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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 1, No. 72, 97-07-14Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 1, No. 72, 14 July 1997CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] RUSSIAN-CHECHEN-AZERBAIJANI OIL AGREEMENT SIGNEDSenior Russian officials, including First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Fuel and Energy Boris Nemtsov and Security Council Deputy Secretary Boris Agapov were in Baku on 11 July. Nemtsov signed a five-point agreement with the heads of the Chechen and Azerbaijani state oil companies, Khozh-Ahmed Yarikhanov and Natik Aliev, on the export via Chechnya of Azerbaijan's Caspian oil, Turan and Russian agencies reported. Under an Azerbaijani-Russian agreement signed in January1996, Russia will receive $15.67 transit fees per metric ton. Yarikhanov declined to divulge what percentage of this Chechnya will receive under the 11 July agreement. Russian and Chechen oil executives signed another agreement in Grozny on 12 July whereby Russia undertakes to finance repairs to the pipeline in return for Chechen guarantees of the safety of Russian workers engaged in repair work, Interfax and AFP reported.[02] ARMENIAN RULING PARTY HOLDS CONGRESSThe ninth congress of the Armenian Pan-National Movement--the senior member within the majority Hanrapetutyun bloc--ended in Yerevan on 13 July, RFE/RL correspondents in Yerevan reported. Observers had predicted a competition for the post of chairman of the movement's board between Yerevan mayor Vano Siradeghyan and parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee chairman Eduard Yegoryan (see End Note, "RFE/RL Newsline," 23 June 1997). The congress elected a new board with 40 members proposed by Siradeghyan, not including Yegoryan. Siradeghyan then proposed postponing the election of a new board chairman for two months. Addressing the congress, President Levon Ter- Petrossyan enumerated the movement's achievements since its creation in 1989, including Armenia's declaration of independence, the successful defense of Nagorno-Karabakh, and the adoption of a new constitution. Ter- Petrossyan had earlier endorsed Siradeghyan's candidacy as chairman.[03] GEORGIA DEMANDS GIORGADZE'S EXTRADITIONGeorgian Prosecutor-General Dzhamlet Babilashvili on 11 July released the text of a letter to his Russian counterpart, Yurii Skuratov, again demanding the extradition from Moscow of former Georgian Security Service chief Igor Giorgadze, Reuters reported. Georgian officials claim that Giorgadze was a key figure in the unsuccessful August 1995 attempt to assassinate Eduard Shevardnadze. The following day, Giorgadze's father, who heads the United Communist Party of Georgia, told a news conference that he received a telephone call from his son denying he was in Russia, according to ITAR-TASS. Meanwhile, Georgian parliamentary Security and Defense Committee chairman Revaz Adamia told journalists on 11 July that Tbilisi is demanding Russia provide financial compensation for weaponry worth $4 billion removed from Georgia after the collapse of the USSR.[04] UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER IN YEREVAN...Hennady Udovenko held talks in Yerevan on 11 July with his Armenian counterpart, Alexander Arzoumanian, and with President Levon Ter-Petrossyan, Armenian and Russian agencies reported. Udovenko called for increased bilateral and trilateral economic cooperation, with Russia as the third partner, and undertook to support Armenia's stated wish to participate in the TRASECA transport project. He also expressed support for proposals by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Minsk group aimed at resolving the Karabakh conflict.[05] ...AND TBILISIAlso on 11 July, Udovenko met with Georgian Foreign Minister Irakli Menagharishvili and President Eduard Shevardnadze in Tbilisi. He assured them that Kyiv still backs Georgia's claim to part of the Black Sea fleet, according to ITAR-TASS. Interfax quoted Udovenko as telling journalists that Russia should continue to play the key role in mediating a settlement of the Abkhaz conflict, but ITAR-TASS quoted the Georgian presidential press service as saying Ukraine wished to participate in a proposed peace conference on Abkhazia convened by Western states. Udovenko said Ukraine is prepared to provide a contingent of peacekeeping forces to serve in Abkhazia under UN auspices if the Security Council decides to deploy such a force.[06] KYRGYZ PRESIDENT IN U.S.Askar Akayev is currently in the U.S. on a seven-day visit, RFE/RL correspondents reported. He has met with billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who has invested several million dollars in Kyrgyzstan, and with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In Washington on 11 July, he met with the IMF Deputy Managing Director Alassane Outtara. The surprise growth in Kyrgyz GDP from 1.3 percent in 1995 to 5.6 percent in 1996 led the IMF to increase credits to Kyrgyzstan. Also on 11 July, Akayev told a conference organized by the Carnegie Endowment that his country's transition from communism to capitalism is taking longer than expected.