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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 0, No. 0, 00-08-31Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 0, No. 0, 31 August 2000CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] EXPLOSION AT HOME OF ARMENIAN MILITARY PROSECUTOR- GENERALAn explosion late on 29 August in the basement of the Yerevan home of Gagik Djahangirian caused minor damage and no injuries, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported the following day. Police have launched an investigation but released no details of the cause of the blast. Djahangirian has been repeatedly criticized for his conduct of the investigation into the 27 October Armenian parliament shootings. Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports claim that one of the detained suspects accused of selling assault rifles to the five gunmen responsible for those killings has died in jail under unknown circumstances. LF[02] FORMER ARMENIAN PREMIER TO FOUND OWN POLITICAL PARTYAram Sargsian, who succeeded his murdered brother, Vazgen, as Armenian prime minister and served in that capacity from last November until mid-May, intends to found his own political party, according to Snark on 29 August, as cited by Groong. Sources close to Sargsian told the agency that the nucleus of the new, as yet unnamed party will be members of the Yerkrapah Union of Karabakh war veterans who were elected to the present parliament on the slate of Vazgen Sargsian's Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). The defection of some HHK parliamentary deputies would increase the likelihood of the collapse of the majority Miasnutiun parliamentary bloc, within which the HHK is the senior partner, and the creation of a new intra- parliamentary alliance of which the nucleus would be the remaining members of the HHK. LF[03] AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION LEADER QUESTIONED OVER PLANE HIJACKIsa Gambar, chairman of the opposition Musavat Party, was summoned on 30 August to the Prosecutor-General's Office and questioned for 90 minutes about his connections with the Musavat Party member responsible for the abortive 18 August hijack of an Azerbaijani Airlines aircraft and with other suspects in that case, Turan reported. Meanwhile, Azerbaijani government print and electronic media carried extensive coverage on 30 August of the Musavat party's alleged responsibility for the hijack attempt and called for the party's registration to be revoked and for the party to be banned from contesting the 5 November parliamentary poll. The Central Electoral Commission has, however, registered the list of Musavat candidates to contest the poll in single-mandate constituencies, according to Turan on 30 August. LF[04] WORLD BANK CRITICIZES GEORGIA OVER AMBIGUOUS TAX STATUSTofik Yaprak, who heads the World Bank mission in Tbilisi, said on 30 August that the bank may suspend the implementation of projects in Georgia unless the Georgian government clarifies how much tax it should pay on those projects, Caucasus Press reported. Yaprak said some projects have been suspended for the past 10 months, stressing that the bank is not asking for tax exemption but merely clarification of its tax liabilities. Caucasus Press quoted him as suggesting that funds allocated for World Bankprojects may have been diverted to fill gaps in the domestic budget. LF[05] JAILED GEORGIAN WARLORD PROTESTS IMMINENT TRANSFER TO LABOR CAMPGeorgia's Minister of Justice Djoni Khetsuriani has rejected a plea by Loti Kobalia, the former commander of deceased President Zviad Gamsakhurdia's National Guard, not to be transferred from a Tbilisi prison to a labor camp, Caucasus Press reported on 30 August. Kobalia was sentenced to death in 1996 for his role in Gamsakhurdia's failed attempt to regain power in the fall of 1993, but that sentence was later commuted to 20 years' imprisonment. He went on hunger strike last month to protest his proposed transfer and to demand hospitalization. Kobalia believes the Georgian authorities are planning to have him murdered by a fellow camp inmate. LF[06] MOSCOW TALKS ON ABKHAZ CONFLICT CONCLUDEA CIS working group held talks in Moscow on 28-30 August on the Abkhaz conflict, Caucasus Press and ITAR-TASS reported. Participants were to try to determine the reasons for the failure to implement resolutions on Abkhazia that were adopted at CIS summits in 1996 and 1997. Georgian media have carried no details of the talks. LF[07] KAZAKH LEADERSHIP POSTPONES PLANNED DIALOGUE WITH OPPOSITIONThe "national dialogue" between representatives of the Kazakh leadership and the opposition, which was scheduled for 31 August, will not take place, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported on 30 August, citing sources within the presidential administration. Those sources claimed that the opposition parties aligned in the Forum of Democratic Forces of Kazakhstan had refused to participate in the exchange.Ghaziz Aldamzharov, who heads the executive committee of the Republican People's Party of Kazakhstan, told RFE/RL that the reason for the opposition's refusal to participate