RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 81, 00-04-25

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RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 4, No. 81, 25 April 2000

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIA COMMEMORATES GENOCIDE ANNIVERSARY

[02] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT REJECTS DEMAND FOR INTERIOR MINISTER'S

[03] ARMENIAN DEMONSTRATORS CALL FOR ACCESSION TO RUSSIA-BELARUS

[04] GEORGIA, RUSSIA DISCUSS WITHDRAWAL OF BASES

[05] ABKHAZIA PROTESTS POLICE KILLINGS...

[06] ...ACCUSES UKRAINE OF BIAS

[07] MAN WHO FEIGNED ATTACK ON GEORGIAN PRESIDENT DIAGNOSED AS

[08] GEORGIAN PENSIONERS DEMAND OVERDUE ALLOWANCES

[09] RUSSIAN ROCKET CRASHES IN KAZAKHSTAN

[10] KAZAKHSTAN'S PRESIDENT MARKS 10 YEARS IN OFFICE

[11] KAZAKHSTAN, UZBEKISTAN PLEDGE TO RESOLVE BORDER DISPUTES

[12] KAZAKHSTAN HOPES FOR FURTHER COOPERATION WITH GAZPROM

[13] CHINESE DELEGATION VISITS KYRGYZSTAN

[14] UZBEK SUMMIT PARTICIPANTS SIGN ANTI-TERRORISM TREATY

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[15] KFOR DETAINS MITROVICA SERB LEADER

[16] IVANOVIC ANNOUNCES FIRST PLANNED RETURN OF SERBS

[17] KURTI, BROVINA PROTEST IMPRISONMENT

[18] KOUCHNER HAS NO ANSWER FROM MILOSEVIC

[19] SERBIAN OPPOSITION SETS UP COUNCIL

[20] SHOW TRIAL IN SERBIA

[21] MONTENEGRO DEVALUES DINAR

[22] ALBANIA, MONTENEGRO DEEPEN TIES

[23] TOP ALBANIAN AWARD FOR CLARK

[24] KFOR SEND INDICTED WAR CRIMINAL TO HAGUE

[25] 'CREEPING PARTITION' IN BRCKO?

[26] KUCAN WANTS EARLY ELECTIONS

[27] FRENCH EUROPEAN AFFAIRS MINISTER IN ROMANIA

[28] NATO SPOKESMAN ON POSSIBLE POLITICAL CHANGE IN ROMANIA

[29] ROMANIA, MOLDOVA, AGREE ON BASIC TREATY

[30] MOLDOVAN GOVERNMENT, STUDENTS, REACH AGREEMENT

[31] CIS COMMISSION VISITS MOLDOVA

[32] BULGARIAN PREMIER REJECTS DEMANDS THAT HE STEP DOWN...

[33] ...PLEDGES TO INCREASE POLITICAL ACCOUNTABILITY,

[34] ...GETS WORLD BANK FUNDS TO FIGHT CORRUPTION

[C] END NOTE

[35] Energy Disputes May Mar Russian-Armenian Partnership

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIA COMMEMORATES GENOCIDE ANNIVERSARY

of Armenians, including the country's entire leadership,

marched in silence on 24 April to the Yerevan monument to an

estimated 1.5 million Armenians killed in Ottoman Turkey in

1915, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. In a televised

address to the Armenian people, President Robert Kocharian

said that Armenia will continue to try to persuade the

international community to formally acknowldge the killings

as genocide. At the same time, he called for reconciliation

and for "a new kind" of relationship between Armenia and

Turkey which, he said, is crucial to maintaining stability

and developing regional cooperation. LF

[02] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT REJECTS DEMAND FOR INTERIOR MINISTER'S

