Read our Collection of articles on International Policy Read the Convention Relating to the Regime of the Straits (24 July 1923) Read the Convention Relating to the Regime of the Straits (24 July 1923)
HR-Net - Hellenic Resources Network Compact version
Today's Suggestion
Read The "Macedonian Question" (by Maria Nystazopoulou-Pelekidou)
HomeAbout HR-NetNewsWeb SitesDocumentsOnline HelpUsage InformationContact us
Thursday, 28 March 2024
 
News
  Latest News (All)
     From Greece
     From Cyprus
     From Europe
     From Balkans
     From Turkey
     From USA
  Announcements
  World Press
  News Archives
Web Sites
  Hosted
  Mirrored
  Interesting Nodes
Documents
  Special Topics
  Treaties, Conventions
  Constitutions
  U.S. Agencies
  Cyprus Problem
  Other
Services
  Personal NewsPaper
  Greek Fonts
  Tools
  F.A.Q.
 

RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 28, 00-02-09

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. 4, No. 28, 9 February 2000


CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

  • [01] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT, POLITICAL PARTIES DISCUSS COUNCIL OF
  • [02] ATTACK ON AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION PARTY WIDELY CONDEMNED
  • [03] GEORGIA'S MOST WANTED 'TERRORIST' NOMINATED FOR PRESIDENCY...
  • [04] ...AS ARE THREE OTHER CANDIDATES
  • [05] KAZAKHSTAN'S PREMIER UNDER A CLOUD?
  • [06] KAZAKH OPPOSITION DEMANDS ACCESS TO STATE MEDIA
  • [07] KAZAKHSTAN'S PRESIDENT CALLS FOR EXPEDITING AGRICULTURAL,
  • [08] OSCE EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER KYRGYZ ELECTION CAMPAIGN...
  • [09] ...AS KYRGYZ PRESIDENT CALLS FOR FAIR POLL...
  • [10] ...AND CENTRAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION DENIES UNFAIR HARASSMENT
  • [11] TAJIK PRESIDENT CALLS FOR RENEWED EFFORTS TO RESOLVE AFGHAN

  • [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

  • [12] SERBIAN OPPOSITION WARNS OF 'ANARCHY'...
  • [13] ...WHILE REGIME PARTIES SEE WESTERN PLOT
  • [14] U.S. BLASTS SERBIA...
  • [15] ...PRAISES CROATIA
  • [16] MESIC SAYS CROATIA MUST SOLVE DISPUTES WITH NEIGHBORS
  • [17] RACAN SAYS NO MORE 'PARALLEL STRUCTURES' IN CROATIA
  • [18] MONTENEGRO, BOSNIAN FEDERATION DRAW CLOSER
  • [19] BOSNIAN SERB PARLIAMENT PASSES KEY LEGISLATION
  • [20] KOUCHNER AGAINST 'PARALLEL STRUCTURES' IN KOSOVA
  • [21] ROMA ORGANIZATIONS SUE ROMANIAN JOURNALIST

  • [C] END NOTE

  • [22] UKRAINE MOVES TOWARD AUTOCRACY

  • [A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

    [01] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT, POLITICAL PARTIES DISCUSS COUNCIL OF

    EUROPE MEMBERSHIP

    At an 8 February meeting with President

    Robert Kocharian, the leaders of political parties

    represented in the Armenian parliament agreed unanimously on

    amending the country's legislation in order to expedite

    Armenia's full membership in the Council of Europe, RFE/RL's

    Yerevan bureau reported. The proposed amendments will be

    enacted before a 7 March meeting at which the council's

    political committee will make a recommendation on whether

    Armenia qualifies for full membership. On 1 February, citing

    a positive assessment of Armenia's progress by the

    Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Armenian

    Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Hovannes

    Hovannisian had told deputies that Armenia will be granted

    full membership in the council before the end of this year.

    LF

    [02] ATTACK ON AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION PARTY WIDELY CONDEMNED

    Meeting in Baku on 8 February, representatives of 10

    Azerbaijani opposition parties condemned the attack the

    previous day on the headquarters of the Musvat Party, blaming

    the Azerbaijani authorities for the incident, Turan reported,

    Abulfaz Elchibey, chairman of the Azerbaijan Popular Front

    Party, which was not represented at that meeting, similarly

    condemned the violence as "an act of state terrorism." Turan

    quoted U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Stanley Escudero as

    expressing "concern" about the attack after his 8 February

    meeting with Musavat Party chairman Isa Gambar. LF

    [03] GEORGIA'S MOST WANTED 'TERRORIST' NOMINATED FOR PRESIDENCY...