[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[07] EXPLOSION ROCKS OSCE HOTEL IN REPUBLIKA SRPSKAAn explosive device went off in the night of 13-14 July in the eastern Bosnian town of Zvornik and damaged a building and cars used by Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe monitors and the UN. One OSCE truck was destroyed, but there were no casualties. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the blast. Western press reports from the area, however, suggested the explosion reflected Bosnian Serb anger at the international community following Operation Tango, in which one Bosnian Serb suspected of war crimes was killed and another taken to The Hague (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 July 1997). On 11 July, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement denouncing Operation Tango as a "cowboy raid." The Serbian government in Belgrade also condemned SFOR's actions. Politically- charged memorial services for Simo Drljaca, the former concentration camp commander killed by NATO troops, took place in Prijedor, Banja Luka, and elsewhere in the Republika Srpska on 12-13 July.[08] KRAJISNIK SEEKS TO GOAD PLAVSIC BACK INTO LINEMomcilo Krajisnik, the hard-line Serbian member of the Bosnian joint presidency, on 13 July called on Biljana Plavsic, who opposes Krajisnik and others loyal to Radovan Karadzic, to resume talks by noon on 14 July. The two spoke in Banja Luka on 12 July, but Plavsic said she was "too ill" to attend a follow-up session slated for the next day, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from Banja Luka. Plavsic has said she fears that the pro-Karadzic faction will take advantage of Bosnian Serb opposition to Operation Tango in order to force her into submission under the pretext of promoting Serbian unity in the face of a NATO threat. Krajisnik, indeed, said at memorial services for Drljaca on 13 July that the Serbs must close ranks.[09] WESTERN LEADERS SAY WAR CRIMINALS MUST BE BROUGHT TO TRIALBritish Defense Secretary George Robertson said on 13 July that Operation Tango will not be the last NATO action aimed at bringing indicted war criminals to justice. The previous day. U.S. President Bill Clinton said Bucharest that war criminals must go before the tribunal if the Dayton peace treaty is to survive. In The Hague, the court on 14 July sentenced Bosnian Serb prison guard Dusan Tadic to 20 years in prison for atrocities he committed against Muslims and Croats while serving as a concentration camp guard. And in Podgorica, Montenegrin Interior Minister Filip Vujanovic on 12 July denied press reports that Gen. Ratko Mladic is vacationing on the Montenegrin coast.[10] MILOSEVIC CRACKS DOWN IN SANDZAKPolice on 12 July prevented protests in Novi Pazar against the Serbian government's decision on 10 July to dissolve the local Muslim-dominated government, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from Sandzak's main town. In Pristina, a Serbian court sent 15 ethnic Albanian defendants to jail on terrorism charges for the maximum sentences possible under the law. In Podgorica, the steering committee of the governing Democratic Socialist Party (DPS) voted on 11 July to remove Montenegrin President Momir Bulatovic as party president and to replace him with Milica Pejanovic- Djurisic of the anti-Milosevic faction. Bulatovic rejected the decisions and said that only a party congress can oust him, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from the Montenegrin capital. The following night, the Podgorica DPS organization voted to oust 15 reformers from its ranks, including Pejanovic-Djurisic and Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic.[11] ALBANIAN SOCIALISTS, ALLIES PLAN TO ESTABLISH PARLIAMENTARY REPUBLIC...The Socialists, Social Democrats, and Democratic Alliance agreed on 12 July to change the constitution to establish a parliamentary republic. Executive power will be concentrated in the hands of the prime minister, rather than the president; the premier will responsible to the parliament. A joint statement, published in "Koha Jone," said "the president will have a non- party and non-executive role as a symbol of national unity." It added that the priorities of the new government are restoring public order, reorganizing and depoliticizing the police, carrying out judicial reform, licensing private radio stations, privatizing large and medium-sized enterprises, further liberalizing the economy, and establishing private banks. The parties also pledged to compensate cheated pyramid scheme investors as fully as possible and to bring in foreign auditors to investigate pyramid schemes.[12] ...BUT ALBANIAN PRESIDENT WARNS AGAINST CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGESSali Berisha said on 13 July that the future government lacks the mandate to make constitutional changes. He argued that "the future of democracy will be put seriously in doubt by a parliament, one-half of which is represented by deputies controlled by armed bandits." Berisha added that plans by Socialist leader Fatos Nano to increase the powers of the prime minister "constitute a grave violation of the constitution and could have potentially destabilizing consequences for the country." He repeated that he will not remain president under a Socialist government but did not specify when he will step down. The Socialists and their coalition allies hold more than two-thirds of the parliamentary seats. Elections were repeated on 13 July in two districts because of earlier irregularities.