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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 5, No. 146, 01-08-03Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 5, No. 146, 3 August 2001CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN NUCLEAR PLANT STAFF AGAIN THREATENS STRIKEIn an open letter sent last week to Armenian President Robert Kocharian, staff members of Armenia's Medzamor power station renewed their threat to stop work at all operational divisions at the plant except the reactor if they are not paid four months' wage arrears by 7 August, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported on 2 August. In June, they had threatened unspecified "drastic steps" unless their back wages were paid, after which Energy Minister Karen Galustian pledged to pay the arrears by 31 July (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 25 and 29 June 2001). One of Galustian's deputies, Ara Simonan, said on 2 August that the government cannot afford to meet that pledge. LF[02] U.S.-BORN ARMENIAN EX-MINISTER ALLEGES DISCRIMINATION OVER CITIZENSHIP DELAYFormer Armenian Foreign Minister Raffi Hovannisian published a statement in the daily "Aravot" on 2 August accusing President Kocharian of deliberately delaying for "political reasons" a response to his request to be granted Armenian citizenship, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Hovannisian, who was born in the U.S., surrendered his U.S. passport in April and has been without a valid travel document since then. Kocharian's spokeswoman Hasmik Petrosian told RFE/RL that a special presidential commission chaired by Justice Minister David Harutiunian approved Hovannisian's application for Armenian citizenship on 25 April. She said the delay in Kocharian's endorsement of that ruling was due to Hovannisian's insistence that his Armenian citizenship be backdated to 1991. In order to contest the Armenian presidential election due in 2003, candidates must have been citizens of the Republic of Armenia for the previous 10 years. LF[03] AZERBAIJANI CUSTOMS INTERCEPT MILITARY EQUIPMENT BOUND FROM GEORGIA TO IRANAzerbaijani customs officials at the Astara border post have intercepted a truckload of radio equipment, spare parts for tanks, and other materiel, Caucasus Press reported on 2 August. The truck was bound from Georgia via Azerbaijan to Iran. On 3 August, Georgian Defense Ministry officials denied any knowledge of or connection with the consignment, Caucasus Press reported. LF[04] GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT ADOPTS ELECTION LAW AMENDMENTS...Deputies from the majority Union of Citizens of Georgia (SMK) faction and smaller pro-government factions approved the draft amendments to the election law on 2 August in the first reading by a vote of 126 in favor, with one abstention, Caucasus Press reported. Those amendments stipulate that the Central Election Commission (CEC) is to be composed of seven representatives of NGOs selected from no less than 14 candidates proposed by NGOs that were registered no later than November 1997 and that have participated in monitoring no less than two elections. Local election commissions are also to consist of seven members, three of whom will be proposed by the CEC, three by parties that won parliamentary representation in the previous elections, and one by the local administration. The united parliamentary opposition, which boycotted the vote on the amendments, issued a statement the same day denouncing them as antidemocratic and an attempt by the SMK to preserve its control over electoral commissions at all levels, Caucasus Press reported. LF[05] ...AND LAW ON LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENTSMK and other pro-government deputies also approved the law on local self- government on 2 August in the second and final reading, Caucasus Press reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 2 August 2001). The vote was officially given as 124 in favor and one against. But opposition deputy parliament speaker Vakhtang Rcheulishvili challenged those figures, claiming that the vote was invalid as only 113 deputies, rather than the 118 needed for a quorum, were present. LF[06] GEORGIANS SLAM UN ABKHAZIA RESOLUTION...Georgian Minister for Special Assignments Malkhaz Kakabadze was quoted by the independent daily "Rezonansi" on 2 August as criticizing the UN Security Council's 31 July resolution on Abkhazia as "the most unprofessional" of all the documents the UN has adopted to date with regard to the Abkhaz conflict, according to Caucasus Press. Kakabadze said he does not understand why the resolution calls on both sides to resume their participation in the UN-sponsored Coordinating Council when it was the Abkhaz who suspended their participation in that body (see "RFE/RL Newsline, " 16 July 2001). Tamaz Nadareishvili, the