President Kocharian on 22 April rejected a call by

Prime Minister Aram Sargsian the previous day for the firing

of Interior Minister Hayk Harutiunian, RFE/RL's Yerevan

bureau reported. Sargsian argued that Harutiunian is

responsible for the escape from justice of his one of his

predecessors, Vano Siradeghian, who is currently on trial on

charges of ordering a series of contract killings. Kocharian

had suggested on 19 April that some members of the Interior

Ministry staff had helped Siradeghian flee the country after

parliament deputies voted to lift his immunity from detention

(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 4 and 11 April 2000). But a

presidential spokesman quoted Kocharian on 22 April as noting

that Harutiunian was not in Armenia on 3 April, the date of

Siradeghian's disappearance. LF

[03] ARMENIAN DEMONSTRATORS CALL FOR ACCESSION TO RUSSIA-BELARUS

Some 10,000 mostly elderly people participated in a 21

April demonstration in Yerevan to demand that Armenia join

the Union of Belarus and Russia, RFE/RL's bureau in the

Armenian capital reported. Armenian Communist Party leader

Vladimir Darpinian argued that joining the union would

resolve Armenia's economic problems, according to AP. Right

and Accord bloc parliament deputy Aghasi Arshakian said that

38 out of a total of 131 parliament deputies support Armenian

membership in the union (see "RFE/RL Caucasus Report," Vol.

3, No. 16, 21 April 2000). LF

[04] GEORGIA, RUSSIA DISCUSS WITHDRAWAL OF BASES

in Moscow on 20-21 April, Georgian and Russian government

delegations signed a protocol under which Moscow agreed to

reduce the amount of equipment at its military bases in

Georgia by the end of 2000 and to close the bases in Vaziani,

near Tbilisi, and Gudauta, in Abkhazia, by 30 June 2001,

Caucasus Press and ITAR-TASS reported. The Georgian

delegation reportedly proposed that all four bases be closed

within three years, while the Russians advocate abiding by

the bilateral agreement signed in November 1999, which left

open the date for closure of the two remaining bases (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 22 November 1999). The two delegations

also agreed to draft a program of bilateral military

cooperation, according to Caucasus Press. Moscow further

returned to Georgia military equipment and uniforms

confiscated in Moscow last year (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 15

and 24 November 1999). LF chancellery

[05] ABKHAZIA PROTESTS POLICE KILLINGS...

the unrecognized Republic of Abkhazia on 22 April issued a

statement condemning the shooting four days earlier of seven

Abkhaz police officers and calling on the CIS peacekeeping

force and UN Observer mission in Abkhazia to require Georgia

to abide by earlier agreements on a cessation of hostilities,

Caucasus Press reported. The Abkhaz statement accused Tbilisi

of failing to curtail guerrilla activities in Abkhazia. On 24

April, UN Observer Mission head General Anis Ahmed Baiwa said

that the situation on the border between Abkhazia and the

rest of Georgia has deteriorated as a result of the

shootings. He expressed regret that "political

considerations" frequently hinder the investigation by a

joint Abkhaz-Georgian-Russian-UN working group of such

killings. LF

[06] ...ACCUSES UKRAINE OF BIAS

ambassador to Georgia, Stepan Volkhovetskii, told Caucasus

Press that during talks with Abkhaz President Vladislav

Ardzinba, the latter had accused Ukraine of favoring Georgia.

Ardzinba also again expressed his opposition to the inclusion

of Ukraine in the Friends of the UN Secretary-General group

that is trying to mediate a solution of the Abkhaz conflict

(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 5 January 2000). LF

[07] MAN WHO FEIGNED ATTACK ON GEORGIAN PRESIDENT DIAGNOSED AS

Artem Bagdiev, who was briefly taken into custody

on 20 April after throwing a bag of knitted woolen hats at

President Eduard Shevardnadze's limousine, has been diagnosed

as "paranoid" and will be held for two weeks observation in a

psychiatric hospital, Caucasus Press reported on 25 April.

