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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 1, No. 38, 97-05-26
RFE/RL NEWSLINE
Vol. 1, No. 38, 26 May 1997
CONTENTS
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] TALIBAN TAKES NORTHERN AFGHAN PROVINCES
[02] ABKHAZIA IMPOSES CURFEW
[03] GEORGIAN PREMIER IN TASHKENT
[04] FOUR KYRGYZ JOURNALISTS FOUND GUILTY OF SLANDER, LIBEL
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[05] ALBANIAN SPECIAL POLICE ATTACK MILITARY HOSPITAL
[06] ROW OVER POLITICAL ROLE OF ITALIAN AMBASSADOR TO ALBANIA
[07] CROATIA'S TUDJMAN CALLS RETURN OF ALL SERBS "UNREASONABLE."
[08] "CROATIAN COMMUNITY OF HERCEG-BOSNA" SET UP
[09] KARADZIC FEARS HE MAY BE KILLED BEFORE APPEARING AT THE HAGUE
[10] NEWS ABOUT FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
[11] HUNGARIAN PRESIDENT IN ROMANIA
[12] DEMONSTRATION AGAINST GOENCZ'S PLANNED VISIT TO CLUJ
[13] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT TO VISIT BONN
[14] CHISINAU, TIRASPOL LEADERS MEET TO DISCUSS IMPLEMENTATION OF
MEMORANDUM
[15] BULGARIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ON RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA, NATO
[16] EBRD APPROVES NEW LOANS FOR BULGARIA
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] TALIBAN TAKES NORTHERN AFGHAN PROVINCES
Aided by mutineers, Afghanistan's Taliban movement on 24-25 May overran the
northern provinces, which previously were under the control of General
Abdul Rashid Dostum. The Taliban now control some 80-90% of the country's
territory. Their success prompted a quick response from neighboring
countries. Uzbekistan reinforced its borders with Afghanistan, and
Tajikistan said it would do the same. Kyrgyzstan sent more troops to its
southern border with Tajikistan, fearing that refugees fleeing the fighting
may travel north along the Khorog-Osh highway. Russian Foreign Minister
Primakov said on 24 May that any incursion by Taliban forces into CIS
territory would prompt "very tough and effective measures." The same day,
Russia evacuated its consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, where Dostum's
headquarters were located. Former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani has
reportedly fled to Tajikistan. And on 25 May, Pakistan became the first
state to officially recognize the Taliban government.
[02] ABKHAZIA IMPOSES CURFEW
Abkhaz President Vladislav Ardzinba has issued a decree imposing a curfew
between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., ITAR-TASS reported on 25 May. The
restrictions were said to be necessary to prevent further violent clashes
between rival clans and political groups but not to preclude terrorist
activities. Ardzinba has repeatedly accused Georgian refugees from Abkhazia
of perpetrating terrorist activities in southern Abkhazia with the support
of the Georgian security services.
[03] GEORGIAN PREMIER IN TASHKENT
Niko Lekishvili held talks in the Uzbek capital on 23 May with President
Islam Karimov and other officials on cooperation in transport,
communications, and trade, Russian agencies reported. Karimov expressed
interest in the TRASECA transport corridor, which will facilitate the
export of Uzbek goods from the Georgian Black Sea port of Poti. Georgia
wants to receive natural gas from Uzbekistan. An agreement whereby
Uzbekistan will supply Georgia with cotton fiber has been delayed pending
the approval of the IMF.
[04] FOUR KYRGYZ JOURNALISTS FOUND GUILTY OF SLANDER, LIBEL
Four Kyrgyz journalists from the weekly newspaper Res Publica were found
guilty of slander and libel by a Bishkek district court, according to
RFE/RL correspondents in the Kyrgyz capital. Zamira Sydykova and Aleksandr
Alyanchikov were sentenced to 18 months in jail and Marina Sivasheva and
Bektash Shamshiev were prohibited from practicing journalism for the same
period. All four were sued by Dastan Sarygulov, the head of Kyrgyzstan's
state gold company, for critical articles published about him between 1993-
96.