chairman of the Abkhaz parliament in exile comprising Georgians elected to the Abkhaz parliament in 1991, similarly condemned the UN resolution as lacking objectivity. He specifically objected to the positive assessment of the role of the CIS peacekeeping force deployed along the border between Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia. For the first time, the resolution specifically reminded the Georgian leadership of its obligation to "put a stop to the activities of illegal armed groups crossing into Abkhazia...from the Georgian-controlled side of the cease-fire line." LF[07] ...WHILE RUSSIA LAUDS ITIn a statement issued on 1 August and summarized by Interfax the following day, the Russian Foreign Ministry welcomed the UN Security Council's decision, recorded in the 31 July resolution, to prolong for a further six months the mandate of the UN Observer Force in western Georgia. It also lauded the emphasis placed in the resolution on the need to accelerate the drafting of a protocol on the return to Abkhazia's Gali raion of displaced persons and an agreement on peace and guarantees of the nonresumption of hostilities. Over the past several years Moscow has proposed several drafts of those two documents, all of which have been rejected by the Georgian side. Speaking in New York on 1 August, Russia's deputy permanent representative to the UN, Andrei Granovskii, underscored the need to prevent further terrorist activity in Abkhazia, ITAR-TASS reported. Doing so, according to Granovskii, is a precondition for restoring mutual trust between the Abkhaz and Georgian leaderships. LF[08] RUSSIA AGAIN BLAMES GEORGIA FOR GUDAUTA WITHDRAWAL DELAYSpeaking in Moscow on 2 August, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov again said that Russia will withdraw its remaining military personnel and equipment from the Gudauta military base in Abkhazia only when the Georgian leadership creates the necessary security conditions to allow it to do so, Reuters and Interfax reported. Referring to the protest that began in late June by local residents who are fearful that a Russian withdrawal would precipitate a new Georgian attack on Abkhazia, Ivanov said that "we will not leave over their bodies." Under an agreement signed in November 1999, Russia should have completed the withdrawal from Gudauta by 30 June 2001. LF[09] RUSSIAN TO BE DESIGNATED AS OFFICIAL LANGUAGE IN KYRGYZ CONSTITUTION?Meeting in Sochi at the CIS summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Kyrgyz President Askar Akaev said that the Kyrgyz parliament may soon amend the country's constitution to formally designated Russian as an official language, ITAR-TASS reported. In a bid to stem the outmigration of qualified Russian personnel from Kyrgyzstan, the Kyrgyz parliament last year adopted legislation giving Russian the status of an official language (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 26 May 2000). LF[10] ANOTHER TURKMEN FOREIGN MINISTRY OFFICIAL FIREDPresident Saparmurat Niyazov has dismissed Yelbars Kepbanov from his posts as deputy foreign minister and director of the National Institute for Democracy and Human Rights due to "serious shortcomings in his work," Interfax reported on 1 August. Batyr Khudaikuliev, a former Turkmen consul in Meshed whom western diplomats in Ashgabat say is a political unknown, was named deputy foreign minister, while Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov, who served as deputy director of the National Institute for Democracy before being named parliament speaker in 1999, has now been appointed its director. Batyr Beryev was sacked as foreign minister last month, also for unspecified shortcomings in his work (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 July 2001). LF[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[11] THREE BOSNIAN MUSLIM GENERALS UNDER ARRESTFormer Bosnian Generals Mehmed Alagic, Enver Hadzihasanovic, and Amir Kubura are in detention and awaiting extradition to The Hague in the next few days, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported on 2 August. Florence Hartmann, the spokeswoman for chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, told RFE/RL the next day that the three were recently placed on the tribunal's secret indictment list for crimes committed against Croats in central Bosnia in 1993. Bosnian officials said that the men turned themselves in once they learned that they were on the tribunal's list, but RFE/RL's South Slavic Service suggests that evidence indicates that the three were arrested. Federal Interior Minister Muhamed Bedjic nonetheless maintains that the three turned themselves in. PM[12] ONE MORE BOSNIAN GENERAL ON THE LIST?Persistent but unconfirmed reports suggest that the tribunal may also be seeking former General Naser Oric, who commanded Bosnian troops in