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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 177, 99-09-10

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>

RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 3, No. 177, 10 September 1999


CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

  • [01] DASHNAKTSUTYUN TO SUE FORMER ARMENIAN PRESIDENT FOR LIBEL
  • [02] ARMENIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY DENIES PLANNING TO SEND VOLUNTEERS
  • [03] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT OFFERS TO MEDIATE IN ABKHAZ CONFLICT
  • [04] TRIAL OF FORMER ARMENIAN INTERIOR MINISTER OPENS, ADJOURNS
  • [05] UNHCR TO REDUCE FUNDING FOR DISPLACED PERSONS IN AZERBAIJAN
  • [06] AZERBAIJAN, GEORGIA DISCUSS WESTERN OIL EXPORT PIPELINE...
  • [07] ...AS NORTHERN PIPELINE CONTINUES TO OPERATE
  • [08] RUSSIA ACCUSES GEORGIA OF OBSTRUCTING WORK ON MILITARY BASES
  • [09] GEORGIAN FISHING CREW RELEASED
  • [10] FORMER KAZAKH PREMIER BARRED FROM RUNNING IN PARLIAMENTARY
  • [11] ...WHILE HIS PARTY BLAMES AUTHORITIES FOR LAWYER'S
  • [12] ...AND ANOTHER OPPOSITION POLITICIAN CALLS ON LEADERSHIP TO
  • [13] KAZAKHSTAN'S PRESIDENT WANTS CLOSER ECONOMIC COOPERATION WITH
  • [14] NO DATE SET FOR TALKS BETWEEN KYRGYZ LEADERSHIP, GUERRILLAS
  • [15] KYRGYZ GOVERNMENT APPROVES DRAFT BUDGET FOR 2000
  • [16] UZBEKISTAN ACCUSES TAJIK OPPOSITION OF ABETTING GUERRILLAS
  • [17] TURKMENISTAN TO AMNESTY MORE PRISONERS
  • [18] JAPAN HOPES FOR STRONGER ECONOMIC TIES WITH UZBEKISTAN...
  • [19] ...WHILE IRAN ASSESSES PROSPECTS FOR TRANSPORT COOPERATION

  • [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

  • [20] MILOSEVIC PARTY: SERBIA WILL NOT INVADE KOSOVA
  • [21] MITROVICA CLASH LEAVES ONE DEAD
  • [22] UCK CLAIMS SOLE ROLE IN KOSOVA MILITARY
  • [23] SERBIAN COURTS INDICT KOSOVARS FOR 'TERRORISM'
  • [24] SERBIAN POLICE AGAIN BLOCK REFUGEE MARCH ON BELGRADE...
  • [25] ...AS WELL AS FOOD ON MONTENEGRIN BORDER
  • [26] MORE MASS GRAVES IN KOSOVA, BOSNIA
  • [27] SFOR GUARDS RETURNING MUSLIMS
  • [28] NO SFOR GUARANTEES FOR SRPSKA
  • [29] MUSLIMS DEMAND RECOGNITION IN CROATIA
  • [30] ALBANIAN RED CROSS INCREASES PROGRAMS FOR THE POOR
  • [31] ROMANIA RETALIATES AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA ON DANUBE RIVER
  • [32] COMPROMISE REACHED ON ROMANIAN RESTITUTION LAWS
  • [33] ORTHODOX CHURCH TO BE 'NATIONAL CHURCH' IN ROMANIA
  • [34] HUNGARY TO FINANCE UNIVERSITY IN ROMANIA
  • [35] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT OPTIMISTIC ON TRANSDNIESTER CONFLICT
  • [36] FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN BULGARIA BELOW EXPECTATIONS

  • [C] END NOTE

  • [37] MISSION IMPOSSIBLE?

