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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 127, 00-06-30Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 4, No. 127, 30 June 2000CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER OPTIMISTIC ON KARABAKH PEACEVartan Oskanian, who is accompanying President RobertKocharian on his official visit to the U.S., told a correspondent for RFE/RL 's Armenian Service in Washington on 29 June that he believes the accession to the Council of Europe of both Armenia and Azerbaijan will have a positive impact on regional stability in the South Caucasus and on the prospects for resolving the Karabakh conflict. Oskanian also said that Kocharian's talks with U.S. leaders were likewise "very important" for the peace process in that they provided an opportunity for the Armenian side to clarify its negotiating position. He said he believes that consequently the U.S. now understands more clearly which proposed solutions could expedite a settlement. The U.S., French, and Russian co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group that is trying to mediate a settlement of the conflict are to travel to Armenia and Azerbaijan in the next few days. LF [02] ABKHAZ PRESIDENT CALLS FOR SIGNING OF PEACE AGREEMENT WITHGEORGIAVladislav Ardzinba told journalists in Sukhum on 29 June that the agreement guaranteeing the non-resumption of hostilities between Georgia and Abkhazia, which was drafted in the fall of 1998 (see "RFE/RL Caucasus Report," Vol. 1, No. 37,10 November 1998), should be signed as soon as possible, Caucasus Press reported. Ardzinba complained that Tbilisi constantly finds pretexts to postpone signing that commitment, insisting instead on negotiations with the Abkhaz leadership on Abkhazia's status within Georgia. The Abkhaz say their proclaimed, but unrecognized, independent status is non-negotiable. Ardzinba also endorsed the recent Russian proposal that the Russian military base in Abkhazia should be transformed into a support base for the CIS peacekeeping forces deployed in Abkhazia (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 26 June 2000). He said the closure of that base would jeopardize the peacekeeping operation. LF [03] GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT DEPUTIES FROM ABKHAZIA DEPOSE FACTIONLEADERThe 12 members of the Abkhazeti Georgian parliament faction have voted in a secret ballot to replace faction leader Givi Lominadze and his deputy, Djanri Ezugbaya, Caucasus Press reported on 30 June. The report did not give the motive for that action. Abkhazeti last month quit the majority faction, within which it was aligned with the Union of Citizens of Georgia, to protest the parliament's neglect of the unresolved Abkhaz conflict. A faction member said, on condition of anonymity, that Abkhaz parliament in exile chairman Tamaz Nadareishvili, who advocates a new war to bring Abkhazia back under the control of the central Georgian authorities, will be elected faction leader in September. LF [04] GEORGIAN APPEALS COURT OVERTURNS RULING IN FAVOR OF JEHOVAH'SWITNESSESThe appeals chamber of the Tbilisi district court on 26 June overturned a ruling handed down four months earlier by Tbilisi's Isani district court that there are no grounds to revoke the legal registration of the Jehovah's Witnesses, Caucasus Press reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 1 March 2000). The Jehovah's Witnesses issued a press release the following day saying they will protest the court ruling. Georgian parliamentary deputy Guram Sharadze had argued that the sect's registration is illegal as Georgia has no law on religion. LF [05] GEORGIA TO ADOPT NEW BUDGETA new budget for the currentyear will shortly be submitted to the Georgian parliament, Caucasus Press reported on 30 June, quoting the chairman of the parliamentary Committee for Tax Incomes, Vitali Khazaradze. He termed that course of action preferable to a budget sequester. The new budget is predicated on revenues of 976 million lari ($4.98 million) and expenditures of 1.25 billion lari. The original figures were 883 million lari in revenues and 1.255 billion lari in expenditures (see "RFE/RL Caucasus Report," Vol. 3, No. 8, 25 February 2000). The IMF mission that visited Georgia earlier this month made further credits contingent on a sequester of budget expenditures (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 22 June 2000). LF [06] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT ABOLISHES TELEPHONE HOTLINEThe telephoneconnection established by President Eduard Shevardnadze in March during his campaign for re-election to receive complaints and suggestions from the