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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 25, 00-02-04Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 4, No. 25, 4 February 2000CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN, RUSSIAN OFFICIALS DISCUSS ANTI-TERRORISM MEASURESVisiting Yerevan on 2-3 February, Russian Interior MinisterVladimir Rushailo met with President Robert Kocharian, Premier Aram Sargsian, and his Armenian counterpart, Haik Harutiunian, to discuss the threat of terrorism, ITAR-TASS reported. Following a 3 February joint meeting of the boards of the two countries' Interior Ministries, Rushailo told journalists that they will soon undertake more joint operations against criminal groups operating in Russia and Armenia and to curb arms smuggling, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Also on 3 February, visiting Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Ivanov and his Armenian counterpart, Serzh Sarkisian, signed a memorandum on increased cooperation in the spheres of defense, security, and commerce. LF [02] SLOVAK GOVERNMENT DELEGATION SIGNS COOPERATION AGREEMENTS INARMENIASlovak Foreign Minister Eduard Kukan held talks in Yerevan on 2 February with his Armenian counterpart, Vartan Oskanian, on expanding economic cooperation, TASR and Armenpress reported. The two ministers also signed a protocol of cooperation between their respective ministries. The same day, Slovak Economy Minister Lubomir Harach and Armenian Minister of Industry and Trade Karen Jshmaritian discussed cooperation in the energy and nuclear power sectors and in the production of synthetic rubber and chemicals, according to Noyan Tapan. On 3 February, Kukan met with President Kocharian and with parliamentary speaker Armen Khachatrian, whom he assured of Slovakia's support for Armenia's bid for acceptance into full membership in the Council of Europe. LF [03] AZERBAIJAN TO CLOSE DOWN THREE INTERNET PROVIDERS...Azerbaijan's Communications Ministry has decided to closedown the Intrans and Baknet companies and the Azeurotel joint venture on the grounds that they have been operating without the required licenses, Groong reported on 3 February, citing the 1 February "Zerkalo." Company representatives told the newspaper, however, that they have repeatedly applied to the ministry for registration but have been refused. LF [04] ...AS ARMENIA ACCUSES AZERBAIJANI HACKERS OF HUMAN RIGHTSVIOLATIONThe blocking by Azerbaijani hackers of Armenian Websites that provide information about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict constitutes a violation of the right of access to information, Snark on 31 January quoted the Armenian Foreign Ministry as saying. Armenian Television's Website is among those to fall victim to this practice. LF [05] AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION PARTY RE-REGISTEREDThe Ministry ofJustice on 3 February formally registered the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan, Turan reported. The party was founded and originally registered in 1992 but had its registration revoked by the Ministry of Justice in 1995. Party secretary Aydyn Kuliev told RFE/RL's Baku bureau on 3 February that he does not think the ministry's decision reflects a change in the authorities' attitude toward the party, one of whose co- chairmen is former parliamentary speaker Rasul Guliev. Kuliev attributed the decision to re-register the party to the campaign it has waged to that end in recent months and to the pressure of public opinion both in Azerbaijan and abroad (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 7 January 2000). LF [06] RUSSIA AGAIN VIOLATES GEORGIAN AIRSPACETbilisi hasprotested to Russia after two Russian military helicopters entered Georgian airspace near the Georgian-Chechen border on 3 February, Interfax reported. A Georgian border guard official said the two aircraft were apparently on a reconnaissance mission. Last year, Russian combat helicopters twice targeted Georgian villages close to the border with Chechnya, but no one was injured in either incident (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 23 August and 18 November 1999). LF [07] GEORGIAN, ABKHAZ OFFICIALS SIGN PROTOCOL ON EXCHANGE OFHOSTAGESGeorgian Minister of State Vazha Lortkipanidze, accompanied by several senior military and security officials and by UN Special Representative Dieter Boden, traveled to Sukhum on 3 February for talks with Abkhaz President Vladislav Ardzinba and Prime Minister Vyacheslav Tsugba, Caucasus Press reported. The Abkhaz side had proposed the talks in the hope of stabilizing the tense situation on the border between Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia, where rival groups of Georgians and Abkhaz are demanding the release of co-ethnics held by the other side (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 1 and 2 February 2000). The two sides finally signed a protocol pledging an exchange within two days of all persons taken hostage in the past two months. They also agreed to withdraw all illegal armed formations from the conflict zone within one month and to draw up, with the help of the UN Observer and CIS peacekeeping forces, a register of the armed forces in the conflict zone. The number of those forces may not be increased. LF [08] JAPAN TO REBUILD OIL REFINERY IN KAZAKHSTANThe JapaneseBank of International Cooperation has approved funding for a $450 million project whereby Japan's Marubeni company will rebuild the Atyrau Oil