RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 45, 00-03-03

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From: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>

RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 4, No. 45, 3 March 2000

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARRESTED ARMENIAN PRESIDENTIAL AIDE DECLARES HUNGER STRIKE

[02] AZERBAIJAN, GEORGIA COMMENT ON PIPELINE TALKS

[03] ONE GEORGIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WITHDRAWS

[04] KAZAKHSTAN SEEKS WORLD BANK FUNDING FOR INSURANCE FOR FOREIGN

[05] KYRGYZ PRESIDENT SAYS STABILITY IN RUSSIA CRUCIAL FOR CENTRAL

[06] KYRGYZ PREMIER HOPES PARLIAMENT WILL SUPPORT REFORMS

[07] TAJIK, RUSSIAN PRESIDENTS DISCUSS AFGHANISTAN

[08] TURKMEN PRESIDENT WILL NOT ATTEND TURKIC SUMMIT

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[09] HAGUE COURT GIVES CROATIAN GENERAL 45 YEARS

[10] CROATIA TURNS DOCUMENTS OVER TO HAGUE

[11] MEDICAL TEAM SAYS TUTA FIT TO TRAVEL TO HAGUE

[12] U.S. TO PUBLICIZE REWARDS FOR WAR CRIMINALS

[13] OSCE SAYS MILOSEVIC 'SUBVERTING' BOSNIAN SERB MEDIA

[14] THACI DENIES LINKS WITH NEW ALBANIAN GUERRILLAS

[15] ALBRIGHT PLAYS DOWN 'MULTIETHNICITY' FOR KOSOVA

[16] SERBIAN GOVERNMENT TAKES OVER TABLOID

[17] PETRITSCH WARNS BOSNIA ON COUNCIL OF EUROPE MEMBERSHIP

[18] HDZ MODERATES LEAVE PARTY

[19] ROMANIA TO INTRODUCE VISAS FOR MOLDOVA

[20] NATO SUPREME COMMANDER IN EUROPE MEETS ROMANIAN OFFICIALS

[21] ROMANIAN SECURITY SERVICES GUARDING ILIESCU

[22] GAZPROM RESUMES SUPPLIES TO MOLDOVA

[23] MACEDONIAN PRESIDENT 'REGRETS' BULGARIAN COURT DECISION

[24] NEW PARTY REGISTERS IN BULGARIA

[C] END NOTE

[25] INTERNATIONAL MONITORS IN MONTENEGRO: PROS AND CONS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARRESTED ARMENIAN PRESIDENTIAL AIDE DECLARES HUNGER STRIKE

with complicity in the 27 October parliament shootings, has

begun a hunger strike to protest his continued detention and

demand that the investigation of his case be transferred from

the military prosecutor to the Prosecutor-General's Office,

RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported on 2 March. Military

Prosecutor Gagik Jahangirian had rejected an appeal late last

month by Harutiunian's lawyer, Ruben Sahakian, to transfer

his client's case to the prosecutor-general (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 28 February 2000). Sahakian told journalists in

Yerevan on 2 March that the investigators have found no

evidence to substantiate Jahangirian's hypothesis that the

killings were part of a coup attempt. LF

[02] AZERBAIJAN, GEORGIA COMMENT ON PIPELINE TALKS

state oil company President Natik Aliev told journalists in

Baku on 2 March that the most recent round of talks between

Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey on the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline

project yielded agreement on one unspecified point about

which Georgia had been adamant, Interfax reported. In Tbilisi

the same day, Georgian Foreign Minister Irakli

Menagharishvili said that agreement was reached on all issues

that concern Georgia as a transit country. But Interfax

quoted unnamed Azerbaijani sources as saying Georgia

continues to refuse to accept financial responsibility for

any "force majeure damage" to the pipeline on Georgian

territory. The costs of repairing one of the planned three

pumping stations, should it be damaged by a terrorist attack,

could reach $150 million, Interfax calculated. U.S. special

envoy for Caspian energy issues John Wolf said on 1 March

that the talks, which took place in Istanbul, did not cover

the question of transit tariffs, according to AP. LF

[03] ONE GEORGIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WITHDRAWS

week after submitting some 57,000 signatures to the Georgian

Central Electoral Commission, Party of National Ideology

chairman Zurab Gagnidze has withdrawn his candidacy, Caucasus

Press reported on 2 March. Gagnidze, who earlier accused the

commission of favoring the three candidates with the greatest

chance of success, called on his supporters to vote for one

of those three, incumbent President Eduard Shevardnadze. The

commission is currently verifying the authenticity of the

signatures submitted by the remaining 11 candidates. LF

[04] KAZAKHSTAN SEEKS WORLD BANK FUNDING FOR INSURANCE FOR FOREIGN

Dulat Kuanyshev, the chairman of Kazakhstan's

Foreign Investment Agency, told journalists in Almaty on 1

March that his country is seeking $50 million from the World

Bank toward providing insurance for foreign investors against

the self-interest of bureaucrats and legislative anarchy, by

which he presumably meant demands for bribes and frequently

changing legislation, AP reported. Several days earlier,

Premier Qasymzhomart Toqaev had warned that shifts in

government policy constitute a deterrent to potential foreign

investment (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 28 February 2000).

Kuanyshev said the government is hoping to attract $1.5-2

billion in direct foreign investment this year, primarily in

the mining sector. He estimated that direct investment in

1999 totaled $1.3 billion, mostly in the oil and gas sector,

Interfax reported. LF

[05] KYRGYZ PRESIDENT SAYS STABILITY IN RUSSIA CRUCIAL FOR CENTRAL

Visiting the newly created Batken Oblast in southern

Kyrgyzstan on 2 March, President Askar Akaev stressed that

peace and stability in Central Asia are largely contingent on

the outcome of the 26 March Russian presidential poll,

Interfax reported. Akaev expressed the hope that Russian

voters will elect a head of state who enjoys the trust of the

Russian people. He advocated a preemptive strike to wipe out

"international terrorists" in Tajikistan who took hostages in

Batken late last summer. And he warned that any attempt by

those "terrorists" to stage a repeat incursion into

Kyrgyzstan will be repelled. LF

[06] KYRGYZ PREMIER HOPES PARLIAMENT WILL SUPPORT REFORMS

that the strong showing by the Communist Party in the 20

February parliamentary elections reflects the population's

anger at declining living standards. He expressed the hope

that the new parliament will back the government's reform

program. Muraliev said that investment legislation must be

amended to encourage both domestic and foreign investment and

that the private sector must be strengthened. In particular,

he advocated scrapping what he termed "populist" legislation

on taxing farmers and peasants and abolishing the five-year

moratorium on the sale of land, which was imposed after a

1998 referendum (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 19 October 1998). LF

[07] TAJIK, RUSSIAN PRESIDENTS DISCUSS AFGHANISTAN

telephone conversation on 2 March, Imomali Rakhmonov and

Vladimir Putin expressed concern at the escalation of

fighting in Afghanistan close to the Afghan-Tajik border over

the previous few days, Russian agencies reported. The two

presidents called for unspecified additional measures to

reinforce that border within the framework of the CIS

Collective Security Treaty, to which both countries are

signatories. The Russian border guards deployed along the

Tajik-Afghan border are monitoring the situation. LF

[08] TURKMEN PRESIDENT WILL NOT ATTEND TURKIC SUMMIT

Niyazov's work schedule will not permit him to attend the

meeting of leaders of Turcophone countries in Baku next

month, Interfax reported on 2 March, citing the Turkmen

Foreign Ministry. In Baku, unnamed Azerbaijani officials

expressed displeasure at Niyazov's decision. Relations

between the two countries are strained over use of the

planned Trans-Caspian gas export pipeline (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 1 and 2 March 2000). LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[09] HAGUE COURT GIVES CROATIAN GENERAL 45 YEARS

war crimes tribunal on 3 March sentenced Croatian General

Tihomir Blaskic to 45 years in prison for crimes against

humanity, war crimes, and grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva

Conventions on the conduct of war. Most of the atrocities

took place in the Lasva Valley between 1992 and 1994,

especially in the Muslim village of Ahmici in 1993. Blaskic

denied that he ordered the brutal attacks on Muslims and

their property or that he was in a position to control the

actions of his troops. Blaskic is the highest-ranking

individual whom the tribunal has sentenced, and his sentence

is the longest that it has handed down. His trial provided

evidence of the links between the Croatian army and

authorities on the one hand and the Herzegovinian Croat

military on the other. PM

[10] CROATIA TURNS DOCUMENTS OVER TO HAGUE

a spokesman for the Hague-based war crimes tribunal, said on

2 March that the new Croatian government has turned over an

unspecified number of documents dealing with the Croatian

army's "Flash and Storm" campaigns in 1995. Blewitt added

that the delivery of the documents is a clear sign that

Zagreb truly intends to cooperate with the tribunal. The

Hague wants to investigate charges that the Croatian army

carried out atrocities against ethnic Serbian civilians

during the two campaigns against the Krajina forces. The

previous Croatian government balked at handing over documents

on the grounds that they contained information that might

compromise national security. PM

[11] MEDICAL TEAM SAYS TUTA FIT TO TRAVEL TO HAGUE

for the Hague-based tribunal said on 2 March that a group of

court-appointed doctors have examined Mladen "Tuta" Naletilic

in Zagreb and concluded that he is sufficiently fit to travel

to the Dutch city "under correct medical conditions," Reuters

reported. Tuta's own doctors had previously said that he is

not well enough to travel on account of a worsening heart

condition. The tribunal indicted him in 1998 for the murder,

torture, and persecution of "thousands" of Muslims in 1993.

PM

[12] U.S. TO PUBLICIZE REWARDS FOR WAR CRIMINALS

who is the U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues,

said in Washington on 2 March that the U.S. will soon put up

10,000 wanted posters in Bosnia and Serbia to publicize up to

$5 million in rewards for information leading to the capture

of indicted war criminals. The posters will depict the three

most-wanted war criminals: Yugoslav President Slobodan

Milosevic, Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, and

Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic. Scheffer said:

"We...believe that the time has come for these individuals to

move from the region to The Hague, so their influence will no

longer impede the efforts of those citizens of Bosnia and

Herzegovina and Serbia who want to advance democracy and the

rule of law," an RFE/RL correspondent reported. Scheffer

declined to say how the U.S. will distribute the posters in

Serbia. He added that "it will simply happen." Karadzic is

believed to be in eastern Bosnia and Mladic in Serbia. PM

[13] OSCE SAYS MILOSEVIC 'SUBVERTING' BOSNIAN SERB MEDIA

OSCE's Robert Barry said in a statement in Sarajevo on 2

March that "recent events in Banja Luka indicate that the

government in Belgrade is not content with its clearly

announced terrorist campaign against Serbia's independent

media. It now feels it must move against the independent

media in the [Republika Srpska] as well. The citizens of

Bosnia and Herzegovina will not be subject to the whims of

another government. I believe they've had enough of meddling

politics." He was referring to a recent Bosnian Serb court

inquiry at the request of a Serbian court against two

journalists from the independent weekly "Reporter." The

journalists had published a photo of Milosevic wearing a hat

favored by the royalist Serbian Chetniks of World War II. In

October 1999, a Serbian court indicted the two for harming

the "reputation of Yugoslavia." PM

[14] THACI DENIES LINKS WITH NEW ALBANIAN GUERRILLAS

Thaci, who is the former leader of the Kosova Liberation Army

(UCK) and now head of the Party for Democratic Progress, told

Reuters on 2 March that he and the UCK have nothing to do

with recent armed incidents in southwestern Serbia (see

"RFE/RL Balkan Report," 29 February 2000). He said: "There is

no more UCK. As you know, I was one of the UCK commanders. My

impression is that the problem of Presevo, Medvedja, and

Bujanovac and the appearance of uniformed people has been

exaggerated in the media." Thaci added: "We and the

international community are observing the situation in order

to solve the problems [of Serbia's ethnic Albanian minority]

in accordance with the rights of the citizens who are living

there to overcome armed confrontations which are dangerous

for the region." PM

[15] ALBRIGHT PLAYS DOWN 'MULTIETHNICITY' FOR KOSOVA

State Madeleine Albright said in Washington on 2 March that

the key principle that must be applied in Kosova is "respect

for minority rights," Reuters reported. She added that "the

word 'multiethnic' is harder to talk about for [Kosova]