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[05] ALBANIAN SPECIAL POLICE ATTACK MILITARY HOSPITAL
Members of the National Guard in armored personnel carriers attacked and
shelled a Tirana military hospital on 25 May. The angry policemen blamed
the hospital staff for negligence in the death of a guardsman the previous
night from head injuries. The man was wounded in a shoot-out on 23 May in
Cerrik, in which five elite policemen died and 13 were injured. The unrest
erupted after a small contingent of special police forces from Tirana
searched cars for arms on the city's main street. President Sali Berisha,
who had planned to visit Cerrik that afternoon as part of his election
campaign, pledged not to send special police forces to the city again. But
the daily Dita Informacion on 25 May quoted Berisha as vowing a crackdown
on southern Albanian insurgent committees.
[06] ROW OVER POLITICAL ROLE OF ITALIAN AMBASSADOR TO ALBANIA
Rome-based news agencies and the Tirana paper Indipendent said on 25 May
that the Italian Foreign Ministry is about to replace Ambassador Paolo
Foresti. He allegedly meddled in Albanian politics and contravened OSCE
policies. The decision to sack Foresti reportedly came after Indipendent
published what it said was the text of a taped telephone conversation
between Foresti and Berisha's Democratic Party chairman Tritan Shehu on 21
May. Foresti allegedly advised Shehu not to agree to a compromise that OSCE
mediator Franz Vranitzky hammered out between the government and Berisha on
holding elections at the end of June. Meanwhile in Durres on 25 May,
Berisha rejected Prime Minister Bashkim Fino's request to lift the 9:00
p.m. curfew. Fino said an end to the state of emergency would improve the
atmosphere for the elections.
[07] CROATIA'S TUDJMAN CALLS RETURN OF ALL SERBS "UNREASONABLE."
President Franjo Tudjman told state-owned media in Zagreb on 25 May that
his country has promised to reintegrate the Serbs of eastern Slavonia. He
added, however, that it is "unreasonable" for foreigners to insist that all
Serbs who fled Croatia be allowed to go home. Tudjman argued that "no one
is making demands that all Sudeten Germans [be allowed to] go back" and
said that Croatia's priority is bringing home Croatian refugees, many of
whom have been displaced since 1991. The president suggested that Croatia
should not take too seriously criticism from other countries, since, he
argued, the others need Croatia as much as it needs them. On 23 May,
ambassadors from the Contact Group countries delivered a formal protest in
Zagreb over Croatia's treatment of its ethnic Serbs, an RFE/RL
correspondent reported from the Croatian capital.
[08] "CROATIAN COMMUNITY OF HERCEG-BOSNA" SET UP
Leading representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Croats--especially of
the Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ) --met in Neum on 24 May to found a
successor to their para-state, which is banned by the Dayton agreement.
Delegates adopted a statute, flag, and coat-of-arms. Top Bosnian HDZ
politicians present included collective presidency member Kresimir Zubak
and federal Co-Prime Minister Vladimir Soljic. Franjo Greguric, who is
Tudjman's special envoy to Bosnia, also attended. Croatian Defense Minister
Gojko Susak, who is the most prominent Herzegovinian in Croatia's HDZ, told
delegates that they were right in setting up their own para-state during
the war. The opposition Croatian Peasants' Party refused to go to Neum,
saying that it is counterproductive to maintain a para-state now that the
Dayton agreement has gone into effect, Novi List wrote on 25 May.
[09] KARADZIC FEARS HE MAY BE KILLED BEFORE APPEARING AT THE HAGUE
In the first installment of a five-part interview with the Belgrade daily
Vecernje Novosti on 25 May , indicted war criminal and Bosnian Serb leader
Radovan Karadzic strongly hinted that he might implicate some other
prominent Serbs before the Hague-based war crimes tribunal. He suggested
that such individuals could have an interest in killing him before he can
tell what he knows. Karadzic told Serbian journalists last week that he is
tired of being hunted and wants to clear his name (see RFE/RL Newsline, 20
May 1997). Reports in the Serbian press suggest that he may try to
implicate before the tribunal Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, whom
many Bosnian and Croatian Serbs feel abandoned them.
[10] NEWS ABOUT FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
The assembly of eastern Slavonia's Vukovar-Srijem county held its first
meeting in Borovo on 24 May, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from Vukovar.
The assembly is the first to bring together Serbs and Croats in the area
since 1991. In Gostivar, at least 4,000 ethnic Albanians protested recent
measures by the Macedonian authorities against displaying the Albanian
flag. In Munich, a Bavarian state court on 23 May found Novislav Djajic, a
Bosnian Serb, guilty on 14 counts of taking part in the mass murder of
Muslims. It was the first conviction in Germany for war crimes since the
Nuremberg trials.