  • [A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

    [01] DASHNAKTSUTYUN TO SUE FORMER ARMENIAN PRESIDENT FOR LIBEL

    A

    spokesman for the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-

    Dashnaktsutyun (HHD) told RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau on 9

    September that the party is about to bring a libel suit

    against former President Levon Ter-Petrossian. Ter-Petrossian

    had said early this year that he had suspended the party's

    activities in December 1994 because it was "engaged in

    terror." Some 30 HHD activists were arrested and brought to

    trial in 1996-1997 on charges of murder and preparing a coup,

    but the court failed to endorse the prosecutor's argument

    that the party as a whole was responsible for those

    activities. The HHD was legalized and its imprisoned members

    released following Ter-Petrossian's forced resignation in

    February 1998. LF

    [02] ARMENIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY DENIES PLANNING TO SEND VOLUNTEERS

    TO DAGHESTAN

    A spokesman for the Armenian Defense Ministry

    on 10 September told RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau that there is no

    truth to reports that it plans to send volunteers to fight

    against Islamic militants in Daghestan. The Azerbaijani news

    agency Turan had reported those alleged plans on 9 September.

    Turan claimed the Armenian volunteers would pose as Russian

    citizens of Armenian origin. LF

    [03] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT OFFERS TO MEDIATE IN ABKHAZ CONFLICT

    Robert Kocharian told Caucasus Press on 9 September that he

    is prepared to mediate between Tbilisi and the leadership of

    the breakaway Republic of Abkhazia if requested to do so by

    the Georgian leadership. Kocharian noted that some 72,000

    ethnic Armenians, or 15 percent of the total population,

    lived in Abkhazia before the 1992-1993 war. He added that

    Armenia has an economic interest in the reopening of rail

    traffic from the Russian Federation via Abkhazia to Armenia.

    LF

    [04] TRIAL OF FORMER ARMENIAN INTERIOR MINISTER OPENS, ADJOURNS

    The trial of Vano Siradeghian, former interior minister and

    chairman of the board of the Armenian Pan-National Movement,

    opened in Yerevan on 9 September, but was immediately

    adjourned until 17 September in order to enable Siradeghian

    to engage a fifth defense counsel, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau

    reported. Siradeghian is charged with ordering the murder of

    several government officials and police officers from 1992 to

    1996. He has denied those charges claiming that they are

    politically motivated. LF

    [05] UNHCR TO REDUCE FUNDING FOR DISPLACED PERSONS IN AZERBAIJAN

    Meeting with President Heidar Aliev in Baku on 9 September,

    UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata said that

    funding for those Azerbaijanis forced to flee during the

    Karabakh war will be cut back, according to Turan. The UNHCR

    estimates the number of displaced persons at 800,000, while

    the Azerbaijani authorities says it exceeds one million. She

    noted that the UN has supplied $41 million in humanitarian

    aid to Azerbaijan, which is more than it granted to Armenia

    or Georgia. Such assistance is intended as a temporary

    measure pending a political solution to the conflict that

    would enable the displaced persons to return to their homes,

    Ogata said. Aliev had asked that assistance to the displaced

    persons be increased. LF

    [06] AZERBAIJAN, GEORGIA DISCUSS WESTERN OIL EXPORT PIPELINE...

    Officials from Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR and the

    Georgian International Oil Corporation issued a joint

    statement after talks in Tbilisi on 9 September reaffirming

    their shared commitment to construction of the Baku-Ceyhan

    oil export pipeline, Interfax reported. Some international

    companies engaged in Azerbaijan's sector of the Caspian are

    reportedly reluctant to make a firm commitment to that

    pipeline. But on 5 September, Georgian Foreign Ministry

    spokesman Avtandil Napetvaridze rejected as misinformation

    reports that either Georgia or Azerbaijan or "foreign

    partners" seek to revise plans for that project, according to

    ITAR-TASS. LF

    [07] ...AS NORTHERN PIPELINE CONTINUES TO OPERATE

    A senior SOCAR

    official said on 8 September that the fighting in Daghestan

    has not yet negatively affected the transportation of

    Azerbaijani oil via Daghestan to Novorossiisk, Interfax

    reported the following day. A spokesman for the Russian

    pipeline operator Transneft similarly said that the

    hostilities in Daghestan are 80 km from the railroad that

    transports Azerbaijan's crude. He said Azerbaijan exported

    1.4 million metric tons of oil via Russia during the first

    six months of this year, and 52,000 tons last month.