Bagdiev had said after the incident that his sole objective

had been to draw attention to his hat-making skills, and

promised to refrain from similar actions in future. LF

[08] GEORGIAN PENSIONERS DEMAND OVERDUE ALLOWANCES

pensioners and former Interior Ministry personnel staged a

demonstration outside the Georgian parliament building in

Tbilisi on 24 April to demand their allowances for the past

11 months, Caucasus Press reported. The following day, a

group of mothers of large families demonstrated outside the

state chancellery to demand that child allowances be raised

from the present 12 lari ($6) per month. As Georgian

Communist Party first s ecretary in the early 1980s,

Shevardnadze had promoted a policy of encouraging women to

bear 4-6 children. LF

[09] RUSSIAN ROCKET CRASHES IN KAZAKHSTAN

fired from the Ashuluk military testing range in Astrakhan

Oblast went out of control and crashed on 21 April near the

village of Primore in western Kazakhstan, Reuters and ITAR-

TASS reported. Although no one was injured by the crash,

Kazakh Foreign Minister Yerlan Idrisov summoned Russia's

ambassador, Yuri Merzlyakov, on 24 April and demanded an

explanation of the accident. Idrisov told journalists the

same day that the Kazakh government will ask Moscow to

suspend rocket tests at the Ashaluk range. LF

[10] KAZAKHSTAN'S PRESIDENT MARKS 10 YEARS IN OFFICE

April address marking the 10th anniversary of his election as

president, Nursultan Nazarbaev stressed that his country had

succeeded in avoiding political instability and interethnic

tensions following the collapse of the USSR and that his

economic reforms are already bearing fruit, Reuters reported.

He said the country's priorities for the immediate future are

to strengthen independence, to preserve political stability,

and to encourage economic growth. At the same time, Nazarbaev

warned journalists against abusing press freedom and

criticized unnamed foreign states for attempting to sow

tensions between Kazakhstan and neighboring Russia and

Uzbekistan. LF

[11] KAZAKHSTAN, UZBEKISTAN PLEDGE TO RESOLVE BORDER DISPUTES

Uzbekistan's ambassador to Kazakhstan, Turdykul Butayarov,

told journalists in Almaty that working groups from the two

countries will meet next week to begin demarcating their

2,150 km common border, RFE/RL's bureau in the former capital

reported. Unilateral attempts by Uzbekistan to do so earlier

this year gave rise to protests and tensions in southern

Kazakhstan (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 28 January and 8 March

2000). LF

[12] KAZAKHSTAN HOPES FOR FURTHER COOPERATION WITH GAZPROM

visiting State Duma speaker Gennadii Seleznev in Astana on 21

April that increased economic cooperation between Russia and

Kazakhstan, including the possible creation of a common

economic space, could contribute to resolving problems in

bilateral relations and does not necessarily entail

Kazakhstan's loss of statehood and independence, RFE/RL's

Kazakh Service reported. Toqaev reportedly also said that

Kazakhstan would welcome the return of Gazprom to Kazakhstan

following the withdrawal of the Belgian company Tractebel,

which in 1997 acquired a 20 year concession to manage

Kazakhstan's gas distribution network. LF

[13] CHINESE DELEGATION VISITS KYRGYZSTAN

Bishkek on 21 April between Kyrgyz Prime Minister Amangeldi

Muraliev and a 17-person Chinese delegation headed by Deputy

Minister of Foreign Trade Jiang Syang, it was announced that

Beijing will give Bishkek 5 million yuan ($600,000) in aid

towards implementing economic reforms, RFE/RL's Bishkek

bureau reported. LF

[14] UZBEK SUMMIT PARTICIPANTS SIGN ANTI-TERRORISM TREATY

in Tashkent on 21 April, the presidents of Kazakhstan,

Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan signed a 10-year

treaty on joint efforts to combat terrorism, political and

religious extremism, transnational organized crime, and other

threats to security and stability, Interfax reported.

Uzbekistan's Islam Karimov and Tajikistan's Imomali Rakhmonov

told journalists after the signing that one of the main

threats to regional stability is the war in Afghanistan.