Srebrenica before its fall in July 1995. Many Serbs believe he and his raiding parties committed atrocities against Serbian civilians in villages near Srebrenica when the town was under siege. He left Srebrenica for safety shortly before its fall. Before the collapse of Yugoslavia, Oric once served as a bodyguard to former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic. PM[13] REACTIONS IN BOSNIA TO HAGUE EVENTS"Oslobodjenje" reported on 3 August that many Muslims in Alagic's hometown of Sanski Most are "upset" that a man they regard as a war hero was arrested. Prime Minister Zlatko Lagumdzija said in Sarajevo that "in the name of Bosnia and the federation" a lawyer will be hired to "help the men prove their innocence," RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. VOA reported the previous evening that female survivors of the Srebrenica massacres are "outraged" that Bosnian Serb General Radislav Krstic received a sentence of only 46 years (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 2 August 2001). Spokeswomen for the survivors said that they want Krstic returned to Bosnia, where they would mete out what they described as "justice." Other women said he should "burn in hell." PM[14] U.S. SAYS TIME TO CATCH KARADZIC, MLADICState Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington on 2 August that "the judgement [against Krstic] sends a strong message that genocide will not be tolerated and the perpetrators will be brought to justice. Today's decision lays out the historical record and underscores the necessity of apprehending others accused of these horrendous crimes -- most notably [General] Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic. And we are redoubling our efforts to apprehend them," dpa reported. Boucher added that "the criminals are finding the region more and more inhospitable to their efforts to hide and travel back and forth. So as we pursue this with the states in the region, I think it becomes less and less easy for them to evade apprehension." PM[15] MIXED MESSAGES IN MACEDONIAMacedonia marked its national holiday -- the anniversary of the 1903 Ilinden uprising against the Ottoman Turks -- on 2 August, Deutsche Welle's Macedonian Service reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 2 August 2001). Speaking at the Prohor Pcinjski monastery, Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski said that agreeing to a political settlement "while our territories are occupied by terrorists would be a shameful agreement for Macedonia. We must take back our occupied territories because we can't close our eyes to the fact that we are talking under the threat of guns. Macedonia has the military equipment and able police and soldiers who are ready to implement the [law as set down in the] constitution." But President Boris Trajkovski stressed that the only solution to Macedonia's problems is a peaceful, negotiated one. He noted that "unfortunately, today we have a strong and decisive people but indecisive leadership," the "Financial Times" reported. PM[16] PEACE TALKS RESUME IN MACEDONIAFollowing a one-day break for Ilinden, talks aimed at achieving a political settlement resumed in Ohrid on 3 August, Reuters reported. The session is expected to be dominated by the issue of the composition and control of the police forces in ethnic Albanian communities. Defense Ministry and guerrilla officials each accused the other side of continued violations of the cease-fire. PM[17] PRESEVO ALBANIAN LEADER: NO PROGRESS FOR MONTHSJonuz Musliu, who heads the ethnic Albanian Political Council for Presevo, Medvedja, and Bujanovac, told the Kosova Live news agency on 1 August that the peace process has effectively come to a halt since Yugoslav army sharpshooters killed guerrilla leader Commander Lleshi on 24 May (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 25 May 2001). The guerrillas have disarmed and an agreement has been signed on setting up a multiethnic police force, but nothing more has been done for months. Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic has all the effective political authority in the region, and Serbian paramilitaries remain present, he added. PM[18] KOSOVARS SLAM BELGRADE'S 'COUNCIL'The Yugoslav and Serbian governments agreed in Belgrade on 2 August to adopt a program and appoint a council to improve the status of the Serbian minority in Kosova and reaffirm Belgrade's claim to sovereignty there, "Vesti" reported (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 23 January and 1 May 2001). It will be headed by Covic. Kol Berisha, a spokesman for the Democratic League of Kosova (LDK), called the move "irresponsible" and motivated solely by Serbian domestic political considerations, Hina reported from Prishtina. He added that Serbian leaders know full well that there is little chance that they will ever