because the Serbs are really a minority there, so it is a

matter of respect for minority rights." Her statement marks a

departure from the practice of most Western leaders to stress

that their goal is to restore a "multiethnic society" to the

province. Ethnic Albanians make up approximately 90 percent

of Kosova's population. Other minorities include Roma,

Bosnian Muslims, Turks, Montenegrins, and the Gorani. The

latter are a Slavic Muslim people unique to the region whose

culture shows heavy Albanian, Macedonian, and Serbian

influence. PM

[16] SERBIAN GOVERNMENT TAKES OVER TABLOID

a statement on 2 March that it has decided to "merge

'Vecernje Novosti' into the Federal Public Institution Borba

after being informed that the state is the majority owner" in

"Vecernje Novosti." Pero Simic, who is the mass-circulation

daily's editor, said in a letter to readers that as late as

August 1999, a Belgrade court ruled that the newspaper is 76

percent privately owned. He described as "slavery" the merger

into a newspaper with a circulation 25 times lower than his

own. Simic recently introduced an editorial policy that is

more independent of the government than was previously the

case. "Borba" is the mouthpiece of the United Yugoslav Left

of Mira Markovic, who is Milosevic's wife. PM

[17] PETRITSCH WARNS BOSNIA ON COUNCIL OF EUROPE MEMBERSHIP

international community's Wolfgang Petritsch said in Sarajevo

on 2 March that Bosnia must implement key reforms blocked by

nationalists before it is allowed to join the Council of

Europe, Reuters reported. He stressed that membership is a

"carrot" that the international community should give to

Bosnia only in return for its passing a reformed election

law, speeding up refugee returns, accelerating privatization,

and invigorating joint governmental institutions. PM

[18] HDZ MODERATES LEAVE PARTY

Granic and former Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ) Vice

President Vesna Skare-Ozbolt said in Zagreb on 2 March that

they are leaving the HDZ to form the Croatian Democratic

Center (HDC). The two moderate political leaders noted that

the HDZ was founded just over a decade ago as a mass movement

to end communist rule and achieve independence. They argued

that the HDZ has, however, never succeeded in transforming

itself into a political party based on clear policies and

principles, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. Granic

and Ozbolt stressed that the HDZ now contains unnamed extreme

rightists. Granic was the HDZ's unsuccessful presidential

candidate in the 24 January elections. He blamed in-fighting

in the HDZ for his defeat. PM

[19] ROMANIA TO INTRODUCE VISAS FOR MOLDOVA

Minister Petre Roman on 1 March said his country will impose

visas on Moldovans, Rompres reported on 2 March. He did not

say when Romania would introduce the visa restrictions. In

other news, former Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ciorbea on

2 March described a recent decision by customs officials to

impound the printing press of the newspaper "Cotidianul" as

an attack on the freedom of the press, AP reported. VG

[20] NATO SUPREME COMMANDER IN EUROPE MEETS ROMANIAN OFFICIALS

Isarescu for information on the country's efforts to reform

its military, noting that NATO is ready to assist the country

in carrying out those reforms, Rompres reported on 2 March.

President Emil Constantinescu told Clark that Romania could

play a key role in building East-West ties in the Black Sea

region, adding that the sea should not become a "border" in

the European integration process. Constantinescu suggested

that oil resources from the Caucasus could be transported

through Romania's ports on the sea. VG

[21] ROMANIAN SECURITY SERVICES GUARDING ILIESCU

security services (SPP) are "tightly" guarding former

president and current opposition leader Ion Iliescu after he

claimed to have received a threatening anonymous letter (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 1 March 2000), Rompres reported on 2

March. The SPP says it has received no indication of any

plots against the life of Iliescu. VG

[22] GAZPROM RESUMES SUPPLIES TO MOLDOVA

company Gazprom on 3 March resumed gas supplies to Moldova

one week after cutting them off, Reuters reported. An

official from the company said Moldova has agreed to pay its

$11.1 million debt to Gazprom for January and February by 16

March. Moldova has also promised to make semi-monthly

payments for future gas deliveries. VG

[23] MACEDONIAN PRESIDENT 'REGRETS' BULGARIAN COURT DECISION

decision by the Bulgarian Constitutional Court to outlaw the

ethnic Macedonian political party OMO-Ilinden-PIRIN (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 1 March 2000), BTA reported. While

Trajkovski acknowledged that it is "unusual" for a president

to comment on a decision by another country's court, he said

he felt compelled to express his opinion on what he described

as a "sensitive issue." He added: "I hope that Bulgaria will

be more sensitive in solving identical or similar issues."

The same day, the Macedonian Foreign Ministry said the court

decision appears to have been based on "political arguments"

rather than on legal considerations, adding that it was an

"unprecedented act." The opposition Social Democratic

Alliance of Macedonia also criticized the court decision as

well as the Macedonian government's "vague policy" toward

Bulgaria and the rights of its Macedonian minority. VG

[24] NEW PARTY REGISTERS IN BULGARIA

the George Ganchev Bloc registered in Bulgaria on 2 March,

Bulgarian Radio reported. VG

[C] END NOTE

[25] INTERNATIONAL MONITORS IN MONTENEGRO: PROS AND CONS

The idea of deploying several hundred international

monitors in Montenegro was raised on the sidelines of an

international conference in Podgorica this week. The

conference was convened as a dialogue between Montenegrin and

Serbian pro-democracy politicians and activists to address

constitutional differences.

