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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 141, 00-07-25Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 4, No. 141, 25 July 2000CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] U.S. TO PROVIDE ARMENIA WITH BORDER CONTROL EQUIPMENTUnderan agreement signed in Washington on 24 July by U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen and visiting Armenian Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian, the U.S. will provide Yerevan with $300,000 worth of equipment and training to improve customs and border controls, the FNS reported. The equipment includes devices to detect nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons or their components. AP quoted Sarkisian as saying that Yerevan expects to develop military-to- military relations with the U.S. once the Karabakh conflict is resolved. LF [02] AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION SETS CONDITIONS FOR ELECTIONPARTICIPATION...Twelve Azerbaijani opposition parties issued a joint statement in Baku on 24 July saying they will participate in the 5 November parliamentary poll only if the authorities amend the election law to conform with recommendations made by the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, ITAR-TASS reported. Those amendments include changing the ratio of seats in the new parliament allocated under the majoritarian and the proportional systems from 100:25 to 75:50 and abolishing the restriction that allows only parties that were officially registered with the Ministry of Justice six months prior to the announcement of the election date to participate in the ballot. LF [03] ...APPEALS TO COUNCIL OF EUROPEFive opposition parties--theAzerbaijan Popular Front, the Azerbaijan National Independence Party, Musavat, the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan, and the Civil Solidarity Party--have written to Lord Russell Johnston, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, arguing that the law on elections signed on 5 July by President Heidar Aliev does not conform with the joint statement on democratization made to the Council of Europe in March by the Azerbaijani authorities and opposition, Turan reported. That statement included a commitment to holding elections in conformity with international standards. The opposition appealed to the PACE president to monitor more closely the Azerbaijani authorities' compliance with their commitments in that sphere. The Council of Europe voted last month to admit Azerbaijan to full membership (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 June 2000). LF [04] U.S. EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER AZERBAIJANI ELECTIONRESTRICTIONSIn a statement released on 24 July, deputy U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said the U.S. "regrets" the 21 July decision by the Azerbaijani parliament to amend the law on the Central Electoral Commission to deprive the opposition of the power to influence decisions taken either by that body or its local equivalents, dpa reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 24 July 2000). Reeker said that move "raises questions about whether a fair and impartial vote count can be conducted" in the November poll. LF [05] AZERBAIJAN'S CENTRAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION DECIDES TO ALLOWABSENTEE VOTINGAzerbaijan's Central Electoral Commission decided on 24 July that Azerbaijani citizens living outside the country are eligible to cast their ballots in the 5 November parliamentary poll, Turan reported. The six opposition representatives on the commission boycotted the session, which elected the commission's chairman and one of its two secretaries. LF [06] GERMAN OIL COMPANY'S OFFICE SEALED IN AZERBAIJANAzerbaijanipolice on 23 July sealed the Baku office of the Wintershall oil company, Turan reported. The agency quoted a National Security Ministry spokesman as saying a statement clarifying the motives for that move will be issued "soon." Wintershall owns a 10 percent stake in the consortium formed in January 1997 to exploit the Lenkoran-Talysh Deniz Caspian offshore oilfield. LF [07] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT DEFENDS SIGNING OF CONTROVERSIAL ABKHAZPROTOCOL...Eduard Shevardnadze told journalists in Tbilisi on 24 July that he sees no alternative to a peaceful resolution of the Abkhaz conflict, Caucasus Press reported. But Shevardnadze added that he does not exclude the possibility that some unnamed factions may be preparing secretly to resolve the issue by force. Shevardnadze