have much influence in Kosova again. Ramadan Avdiu, a spokesman for Hashim Thaci's Democratic Party, said that all people in Kosova are equal, and that the Serbs cannot claim a privileged status (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 2 August 2001). PM[19] MORE THAN HALF OF YOUNG ROMANIANS WOULD LEAVE COUNTRY IF GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY, SAYS POLLFifty-six percent of young Romanians would leave the country, while 68 percent are extremely dissatisfied with the political environment, says a poll commissioned by the Youth and Sports Ministry, Mediafax reported. According to the poll, the biggest problems Romanian youth face are finding a job, finding their own housing, living standards, general corruption, conditions for establishing a family, and personal safety. In order to be successful in life, 15 percent of the respondents believe education is important, 15 percent think that they must belong to a wealthy family, 12 percent count on hard work, 12 percent definitely think that luck is essential, and 10 percent favor the need for talent and intelligence. 1,192 people aged 15-29 were polled. Representatives of the ministry say that results of the poll will serve as the basis for a national strategy to prevent Romanian youth from leaving the country. LB[20] WITHDRAWAL OF RUSSIAN MILITARY EQUIPMENT FROM TRANSDNIESTER PROCEEDS AS PLANNED"The first stage in the withdrawal and reconversion of Russian military equipment from Transdniester will be completed by the end of 2001, as decided during the OSCE summit in Istanbul," said William Hill, the head of the OSCE mission in Moldova, as quoted by "Nezavisimaya gazeta." Hill reminded that representatives of the OSCE, the Russian Federation, and the Transdniester signed in June in Tiraspol a protocol for creating a working group that will meet in August to evaluate a schedule for dismantling ammunition and military equipment. About 250 pieces of equipment are to be dismantled by the end of 2001. According to Hill, the Russian Defense Ministry is to receive reconversion compensation from OSCE special funds and a first installment of $50,000 has already been disbursed. The OSCE official said it is premature to discuss the full withdrawal of the Russian troops from Transdniester by the end of 2002, as decided during the Istanbul summit. LB[21] BULGARIAN JUSTICE MINISTER WORRIED ABOUT DEATH SENTENCES IN LIBYAN AIDS TRIALAnton Stankov said on 2 August that he fears the six Bulgarian medics on trial in Libya for intentionally infecting hundreds of children with the HIV virus could be sentenced to death if they are found guilty, Reuters reported. Stankov, who heads a government commission to help the five nurses and one doctor, told reporters in Sofia: "I want to underline that we have no reasons to be optimistic about the trial." He added that Bulgaria will appeal a guilty verdict and is working on a strategy for this eventuality. A verdict is expected to be announced on 22 September. The six Bulgarians as well as a Palestinian doctor were detained in Tripoli in 1999 and charged with knowingly infecting 393 children in a Benghazi hospital with the HIV virus. Nine Libyans have also been charged in the case. Two of the nurses allege they were tortured in prison and made pretrial statements under pressure. PB[22] BULGARIAN PARLIAMENT VOTES TO GIVE DEPUTIES A PAY RAISEThe Bulgarian parliament voted on 2 August to increase the monthly salary of its members, BTA reported. Salaries will go up from some 750 levs ($340) a month to 840 levs per month, a 12 percent increase. PB[C] END NOTE[23] CZECH CASE REFOCUSES ATTENTION ON CRIMES OF COMMUNISMBy Jeremy BranstenCzech prosecutors this week charged former Czechoslovak Prime Minister Lubomir Strougal with abuse of power in connection with his time as a senior Communist Party functionary. A judge must now decide whether the case will be tried in court. If so, it will be a victory for the Czech Office for the Documentation and Investigation of the Crimes of Communism (UDV), which has had little success thus far in pinning responsibility for alleged crimes on the country's former leaders. The charges against Lubomir Strougal date back to 1965, when he was Czechoslovak interior minister and before he began his 18 years as prime minister. Prosecutors allege that at the time, Strougal failed to hand over a file to the Prosecutor-General's Office with information on certain ministry employees. That file allegedly contained references to the murder of three political activists by members of the former StB secret police. The case has generated media interest because it seems likely that a judge will order a trial. Since 1989, only one such high-ranking former communist official, former Prague Communist Party chief Miroslav Stepan, has been jailed for crimes committed during