Montenegro has been Serbia's increasingly unwilling

partner in the Yugoslav Federal Republic, founded eight years

ago after the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. Montenegro is

now on the road to sovereignty, with an increasingly

democratic legislature, new reform laws and its own Western-

oriented foreign policy.

But Montenegro is rump Yugoslavia's sole outlet to the

sea, and a potential hard currency earner through tourism and

maritime trade. Those industries brought in some $320 million

a year a decade ago but now are virtually nonexistent.

The head of one of Montenegro's three ruling pro-

democracy parties, Social Democrat Zarko Rakcevic, says that

as long as Montenegro fails to gain international recognition

as a sovereign state, it will be unable to borrow on

international financial markets to rebuild its industry.

Rakcevic says he hopes the international community

changes its position toward Montenegro and accepts

Montenegro's basic right to national self-determination--the

right to separate its fate from Serbia, as he puts it. That,

he believes, would prevent a repetition of recent tragic

experiences in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosova. And he argues

that Montenegro is the best example that Orthodox, Catholics,

and Muslims can live together in harmony.

Rakcevic, a Montenegrin parliamentary deputy, says the

solution is to take preventive action in the field of

security by deploying observers before trouble starts. He

said argues that with some 200 international monitors, for

example, in the republic, Yugoslav President Slobodan

Milosevic "will decide completely differently."

Rakcevic says deploying monitors would be a clear sign

to Milosevic to cease his destabilization of Montenegro,

which has included an economic blockade and the setting up of

Yugoslav Television transmitters on Yugoslav military bases.

But Rakcevic warns that if the international community waits

until after Milosevic puts military and paramilitary pressure

on Montenegro, it will be too late.

A senior official with the international community's

Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe, Finnish diplomat Alpo

Rusi, told RFE/RL that the international community is coming

round to the idea that deploying monitors in Montenegro,

possibly under the aegis of the OSCE, would make sense.

Rusi notes that although Yugoslavia is barred from the

Stability Pact for now, Montenegro is, in practice,

functioning as a member state of the pact. But he says that

putting together a monitoring mission for Montenegro is not

yet part of the pact's official brief.

The UN deployed observers along Macedonia's border with

Kosova and Serbia more than six years ago, and their

presence--including that of several hundred U.S. soldiers--is

one of the reasons Milosevic never started trouble with

Macedonia.

In contrast, however, the EU's deployment in 1991 of a

European military monitoring mission in Croatia after the

fighting and ethnic cleansing began had little effect, except

for providing the West with military intelligence. Serbian

forces soon shot down a mission helicopter. and the mission

did little if anything to hold back the fighting.

Similarly, the presence of UN peacekeepers from UNPROFOR

in Bosnia did not prevent the systematic destruction by

Serbian forces of the areas that the UN had designated "safe

areas." Nor did it deter Serbian forces from carrying out the

massacres of some 7,000 men near one of those so-called "safe

areas," Srebrenica, in 1995.

Later, an unarmed OSCE mission in Kosova was slow to

deploy, never reached full capacity, and was soon forced to

withdraw after Serbian forces made its job impossible and the

launching of NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia last Spring

inevitable.

Since the Serbian capitulation and withdrawal from

Kosova last June, the international community has failed to

deploy anywhere near the agreed-upon number of NATO-led

peacekeepers and UN civilian police in Kosova. That is true,

despite the worsening situation in Mitrovica and along

Kosova's eastern border with Serbia.

So it is far from clear whether there will be sufficient

willingness to deploy observers in Montenegro. The issue

poses many questions: Would the observers be armed? Would

they stand firm or flee in the event of the likely Serbian

provocation? And what would be the justification for

deployment? Do humanitarian aid convoys bound for Kosova

really require the security of observers in Montenegro when

their main obstacles are Kosova customs agents just over the

border. And what would the reaction be of the Yugoslav Second

Army based in Montenegro, already in a heightened state of

alert and now manning fresh barricades along Montenegro's

sole border crossing with Albania.

Based on the international community's record to date, a

deployment of monitors in Montenegro is unlikely to be agreed

upon until it is too late.

The author is an RFE/RL correspondent currently in

Montenegro.

03-03-00

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

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