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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 137, 00-07-19Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 4, No. 137, 19 July 2000CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] RELEASE OF ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT SHOOTING SUSPECTS QUESTIONEDRelatives of some of the eight men killed in the 27 OctoberArmenian parliament shootings have addressed a statement to Military Prosecutor Gagik Jahangirian questioning his decision to shelve the investigation into the possible compliance in that crime of four persons, including presidential aide Aleksan Harutiunian, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported on 18 July. The statement, which was published in the independent daily "Aravot," argued that rather than take that decision on the basis of testimony given by Nairi Hunanian, the leader of the five gunmen who committed the killings, Jahangirian should have collated the evidence given by all the defendants. Jahangirian told RFE/RL that the victims' families may appeal to the prosecutor- general to review the findings of the preliminary investigation. But the wife of slain parliamentary deputy speaker Yurii Bakhshian said that the families do not want to prolong the investigation and would prefer that the case go to trial. LF [02] OSCE CHAIRWOMAN DISCUSSES KARABAKH SETTLEMENT INAZERBAIJAN...Meeting in Baku on 18 July with Azerbaijan President Heidar Aliev, Foreign Minister Vilayet Guliev, and parliamentary speaker Murtuz Alesqerov, Benita Ferrero- Waldner called on the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan "to take the courageous steps necessary" to resolve the conflict now on the basis of mutual compromise. She also stressed the importance of taking "small but significant confidence-building measures" proposed by the OSCE in the economic and military spheres. Aliev, however, said he thinks the OSCE should be more active and responsive in promoting a settlement of the conflict, Reuters reported. Guliev, for his part, said that Ferrero-Waldner had brought no new proposals on how the conflict could be resolved, although "there are some elements that need to be carefully looked at." LF [03] ...AS ARMENIA, KARABAKH RELEASE FURTHER POWSResponding toan appeal by Ferrero-Waldner, Nagorno-Karabakh President Arkadii Ghukasian released four Azerbaijani prisoners of war who had been detained in Stepanakert for up to two years, Russian agencies reported. Two more Azerbaijani POWs who had been held in Yerevan were also freed. The six men were flown to Baku on 18 July. LF [04] AZERBAIJANI PARLIAMENT APPROVES FIRST CENTRAL ELECTORALCOMMISSION MEMBERSParliamentary deputies on 18 July endorsed nine nominees to the new Central Electoral Commission by 85 votes to nine, Turan reported. Three of the nominees represent the majority Yeni Azerbaycan party, three are independent deputies, two are from the opposition Azerbaijan National Independence Party (AMIP), and one represents the opposition Musavat Party. But AMIP chairman Etibar Mamedov warned the parliament the same day that the opposition representatives to the election commission from his party and from the opposition Azerbaijan Popular Front will refuse to cooperate with the commission until the parliament amends the election law to comply with the demands of the opposition and the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (see "RFE/RL Caucasus Report," Vol. 3, No. 26, 30 June 2000). That refusal, Mamedov said,will paralyze the functioning of the commission, whose decisions must be adopted by two-thirds of its 18 members. Meeting with Azerbaijani officials on 18 July, OSCE Chairwoman in Office Ferrero-Waldner likewise noted "serious shortcomings" in the election law and expressed the hope they will be corrected, Turan reported. LF [05] SLAIN GEORGIAN INSURGENT NOT YET BURIEDThe family ofColonel Akaki Eliava, killed in unclear circumstances by Georgian security officials on 9 July (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 10 July 2000), held funeral rites for him in his home town of Senaki on 18 July but are refusing to bury him until the Georgian authorities release three of his comrades in arms, Caucasus Press reported. The three men were detained with Eliava on 9 July and have been charged with illegal possession of arms, although two of them were unarmed at the time of their arrest. Bondo Djikia, governor of the west Georgian regions of Mingrelia and Upper Svaneti, on 18 July joined Georgian ombudsman Nana Devdariani in calling for the three men's release. LF [06] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT DISCUSSES OIL PIPELINE OPTIONS IN LONDONEduard Shevardnadze, who arrived in the U.K. on 17 July on astate visit, met with oil sector officials in London on 18 July to discuss the feasibility of a second Baku-Supsa oil export pipeline and of a pipeline from