is that no agenda for the talkswas ever drafted. The idea of such a dialogue was first floated last year by the party's chairman, Akezhan Kazhegeldin (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 22 November 1999). LF[08] KAZAKHSTAN CALLS UP RESERVE OFFICERSKazakhstan has begun mobilizing reserve officers for a three-year term, ITAR-TASS reported on 30 August, citing sources in the Kazakh Defense Ministry. So far, those called up are mainly engineers, communications specialists, medical personnel, teachers, and journalists. Local observers link the mobilization with the threat posed to Kazakhstan by the banned Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. LF[09] AGA KHAN VISITS KYRGYZSTANPrince Karim Aga Khan IV met in Bishkek on 30 August with Kyrgyz President Askar Akaev to discuss the planned Central Asian University, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reported. The Aga Khan has donated toward the Dushanbe and Bishkek colleges of that institution a total of $5 million each. The university will also have colleges in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, China, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, according to Interfax.The Bishkek college will focus on the study of the mountain regions of Kyrgyzstan and providing educational opportunities for residents there. The Aga Khan also met in Bishkek with the speakers of both chambers of Kyrgyzstan's parliament. LF[10] PARLIAMENT DEPUTY BRINGS LIBEL SUIT AGAINST INDEPENDENT KYRGYZ NEWSPAPERHearings began in a Bishkek district court on 29 August in a civil libel suit brought against the newspaper "Asaba" by parliamentary deputy and former Kirghiz Communist Party First Secretary Turdakun Usubaliev, RFE/RL's bureau in the Kyrgyz capital reported. Usubaliev claims that over the past eight years "Asaba" has repeatedly published materials insulting him, and he is demanding 50 million soms (approximately $1.06 million) in compensation. He also wants publication of the newspaper suspended for the duration of the investigation period. The newspaper's editorial board believes the court case is intended to stop the newspaper publishing in the runup to the 29 October presidential poll. Usubaliev, who is now 81,is not eligible to contend the poll, as the upper age limit for candidates is 65.LF[11] CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY DELEGATION DISCUSSES COOPERATION WITH TAJIKISTANTajikistan's President Imomali Rakhmonov met in Dushanbe on 29 August with a visiting delegation of the Chinese Communist Party headed by Minister for Party Affairs Dai Bingguo, Asia Plus-Blitz reported. Topics of discussion included bilateral relations and expanding political, economic and military cooperation and regional security within the framework of agreements signed by the "Shanghai Five." Rakhmonov appealed to Beijing to use China's status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council to urge that body to intensify its efforts to end the civil war in Afghanistan. LF[12] BORDER CLASHES CONTINUE IN KYRGYZSTANFurther clashes between Kyrgyz government troops and Islamic militants were reported early on 30 August near the Jyluu-Suu border post in Batken Oblast, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. Two attempts by militants the previous night to break through into Kyrgyz territory were repelled without casualties on the Kyrgyz side. Authorities in Kyrgyzstan's Djalalabad Oblast, which borders on Uzbekistan, continue to intensify patrols along the border. Meanwhile, Tajikistan has sent additional troops to man its borders with Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, ITAR-TASS reported on 30 August, citing sources within one of the Tajik power ministries. LF[13] UZBEK PRESIDENT SAYS RUSSIAN AID NOT NECESSARYAddressing the Uzbek parliament in Tashkent on 30 August, Islam Karimov said that Uzbek troops on 28 August killed eight members of the banned Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), Reuters reported. "I can say with confidence that within two or three days the entire group of bandits will be wiped out," he added. Last week Karimov had warned that the campaign against the militants would be both difficult and protracted (see "RFE/RL Newsline,"23 August 2000). Karimov again denied that he has asked Moscow for any assistance in combating the guerrillas. He said that if he had considered such help was needed, he would have raised the subject with Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Ivanov during the Bishkek meeting of Central Asian presidents on 20 August. Karimov also appealed for greater cooperation from Tajikistan in combating the IMU militants, according to Interfax. An Interfax commentator on 30 August cited unnamed military experts as noting "good teamwork" between Kyrgyz and Uzbek government forces fighting the militants. LF[14] TURKMEN ENVOY SEEKS TO MEDIATE IN AFGHAN CONFLICTTurkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov's special envoy Boris Shikhmuradov arrived in Islamabad on 30 August from Kabul for talks on the prospects for ending the war in Afghanistan, Reuters and AP reported. Shikhmuradov