population has been abolished, Caucasus Press reported on 29 June citing "Dilis gazeti." The members of the presidential apparatus who manned that hotline have been transferred to the Ministry for Tax Incomes. Some 20,000 people called the hotline during the three months it existed. LF [07] KAZAKHSTAN'S PARLIAMENT POSTPONES DEBATE ON LAND LAWThelower chamber of Kazakhstan's parliament decided late on 29 June after a lengthy discussion to postpone debate of the controversial law on land ownership until 20 October, Interfax reported. The cabinet originally submitted the draft bill to the parliament last year, but it was withdrawn after widespread public protests. An amended version was resubmitted for debate this spring; that version stipulates that only land adjacent to rural dwellings, but not all the country's agricultural land, may be privately owned. The amended draft also triggered public protests, including a hunger strike by Alash party activists in Almaty (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 June 2000). LF [08] KAZAKHSTAN'S PRESIDENT UPBEAT ON CUSTOMS UNION, EUAddressing French businessmen in Paris on 29 June, NursultanNazarbaev predicted that the CIS Customs Union, which comprises Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, will become increasingly efficient, leading to an increase in trade turnover among its members, Interfax reported. He also predicted that Russia's future foreign policy "will be pragmatic, predictable, and oriented toward both Europe and Central Asia." Also on 29 June, Nazarbaev termed "very useful" his meetings both with French leaders and with EU and NATO officials in Brussels earlier this week (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 June 2000). He said that all EU member states have ratified a cooperation agreement with Kazakhstan that will allow that country to begin exporting steel, ferrous metals, and other goods to the European market. Nazarbaev met on 28 June with French President Jacques Chirac to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, and China and the prospects for cooperation in the energy and transport sectors. LF [09] KYRGYZ PARLIAMENT DEPUTY REFUSES TO TESTIFY IN KULOV TRIALFilm director and parliamentary deputy Dooronbek Sadyrbaev on29 June refused to appear as a witness for the prosecution in the ongoing trial in Bishkek of opposition Ar-Namys Party chairman Feliks Kulov, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. Sadyrbaev rejected prosecution claims that Kulov subjected him to harassment during the latter's tenure as minister for national security. Also on 29 June, some 300 Kulov supporters continued their picket of the Military Court in Bishkek to demand Kulov's acquittal. LF [10] FOUR CANDIDATES NOMINATED FOR KYRGYZ PRESIDENTIAL POLLAlsoon 29 June, Kulov's supporters formally proposed his candidacy for the presidential elections scheduled for 29 October and resolved to begin collecting the required signatures for his formal registration, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. Sadyrbaev has also been nominated as a presidential candidate, as has Social-Democratic Party chairman Almaz Atambaev and former parliamentary deputy Dosbol Nur Uulu, who is acting chairman of the Agrarian-Labor Party. But Democratic Movement of Kyrgyzstan leader Zhypar Zheksheev told Interfax the same day that he believes that the country's five main opposition parties may ultimately agree on a single, joint presidential candidate. LF [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[11] SPLIT GROWING IN SERBIAN RULING COALITION?Serbian DeputyPrime Minister Vojislav Seselj said in Belgrade on 29 June that his Radicals will not support the government's proposed "anti-terrorism law" in its present form (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 28 June 2000). Seselj stressed that his party's deputies "will not vote for an incomplete law," AP reported. He did not elaborate. The is at least the second time within a month that divisions within the governing coalition have become public. The "leftist" forces in the government led by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and his wife, Mira Markovic, represent one major traditional current in Serbian politics, while the "rightist" elements around Seselj represent another, very different one (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 16 June 2000). PM [12] 'ANTI-TERROR LAW' PUT ON ICEYugoslav Deputy Prime MinisterVladan Kutlesic told the parliament on 30 June that the proposed law has been temporarily removed from the legislative agenda so that "useful suggestions" might be made and considered, Reuters reported. He did not say when