the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiissk via Supsa to the Turkish terminal at Ceyhan, Caucasus Press reported. LF [07] KAZAKHSTAN SEEKS TO ALLEVIATE WATER SHORTAGEKazakhgovernment officials have held urgent talks with neighboring Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on increasing water supplies to southern Kazakhstan, Deputy Prime Minister Danial Akhmetov told journalists on 18 July. He did not say whether those talks were successful, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported. Natural Resources and Environment Minister Serikbek Daukeev told a recent cabinet meeting that Uzbekistan is violating a schedule drawn up by the inter-governmental commission on water resources, according to Interfax on 18 July. Kyrgyzstan has reduced the flow of irrigation water to southern Kazakhstan, where the cotton crop in Maqta-Aral is threatened by drought, in retaliation for Kazakhstan's failure to comply with an agreement concluded last year on exchanging coal for irrigation water. LF [08] KYRGYZ PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE PASSES LANGUAGE EXAMLawyerTursunbek Akunov on 18 July became the first candidate for the 29 October presidential poll to sit the mandatory tests in fluency in the Kyrgyz language ordered last month by the Central Electoral Commission, Interfax reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 June 2000). The tests comprise writing an essay on an assigned topic, making a five-minute oral presentation in Kyrgyz, and reading extracts from fictional works. A second presidential candidate, film-maker and parliament deputy Dooronbek Sadyrbaev, has condemned the language test as humiliating and designed to exclude non-Kyrgyz candidates. LF [09] TURKMENISTAN, RUSSIA AT ODDS OVER CASPIANRussian DeputyForeign Minister and presidential envoy for the Caspian Viktor Kalyuzhnyi held three hours of behind-closed-doors talks in Ashgabat on 18 July with Turkmenistan's President Saparmurat Niyazov, Russian agencies reported. Kalyuzhnyi told journalists later that those discussions were "much more difficult" than his talks earlier this month in Astana and Baku (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 and 17 July 2000). Kalyuzhnyi proposed a phased approach to resolving the question of the legal status of the Caspian, beginning with an agreement on the environment and the sea's biological resources. But Niyazov argued that environmental and other issues should be addressed only after the median line has been defined and all five littoral states have signed a convention on the status of the sea, according to Interfax. LF [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[10] NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL WARNS ALBANIANS, SERBSLord Robertsonsaid in Prishtina on 18 July that the Atlantic alliance demands a stop to ethnically-motivated violence in Kosova. He stressed that "we are going to protect a multi-ethnic society here and we'll do it if necessary by making sure the individual groups are protected in their homes and communities," AP reported. He told ethnic Albanians not to "allow the Serb community to be run out of Kosovo and into the arms of [Yugoslav President Slobodan] Milosevic." Robertson called on Serbs to admit that "some horrifying violence went on here over the last two years, and [that] the memory of that is not going to fade very quickly" among local Albanians. Addressing the Albanians, Robertson said: "Go and visit the [Serbian] churches and show that you, too, care about sacred sites that are being despoiled. Go to those who have had relations or friends murdered and tell them that you, the Kosovo Albanians, know more about harassment than practically any other people on Earth." PM [11] MITROVICA SERBS PLEDGE MORE PROTESTSMitrovica Serb leaderOliver Ivanovic told AP on 19 July that local Serbs have lifted their blockades of roads leading into northern Mitrovica. He added, however, that there will be daily protests until Dalibor Vukovic is freed from jail for having set fire to Albanian-owned cars (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 July 2000). Ivanovic also warned that there could be violence if Vukovic remains in prison, adding: "Over the past 10 months, during clashes around bridges [in Mitrovica], we had more than 100 people injured and not a single Albanian was jailed. Some 53 Serbs were killed or abducted and not a single Albanian is in jail." Ivanovic told AP that he will meet with UN officials in the course of the day to try to persuade them to free Vukovic. PM [12] RISTIC TO HEAD MODERATE SERBIAN BODYMeeting in Gracanica on18 July, members of the moderate Serbian National Council (SNV) elected Dusan Ristic president. He replaces Momcilo Trajkovic, who recently resigned to protest the SNV's decision to resume cooperation with the UN civilian administration's advisory council, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 