Meeting in Moscow the same day, the interior ministers of the

so-called Bishkek group comprising the five signatory states

to the Shanghai Agreement (Russia, China, Kazakhstan,

Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan) adopted an appeal to their

respective heads of state containing specific proposals on

cooperation in combatting crime, Interfax reported. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[15] KFOR DETAINS MITROVICA SERB LEADER

detained Oliver Ivanovic for two hours on 24 April as he was

heading to Leposaviq. That town is to the north of the

divided city of Mitrovica, where he is the hard-line

political leader of local Serbs. Peacekeepers said that

Ivanovic's documents had expired and that they "wanted to

take a picture to renew his papers." Ivanovic insisted that

his papers were still valid, and showed Reuters a KFOR pass

good until the end of June. Some 200 Serbs gathered to

protest the detention of Ivanovic and dispersed only when a

Belgian peacekeeper fired a warning shot. Previous to his

detention, Ivanovic met with his counterpart in southern

Mitrovica, Bajram Rexhepi, and with the international

community's negotiator for the divided city, William Nash. PM

[16] IVANOVIC ANNOUNCES FIRST PLANNED RETURN OF SERBS

told Reuters in Mitrovica on 25 April that he is planning the

organized return of up to 1,500 Serbs to Kosova. He stressed

that he will need the support of the UN civil administration,

KFOR, and the UNCHR. "We have to [first] get insurance [sic]

from KFOR that everything will be safe. We will need

supplies. The Albanians cut the water, electrical, [and]

telephone supplies in the area. They have to be repaired by

KFOR before we send in the first group. If they do that and

secure the area, it's enough for the start. It will be the

first organized return of Serbs" to Kosova, he said. PM

[17] KURTI, BROVINA PROTEST IMPRISONMENT

Kurti and human rights activist Flora Brovina told

journalists at Pozarevac prison on 22 April that they are

being "unjustly held behind bars," RFE/RL's South Slavic

Service reported. Kurti stressed that he had been sentenced

"simply because I am an [ethnic] Albanian" (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 14 March 2000). PM

[18] KOUCHNER HAS NO ANSWER FROM MILOSEVIC

heads the UN's civilian administration in Kosova, said on 22

April that he has not had an answer from the Belgrade

authorities about his proposal for ethnic Serbian refugees

from Kosova to participate in the local elections expected

later this year. Kouchner had suggested that Serbian refugees

could vote where they are currently living, RFE/RL's South

Slavic Service reported. PM

[19] SERBIAN OPPOSITION SETS UP COUNCIL

representing the Serbian opposition as well as Serbs in

Kosova, Bosnia, Croatia, and Montenegro met on 21 and 22

April in Athens under the sponsorship of Crown Prince

Aleksandar Karadjordjevic. Participants agreed to form a

Council of Democratic Forces of Serbia under the leadership

of Aleksandar and Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Pavle, "Vesti"

reported on 25 April. After the session, opposition leaders

met with Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou, who said

that from them he "heard a different vision of Serbia,

[namely] a democratic one open to the broader European

family" of nations, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported.

PM

[20] SHOW TRIAL IN SERBIA

three men from Krusevac, who are charged with plotting the

assassination of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and

army chief-of-staff General Nebojsa Pavkovic. The military

court heard the men confirm that they are members of the

shadowy "Serbian Liberation Army (OSA)." Some observers have

suggested that OSA and other alleged conspiratorial groups

with names such as Spider are really the invention of

Milosevic's intelligence services. The regime seeks to divert

attention, sow confusion, create an atmosphere of

uncertainty, and supply pretexts for future crackdowns, the

observers conclude. PM

[21] MONTENEGRO DEVALUES DINAR

Bank of Montenegro devalued the Yugoslav dinar by 15 percent

against the German mark. The government introduced the mark

on its own initiative as a parallel currency to the dinar in

November 1999 in an effort to ensure stability and insulate

Montenegro from inflationary trends in Serbia. The Belgrade

authorities subsequently declared this move illegal but have

not regarded it as a reason to consider the Montenegrin

government in open rebellion. This is partly because the

German mark has been the unofficial second currency

throughout the former Yugoslavia for decades. PM

[22] ALBANIA, MONTENEGRO DEEPEN TIES

Paskal Milo arrived in Podgorica on 24 April in the latest of

a series of moves by Albania and Montenegro to promote closer

relations despite Montenegro's continued membership in

Milosevic's Yugoslav federation (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 14