    Former Georgian Security Minister Igor Giorgadze, whom the

    Georgian authorities say masterminded for the August 1995 car

    bomb attack on parliament chairman Eduard Shevardnadze, has

    been nominated as a candidate for the 9 April presidential

    poll, Caucasus Press reported on 9 February. In extensive

    interviews last December with two Russian newspapers,

    Giorgadze, whose whereabouts have been unknown since he fled

    Georgia shortly after that attack, claimed that up to 85

    percent of the Georgian population reject Shevardnadze's

    policies and are prepared to vote for Giorgadze. Giorgadze

    also claimed to have the support of 60 percent of the army

    and 60-70 percent of Interior Ministry and Security Ministry

    personnel. LF

    [04] ...AS ARE THREE OTHER CANDIDATES

    Three other people have

    announced their intention of contending the 9 April Georgian

    presidential poll, raising the total number of potential

    candidates to 10, Caucasus Press reported on 8 February

    quoting Central Electoral Commission officials. One of them,

    Gia Chkhikvadze, 43, is a member of the board of the Ilia the

    Righteous Society and a former supporter of the late Zviad

    Gamsakhurdia. Chkhikvadze was imprisoned in 1992-1993 after

    the latter's ouster. The second is Tengiz Asanidze, 56, who

    is currently serving a prison sentence in Adzharia for

    misappropriating state funds despite having been pardoned by

    Shevardnadze. And the third is philologist Gaioz Mamaladze,

    36, who is a member of the Union of Georgian Nationalists. LF

    [05] KAZAKHSTAN'S PREMIER UNDER A CLOUD?

    An unconfirmed and

    unsourced report by the Eurasia Analytical Research Center

    predicts the imminent dismissal of Prime Minister

    Qasymzhomart Toqaev, RFE/RL's Almay bureau reported on 9

    February. According to that report, Toqaev engaged in

    lobbying on behalf of the U.S. Access Industries Company even

    before his appointment as prime minister in October 1999. The

    report also claimed that during a visit last month to Moscow,

    Toqaev agreed to sell a 50 percent stake in the Severnyi Coal

    Mine in Pavlodar Oblast to Russia's Unified Energy Systems

    (EES). But "Nezavisimaya gazeta" on 21 January offered a

    totally different perspective, characterizing Toqaev as well

    thought of by President Nursultan Nazarbaev and as one of a

    very few politicians in Kazakhstan not constrained by "clan"

    ties and loyalties. The newspaper also noted the success of

    Toqaev's cabinet in liquidating pensions arrears and in

    securing fourth-quarter industrial growth of 6.9 percent. LF

    [06] KAZAKH OPPOSITION DEMANDS ACCESS TO STATE MEDIA

    At a press

    conference in Almaty on 8 February, members of the opposition

    parties aligned in the Forum of Democratic Forces demanded

    that the opposition be granted one hour of air time on state

    radio and television on a regular basis, RFE/RL's bureau in

    the former capital reported. LF

    [07] KAZAKHSTAN'S PRESIDENT CALLS FOR EXPEDITING AGRICULTURAL,

    LAND REFORM

    Addressing a cabinet session on 8 February,

    President Nazarbaev criticized declining productivity in the

    livestock sector and the failure to liquidate bankrupt farms,

    Interfax reported. In an indication that, after long

    hesitation and despite public opposition, Kazakhstan may move

    to privatize land, Nazarbaev also argued in favor of

    liberalizing legislation to give private farmers the right to

    use the land they lease as a pledge on the land market. Some

    75 percent of agricultural land in Kazakhstan is leased to

    individual farmers or private farms, "Obshchaya gazeta"

    reported in September 1999. LF

    [08] OSCE EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER KYRGYZ ELECTION CAMPAIGN...

    In a

    statement issued in Vienna on 8 February, the OSCE has

    expressed concern that a number of opposition parties and

    prominent candidates have been barred from contesting the

    Kyrgyz parliamentary poll scheduled for 20 February, an

    RFE/RL correspondent reported from the Austrian capital. The

    statement in particular deplored the rejection of the party

    list submitted by the Democratic Movement of Kyrgyzstan. Mark

    Stevens, who is spokesman for the OSCE election-observation

    mission in Bishkek, told RFE/RL that those decisions

    "restrict the right of political parties to stand in the

    election on an equal basis and put into question their right

    to choose their candidates." He said that as a result, the

    choice available to voters will be narrowed. LF

    [09] ...AS KYRGYZ PRESIDENT CALLS FOR FAIR POLL...

