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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 5, No. 66, 01-04-04Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 5, No. 66, 4 April 2001CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] POWELL CALLS FOR ARMENIAN, AZERBAIJANI COMPROMISEU.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in Key West on 3 April called on visiting Armenian President Robert Kocharian and Azerbaijani President Heidar Aliev to make "a mutual compromise" in order to settle their dispute over Karabakh, Western agencies reported. Powell added that Washington is "committed to facilitating a mutually acceptable settlement" of the conflict. The two presidents have met 16 times previously without reaching an accord, and Powell suggested that the talks in Florida represent "just one step on a long road." PG[02] ARMENIA MAKES OVER 3,000 REFUGEES CITIZENS IN FIRST 2 MONTHS OF 2001The Armenian representation at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees told the Snark news agency on 2 April that Yerevan granted 3,027 Armenian refugees from Azerbaijan citizenship during the first two months of 2001. PG[03] RUSSIAN OFFICIAL TO MEET CHECHENS IN AZERBAIJANIgor Zadvornov, a representative of the Russian ministry for federation affairs, nationality and migration policy, arrived in Baku on 3 April to meet with Azerbaijani officials and also with representatives of the Chechen diaspora there, the Trend news agency reported. PG[04] AZERBAIJANI POLICE BEAT UP REPORTERAzerbaijani police beat up Idrak Abbasov, a journalist with the "Impuls" newspaper, when he tried to photograph the police trying to shut down a news kiosk, the Turan news agency reported. Both the newspaper and the kiosk operator protested the action, the news agency said, but police officials told Turan that nothing of the sort had in fact happened. PG[05] ROGOZIN SAYS GEORGIA 'NOT READY' TO COOPERATE WITH RUSSIASpeaking in Yerevan, Dmitrii Rogozin, chairman of the Russian Duma's Foreign Affairs Committee, said Georgia is not ready to cooperate with Moscow in combating terrorism either in Chechnya or more generally, Caucasus Press reported on 3 April. "Georgians say they do not want to interfere in the Chechen conflict," Rogozin said, "but this way they stimulate and encourage it." Rogozin said Georgia's efforts to promote integration with NATO are "very short-sighted." PG[06] GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT COMMITTEE AGAINST LEAVING CISThe Defense and Security Committee of the Georgian parliament on 3 April refused to support a motion calling for Georgia to withdraw from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Iprinda news agency reported. Leaving the CIS, committee Chairman Giorgi Baramidze said, would merely give Moscow politicians a pretext to declare Georgia an enemy. PG[07] GEORGIA NO LONGER AMONG MOST CORRUPT COUNTRIESCaucasus Press reported on 3 April that Georgia is no longer included in the World Bank's list of the five most corrupt post-Soviet states. Last year, it was No. 3 on that list, but this year, the top five consists of Azerbaijan, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, and Latvia, the news agency said. Meanwhile, officials said the new anticorruption council should serve as a recruiting ground for future senior officials, Prime-News reported on 3 April. PG[08] GEORGIA TO INCREASE PATROLS IN PANKISI GORGEGeorgian internal troops will increase their patrols in the Pankisi gorge near the border with Chechnya as the weather warms and makes it easier for Chechens to pass into that area, Kavkazia-Press reported on 3 April. Meanwhile, Georgian officials denied Russian reports that their country is a transit zone for Chechen militants and that Wahhabism has taken root in the Pankisi gorge area, Caucasus Press and Prime News reported on the same day. PG[09] CENTRAL ASIAN OPPOSITION ANNOUNCES COORDINATING GROUPMembers of opposition groups from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan announced on 3 April in Almaty that they set up in London last month a Forum of Democratic Forces of Central Asia, Interfax-Central Asia reported. The group includes both collective and individual members, and seeks to consolidate and coordinate the work of opposition political parties across the region. It will also seek to represent these groups at meetings with Western governments. PG[10] KAZAKHSTAN'S NAZARBAEV APPROVES CAPITAL FLIGHT AMNESTYPresident Nursultan Nazarbaev on 3 April signed into law a measure that will at some point this year allow those who have exported capital to avoid taxes, or as part of financial machinations to repatriate the money during a 20-day window without penalty, Interfax-Kazakhstan reported. Those charged with major criminal offenses will not be allowed to take part in the amnesty, according to the law. PG[11] KAZAKH PREMIER UPSET BY ATTITUDE OF WESTERN FIRMSPrime Minister Kasymzhomart Tokaev said on 3 April that Astana will not tolerate "disrespectful" approaches by Western firms toward Kazakh workers, Interfax-Central Asia reported. Tokaev noted that a recent protest by 5,000 Kazakh workers against