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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 157, 00-08-16Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 4, No. 157, 16 August 2000CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN INVESTMENT FORUM AGAIN POSTPONEDAmajor Armenian international business forum planned to be held in London this fall has been postponed, the World Bank's resident representative in Armenia, Oweis Saadat, told RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau on 15 August. Saadat said the meeting, originally scheduled for May 2000, will probably take place in New York early next year. He denied that the change of venue was motivated by political considerations. LF [02] AZERBAIJAN DENIES SUPPORTING IRANIAN'SEPARATISTS'Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Vilayat Guliev on 15 August denied that Baku supports or aids separatists in Iran or that such separatists enter Iranian territory from Azerbaijan, according to ANS courtesy of Groong. He noted that both Iranian and Azerbaijani border guards are deployed along the frontier between the two countries. Major General Abbasali Novruzov, the commander of Azerbaijan's Border Guards, similarly told ANS that his service has received no reports or claims of illegal crossings by Iranian separatists into Iran from Azerbaijani territory. But Novruzov admitted that owing to the dilapidated state of border installations, it would not be difficult to cross undetected. In recent weeks, Azerbaijani media have quoted Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as accusing Azerbaijan of supporting separatists and interfering in Iran's internal affairs. Iranian reports of Khamenei's speeches carry no such references, however. LF [03] DOCTORS SAY FORMER AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT TOO ILLTO UNDERGO SURGERYTurkish doctors treating former President and Azerbaijan Popular Front (AHCP) chairman Abulfaz Elchibey at the Gulhane military hospital in Ankara have confirmed that he is suffering from prostate cancer, AFP reported on 15 August quoting Azertadj. They said he is undergoing radiation treatment, as it is too late to treat the cancer by surgery. Senior members of the AHCP have repeatedly denied that Elchibey is suffering from cancer (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 7 August 2000). LF [04] JOURNALISTS' WATCHDOG URGES AZERBAIJAN TO DROPCASE AGAINST NEWSPAPERReporters Sans Frontieres has written to Azerbaijani Information Minister Siruz Tebrizli asking him to drop the court case he brought against the independent newspaper "Uch Nogte," Turan reported on 15 August. The court case is due to begin on 16 August. Tebrizli is demanding the newspaper's closure, citing an article of the press law that provides for the closure of print media that are sued three times within 12 months for publishing incorrect information. Turan quoted Reporters Sans Frontieres Secretary-General Robert Menard as saying that there are no grounds for the closure of "Uch Nogte," which, he said, "would be a direct attempt to hamper press freedom" in Azerbaijan. LF [05] ABKHAZ POLITICIAN SHOT DEADZurab Achba, aconsultant to the OSCE Human Rights office in Sukhum and former Abkhaz parliamentary deputy, was gunned down from a passing car late on 15 August in Sukhum, Caucasus Press reported. A local administration official in the village of Okumi in Abkhazia's Tkvarcheli Raion was killed during the night of 13-14 August. LF [06] EXPLOSION AT GEORGIAN ISOTOPES INSTITUTE KILLSONEA staff member at the Institute of Isotopes in Tbilisi was killed by an explosion late on 15 August, Caucasus Press and Interfax reported. Georgian officials say no radioactivity was released. The blast is believed to have been caused when a bottle of nitrogen exploded during an experiment. LF [07] NEW CHARGES OF DISCRIMINATION AT KAZAKH OILCOMPANYThe Chinese management of the Aqtobemunaigaz oil company is violating the rights of the enterprise's Kazakh employees by granting unspecified privileges to Chinese workers who are not covered by Kazakhstan's labor laws, Interfax reported on 15 August, quoting an official from the Aqtobe Oblast prosecutor's office. An investigation conducted by that office determined that Kazakh employees of Aqtobemunaigaz are being paid 75 percent less than their Kazakh colleagues for performing the same duties. An earlier dispute between the Kazakh government and the Chinese National Oil Company, which owns a 60 percent stake in Aqtobemunaigaz, was resolved in April (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 2 March and 27 April 2000). LF [08] KAZAKH, UZBEK PRESIDENTS SEEK TO EXPEDITE LEGALREFORMAddressing prominent lawyers in Astana on 14 August, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev instructed them to prepare amendments to the bill "On the Courts and the Status of Judges," Interfax reported. That law is intended to strengthen the independence of the judiciary from the executive. In Tashkent. Uzbek President Islam Karimov issued a decree similarly intended to make the country's legal system more democratic, Interfax reported. The decree will ensure the prompt conduct of trials and increase the legal protection of individual, political, social and economic rights and freedoms, according to the presidential press service. Meanwhile, Amnesty International on 15 August issued an appeal on behalf of four young Uzbek men whose appeals against the death sentences handed down to them by a Samarkand court for separate murders have been rejected. LF [09] AIDE TO KYRGYZ OPPOSITION LEADER RELEASEDEmilAliev, who headed opposition Ar-Namys party chairman Feliks Kulov's election campaign earlier this year, was released from detention in Bishkek on 15 August because of his deteriorating