    Azerbaijan's quota for 1999 is 2.2 million metric tons. LF

    [08] RUSSIA ACCUSES GEORGIA OF OBSTRUCTING WORK ON MILITARY BASES

    The Russian Defense Ministry has complained to the Georgian

    government over the detention since 23 August at the Russian-

    Georgian frontier of a convoy of over 200 trucks carrying

    supplies for Russian military bases in Georgia, Interfax

    reported on 9 September. Tbilisi disclaimed responsibility

    for the delay in allowing the convoy to enter Georgia, which

    it blamed on the British ITS company that now operates

    Georgia's customs service (see also "End Note" below). LF

    [09] GEORGIAN FISHING CREW RELEASED

    Nine Georgian fishermen whose

    boat was intercepted in April in what Abkhazia claims are its

    territorial waters were exchanged on 8 September for five

    Abkhaz police held hostage in Georgia, Caucasus Press

    reported the following day quoting the independent Rustavi-2

    TV station (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 14 April and 25 August

    1999). LF

    [10] FORMER KAZAKH PREMIER BARRED FROM RUNNING IN PARLIAMENTARY

    ELECTION...

    Kazakhstan's Central Electoral Commission

    registered the list of candidates for the 10 October

    elections to the lower house of the Kazakh parliament

    submitted by the Republican People's Party of Kazakhstan

    shortly before expiry of the deadline for registration on 9

    September, RFE/RL's Almaty bureau reported. But the

    commission refused to register party chairman Akezhan

    Kazhegeldin as a candidate. The party therefore announced

    that it will boycott the poll. In a telephone interview with

    "RFE/RL Newsline" on 9 September, Kazhegeldin predicted that

    he would not be allowed to participate in the poll.

    Kazhegeldin said that the present Kazakh leadership is

    compromised by a series of major economic and foreign policy

    errors, including the sale of MiG aircraft to North Korea,

    and would rather incur the disapproval of the international

    community by restricting election participation than risk

    losing power in a free and fair poll. LF

    [11] ...WHILE HIS PARTY BLAMES AUTHORITIES FOR LAWYER'S

    DEFECTION...

