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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 41, 00-02-28

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. 41, 28 February 2000


CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

  • [01] RUSSIA TO CONTINUE GUARDING ARMENIA'S SOUTHERN BORDERS
  • [02] ARMENIAN COURTS UPHOLD FURTHER DETENTION OF PARLIAMENT
  • [03] AZERBAIJAN REJECTS RUSSIAN CLAIMS OF AID TO CHECHENS
  • [04] AZERBAIJAN FINALLY MAKES PUBLIC DECEMBER POLL RESULTS
  • [05] AZERBAIJANI JOURNALIST BEATEN BY POLICE
  • [06] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT MEETS WITH DPS FROM ABKHAZIA
  • [07] KAZAKHSTAN PLEDGES TO PROTECT FOREIGN INVESTORS
  • [08] KYRGYZ OPPOSITION POLITICIAN CHARGED WITH PLANNING TO
  • [09] TAJIK OPPOSITION CHARGES VIOLATIONS IN PARLIAMENTARY POLL
  • [10] TURKMEN OPPOSITION LEADER SENTENCED, ALONG WITH SON

  • [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

  • [11] YUGOSLAV ARMY STEPPING UP COMBAT READINESS IN MONTENEGRO?
  • [12] MONTENEGRO'S BURZAN CALLS FOR EXPLANATION OF ATROCITY
  • [13] VOJVODINA PARTY WANTS FEDERAL SERBIA
  • [14] DJINDJIC RE-ELECTED PARTY CHIEF
  • [15] SERBIA PROMOTES TIES TO NORTH KOREA
  • [16] INCIDENTS ON EVE OF UCK ANNIVERSARY
  • [17] NATO AMBASSADORS FAIL TO AGREE ON TROOP INCREASE
  • [18] MACEDONIAN POLICE SEIZE ARMS, DRUGS BOUND FOR KOSOVA
  • [19] MESIC TO VISIT BOSNIA
  • [20] BOSNIAN SERB WAR CRIMES TRIAL BEGINS
  • [21] STRIFE CONTINUES AMONG BOSNIAN SERB SOCIALISTS
  • [22] WHO SHOULD APOLOGIZE TO WHOM IN ROMANIA?
  • [23] ROMANIAN SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS SENTENCES OF 'REVOLUTION
  • [24] MOLDOVA ASKS GAZPROM TO RESUME SUPPLIES
  • [25] BULGARIAN PRESIDENT, PREMIER VOW TO FIGHT CORRUPTION
  • [26] BULGARIAN OFFICIALS FLY TO LIBYA

  • [C] END NOTE

  • [27] WHAT ARE 'FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS?'

  • [A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

    [01] RUSSIA TO CONTINUE GUARDING ARMENIA'S SOUTHERN BORDERS

    Visiting Yerevan on 25-26 February, Russian Federal Border

    Service Director Colonel General Konstantin Totskii said

    Russia will continue to help Armenia guard its frontiers with

    Turkey and Iran, as Armenia is not yet capable of doing so on

    its own, ITAR-TASS and RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported.

    Totskii said there is no need to revise the 1992 treaty

    whereby the two countries jointly provide for security on

    Armenia's borders. But he added that equipment for doing so

    is becoming obsolete and will need to be replaced over the

    next few years. Both Totskii and his Armenian counterpart,

    General Levon Stepanian, stressed that cooperation in

    guarding Armenia's frontiers testifies to the "strategic

    partnership" between Moscow and Yerevan. Totskii also met

    with President Robert Kocharian and Prime Minister Aram

    Sargsian. LF

    [02] ARMENIAN COURTS UPHOLD FURTHER DETENTION OF PARLIAMENT

    SHOOTING SUSPECTS

    Two Armenian courts on 25 February

    rejected claims by the lawyers of two prominent suspects in

    the 27 October parliament shootings that the charges against

    the two men were fabricated, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau

    reported. The two men are presidential aide Aleksan

    Harutiunian and Armenian State Television Deputy Director

    Harutiun Harutiunian (no relation to Aleksan). Aleksan

    Harutiunian's lawyer argued last week that the investigation

    into his client's alleged incitement of the gunmen to commit

    the killings should be transferred from the military

    prosecutor to Armenia's Prosecutor-General's office (see

    "RFE/RL Newsline," 23 February 2000). But a senior prosecutor

    told RFE/RL that "there are sufficient grounds" to prosecute

    both men. LF

    [03] AZERBAIJAN REJECTS RUSSIAN CLAIMS OF AID TO CHECHENS

    Presidential administration foreign relations division head

    Novruz Mamedov said on 25 February that a statement issued

    the previous day by the Russian Foreign Ministry claiming

    that wounded Chechen fighters are being treated in Baku

    hospitals is "untrue," Turan reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline,"

    25 February 2000). Novruzov noted that in the past Moscow has

    never called into question the legal status of the Chechen

    representation in Baku. Former Azerbaijani presidential

    foreign policy adviser Vafa Guluzade, for his part, told

    Turan on 25 February that he cannot confirm or deny the

    presence of wounded Chechen fighters in Baku, but he noted

    that even if the Russian reports are true, Azerbaijan "has no

    moral right to refuse to treat injured and sick people." LF

    [04] AZERBAIJAN FINALLY MAKES PUBLIC DECEMBER POLL RESULTS

    At a

    session of Azerbaijan's Central Electoral Commission on 25

    February, chairman Djafar Veliev finally presented the

    results of the municipal elections held on 12 December, Turan

    reported. Veliev said that 40.6 percent of the total 35,616

    registered candidates represented political parties, while

    the remainder were independent. Voter participation was 52.6

    percent. The ruling Yeni Azerbaycan won 8,305 seats on local

    councils, the opposition Azerbaijan Popular Front 754, and

    the opposition Musavat party 618. Other political parties won

    a total of 512 seats. Spokesmen for both the Popular Front

    and Musavat, however, rejected Veliev's figures as falsified.

    Musavat's Arif Hadjiev said that 1,200 of his party's

    candidates were issued certificates by local election

    commissions confirming their election. Repeat polls have been

    scheduled for 26 March in 222 districts where the vote was

    deemed invalid or the results annulled. LF

    [05] AZERBAIJANI JOURNALIST BEATEN BY POLICE

    Zabil Mugabil ogly,

    a journalist for the Azerbaijani daily newspaper "525-

    gazeti," was beaten by police in Baku on 25 February while

    trying to photograph some 50 people picketing the Russian

    Embassy to protest Russia's military activities in Chechnya,

    Turan reported. Police also used violence to disperse the

    protesters but made no arrests. LF

    [06] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT MEETS WITH DPS FROM ABKHAZIA

    Meeting with

    ethnic Georgian displaced persons from Abkhazia and

    representatives of the Abkhaz parliament in exile, Eduard

    Shevardnadze said in Tbilisi on 25 February that Georgia "has

    won the information war" by succeeding in securing the

    support of the international community for Georgia's

    territorial integrity, Caucasus Press reported. Shevardnadze

    urged the displaced persons to bring up their children in the

    belief that "Abkhazia is ours and we will return to live

    there" in peace with "our brothers the Abkhaz." LF

    [07] KAZAKHSTAN PLEDGES TO PROTECT FOREIGN INVESTORS

    Prime

    Minister Qasymzhomart Toqaev told journalists in Almaty on 25

    February after meeting with a group of U.S. financiers that

    Kazakhstan will defend the interests of foreign investors and

    insist that all legislation concerning that sphere is

    strictly observed, Interfax reported. He warned against

    shifts in government policy vis-a-vis foreign investors.