the law will come up for debate again. PM [13] SERBIAN STUDENT MOVEMENT DEFIANTVukasin Petrovic, who is aspokesman for the Otpor (Resistance) student movement, said in Belgrade on 29 June that the proposed anti-terrorism law "will not stop our struggle.... The whole of Serbia cannot be arrested," London's "The Independent" reported. Elsewhere, Serbian Interior Minister Vlajko Stojiljkovic repeated the regime's charge that Otpor is a "terrorist-fascist organization...financed by the West," Reuters reported. PM [14] SERBIAN LAWYERS: 'EVERYONE POTENTIALLY A TERRORIST'Branislav Tapuskovic, who heads an organization representinglawyers in Serbia, said in Belgrade on 29 June that "everyone is potentially a terrorist" under the proposed law, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. Indicted war criminal and Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic said, however, that "nobody has anything to fear if they are not a terrorist." In Montenegro, reaction to the proposed law could be generally broken down along party lines, as was predictable, "Danas" reported. The pro-Milosevic Socialist People's Party was the most outspoken in its support for the law. PM [15] IRAQ INTERESTED IN ZASTAVA?Iraqi Trade Minister MohammedMehdi Saleh discussed improving economic links between Belgrade and Baghdad with Sainovic in the Serbian capital on 29 June. They "exchanged information on reconstruction and development...and on their struggle against the hegemony and domination of the United States in the Middle East and Southeast Europe," Tanjug reported. Saleh later went with a Serbian delegation to the Zastava automobile plant in Kragujevac. He said that Iraq is interested in cooperation with Zastava to produce passenger cars and unspecified light vehicles, Reuters reported. Zastava's products include the Yugo car, which has been widely sold abroad. PM [16] GENERAL PAVKOVIC SUPERVISES EXERCISESGeneral NebojsaPavkovic, who heads the Yugoslav army's General Staff, supervised exercises using live ammunition at an unspecified place in the "Third Army's zone of responsibility," Tanjug reported on 29 June. He visited Vranje and Nis, which is the headquarters of the Third Army. The army's zone of responsibility includes all of southern Serbia, including Kosova and the volatile Presevo valley that borders it. Pavkovic commanded the Third Army during the 1999 conflict and is considered a staunch Milosevic loyalist. The most recent exercises "by part of the Prishtina corps [included simulating] the engagement of [large] forces in securing the state border and closing tactical routes, including several exercises with live ammunition," the state-run news agency added. PM [17] KOUCHNER, ARTEMIJE SIGN EIGHT-POINT KOSOVA PACTBernardKouchner, who heads the UN's civilian administration in Kosova, and Serbian Orthodox Archbishop Artemije, who is a leader of moderate Serbs, signed an agreement in Prishtina on 29 June. According to the terms of the pact, the Serbs agree to return to Kouchner's advisory council in return for specific pledges aimed at improving the lot of the Serbian minority (see "RFE/RL Newsline, 26 June 2000). The promises include a neighborhood watch program to improve security for ordinary Serbs, more ethnic Serbs in the police, a foreign prosecutor and two foreign judges in each district to deal with inter-ethnic crimes, increased return of Serbian refugees, stepped-up efforts to find missing persons and free prisoners, measures to ensure essential supplies to all communities, measures to promote self-government, and a committee to help protect Serbian historical and religious monuments in the province, Reuters reported. PM [18] PATTEN WANTS RESULTS IN KOSOVAEU Foreign AffairsCommissioner Chris Patten said in Prishtina on 29 June that continuation of EU aid will depend on whether "a tolerant, harmonious, and stable community" emerges in Kosova, Reuters reported. Patten told local people that Kosova "is for us...much the biggest project that we're implementing anywhere.... In order to spend money on this scale, I have to be able to justify to Europe's taxpayers that the money is going to some purpose. I am not making threats...but people want to see not just physical reconstruction but stability as well." He added: "I will hope that local politicians rise above the level of events here--but I wasn't born yesterday." PM [19] TRADE UP BETWEEN MONTENEGRO, CROATIAVladimir Vukmirovic,who heads the Montenegrin Chamber of Commerce, said in Budva on 29 June that the volume of trade between his republic and Croatia in the first five months of 2000 totaled $7.5 million. This, he added, is more than the corresponding figure for all