managerial attitudes at a Greek-Italian joint venture was the first time in many years that Kazakh workers had reacted to such attitudes, adding that the protesting workers had the government's full support. PG[12] KAZAKH TUBERCULOSIS DEATHS RISEFour thousand people in Kazakhstan died from tuberculosis during 2000, 8 percent more than the year before, Information-Blitz reported on 3 April. Currently, there are an estimated 58,000 TB patients in that country, with every tenth prisoner suffering from the disease, local medical officials said. PG[13] LENIN TAKEN DOWN AT NIGHT IN KAZAKH CITYOfficials in Aktau removed a 15-meter-tall statue of Vladimir Lenin on the night of 2-3 April, Interfax-Central Asia reported on 3 April. City officials had decided to remove Lenin's likeness last summer, but protests by local communists and veterans delayed the removal of the statue. The officials said they acted at night to avoid any further protests. PG[14] TURKEY TO HELP KYRGYZSTAN FIGHT TERRORISM...Umer Izgi, speaker of the Turkish parliament, told Kyrgyz deputies on 3 April that Ankara is prepared to help Kyrgyzstan combat international terrorism and to resolve its debts to Turkey, Interfax-Central Asia reported. The parliament then went into closed session to discuss what security officials there said were invasion threats by Islamist groups from Tajikistan. PG[15] ...BUT TAJIKISTAN REJECTS KYRGYZ CHARGESAmirqul Azimov, secretary of Tajikistan's Security Council, told Information Blitz on 3 April that Kyrgyz charges that Tajikistan has become a staging area for terrorists are simply wrong (see RFE/RL Newsline," 2 April 2001). He said such baseless accusations are intended to "stir up an information war against Tajikistan," rather than to help both countries fight terrorism. PG[16] TAJIKISTAN POLICE UNCOVER UNDERGROUND COKE PLANTOfficers of the Dushanbe tax police have uncovered an underground soft- drinks factory and arrested the owners for failing to pay taxes on their production, Asia-Plus agency reported on 3 April. In addition to producing imitation Coca-Cola, the factory was also producing counterfeit Pepsi, Fanta, and other international brands. PG[17] TURKMENISTAN ENDS CONTRACT MILITARY SERVICEPresident Saparmurat Niyazov announced that Turkmenistan's security agencies will no longer use contract workers in the uniformed services, Information Blitz reported on 3 April. Officials said contract servicemen are abusing their access to food and other goods. PG[18] TURKMENISTAN, IRAN SEEK CLOSER TIESPresident Niyazov received visiting Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Ahani to discuss Caspian Sea issues and broader cooperation between their two countries, IRNA reported on 3 April. PG[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[19] BRITAIN'S COOK: TWO TRIALS POSSIBLE FOR SERBIA'S MILOSEVICBritish Foreign Secretary Robin Cook told the BBC on 4 April that former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic may first stand trial in Serbia, provided he is then transferred to The Hague. Cook said that "justice will not be complete until Mr. Milosevic stands trial in The Hague for his crimes, not just against the people of Serbia, but also his atrocities against neighbors in Bosnia and Kosovo. I think the trial of Milosevic for his crimes against the Serbian people could be very educational for the Serbian people. They are entitled to know the extent to which he looted their economy. They are entitled to know that he wasn't a great Serb nationalist, [and that] he was an enemy of the Serb people." The foreign minister added that the more the Serbs know about Milosevic, "the more confident I am that they will agree to hand him over for trial for crimes against the other peoples of the former Yugoslavia." PM[20] HAGUE COURT INSISTS ON IMMEDIATE EXTRADITIONDropping their patient tone of recent days, several Hague tribunal officials are now stressing that Milosevic must be extradited immediately, Reuters reported from the court on 4 April. Jean-Jacques Joris, who is a political adviser to the chief prosecutor, told reporters that the demand for Milosevic's "transfer is the result of a non-negotiable obligation and it must happen immediately." Stephane Bourgon of the tribunal president's office added that the "Serbian investigations can go on while Mr. Milosevic is here" and are not grounds for delaying the ex-dictator's departure for Holland. PM[21] EU'S SOLANA: NO PRESSURE ON SERBIA TO EXTRADITE MILOSEVICEU security chief Javier Solana told reporters in Athens on 3 April that the Yugoslav leadership is "doing a very good job in running the country and we are not going to put any pressure on them to do anything. They know what they have to do, and they are going to do it," AP reported. The "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" wrote, however, that Serbia needs to make a clean break with Milosevic and its nationalist political culture as soon as possible if it is to become a democratic, modern European country. Experiences of other former communist countries suggest that the longer necessary changes are postponed, the more difficult the process will be, the daily