office. But even so, Stepan served less than two years in jail for his role in the initial suppression of student demonstrators during the November 1989 revolution. "In this case, it does look as if the judge will order a trial -- that this case will genuinely get heard in court," said Jan Kubita, a journalist for the Czech daily "Lidove Noviny." "This would be a true breakthrough, because since [Stepan's case] nothing like this has been repeated." It will be several weeks before the judge delivers a final decision. But the controversy around whether the 76-year-old Strougal will face justice has refocused attention on Czech courts and the work of the UDV, which prepared the case. Over the past six years, out of 160 cases prepared by the office, only nine have been prosecuted. Of those, only four individuals received prison terms. Most files are routinely returned to the UDV for reworking by judges who cite incomplete evidence. Staff members at the UDV say that judges -- some of whom served under the old regime -- are not interested in pursuing the issue of guilt for communist-era crimes. But Kubita says there is some truth to charges that the cases presented by the UDV are often ill-prepared. Part of the problem lies in the funding and resulting low staffing levels of the office -- which falls under the Interior Ministry. "Compare the Gauck office [set up to review former secret police files] in Germany, where some 3,000 people work. The Czech UDV had in the year 1997, 97 staffers, including document experts and investigators," Kubita said. "I think that the office's weak staffing contributes to the perception that the institute's work is of low quality." In addition, since 1997 and a change in government, the office's personnel has been reshuffled, leading to a further exodus. "Since that time, a lot of document specialists and investigators have left the institute. Audits are now taking place and this pressure has led to the departure of the good investigators," Kubita said. The other -- more fundamental -- problem is the issue of legal continuity. Because of the Czech Republic's acceptance of this principle, former communist functionaries cannot be prosecuted for observing laws valid under the former regime -- even if those laws in many cases directly infringed on citizens' human rights. Violations are difficult to prove. Germany, in contrast, does not recognize the legitimacy of former East German laws. But even with an easier legal framework and a well-staffed office, statistics show that Berlin has been equally unsuccessful in bringing former communist officials to justice. There, the statistics are even more telling. Out of 12,000 cases prepared by the Gauck office, only 28 have been prosecuted so far. Many of those cases concern former border guards who shot citizens attempting to flee to the West. Veteran commentator Jiri Jes, who was politically active as a student before the Czechoslovak communist takeover in 1948 and subsequently spent several years in communist prisons before being sent into internal exile, says the Czechs have been no worse in dealing with their communist past than their neighbors. "It's also important to look around to other post-communist states and we can see that a similar -- if not worse -- situation exists everywhere," Jes said. "Even in Germany after the war, in 1945, it was not possible to punish all Nazi functionaries... Here...there were such large numbers of people compromised by the regime in all these post-communist states, that it was a practical impossibility to deal with all of them through the courts." Jes noted that Strougal was considered among the less ideological members of the Czechoslovak communist leadership. Despite being identified with the period of so-called "normalization," Strougal initially opposed the Soviet- led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. In the late 1980s, he tried to position himself as a centrist, taking a cue from former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. "I think the greatest perpetrators are long dead and when people like...Strougal are being pursued, they belonged to those who were relatively better among the evil ones," Jes said. "I think it's unfair to pursue them just because they have remained alive." Czech law does not allow for posthumous trials and for Jes, the courts at this point may be the wrong venue for justice. He would prefer to see the past documented by historians and those responsible for the suffering caused by the communist regime to be named for future generations to know. "Yes, I am in favor of a trial," Jes said. "Not a trial in a normal criminal court -- but a trial by history." Jeremy Bransten is an RFE/RL correspondent based in Prague. 03-08-01 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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