said that during talks on 28 August with Taliban representatives, the latter had shown readiness to begin unconditional peace talks. He added that Taliban leader Mullah Omar had ordered the release of 85 prisoners "as a gesture of good will." "There is a very good chance to stop bloodshed in Afghanistan" he predicted, explaining that his optimism is based on the readiness of neighboring countries to develop cooperation with the Taliban, whom they consider "a strong political reality." Shikhmuradov said the leadership of Iran, which he visited prior to arriving in Kabul, expressed support for his peace mission. As Turkmen foreign minister, Shikhmuradov visited Pakistan last year in the hope of mediating a solution to the Afghan conflict (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 27 January 1999). LF[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[15] SLOVENIA MARKS TEN YEARS OF DIPLOMATIC ACTIVITYLojze Socan, who was Slovenia's first unofficial diplomat in Brussels in 1990, told a press conference in Ljubljana on 29 August that his country can look back on 10 years of successful diplomatic activity. He noted that there is a broad consensus in Slovenian society on the most important foreign policy issues, "Delo" reported. PM[16] AUSTRO-SLOVENIAN RELATIONS PROBLEMATIC?Foreign Minister Lojze Peterle declined to comment at the 29 August Ljubljana press conference on the current state of Austro-Slovenian relations, "Delo" reported. He was asked about recent remarks by Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner regarding the current legal status of Yugoslavia's World War II-era Avnoj decrees, whichled to the loss of property by and deportation of ethnic Germans from Slovenia. He noted that the Czech authorities have not responded to similar remarks by Ferrero- Waldner on the Benes decrees, which had a similar effect on Czechoslovakia's large German population. Peterle said that he will comment on relations with Vienna at the end of the week, after he returns from an international conference in Alpbach, Austria. Elsewhere, Prime Minister Andrej Bajuk wrote President Milan Kucan that any problems arising from the Avnoj decrees are a bilateral issue between Ljubljana and Vienna and will not affect Slovenia's application for EU membership, "Dnevnik" reported. PM[17] SLOVENIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS HE HAS RIVALPeterle also told the press conference in Ljubljana on 29 August that he is "surprised" by Kucan's recent refusal to approve the recall of five ambassadors abroad, "Delo" reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 August 2000). Peterle stressed that the diplomats' mandates had expired and that they were overdue for replacement by the ministry. He joked that it seems that Slovenia has more than one foreign minister. This was a reference to the fact that the constitution assigns the president only limited powers. PM[18] SLOVENIAN PARTIES GIRD UP FOR ELECTIONSIn the runup to the 15 October parliamentary elections, political parties are already mapping out their electoral strategies and planning their conventions, "Dnevnik" reported on 31 August. The conservative Social Democrats will make it clear in their electoral program that they have no intention--as had been rumored--of boycotting the poll. The will also stress that they donot rule out any other party as a potential coalition partner. For their part, the Liberal Democrats will increase the number of women candidates in an effort to win women's votes. PM[19] CROATIAN POLICE 'MISLAID' BOMB VICTIM'S CALL FOR PROTECTIONThe Interior Ministry said in a statement in Zagreb on 30 August that recent bomb victim Milan Levar's request for police protection was "mislaid, " Reuters reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 30 August 2000). Some 60 persons are now under police investigation in the murder case, "Jutarnji list" reported. Levar had twice declined the Hague-based war crime tribunal's offer of "protective measures" abroad because he wanted to stay in Croatia. In The Hague, Deputy Prosecutor Graham Blewitt told AP that he fears that Levar's murder will have a deterrent effect on other individuals who are willing to tell the tribunal what they know about war crimes committed by their own side. Levar was such an individual. PM[20] SERBIAN ELECTIONS TO TAKE PLACE IN KOSOVA?Gorica Gajevic, who is the general secretary of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist Party, said in Gracanica on 30 August that "we will have federal and presidential elections in the Kosovo Serb enclaves, wherever it is possible," AP reported. She added that she expects some 500 polling places to be set up in the province for the 24 September vote. In Prishtina, Bernard Kouchner, who heads the UN's civilian administration, said he has received no formal request from Belgrade to organize the vote in Kosova. Kouchner stressed that any elections will have to be held throughout the provinces and not just in Serbian enclaves. PM[21] A ROLE FOR KOSOVA IN MILOSEVIC'S ELECTION CAMPAIGNLondon's "Guardian" reported on 31 August that the Belgrade regime will seek to