    At a meeting in

    Bishkek with local governors and with Constitutional Court

    Chairwoman Cholpon Bayekova on 8 February, Kyrgyzstan's

    President Askar Akaev affirmed that the poll must be free and

    fair, RFE/RL's bureau in the Kyrgyz capital reported. Akaev

    warned local administrators to stop harassing opposition

    candidates and called on the Office of the Prosecutor-General

    to guarantee voters' rights to participate in a fair poll. He

    added that he has asked law enforcement bodies to review

    unspecified cases in which political parties or individual

    politicians were refused registration to contest the

    election. LF

    [10] ...AND CENTRAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION DENIES UNFAIR HARASSMENT

    Kyrgyzstan's Central Electoral Commission Chairman Sulaiman

    Imanbaev denied in Bishkek on 8 February having created

    obstacles to the registration of opposition politicians,

    RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported. Imanbaev said that the

    refusal to register the party list of the Democratic Movement

    of Kyrgyzstan was not a political decision but rather the

    logical consequence of that party's failure to conduct its

    most recent congress in accordance with the law (see "RFE/RL

    Newsline," 7 February 2000). Meanwhile the leaders of four

    Kyrgyz NGOs have addressed an appeal, entitled "Give People a

    Right to Choose!" to the country's leadership and the Central

    Electoral Commission. The signatories protest the refusal to

    register opposition candidates for "minor technical reasons."

    LF

    [11] TAJIK PRESIDENT CALLS FOR RENEWED EFFORTS TO RESOLVE AFGHAN

    CRISIS

    Meeting with the UN secretary-general's special

    representative on Afghanistan, Francesc Vendrell, in Dushanbe

    on 8 February, Imomali Rakhmonov again affirmed that there

    are no alternatives to a peaceful solution to the civil war

    in Afghanistan, Asia Plus-Blitz reported. Rakhmonov called

    for a renewed effort by the countries of the so-called Six

    Plus Two Group (Russia, the U.S., China, Iran, Pakistan,

    Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) to broker a peace

    agreement between the Taleban and the opposition alliance. It

    is unclear whether Rakhmonov commented on Kyrgyz President

    Akaev's recent proposal that his country join the Six Plus

    Two Group (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 2 February 2000). LF


    [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

    [12] SERBIAN OPPOSITION WARNS OF 'ANARCHY'...

    A spokesman for the

    opposition Christian Democratic Party said in Belgrade on 8

    February that the killing of Defense Minister Pavle Bulatovic

    shows that Serbia faces "total anarchy and the road to

    despair," Reuters reported (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 8

    February 2000). Munich's "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" wrote that

    unnamed opposition leaders regard the murder as evidence that

    "no one is safe" in Serbia any longer. Officials of some

    opposition parties in Vojvodina said they expect the

    authorities to use the killing as an excuse to implement

    martial law, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. There

    have been at least 15 unsolved killings of prominent persons

    in Serbia over the past 10 years. Bulatovic was the highest-

    ranking individual among them. PM

    [13] ...WHILE REGIME PARTIES SEE WESTERN PLOT

    A spokesman for

    Vojislav Seselj's Serbian Radical Party said in Belgrade on 8

    February that the killing was the work of either U.S., U.K.,

    or French intelligence agents. The United Yugoslav Left,

    which is led by Mira Markovic, who is the wife of Yugoslav

    President Slobodan Milosevic, called the killing evidence of

    the "United States terrorist threat" to Serbia. Milosevic's

    Socialist Party blamed "terrorism." Yugoslav Information

    Minister Goran Matic told "Danas" that the murder was part of

    a "terrorist network" aimed at "destabilizing our country."

    Neither he nor any of the party officials provided any

    details of their respective claims or offered any evidence to

    substantiate them. The government has not made an official

    statement. The regime-controlled daily "Politika" reported

    that the killer "fired three bursts and vanished into the

    dark." PM

    [14] U.S. BLASTS SERBIA...

    U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas

    Pickering said in Madrid on 8 February that the killing of

    Bulatovic suggests Serbia is headed for a "sort of long-

    knives confrontation," which is an allusion to the bloody

    power struggle among Germany's Nazi leaders during their

    first years in power. In Washington, State Department

    spokesman James Rubin called the murder further evidence that

    Serbia is run by a clique of "criminals." He added that

    Serbia is descending into a climate of "fear and violence."

