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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 245, 99-12-20Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 3, No. 245, 20 December 1999CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN PREMIER, REPUBLICAN PARTY DENY SEEKING TO OUSTPRESIDENTAram Sargsian told journalists on 18 December that his differences with President Robert Kocharian have been exaggerated, and that he is not pushing for Kocharian's resignation, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. He also rejected media speculation that the 15 December detention of former presidential aide Aleksan Harutiunian was politically motivated (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 16 December 1999). Sargsian argued that even if evidence is found linking Harutiunian to the 27 October Armenian parliament shootings, it would not necessarily mean Kocharian too was involved. Also on 18 December, Andranik Markarian, chairman of the Republican Party, one of the two members of the ruling Miasnutiun coalition, affirmed that party's support for Kocharian provided that he continues to implement his pre-election program. On 17 December Kocharian met with representatives of the People's Party, Miasnutiun's other member, to seek their support in ending political tensions. LF [02] RUSSIAN AIRCRAFT AGAIN TARGET NORTHERN GEORGIACombat aircraftentered Georgian airspace on 18 December and dropped bombs near the village of Shatiliti, close to Georgia's frontier with Chechnya, Caucasus Press reported. No damage or injuries were reported. It is the third such incident in recent months (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 10 August and 18 November 1999). LF [03] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT SAYS STALIN SHOULD BE REBURIED IN GEORGIAOn20 December, Eduard Shevardnadze in his traditional Monday radio broadcast characterized Joseph Stalin as "a unique phenomenon" whose historical significance is "difficult to overestimate," Caucasus Press reported. Shevardnadze noted Stalin's contribution to the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, but also added that the "Stalin phenomenon" demonstrates "the advantages of democracy over totalitarianism." Shevardnadze said he thinks that all prominent Georgian leaders buried outside Georgia should be reinterred in Georgian soil. He mentioned specifically Stalin, who is buried in the Kremlin wall, Noe Zhordania, President of the Georgian Democratic Republic, whose grave is in France, and Zviad Gamsakhurdia, who is buried in Grozny. LF [04] RUSSIA TO RESUME SUPPLYING GEORGIA WITH GASGazprom and ITERArepresentatives agreed during talks in Tbilisi on 17 December with Georgia's Minister of State Vazha Lortkipanidze to resume normal gas supplies to Georgia for a period of three months, until March 2000, ITAR-TASS reported. Supplies were halved on 3 December because of Georgia's failure to pay for previous deliveries. Georgia's $60 million debt to ITERA must be paid in full by May 2000. LF [05] NEW TAJIK PRIME MINISTER APPOINTEDTajikistan's PresidentImomali Rakhmonov on 20 December appointed Akil Akilov as Tajikistan's new premier, dpa and Reuters reported. Akilov, who is 55, graduated from a Moscow Construction Institute and from 1976-1992 served as a Communist Party functionary. In 1993 he was appointed Construction Minister, from 1994-1996 he served as deputy prime minister, and since June 1996 he has been deputy governor of Leninabad Oblast, according to Asia Plus-Blitz. In a press statement after his appointment, Akilov endorsed Rakhmonov's policies. LF [06] TAJIKISTAN HOSTS MEETING ON REGIONAL ECONOMIC COOPERATIONAddressing the prime ministers of the Central Asian EconomicUnion member states (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) in Dushanbe on 17 December, President Rakhmonov expressed his regret that regional economic integration is proceeding only slowly, Asia Plus-Blitz reported. The premiers discussed, and created a working group to address, the problem of joint recycling of nuclear waste, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported quoting Premier Amangeldi Muraliev. The previous day, Rakhmonov had met separately with Kazakhstan's Prime Minister Qasymzhomart Toqaev to discuss various joint economic projects, including extraction of mineral resources and bauxite. Also on 16 December, Toqaev and his Tajik counterpart Yahyo Azimov signed two agreements on military cooperation and several bilateral economic agreements, including one on the mutual convertibility of the two countries' currencies. LF [07] TURKMENISTAN, RUSSIA REACH AGREEMENT ON GAS SALESAfter a two-year hiatus, Gazprom head Rem Vyakhirev and Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov reached agreement during talks in Ashgabat on 17 December on a resumption of Turkmen natural gas sales to Russia, Russian agencies reported. The agreement is for Russia to purchase 20 billion cubic meters of gas at a price of $36 per 1,000 cubic meters. Forty percent of that sum will be paid in cash and the remainder in food and consumer goods, according to AP. Niyazov had initially demanded $42 per 1,000 cubic meters. Vyakhirev and Niyazov had twice failed to reach agreement on a price for Turkmen gas, in August 1997 and January 1998, (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 8 August 1997 and 15 January 1998). Interfax reported that Niyazov also invited Gazprom to participate in construction of the planned Trans-Caspian gas pipeline via Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkey. LF [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[08] SFOR NABS BOSNIAN SERB COMMANDEROn 20 December, NATOpeacekeepers in Banja Luka arrested Stanislav Galic, who was a commander of the Bosnian Serb corps that besieged Sarajevo from 1992 to 1995. SFOR troops blocked his car, broke a window to drag him out, and wrestled him to the ground before taking him away, AP reported. Since the war, Galic has been an adviser to hard- line leader Nikola Poplasen. PM [09] CROATIAN INTELLIGENCE SERVICE REJECTS SFOR CHARGESOn 17December, SFOR deputy commander General Charles-Henri de Monchy said that the Croatian intelligence HIS has tried to subvert his forces by conducting espionage operations in Bosnia and by recruiting SFOR interpreters as informants (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 November 1999). Two days later, HIS issued a statement in Zagreb in which it denied the charges. The statement stressed that Croatia actively cooperates with NATO. HIS suggested that unnamed persons have "manipulated SFOR for political purposes," Reuters reported. Milan Kovac, who is a candidate for the governing Croatian Democratic Community in the upcoming parliamentary elections, made a similar statement. In Mostar, Ivica Primorac, who heads the Herzegovinian Croat intelligence service (SNS), denied that his organization has a formal cooperation agreement with HIS, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. The SFOR general told "Jutarnji list" of 20 December that he stands by his charges. He stressed that he blames HIS and not the Croatian government. PM [10] EU, U.S. WANT SERBIAN OPPOSITION TO HAVE JOINT PLANDragoslavAvramovic, who is former head of the National Bank and the man most often tipped to head an opposition-led government, said in Belgrade on 19 December that the EU and U.S. have given the fragmented opposition a two-month deadline to work out a joint strategy to end the rule of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. Avramovic added that he does not "know exactly why two months, but that was clearly stressed," AP reported. German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer presented the demand to "define a program for joint political action" to opposition leaders at a meeting with G-8 foreign ministers in Berlin on 17 December. The ministers pledged humanitarian aid for opposition-run municipalities and unspecified aid for Montenegro. They turned down a request by opposition leaders to lift sanctions on Serbia. The opposition politicians stressed that the sanctions hurt ordinary people. The G-8 ministers said that sanctions will go only after free elections, "Danas" reported. PM [11] SERBIAN OPPOSITION ENDS PROTEST RALLIESNearly three monthsafter the rallies began, leaders of the opposition coalition Alliance for Change held the last of their daily protest rallies in Belgrade on 18 December. Avramovic told a crowd of about 400 people that he personally wanted to continue holding the meetings, but that the majority of Alliance leaders voted to end them, at least temporarily. The BBC reported that the decision to stop the rallies is a tacit admission by the opposition of defeat in their attempt to force Milosevic from office through popular protests. Most Belgrade residents remained apathetic or were preoccupied with making ends meet, Reuters added. PM [12] MORE PUNISHMENTS FOR INDEPENDENT SERBIAN MEDIAOfficials of theindependent ABC Grafika printing company said in Belgrade on 18 December that tax office officials confiscated large amounts of Grafika's electronic equipment in lieu of non-payment of punitive fines. The authorities also took equipment