Browse through our Interesting Nodes on Telecommunications in Greece Read the Convention Relating to the Regime of the Straits (24 July 1923) Read the Convention Relating to the Regime of the Straits (24 July 1923)
HR-Net - Hellenic Resources Network Compact version
Today's Suggestion
Read The "Macedonian Question" (by Maria Nystazopoulou-Pelekidou)
HomeAbout HR-NetNewsWeb SitesDocumentsOnline HelpUsage InformationContact us
Friday, 29 March 2024
 
News
  Latest News (All)
     From Greece
     From Cyprus
     From Europe
     From Balkans
     From Turkey
     From USA
  Announcements
  World Press
  News Archives
Web Sites
  Hosted
  Mirrored
  Interesting Nodes
Documents
  Special Topics
  Treaties, Conventions
  Constitutions
  U.S. Agencies
  Cyprus Problem
  Other
Services
  Personal NewsPaper
  Greek Fonts
  Tools
  F.A.Q.
 

OMRI Daily Digest, Vol. 2, No. 109, 96-06-05

Open Media Research Institute: Daily Digest Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

From: Open Media Research Institute <http://www.omri.cz>

Vol. 2, No. 109, 5 June 1996


CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA

  • [01] SHAH-DENIZ CONTRACT FINALIZED.
  • [02] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT VISITS GEORGIA.
  • [03] RFE/RL'S GAIN, RUSSIA'S LOSS IN UZBEKISTAN?

  • [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

  • [04] SERB MOB FOILS IFOR ATTEMPT TO ARREST WARLORD.
  • [05] BOSNIAN SERB POLITICAL UPDATE.
  • [06] NEW MASS GRAVE OF CROATIAN, MUSLIM WOMEN FOUND.
  • [07] GREEK TELECOM DENIES BREACH OF DAYTON ACCORD.
  • [08] OSCE CHAIRMAN SAYS BOSNIAN ELECTIONS NOT TO BE AUTOMATICALLY APPROVED.
  • [09] CROATIA ACCEPTS CONDITIONS FOR ENTERING COUNCIL OF EUROPE.
  • [10] MONTENEGRIN CATHOLIC BISHOP SLAIN.
  • [11] MACEDONIAN PARLIAMENT ON EARLY ELECTIONS, U.S. TROOPS.
  • [12] U.S. CONGRESS URGED TO APPROVE MFN STATUS FOR ROMANIA.
  • [13] BULGARIAN PRESIDENT ACKNOWLEDGES DEFEAT.
  • [14] ALBANIAN POLICE PREVENT OPPOSITION PROTESTS.

  • [A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA

    [01] SHAH-DENIZ CONTRACT FINALIZED.

    A consortium of European, Russian, Iranian, and Turkish oil companies signed a major agreement estimated at $3-4 billion in Baku on 4 June to develop Azerbaijan's Shah-Deniz off-shore oil and gas fields, ITAR-TASS and AFP reported. Shah-Deniz contains reserves of 200 million metric tons of oil and gas condensate and 400 billion cubic meters of natural gas. BP and Norway's Statoil--which are the largest partners in the consortium to develop the Chirag, Azeri, and Gyuneshli fields--have a 51% stake in the contract; Russia's Lukoil and the Iranian state oil company have 10% each. -- Liz Fuller

    [02] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT VISITS GEORGIA.

    Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrossyan arrived in Tbilisi on 4 June, Russian media reported same day. Ter-Petrossyan and his Georgian counterpart, Eduard Shevardnadze, are to sign several bilateral agreements and a communique emphasizing the inviolability of the Armenian-Georgian border. -- Irakli Tsereteli

    [03] RFE/RL'S GAIN, RUSSIA'S LOSS IN UZBEKISTAN?

    Nezavisimaya gazeta on 4 June speculated that the declining cooperation with Russian journalists in Uzbekistan is linked to RFE/RL broadcasts to the country. The article alleges that RFE/RL has taken a pro-government, anti- imperial slant in its Uzbek reporting in an attempt to prevent the country from falling back into the Russian orbit. The paper also noted that the radio is supported by the U.S. Congress. While Uzbek President Islam Karimov assured Russian journalists in February that accredited reporters would be allowed to disseminate information in the country, the paper observed that shortly afterward Russian journalist Sergei Grebinyuk was found dead and that two other Russian journalists subsequently left the country. The article claimed that an "iron curtain" had fallen between the two countries in the sphere of information exchange. -- Bruce Pannier

    [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

    [04] SERB MOB FOILS IFOR ATTEMPT TO ARREST WARLORD.