refinery, Interfax reported on 3 February. The reconstruction will increase the refinery's annual capacity and boost product yield from crude oil, which is currently 42-29 percent. Japan's involvement in the project has been criticized by Atyrau Governor Imangali Tasmagambetov, who told Interfax last month that the refinery could meet the costs of reconstruction itself over a five- year period if it functioned at full capacity. In 1999, Tasmagambetov said, the refinery operated at only 38 percent of its capacity. Similarly, the Pavlodar refinery stood idle for much of last year because of limited supplies of crude oil. LF [09] UNEMPLOYMENT RISING IN KYRGYZSTANKyrgyzstan's Center forEmployment said on 2 February that some 62,000 people are currently registered as unemployed, RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. In October 1999, Labor and Social Affairs Minister Imankadyr Rysaliev had given the number of people officially registered as out of work at 56,000. Local observers say the figure is closer to 1 million of the country's 4.8 million population. Of the 6,000 people who underwent retraining courses last year, approximately half subsequently found new jobs. Only 10 percent of those registered as unemployed drew unemployment benefits last year, although that allowance has been increased from 150 soms to 250 soms ($5.5). LF [10] TAJIK PRESIDENT SOLICITS OSCE ASSISTANCE FOR DEMOCRATICELECTIONSImomali Rakhmonov on 3 February assured visiting OSCE Secretary-General Jan Kubis that he will do everything in his power to ensure that the upcoming parliamentary elections are democratic. At the same time, he requested the help of the OSCE in achieving that objective, ITAR-TASS and Asia Plus-Blitz reported. Rakhmonov also expressed an interest in possible OSCE assistance in post-conflict rehabilitation. Kubis, who in 1998-1999 served as the special representative in Tajikistan of the UN secretary-general, also met on 3 February with Tajik Foreign Minister Talbak Nazarov and with National Reconciliation Commission Chairman Said Abdullo Nuri to discuss the situation in the country. On 4 February, ITAR-TASS quoted a German Embassy official in Dushanbe as saying that the German government has allocated $100,000 to finance the activities of the joint UN/OSCE commission that will monitor the parliamentary elections. The Iranian Embassy has donated 20 tons of paper to the Central Commission for Elections and Referenda, according to Asia Pluz-Blitz. LF [11] UZBEKISTAN APPROVES DEFENSE DOCTRINEUzbekistan's NationalSecurity Council on 3 February approved a new, "exclusively defensive" military doctrine that demonstrates the country's "peace-oriented policy," Interfax reported. That document lays down guidelines for a fundamental reform of the armed forces. Council members stressed the threat posed to Central Asia by "the criminal aspirations of radically-oriented extremist forces" that promote international terrorism and religious extremism. They also advocated coordinated measures by the states of the region to counter that threat. LF [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[12] RENEWED VIOLENCE IN DIVIDED KOSOVSKA MITROVICAHundreds ofangry ethnic Albanians stoned French military vehicles and blocked their paths in Kosovska Mitrovica on 4 February, AP reported. French peacekeepers then broke up the crowd by firing tear gas. At 9:00 p.m. local time the previous evening, unknown assailants shot two ethnic Albanians dead. Half an hour later, a grenade attack on a Serbian cafe injured up to 15 people. Then at 10:00 p.m. local time, unknown persons killed an ethnic Albanian woman. Shortly afterward, unidentified individuals hurled a grenade into a second Serbian cafe, wounding some 10 people, Reuters reported. Angry Serbian and Albanian crowds then confronted each other on the bridge that links the two halves of the divided city. The incidents came in the wake of a rocket attack on a UN bus in which two elderly Serbs died (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 3 February 2000). PM [13] SERBIA IMPOSES BLOCKADE ON MONTENEGROSerbian officialsclosed the border with Montenegro for the transport of all goods on 3 February, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. Belgrade has periodically imposed a blockade on truck traffic with the mountainous republic as part of the ongoing cat-and- mouse maneuvering between the political leaderships in Belgrade and Podgorica. PM [14] BELGRADE AUTHORITIES SLAM CRITICISM OF AUSTRIAIvica Dacic,who is the spokesman for Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia, said in Belgrade on 3 February that recent international criticism of Austria and Freedom Party leader Joerg Haider is similar to the criticism that Serbia has received abroad "for years." Dacic stressed that "all that is happening in regard to Austria is only another example of interference in the internal affairs of other countries, because...anything is possible in today's Europe, which serves America and not itself." He added that any country that does not accept Washington's "new world order" can expect to be internationally isolated. Elsewhere, far-right Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj said this party "does not have any particular sympathy for Haider" because he is not pro-Serbian. "If he would have changed his position on the Serbian question we would have sympathized with him," Reuters reported. Observers note that Serbs living in Austria generally reject Haider, whom they regard