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Thursday, 15 August 2024
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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 202, 99-10-15Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 3, No. 202, 15 October 1999CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN NATIONALIST PARTY WARNS AGAINST KARABAKHCONCESSIONSHrant Khachatrian, one of the leaders of the hard-line Right and Accord parliamentary bloc, warned Armenian President Robert Kocharian on 14 October not to agree to any peace deal that does not provide for the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic to become fully independent or be unified with Armenia, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Khachatrian warned that if Kocharian does agree to major concessions he may share the fate of his predecessor, Levon Ter-Petrossian, who was forced to resign in February 1998 (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 3 February 1998). Right and Accord, which has eight seats in the parliament, is backed by former Karabakh Defense Minister Samvel Babayan. LF [02] MOVEMENT IN SUPPORT OF FORMER AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT GAINSMOMENTUMThe committee to protect the rights of exiled former President Ayaz Mutalibov has collected 150,000 signatures in support of its demands to allow him to return to Azerbaijan, Turan reported on 14 October, citing the daily "Yeddi gun" (see "RFE/RL Caucasus Report," Vol. 2, No. 35, 2 September 1999). Committee chairman Abdul Mahmudov said that on average its members collect an additional 10,000 signatures a day. The present Azerbaijani authorities have accused Mutalibov of theft of arms and ammunition, instigating and participating in mass public disturbances, and complicity in the alleged coup attempts against President Aliev in October 1994 and March 1995. LF [03] FOUR UN HOSTAGES RELEASED IN WESTERN GEORGIATheunidentified gunmen who seized six UN observers and their interpreter in the Kodori gorge on 13 October upped their ransom demand from $200,000 to $250,000 on 14 October and threatened to shoot one of their captives. Later, however, they unconditionally released four of the hostages. Georgian parliamentary speaker Zurab Zhvania said on 15 October that no ransom had been paid and that he is sure the remaining hostages will soon be freed. He added that the gunmen are negotiating security guarantees with the Georgian leadership, ITAR-TASS reported. LF [04] KAZAKH OPPOSITION QUERIES OFFICIAL POLL RETURNSOppositioncandidates continue to complain to the OSCE monitoring mission of irregularities during the 10 October election to the lower chamber of Kazakhstan's parliament, Reuters reported on 14 October. The agency quoted an OSCE spokesman as saying the mission has "serious concerns" about the validity of the results in the three districts of Almaty. Petr Svojk, who heads Kazakhstan's opposition Azamat (Citizen) Party, told Reuters that the preliminary results are "a catastrophe for democracy in our country." According to the outcome of the party list vote, Azamat failed to overcome the 7 percent threshold to qualify for parliamentary representation. Communist Party leader Serikbolsyn Abdildin said the voting procedure was more democratic than during the January presidential poll but that the voting tallies are being revised to ensure that the leadership's "favorite" candidates receive parliamentary mandates. LF [05] KAZAKHSTAN'S PRESIDENT COMPLETES CABINET RESHUFFLENursultanNazarbaev on 14 October appointed Vladimir Shkolnik as minister of industry, trade and energy, and Nikolai Radostovets as minister of labor and social protection, Interfax reported. The agriculture, justice, and interior ministers retained their posts in the new cabinet. Nazarbaev began a short vacation later the same day. LF [06] NEGOTIATOR SAYS ONE KYRGYZ HOSTAGE KILLED...Kyrgyzparliamentary deputy Tursunbai Bakir Uulu, who recently secured the release of five of the 13 hostages seized by guerrillas in southern Kyrgyzstan in late August, told journalists in Bishkek on 14 October that the guerrillas had killed one of the Kyrgyz hostages before 4 October, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. He did not give the name of the hostage allegedly killed. Bakir Uulu advocated talks between the Uzbek government and the opposition Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, to which the hostage-takers reportedly belong. He also said that the Japanese government should accede to the kidnappers' demand to send a representative to negotiate terms for the release of the four hostage Japanese geologists, whose lives he said are in danger. LF [07] ...AS GUERRILLAS' LEADERS THREATEN REPRISALSBakir Uulubrought a further message, dated 6 October, to the Kyrgyz authorities from the leadership of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan announcing its decision to release the hostages in stages