    Also on 9 September, the Republican People's

    Party of Kazakhstan issued a statement in Almaty

    characterizing the decision of Kazhegeldin's lawyer, Vitalii

    Voronov, to leave the party and break all ties with the

    former premier as "an episode in the uncompromising political

    struggle which the party is waging against the ruling

    regime," according to Interfax. LF

    [12] ...AND ANOTHER OPPOSITION POLITICIAN CALLS ON LEADERSHIP TO

    RESIGN

    Seydakhmet Quttyqadam, who heads the opposition Orleu

    party, told a press conference in Almaty on 9 September that

    "the time has come for the president and the government to

    resign," according to Interfax. He added that Kazakhstan has

    "enough competent, respected, and energetic politicians" to

    lead the country out of the present crisis. Quttyqadam also

    said that the government should immediately start drafting a

    concept for protecting Kazakhstan's statehood, RFE/RL's

    bureau in the former capital reported. Both Quttyqadam and

    Kazhegeldin fear that Kazakhstan is ripe for social or

    interethnic conflict. LF

    [13] KAZAKHSTAN'S PRESIDENT WANTS CLOSER ECONOMIC COOPERATION WITH

    UKRAINE

    Meeting on 9 September in Astana with a visiting

    delegation from Dniprodzerzhinsk, Nursultan Nazarbaev

    advocated reviving traditional economic cooperation between

    the two countries, Interfax reported. Nazarbaev said that

    cooperation is currently hindered by the high railroad

    tariffs Russia imposes on foreign goods. Nazarbaev is

    scheduled to visit Kyiv next week for talks on the export of

    Kazakh crude to Ukraine for refining at the Lisichansk

    refinery. LF

    [14] NO DATE SET FOR TALKS BETWEEN KYRGYZ LEADERSHIP, GUERRILLAS

    Human Rights Movement of Kyrgyzstan chairman Tursunbek

    Akunov, who is acting as an intermediary between the

    country's leadership and the ethnic Uzbek guerrillas

    entrenched in the south of the country, told RFE/RL's Bishkek

    bureau on 10 September that no firm date has been set for

    talks on the release of the 12 hostages whom the guerrillas

    still hold. Akunov said that there are now no more than 200-

    300 Uzbek militants remaining in Batken Raion in southern

    Kyrgyzstan. He added that the four Japanese geologists and

    the Kyrgyz Interior Ministry general whom the guerrillas

    seized three weeks ago are still alive. Some 2,000 of the

    estimated 5,000 Kyrgyz villagers who fled their homes to

    avoid being taken hostage by the guerrillas have now returned

    to their villages from the town of Batken, according to

    Reuters. A further 2,400 have returned to villages in Chon-

    Alai Raion, where no guerrillas remain. LF

    [15] KYRGYZ GOVERNMENT APPROVES DRAFT BUDGET FOR 2000

    Finance

    Minister Oktyabr Mederov told a cabinet meeting on 9

    September that the draft budget for 2000 envisages a budget

    surplus equal to 2.5 percent of GDP, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau

    reported. It is the first deficit-free budget ever proposed

    by the government. Revenues are predicted to rise by 12

    percent compared with 1999, and spending will be cut by 17

    percent. Industrial output should grow by at 2 percent, and

    agricultural production by 5 percent, according to Interfax.

    The inflation rate is estimated at 12 percent. LF

    [16] UZBEKISTAN ACCUSES TAJIK OPPOSITION OF ABETTING GUERRILLAS

    The Uzbek official newspaper "Slovo Uzbekistana" on 9

    September said that members of the United Tajik Opposition

    are behind the hostage-takers in southern Kyrgyzstan, and not

    the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, as the Kyrgyz authorities

    claim, Reuters reported. The paper claimed that the

    guerrillas were armed by the UTO and are receiving supplies

    of arms and ammunition from areas of Tajikistan controlled by

    the Tajik opposition. LF

    [17] TURKMENISTAN TO AMNESTY MORE PRISONERS

    Turkmen President

    Saparmurat Niyazov told a cabinet meeting on 9 September that

    he will pardon and amnesty a further 12,000 prisoners before

    the end of 1999, RFE/RL's Turkmen Service reported. Some

    22,000 prisoners, or more than half the entire prison

    population, have been freed from the country's overcrowded

    jails in two separate amnesties earlier this year. Many of

    them were jailed for drug-related offenses. LF

    [18] JAPAN HOPES FOR STRONGER ECONOMIC TIES WITH UZBEKISTAN...

    Kioko Nakayama, Japan's ambassador in Tashkent, told

    journalists that her country is interested in expanding trade

    with Uzbekistan, which last year stood at $122 million,

    Interfax reported on 8 September. Nakayama said that 16

    Japanese companies currently have offices in Tashkent, but a

    further increase in investment is unlikely because the Uzbek

    currency is not fully convertible. Japan has invested over $1

    billion in Uzbekistan since 1995, of which the Japanese

    government invested some $334 million. Nakayama said the

    Japanese and Uzbek governments will sign agreements later

    this month under which Japan will fund communications

    programs in Uzbekistan and rebuild three airports. LF

    [19] ...WHILE IRAN ASSESSES PROSPECTS FOR TRANSPORT COOPERATION

    An Iranian government delegation headed by Highways and

    Transport Minister Mahmud Hojati-Najafabadi is currently

    visiting Tashkent, "Nezavisimaya gazeta" reported on 9

    September. The delegation will meet with representatives of

    the Uzbek government and the national railroad and airline.

