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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 5, No. 151, 01-08-10Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 5, No. 151, 10 August 2001CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT REAFFIRMS READINESS TO CONTINUE KARABAKH TALKSRobert Kocharian told journalists on 9 August during a visit to Yerevan State University that although his talks last week in Sochi with his Azerbaijani counterpart Aliev were "difficult," he is nonetheless ready to continue negotiations on resolving the Karabakh conflict, Caucasus Press and RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. No date has been set for the next round of talks between the two presidents. LF[02] ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT CREATES FUND TO IMPROVE PRISON CONDITIONSThe Armenian government announced on 9 August the creation of a special fund to finance improvements in conditions in the country's jails prior to their transfer from the Interior and National Security Ministries to the jurisdiction of the Justice Ministry, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. That transfer, which was one of two conditions on which Armenia was admitted in January 2001 to full membership of the Council of Europe, is scheduled to take place in October-November 2001. LF[03] RULING PARTY TO PROPOSE AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT FOR THIRD TERMAli Akhmedov, the executive secretary of the Yeni Azerbaycan party, has announced that his party will nominate incumbent President Heidar Aliev as its candidate for the presidential poll due in October 2003, Turan reported on 9 August, citing the independent "525-ji gazeti." Azerbaijan's Constitution does not at present allow for one individual to serve more than two consecutive presidential terms. Aliev was first elected to that post in 1993 and re-elected in 1998. LF[04] AZERBAIJAN REJECTS MOST RECENT TURKMEN STATEMENTUnnamed officials from Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR on 9 August denied that any structure named Geygel exists in the vicinity of the Kyapaz Caspian oilfield of which both Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan claim ownership, Turan reported. Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister Yelly Gurbanmuradov had accused SOCAR the previous day of preparing to begin exploitation of that deposit (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 August 2001). He argued that since the field in question is only 100 kilometers from the coast of Turkmenistan and 210 kilometers from the Azerbaijani shore of the Caspian there can be "no doubt" that it belongs to Turkmenistan. LF[05] AZERBAIJAN HOLDS MILITARY MANEUVERS...Defense Minister Colonel General Safar Abiev presided over the first-ever joint maneuvers by units of Azerbaijan's army and navy on 8-9 August, Turan and Interfax reported. No details of those maneuvers were released. LF[06] ...AS IRAN AGAIN VIOLATES AZERBAIJANI AIRSPACETwo Iranian military aircraft entered Azerbaijani airspace during the afternoons of 8 and 9 August, Turan reported. Similar incursions took place on 6 and 7 August. Neither the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry nor the Defense Ministry has issued a statement on those overflights. LF[07] AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION PARTY PROTESTS ASSAULT ON ITS MEMBERSThe opposition Musavat Party issued a statement on 9 August condemning the assault earlier that day in the town of Khudat on a group of its members headed by party deputy Chairman Rauf Arifoglu, Turan reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 August 2001). The statement noted that local police failed to step in to halt the assault, and arrested two Musavat Party members. It demanded the release of those two persons and the arrest of those responsible for the violence. LF[08] SUSPECT ARRESTED IN GEORGIAN JOURNALIST'S MURDERA man taken into custody by Georgian police late on 8 August on swindling charges is also being considered as a suspect in the 26 July murder of TV journalist Giorgi Sanaya, Caucasus Press reported on 10 August. LF[09] GEORGIAN FOREIGN MINISTER CANCELS LATVIA VISIT OVER GAS TALKS IMPASSEIrakli Menagharishvili has cancelled a visit to Latvia scheduled for 15-17 August in order to continue work on the texts of agreements on the export via Georgia of natural gas from Azerbaijan's offshore Shah-Deniz field, Caucasus Press reported on 10 August. Those agreements were originally slated for signing on 27 July (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 7 August 2001). Caucasus Press cited unidentified "reliable sources" as saying that Georgia is hoping for $92 million annually in transit fees for that gas, while Azerbaijan is prepared to offer only $52 million. It is not clear whether Georgian-Azerbaijani relations are also strained as a result of Georgia's commitment to repair and modernize a total of 46 Turkmen military aircraft in lieu of payment of its outstanding bills for Turkmen natural gas in cash. LF[10] KYRGYZ PUBLIC DELEGATION RETURNS FROM CHINESE BORDERA 13-member delegation from the public committee for Kyrgyz-Chinese border questions returned to Bishkek on 9 August after a trip to inspect the region Kyrgyzstan cedes to China under 1999 amendments to a border agreement signed by Kyrgyz President Askar Akaev and Chinese leader Jiang Zemin in 1996, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 7 July 2001). Human Rights Movement of Kyrgyzstan leader Tursunbek Akunov told RFE/RL that the delegation ascertained that the 87,000 hectares of land in question are rocky and mountainous terrain rather than arable or pasture land. But parliamentary commission Chairman Ismail Isakov noted that the disputed area contains several glaciers, and ceding it would entail the loss of some Kyrgyz water resources. LF[11] IMPRISONED OPPOSITION KYRGYZ POLITICIAN'S PROPERTY CONFISCATEDKyrgyzstan's National Security Service has issued orders to confiscate all property belonging to imprisoned former Vice President Feliks Kulov, a member of that agency told RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau on 9 August. Kulov was sentenced on 22 January to seven years in prison on charges of abuse of power. New charges of embezzling a total of $635,000 were brought against him last month (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 22 January and 18 July 2001). LF[12] KYRGYZSTAN, RUSSIA DISCUSS MILITARY COOPERATIONVisiting Kyrgyz Defense Minister Esen Topoev and his Russian counterpart Sergei Ivanov met in Moscow on 9 August to discuss military and military- technical cooperation, Interfax reported. They also assessed the situation in Central Asia and reviewed joint measures to counter the threat of terrorism. LF[13] UZBEKISTAN TAKES PREVENTIVE MEASURES AGAINST CHOLERAUzbek Prime Minister Utkir Sultanov has chaired a special government session to discuss and organize measures to prevent the spread of cholera to Uzbekistan from "neighboring countries," Interfax reported on 9 August. Those measures include strict control over supplies of drinking water. Sanitation inspectors at border crossings will be alerted to the need for special vigilance. Two cases of cholera have recently been reported in southern Kazakhstan (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 6 August 2001). LF[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[14] FIGHTING NORTH OF MACEDONIAN CAPITAL...At least seven Macedonian soldiers were killed and five wounded on 10 August when their truck stuck a land mine near the villages of Ljubanci and Ljuboten north of Skopje, AP reported. An unnamed Defense Ministry spokesman said that the mine had been freshly planted by "Albanian terrorists." Fighting ensued in Ljuboten between government forces and ethnic Albanian guerrillas. Local residents said that the government forces brought in helicopter gunships and "leveled" one house. In Ohrid, U.S. envoy James Pardew condemned the violence and called on the guerrillas to respect the cease-fire. PM[15] ...AND ELSEWHERE JEOPARDIZES PEACEIn what "The Guardian" called "a serious escalation of the fighting," government Sukhoi Su-25 aircraft bombed areas near the villages of Tearce and Neprosteno in the Tetovo area on 9 August. Unnamed "witnesses" told the daily that the aircraft also bombed other unspecified areas near the frontier with Kosova. In Tetovo itself, one policeman was killed and eight civilians injured, three of whom were children. Hospital Director Rahim Thaci said that the government forces had engaged in "intense shelling." In Rastan near Veles, an 11-year-old ethnic Albanian boy was killed in a drive- by shooting. His father told "The New York Times" of 10 August: "I think we're going to move out of here." In Skopje, Defense Minister Vlado Buckovski called on his countrymen to avoid civil war, adding that the government will seek "one more chance for peace," RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM[16] EU ENVOY EXPECTS MACEDONIAN PEACE AGREEMENT WILL BE SIGNEDFrancois Leotard told a French radio station on 10 August that he expects the leaders of Macedonia's four main political parties to sign the peace agreement on 13 August as scheduled, dpa reported from Paris (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 August 2001). "I cannot imagine for one moment that they will return to the path of military confrontation instead of signing. This would be a very serious attack on the international reputation" of the party leaders, who have already initialed the document. Leotard stressed that it is nonetheless important to be "extremely prudent" over the course of Macedonian developments, "because we have often been disappointed" in the past. PM[17] MACEDONIAN CHIEF OF GENERAL STAFF DISMISSEDAt a special meeting of the National Security Council following the attack on an army convoy in which 10 soldiers were killed on 8 August (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 August), Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski sacked Chief of General Staff General Pande Petrovski, the Skopje daily "Dnevnik" reported on 10 August. Until a successor is named, the current deputy chief, General Metodija Stamboliski, will be in charge. Citing unnamed army sources, the newspaper speculates that the dismissal is due to some unspecified disagreement between Trajkovski and Petrovski (see also "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 10 August 2001). Deutsche Welle's Bosnian Service reported that Liberal parliament speaker Stojan Andov called for Social Democratic Defense Minister Buckovski to resign and be replaced Social Democratic party leader Branko Crvenkovski. Crvenkovski strongly rejected the suggestion. UB/PM[18] BOSNIAN SERB WAR CRIMES SUSPECT ARRESTED?Bosnian Serb authorities told AP in Banja Luka on 10 August that NATO peacekeepers arrested Colonel Vidoje Blagojevic, an officer in the Bosnian Serb army's engineering corps, when he arrived for a meeting about mine removal. Deputy Interior Minister Zeljko Janjetovic told Reuters: "Colonel Vidoje Blagojevic was arrested this morning in the Banja Luka public security area zone." The British peacekeepers had a "sealed indictment" from The Hague for the arrest of Blagojevic, who commanded troops in Bratunac near Srebrenica during the 1992-1995 war. But Captain Andrew Coxhead, an SFOR spokesman, said: "We are unaware of any arrests." PM[19] RENEWED CONCERN OVER ILLEGAL MIGRATION VIA BOSNIAA UN spokesman said in Sarajevo on 9 August that the world organization is concerned that "Turkish citizens" are using Bosnia as spring-board from which to enter Western Europe illegally, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. The statement follows the detention of 54 Turkish citizens by Bosnian border guards in the Velika Kladusa area, near the Croatian border. Part of the problem is that Air Bosna has recently begun flying from Istanbul directly to Tuzla, where the border police do not have an office at the airport. PM[20] MONTENEGRO AND THE CIGARETTE TRADEThe "Financial Times" writes on 10 August that its journalists have been looking into the links between the politically and economically powerful in Montenegro and the illicit cigarette business. The daily notes that "what began as an attempt to circumvent a United Nations trade embargo on Yugoslavia [during the 1991-1995 conflict] has mushroomed into an international business spreading from the Balkans into Italy and other European Union states. Control over the trade has also spread, but Montenegro retains its central role." Many important individuals are involved. "Since 1992, Montenegro has become one gigantic marketplace for smuggled cigarettes," says Guenther Herrmann, a German government customs investigator. He puts the EU's losses in revenue from smuggling from Montenegro at $3.4 billion over the past two years alone. PM[21] FORMER ROMANIAN MONARCH DEMANDS RESTITUTION OF ROYAL CASTLEA lawyer representing former King Michael on 9 August filed with a court of justice the demand that the Peles castle in Sinaia and adjacent grounds and buildings, as well as several houses in the neighboring Prahova valley, be restituted to their former owner. Lawyer Adrian Vasiliu told RFE/RL on 10 August that Michael does not intend to take possession of the castle and will "donate it to the Romanian people." But the former monarch wants "justice to first take its course." Vasiliu also said the act under which the castle had been turned into state property following Michael's enforced abdication of the throne in December 1947 was illegal. He said the building was not part of the royal estates, having been personally inherited by Michael according to the testament left by King Ferdinand. Ferdinand had inherited it from King Carol I, who financed the castle's building from his own assets, the lawyer said. Government spokesman Claudiu