and to declare a unilateral cease-fire. The statement threatened reprisals against Kyrgyz leaders who cooperate with the "dictatorial regime" of Uzbek President Islam Karimov. LF [08] DEMANDS ON KYRGYZSTAN'S BUDGET MULTIPLYIn his annualaddress to the parliament on 14 October, Kyrgyzstan's President Askar Akaev vowed that the government will pay all wage and pension arrears before the end of 1999, RFE/RL's bureau in the Kyrgyz capital reported. He said that the guerrilla incursions into southern Kyrgyzstan over the past two months and the military response to that threat have cost a total of 200 million soms (about $5 million) and that 1.5 billion soms must be spent on national security over the next four years. The previous day, Finance Minister Sultan Mederov told a cabinet meeting that the draft budget for 2000 must be amended to provide an additional 200 million soms for the newly created Batken Oblast. He estimated wage costs for the region's 160 administrators alone at 12 million soms. In addition, Kyrgyzstan must repay some $80 million next year on loans from Russia and international financial organizations. LF [09] TAJIK OPPOSITION MAY SUSPEND COOPERATION WITH GOVERNMENTUnited Tajik Opposition (UTO) leader Said Abdullo Nuri toldjournalists in Dushanbe on 14 October that the UTO may suspend its participation in the work of the National Reconciliation Commission to protest the authorities' restrictions on opposition activities, ITAR-TASS and Asia Plus-Blitz reported. Nuri said that at a meeting the previous day, he had handed to President Imomali Rakhmonov documentation proving that local administrators had violated the election law by preventing three opposition politicians from collecting the required number of signatures to register their candidacy in the 6 November presidential poll (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 12 and 13 October 199). Nuri urged Rakhmonov to ensure that the poll is democratic. Also on 14 October, a group of investigators from the Dushanbe branch of the Tajik Interior Ministry were subjected to artillery fire in the capital, ITAR-TASS reported. Six police officers were wounded in the ensuing shootout. LF [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[10] KOSOVARS TRY TO STORM BRIDGE IN MITROVICASome 3,000 ethnicAlbanians on 15 October tried to force their way across the Ibar River bridge that links the Albanian and Serbian parts of Mitrovica, Reuters reported. French KFOR troops and Italian riot police fired stun grenades and tear gas to force the Kosovars back, according to AP. Other KFOR soldiers fired into the air to warn Albanians and Serbs alike to stay back from the bridge. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Ethnic Albanians demand an end to what has become in effect a partition of Mitrovica into a northern Serbian sector and a southern Albanian one. PM [11] ANNAN CALLS FOR MULTI-ETHNIC KOSOVAUN Secretary-GeneralKofi Annan said in Prishtina on 14 October that his goal is to promote a multi-ethnic Kosova. He added that the UN is "not here to prepare the people for independence." Local media have recently suggested that the UN will soon share administrative authority with Hashim Thaci of the former Kosova Liberation Army, which seeks independence. Annan is on a Balkan visit that has already taken him to Bosnia. PM [12] ALBANIA'S MILO WARNS AGAINST NEGLECTING KOSOVAForeignMinister Pascal Milo said in Tirana on 14 October that the international community should devote as much energy and attention to the post-war reconstruction and development of Kosova as NATO did to its military action against Serbia in the spring. He also appealed to Kosovars not to engage in violence lest they jeopardize their chances of eventually achieving a political settlement in the province, dpa reported. PM [13] TURKISH PRESIDENT VISITS KOSOVASuleyman Demirel toldrepresentatives of Kosova's 60,000 ethnic Turks in Mamusa on 15 October that they should live in harmony with their Serbian and Albanian neighbors. He also visited Turkish troops stationed nearby. Kosova was part of the Ottoman Empire for nearly 500 years. Many of the province's ethnic Turks have long resented what they regard as attempts by ethnic Albanians to assimilate them. PM [14] NEW LICENSE PLATES FOR KOSOVAUN police began issuing newlicense plates in Kosova on 15 October. The aim is to control a growing market in stolen cars, AP reported. Most cars have no license plates. Owners often claim that Serbian forces confiscated their license plates and registration papers, but UN officials believe that many cars were stolen in Western Europe or from local Serbs. PM [15] SERBS MOVE PRISHTINA UNIVERSITY FACULTIESThe Serbiangovernment decided on 14 October to "temporarily" move the Serbian faculties of Prishtina University to northern Mitrovica and Krusevac, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM [16] SERBIAN OPPOSITION AGREES ON ELECTION TERMSRepresentativesof most Serbian