health, RFE/RL's bureau in the Kyrgyz capital reported. He had been detained shortly after the second round of voting in early March on suspicion of embezzlement (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 10 March 2000). LF [10] KYRGYZ PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE FAILS LANGUAGETESTThe linguistic commission of Kyrgyzstan's Central Electoral Commission ruled on 15 August that Party of Communists of Kyrgyzstan presidential candidate Iskhak Masaliev failed the mandatory tests in written and spoken Kyrgyz, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. Masaliev, who is a parliamentary deputy. said he intends to appeal that decision. Also on 15 August, parliamentary deputy Ishenbai Kadyrbekov announced his intention to contest the presidential poll, raising the number of declared or anticipated candidates to 17. LF [11] KYRGYZ TROOPS FREE GERMAN HOSTAGESDuring theirreportedly successful operation to drive the Islamist militants back to the Tajik border, Kyrgyz government troops on 15 August released eight German mountaineers taken hostage by the Islamists four days earlier. None of the German climbers had been harmed. In Bishkek, General Bolot Djanuzakov, who is Kyrgyz Security Council secretary, claimed on 15 August that the Islamists have at their disposal combat aircraft supplied by Afghanistan's Taliban, according to Interfax. Speaking in Dushanbe on 15 August, Tajik Security Council Deputy Secretary Nuralisho Nazarov rejected Djanuzakov's claim that 500-700 fighters are gathered in the Karategin valley on the Tajik side of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border ready to enter Kyrgyzstan, Asia Plus-Blitz reported. Nazarov also denied reports that former United Tajik Opposition fighters who have now joined the country's armed forces are aiding the Islamists. LF [12] TAJIK PRESIDENT BEGINS VACATION, UZBEK PRESIDENTTO STAY HOMETajikistan's President Imomali Rakhmonov is currently on a short vacation in Sochi, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on 16 August, Asia Plus-Blitz reported. Meanwhile, a spokesman for Uzbek President Karimov told ITAR-TASS on 15 August that owing to the worsening situation on the Uzbek-Tajik border, Karimov will not attend the informal 18-19 August CIS summit in Yalta. LF [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[13] SERBIAN OPPOSITION UNVEILS ELECTION PROGRAM...Democratic Party leader Zoran Djindjic told a news conferencein Belgrade on 15 August that the united opposition has drawn up its "contract between future [legislative] deputies and the electorate," Reuters reported. The program calls on the new parliament to pass on its first day a series of resolutions aimed at repealing Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's recent constitutional changes and measures to curb media freedoms. The resolutions also include measures to end sanctions against Montenegro and implement UN Security Council Resolution 1244 in Kosova, as well as to reform the police, military, and judiciary. The program stresses that "we oblige ourselves to renew popular confidence in the state, root out corruption in public institutions, and together embrace comprehensive reforms so that Serbia can return to its rightful place in the community of European states." The program calls on the legislature to bring Serbian law into harmony with European standards within 100 days and institute a program of economic legislation, including currency and taxation reforms. PM [14] ...PLANS DEBT PROGRAM...Mladjan Dinkic of the G-17opposition group of economists told the Belgrade press conference on 15 August that the government hopes to cover a planned deficit through $500 million in direct donations from the West, $350 million in foreign direct investment, and $150 million from short-term borrowing abroad, Reuters reported. It is not clear whether the opposition has already approached foreign governments, investors, or banks with its ideas. PM [15] ...CRITICIZES MONTENEGRIN BOYCOTT OF YUGOSLAVELECTIONSOpposition presidential candidate Vojislav Kostunica told the 15 August Belgrade press conference that the program is "an effort to establish dialogue within Serbia and between Serbia and the outside world so that Serbia can set up democratic institutions," Reuters reported. Earlier in the day, he criticized the Montenegrin leadership's decision to boycott the federal ballot, saying that the Podgorica leadership had, in effect, "voted for Milosevic" by denying his opponents Montenegrin votes. Meanwhile in Podgorica, President Milo Djukanovic said that the Montenegrin authorities will not obstruct the holding of the elections on Montenegrin territory, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM [16] SERBIAN STUDENT MOVEMENT APPEALS FOR UNITYLeaders of the Otpor (Resistance) student movement told apress conference in Belgrade on 15 August that the most important task facing all Serbs is to unite to defeat Milosevic, "Vesti" reported. PM [17] SERBIAN REGIME CONTINUES PRE-ELECTION SHOWTRIALS OF FOREIGNERS...The trial of Slovenian citizens Milos Glisovic and his wife, Natasa Zorz, began in Belgrade on 16 August. The Yugoslav military have accused them of "unauthorized entry into military facilities and making sketches and drawings of military facilities and combat material," AP reported (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 8 August 2000). On 15 August, Dutch Charge d'affaires Kees Klompenhouwer told reporters that he had spoken to the four Dutch citizens held in Serbia for allegedly plotting to kill Milosevic (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 15 August 2000). Klompenhouwer said that "the detainees were very glad to see us; it's for the first time in almost four weeks that they had the