Lucaciu said the cabinet will discuss Michael's request next week, after it receives the opinions of "legal experts and historians." MS[22] IMF PRAISES MOLDOVA'S ECONOMIC PROGRESSA delegation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on 8 August, at the end of a two-week visit to Moldova, that an agreement has been reached for renewing lending to Chisinau, RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau reported. The agreement must yet be approved by the fund's board, which will review an addendum to the earlier agreement with Moldova. The addendum stipulates measures that must be implemented by the Moldovan government in the upcoming months. IMF mission chief to Moldova Richard Haas said that the team of experts that visited Chisinau was satisfied with the "moderate growth" in GDP, low inflation levels, and increasing export volumes. Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev said the IMF pledged to support Moldova's request for a restructuring of its international debts and for the cancellation of some $172 million of that debt. Tarlev, cited by AFP, said this will "significantly lower pressure on the budget and be beneficial to Moldova's social development." MS[23] FORMER MOLDOVAN PREMIER TO BECOME FOREIGN MINISTER?Premier Tarlev on 9 August confirmed that former Prime Minister Dumitru Braghis is among the candidates for the post of foreign minister, which became vacant after Nicolae Cernomaz's dismissal from that position on 27 July. Tarlev said a decision on Cernomaz's successor will be made after President Vladimir Voronin, who is vacationing in the Czech Republic, returns to Moldova at the end of the month. MS[24] BULGARIAN PREMIER DENIES LINKS WITH NATIONALIST GROUPThe governmental press office on 9 August denied that Prime Minister Simeon Saxecoburggotski is in any way linked with an organization calling itself "Bulgarian Human Rights in Macedonia," BTA reported. The Greek newspaper "Ethnos" earlier reported that the organization, which claims to be pursuing its activity "with the consent and sponsorship of His Majesty Simeon II," is demanding that Greece acknowledge a "genocide of Bulgarians" in the Greek-ruled Macedonia province and a revision of the Greek-Bulgarian border. Government spokeswoman Tsvetelina Ouzouvna said that the premier "does not know such an organization," adding: "We have reasons to believe that his name and authority are being misused." Ouzouvna also said that the premier believes the good neighborly relations with Greece "cannot possibly be affected by such statements," as Simeon Saxecoburggotski "has repeatedly emphasized his interest in promoting Bulgarian-Greek relations." MS[25] BULGARIAN PRESIDENT, FOREIGN MINISTER DISCUSS MACEDONIAN DEVELOPMENTSPresident Petar Stoyanov and Foreign Minster Solomon Pasi on 9 August discussed the latest developments in neighboring Macedonia, BTA reported. The presidential office said Stoyanov on the same day sent a telegram to his Macedonian counterpart Boris Trajkovski, strongly condemning the killing of 10 Macedonian soldiers by Albanian guerrillas on 8 August. MS[C] END NOTE[26] NEW RIFT IN MACEDONIAN LEADERSHIP?By Ulrich BuechsenschuetzMacedonia's government of "national unity" has displayed its lack of unity before. During the three months of its existence, there have been a number of occasions when members of the government have accused each other of various blunders when struggling to cope with the threat posed by the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Army (UCK). There have open clashes between hard-line Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Movement-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE) on the one hand, and Defense Minister Vlado Buckovski of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) on the other. There have also been disagreements between VMRO leader and Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski and Boskovski on one side, and President Boris Trajkovski -- of the same party -- on the other. These disagreements derived mainly from different approaches as to how to deal with the crisis. While the hard-liners Georgievski and Boskovski prefer a military solution, Trajkovski and Buckovski advocate a peaceful one. The ethnic Albanian political parties in the current cabinet did not become involved in these conflicts within the government. Despite immense pressure from the UCK, which limits their room to maneuver, the Albanian "bloc" has even profited from the strife within the Macedonian "bloc," as media describe the ethnic divide in the government. "Mister Butch" and "Mister Bosh" -- as former Interior and Foreign