from Grafika on 11 December as well. The government had fined the printer for printing the bulletin of the Alliance for Change (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 October 1999). The government of Serbia--and to a lesser extent those of Croatia and Bosnia--have often used financial pressures to bankrupt or close down independent media. PM [13] MILOSEVIC'S PARTY EXPELS TWO CRITICSRFE/RL's South SlavicService reported on 17 December that Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) has expelled Slobodan Jovanovic, who is a former director of Tanjug and high SPS official. He recently said that the SPS's coalition partner--namely the United Yugoslav Left (JUL) of Mira Markovic, who is also Milosevic's wife--was created "to satisfy her ambitions." He called JUL a "center for war profiteers" and lamented that "the fate of the entire nation depends on one marriage." The SPS also expelled veteran member Radovan-Raka Radovic for having criticized the government of Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic. PM [14] MOMO'S BIG WEEKENDMontenegrin Interior Minister Vukasin Marassaid in Podgorica on 19 December that Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic, who is Montenegro's leading pro-Milosevic politician, "is preparing a scenario...to heighten tensions and provoke a civil war in Montenegro." Maras added that Bulatovic is preparing violence for 13-14 January to mark the second anniversary of the inauguration of his rival, Milo Djukanovic, as president, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. In Tivat, Bulatovic warned that Montenegro will lose some of its territory if it declares independence. He was presumably referring to the highland areas where pro-Serbian sympathy is strong. Elsewhere, he said in an interview that he is "proud" to be on the EU's list of persons denied entry visas. Bulatovic stressed that his presence on the list shows that he is a patriot and not one to "say that America is right," AP reported. On 17 December, the state prosecutor's office filed charges against Bulatovic for defaming the elected authorities. Bulatovic had publicly stated that the U.S. has "bought the president of Montenegro and the government." PM [15] PODGORICA, MILITARY AGREE ON INFORMATION EXCHANGEOfficials ofthe Montenegrin police and federal military agreed in Podgorica on 17 December to improve cooperation and the exchange of information between them in order to reduce tensions in the mountainous republic (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17 December 1999). The meeting came at the initiative of the Montenegrin Interior Ministry, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM [16] HELICOPTERS OVER PRISHTINANATO helicopters flew over theKosovar capital after dark on 18 December to deter thieves and kidnappers. There is a growing concern for security in Prishtina in the face of the increasing boldness of gangs, many of which are from Albania and have connections to criminals in Western Europe. In Rahovec on 17 December, one Serb was killed and several injured when unknown persons hurled a grenade into a cafe and sprayed it with gunfire. PM [17] ROMANIAN GOVERNMENT LINE-UP SHOWS FEW CHANGESMugur Isarescu on19 December presented in a statement released to the press his cabinet's composition and its program, RFE/RL's Bucharest Bureau reported. The main changes in the government are the setting up of an Economic-Financial Coordination Council headed by National Peasant Party Christian Democratic (PNTCD) member Mircea Ciumara. Ciumara will have the rank of deputy premier, as will three other ministers: Petre Roman, who replaces Andrei Plesu as Foreign Minister, Justice Minister Valeriu Stoica and Health Minister Hajdu Gabor. Together with Isarescu, the four deputy premiers will make up the government's Executive Bureau. Another novelty is the presence of a woman in the cabinet: Smaranda Dobrescu replaces Alexandru Athanasiu as Labor and Social Protection Minister. Athanasiu, who has recently been elected chairman of the Social Democratic Party, withdrew from the government voluntarily. MS [18] ROMANIAN CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS ENDSRadu Vasile on 17December tendered his resignation as Prime Minister, ending the country's constitutional crisis, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. The move was preceded by a decision by the leadership of his PNTCD to lift "all punishments" handed down when he refused to resign. The PNTCD also announced it "accepts" a proposal of the Democratic Party that Vasile, who is once more PNTCD secretary-general, also