    Toqaev also pledged a crackdown on corruption, which has

    proven a major deterrent to foreign investment. He added that

    by 2003 Kazakhstan intends to become self-sufficient with

    regard to oil and gas production. LF

    [08] KYRGYZ OPPOSITION POLITICIAN CHARGED WITH PLANNING TO

    ASSASSINATE PRESIDENT

    Topchubek Turgunaliev, who is a former

    chairman of the opposition Erkin Kyrgyzstan party and former

    rector of Bishkek State University, told RFE/RL's Bishkek

    bureau on 24 February that the authorities have opened a

    criminal case against him in connection with an alleged

    failed plot to kill President Askar Akaev. Turgunaliev said

    those charges are based on the testimony of a man variously

    known as Stamkulov and Yuldashev, who told the Kyrgyz

    National Security Ministry in April 1999 that an attempt on

    Akaev's life was being prepared. But Stamkulov also said

    during a face-to-face confrontation with Turgunaliev that he

    had no knowledge of the latter's involvement in the alleged

    plot. Turgunaliev received an 18-month suspended sentence in

    April 1996 for insulting Akaev and a four-year sentence for

    embezzlement and forgery in February 1997. He was released in

    November 1997 after protests on his behalf by international

    human rights organizations. LF

    [09] TAJIK OPPOSITION CHARGES VIOLATIONS IN PARLIAMENTARY POLL

    Representatives of the Islamic Renaissance Party (IRP) and

    Democratic and Communist Parties said on 28 February that the

    previous day's elections to the lower house of a new

    bicameral parliament were "totally falsified, neither free

    nor democratic," Reuters reported. IRP spokesman Makhmadali

    Khaitov said that the violations were worse than during the

    November 1999 presidential elections. Speaking on 27

    February, IRP leader Said Abdullo Nuri had characterized the

    parliamentary election campaign as a decisive step toward

    democracy. A total of 324 candidates from six political

    parties were contesting 63 mandates, of which 41 were in

    single-mandate constituencies and the remaining 22 are to be

    allocated under the proportional system. Voter participation

    was estimated at 87.6 percent of the country's 2.87 million

    electorate, according to Asia Plus-Blitz. LF

    [10] TURKMEN OPPOSITION LEADER SENTENCED, ALONG WITH SON

    A

    Turkmen district court on 25 February sentenced Nurberdy

    Nurmamedov, leader of the unregistered Agzybirlik opposition

    movement, to five years in prison on charges of hooliganism

    and intent to commit murder, RFE/RL's Ashgabat correspondent

    reported. Nurmamedov's son Murad was sentenced to two years

    in prison on charges of hooliganism (see "RFE/RL Newsline,"

    10 and 17 January 2000). Foreign diplomats were barred from

    the court proceedings. Nurmamedov was arrested in early

    January, shortly after he had said that the amendment to the

    country's constitution allowing an individual to serve more

    than two consecutive presidential terms is "undemocratic and

    unconstitutional." LF


    [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

    [11] YUGOSLAV ARMY STEPPING UP COMBAT READINESS IN MONTENEGRO?

    Deputy speaker of the parliament Predrag Popovic said in

    Podgorica on 27 February that the Yugoslav army has recently

    increased its strength in manpower and weapons--including

    heavy artillery--at Tuzi, near the Bozaj border crossing with

    Albania, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. He stressed

    that Belgrade may at some point use force to "solve" its

    problems with Podgorica. The reinforcement of the border

    units is aimed at "discouraging" the Montenegrin authorities

    from further improving relations with Albania, dpa added on

    28 February. AP reported that Yugoslav troops have closed the

    road linking Bozaj with Hani i Hotit in Albania. Reuters,

    however, said the road is open and quoted an army statement

    as denying that the military has increased their activities

    in the area. Elsewhere, riot control specialists have been

    sent from Serbia to take command of military police units in

    Niksic, Berane, Pljevlja, and Bijelo Polje, dpa noted. PM

    [12] MONTENEGRO'S BURZAN CALLS FOR EXPLANATION OF ATROCITY

    Deputy

    Prime Minister Dragisa Burzan said in Podgorica on 27

    February that an investigation into the disappearance of 20

    Muslims from the Belgrade-Bar train in Strpci is long

    overdue. In remarks on the seventh anniversary of the

    incident, he called for a thorough investigation and for the

    punishment of those responsible for the presumed death of the

    Muslim passengers. Elsewhere, representatives of Sandzak

    Muslim political parties demanded that the guilty persons be

    brought to justice and that the Hague-based war crimes

    tribunal play an unspecified role in the investigations and

    trial. Finally, President Slobodan Franovic of the

    Montenegrin Helsinki Committee said that the Strpci incident

    was a planned crime in keeping with Belgrade's policy of

    violence against ethnic Muslims. PM

    [13] VOJVODINA PARTY WANTS FEDERAL SERBIA

    Nenad Canak, who heads

    Vojvodina's League of Social Democrats, said in Vienna on 27

    February that in Serbia "a revolution will begin in the bread

    lines," an allusion to the widespread poverty in that

    country. The previous day in Subotica, delegates from Canak's

    party approved a document entitled "Vojvodina--a Republic."