April 2000). Milo met with Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic and

Foreign Minister Branko Lukovac to discuss joint initiatives

under the EU's Stability Pact (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 25

April 2000). PM

[23] TOP ALBANIAN AWARD FOR CLARK

General Clark, NATO's supreme commander in Europe, the Order

of Skanderbeg, which is the highest Albanian award that a

foreigner can receive. Meidani said at the ceremony in Tirana

on 24 April that Clark played a key role in the "triumph of

humanism and democracy, the protection of human lives, and

the restoration of dignity and human rights of oppressed

people in Kosova." PM

[24] KFOR SEND INDICTED WAR CRIMINAL TO HAGUE

seized Dragan Nikolic on 21 April on Bosnian Serb territory

and sent him the next day to The Hague. The tribunal has

indicted him on more than 80 counts, including several of

murder, stemming from his time as commander of a Serbian

prison camp at Susica, near Vlasenica, in 1992. Nikolic was

indicted in 1994 in the first Bosnian war crimes indictment.

PM

[25] 'CREEPING PARTITION' IN BRCKO?

Djapo, who is president of the Brcko district legislature,

told "Dnevni avaz" of 25 April that the area is in danger of

undergoing a de facto partition. He said that the widespread

view that the city proper is Serbian while the surrounding

district is Muslim is helping hold up the return of many

refugees. Djapo called for a strong role for the

international community to offset the influence of

nationalists. PM

[26] KUCAN WANTS EARLY ELECTIONS

said on television in Ljubljana on 21 April that early

elections are necessary to ensure the formation of a credible

government. He stressed that it is not possible to put

together a broadly-based government in the current parliament

(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 21 April 2000). PM

[27] FRENCH EUROPEAN AFFAIRS MINISTER IN ROMANIA

Moscovici, on a two-day visit to Romania, on 24 April met

with President Emil Constantinescu, Premier Mugur Isarescu,

Foreign Minister Petre Roman and other officials, RFE/RL's

Bucharest bureau reported. He stressed that France continues

to support Romania's integration into the EU and NATO and

said that when his country takes over the EU rotating

presidency from Portugal, it will act to bring about the

abolition of visa requirements for Romanian citizens

traveling within the EU. Moscovici also said Paris will

support opening negotiations with Romania on more chapters of

the aquis communautaire and announced that it will grant

Romania aid aimed at extending help to people affected by the

recent floods in Transylvania. MS

[28] NATO SPOKESMAN ON POSSIBLE POLITICAL CHANGE IN ROMANIA

spokesman Jamie Shea on 24 April said all states admitted to

NATO "must be democratic countries" and in a democracy "the

change of government means a change of internal, not foreign

policy," Romanian radio reported on 25 April. Shea was

answering a journalist's question, who asked if "the possible

return to power of [the opposition] Party of Social Democracy

in Romania (PDSR) would pose obstacles to the development of

NATO-Romanian relations." The spokesman added that PDSR

leader Ion Iliescu has "emphasized in clear terms that his

political orientation favors Romania's integration into

NATO." MS

[29] ROMANIA, MOLDOVA, AGREE ON BASIC TREATY

25 April with leaders of parties represented in the

parliament to brief them on the basic treaty with Moldova,

RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. The document describes

the relations between the two states as a "privileged

partnership." Moldovan Deputy Premier Andrei Cucu and Roman

on 24 April signed in Bucharest an agreement for

collaboration between the two governments. Roman said that

Romania will continue to aid Moldova in its quest for

European integration. But Cucu was unsuccessful in convincing

his partners in Bucharest to renew electricity deliveries.