    LF


    [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

    [20] MILOSEVIC PARTY: SERBIA WILL NOT INVADE KOSOVA

    Ivica Dacic,

    who is spokesman for Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's

    Socialist Party of Serbia, said in Belgrade on 9 September

    that the government will not intervene militarily in Kosova,

    the Frankfurt-based Serbian daily "Vesti" reported (see

    "RFE/RL Newsline," 8 September 1999). Dacic stressed that

    Serbia will observe its responsibilities under UN Security

    Council Resolution 1244. The Serbian authorities are

    confident that KFOR will eventually leave the province. In

    the meantime, no one should make the mistake of thinking that

    Serbia has turned its back on Kosova, he concluded. PM

    [21] MITROVICA CLASH LEAVES ONE DEAD

    One ethnic Albanian died and

    three were injured in clashes between Albanians and Serbs in

    the divided town of Mitrovica on 9 September, a KFOR

    spokesman said the following day. (Reuters reported from

    Mitrovica that 68 ethnic Albanians had been hurt.) Some 15

    French soldiers and police were also injured as they tried to

    separate the two groups. A KFOR spokesman said that it is not

    clear who fired the shots that hit the Albanians. A NATO

    official noted that Serbian paramilitaries are present in

    northern Mitrovica. Meanwhile in Prishtina, a KFOR spokesman

    confirmed that the elderly woman shot by members of the

    Kosova Liberation Army (UCK) in Suhareka recently was a Rom

    (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 September 1999). PM

    [22] UCK CLAIMS SOLE ROLE IN KOSOVA MILITARY

    General Agim Ceku,

    who is the UCK's chief-of-staff, said in Prishtina on 9

    September that NATO has an obligation to the UCK because of

    the role the guerrillas played in the recent conflict. He

    added: "Based on the agreements on the demilitarization [of

    the UCK], the transformation will continue toward creating

    some institutions in Kosova. The basis for this is the

    contribution that the UCK made to the war, a contribution

    that the international community must respect." Ceku stressed

    that the UCK "will be the only foundation on which the

    institutions of Kosova will be created." He said these

    institutions will include a "defense unit" of at least 5,000

    members to deal with natural disasters and "defend [the

    ethnic Albanians] from aggression," AP reported (see "RFE/RL

    Newsline," 9 September 1999). A NATO official said that the

    "tasks and forms [of the new force] have yet to be

    discussed." Russian officials have called the continuation of

    the UCK in any form "unacceptable." PM

    [23] SERBIAN COURTS INDICT KOSOVARS FOR 'TERRORISM'

    On 9

    September, Serbian authorities in Leskovac and Pozarevac

    indicted one and 13 ethnic Albanians, respectively, for

    "terrorism." The authorities charged that the 14 were members

    of the UCK. The Red Cross previously confirmed that more than

    2,000 Kosovars are being held in Serbian prisons (see "RFE/RL

    Newsline," 13 August 1999). Among them is student leader

    Albin Kurti. The June agreement that ended the conflict did

    not require Belgrade to free prisoners or provide information

    about them. PM

    [24] SERBIAN POLICE AGAIN BLOCK REFUGEE MARCH ON BELGRADE...

    For

    the second day in a row, Serbian police on 9 September

    prevented some 400 to 700 homeless Serbian refugees from

    Kosova from marching on Belgrade (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9