    The text calls for a reorganization of Serbia into a

    federation of six "units": Vojvodina, Belgrade, Sumadija,

    Southeastern Serbia, Sandzak, and Kosova. Canak told the

    gathering that decentralization and democratization of Serbia

    is necessary to prevent the country from eventually

    disintegrating into several independent states, "Danas"

    reported. PM

    [14] DJINDJIC RE-ELECTED PARTY CHIEF

    Delegates to a congress of

    the Democratic Party in Belgrade on 27 February re-elected

    Zoran Djindjic chairman. He staved off a challenge from his

    deputy, Slobodan Vuksanovic, by 605 votes to 485. Vuksanovic

    had previously criticized Djindjic's manner of running the

    party as authoritarian. After the vote, the two men called

    for party unity. PM

    [15] SERBIA PROMOTES TIES TO NORTH KOREA

    Yugoslav Foreign

    Minister Zivadin Jovanovic arrived in Pyongyang on 26

    February on a visit aimed at promoting political, economic,

    and cultural ties. The trip is an attempt by the Belgrade

    authorities to show that Serbia is not completely isolated,

    RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM

    [16] INCIDENTS ON EVE OF UCK ANNIVERSARY

    Ceremonies are slated to

    take place in Kosova's Skenderaj region on 28 February to

    mark the anniversary of the founding of the Kosova Liberation

    Army (UCK) in 1996. The previous day in Gjilan, unknown

    persons shot dead Josif Vasic, a local Serbian politician. On

    Serbian territory on the Gjilan-Bujanovac road, unknown

    assailants killed a Serbian police major and wounded three

    policemen, Belgrade's official Tanjug news agency reported.

    Police officials said the attackers entered Serbia from

    Kosova. There is no independent verification of the story. In

    Mitrovica on 28 February, a mine blew up a Serbian bus on a

    busy road, KFOR spokesmen told Reuters. There were no

    casualties. PM

    [17] NATO AMBASSADORS FAIL TO AGREE ON TROOP INCREASE

    Meeting in

    Brussels on 25 February, the Atlantic alliance's governing

    body failed to reach an agreement on increasing NATO troop

    strength in Kosova in the wake of a series of violent

    incidents in the divided city of Mitrovica (see "RFE/RL

    Newsline," 25 February 2000). NATO Secretary-General Lord

    Robertson said: "Mitrovica is a potential flash point; it

    flared up but we dealt with the unrest quickly and

    decisively." PM

    [18] MACEDONIAN POLICE SEIZE ARMS, DRUGS BOUND FOR KOSOVA

    In

    Skopje and Bitola on 25 and 26 February, Macedonian police

    confiscated 145 crates of automatic weapons and handguns, 2

    tons of ammunition, 90 kilograms of narcotics, and other

    unspecified illegal goods bound for Kosova, AP reported.