of 1999, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. Before the end of 2000, Montenegro's Jugopetrol expects additional deliveries of petroleum products from Croatia's INA worth more than $50 million. PM [20] FOREIGN JOURNALIST GROUP WARNS SLOVENIAN GOVERNMENTAspokesman for the International Federation of Journalists said in Ljubljana that the new government of Prime Minister Andrej Bajuk should not make changes for political reasons in the management of state-run media. The spokesman stressed that the credibility and image of Slovenia as a democratic country could be jeopardized if the government made such a move. The Bajuk government is the first once since independence in 1991 that is not led by former members of the Communist-era nomenklatura. PM [21] PRIESTS ORDANED IN ALBANIA FOR FIRST TIME IN DECADEArchbishop Angelo Massafra ordained five priests in theShkodra cathedral on 29 June. He said: "This is an historic day, especially for the younger generation in Albania.... [The ordinations are] a sign of hope that shows how the Albanian church is growing rapidly after so many years of state atheism and martyrdom," AP reported. The last time Roman Catholic priests were ordained in Albania was 1991. All religions were ruthlessly persecuted under the Communists, who in 1967 declared Albania to be the "world's first atheistic state." Places of worship were destroyed or desecrated after that date, and the Shkodra cathedral became a sports center. Islam, Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and the Bektashi sect have re-emerged with new vigor in the past decade but still require financial and other forms of help from abroad. Of those religions, Islam has the most adherents, but there are no accurate figures for practitioners of any faith. The four religions coexist reasonably well in Albania. PM [22] NEW-OLD RIGHTIST ALLIANCE RE-EMERGING IN ROMANIANationalPeasant Party Christian Democratic (PNTCD) First Deputy Chairman Ioan Muresan and Union of Rightist Forces (UFD) Co-Chairman Varujan Vosganian on 29 June agreed to begin setting up an electoral alliance whose members would run on joint lists in the 2000 parliamentary elections, RFE/RL's Bucharest Bureau reported. The UFD left the Democratic Convention of Romania (CDR) in 1998, and Vosganian said the new alliance will not be a "revived CDR" because its political message must "promote rightist ideology." Vosganian and Muresan appealed to all rightist forces, "and primarily to the National Liberal Party (PNL)," to join the new alliance. Muresan said the formation of a PNTCD-UFD alliance comes against the background of "the PNL's slide toward social-liberalism," as demonstrated by the envisaged PNL-Alliance for Romania electoral pact. MS [23] FORMER ROMANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER, DISSIDENT BURIEDCornelManescu, who died on 26 June aged 84, was buried in Bucharest on 29 June, Romanian Radio reported. Manescu was foreign minister from 1961-1972. He later fell from grace with communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. In 1989 he was one of the six former high-ranking communist officials to sign a letter of protest addressed to Ceausescu and the Communist Party. MS [24] BULGARIAN PRESIDENT INTERVENES IN BULGARBANK DISPUTEPetarStoyanov said on 29 June that he wants to hear the opinions of all sides involved in the dispute over the privatization of the country's largest commercial bank before the deal for the sale of Bulgarbank is closed, dpa and AP reported. Stoyanov talked to journalists before departing for a conference in Switzerland. He is returning on 3 July and observers say this means that the deal for selling the bank to an Italian-German consortium will probably not be concluded on 30 June, as earlier announced by Deputy Premier Petar Zhotev. The opposition Socialist Party called the planned sale of Bulgarbank an act of "national betrayal." On 29 June, Bulgarbank Chairman Chavdar Kanchev said the agreed terms of the deal--350 million euros ($330 million)--mean the bank is being sold for 100 million euros below the value of the bank's assets. MS [C] END NOTE[25] KGB VETERANS HEAD HAS HIGH HOPES OF PUTINBy Sophie LambroschiniFormer KGB officers want to see the statue of their founding father, Felix Dzerzhinsky, standing again in Lubyanka Square. Dzerzhinsky founded the KGB's predecessor, the Cheka, and is credited with launching 70 years of fear and purges as well as founding the gulag camps in which millions died. When his statue outside the KGB headquarters was torn down following the failed August putsch in 1991, its collapse symbolized the end of the Soviet Union and of the repressive KGB system. The