primarily as a xenophobe. PM [15] CROATIAN POLICE ARREST HDZ BUSINESSMAN IN HUGE FRAUD CASEPolice arrested Miroslav Kutle at the Bregana border crossingwith Slovenia on 3 February, hours after Zagreb police issued a warrant for his arrest. Kutle and three other top officials of the financially troubled Tisak printing and news distribution firm are suspected of illegally transferring some $6 million from Tisak to several companies owned by Kutle. The businessman told "Jutarnji list" that he is innocent and that he "never took anything from Tisak." Zagreb police chief Zdenko Senicnjak told Reuters that police had to wait for the recent change of government before they could act against Kutle and his associates. Observers note that Kutle's is but the best-known case of a businessman embezzling huge sums under the protection of powerful politicians belonging to the Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ), which held power from 1990 to its defeat in January 2000. Kutle and his associates have been linked to other cases of fraud or embezzlement, including the collapse of the Dubrovacka Banka. PM [16] BOSNIAN ENVOY PLEDGES BETTER RELATIONS WITH CROATIABosnianAmbassador to Croatia Hasan Muratovic spoke with Deputy Prime Minister Slavko Linic in Zagreb on 3 February about "improving economic relations," RFE/RL's South Slavic Service. In Sarajevo, Bosnian Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic said the Bosnian government should make improving relations with Croatia its top priority in the wake of the HDZ's defeat. PM [17] BOSNIAN HDZ TO SPLIT?The Sarajevo Muslim daily "Avaz" wroteon 4 February that Bosnian Foreign Minister Jadranko Prlic, who is also a member of the Bosnian HDZ's presidency, will soon form his own party, to be called the Croatian People's Union (HNU). The newspaper quoted unnamed Croatian sources as saying that Prlic and some of his associates have concluded that the defeated Croatian HDZ and its Bosnian affiliate are no longer capable of defending the interests of Bosnia's Croats. Observers note that the Bosnian HDZ has long been dominated by the hard-line nationalists from Herzegovina. Several prominent moderate Croat leaders from Bosnia proper have left the HDZ over the years, including Stjepan Kljuic and Kresimir Zubak. PM [18] SREBRENICA SURVIVORS FILE CHARGES IN THE HAGUEThe Mothersof Srebrenica and Podrinje Association, which is based in the Bosnian town of Vogosca and represents the survivors of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, filed a "criminal complaint" on 4 February with the Hague-based war crimes tribunal. The Mothers of Srebrenica said in a statement that they want an investigation of the role that several UN and other international officials played in the fall of Srebrenica and the massacre that followed, in which Serbian forces killed approximately 7,000 Muslim males. Those charged include Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Kofi Annan, Yasushi Akashi, General Bernard Janvier, General Rupert Smith, Thomas Karremans, Thorvald Stoltenberg, Carl Bildt, Lord Owen, and General Sir Michael Rose. PM [19] SAROVIC ENDS BID FOR BOSNIAN SERB PRESIDENCYRepublikaSrpska Vice President Mirko Sarovic said in Banja Luka on 3 February that he will remain in that office, the private Beta news agency reported. Observers note that in effect, the announcement ends his bid to take over the presidency. The international community's Wolfgang Petritsch recently called the bid "illegal" (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 27 January 2000). PM [20] ROMANIAN GOVERNMENT APPROVES MEDIUM-TERM DEVELOPMENTSTRATEGYThe government on 3 February approved the medium- term development strategy aimed at accelerating Romania's accession to the EU, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 3 February 2000). The government also approved setting up a commission, chaired by Prime Minister Mugur Isarescu and Academician Tudor Postolache, to work out the program that is due to be submitted to the EU in March. And it gave the go-ahead to establish an agency for the protection of abandoned children, in line with EU demands. President Emil Constantinescu, who chaired the government meeting, said at a joint press conference with Isarescu that Romanians "know where they are headed, know the rules," and cannot allow the effort to join the EU to be "derailed." He urged his countrymen to accept the envisaged austerity measures. MS [21] ROMANIA, U.S. TO BOOST COOPERATIONU.S. Undersecretary ofState Thomas Pickering and Foreign Minister Petre Roman on 3 February signed a " framework-convention" for enlarging the two countries' "strategic partnership," RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. They agreed to increase economic cooperation and boost efforts to promote regional stability and military relations as well as combat "unconventional risks." On 4 February, a joint U.S.