opposition parties signed an agreement in Belgrade on 14 October in which they set down their demands to the government for holding early elections (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 14 October 1999). The opposition wants a round- table with the authorities to discuss an early ballot but did not set a deadline for the government to respond. This is the first time in 10 years that the opposition has agreed on a common electoral platform, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. Elsewhere, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj said that his Radical Party is willing to discuss key issues with other parties. He did not elaborate. PM [17] SERBIAN PRESIDENT STONED IN NISSome 6,000 angry protestershurled stones at Serbian President Milan Milutinovic in Nis on 14 October. He reopened a bridge damaged by NATO air strikes in the spring of 1999. Milutinovic, who is an indicted war criminal, said "the reconstruction of Serbia does not mean only rebuilding but also making changes. [We need to introduce] a modern market economy and inter-ethnic equality, and to strengthen and develop democratic institutions," Reuters reported. Protesters booed him in June in Nis, which is Serbia's third largest city and an opposition stronghold. PM [18] UN SAYS NATO CAUSED NO ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE IN SERBIAPekka Haavisto, who heads UN environmental investigators inthe Balkans, said in Stockholm on 14 October that NATO's spring air campaign did not produce an ecological catastrophe, as the Milosevic regime has claimed. Haavisto noted that Serbia was already a heavily polluted country before the war. He added that previous pollution and the effects of bombing have produced dangerous situations in Pancevo, Kragujevac, Novi Sad, and Bor. PM [19] SFOR PEACEKEEPERS STONED IN MOSTARAngry ethnic Croatiancivilians pelted an unspecified number of SFOR troops with stones in Mostar on 14 October, injuring four of the soldiers. At least one civilian was hurt, but the circumstances are unclear, Reuters reported. The peacekeepers were searching a weather station, police building, television station offices, and other unspecified sites for illegal weapons. A NATO spokesman said in Sarajevo that "local authorities have consistently failed to tackle illegal activities, making it necessary for SFOR to act in the Mostar area...to ensure the peaceful establishment of a multiethnic and law-abiding community in the Mostar area," AP reported. The spokesman provided no details of the mission. Western Herzegovina, of which Mostar is the main city, has traditionally been the home of the most militant Croatian nationalists in the Balkans. Since 1995, local officials and armed paramilitaries have doggedly resisted the international community's attempts to enable Muslims to return to their homes in western Herzegovina. PM [20] PETRITSCH CALLS ON BOSNIAN OFFICIALS TO VACATE APARTMENTSAspokeswoman for the international community's Wolfgang Petritsch said in Sarajevo on 14 October that local politicians who live in apartments belonging to other people should vacate the premises. She noted that such a move would demonstrate their personal commitment to respecting the Dayton peace agreement, which guarantees the right of refugees to go home. Petritsch's office receives "daily" complaints from persons wanting to return to their apartments but who are unable to do so because government officials are living in them, she added. The process of enabling refugees to go home would receive a great boost if officials and government workers would set an example, "Oslobodjenje" commented. PM [21] TUDJMAN SEEKING SPECIAL TREATMENT AT VATICAN?CroatianPresident Franjo Tudjman has asked that Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who is the Vatican's "foreign minister," personally administer Holy Communion to him and his party in the crypt beneath St. Peter's when Tudjman visits Italy later in October, "Jutarnji list" reported on 15 October. The Zagreb daily cited "Church sources" as saying that it is not common for visiting foreign dignitaries to "order" a Mass, to specify who is to say it, or to ask for it to be held in the crypt. The Vatican has included a Mass in St. Peter's in Tudjman's schedule "in order not to have a diplomatic scandal," the newspaper added. The schedule does not give any particulars regarding the Mass. Tudjman uses Roman Catholic events for his own political purposes but does not claim to be a religious man. He has long sought to keep the Church from acquiring a voice in politics. PM [22] CROATIAN GOVERNMENT WANTS MORE TV AIR TIME?A majority of themembers of the government said they oppose Croatian public television's (HRT) rule that news coverage given to individual government officials be counted as part of the air time allotted to their respective political parties. Foreign Minister Mate Granic, who disagreed with his colleagues, said that HRT's policy is