opportunity to talk to someone from their own country. They have been going through a very difficult time." He added that the men are doing "reasonably well" but that their medical condition needs "closer attention." PM [18] ...AND OF STUDENT ACTIVISTSSerbian authorities on 15August charged three Otpor activists in the Vojvodina town of Indija with "spreading false information," Reuters reported. One of the students told reporters that "we have no idea what we've been accused of doing." He added, however, that the charges are probably linked to Otpor's attempt to hold a benefit concert in Indija recently. Police arrested a total of five additional Otpor activists in two other Serbian towns on 15 August. PM [19] ANGRY SERBS PROTEST KOSOVA MINE TAKEOVER...Some1,500 Serbs gathered on 16 August for the second day outside the Trepca mine complex, which UN peacekeepers have occupied to end environmental pollution from the smelter (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 15 August 2000). Milan Ivanovic, who is spokesman for the Serbs, told AP that "the takeover of Trepca is just part of the strategy by [UN chief administrator Bernard] Kouchner and the Albanians to ethnically cleanse Kosovo [of its remaining Serbs]. We will not allow the Albanians in. All those who worked here must continue to work." Many in the crowd work at Trepca and fear they will lose their jobs in a province with a high unemployment rate. Ivanovic added that local Serbs may decide to "set up an autonomous canton" in the area if they feel that their basic interests are threatened. Ethnic Albanians reject the idea of autonomous Serbian cantons, which they fear will be the first step toward the partition of the province. PM [20] ...AS KOUCHNER REASSURES SERBSSpeaking at the Trepcacomplex on 16 August, Kouchner said that ending environmental pollution at the complex is in everyone's interest. "This [Serbian] community will have to understand that we will work for the benefit of all Kosovo and Serbs as well. We are acting in the interests of the Serbs," AP reported. Kouchner stressed that "it was impossible to tolerate this pollution, because of...the very high level of lead.... I don't know how long it will take us to...[have] this place running, months perhaps. This place is in desperate state, this is like the nineteenth century." PM [21] DUTCH AMBASSADOR TO UN: CORRUPTION STILLWIDESPEAD IN BOSNIA...Dutch Ambassador to the UN Peter van Walsum told the Security Council on 15 August that "it has been estimated that every year $500 million of domestic revenue is lost [in Bosnia] due to smuggling, particularly of cigarettes. Without this loss of revenue, there would be no budget deficit. Smuggling on such a huge scale implies that high level government officials must be involved," Reuters reported. He stressed that "it has been pointed out that the country is going through many simultaneous transitions. We grant this, but the conclusion can only be that the Bosnian authorities must redouble their efforts to stamp out crime and corruption. They must be aware that foreign aid is not an infinite commodity," an RFE/RL correspondent reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 July 2000). PM [22] ....BUT OTHERS SEE PROGRESSBosnian UN AmbassadorMuhamed Sacirbey told the Security Council on 15 August that no good will come of stressing the problems facing Bosnia rather than the progress it has made. "We've heard all the stories of corruption, we've heard all the stories of things not going the right way in Bosnia, [some of which is obviously] deserved and some...is not. But the real question is who is going to make investments in Bosnia if it is somehow set out as this no-man's land in a new Europe," Sacirbey argued. UN Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping Bernard Miyet told the Security Council that "it can be noted that UNMIBH--UN Mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina--continues to move ahead in the implementation of its mandate in a positive fashion. There has been progress in all areas such as in inter-entity law enforcement arrangements and growing day-to-day cooperation between the Interior Ministries of the Bosnian Federation and of the Republika Srpska," an RFE/RL correspondent reported. PM [23] ANOTHER ROMANIAN PEASANT PARTY OFFICIALDISMISSEDPrime Minister Mugur Isarescu dismissed Financial Ministry Secretary of State Iosefina Morosan on 15 August, Romanian media reported the next day. The government offered no reason for the dismissal, while Morosan said she believes she was dismissed for political reasons. She was replaced by Romanian National Bank chief economist Valentin Lazea, who occupied that Financial Ministry post from 1997 to 1998. Isarescu's decision comes one day after he sacked another National Peasant Party Christian Democratic member, Environment Ministry Secretary of State Anton Vlad. Government counselor Adrian Vasilescu said the fact that both officials are members of the main coalition party is "a coincidence." ZsM [24] ROMANIAN PREMIER PROMISES FIRM HAND IN LEADINGGOVERNMENTIn an interview with Mediafax news agency on 15 August, Premier Isarescu urged cabinet members to continue working as a team and put aside political disputes. Isarescu warned that if political rows surface, "firm measures" to maintain balance in the government will be introduced. He admitted to failing to reach the proposed targeted of a 27 percent inflation rate for 2000 but added that the country's economic growth is "a certainty," the unemployment rate is decreasing, and the foreign deficit is still within projected limits. Isarescu said he is in "no hurry" to announce whether he will be a candidate in the presidential elections. ZsM [25] TRANSDNIESTER PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS ACCUSEMOLDOVA OF DUPLICITYA group of unions and other public organizations in the breakaway Transdniester region have sent an appeal to Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Defense Minister Igor Sergeev accusing the Moldovan government of duplicity and of seeking to eliminate Russia's political and military presence in the region, Infotag reported on 15 August. The appeal added that Moldova had sought to use the just- concluded peacekeeping maneuvers with Russia to mislead the Russian leadership. PG [26] BULGARIAN, U.S. INTELLIGENCE CHIEFS AGREE TOCOOPERATEVisiting CIA director George Tenet told Dimo Gyaurov, the head of Bulgaria's Intelligence Service, that the two have "a community of interests," AP reported on 15 August. An official statement released after their meeting said that "Bulgaria's position towards the Kosovo crisis and its behavior...during the [Kosovo] events in the spring last year were marked with gratitude at the meetings." The two sides said that they look forward to working together in the future. PG [C] END NOTE[27] COMING TO TERMS WITH THE PASTBy Paul GobleVladimir Putin's meeting with former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and the Russian Orthodox Church's canonization of the last tsar are part of a new effort by Russians to confront their country's often complicated history. But reaction to both of these events highlights just how long and difficult that process is likely to be. President Putin received his Soviet-era predecessor for two hours on 10 August. Gorbachev, long shunned by Putin's predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, returned the compliment by observing that he has seen "a change for the better" since Putin became president. Moreover, he praised the current occupant of the Kremlin for what Gorbachev said is Putin's "democratic" approach to the media. Four days later, on 14 August, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church canonized Nicholas II and his family, who were murdered by the Bolsheviks on 17 July 1918. The Church body justified its action by saying that "in the last Russian Orthodox monarch and his family, we see people who sincerely tried to carry out the commandments of the Gospels in their lives." Both of these developments is clearly the product of a careful political calculation, one that balances the benefit such moves can give to their authors with the risks that each of these steps so obviously poses. By reaching out to Gorbachev, Putin has opened the way for a reconsideration of the last years of Soviet power, a period that many in Russia look back to with nostalgia but one whose major developments Yeltsin had either sharply criticized or attempted to pass over in silence. At the same time, the current Russian president's meeting with Gorbachev has angered those who dislike the last Soviet leader or who fear a return to a Soviet-style past. By canonizing the last Russian tsar, the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow has extended a hand to the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, a group that broke with the patriarchal Church over the latter's loyalty to the regime that had killed the imperial family. The canonization decision, however, is likely to infuriate those who were encouraged to view the last tsar as "Bloody Nicholas." But behind these specific calculations is a more general shift in the way Russia and its leaders have chosen to deal with the past. After the 1917 revolution, Soviet leaders initially attempted with remarkable success to ignore or simply denounce much of Russia's past only to see elements of that past re-emerge in various ways over the following decades. And again, after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian leaders in general and Yeltsin in particular sought to ignore or denounce the Soviet past and especially the Gorbachev period-- with the parallel result that many of the elements of that period have continued to play a role in post-Soviet Russia. In both cases, the earlier unwillingness of many Russians to openly confront the past and thus to assimilate it into the national conciousness has had the unintended effect of making the past more, rather than less, influential. Consequently, this latest effort in Moscow to address the past appears to offer some promise that Russia may have begun to escape from this particular historical syndrome. But the historical experience of both Russia and other countries suggests that such a shift in perspective is likely to be both long and painful, not least because it will almost certainly be misread and opposed by people accustomed to denying the past. Some will see it as a signal that Putin and the Church have launched a concerted effort to turn back the clock, and others will conclude that both are maligning the intervening periods. Moreover, the obviousness of the current political calculations behind this shift in perspective almost always has the effect of further politicizing the past, thus making its interpretation and integration into the national consciousness more problematic rather than less difficult. And finally, decisions like those made by Putin and by the Russian Orthodox Church almost certainly will not be assimilated by everyone in Russia quickly or even at all, thus opening the door to new divisions even as those who took these decisions seek to overcome old ones. But these two steps, as different as they appear to be and in fact are, suggest that Russia and Russians are increasingly prepared to examine their pasts with equanimity, an approach that may have the unexpected effect of limiting the impact of those pasts on their future. 16-08-00 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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