[11] HUNGARIAN PRESIDENT IN ROMANIA
At the beginning of his three-day official visit to Romania, Arpad Goencz
met with President Emil Constantinescu, Premier Victor Ciorbea, and former
President Ion Iliescu, who is also leader of the main opposition party.
Goencz said Budapest will do "everything it can" for Romania's integration
into NATO in the "first wave" and into the EU. Constantinescu said
relations between the two countries have become "a model" for others, which
would have been "inconceivable" just a few years ago, RFE/RL's Bucharest
bureau reported. He added that he has received Vienna's agreement to a
Romanian proposal to establish a "trilateral" group aimed at improving
security in central Europe and comprising Romania, Hungary, and Austria. He
is to discuss the proposal with Goencz.
[12] DEMONSTRATION AGAINST GOENCZ'S PLANNED VISIT TO CLUJ
Defying the local prefect's order forbidding demonstrations against
Goencz's visit to Cluj on 26 May, two organizations that call themselves
"cultural" organized such a meeting the previous day. Nationalist mayor
Gheorghe Funar and Vasile Matei, a deputy representing Funar's Party of
Romanian National Unity, addressed the meeting, Romanian TV reported. On 25
May, U.S. congressman Tom Lantos, on a visit to Romania, handed
Constantinescu and Goencz a letter from President Bill Clinton, praising
Goencz "historic visit" to Romania. Meanwhile, the Romanian government
announced that amendments to the Local Administration Law, which are about
to be submitted to the parliament, allow for national minorities to use
their mother tongue in dealings with local government authorities in areas
where they make up more than 20% of the population.
[13] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT TO VISIT BONN
Constantinescu will meet with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl during a
private visit to Bonn on 2 July. The discussions, one week before the
Madrid NATO summit, will concentrate on Romania's bid to be admitted to the
organization in the first wave of new NATO members, RFE/RL's Bucharest
bureau reported on 23 May.
[14] CHISINAU, TIRASPOL LEADERS MEET TO DISCUSS IMPLEMENTATION OF
MEMORANDUM
President Petru Lucinschi and Igor Smirnov, the leader of Moldova's
separatist breakaway Transdniester region, met in Chisinau on 24 May to
discuss the implementation of the memorandum signed by the two sides in
Moscow on 8 May. An RFE/RL correspondent in Chisinau reported that they
agreed on a protocol mainly dealing with the economic aspects of their
relations. They also agreed to set up several joint groups of experts, one
of which is to work on drafting a special status for the breakaway region.
But Tiraspol continues to claim it is an independent state. The groups will
begin working on 4 June. They will also discuss security arrangements in
the Dniester River area.
[15] BULGARIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ON RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA, NATO
Nadezhda Mihailova says her country's desire to join NATO will not damage
relations with Russia. Addressing an international conference on Bulgarian-
Russian relations in Sofia on 23 May, Mihailova said ties with Moscow are
among the foreign policy priority of the new Ivan Kostov government. In
related developments, an RFE/RL Sofia correspondent reported on 23 May that
the state-owned Bulgargaz company announced it has reached a deal with
unspecified Russian gas exporters that could bring down the price of
natural gas by about 10%. The largest Bulgarian private gas importer,
Overgaz, is a subsidiary of the Multigroup consortium, widely regarded as
representing the interests of the Russian Gazprom company. Multigroup has
been set up by former communist officials and has repeatedly claimed that
the price of Russian-imported gas cannot be reduced.
[16] EBRD APPROVES NEW LOANS FOR BULGARIA
The EBRD on 23 May announced it has approved new loans for Bulgaria
totaling $300 million. Olivier Decamps, the bank's director for
southeastern Europe, said he expects an increase in lending to Bulgaria and
that the EBRD supports Kostov's new government. Industry Minister Alexander
Bozhkov said the latest EBRD loans will help Bulgaria upgrade and develop
its railroads, highways, and airports as well as privatize parts of the
tourist sector and create competitive markets in agriculture. In other news,
Alexander Sabotinov, who heads the Bulgarian privatization agency,
announced on 25 May that Bulgaria will privatize Chimco, its main
manufacturer of chemical fertilizers.
Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
URL: http://www.rferl.org
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