    U.S. and Italian peacekeepers on 4 June spotted Slavko Aleksic, the former kingpin of Grbavica, in Lukavica near Sarajevo. He was carrying a pistol and a hand grenade in violation of the Dayton agreements. When the soldiers tried to arrest him, up to 300 Serb civilians formed a hostile crowd and surrounded the troops. Some 30 French rapid reaction soldiers then arrived on the scene, helped disarm Aleksic, and turned him over to waiting Serb police who had begun to disperse the crowd as soon as the French appeared. Dayton requires that civilians carrying illegal weapons be handed over to the local police, who in Lukavica are Serbs, Nasa Borba pointed out. Bosnian Serb parliament speaker Momcilo Krajisnik told AFP that there could have been much violence. Serbian propaganda has recently stressed that provocation of the Serbs could result in pandemonium. -- Patrick Moore

    [05] BOSNIAN SERB POLITICAL UPDATE.

    Confusion continues among NATO officials as to whether or not they have a new mandate to catch war criminals (see OMRI Daily Digest, 3 June 1996), but peacekeepers acted decisively to disband a regular press briefing in Pale to protest the presence of a picture of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic in the briefing room, Onasa reported on 4 June. Meanwhile in Foca, some 5,000 Serbs demonstrated in favor of Karadzic and fellow indicted war criminal Gen. Ratko Mladic, AFP noted. "The attacks on President Karadzic...and General Mladic are attacks against the Serb people," said Bozidar Vucurovic, the mayor of Trebinje in eastern Herzegovina. Krajisnik said the Bosnian Serbs have so far completed all the preparations for the elections, Onasa reported on 4 June. In Banja Luka, journalists at the government-backed paper Glas srpski announced a strike unless the state authorities change a planned new media budget. The journalists said the program favors Pale at the expense of Banja Luka, Nasa Borba reported on 5 June. -- Patrick Moore

    [06] NEW MASS GRAVE OF CROATIAN, MUSLIM WOMEN FOUND.

    Bosnian Croat authorities announced that a site has been unearthed near Jajce containing the bodies of at least 36 persons, mainly women. Spokesman Jerko Radic said, "I think we made a mistake in our [original] calculations because we thought there were 33 bodies, but there will be around 50. All of them are civilians and mostly female as you can see. The fact that these were civilians and mainly females shows the Serbs carried out genocide and that all those who were not Serbs were killed, regardless of their age," AFP on 4 June quoted him as saying. Jajce fell to the Serbs early in the war but was retaken by the Croats last September. Before the war its population was 39% Muslim and 35% Croatian. -- Patrick Moore

    [07] GREEK TELECOM DENIES BREACH OF DAYTON ACCORD.

    Greek and international media coverage of a deal between the Greek telecommunications company OTE and the Republika Srpska (RS) has prompted OTE's management to half-heartedly deny any violation of the Dayton agreement, AFP reported. State-controlled OTE struck a deal with the RS to develop a "master plan" for a modern telecommunications network for the Bosnian Serbs (see OMRI Special Report, 21 May 1996), which would include military communications and establish links between Pale, Banja Luka, and Belgrade but not between the RS and the Croatian-Muslim federation. Elevtherotypia and the Financial Times on 4 June reported that the deal totaling $248,000 violates the Dayton agreement and was protested by the international community's High Representative Carl Bildt. OTE chairman Dimitris Papoulias said his company carried out the study for free and did not breach the Dayton agreement. Government spokesman Dimitris Reppas backed OTE's decision. -- Stefan Krause

    [08] OSCE CHAIRMAN SAYS BOSNIAN ELECTIONS NOT TO BE AUTOMATICALLY APPROVED.

    Despite pressure from the major European powers to keep Bosnia's first postwar elections on schedule, OSCE chairman Flavio Cotti said reasonably free and fair conditions must exist first, Reuters reported on 4 June. Foreign ministers from the five countries representing the contact group on Bosnia at their 4 June meeting in Berlin insisted that adhering to the timetable is of central importance for the implementation of the peace plan. But, Cotti informed them that intimidation and discrimination have increased in Bosnia and election preparations are behind schedule. He clearly stated that he will not automatically give his approval for elections unless certain minimum prerequisite conditions are fulfilled, "so that the concepts 'free, fair, and democratic' ... retain their meaning," Reuters quoted him as saying. -- Daria Sito Sucic

    [09] CROATIA ACCEPTS CONDITIONS FOR ENTERING COUNCIL OF EUROPE.