Premier Isarescu said that the resumption of deliveries

depends on signing a commercial accord and Industry Minister

Radu Berceanu rejected a Moldovan proposal that Romania take

over shares in Moldova's electricity grid about to be

privatized as "insufficient" to cover Moldova's debt to

Romania. MS

[30] MOLDOVAN GOVERNMENT, STUDENTS, REACH AGREEMENT

Chisinau and representatives of the government on 21 April

reached an agreement that will end the conflict, RFE/RL's

bureau in the Moldovan capital reported. The agreement

stipulates that students will be entitled to two cross-

country yearly trips on state-owned transportation at half

price and that the proportion of students entitled to a

scholarship will rise from 25 to 35 percent. Due to the food

penury and the high prices, many students bring foodstuff

from their villages and cannot afford the travel costs. MS

[31] CIS COMMISSION VISITS MOLDOVA

the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly headed by State Duma

deputy chairman Boris Pastukhov on 24 April met with

President Petru Lucinschi, Premier Dumitru Braghis, and

parliament chairman Dumitru Diacov, discussing ways of

solving the conflict with the Transdniester separatists,

Infotag and Flux reported. Lucinschi welcomed the CIS

initiative to mediate in the conflict and said Moldova is

ready to accept a "reasonable compromise" provided its

territorial integrity is respected. Diacov said that Moldova

is ready to grant Tiraspol broad autonomy provided that the

sovereignty and indivisibility of Moldovan territory is

recognized by the separatists. The commission is to travel to

Tiraspol for talks with Igor Smirnov and other Transdniester

separatist leaders. MS

[32] BULGARIAN PREMIER REJECTS DEMANDS THAT HE STEP DOWN...

Minister Ivan Kostov, speaking in parliament on 21 April,

rejected opposition demands that he resign in view of the

large-scale corruption scandal in the country (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 21 April 2000). He told Socialist Party leader

Georgi Parvanov, who said the country is being ruled by "the

most corrupt government in its history," that "nothing you

want to happen will happen." Kostov said he will "continue to

sack from office immediately people against whom there are

solid and proved suspicions of breaching the law." In an

allusion to former Interior Minister Bogomil Bonev, whom

Kostov sacked from the cabinet in December 1999 and who has

called for the premier's resignation, Kostov said that "the

only development that can be described as dangerous is the

attempt to attain political goals by discrediting opponents,"

Reuters and AP reported.

[33] ...PLEDGES TO INCREASE POLITICAL ACCOUNTABILITY,

Kostov said in an interview on 23 April with

Bulgarian Radio that he intends to "remove or reduce the

[parliamentary] immunity of lawmakers" and possibly also the

immunity of magistrates, in an effort to increase the fight

against corruption, AP reported. Kostov said he believes

lawmakers must enjoy immunity only for statements made in the

parliament. He also said his Union of Democratic Forces (FDS)

will introduce a bill obliging state officials to declare

their wealth at the start and end of political office.

Reuters reported on 21 April that former President Zhelu

Zhelev, in an interview with "24 Chasa," accused the FDS of

being "fraught with mega-corruption." Zhelev defended Bonev

as being "the only person brave enough to tell Kostov the

truth" and said the FDS had "blackmailed" business to finance

its local elections campaign in 1999, "while incumbents took

part in privatization through stooges." MS

[34] ...GETS WORLD BANK FUNDS TO FIGHT CORRUPTION

Bank's director for Bulgaria and Romania, Andrew Vorkink,

announced on 21 April in Sofia that the bank is providing a

$7.5 million loan for Bulgaria to fight corruption and

improve customs operations, DPA reported. On 23 April,

Orthodox Patriarch Maxim, speaking at the Palm Sunday mass in

the Saint Alexander Nevski cathedral in Sofia, called on the

government to introduce mandatory religion classes in schools

to protect youth from "sinful temptations," AP reported.

Maxim said that "in order to grow honest, fair, affectionate,

and compassionate," young people need religious instruction,

which must be taught "at equal footing with other school

subjects." MS

[C] END NOTE

[35] Energy Disputes May Mar Russian-Armenian Partnership

A dispute over energy issues is threatening to

jeopardize the generally cordial relationship between Armenia

and Russia. Russia's Gazprom monopoly is threatening to halt

natural gas deliveries to Armenia if Yerevan fails to repay

debts it has accumulated over the last few years. The threats

coincided with the exclusion of a Gazprom-controlled company

from the ongoing international bidding for Armenia's

electricity distribution network, a move that Russian

diplomats have warned may adversely affect bilateral economic

cooperation.

