journalists that it was

"important to make an early trip to Bulgaria." The agency

said Ralston is due to meet with President Petar Stoyanov and

Prime Minister Ivan Kostov on 21 June to discuss developments

in Kosova. MS

[C] END NOTE

[27] THE NEW CENTRALIZER

Although it became a cliche during Russia's presidential

election campaign to refer to then acting President Vladimir

Putin as an enigma or "black box," by then it was already

clear what kind of president he would become. Just seven

weeks after his inauguration, Putin's preference for

centralization has been demonstrated in three areas: the

media, the vodka industry, and policy toward the regions. And

because such centralization promises order, if not law, it is

popular with Russian citizens who are looking for a way out

of the country's prolonged crisis.

Putin's tactics in each of these areas have been oddly

similar: unleashing federal bureaucrats, via a reorganized or

somehow empowered federal organ, and letting loose law

enforcement officials and making a few high-level arrests--or

at the very least, threatening to. All the while, the

president seeks to justify his moves to increase central

control by using the rhetoric of law and order.

Putin's policy toward the media has gotten a lot of

attention, perhaps because those doing the reporting are

directly affected by it. The Media Ministry recently

announced that it will begin to enforce a 1998 law requiring

media organizations to be registered as well as licensed. "If

one strictly follows the letter of the law, we could have

shut you all down a long time ago," Media Minister Mikhail

Lesin commented. Some six months earlier, one of Lesin's

deputies announced that then acting President Putin had

signed a bill amending the law on economic support for

regional newspapers so that money for those newspapers comes

directly from the federal budget rather than being channeled

through local government organs. Presumably, one dependent

relationship has been substituted for another, but with a key

difference: now Moscow calls the shots.

Meanwhile, Putin's moves deploying law enforcement

officials against the media have gotten even more attention.

The arrest of RFE/RL correspondent Andrei Babitskii in

Daghestan in February was followed by the raid last month on

Media-MOST headquarters, and most recently, the 13 June

detention of Media-MOST head Vladimir Gusinskii. If

Gusinskii's case follows the same trajectory as Babitskii's,

then the legal charges will hover over him for an indefinite

period, during which he will be forbidden to travel abroad.

The message to journalists without an impressive list of

international contacts like Gusinskii's, or a high-level

employer such as Babitskii, is criticize the Kremlin at your

peril.

With regard to the regions, Putin moved even more

quickly and decisively, unfurling at least three new

bureaucratic layers to oversee Moscow's interests. First, he

restructured the system of having a presidential

representative in each federation subject by creating seven

administrative macro-regions or districts. Each district has

a presidential representative that some analysts have dubbed

"governors-general": five of the seven are former officers

with the intelligence service or army. Supplementing their

efforts will be a newly created corps of seven regional

prosecutors and seven branches of the investigative Audit

Chamber.

In another saber-rattling exercise, just days after his

inauguration Putin ordered federal prosecutors to investigate

more than 200 cases of tax dodging, embezzlement, and other

economic offenses in Smolensk Oblast. He then submitted

legislation to the State Duma asking legislators to empower

the Russian president to dismiss elected governors who

violate federal laws on more than one occasion. While trying

to persuade deputies of the bills' merits, Putin's

presidential representative Aleksandr Kotenkov said that "at

least 16 governors" face the prospect of criminal

prosecution.

Putin's policy toward the vodka industry has attracted

less attention but could have as great an impact on the

country's development, given the importance of that industry

as a revenue-earner and as staple in the citizenry's diet. As

with the regions, Putin took a bureaucratic institutional

left-over from the Yeltsin presidency and reinvigorated it.

Late last month, he issued a resolution stating that all

state-owned companies producing alcohol will be restructured

into branches of Rosspirtprom, a holding company that will

also manage all of the state's stakes in alcohol-producing

companies. Rosspirtprom had been provided for in a Yeltsin

decree that was never implemented.

Police have since targeted key facilities in the vodka

sector. The offices of Soyuzplodimport, the company holding

the rights to the names of about 50 of Russia's most famous

brands of vodka, were raided several times by Interior

Ministry police around early June. And Yurii Ermilov, the

director of the Kristall factory, the country's leading

alcohol producer, was sacked and a Rosneft vice president

named in his place. Although the federal government owns 51

percent of the company's stock, Moscow city authorities were

reportedly virtually running the factory. A number of

analysts suggested that the removal of Ermilov represents an

attempt by federal authorities to reassert control over a

lucrative enterprise.

The vodka industry needed regulating, since the country

has been overrun with bootleg manufacturers. And it is also

true that some regional leaders have ridden roughshod over

their population's best interests, suppressing any political

opposition and pursuing an economic policy favoring local

businessmen. Likewise, competing oligarchs have used the

Russian media as vehicles to distribute "kompromat" against

their enemies.

All these "truths" are self-evident to the Russian

population, which gave Putin a 53 percent mandate. What's

less evident, though, is how increasing central control will

necessarily address these problems. Judging by the Soviet

experience, hooch, a corrupt press, and feudalistic local

leaders can all exist simultaneously with increased oversight

from Moscow. In fact, they can even flourish.

21-06-00

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

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