fully in keeping with international standards, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. HRT is widely regarded as a mouthpiece of the governing Croatian Democratic Community. PM [23] CROATIAN OIL COMPANY TO CALL IN DEBTSThe state-owned oilmonopoly INA is seeking to call in debts, which now exceed $200 million, AP reported on 14 October. The biggest debtors are the state-owned electric company, which owes $28.6 million, and the Petrokemija plant, whose debts amount to $21.4 million. It is unclear what INA will do if customers fail to pay. The oil company itself has made losses of more than $58 million in the past eight months and has debts amounting to $114 million. PM [24] ROMANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER IN CHINAAndrei Plesu met withChinese Premier Zhu Rongji and Foreign Minister Tang Jianxuan in Beijing on 14 October, the BBC reported, citing Xinhua. According to the Chinese news agency, Plesu said Romania "firmly supports" China's position on both Taiwan and Tibet (Plesu had visited the latter before arriving in China). Mediafax, however, quoted him as saying that relations between Romania and China remain good "despite differences." Plesu noted that economic relations are "lagging behind" the two countries' political relations. Plesu and Tang signed an agreement for a "$600,000 non-refundable credit" to Romania, according to Mediafax. MS [25] ROMANIAN PARLIAMENT DECIDES TO COMPENSATE ANTI-COMMUNISTGUERRILLASThe Chamber of Deputies on 14 October approved a law on the rehabilitation of and compensation to those who used military means to resist the Communist regime. Under the law, that compensation will be equal to that received by those who were political prisoners under communism. The law was drafted by 17 deputies representing the National Peasant Party Christian Democratic and has still to be approved by the Senate. Observers note that the law is controversial because many anti-Communist guerrillas of the late 1940s and the 1950s were Iron Guard members or sympathizers. Persons (or their descendants) eligible for compensation must first apply for rehabilitation. If they are rehabilitated, all confiscated property must be returned to them (or their descendants). Those executed or killed in prison after being captured are to be granted the title of "Martyr-Hero." MS [26] MOLDOVAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OKAYS INITIATIVE TO AMENDCONSTITUTIONThe Constitutional Court on 14 October ruled that the initiative of 39 parliamentary deputies to amend the basic law is in accordance with constitutional provisions, Infotag reported. Under existing legislation, the initiative can be moved in the legislature six months after the court's ruling. The aim of the initiative is to stop President Petru Lucinschi's drive to switch to a presidential system by strengthening the powers of the government. The proposed amendments stipulate that the government will have the right to ask the parliament to pass legislation under emergency procedure. In addition, the parliament will be able to grant the government temporary legislative powers. MS [27] BULGARIAN PREMIER SAYS COUNTRY MAY HAVE TO AMENDCONSTITUTIONAddressing the parliament on 14 October, Ivan Kostov said Bulgaria may have to amend its constitution "because some of its provisions do not allow access to the EU," AP and BTA reported. Kostov did not specify which articles of the basic document must be amended, but earlier he had suggested that it may be necessary to strike the provision forbidding the sale of land to foreigners. Kostov added that the problem of the Kozloduy nuclear plant will have "to be sorted out" with the EU, saying "we have no option..., we must not miss this chance." MS [C] END NOTE[28] AUSTRIA'S EX-COMMUNIST NEIGHBORS RESPOND TO HAIDER'SELECTORAL SUCCESSby Michael Shafir The electoral success of Joerg Haider's far-right, populist, and xenophobic Freedom Party in Austria's 3 October parliamentary elections triggered different reactions from that country's former communist neighbors. Only Istvan Csurka, leader of Hungary's Justice and Life Party, dared go as far as to openly voice satisfaction, saying he was "delighted" with the results because "all nations have a right to defend their own living space and their particular way of life against foreigners." In this context, Csurka used the Hungarian equivalent of the Nazi term "Lebensraum," for which he had been harshly criticized in the past. And he suggested that the Austrian elections might foreshadow Hungary's future political scene, in which "the liberals could be swept out from the parliament." The event was ignored by like-minded parties elsewhere in the region. In Slovakia, the National Party (SNS) was preoccupied with an internal power struggle that saw its former leader, Jan Slota, replaced by Anna Malinkova, a woman--the ultimate insult to the macho Slota. But as the daily "Pravda" remarked on 6 October, Malinkova is