added. The paper also warned the international community against being more lenient in its treatment of Serbia than it has been toward neighboring countries. PM[22] YUGOSLAVIA'S KOSTUNICA: NATO LEADERS TO THE HAGUEYugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica told reporters in Belgrade on 3 April that Milosevic's extradition to The Hague-based war crimes tribunal is not "on my mind" because of the other problems he has to deal with, AP reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 3 April 2001). "The Hague is not at this moment in our thoughts, especially at this point it is not in my thoughts," he said. He repeated his long-standing view -- which is also that of the Milosevic regime -- that the tribunal is anti-Serb and that it should rather indict and try "even the leaders of NATO" countries for their role in the 1999 bombing of Serbia. "If that would come about, we could start thinking about the validity of cooperation with The Hague tribunal," he added. PM[23] KOSTUNICA BLAMES FOREIGNERS FOR BALKAN PROBLEMSThe Yugoslav president told journalists in Belgrade on 3 April that the Balkan countries have democratic governments that are capable of solving their own problems. "We have a democratic regime in Belgrade. We've got one in Tirana. We've got one in Skopje. We have democratic forces who have won in local elections last October in Kosovo. This is a great democratic potential. There is just one stumbling block: the international community and its organizations and institutions -- KFOR, UNMIK, other international organizations. We have them all, but despite all of that, there is what is undoubtedly a minority, an extremist, militant minority. Those are the ones who have resorted to arms in Macedonia and southern Serbia, for whom human lives in Kosovo have no value." It is not clear whether he accepts that the "democratic regime" in Tirana and the "democratic forces" in Kosova do not trust Serbia and want a NATO presence in the Balkans for the long haul. PM[24] YUGOSLAV PRESIDENT: BORDERS CANNOT BE CHANGEDKostunica told reporters in Belgrade on 3 April that "the departure of Montenegro from Yugoslavia, or more precisely put, Montenegro's secession, would mean nothing else but the death of the well-known [1975] Helsinki principles of the inviolability of state borders. This would open up the way for [border] changes which would further destabilize an already unstable region," RFE/RL reported. He added that "the borders of this extraordinarily sensitive region, the Balkans, must be kept strong, inviolable and within the framework of clearly defined, inviolate borders, democratic institutions should be strengthened and the rule of law affirmed, the rights of minorities respected. That's the best way to avoid what burdened this region in the past 10 years and in the past century." Observers note that his remarks are likely to please many in the international community but will be regarded in Kosova and Montenegro as an attempt to prejudge final political settlements there. PM[25] BOSNIA, CROATIA HAIL MILOSEVIC ADMISSION OF WAR ROLEThe Bosnian Foreign Ministry said in a statement in Sarajevo on 3 April that Milosevic's admission that he funded Serbian rebels in Bosnia and Croatia will help Bosnia in its lawsuit against Serbia in The Hague-based International Court of Justice, Reuters reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 3 April 2001). The statement added: "This confession will in particular lift the burden from future relations between Bosnia...and...Yugoslavia and make irrelevant debates within international organizations and judicial institutions about Milosevic's involvement in the Bosnian bloodshed. His confession now and for [good] makes many issues indisputable in a legal, political, and moral sense." Several Croatian legal experts also said that Milosevic's admission will help their country in its legal battles against Belgrade, "Republika" reported. PM[26] MILUTINOVIC QUITS SERBIAN PARTY OFFICESSerbian President Milan Milutinovic, who is an indicted war criminal, resigned from his posts as vice president and as a member of the governing body of Milosevic's Serbian Socialist Party, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported from Belgrade on 3 April. "Vesti" reported that Milutinovic's signature was one of several on the arrest warrant for Milosevic on 30 March. PM[27] REGIONAL PEACEKEEPERS FOR MACEDONIA?Officials representing some of the seven members of the Multinational Peace Force South-Eastern Europe (MPFSEE), or South-Eastern Europe Brigade (SEEBRIG), told Reuters in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, on 4 April that the group will patrol the Kosova-Macedonian border if asked to do so. Turkish Brigadier General Hilmi Akin Zorlu said: "If we are ordered by the seven nations, members of the Multinational Peace Force, we are prepared to deploy peacekeeping troops along the Macedonia-Kosovo border to enforce patrols." The 4,000-strong force was set up in 1999 and has not yet been used. It includes Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Macedonia, Romania, and Turkey. PM[28] ROLE FOR GUERRILLAS IN MACEDONIAN TALKS?NATO Secretary-General Lord George Robertson said in Skopje on 3 April that the Atlantic alliance will step up its efforts to disarm paramilitaries in southern Kosova and prevent their infiltration into Macedonia, Hina reported. He added that it is now imperative to speed up the process of political dialogue in order to deny "extremists" any domestic power base. Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski stressed that he will not negotiate "with anybody but legitimate political parties," Reuters reported. The opposition ethnic Albanian Party for Democratic Prosperity (PPD) has called for including the guerrillas in the talks, since the fighters are the reason that the negotiations are taking place at all (see "RFE/RL Newsline, " 3 April 2001). The PPD boycotted the latest talks, calling them poorly prepared and without anything new on the agenda. The governing Democratic Party of the Albanians (PDSH) charged that the PPD is using the crisis "to score political points" and win a place in the government. PM[29] COUNCIL OF EUROPE WARNS OF DISCRIMINATION IN MACEDONIAThe council's antiracism commission said in a report released in Strasbourg on 3 April that Macedonia "is still a society in which the issues of discrimination and intolerance are not adequately recognized and confronted, " AP reported. The study also noted that there is little concrete evidence available on discrimination and racism in Macedonia. The report stressed that "police abuse and violence" continues to be a problem "that disproportionately affects members of minority groups, particularly Albanians and Roma-Gypsies." The study also noted the prevalence of "hate- speech" in much of the Macedonian media. (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report" 27 March 2001). PM[30] OSCE'S EVERTS SLAMS DISCRIMINATION IN KOSOVADaan Everts, who heads the OSCE's mission in Kosova, said in Prishtina on 3 April that the situation of minorities there is "unacceptable" and must be improved, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM[31] MAJOR TRIAL OPENS IN ALBANIAN CAPITALThe trial of five men suspected of involvement in the killing of opposition politician Azem Hajdari opened in Tirana on 3 April, dpa reported (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 20 March 2001). Two of the five are being tried in their absence and are believed to have fled to Kosova. Five additional suspects have been killed in revenge attacks. The opposition said that the leaders of the governing Socialist Party itself belong in the dock as well. PM[32] HERZEGOVINIAN POLICE BACK HARD-LINERSDragan Mandic, who is interior minister in the Herzegovinian Neretva county, and 19 other ethnic Croatian police officials said in a statement in Mostar on 3 April that they support the "Croatian self-administration" announced recently by Ante Jelavic and his Croatian Democratic Community (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 and 14 March 2001). The police said that the Bosnian federal government is Muslim-dominated and "illegitimate," RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. UN police spokesman Douglas Coffman said that UN officials are reviewing possible steps against the 20 police officials. Measures could include permanent loss of their jobs as police, AP reported. PM[33] TITO-ERA MASS GRAVE FOUND IN CROATIAForensic experts are investigating a mass grave found on a construction site in Sibinj in eastern Croatia, Reuters reported on 3 April. The remains of some 30 World War II German soldiers have been recovered so far, and an additional 130 skeletons may be buried there as well, a local community leader said. The remains of the soldiers from the spring 1945 Srijem Front often showed signs of a violent death by beating or assault. Some victims were bound with wire. Mass graves of Axis soldiers or domestic political enemies of the communists have come to light from time to time in Slovenia and Croatia since the fall of communism. Local people generally knew of the sites, but were forced to maintain secrecy while the communists were in power. PM[34] SLOVENIAN MINISTER SLAMS EU ADMISSION DELAYSSlovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said in Ljubljana on 3 April that "the slowness in the EU's enlargement is causing frustration among would-be member [states] and their people," AP reported. He noted that he and his visiting Finnish counterpart, Erkki Tuomioja, had "different estimates" as to when the EU might accept new members. Rupel said that Slovenia hopes to join the EU in 2003, but Tuomioja said that 2005 might be more realistic. PM[35] ROMANIAN PRIVATIZATION MINISTER MEDIATES RESITA CONFLICTPrivatization Minister Ovidiu Musatescu on 4 April began in Resita what he calls a "mediation attempt" between union leaders and representatives of the U.S.