    September 1999). The refugees ignored police roadblocks in

    Kraljevo but were finally stopped in Cacak, some 30

    kilometers to the north. Milan Nenadovic, who is the

    government's deputy commissioner for refugees, told the

    refugees that their lack of shelter is a "problem caused by

    NATO bombs," London's "The Guardian" reported. He told the

    refugees: "You are in no position to make any demands." In

    Belgrade, the opposition Democratic Party charged in a

    statement that Milosevic's regime finds the refugees to be an

    embarrassing reminder of his failed policies. The next day,

    Nenadovic told AP that the refugees have agreed to split up

    into smaller groups and accept accomodation in Uzice and

    Pozega. PM

    [25] ...AS WELL AS FOOD ON MONTENEGRIN BORDER

    Serbian police are

    also maintaining a "total blockade" of the border with

    Montenegro at Kolovrat. They turn back shipments of food,

    even those that have been paid for, "Vesti" reported on 10

    September, quoting unnamed local sources. PM

    [26] MORE MASS GRAVES IN KOSOVA, BOSNIA

    Austrian forensics

    experts are excavating a site at Kotina near the Macedonian

    border, AP reported on 9 September. Some 22 ethnic Albanian

    males whom Serbian forces gunned down in March are believed

    to be buried there. In Sarajevo, a UN forensics teams has

    unearthed a mass grave at an undisclosed location in

    northeast Bosnia. A UN spokeswoman said that the grave

    contains the remains of about 60 people killed after the fall

    of Srebrenica to Serbian forces in July 1995. PM

    [27] SFOR GUARDS RETURNING MUSLIMS

    An unspecified number of NATO

    peacekeepers arrived in Kula Fazlagica, near Gacko, on 9

    September to protect 50 returning Muslim residents. The

    Muslims have been shelled and subjected to gunfire in recent

    days (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 September 1999). PM

    [28] NO SFOR GUARANTEES FOR SRPSKA

    Bosnian Serb army

    representatives took part in a meeting with SFOR and Bosnian

    federation military officials in Sarajevo on 9 September (see

    "RFE/RL Newsline," 9 September 1999). The officers from the

    Republika Srpska attended the meeting even though NATO would

    not give them the guarantees they demanded of immunity from

    arrest for war crimes. A SFOR spokesman said that such

    guarantees can come only from the Hague-based war crimes

    tribunal, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM

    [29] MUSLIMS DEMAND RECOGNITION IN CROATIA

    Spokesmen for the

    Party of Democratic Action (SDA) said in Zagreb on 9

    September that members of Croatia's Muslim population may

    boycott the upcoming parliamentary elections unless they

    receive the status of a legally recognized national minority.

    The spokesmen said that there are about 45,000 Muslims in

    Croatia, or about 1 percent of the total population.

    Observers note that it is difficult to see what the boycott

    would achieve, except to play into the hands of the governing

    Croatian Democratic Community. PM

    [30] ALBANIAN RED CROSS INCREASES PROGRAMS FOR THE POOR

    The

    Albanian Red Cross has stepped up efforts to provide food aid

    to poor families in Albania. The chairman of the Red Cross

    office in Albania, Shyqyri Subashi, told Reuters on 8

    September that his organization has distributed 23,000 food

    parcels to Albanian citizens since January. The Red Cross

    plans to give out a total of 90,000 packages by the end of

    the year. Such programs thus reach about 3 percent of

    Albania's population. FS

    [31] ROMANIA RETALIATES AGAINST YUGOSLAVIA ON DANUBE RIVER

    Transportation Minister Traian Basescu on 9 September

    announced that Romania will block all Yugoslav ships anchored

    in the Black Sea port of Constanta and will prohibit Yugoslav

    vessels from sailing to Constanta on the Danube-Black Sea

    channel. The measure is being taken in retaliation for

    Yugoslavia's blocking of Romanian vessels near Novi Sad and

    prohibition on Romanian vessels to the Dunav-Tisa-Dunav

    bypass of the Danube River, which is blocked by wrecks of

    bridges destroyed by NATO air strikes, RFE/RL's Bucharest

    bureau reported. Earlier on 9 September, Bulgarian

    Transportation Minister Wilhelm Kraus proposed a trilateral

    Bulgarian-Romanian-Ukrainian meeting to discuss introducing

    reciprocal steps against Yugoslavia, BTA reported. MS

    [32] COMPROMISE REACHED ON ROMANIAN RESTITUTION LAWS

    Following a

    meeting of leaders of parliamentary parties with President

    Emil Constantinescu on 9 September, presidential spokesman

    Razvan Popescu said that opinions "have been bridged" and

    that the ongoing parliamentary debates on restitution will

    now be "a lot easier." He said the participants agreed on a

    three-week deadline for the Senate to end debates on the

    restitution of property confiscated by the communists and

    incorporated in the state farms, following which the senate

    is to begin debates on the law on restitution or compensation

    for real estate that has already been approved by the Chamber

    of Deputies, Romanian Radio reported. MS

    [33] ORTHODOX CHURCH TO BE 'NATIONAL CHURCH' IN ROMANIA

    The

    government on 9 September approved a draft bill on religious

    cults and religious freedom. The bill stipulates that the

    Romanian Orthodox Church is the country's "National Church,"