use the vote in Kosova for propaganda purposes. The ballots from Kosova will also be a "fertile area for voting fraud," the daily added. The regime will soon hold military exercises of a "Kosova unit" based in southern Serbia and perhaps claim that it is "returning to the province." Serbian forces left Kosova in June 1999. PM[22] SERBIAN OPPOSITION PLEDGES UPBEAT CAMPAIGNZoran Djindjic, who is campaign coordinator for the united opposition, told a news conference in Pozarevac on 30 August that presidential candidate Vojislav Kostunica and his supporters "will visit the 50 largest cities in Serbia in 12 days. Our aim is to create a positive atmosphere and encourage the people," Reuters reported. Kostunica himself said that he "expects to win because of the general mood in Serbia.... The prevailing feeling is that we're in need of change." PM[23] SERBIAN MEDIA FINDING 'REASON' FOR STAMBOLIC'S DISAPPEARANCEArticles appeared recently in two leading regime dailies suggesting that former Serbian President Ivan Stambolic's recent disappearance might be linked to his alleged business interests in the Republika Srpska and in Montenegro, "Danas" reported on 31 August (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 30 August 2000). PM[24] DIRECTOR OF SERBIAN NEWS AGENCY DIESDusan Djordjevic, who was the director of Tanjug and a prominent official in Milosevic's Socialist Party, died on 30 August after what Tanjug described as a long battle with an incurable disease. PM[25] DOLE BACKS MONTENEGRIN BOYCOTT OF YUGOSLAV VOTEFormer U.S. Senator Bob Dole told Montenegrin Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic in Dubrovnik on 30 August that he agrees with the Montenegrin government's decision to boycott the 24 September elections. Dole stressed that participation in the vote would serve only to legitimize Milosevic's rule (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 4 August 2000). PM[26] NEW YUGOSLAV POLICY ON BOSNIAN CARSBeginning 30 August, drivers of cars from the Republika Srpska no longer have to pay a special duty on their cars when they cross into Yugoslavia, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. Drivers of cars from the mainly Muslim and Croatian federation must still pay that duty. PM[27] ANGRY INVESTORS CONTINUE PROTESTSAngry investors in the private National Investment Fund (FNI), which collapsed in May, protested in Bucharest on 30 August, Romanian media reported. The new protests were prompted by a hearing involving the FNI and the state-owned CEC bank over the validity of a contract under which CEC should have guaranteed investments. Some 1,000 people took part in the protest and shouted slogans containing physical threats against Prime Minister Mugur Isarescu and Finance Minister Decebal Traian Remes. The fund has assets worth some 3 trillion lei ($150 million) and approximately 300, 000 investors. The parliament has set up a special committee to investigate the case. ZsM[28] ROMANIAN LIBERALS PROPOSE NON-AGGRESSION PACTNational Liberal Party (PNL) First Deputy Chairman Valeriu Stoica has proposed to the party's allies in the government coalition that they conclude an electoral non-aggression pact, Romanian media reported on 30 August. Stoica said during a press conference that economic reform and the country's EU and NATO integration process should continue. He added that coalition members should "identify the real political adversary," which, he said,is the main opposition Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR). He denied accusations that the PNL and PDSR have a secret agreement, adding that two other coalition members, the Democrat Party and the National Peasant Party Christian Democratic (PNTCD), are "much closer" to the PDSR. PNTCD Secretary-General Remus Opris, meanwhile, announced that his party has accepted the PNL offer to conclude a non- aggression pact. In other news, Stoica said the PNL considers the issue of dissident top PNL members, including Finance Minister Remes, to be over. ZsM[29] ROMANIAN, HUNGARIAN CHIEFS OF STAFF DISCUSS BILATERAL COOPERATIONAt a 30 August meeting in the western Romanian city of Oradea, Romanian Chief of Staff Mircea Chelaru and his Hungarian counterpart, Lajos Fodor, announced their intention to set up a Hungarian-Slovak-Ukrainian-Romanian mixed logistics battalion, "Ziua" reported. The idea of such a battalion came from the Hungarian side in the aftermath ofthe environmental disaster caused bythe cyanide spill into the Tisza River last January. Fodor said that the setting up of the battalion depends on political factors in the four countries involved. And in an effort to increase bilateral cooperation, the generals announced that officers from the Hungarian and Romanian armies will spend their vacations together. ZsM[30] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT TRYING TO DRUM UP BUSINESS IN GERMANYPetru Lucinschi said in Hanover on 30 August that Moldova will join the World Trade Organization by the end of this year, Infotag reported. Lucinschi, who is in Hanover for the World Expo 2000, said Moldova urgently needs foreign investment to improve its economy. He met with