also said that there are no grounds to criticize Minister of State Gia Arsenishvili for putting his signature to the 11 July joint protocol on stabilization measures in the conflict zone. Representatives of the Georgian displaced persons from Abkhazia have criticized the article of that protocol that envisages legal measures against persons who advocate resolving the conflict by force (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17 and 21 July 2000). LF [08] ...AS DISPLACED PERSONS DEMAND REPRESENTATION AT PEACENEGOTIATIONSMeanwhile, the participants in a round-table discussion of ways to resolve the conflict have advocated that the displaced persons be represented in the ongoing peace process, Caucasus Press reported on 24 July. In a statement addressed to Shevardnadze, they argued that the negotiations currently in progress exacerbate tensions rather than contribute to a solution. LF [09] OIL CONSORTIUM RELEASES DATA ON KAZAKH OIL, GAS FINDTheOffshore Kazakhstan International Operating Company (OKIOC), which is composed of nine international oil companies, officially confirmed on 24 July that its first test well has located substantial reserves of oil and gas at Kazakhstan's East Kashagan field, the "Wall Street Journal" reported. Kazakh officials have suggested that East Kashagan is one of the largest fields discovered in recent decades. An OKIOC spokesman said the oil is of good quality, although it contains some hydrogen sulfide. OKIOC will drill a second test well later this year. LF [10] TAJIK MINISTER EVALUATES CRIMES FIGURESTajikistan'sInterior Minister Khumdin Sharipov told a session of the ministry's board on 21 July that the percentage of crimes solved during the first six months of 2000 was up 7.1 percent on the corresponding period in 1999, Asia Plus-Blitz reported. The percentage of serious crimes solved rose by 6.7 percent and economic crimes 15.6 percent. Police confiscated 260 tons of contraband aluminum destined for illegal export and intercepted 600 kilograms of drugs, including 300 kilograms of heroin. The published account of Sharipov's address did not reveal any comparative data on the number of crimes actually committed throughout Tajikistan. In Dushanbe, however, 2,565 crimes were committed between January and June 2000, which is an increase of 295 over the first six months of the previous year, according to Interior Ministry data cited by Asia Plus-Blitz on 19 July. But at the same time, serious crimes fell by 22.1 percent. Sharipov nonetheless criticized the Dushanbe police force's failure to stem economic crime and drug-trafficking. LF [11] TURKMENISTAN RULES OUT DISCUSSION OF CASPIAN AT CIS SUMMITTurkmenistan's Foreign Minister Boris Shikhmuradov said on 24July that his country will not take part in any discussion of Caspian issues to which Iran is not also invited, Russian agencies reported. At the same time, Shikhmuradov rejected the proposal floated by Russian diplomatic sources to convene a discussion of the Caspian, to which Iranian President Mohammad Khatami would be invited, during the October CIS summit in Minsk. Shikhmuradov said the Caspian issue is "too big" to be discussed at such a forum. He noted that Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov has advocated convening a special summit of Caspian littoral states. LF [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[12] YUGOSLAV ARMY CLOSES MONTENEGRIN-ALBANIAN FRONTIERLocalAlbanian police chief Zija Hasa said in Shkoder on 24 July that Yugoslav army troops have recently turned back at least 300 Albanians at the Bozaj border crossing because they had no Yugoslav visas, which Hasa called "a pretext," Reuters reported. He said that the Yugoslav army recently increased its presence in the border area. Montenegrin and Albanian authorities previously agreed not to require visas for cross- border traffic. The Yugoslav embassy in Tirana, which normally issues visas, has been closed since 1998. In the Albanian capital, Foreign Ministry spokesman Sokol Gjoka said that "this is a closure of Montenegro to Albanians," adding that "Belgrade wants to keep fires burning in the Balkans." PM [13] MONTENEGRIN PRIME MINISTER SAYS ARMY NOT 'LEGITIMATE'Outspoken Deputy Prime Minister Dragisa Burzan told "Vijesti"of 25 July that the army has long ceased to be "legitimate." He said that Belgrade has used the army for the past two years to undermine the Montenegrin authorities. PM [14] KOSOVA LEADERS CALL FOR END TO VIOLENCEMeeting inWashington, several leading personalities from Kosova agreed on the need to halt all violence in the province. The