    Romanian radio reported. A spokesman for the Romanian

    Patriarchate said the stipulation does not grant any

    privileges to the Orthodox Church and only reflects the fact

    that this is "the Church of the majority of this nation." MS

    [34] HUNGARY TO FINANCE UNIVERSITY IN ROMANIA

    Tibor Szabo,

    chairman of the Office for Hungarians Beyond Borders, said in

    Cluj on 10 September that Hungary will contribute 2 billion

    forint ($8.3 million) for the financing of a Hungarian-

    language private university in Romania, Mediafax reported.

    Szabo said that it has not yet been decided in what

    Transylvanian locality the university is to be set up,

    adding, however, that Cluj is "an important recipient of

    allocations" offered by the Hungarian government. MS

    [35] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT OPTIMISTIC ON TRANSDNIESTER CONFLICT

    President Petru Lucinschi on 9 September told the OSCE

    mission chief to Moldova, William Hill, that he is optimistic

    about finding a solution to the dispute with the

    Transdniester separatists, Infotag reported. Lucinschi said

    that the accords reached at the Kyiv July summit stipulate

    that the conflict must be settled on the principle of a

    single state, with a single economic, legal, and defense

    structure and that the dialogue must now proceed on that

    basis. During his visit to Moscow earlier this month, he

    said, the possibility of setting up a Russian base in the

    Transdniester was not discussed, as this would be contrary to

    the constitutional provision that Moldova is a neutral state.

    He said that the Russian leadership confirmed its backing of

    settling the dispute with the separatists by granting

    Transdniester a special status "within an indivisible

    Moldova." MS

    [36] FOREIGN INVESTMENT IN BULGARIA BELOW EXPECTATIONS

    Total

    direct foreign investment in the first half of 1999 amounts

    to $320.8 million, almost half of the expected $600 million,

    BTA reported on 9 September, citing Foreign Investment Agency

    chairman Ilian Vasiliev. Vasiliev said that compared to 1998,

    direct foreign investment was 30 percent higher. He said that

    the agency still hopes that by end of 1999, the total figure

    will be $1.2 billion. Germany is the leading investor in

    Bulgaria, followed by Cyprus, the U.K., and Ireland. Most of

    the investments (50 percent) are concentrated in Sofia. MS


    [C] END NOTE

    [37] MISSION IMPOSSIBLE?

    By Liz Fuller

    Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov toured the capitals

    of the three South Caucasus states last week in what many

    observers both in those countries and elsewhere saw as a

    desperate attempt on Moscow's part to halt, if not reverse,

    the ongoing erosion of its influence in the region. Ivanov's

    stated objective of establishing "all-encompassing,

    equitable, and mutually advantageous" relations with all

    three states in the region is, however, unrealistic and

    untenable, given the suspicions two of those countries

    (Azerbaijan and Georgia) harbor concerning Russia's motives

    and given the unresolved conflict between Armenia and

    Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.

    The existing tensions in Moscow's relations with

    Azerbaijan and Georgia derive from those two countries' pro-

    Western orientation and from their belief that Moscow has

    sought to manipulate the Karabakh and Abkhaz conflicts in

    order to weaken them. Georgia and Azerbaijan have both made

    no secret of their desire to join NATO. Georgia is seeking

    the closure--on its own terms--of at least two of the four

    Russian military bases on its soil, while Azerbaijan wants

    Moscow to reduce its defense cooperation with Armenia, in

    particular by demanding the return of several billion dollars

    worth of weaponry clandestinely supplied to that country from

    1994-1996. Moreover, both Georgia and Azerbaijan announced

    earlier this year that they have no interest in renewing

    their membership in the CIS Collective Security Treaty.