take over the Senate chairmanship vacated by Roman. A public opinion poll conducted by the ISOMAR institute on 17 December revealed that 55 percent back Vasile's dismissal as premier and 45 percent oppose it. Opposition leaders are ahead in preferences for the 2000 presidential race: Party of Social Democracy in Romania leader Ion Iliescu is backed by 48 percent, followed by Alliance for Romania chairman Teodor Melescanu, supported by 21 percent. Incumbent President Emil Constantinescu is third, with 16 percent backing. MS [19] ROMANIAN MAIN OPPOSITION PARTY SEALS PACT WITH TRANSYLVANIANATIONALISTSIliescu and Zeno Opris, executive chairman of the nationalist cultural organization Vatra romaneasca (Romanian Cradle) on 19 December finalized an electoral pact agreed on in July (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 3 August 1999) whereby the Vatra will support the PDSR's election campaign and its leaders will be candidates on the PDSR lists in the 2000 parliamentary elections. Party of Romanian National Unity (PUNR) leader Valeriu Tabara turned down an offer to associate his formation to the agreement, on grounds that Vatra's statutes prevent it from political involvement. Vatra has long been considered by observers to be the PUNR's "political arm" and its desertion to the PDSR reflects the PUNR's loss of electoral support, as a result of repeated leadership crises and splits in the party. MS [20] FORMER ROMANIAN KING CRITICIZES 'POLITICAL CLASS'Former KingMichael on 19 December told journalists in Bucharest that the country's post-communist constitution has not been properly designed and that the "political class" is "wasting its time with personal skirmishes" and is not supported by a properly-devised constitutional framework. Michael said he is not criticizing any political party in particular because his "position" calls for being above politics, and that his designated successor, Princess Margareta, has been educated in the same spirit. He said the monarchy has been "a source of pride for national history" and he cannot comprehend why some insult it and others chose to ignore its existence. Michael said he "has time to wait for an answer" to these questions and "when I shall no longer be around, my heirs will wait for it." MS [21] MOLDOVAN PRESIDENTIAL AIDES DENY VENICE COMMISSION OPPOSED TOPRESIDENTIAL SYSTEMAnatol Plugaru, a member of the constitutional commission charged by President Petru Lucinschi with drafting the constitutional amendments on introducing a presidential system, on 17 December denied that the European Commission's team of experts known as the Venice Commission has criticized the project. He said parliamentary deputy Vladimir Slonari has only expressed "his own personal opinion" on the commission's views, which have not been finalized yet (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 16 December 1999). Presidential staff chief Mihai Petrache said the commission is still working on a "preliminary report" and that "negotiations" are underway between the presidential staff and the experts. MS [22] BULGARIAN PREMIER WANTS CONSTITUTION REVISED...Prime MinisterIvan Kostov on 19 December said Bulgaria must amend its constitution to conform with EU standards, AP reported. He said changes will include lifting the ban on land ownership by foreigners, increasing the fiscal independence of local government and reducing the immunity from prosecution of parliamentary deputies Iin order to render the struggle against corruption more effective. Kostov called for a cross- party consensus on the amendments, which require the approval of 180 of the 240 parliamentarians. His own center-right coalition has 137 seats in the parliament. MS [23] ...WILL RESHUFFLE CABINETOn 17 December Kostov told journaliststhat they can expect "serious and profound government changes" that will be announced on 21 December, BTA reported. He said the reshuffle is aimed at improving the cabinet's performance towards accession talks with the EU, streamlining public administration and improving economic performance. He said the number of ministries will be cut, and several will be merged into a "strong Economy Ministry." He also said there will be a "separation" between party positions in the ruling Union of Democratic Forces and government positions. On 18 December opposition Socialist Party leader Georgi Parvanov said his party wants the cabinet to resign and be replaced by a coalition government. MS [24] BULGARIAN OLYMPIC COMMITTEE CHIEF FINEDA Sofia court of justiceon 17 December fined Ivan Slavkov, head of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee and son-in-law of late communist dictator Todor Zhivkov, 1,000 leva ($500) for the illegal possession of two revolvers and three rifles, AP reported. Slavkov claims that the trial was politically motivated and that he will appeal the sentence. In other news, Balkan News Corporation, which is financed by media tycoon Rupert Mudroch, has been chosen from among seven bidders for the privatization of Efir 2, one of Bulgaria's television channels. The government must yet approve the decision of its commission that decided on the bids. MS [C] END NOTE[25] THE END OF THE 'NATIONALITY QUESTION'By Paul GobleOn 17 December 1986, a clash between demonstrators and the militia in Alma-Ata, capital of the then Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, put an end to the Soviet "nationality question" as it had been traditionally understood and pointed toward the eventual demise of the Soviet empire. Until that date, Soviet leaders had proudly claimed that they had "solved" the "nationality question," and most in the West assumed that ethnic problems in the USSR were simply a human rights issue. But after the Alma-Ata demonstrations, both Moscow and the West recognized that what each had viewed as a minor concern had become one of the central issues of Soviet life. The events in Kazakhstan on that day were dramatic enough. Thousands of Kazakhs poured into the streets of Alma-Ata and other cities in Kazakhstan to protest the unilateral decision by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to name Gennadii Kolbin, an ethnic Russian, as party chief in place of Dinmukhamed Kunaev, an ethnic Kazakh. Until that time, Russians and non-Russians alike had accepted such decisions without protest. But over the previous generation, both had come to accept the principle that the party leader of a union republic should be a member of the titular nationality, even if real power remained in Moscow and in the hands of an ethnic Russian second secretary on the scene. In the name of fighting an entrenched, corrupt and deeply conservative bureaucracy, Gorbachev violated that rule, arguing that only an outsider could clean up the mess that Kunaev had created. But faced with massive public opposition to what he had done, the Soviet leader displayed three qualities which ineluctably led to the end of the USSR. First, by his actions from the beginning and by the way he discussed this event, Gorbachev demonstrated to all that he had little understanding of the importance of ethnic ties for increasingly more Soviet citizens, or any willingness to take these attachments into consideration as he elaborated his new policies. Second, Gorbachev refused to sanction the kind of massive crackdown that might have intimidated the Kazakhs and others. Faced with several hundred dead on the first days of the clashes between Kazakhs and the militia, he refused to order the kind of repression that had been second nature to those who came before him. And third, Gorbachev immediately undercut his own claims that he could not find a reliable Kazakh by naming an ethnic Kazakh as Kolbin's second secretary. In doing so, Gorbachev unintentionally encouraged resistance to his own policies, particularly among non-Russian elites who felt that he was a clear threat to their interests. Within a remarkably short time, people in the other 11 Soviet republics and three occupied Baltic states began to act on the lessons of Alma-Ata. Party and Soviet leaders in all those regions understood that they could build up their own power relative to Moscow by playing on the growing nationalism of their own populations. And the non-Russian populations themselves recognised that for the first time, they could act against the Soviet system with relative impunity and that such actions on their part could in fact gain them the concessions that they sought. In some republics, the party elite took the lead; in others, such as Armenia, the people; and elsewhere, the two combined. But in every case, the result was the same: a heightened sense of nationalism, on the one hand, and a recognition that Moscow was no longer all powerful or even willing to take the actions necessary to stop them, on the other. Within five years of the Alma-Ata clashes, the Soviet Union no longer existed, testimony of the remarkable power of the previously powerless who gain the courage to act in defense of their interests, and the impotence of the powerful when they are unwilling or unable to act in defense of theirs. 20-12-99 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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