-Romanian peace-keeping exercise was scheduled to begin at three airfields in Romania. MS [22] FORMER ROMANIAN PREMIER 'EXPLAINS' JOINING FAR-RIGHT PARTYIn an interview with RFE/RL on 3 February, former PrimeMinister Radu Vasile said he is "not aware" of the fact that the Romanian Right Party, which he and his supporters joined earlier that day, had "a reputation of [promoting] extremism." If this is the case, he noted, "our joining the party will transform it." Earlier on 3 February, Vasile was elected chairman of the party, which subsequently changed its name to the Romanian People's Party. AFP reported that the party's manifesto says the formation espouses nationalism, close links with the Orthodox Church, authoritarianism, and the "rejection of multi-culturalism." MS [23] WORLD BANK PLANS LARGE LOAN TO BULGARIAThe World Bank isplanning to lend Bulgaria $ 200 million in several tranches this year, the bank's chief representative for Bulgaria, Andrew Vorkink, told BTA on 2 February. Vorkink spoke with journalists after talks in Sofia with Deputy Premier Petar Zhotev. He said the bank considers that Bulgaria's handling of projects financed by it has improved and that all of the 10 projects now under way are being satisfactorily implemented. Three years ago, Vorking said, 40 percent of the projects launched were considered by the bank to have been unsatisfactorily implemented. MS [C] END NOTE[24] PLANNING UNDER WAY TO PRESERVE KOSOVA'S CULTURAL HERITAGEBy Jolyon NaegeleThe Council of Europe is developing a plan to preserve Kosova's cultural heritage, the destruction of which is defined by the UN's war crimes tribunal as a war crime. The move comes after more than half a year in which the UN administration in Kosova (UNMIK) has virtually neglected the province's war-damaged monuments, museums, and libraries. The Council of Europe and the European Commission have agreed to establish a high-level group of experts to prepare a detailed survey of the damage and destruction to the architectural and archaeological heritage of all ethnic and religious groups throughout the region. Once they complete the survey this spring, they will establish a list of priorities and set up teams of experts from local, provincial, and federal (Yugoslav) levels, representing all groups in Kosova, to draw up by this summer proposals for action. Since the arrival last June of the NATO-led peacekeeping force, KFOR, protection of cultural monuments has been limited to Serbian Orthodox churches. Nevertheless, more than 50 churches in Kosova have been damaged by vandalism since June. By far the most thorough survey to date of the destruction of Kosova's cultural heritage has been conducted by a Harvard University librarian, Andras Riedlmayer, and two architects, an American and an Albanian. They spent three weeks in Kosova conducting a survey of architectural monuments, libraries, historical archives, public records, and museums. One of the survey's goals is to assess damage and reconstruction efforts and to identify projects and institutions in need of assistance. Riedlmayer says that Serbian forces in 1998-1999 caused widespread destruction to some 500 villages in Kosova and severely damaged or destroyed more than 200 mosques or one in three Muslim houses of worship. The Serbs also gutted the overwhelming majority of some 500 defensive stone towers known as kullas, traditionally inhabited by large Kosovar Albanian families. Riedlmayer also notes that the destruction of Serbian Orthodox village churches in Kosova since the end of the war is a tragedy. But as he puts it, "it is also wrong to ignore...the massive and deliberate destruction of Albanian religious and cultural heritage by Serbian police, soldiers, and paramilitaries." Another purpose of the survey is to gather evidence for the Office of the Prosecutor of the UN's war crimes tribunal in its investigations into war crimes allegedly committed by, among others, Yugoslavia's indicted President Slobodan Milosevic. "The deliberate destruction of cultural property without overriding military necessity is a war crime," Riedlmayer notes. "And the indictment against Milosevic actually specifies among the charges the destruction of cultural and religious heritage. On the other hand, when we talked to the Prosecutor's Office at The Hague they told us that they had no one with either the time or the expertise on their side to look into this." The Hague tribunal last May indicted Milosevic and five other senior Serbian and Yugoslav officials with "criminal responsibility for violations of the laws or customs of war." The tribunal's statute says this includes "seizure of, destruction or willful damage done to institutions dedicated to religion, charity and education, the arts and sciences, historic monuments and works of art and science." Riedlmayer's survey team visited some 80 sites and collected documentation on another 120. His preliminary report in mid-December alleged that there was a clear pattern of Serbian forces systematically targeting mosques in Kosova- -including a number of important monuments from the 15th and 16th centuries. According to the survey, "in the majority of cases, it was evident...that this was not collateral damage from fighting between Belgrade's forces and the Kosova Liberation Front (UCK) rebels, nor the result of NATO's bombing." Riedlmayer comments that "Given that on any kind of population basis, Belgrade's claim to sovereignty over Kosova is rather weak..., heritage has played a disproportionate role in the politics of Kosova, at least since the 1980s.... Then when Belgrade took over direct rule in 1989 and 90, one of the first things that happened was a revision of the listed monuments in Kosova." Riedlmayer says the California-based Packard Humanities Institute has given a grant of $24,000 to pay for material and labor to conserve Kosova's 100 most-endangered buildings until funding for reconstruction becomes available. The author is an RFE/RL correspondent based in Prague. 04-02-00 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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