Armenian Energy Minister David Zadoyan flew to Moscow on

21 April to try to win a reprieve for his country, which

would face a crippling energy crisis should the Russians shut

the tap on the pipeline running through Georgia. Thermal

power stations, which primarily use Russian gas, account for

a large part of the power generated in Armenia. Gazprom has

already cut its supplies from the usual 3.5 million to 1.3

million cubic meters a day. It gave the Armenian government

until 24 April to clear $16 million in unpaid bills.

That debt was rescheduled last August, but officials in

the Armrosgaz venture, which handles gas imports, complain

that Armenian consumers still fail to pay up. Gazprom,

together with its subsidiary, ITERA, effectively controls

Armenia's natural gas infrastructure through a 55 percent

stake in Armrosgaz.

The prospect of a gas cut-off rekindles Armenians'

memories of the dark days of the early 1990s when they had

just a few hours of electricity a day amid severe energy

shortages.

Gazprom's deadline for Armenia raises a number of

questions among local observers. The size of the debt, they

say, is fairly large but other former Soviet republics owe

much more to the Russians. And Armenia is not the worst

defaulter. As gas-rich Turkmenistan's ambassador in Yerevan

noted on 20 April, Armenia (which still owes his country $14

million for earlier fuel deliveries) meets its payment

obligations far better than other ex-Soviet states.

Ambassador Toyli Kurbanov told reporters: "It is important to

note that of all our debtor-states the Republic of Armenia

was and is the most diligent and punctual payer."

The Gazprom demands came as ITERA was left out of a

short-list of foreign companies participating in an

international tender for four Armenian electricity companies.

Deputy Energy Minister Karen Galustian announced on 18 April

that ITERA does not qualify because it failed to submit

findings of an internationally certified audit that would

show its financial situation. A government commission

handling the tender left four bidders in the race: the

Electricite de France giant, Swiss-Swedish group ABB, Spain's

Union Feroza, and the U.S. operator AES Silk Road.

Earlier this year, Armenian press reports said Yerevan

was under Russian pressure to declare a consortium of the

Gazprom subsidiary and the Rosenergoatom concern winner of

the tender. Although Armenian officials denied those claims,

the World Bank urged them last February to ensure the

fairness and transparency of the process. Furthermore, senior

World Bank executives argued strongly against giving ITERA,

which is registered in the U.S., ownership rights, citing its

financial inadequacy. ITERA has never been engaged in energy

distribution and was repeatedly accused by some Russian media

of serving as a tool for Gazprom to channel its huge revenues

to offshore accounts.

Pressure from the World Bank, Armenia's leading

creditor, and from other Western agencies may have been

instrumental in ITERA's exclusion from the tender, which

Russia's ambassador to Armenia, Anatolii Dryukov, promptly

deplored. Dryukov was quoted by local news agencies as saying

on 20 April that the decision to reject the Russian bid runs

counter to Russian-Armenian agreements on deepening economic

cooperation.

In a statement released on 21 April, Rosenergoatom

accused the Armenian government of taking a discriminatory

approach toward the Russian firms. It said the U.S.

government is lobbying hard for the interests of America's

AES, which already owns the power grid in the Georgian

capital Tbilisi.

With ITERA officials unavailable for comment, it is not

clear whether the drastic reduction of Russian gas supplies

is related to the Armenian energy sector privatization. But

it appears that the latest development in the bidding will

complicate Yerevan's efforts to keep the vital fuel streaming

in. Meanwhile, "Kommersant-Daily" on 19 April noted that

Yerevan may be subject to new pressure from Rosenergoatom,

which is the sole supplier of fuel for Armenia's nuclear

power station.

25-04-00

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

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