leaders included Bishop Artemije, Father Sava, and Slavica Ristic from the Serbian community and Ibrahim Rugova and Hashim Thaci from the Albanians, the BBC's Serbian Service reported on 25 July. PM [15] BELGRADE SEEKS TO PREVENT SERBS FROM REGISTERING IN KOSOVAJeff Fischer, who heads the OSCE's voter registration taskforce in Kosova, said that fewer than 1 percent of eligible Serbs registered to vote because the Belgrade authorities had pressured them not to do so. He added that the forms of intimidation included threats of legal prosecution should registered voters visit Serbia, arrest on espionage charges, possible violence, and suspension of pensions, London's "The Independent" reported on 25 July. Daan Everts, who is the OSCE's chief representative in Kosova, noted that "it is in the interest of [Yugoslav President Slobodan] Milosevic to suppress any involvement of the Serb community in Kosovo with the democratic process." Everts also noted that about 1 million ethnic Albanians registered, which he called a "spectacular success." PM [16] PANIC SEES INDEPENDENT EX-YUGOSLAV REPUBLICS TOGETHER INEUROPEFormer Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan Panic told the Rijeka daily "Novi List" of 25 July that he strongly supports Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, whom he called "our hope." Panic added that he favors independence for Kosova "but within a united Europe in which borders are no longer important. Now the most important issue is to get rid of the extremists on both sides" in that province. He predicted that bonds would become close between Serbia and Croatia once both join the EU because "they are more linked by love than by hate." PM [17] SERBIAN JOURNALIST GOES ON TRIAL FOR 'ESPIONAGE'The trialof Miroslav Filipovic for "espionage and spreading false news" began in a military court in Nis on 25 July, Reuters reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 15 June 2000). He works for the independent daily "Danas" and freelances for AFP and the London-based Institute for War and Peace Reporting. His lawyer has repeatedly stressed that Filipovic always signed all his articles, including those on military affairs and anti-military protests. Numerous international human rights and journalists' organizations have condemned the trial as a farce aimed at intimidating journalists. PM [18] RFE/RL JOURNALISTS: 'WE WILL CONTINUE TO WORK'Severalcorrespondents for RFE/RL's South Slavic Service told a press conference in Nis that they will continue to do their jobs, despite recent threats from Yugoslav Information Minister Goran Matic against them (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 25 July 2000). Belgrade bureau chief Milica Lucic-Cavic stressed that the real reason that the government opposes the station is that it is the foreign broadcaster with the largest audience in Serbia, namely 14 percent of the total population, "Danas" reported. She rejected Matic's charges that the station is a "propaganda arm" of U.S. foreign policy, adding that she and her colleagues do not consider themselves propagandists for anyone. PM [19] MILOSEVIC FOR ANOTHER NINE YEARS?Both houses of the federalparliament approved new electoral legislation on 24 July. The measures are aimed at bringing the law code into line with recent constitutional amendments designed to allow Milosevic to stay in office for eight more years after his current term ends in 2001 (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 11 July 2000). Opposition legislator Vladeta Jankovic told AP that the ruling parties are treating Milosevic like "a deity in primitive religions." Elsewhere, opposition leaders on 25 July are discussing whether to participate in the widely expected elections and, if so, who will run against Milosevic. Recent polls show that he is the most popular single candidate, receiving the support of about 15 percent of respondents. Most leading opposition candidates stand at about 6 percent. Serbian polls usually show a large percentage of undecided respondents. PM [20] SERBIAN COMPANIES WANT EU TO TAKE THEM OFF 'WHITE LIST'Representatives of eight companies told the Belgrade Chamberof Commerce on 24 July that they want the EU to remove their names from its list of 189 companies exempt from sanctions lest they be regarded in Serbia as "NATO collaborators," Reuters reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 21 July 2000). All eight companies have majority foreign capital, and some of them do much of their business with the EU. They are Pitura, Tehnogas, Milsped, Saga, VF-TEL-Siemens, Auto Nena, Korpus, and