    PM

    [15] ...PRAISES CROATIA

    Referring to Stipe Mesic's election as

    president of Croatia on 7 February, Rubin said: "We believe

    his victory, combined with Prime Minister [Ivica] Racan's

    naming a multi-party government last week, will strengthen

    relations between the United States and Croatia and help

    Croatia serve as a pillar of stability and democratic

    development throughout the region." Similar messages praising

    Mesic's victory and expressing hope for the future of

    democracy in Croatia came from London, Paris, and Berlin. In

    Sarajevo, the joint presidency issued a statement expressing

    hope that Mesic's election will lead to an improvement in

    relations between the two neighboring former Yugoslav

    republics. PM

    [16] MESIC SAYS CROATIA MUST SOLVE DISPUTES WITH NEIGHBORS

    Mesic

    told "Le Monde" of 8 February that Croatia must clear up its

    differences with Slovenia over the delimitation of frontiers

    in the Gulf of Piran as a prerequisite to improving relations

    with the EU and NATO. He added that Zagreb must also resolve

    the status of the Prevlaka peninsula. Mesic argued that

    Croatia should negotiate the matter directly with Montenegro

    and not with the federal Yugoslav authorities. He praised

    Montenegro's efforts to distance itself from Serbia and

    predicted that the mountainous republic will eventually

    become independent. PM

    [17] RACAN SAYS NO MORE 'PARALLEL STRUCTURES' IN CROATIA

    Prime

    Minister Ivica Racan's government made it clear in its 33-

    page program that it will not tolerate any independent

    sources of power among state institutions, "Vecernji list"

    reported on 9 February. The document calls for a

    strengthening of democracy, the rule of law, and the role of

    elected institutions. The government plans to spend less

    money on defense and the police and more on education,

    culture, and research than did its predecessor. Observers

    note that the intelligence agencies and the military operated

    virtually as laws unto themselves during the rule of the

    Croatian Democratic Community from 1990 to January 2000. PM

    [18] MONTENEGRO, BOSNIAN FEDERATION DRAW CLOSER

    Montenegrin Prime

    Minister Filip Vujanovic and his Bosnian federal counterpart,

    Edhem Bicakcic, agreed in Sarajevo on 8 February that

    Montenegro will soon open a commercial information office in

    the Bosnian capital (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 8 February 2000).

    The two prime ministers also agreed to improve cooperation in

    transportation, commerce, tourism, and electrical energy

    supplies. PM

    [19] BOSNIAN SERB PARLIAMENT PASSES KEY LEGISLATION

    The Republika

    Srpska parliament has passed a law regulating the customs

    service, "Oslobodjenje" reported on 9 February. The

    legislature also approved measures aimed at setting up an

    ombudsman's office, thereby meeting a key precondition for

    Bosnia's admission to the Council of Europe. Prior to the

    parliamentary session, Nenad Suzic of the Socialist Party

    agreed to assume the post of deputy prime minister. His

    appointment appears to end an acrimonious dispute between

    Prime Minister Milorad Dodik and several Socialist leaders,

    which had threatened to split the governing coalition. PM

    [20] KOUCHNER AGAINST 'PARALLEL STRUCTURES' IN KOSOVA

    Bernard

    Kouchner, who heads the UN's civilian administration in

    Kosova, said in Prishtina on 8 February that his is the only

    authority in the province. He added that he will not tolerate

    any "parallel structures" established by either the ethnic

    Albanian majority or the Serbian minority (see "RFE/RL Balkan

    Report," 4 February 2000). He specifically warned that Zoran

    Andjelkovic, who is Milosevic's former governor of the

    province, may live in Kosova if he chooses but only as "an

    ordinary citizen." PM

    [21] ROMA ORGANIZATIONS SUE ROMANIAN JOURNALIST

    Several

    organizations representing the Roma minority in Romania

    have filed charges against journalist Marcel Flueraru from

    the daily "National" for using racist language in an

    article published in that daily, AP reported on 8 February.

    Presenting Roma as "delinquents" is very common in the

    Romanian media. Flueraru, however, used the term "darkies"

    and called the Roma "aggressors" who act "as if they had

    rabies." Also on 8 February, deputy Madalin Voicu, who was

    elected to the parliament on one of the lists of the Roma

    minority, announced he is joining the opposition Party of

    Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR), Mediafax reported. He

    said PDSR chairman Ion Iliescu and Executive Deputy

    Chairman Adrian Nastase have promised support for his

    demand that poor Roma families be given 1 hectare of land.

    MS


    [C] END NOTE

    [22] UKRAINE MOVES TOWARD AUTOCRACY

    by Jan Maksymiuk

    By choosing Ivan Plyushch as new parliamentary speaker

    on 1 February, the center-right majority made the standoff in

    the Ukrainian parliament even worse. A compromise between the

    two warring factions seems very unlikely, since the leftist

    minority--composed of the Communist Party, Socialist Party,

    Progressive Socialist Party, and Peasant Party caucuses--is

    demanding that the majority revoke all former decisions and

    submit them to a repeat vote by the entire house. The

    majority, meanwhile, wants its opponents to accept a fait

    accompli.