26 June 2000). PM [13] MACEDONIAN ALBANIANS STAGE PROTEST FOR TETOVO UNIVERSITYSome 1,000 ethnic Albanians held a rally in central Skopje on18 July to demand that the parliament make the underground Tetovo Albanian-language university a full-fledged state institution (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 17 July 2000). Dean Fadil Sulejmani said a compromise put forward by the OSCE to make the university an accredited but private institution is "unacceptable." Reuters reported. The opposition Party of Democratic Prosperity organized the rally. The question of Tetovo University is one of the most acrimonious in Macedonian politics. PM [14] MACEDONIAN PARLIAMENT DEBATES CUTTING MINISTRIESTheparliament on 18 July began debates on the status of Tetovo University and on the reorganization of the state administration. The government wants to cut the number of ministries from 21 to 14, the private MIC news agency reported. If the legislature gives the proposal the necessary two-thirds majority, some of the ministries that have been eliminated will be reorganized as "agencies" of other ministries. A new cabinet will also be formed. PM [15] YUGOSLAV ARMY SAYS IT WILL 'NEVER' ATTACK MONTENEGROColonelSvetozar Radisic told journalists in Belgrade on 18 July that "there is no price for which the Yugoslav army would attack Montenegro," Reuters reported. He said that reports to the contrary in the Montenegrin and foreign media are "notorious lies." The colonel stressed that "the Yugoslav army has no intention of attacking either [federal] republic because its purpose is to defend them. It does not even cross its mind to enter into conflicts with its people. The Yugoslav army has always been with the people, never against them, and will therefore prevent a civil war at any price," he argued. Radisic stressed that the army recognizes that the former Yugoslav military made a "mistake" when it attacked Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia, "Glas javnosti" reported. He added, however, that while the army is free of partisan politics, it recognizes that it has a political role to play in keeping the peace, "Danas" reported. PM [16] FAMILIES OF DEAD SERBIAN JOURNALISTS SUE STATE TV BOSSESBelgrade lawyer Slobodan Sisic has filed lawsuits on behalfof 12 families against Serbian Television's Director Dragoljub Milanovic, Editor-in-Chief Milorad Komrakov, Chairman of the Administrative Board Vukasin Jokanovic, and several other people, "Danas" reported on 19 July. The families say that the officials knew that NATO was planning to attack the state television building in April 1999 but did nothing to warn the staff. The air strike left 16 dead and 18 injured. State television has been one of the main pillars of Milosevic's rule. In response to the families' lawsuit, Justice Minister Dragoljub Jankovic said that NATO, not the Belgrade authorities, are responsible for the deaths. PM [17] PROSECUTORS CHARGE 10 PEOPLE IN ARKAN SLAYINGThe Belgradepublic prosecutor's office said in a statement on 18 July that it has charged four people for the murder of warlord and indicted war criminal Zeljko "Arkan" Raznatovic in January (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 18 January 2000). The statement added that another six individuals have been charged as accomplices. One of the alleged murderers is at large and will be tried in absentia, AP reported. The statement did not indicate when the trial will begin. PM [18] VERHEUGEN: EU MEMBERSHIP FOR SLOVENIA BY 2003?GuenterVerheugen, who is the EU's commissioner for enlargement, said in Ljubljana on 18 July that Slovenia must keep up the momentum for reform, "Delo" reported. He urged his hosts to make special efforts to introduce the EU's common body of legislation, known as the "acquis communautaire." Verheugen added that EU membership for Slovenia could be a realistic possibility by 2003 or 2005. Slovenian Foreign Minister Lojze Peterle recently said membership is a realistic possibility only between 2005 and 2008. PM [19] MESIC BUOYED BY EU TIESCroatian President Stipe Mesic saidin Brussels on 18 July that the leaders of all 15 EU member states will attend the EU's Balkan summit slated for the fall in Zagreb, "Jutarnji list" reported. He added that he has received backing in Brussels for a number of key economic projects. These include building an Adriatic-Ionian highway, reopening the Croatian segment of the Danube to navigation, constructing an oil pipeline from the Caspian to the Adriatic, and launching work on a gas pipeline linking Norway to the Adriatic. PM [20] BOSNIAN SERB INFORMATION CHIEF QUITSRepublika SrpskaInformation Minister Rajko Vasic resigned on 18 July following criticism by several representatives of the international community of his alleged interference in the appointment of officials of Bosnian Serb television, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. Prime Minister Milorad Dodik