    Western Macedonia was known as a center for drugs and arms

    smuggling even during the 1980s. PM

    [19] MESIC TO VISIT BOSNIA

    Croatian President Stipe Mesic said in

    Zagreb on 26 February that he will pay an official visit to

    Bosnia-Herzegovina in the second half of March. His itinerary

    will include the Republika Srpska's capital of Banja Luka as

    well as cities in the Muslim and Croatian federation. PM

    [20] BOSNIAN SERB WAR CRIMES TRIAL BEGINS

    In The Hague on 28

    February, the trial opened of four Bosnian Serbs for

    atrocities committed at the Omarska, Keraterm, and Trnopolje

    concentration camps near Prijedor in 1992. Commander Miroslav

    Kvocka, his deputies Milojica Kos and Mlado Radic, and

    alleged torturer Zoran Zigic are charged in connection with

    the rape, torture, and deaths of many Muslim and Croatian

    inmates. Films and photographs of emaciated prisoners at the

    camps attracted international attention in the summer of

    1992. PM

    [21] STRIFE CONTINUES AMONG BOSNIAN SERB SOCIALISTS

    On 27

    February in Banja Luka, the steering committee of the

    Socialist Party of the Republika Srpska (SPRS) called on all

    local party organizations to comply with the committee's

    decision to leave the governing coalition (see "RFE/RL

    Newsline," 23 February 2000). The committee added that all

    parliamentary deputies hold their posts at the discretion of

    the party, which has the right to unseat any legislator who

    does not adhere to party policies, RFE/RL's South Slavic

    Service reported. Several legislators and local party

    organizations have balked at the party's decision to withdraw

    from the coalition, "Vesti" reported on 26 February. The SPRS

    is the Bosnian branch of Yugoslav President Slobodan

    Milosevic's party. The decision to leave the coalition is

    widely seen as an attempt by Milosevic to undermine the

    governing coalition or possibly even the Dayton peace

    settlement. PM

    [22] WHO SHOULD APOLOGIZE TO WHOM IN ROMANIA?

    The Democratic Party

    on 27 February announced it is nominating former Environment

    Minister Florin Frunzaverde for the defense portfolio. The

    National Liberal Party (PNL), however, has said it will not

    agree to the dismissal of Victor Babiuc as defense minister

    as long as Transportation Minister Traian Basescu does not

    "properly" apologize to President Emil Constantinescu for

    having accused him of being behind Babiuc's resignation from

    the Democratic Party. The PNL says the apology must be made

    through the proper channels and not "on a TV talk-show", as

    was the case when Basescu apologized (see "RFE/RL Newsline,"

    25 February 2000). Meanwhile, the opposition Party of Social

    Democracy in Romania and Greater Romania Party are demanding

    that Constantinescu formally apologize for his 25 February

    comment that the two parties are filled with members of the

    former Securitate who "set the agenda" of Romanian politics.

    MS

    [23] ROMANIAN SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS SENTENCES OF 'REVOLUTION

    GENERALS'

    The Supreme Court on 25 February upheld the 15-

    year prison sentence that a lower court handed down to

    Generals Victor Stanculescu and Mihai Chitac last July for

    their role in suppressing the anti-communist uprising in

    Timisoara, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. Stanculescu

    and Chitac, along with the Defense Ministry, were ordered to

    pay 36 billion lei ($1.9 million) in damages to the families

    of the 72 people killed and the 253 wounded during the

    uprising. Babiuc and Chief of Staff General Mircea Chelaru

    have protested that ruling. MS

    [24] MOLDOVA ASKS GAZPROM TO RESUME SUPPLIES

    The Moldovan

    government on 26 February asked the Russian Gazprom company

    to resume supplies of natural gas, saying that by 1 March it

    will pay its $10 million debt for deliveries since the

    beginning of this year, ITAR-TASS reported. President Petru

    Lucinschi told the Russian agency that Moldova will be able

    to make regular payments only in the fall, once it has

    finished privatizing its energy sector. Earlier this month,

    the Spanish company Union Fenosa purchased Moldova's central

    power grid for $25 million. MS

    [25] BULGARIAN PRESIDENT, PREMIER VOW TO FIGHT CORRUPTION

    President Petar Stoyanov, addressing a conference of the

    ruling Union of Democratic Forces (SDS) on 26 February,

    warned that fighting corruption within the party's ranks is

    "the only way to regain [the public's] confidence and win the

    elections" scheduled for 2001, Reuters reported. Prime

    Minister Ivan Kostov said the SDS must "stop being a

    springboard for making careers and securing economic

    advantages." He pledged to "uproot everything [that is]

    rotten in the SDS" and to "free the SDS's top ranks of

    discredited politicians." MS

    [26] BULGARIAN OFFICIALS FLY TO LIBYA

    Justice Minister Teodosii

    Simeonov, Prosecutor-General Nikola Filichev, and Deputy

    Health Minister Galin Kamenov left for Libya on 25 February

    to assist the six Bulgarians who are facing the death

    sentence under charges of having willfully injected children

    with the HIV virus, BTA reported. On 27 February, Filichev

    and Kamenov met with the six, but the latter were allowed

    only to sign a document requesting that a Libyan lawyer

    represent them in court when the trial resumes on 28

    February. MS


    [C] END NOTE

    [27] WHAT ARE 'FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS?'