    The standoff advanced even further down an irreversible

    path on 4 February when President Leonid Kuchma signed into

    law two bills passed by the majority three days earlier--one

    abolishing the holiday commemorating the 1917 Bolshevik

    Revolution, the other renumbering independent Ukraine's

    legislatures to make the current Supreme Council the third

    rather than the 14th one. The latter bill is believed to be a

    ruse on the part of the majority to avoid the dissolution of

    the parliament should the 16 April constitutional referendum

    result in a popular vote of no confidence in the Supreme

    Council. In such a situation, some commentators suggest, the

    vote will affect only the "old" legislature, that is, the

    leftist minority. In other words, the president will

    "dissolve" the leftist faction, leaving the center-rightist

    one untouched.

    Whatever Kuchma's true intentions, both factions of the

    parliament are now fully at the mercy of the president. If

    they fail to reconcile their differences by mid-February,

    Kuchma may disband the legislature under the constitutional

    provision stipulating such a punitive measure if lawmakers

    are unable to convene a session within 30 days. Even if both

    factions were to unite for a session, the parliament will

    still face a dissolution threat in two months, following the

    April referendum (which many regard as a mere formality in

    passing a vote of no confidence in the legislature as a

    whole). This dual threat is sufficient to make the majority

    deputies approve all bills required by the executive.

    However, the current parliamentary crisis seems in

    danger of going far beyond the immediate need to create a

    docile legislature that can approve a 2000 budget and vote

    for a number of reforms. Many analysts argue that not the

    only the current parliament but also the future of

    parliamentarism in Ukraine may be doomed if the

    constitutional referendum gives Kuchma the go-ahead to amend

    the constitution. What is more, collateral damage in the

    standoff and the referendum may take the form of growing

    public distrust in independent Ukraine's constitutional

    system. In fact, that system may be subject to significant

    reconstruction without having had a chance to secure its

    foundations.

    There are even some majority deputies who feel that the

    resolutions adopted by their faction, including those on the

    parliamentary leadership, are unconstitutional and unlawful

    because they were adopted without consent of the legally

    elected speaker and outside the parliamentary building. If

    those decisions are enforced by the president in practice,

    they may spark a crisis of the legislative power's legitimacy

    similar to that in neighboring Belarus. The only difference

    will be that whereas Belarus has removed its center-rightist

    opposition from the political process, Ukraine will seek to

    do the same with its leftist forces.

    If Kuchma decides to disband the parliament and call new

    elections, the country--which is under the immediate threat

    of financial bankruptcy and social upheaval--will become

    engaged in yet another turbulent political campaign, meaning

    that the resolution of urgent socioeconomic problems will

    once again be postponed, if not dropped altogether. In that

    case, it will become highly probable that a presidential

    dictatorship will be introduced in Ukraine. The idea that it

    is possible to move toward a market economy with the help of

    a dictatorship is not new, but it has so far not been put to

    the test in the post-Soviet area. Indeed, the example of

    Belarus suggests that a post-Soviet dictatorship would serve

    to push the country backward as far as possible.

    On the other hand, many in Ukraine, including both

    political elites and ordinary citizens, may be longing for

    the rule of a "strongman," especially as Ukraine's

    "experiments with democracy" over the past nine years have

    proved so ineffective in the economic sphere. But with Kuchma

    in Kyiv (like Lukashenka in Minsk) running the country by

    means of decrees and edicts, Ukraine will put itself at risk

    of losing the West's material and moral support. Some cynics

    may argue that since Kuchma's policy of seeking rapprochement

    with the West is not Lukashenka's "back-to-the-USSR" drive,

    the West will not abandon Kyiv as quickly as it did official

    Minsk. Therefore, in the short term, autocracy for Ukraine

    might not prove as bad as some fear. Unfortunately, the

    country's problems cannot be resolved in a year or two. And

    this means that autocracy in Ukraine could become not only an

    emergency measure but a preferred way of ruling for many

    years.

    09-02-00


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


    Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next Article
    Back to Top
    Copyright © 1995-2023 HR-Net (Hellenic Resources Network). An HRI Project.
    All Rights Reserved.

    HTML by the HR-Net Group / Hellenic Resources Institute, Inc.
    rferl2html v1.01 run on Wednesday, 9 February 2000 - 14:33:08 UTC