    Meeting with a European Council delegation on 4 June in Zagreb, Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic said Croatia is ready to accept the European conditions for Croatian membership to the Council of Europe (see OMRI Daily Digest, 4 June 1996), Nasa Borba reported the next day. Granic's statement contrasted with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman's recent claim that Croatia will accept no more dictates. Slobodna Dalmacija in its editorial on 5 June commented that Croatia has already accepted and partly fulfilled these "new conditions." Granic announced he will visit Belgrade by the end of June to discuss the normalization of relations between Croatia and rump Yugoslavia. -- Daria Sito Sucic

    [10] MONTENEGRIN CATHOLIC BISHOP SLAIN.

    The retired Bishop of Kotor, Ivo Gugic, was found dead in his home on 4 June, Montena-fax reported the same day. The 75 year-old clergyman became Bishop of Kotor in 1982 and was also working with the Montenegrin government committee for the protection of minority and ethnic group rights. Police already have a man in custody who has reportedly confessed to the murder. -- Stan Markotich

    [11] MACEDONIAN PARLIAMENT ON EARLY ELECTIONS, U.S. TROOPS.

    The Sobranie on 4 June ruled that it is not competent to decide on a petition drive for early elections, Nova Makedonija reported. The majority decided that while the parliament can dissolve itself, it cannot initiate a referendum on early elections. A petition carrying more than 170,000 valid signatures and demanding early elections was submitted to the parliament earlier this year. The parliament also ratified an agreement with the U.S. providing for the presence of U.S. troops in Macedonia if UNPREDEP is scaled down or its mission terminated, AFP reported. The accord also defines rules for participation of U.S. and other troops in military exercises in Macedonia under the Partnership for Peace program and provides for training of Macedonian officers in the U.S. -- Stefan Krause

    [12] U.S. CONGRESS URGED TO APPROVE MFN STATUS FOR ROMANIA.

    Senior U.S. government officials have urged the Congress to approve legislation granting Romania permanent "most favored nation" (MFN) trade status, an RFE/RL correspondent reported on 4 June. Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley said Romania is the only U.S. trading partner that has acceded to the World Trade Organization and has conditional MFN status, Reuters reported. Romania's preferential treatment has to be approved each year following a review of its compliance with international human rights accords. U.S. State Department official Marshall Adair also spoke in favor of extending the MFN status clause indefinitely. However, Republican Congressman David Funderburk, a former U.S. ambassador to Bucharest, expressed reservations about awarding MFN status to Romania on a permanent basis before national elections set for this fall. MFN gives a nation's exports to the U.S. non-discriminatory tariff treatment. -- Dan Ionescu

    [13] BULGARIAN PRESIDENT ACKNOWLEDGES DEFEAT.

    Zhelyu Zhelev on 4 June accepted the result of the 1 June primary elections and said he will not run in the upcoming presidential elections, Reuters reported. He said he will support the winner, Petar Stoyanov of the Union of Democratic Forces (SDS) "so that Bulgaria will again have a democratic president." Earlier that day, the leaders of the SDS, the People's Union (NS), and the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedom (DPS) formally approved Stoyanov as their common presidential candidate. Ivaylo Trifonov, the director of Zhelev's presidential chancellery, and Yulia Gurkovska, the head of his cabinet, resigned because of Zhelev's bad showing in the primary. Meanwhile, the DPS and the Bulgarian Business Bloc announced they will support the no- confidence motion in the Socialist government initiated by the SDS and the NS. The big trade unions also voiced their support. -- Stefan Krause

    [14] ALBANIAN POLICE PREVENT OPPOSITION PROTESTS.

    After the government banned public demonstrations in Tirana on 4 June saying former secret police officers and Socialist Party (PS) leaders "planned to cause trouble," massive police forces prevented opposition supporters from gathering outside the PS headquarters, Western media reported. Some 200 people managed to gather near the building, which was encircled by two lines of special police forces, while the rest were pushed away. Police vans also blocked Skanderbeg Square, the scene of violent clashes between protesters and police one week earlier. Meanwhile, 76 leading PS members ended their hunger strike over alleged manipulations of the parliamentary elections, saying the strike had achieved its main goal of denouncing President Sali Berisha and his Democratic Party. They hope their move will calm political tension and open a dialogue with the Democrats. -- Stefan Krause

    Compiled by Victor Gomez and Deborah Michaels
    News and information as of 1200 CET


    This material was reprinted with permission of the Open Media Research Institute, a nonprofit organization with research offices in Prague, Czech Republic.
    For more information on OMRI publications please write to info@omri.cz.


    Open Media Research Institute: Daily Digest Directory - Previous Article - Next Article
    Back to Top
    Copyright © 1995-2023 HR-Net (Hellenic Resources Network). An HRI Project.
    All Rights Reserved.

    HTML by the HR-Net Group / Hellenic Resources Institute, Inc.
    omri2html v1.00b run on Wednesday, 5 June 1996 - 11:11:10