local government officials in Hamburg before travelling to Hanover. Lucinschi said Moldtelecom, the country's phone company, will be privatized next year. In other news, the Japanese government approved sending some 380 million yen (about $3.5 million) to help aid agricultural development in Moldova, ITAR-TASS reported on 31 August. The Japanese Foreign Ministry said the aid was requested by the Moldovan government and will be used to buy farm machinery in an effort to increase the yields of several crops. PB[31] BULGARIAN SAYS COUNTRY NEEDS MORE FOREIGN INVESTMENTPetar Stoyanov said on 30 August that Bulgaria must do more to attract U.S. investors, AP reported. Stoyanov, speaking in Sofia before flying to the U.S. for the UN Millennium Summit, said "we should be explaining the situation [in Bulgaria] all the time because there are good conditions for foreign investment." Foreign investment in Bulgaria totals only the equivalent of about $2.5 billion since 1992. By comparison, Hungary, which has nearly the same population as Bulgaria, has received some $17 billion in foreign investment over the same period, AP reported. PB[C] END NOTE[32] THE PASSING OF THE REVOLUTIONARY GENERATIONby Paul GobleThe death of former Azerbaijani President Abulfaz Elchibey removes from the political stage a distinguished representative of those popular revolutionaries who captured the imagination of the world at the end of the Soviet period. Elchibey, who died of cancer at the age of 62 in an Ankara hospital, had a remarkable political career, one few would have predicted as recently as two decades ago. Jailed by Soviet officials in the 1970s for his political activities, he helped to found the Azerbaijani Popular Front and lived to see his country become independent. During his brief time in office, Elchibey succeeded in getting Russian troops to leave Azerbaijan, establishing a national army, and introducing a Latin-based, rather than Cyrillic-based, alphabet. And he reoriented his country toward Turkey,the West, and democracy and away from dictatorship. But Azerbaijani military failures in the war with Armenia over Nagorno- Karabakh and his own loss of control of the situation contributed to instability in Baku, ultimately sparking a military revolt against him. To spare his fellow Azerbaijanis further bloodshed, Elchibey decided to hand over power to Heidar Aliev, who had been Azerbaijan's Communist Party chief from 1969-1982. After leaving office, Elchibey spent four years in a kind of internal exile in his native village in Nakhichevan, the non-contiguous portion of Azerbaijan--a move on his part that drew much criticism. In 1997, he returned to Baku and resumed a more active political role as head of the Azerbaijani Peoples Front during the last years of his life. In many respects, Elchibey did not achieve his own political goals or match the expectations of his followers. But the outpouring of respect on the occasion of his death from both the current Azerbaijani government, which gave him a state funeral, and thousands of followers showed how much of an impact Elchibey had had on his people and his country. One of the mourners spoke for many when he said that, "Elchibey was the only politician who had a conscience bigger than his ambition." Another said that "he was the one politician that I really believed in, really trusted. He had the type of integrity that few other politicians have today." Beyond these biographical specifics, Elchibey was very much part of the group that played a significant role in the 1980s and early 1990s but now appears to be departing from the scene. These were the dissident outsiders who attacked the edifice of the Soviet state in the name of democracy and freedom but who often found themselves unable to manage the results of the revolution they had begun. Like Elchibey, these charismatic leaders in many of the other former Soviet republics and Baltic states inspired enormous affection and respect both in their countries and abroad. They were democrats unsullied by the Soviet past, but at the same time, they often lacked the kind of political skills necessary to manage the successful revolutions that they themselves had promoted. Andthey often have failed to deliver what they had so clearly promised. Sometimes, this was the result of personal failings and sometimesbecause of the absence of the necessary support domestically and from abroad. But regardless of the cause, many of them have yielded their positions to members ofSoviet-era elites who have the political skills, if not always the democratic convictions, apparently required to managepost-Soviet regimes. Consequently, the mourning over Elchibey represents more than sadness over the loss of one remarkable individual. It also reflects a growing awareness by many in both the former Soviet republics and the West that those who made the revolution in 1991 are passing from the scene and that they are being succeeded not by their own democratic progeny but by members and offspring of the ancien regime. 31-08-00 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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