-based Nobel Ventures company, which owns the Resita CSR steelmaker. Some 2,000 protesting workers on 3 April agreed to evacuate a major highway that they had blocked after Musatescu promised to come to Resita accompanied by the owners' representatives. He also said the workers "are right" in accusing the company of failing to respect its contractual obligations under the privatization deal, but added that "conflicts are not solved on the street " (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 3 April 2001). MS[36] CLUJ MAYOR TO MAKE 'HISTORIC VISIT'Extreme nationalist Cluj Mayor Gheorghe Funar has accepted an invitation of Gyula Mayor Laszlo Dancs to visit the Hungarian town, Mediafax reported on 3 April, citing Dancs. The Hungarian mayor invited Funar to witness first- hand the situation of the Romanian ethnic minority in Gyula, after Funar, who is also secretary-general of the Greater Romania Party, said that the law granting members of the Hungarian minority the right to education in their native tongue should have been postponed until ethnic Romanians in Gyula schools can study in their own language and "freely talk in Romanian on Hungarian streets." MS[37] ROMANIAN ROYAL FAMILY CONFLICT MAKES HEADLINESThe press office of former King Michael I, in a statement released on 3 April, said "any public or private usage of the title Prince or Royal Highness when making reference to Mircea Grigore Lambrino and his descendants is an abuse and will always meet with the Royal House's disapproval," Mediafax reported. Mircea Horia Lambrino has asked the Supreme Court of Justice to recognize him as eligible to a share of the royal family's property. Lambrino is the great-grandson of King Carol II, Michael's father, whose marriage to Zizi Lambrino in 1918 was declared invalid by the Royal House. The former monarch will visit Romania next month and will be received by President Ion Iliescu. MS[38] PCM SAYS TRANSDNIESTER SOLUTION NECESSITATES CHANGING TIRASPOL LEADERSHIPThe Party of Moldovan Communists (PCM) believes that a solution to the Transdniester conflict will arise "when not only the leadership in Chisinau, but also that in Tiraspol has changed," Victor Stepaniuc, PCM parliamentary group leader said on 3 April. He said that the February 2001 elections had ousted in Chisinau "those guilty for the 1992 war" and it is now the turn of those who carry the same guilt in Tiraspol "to go into history," RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau reported. Russia, he said, has "finally understood that the Tiraspol regime is illegal" and that Moscow must choose between "Moldova's sovereignty and Transdniester's independence." "It seems that Russia will opt for the former and Tiraspol will have to act accordingly," he said. MS[39] HUMAN FLESH SOLD ON MOLDOVA MARKETOfficials in Chisinau on 3 April said two people had been arrested on suspicion of having attempted to sell human remains from a hospital as dog meat, RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau reported. Two beggars were detained late last week at a market with two bags of "suspicious meat," which tests later proved to be human remains. Police believe the remains had been dumped in a municipal litter bin near a hospital that specializes in the treatment of cancer. The hospital "suspended" on suspicion of "negligence" one of its employees. MS[40] BULGARIA TO ALLOW DEPLOYMENT OF U.S. PLANES?Bulgaria and the U.S. are discussing the possible deployment of unmanned U.S. reconnaissance planes at some Bulgarian military airports, Reuters reported on 3 April. Defense Minister Boiko Noev said he "can confirm that we are working with colleagues from the Pentagon on this issue." He said the stationing of the aircraft in Bulgaria "is dictated mostly by the situation to the west of Bulgaria" and that "U.S. military is [already] supplying intelligence information from these aircraft to the Macedonian military for their operations against terrorists" from logistics bases of KFOR peacekeeping forces in Macedonia itself. Noev said it was not immediately clear if the agreement would be part of the memorandum with NATO, due to be ratified by the parliament this week and which would allow peacekeeping troops to cross into Bulgaria in the event of a crisis. MS[41] BULGARIA, GREECE OPPOSE CHANGING BALKAN BORDERSBulgarian Premier Ivan Kostov and his Greek counterpart Kostas Simitis on 3 April agreed that ethnic Albanian insurgents in Macedonia must not be allowed to pursue the formation of a Greater Albania and that the region's borders must not change, AP reported. Meeting in Thessaloniki, Greece, the two premiers discussed the possibility of deploying units of the nascent Multinational Peace Force for Southeastern Europe along the border between Macedonia and Kosova, if the UN provides a mandate for such action. The force was established in 1999 and has its headquarters in Plodviv, Bulgaria. It includes soldiers from Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, and Romania along with NATO members Greece, Italy, and Turkey. MS[42] ETHNIC TURKISH PARTY FEARS FORGERY IN BULGARIAN ELECTIONSAhmed Dogan, leader of the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedom told President Petar Stoyanov on 3 April that the OSCE and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe should be invited to monitor the parliamentary elections scheduled for 17 June. Dogan said his formation suspects possible electoral forgery by the ruling Union of Democratic