Minister Ljubomir Frckovski has called Buckovski and Boskovski, respectively, in newspaper comments -- overcame their public differences when it became clear that their feud was weakening the government. After some weeks without any major disagreements in the government (or did the media simply come to ignore the feuding?), a new rift opened -- just at the moment when the peace talks seemed to be drawing to a close. On 6 August, Trajkovski scheduled a meeting of the National Security Council. After that session, both the president and the defense minister denied that there were any differences between them. The next day, the media speculated about the reasons for the meeting. Some of the media reported that Trajkovski had called the Security Council gathering because his order to the army to open up an important road between Tetovo and the border to Kosova had not been obeyed. The road runs from Tetovo to the border checkpoint at Jazince and lies in a demilitarized zone, which was set up recently in order to help facilitate the peace talks. In a statement on 6 August, the Defense Ministry denied that Trajkovski had given it any orders to open up the road. The ministry also denied the allegation that neither the Defense Ministry nor the General Staff had worked out a plan to defend the town of Tetovo, which has been at the center of tensions for months. While Trajkovski and Buckovski declared after the council session that there are no differences between them, the Skopje daily "Nova Makedonija" had already launched a fierce attack on Buckovski. In a front-page article, the newspaper -- which is close to the VMRO-DPMNE -- stated that there is a deep rift between president and defense minister. The article claimed that Buckovski called Trajkovski on the phone, saying: "Who are you to issue such orders. If you issue another such order, I will have you arrested and brought to [the Skopje jail] Idrizovo." Buckovski, "Nova Makedonija" says, works together with the [ethnic Albanian] "terrorist mafia groups." How else could one explain that the Defense Ministry several times ignored the [VMRO-DPMNE-run] Interior Ministry's call for support in its fight against the UCK? All this, according to "Nova Makedonija," is part of a "petty game of the SDSM, in which the whole state loses. The VMRO-DPMNE has publicly stated repeatedly that the Social Democrats are courting the Albanian political bloc and, in any event, are interested in signing a [peace] agreement in order to have early elections and form a coalition with the Albanian parties." In a comment for the same newspaper, Dimitar Kjurkciev accused Branko Crvenkovski, the leader of the SDSM, of having never given up his role as an opposition leader, even after his party joined the government in May. First, Crvenkovski had pressed for the formation of the "national unity government" and then he encouraged labor unrest at a most inconvenient time. Crvenkovski had also constantly hindered the government from taking decisive military action against the ethnic Albanian rebels of the UCK, Kjurkciev added. It seems that the VMRO-DPMNE leadership is looking for a scapegoat. By blaming the SDSM for allegedly cooperating with the Albanian parties (and the West), Georgievski and his hard-line followers want to show the electorate that if an unpopular peace agreement is signed, it is not their doing. Crvenkovski and his SDSM, on the other hand, are in a comfortable position. Whatever the outcome of the peace talks may be, the SDSM will be among the winners. The party gained the confidence of the West as a cooperative partner in the negotiations, and they presented themselves as a possible partner for a future coalition with the ethnic Albanian political parties. Months of belligerent rhetoric have eliminated this option for the VMRO-DPMNE. That means that early elections would inevitably lead to the political defeat of Georgievski's nationalist and conservative party. And perhaps most importantly for some of that party's faithful, a political defeat would also mean that the VMRO-DPMNE would lose the economic advantages that it built up during its years in power. It is hard to assess what would be more painful for the party members: the loss of power or the loss of the "gravy train." And it is also hard to assess whether the SDSM will change its behavior once it has defeated its main Macedonian rival. As a Western diplomat put it, the SDSM leadership is as greedy as the VMRO-DPMNE leadership, but they are more skilled in concealing that fact. 10-08-01 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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