State Security Veterans Association, a club for former KGB officers, has made an official request to another former KGB officer, President Vladimir Putin, to resurrect the statue. Valerii Velichko, the association's president, says that Putin may be receptive to the idea. "The thing is that the figure of Dzerzhinsky is not a simple one. You can't paint him just one color--all black, white, red, green, as you like," he argues. Velichko worked for the KGB's economic counterintelligence unit, tracking down alleged saboteurs. He is especially proud of the five years he spent from 1980 to 1985 hunting down Soviet citizens who fled the country. Using language not often heard in Russia these days, Velichko says the defectors were "traitors to the Fatherland." He speaks with obvious disgust of people like the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and the ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev, who he says wanted money more than freedom. Among current and former secret police officers, Velichko says, the mood since Putin's election is one of cautious optimism. "Today, a majority of veterans are in the process of observing [Putin]," he commented. "We are watching what his next steps will be. And if in the next three to four months or half a year we are convinced that what he does serves the state, then he will have many supporters among the veterans. Yes, we did help him during a first stage, during the election campaign. But now, it's time to wait. Putin can go one way and continue working for the Family [the influential entourage of former President Boris Yeltsin].... Or he can work for the state. Or he can work for himself. For the moment, he hasn't shown anything yet." One sign that Velichko interprets as encouraging is Putin's appointment of officers of the KGB successor service, the Federal Security Service (FSB), to top posts. For many years under Yeltsin, the secret police were politically sidelined, although they have slowly regained influence in the past three years. For example, Putin has appointed Viktor Cherkesov, his FSB colleague from Saint Petersburg who used to track dissidents, as governor-general for the Northwest region. Velichko praised Putin for "not letting himself be bothered by the fact that, for obvious reasons, this appointment won't please the city's intelligentsia." Velichko hopes that Putin's reliance on secret police officers will lead him to call back to service many of those who left their posts--or were fired--after the Soviet Union broke up. "The authorities are now considering the question of bringing back the veterans.... If a year ago, someone had suggested I become an adviser to Yeltsin, the idea wouldn't have crossed my mind. But now I and many of my comrades say that we would be ready to put on our uniforms again, if we see that it would be good for the state. The thing is that, for me, going back to serving [the state security organs] would mean losing a lot financially. Nevertheless, if I see that it's in the state's interest, I am ready to give up my businesses and receive whatever a FSB general gets paid nowadays." Velichko says he is not talking about the restoration of the Soviet system. While some communist KGB officers are nostalgic for the Soviet era, his generation of KGB officers has seen the benefits of the market economy, Velichko notes. And he adds that the annual revenues of his companies total millions of dollars. According to Velichko, the security service was the first to understand--under the brief tenure of Yurii Andropov, a former KGB head--that the regime was doomed and had to be changed. But then, he argues, things got out of hand. "Believe me, the KGB had enough power to crush any opposition movement at the time," he said. "But we, the officers, were Chekists who adhered to the Andropov school. We understood perfectly well...that serious changes were necessary, but we didn't expect the changes to take such a sharp turn. The ideal scenario is China's evolutionary course. It is slowly developing a market economy, while at the same time maintaining the state regime." Velichko also argues that the FSB has an important role to play in Putin's attempts to re-establish central authority over the regions, where local leaders have frequently gained the upper hand over police, courts, and other federal bodies. The FSB, Velichko says, is the only federal institution that has resisted the governors' influence and is therefore the perfect engine to establish top-down authority. The author is an RFE/RL correspondent based in Moscow. 30-06-00 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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