Petro-Farma. PM [21] EVICTIONS OF MUSLIMS BEGIN AMID TIGHT SECURITYBosnianMuslim police, assisted by UN police and SFOR, began evicting Muslim squatters from Serbian homes in the Maglaj area on 24 July (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 21 July 2000). Foreign Islamic fighters will be last of the squatters to be evicted, Reuters reported. One of the foreign-born men now married to a Bosnian wife said that he bought his house legally from a Serb and than many other ex-fighters have bought enough land in the area to build homes for "35 families." He stressed that he has no intention of giving up property that he legally owns. PM [22] MUSLIM, U.S. OFFICIALS CONDEMN ARSON IN SREBRENICAThe U.S.embassy issued a statement on 24 July condemning the apparent arson attacks on three Muslim-owned homes in the Srebrenica area in the previous three days. The statement added that as a result of these incidents, "five houses [have been] burned in eight days, 10 in the past month," Reuters reported. Muslim Mayor Nesib Mandzic noted the attacks were meant to intimidate Muslims from going home, adding that in any case "we will continue with reconstruction and returns." PM [23] CROATIAN PRIME MINISTER TO BOSNIAIvica Racan will arrive inMostar on 27 July. His visit is aimed at underscoring the change in Croatia's Bosnian policy since the new government took office at the beginning of the year, "Jutarnji list" reported on 25 July. He will examine the ruins of the historical stone bridge that Croatian gunners destroyed in November 1993 and discuss Croatian aid in restoring it. PM [24] NO BAILOUT FOR CROATIAN SOCCER CLUBSFinance Minister MatkoCrkvenac rejected a suggestion that the government write off $72 million in debts for four soccer clubs, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported from Zagreb on 24 July. The teams are Dinamo, Hajduk, Rijeka, and Osijek. Dinamo and Hajduk are bitter rivals and the two best-known teams in the country. PM [25] PROSECUTORS QUESTION FORMER ROMANIAN PREMIER OVER YUGOSLAVEMBARGO BREACHNicolae Vacaroiu told prosecutors in Bucharest on 24 July that all Romanian oil exports to Yugoslavia in 1994-1995 complied with UN Security Council restrictions. He said those exports were intend to keep in operation Yugoslavia's power grid and its power plant at the Iron Gates along the River Danube. Vacaroiu said he has no knowledge of the 1,000 tanker trucks that departed from the western town of Jimbolia to Yugoslavia, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. His government had claimed at the time that only private individuals had engaged in oil smuggling, but media reports comment that 1,000 tanker trucks could not possibly have left the country without the authorities' knowledge. The investigation started in 1997, when Vacaroiu's cabinet was no longer in power. MS [26] FORMER ROMANIAN PRESIDENT REJECTS POSTPONEMENT OFELECTIONSParty of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR) chairman Ion Iliescu on 24 July rejected the proposal that parliamentary elections scheduled for the fall be postponed for three months, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. The constitution provides for postponing general elections, but not the presidential ballot. Media outlets have proposed delaying the elections, suggesting that the election campaign would impede the parliamentary debate on the country's 2001 budget. Iliescu said he had written to Premier Mugur Isarescu warning against postponing the vote. He emphasized that the cabinet and the outgoing parliament have sufficient time to meet the 1 November deadline for the budget's approval. Greater Romania Party leader Corneliu Vadim Tudor also rejected the idea, while speakers for the ruling coalition were more ambivalent, saying there are grounds both to favor a postponement and to oppose it. MS [27] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT TO PROMULGATE PARLIAMENTARY REPUBLICLAWPresidential spokesman Anatol Golea on 24 July told journalists that President Petru Lucinschi will promulgate "within a few days" the law transforming Moldova into a parliamentary republic. On 21 July, the legislature overrode Lucinschi's veto of the law, which means he must now sign the legislation within two weeks. Golea also said the parliament must debate by 13 January 2001 Lucinschi's initiative for holding a plebiscite on a law providing for the presidential powers to be increased. Lucinschi's mandate ends on 15 January 2001. MS [28] TRANSDNIESTER GROUP DECLARES ITSELF BRANCH OF RUSSIA'S UNITYPARTYA group of Transdniester businessmen have