much closer to Haider than the coarse Slota ever was. And like Haider, she will probably embark on a process of making the party's image more sophisticated, while conserving its ultra- nationalist, anti-minority, and anti- European integration postures. In the Czech Republic, the anti-German postures of Miroslav Sladek's Republican Party (SPR-RSC) would not allow that group to display pro-Haider sympathies. After all, the SPR-RSC was dealt a serious blow when it was revealed that, its rhetoric notwithstanding, the party had been financed from the purse of the German ultra-right Republicans. At the time of the Austrian elections, the SPR-RSC was preparing for a visit by the leader of France's National Front chairman, Jean Marie Le Pen, which began on 14 October. Haider's rhetoric against European integration (or, as Csurka calls it, his "anti-globalism"), his insistence on property restitution to German-speakers forced to leave Austria's neighboring countries, and his demands that the status of the largely insignificant German minorities there be improved are reason enough to make those countries' governments apprehensive. Even without Haider, those countries' relations with Vienna are strained: Austria threatens to veto EU accession unless the controversial nuclear plants at Krsko (Slovenia), Temelin (Czech Republic), and Mochovce and Jaslovske Bohunice (Slovakia) are immediately shut down. And there is also the problematic issue of the 1945 Benes decrees, which an Austrian government that includes the Freedom Party would pursue far more rigorously than has been the case to date. Indeed, on 13 October, in London, Haider said the Czechs' admission to the EU could not proceed before they abrogated those decrees. Just as applause for Haider came only from Budapest, so did the strongest criticism. Prime Minister Viktor Orban on 6 October said that Haider's position against EU enlargement "is in conflict with Hungary's own interests." "To put it bluntly," he continued, "we are interested in an Austrian government coalition made up of parties...supporting Hungary's EU membership." Reactions from Slovenia were initially more restrained. Foreign Minister Boris Frlec on 4 October said he feared the elections "could have awe-inspiring consequences, particularly for the Slovenian ethnic minority" in Austria. But two days later, Premier Janez Drnovsek expressed the hope that Haider may "turn out to be more pragmatic and reasonable than the initial impression suggests." By 12 October, however, Deputy Foreign Minister Franko Juri was calling Haider's post-electoral statements on Austrian-Slovenian relations "blackmail." Intimidated by the prospect of an Austrian veto against its EU membership, Slovak Foreign Ministry State Secretary Jan Figel on 5 October said he does not expect Haider to enter the government but Bratislava "will discuss [contentious issues] with any democratically elected government." Jaroslav Volf, leader of the Social Democratic Party had said the previous day that Haider's electoral success "could not please him" but it at least demonstrated that "political extremism does not apply to Slovakia alone." The bluntest comment came from Estonia. Alluding to criticism of his country's treatment of the Russian minority, Foreign Minister Toomas Hendrik Ilves commented on 11 October that "if a political force similar to the Freedom Party had come second in elections in Estonia, one can well imagine what a row the OSCE would have made." In the Czech Republic, there was unexpected "fallout" from the Austrian elections. On 4 October, Premier Milos Zeman remarked that the vote demonstrated that a party advocating "xenophobe and racialist moods" can garner serious support even in an economically prosperous country and that this was "food for thought." Freedom Union Deputy Chairman Petr Mares volunteered the comment that a de-facto two-party coalition has also emerged in the Czech Republic and that, as in Austria, this may push the electorate to support a radical alternative. Only in the Czech case, Communist leader Miroslav Grebenicek would play the role of Haider. Mares's ideas were unexpectedly embraced by Civic Democratic Party (ODS) leader Vaclav Klaus. He said that the elections' outcome demonstrated that Austria's 13-year-old "grand coalition" of the Social Democratic Party and People's Party has "lasted too long." While refraining from criticizing the results, Klaus was ready to use them to embark on ending a partnership that was only 16 months old but, doubtless according to his viewpoint, has also "lasted too long." The minority government of the Social Democrats has been ruling by the grace of the ODS. That grace's time is now up. Vienna politics have thrown Prague politics into turmoil, but not for the first time in history. And that, to quote Zeman, is indeed "food for thought." 15-10-99 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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