    In addition, those two countries are founding members of

    the GUUAM alignment, which many Russian politicians believe

    is intended to sabotage the CIS from within. Another priority

    of the GUUAM member states that is likewise anathema to

    Moscow is cooperation in exporting Caspian oil and gas to

    international markets via countries other than the Russian

    Federation.

    In talks with Ivanov in Baku on 2 September,

    Azerbaijan's President Heidar Aliev harshly criticized what

    he termed Russia's differentiated approach to relations with

    Armenia and Azerbaijan and its "passive" policy toward the

    South Caucasus. That region, Aliev said, is no less strategic

    than the Balkans. Aliev told Ivanov that Baku expects Moscow

    to galvanize the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group to find a

    settlement to the Karabakh conflict, adding that his own

    direct talks with his Armenian counterpart, Robert Kocharian,

    are no substitute for such mediation. (Ivanov had said before

    his meeting with Aliev that he considers those direct talks

    "the best way" to resolve the conflict.) At the same time,

    Aliev noted that Moscow's increasingly close military

    cooperation with Armenia "is complicating the negotiating

    process on Nagorno-Karabakh."

    Ivanov, for his part, replied that Moscow "understands

    perfectly" that its defense cooperation with Armenia is a

    sensitive issue for Azerbaijan and the entire South Caucasus,

    stressing that it is not aimed at Azerbaijan or any other

    third country. He called for closer contacts between the

    defense and other power ministries of Russia and Azerbaijan.

    Ivanov also said that Moscow does not intend to favor either

    Armenia or Azerbaijan in seeking a solution to the Karabakh

    conflict.

    Whether Ivanov made any concrete concession to specific

    Azerbaijani concerns is unclear. After the talks, however,

    Aliev struck a more conciliatory note, describing bilateral

    relations as "friendly." He added that, despite

    disagreements, Baku will continue its strategic policy of

    strengthening cooperation with Russia.

    In Tbilisi two days later, Georgian officials similarly

    made it clear to Ivanov that they consider the current state

    of bilateral relations unacceptable and that Moscow is to

    blame for that state of affairs. Parliamentary speaker Zurab

    Zhvania pointed out, for example, that for five years the

    Russian State Duma has declined to ratify the 1994 Georgian-

    Russian agreement on friendship and cooperation. But, as in

    Baku, it was the Russian military that proved the fundamental

    bone of contention. Some Georgian opposition parliamentary

    deputies, together with the chairman of the parliamentary

    Defense and Security Committee, Revaz Adamia, have proposed

    that at least two of the existing four Russian bases in

    Georgia should be closed. The U.S. has indicated that it may

    be prepared to meet part of the cost of doing so.

    But some Russian politicians have attempted to call

    Tbilisi's bluff. Adamia told the Russian newspaper "Vremya

    MN" last month that former Russian Premier Sergei Stepashin

    responded to Tbilisi's demand to reduce its military presence

    in Georgia by proposing to close at first the Russian

    military facility in Akhalkalaki. That base is virtually the

    sole employer for most of the disaffected Armenian population

    of that region.

    Ivanov made it clear that as far as Moscow is concerned,

    a withdrawal of its troops from Georgia is not on the agenda,

    since their presence there "serves Russia's interests." There

    were no reports on how Georgian officials responded to his

    offer to raise the level of military cooperation between

    Russia and Georgia to that between Russia and Armenia.

    By contrast, Ivanov expressed satisfaction after his

    talks in Yerevan with President Kocharian and Foreign

    Minister Vartan Oskanian with the level of cooperation

    between countries that he termed "strategic partners."

    In all three capitals, Ivanov discussed the situation

    throughout the Caucasus, stressing the need for cooperation

    between the countries and republics there to restore

    stability to the entire region. But the priorities of those

    various republics and states are so diverse and the

    centripetal process in Chechnya so far advanced, that

    stability appears utopian. And Ivanov's statement that "it is

    impossible to settle conflicts in this region without Russia

    or against its interests" will inevitably be construed by

    many politicians in the North and South Caucasus as a threat

    rather than a promise.

    10-09-99


    Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
    URL: http://www.rferl.org


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