set up a branch of Russia's Unity party, a Tiraspol correspondent for the Flux agency reported on 24 July. Local media reports said Unity parliamentary group deputies in the Russian State Duma participated in the founding congress of Unity-Transdniester. The 322 delegates said Unity-Transdniester will form "a bridge between Moscow and Tiraspol." Tiraspol Supreme Soviet deputy Viktor Belitchenko appealed to the Russian guests to "show courage and recognize the Transdniester." The Duma deputies told the delegates that "Russians can now count on their country's help, no matter where they live." MS [C] END NOTE[29] WHY THE WEST DOESN'T AND WON'T INVEST IN RUSSIABy Victor YasmannA new book entitled "Why Russia Is Not America," by Andrei Parshev, has caused a sensation among intellectuals in Moscow. Published by Moscow's pro- Communist publishing house "Krymskii-Most-9D" and on several Internet sites, it has been hotly discussed in Web forums ranging from the one maintained by liberal Anatolii Chubais to the "Moskovskii komsomolets" electronic club. It has also appeared on dozens of nationalist and anti-Western Websites. Parshev's book has attracted attention because the author considers Russian economic problems in terms of the paradigm of the emerging world market, something few other Russian writers have done. He begins by rejecting the ideas of nostalgic pro-Soviet economists who continue to believe in Russia's uniqueness as well as those of reformers who see Russia's problems in the incompleteness of its transition to capitalism. In fact, Parshev notes, both those groups assume that the West want to buy up Russian assets, which the first sees as something bad for Russia and the second as something very good. But they are both wrong, Parshev suggests. And he argues that Russian investors actually have little interest in making such purchases because Russian assets are mostly unprofitable. According to Parshev, the decisive indicator of the success potential of a national economy is the competitiveness of its goods and services, not their quality and certainly not their uniqueness. And this competitiveness is defined entirely by the ratio between the world price and the local production costs. Unfortunately for Russia, Parshev continues, those costs are far higher on its territory than those virtually anywhere else, reflecting the country's size and harsh climate. In this context, he cites the conclusions of Chubais's former deputy, Alfred Kokh, who said that foreign investors will find no profit in either the production or the export of Russia's mineral wealth: "For the West it is not profitable to recover oil in Siberia, as long as there is Kuwait. There you just moor a tanker at the seashore and you can pump the oil practically directly into it. Nor is it profitable to transport coal from the Kusbass, if it can be delivered by sea from Australia. There, coal deposits are located virtually on the shore so that you load the ship directly from coal conveyor." Kokh continues, "Timber is best obtained not from the Yenisei but from the Amazon, which does not freeze and provides better access.... Of cause if we recover all our resources and deliver them to the market, they will fetch the world price. But recovery and delivery of our natural resources cost more than anywhere else in the world... Our Western partners agree to use mines and oil fields founded in the Soviet era, but they are not willing to create new production facilities. Unfortunately, they are not fools. It is simply too expensive." Elsewhere in his book, Parshev cites the conclusion of liberal Russian economist Vladimir Anrianov that Russian industrial production costs are far higher than anywhere else: 2.8 times those of Japan, 2.7 times those of the United States, and 2.3 times those of Western European countries. Parshev then concludes that "we have nothing the West badly wants. Everything we have is either almost exhausted or separated from us, together with [Kazakh President Nursultan] Nazarbaev, or costs too much to recover. Those who think that our decline can be limited if we transform ourselves into a raw materials supplier to the West are incorrigible optimists." "Enough [of such] illusions, comrades patriots," says Parshev. "We can exist as a source of raw materials only for another five to six years. But even our pensioners are planning to live a little longer than that." The author is a senior fellow with the American Foreign Policy Council, Washington DC. 25-07-00 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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