Forces. Parliamentary Speaker Yordan Sokolov has already rejected the proposal to invite foreign observers, the English-language daily "Monitor" reported. Stoyanov is consulting representatives of the parliamentary formations ahead of the elections. MS[C] END NOTE[43] FACING THE FACTS IN CHECHNYABy Paul GobleA senior Russian Duma deputy argues that Moscow can achieve its ends in Chechnya not through a counterterrorist action alone, but only if it ends human rights abuses there and succeeds in persuading the Chechens that they will be better off as part of Russia. In an article published in Moscow's "Nezavisimaya gazeta" on 3 April, Konstantin Kosachev, the deputy chairman of the Duma Foreign Affairs Committee and the deputy leader of the Fatherland-All Russia faction, argued that Moscow has been making a fundamental mistake in how it addresses Chechnya and must change course before it is too late. According to Kosachev, who recently visited the North Caucasus, Moscow has had two choices throughout the 1990s as to how to respond to those Chechens who seek independence. It could seek to "physically destroy" Chechen leaders who want independence, or it could persuade people there that "it is better for Chechnya to remain part of Russia than to strive for independence." Unfortunately, Kosachev continues, Moscow has at each point "preferred to send in the troops," adding that "this method failed us in 1995 and 1996, and God forbid it should fail us again now." He suggests further that "glowing reports about the military and its triumphant march across Chechnya are just wishful thinking." Consequently, he argues, the Russian government must re-examine its approach. To do so, Kosachev said, requires that Moscow recognize that "the people of Chechnya have serious grievances against federal troops." And the Russian government must also recognize that the "lack of central command and coordinated effort as well as lack of personal accountability have affected the effectiveness of the regular army in Chechnya." But even putting the security services in charge has done little to improve the situation because officials there are rotated so often that they do not develop the contacts and expertise needed to do their jobs. And as a result, Kosachev continues, "the counter-terrorist operation in its present form is pointless." Many people, including Union of Rightist Forces leader Boris Nemtsov, are advocating new tactics, Kosachev said, but all of their plans have the same basic flaw. That is, they are designed to be "forced on the people of Chechnya" by Moscow, rather than being the expression of what the Chechens themselves want. He further said that Moscow can only count on the Chechens wanting to remain inside Russia if Moscow changes its approach. To win over the hearts and minds of the Chechens, Kosachev argues, Moscow must devote more attention to what he called "the process of post-war restoration," centralizing Russian control over aid distribution and providing dramatically more assistance to the Chechen people. The Chechen people, he said, "will start siding with the federal government when it sees that new schools and hospitals are built in place of the destroyed ones, when it sees that all this is not the result of lobbyist efforts but a deliberate choice and a sincere intention on the part of the political leadership in Moscow." Kosachev's analysis flows from both criticism this week by an international human rights group concerning human rights violations by Russian forces and a statement last week by President Vladimir Putin that the Russian reconstruction effort in the North Caucasus is not going well. But it goes significantly beyond both. And as a result, Kosachev's argument is likely to be challenged by some because it appears to rest on three implicit assumptions, all of which are likely to be viewed by many as highly problematic. First, to succeed, Kosachev's proposal requires that Moscow be willing to admit its own past mistakes, to address rather than deny charges of human rights abuses by its own forces, and to provide significantly more assistance to the Chechens with whom it has been locked in a battle for most of the last decade. None of those things now appears to be much in evidence. Second, his proposal can succeed only if sufficient number of Chechens are in fact prepared to accept such a shift in Moscow's approach as genuine. The record of the last decade suggests that even the most war-weary Chechens are likely to be skeptical. And third, his proposal also assumes that those Chechens who have been fighting for their independence over the last decade will be willing to view such a shift as something more than a recognition by Moscow that it has been losing the conflict on the ground. If the Chechens do not do so, they may simply redouble their efforts. If even one of these assumptions proves false, Kosachev's call for a new realism about Chechnya could have just the opposite impact he intends, sparking a wider war rather than bringing that conflict closer to resolution. 04-04-01 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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