    By Sarah Martin

    For several years, Hrair Balian has been an election

    observer in former Soviet countries that are new to

    democracy. Today, he heads the Office for Democratic

    Institutions and Human Rights of the Organization for

    Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE. In that

    capacity, he is in charge of sending observation missions to

    monitor elections throughout the 54-state OSCE region. His

    office produces reports on the elections' procedures and

    outcome--in other words, it seeks to determine how free and

    fair those elections are.

    In an interview with RFE/RL, Balian defined the terms

    "free" and "fair": "Freedom relates to the freedom of a voter

    to make a choice on a ballot without any undue pressure from

    any source. The fairness relates to conditions under which

    the candidates, political parties are able to compete in an

    electoral campaign."

    But freedom and fairness are only two of seven elements

    the OSCE examines when it assesses the democratic nature of

    an election. The organization also evaluates the universality

    of the vote--that is, who is deemed eligible to cast a ballot

    and who is not--the transparency of the electoral process,

    the secrecy of the ballot, and the government's

    accountability to the electorate.

    Balian says any one of these individual elements can be,

    and often are, violated. "One of the most common violations--

    where we are devoting a lot of attention and resources now--

    is the transparency of an election," he comments. "You can

    conduct a perfect election on election day. You can give your

    voters all of the chances they deserve to make a free choice

    of candidates, parties, etc. And if the process falls apart

    during the tabulation of the results arriving from the

    polling stations, then that becomes seriously problematic."

    Balian's office sends both long- and short-term

    observers to watch the entire election cycle. Ahead of the

    vote, they look at the registration of voters and candidates

    and the way the media covers the campaign. On election day,

    they watch the voting, ballot-counting, and declaration of

    results. And finally, observers monitor the installment in

    office of the winners.

    OSCE monitors observe at least 10 percent of the polling

    stations in a given country. That means it may send 400

    observers to a large country, such as Russia, but only 100 to

    Croatia.

    Balian says the OSCE does not monitor all the countries

    that have questionable electoral practices. It simply does

    not have the resources to do that. Instead, the organization

    looks for countries where it may be able to have a positive

    impact.

    Most recently, these have been the countries that once

    made up the Soviet Union--states moving from a one-party

    system to multi-party pluralism, which pose a particular kind

    of problem, according to Balian: "In many of the transitional

    countries..., (residents) have experienced for the first time

    in the history of their country any level of democratic

    election. So, for the first time they are confronted with the

    possibility of making a choice and their choice counting."

    Tajikistan is a case in point. This weekend, Tajiks

    voted in parliamentary elections for the first time since

    1991. The elections are part of a peace accord ending a

    bloody civil war. Marie Struthers of Human Rights Watch, an

    international monitoring group, has been working in

    Tajikistan on and off since 1997, when the accord was signed.

    She told RFE/RL that one of the most difficult obstacles on

    the road to democracy is voter education:

    "People have not seen candidates express diverging

    views--although the views are not so diverging in Tajikistan

    - via the press. And they are not used to having one platform

    compared or contrasted against another. I mean, I speak to

    people every day in the streets, in the stores, and I ask

    them: 'Who will you vote for?' 'What party will you vote

    for?' And they say: 'We don't really understand the

    difference between the parties...and we don't know many of

    the people presenting themselves because they haven't been

    exposed to us."

    Struthers says the transition to free and fair elections

    in a country like Tajikistan is a slow process. But she has

    no doubt about the importance of implementing a democratic

    system. She says that people have to be given the right to

    exercise their right to choice in a free manner. In her

    words: "They should be able to say, 'I vote for this person'

    in an unrestricted manner--without intimidation, without

    pressure and without reprisal."

    The author is an intern with RFE/RL's News and Current

    Affairs Division.

    28-02-00


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


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