accepted the resignation. "Dnevni avaz" wrote that the Information Ministry will in any case soon be abolished. Unnamed representatives of the international community have repeatedly called for the ministry's abolition on the grounds that democratic countries do not have such ministries. PM [21] NEW RIGHTIST COALITION IN ROMANIA TO BACK ISARESCU FORPRESIDENT?At a meeting organized by the Civic Alliance Movement (MAC), the leaders of the National Peasant Party Christian Democratic (PNTCD), the Union of Rightist Forces, the National Christian Democratic Alliance, and the Ecologist Federation agreed to set up a center-right alliance and run on joint lists in the fall parliamentary elections, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. A final agreement is to be concluded by 1 August. The MAC will not field candidates but will support the alliance. PNTCD chairman Ion Diaconescu said the alliance will support either Premier Mugur Isarescu as its presidential candidate "or another person." He noted that Isarescu has agreed to replace President Emil Constantinescu as the alliance's candidate for head of state (see "End Note" below). But Isarescu said he learned about the initiative only "from the media." The daily "Ziua" reported on 19 July that the alliance's "other" possible candidate for president might be Education Minister Andrei Marga. MS [22] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT CRITICIZES USE OF EU FUNDSSpeaking onnational television after chairing a cabinet meeting, Constantinescu said he has urged Isarescu to take urgent measures to ensure the "transparent and efficient" use of funds granted by the EU. He said that otherwise Romania runs the risk of being unable to use funding from the EU and other foreign creditors. Isarescu said the government was "on course" to meet budget targets but noted that budget figures might have to be revised. He also announced that pensions will be increased as of 1 September. On 19 July, Constantinescu was scheduled to depart for visits to Mexico and Brazil. MS [23] OSCE TO TAKE STRICTER STANCE ON TRANSDNIESTER SEPARATISTS?Iurii Vition, head of the Moldovan delegation that attendedthe OSCE Standing Bureau's meeting in Vienna on 18 July, said the organization is contemplating adopting punitive measures against the Transdniester separatists for their obstruction of a solution to the conflict, RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau reported. Vition said the OSCE Standing Bureau harshly criticized the Tiraspol leaders, saying that it is "inadmissible" that they continue attempting to thwart the decisions of the OSCE's summit in Istanbul last year. The Transdniester delegation walked out of the meeting after the bureau refused to accept the delegation's claim that it represents the separatist region and is not part of the Moldovan delegation. At the meeting, Russia submitted a four-stage plan for withdrawing its troops and arsenal from the Transdniester but neither submitted a time-table for the withdrawal nor specified when it would begin. MS [24] BULGARIAN JUSTICE MINISTER APOLOGIZES TO LIBYA OVER RACIALREMARKJustice Minister Teodosii Simeonov on 18 July apologized to Libya over a remark he had made in connection with the pending trial of six Bulgarian nationals who are accused by Tripoli of having willfully infected children in a Benghazi hospital with the HIV virus, dpa reported, citing BTA. The six face the death penalty if found guilty. Simeonov had told Bulgarian journalists that he could predict the outcome of a trial "in a white country, but this is not Libya's case." In a fax to the Libyan authorities, Simeonov said his words "must not be wrongly interpreted as an insult." Last week, Prime Minister Mubarak Abdallah al- Shamikh and parliamentary chairman Zenati Mohammed Zenati told a Bulgarian parliamentary delegation to Libya that Tripoli is "extremely unhappy" about the Bulgarian media's coverage of the pending trial, Reuters reported. MS [C] END NOTE[25] ROMANIAN PRESIDENT SLAMS DOOR SHUTby Michael ShafirPresident Emil Constantinescu's decision not to seek re-election was surprising, but not unexpected. Constantinescu made the announcement on national television on 17 July, less than three weeks after declaring he would seek a second mandate. However, for months Constantinescu has been trailing his predecessor and likely successor in office, Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR) chairman Ion Iliescu, and some recent polls even showed him behind Teodor Melescanu, the leader of Alliance for Romania (APR). The gap between Iliescu and Constantinescu seemed too large to close, unless the incumbent could have counted on the support of all those who voted for "anyone but Iliescu." But it became clear between his two announcements that Constantinescu could not count on the backing of that part of the electorate. His candidacy was endorsed by the National Peasant Party Christian Democratic (PNTCD) and the Union of Rightist Forces, which will run in an alliance in the fall parliamentary and presidential elections. The two formations even picked a "running mate" for Constantinescu--namely, Prime Minister Mugur Isarescu, who, though politically independent, was to be their choice for premier. This, however, was an electoral gimmick: the constitution does not grant the president the right to appoint the premier--that appointment being rather the prerogative of the parliament. Moreover, those behind the creation of the Constantinescu-Isarescu "team" failed to take into account two factors: Theodor Stolojan, also a former premier (1991- 1992) and, like Isarescu, a popular figure; and the National Liberal Party (PNL), although it is uncertain how much longer the party will continue to use that name. For some time, a group calling itself the Social Liberal Initiative had been pushing Stolojan's candidacy for either the premiership or the presidency, as an alternative to the PDSR-Iliescu tandem or that of Constantinescu and the Democratic Convention of Romania (CDR). Based on the A Future for Romania debating club, which formerly had ties with the PDSR, this reformist group had developed over the last years closer ties to Melescanu's party. These ties were "natural," so to speak, as the APR had split from the PDSR in 1997. The APR embraced the idea of the "return of Stolojan" but made its support for that idea conditional on the "ticket" of "Melescanu for president, Stolojan for premier." And then there is the PNL factor. In the June local elections, that party, which was the PNTCD's main partner in the CDR in the 1996 parliamentary elections, chose to run on separate lists. It did not do well, but it did better than the so-called "CDR"--which was virtually the PNTCD. The dilemma faced by the PNL leadership after the June ballot was how to avoid, in the electorate's eyes, sharing responsibility for the country's dismal economic performance and the failure of its three post-1996 cabinets to implement reform while remaining credible in its opposition to the left-wing PDSR. The party had two choices: run on separate lists in the fall elections (infringing on a PNTCD-PNL agreement to revive the CDR for that ballot) or seek a new partner. The final decision has not yet been taken, but all the indications are that PNL First Deputy Chairman Valeriu Stoica will have his way and the PNL will run in the elections on joint lists with the APR. This ideologically unlikely alliance has already deeply divided the PNL, and some prominent members have resigned. And to complicate matters, the APR is insisting that Melescanu be presidential candidate and Stolojan the candidate for the premiership. The PNL, however, would rather back Stolojan for the first position. One thing is clear: the PNL will not back Constantinescu. This explains why Constantinescu, in addressing the nation on 17 July, spoke bitterly of competition among Romania's political parties having turned into "a blind struggle for power-seeking personal or group interests." "This is a time, he said, when "people buy and sell principles, ideologies, seats in the parliament and the cabinet, making use to that end of lies, blackmail, vulgarity, and manipulation." Constantinescu may also feel betrayed by the electorate or, rather, by what its preferences are likely to be in the presidential and parliamentary elections, based on the outcome of the local ballot. He had been waging, he said, a struggle against the "Mafia-like" structures that had penetrated Romanian's economic and political structures. But instead of receiving support for those efforts, his political adversaries (read: Iliescu) had accused him of manipulating the judicial process for electoral purposes. The electorate, for its part, has clearly shown that it cares little at this point about Constantinescu's anti- corruption drive, or perhaps it simply does not believe that one side is better than the other. This is why Constantinescu urged Romania's citizens to choose between "the world of theft and lies or a country of honesty and truth." Aware of the fact that he himself has also been accused of condoning, and even of being personally involved in, corruption, Constantinescu announced that he will not seek election to the parliament and hence will not enjoy immunity. Unlike his predecessor, as his audience was clearly meant to understand. Regardless of whether one chooses to view Constantinescu's slamming of the political door as a gesture of a frustrated politician or of a desperate honest man, it should not be forgotten that no other politician in Romania has voluntarily quit. Those who stay in the race will find it hard to explain why they, rather than Emil Constantinescu, should continue to pursue their electoral ambitions. 19-07-00 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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