[13] LEKA ZOGU LEAVES ALBANIAThe claimant to the throne left Albania for South Africa on 12 July without responding to two court summons for questioning over violence at a monarchist rally in Tirana on 3 July, which left one dead and two wounded. Zogu had attended the rally wearing fatigues and armed with two guns and some hand grenades. On leaving the country, Zogu announced that he was going "temporarily" to prevent unnamed provocateurs from using his presence to aggravate an already tense political situation. Abedin Mulosmani, the "royal court minister," said that "very soon [Leka] will be back because the Albanian people will call him back."[14] PROTESTS IN ALBANIA OVER GOSTIVAR RIOTSSeveral hundred persons demonstrated in Tirana on 12 July, burning a Macedonian flag to protest police treatment of ethnic Albanians in Macedonia. Most of the protesters were students from Macedonia or Kosovo. Two Albanians were shot dead, more than 50 seriously injured, and some 400 detained in rioting on 9 July in Gostivar, after police removed the Albanian national flag from the town hall. On 8 July, the parliament had passed a new law limiting the flying of national flags, other than the Macedonian one, to national and religious holidays and to private functions. Albanian President Berisha and the leaders of Albania's main political parties condemned the police action. Prime Minister Bashkim Fino blamed "Macedonian extremists" for the violence (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 July 1997).[15] U.S. PRESIDENT IN ROMANIAAddressing an estimated crowd of some 100,000 in Bucharest's University Square on 11 July, Bill Clinton urged Romanians to "stay the course" in implementing economic reforms and democratization and told them their country would be one of the "strongest candidates" to join NATO in the near future if they did so. President Emil Constantinescu told the crowd that Romania wanted to build together with the U.S. a "solid partnership, based on the joint values of liberty, prosperity, free initiative and tolerance." Also on 11 July, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and her Romanian counterpart, Adrian Severin, discussed the envisaged U.S.-Romanian strategic partnership. Severin told Radio Bucharest that they agreed to "talk less and do more" on the partnership.[16] RUSSIAN DEPUTY PREMIER ON RELATIONS WITH ROMANIAValerii Serov told the independent PRO-TV Romanian channel on 11 July that following the decision of the Madrid summit, "time was ripe for intensifying relations with Romania, particularly in the economic realm." He said it was "deplorable" that economic relations between the two states "had deteriorated" in the last years, adding that one of the chief reasons for the wish of East European countries to join NATO was "economic interest." In an interview with the independent Romanian news agency Mediafax the same day, Serov said that "if economic relations looked different, perhaps the political relations between Romania and Russia would look different as well."[17] MOLDOVAN, TRANSDNIESTER DEFENSE OFFICIALS MEETMoldovan Defense Minister Valeriu Pasat and his counterpart in the Transdniestrian breakaway region, Stanislav Hadjeyev, met in Chisinau on 11 July, BASA-press and Infotag reported. This was their first meeting since the signing of the memorandum on ways to settle the conflict in early May in Moscow. An official press release in Chisinau said the main purpose of the encounter was to strengthen mutual confidence. The two officials agreed to inform each other on military training programs and set up a coordination team for this purpose. Special attention was paid to "the strict observance of the regime established in the security zone" as well as to "joint actions with the Joint Control Commission." They also agreed to set up a coordinating body for action in case of natural calamities.[18] U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY IN BULGARIAWilliam Cohen held talks in Sofia on 13 July with his Bulgarian counterpart, Georgi Ananiev, which he described as "very productive." Cohen noted it is important for Bulgaria to cut the size of its armed forces before joining NATO while maintaining "an effective capability" to both "defend Bulgaria and provide assistance to other NATO countries" in line with Article 5 of the NATO charter, Reuters reported. Cohen said he and Ananiev also discussed ways in which the U.S. can help Bulgaria restructure its military forces. Cohen said continuation of the reform process and military reform could lead to NATO membership "sometime in the future." Cohen also met with President Petar Stoyanov.[19] BULGARIA WILL NOT BUY RUSSIAN PLANESChief of Staff Gen. Miho Mihov told Radio Sofia on 12 July that he saw no possibility of a deal with Russia to purchase Russian-made fighter planes. An RFE/RL Sofia correspondent said Russia offered preferential prices and a $450 million credit to facilitate the purchase. Russia is insisting that Bulgaria also purchase equipment for a plant to repair Russian-made planes, a condition that Bulgaria rejects. In other news, Col. Seraphim Stoikov, the head of Bulgaria's Interior Ministry archives, told RFE/RL on 13 July that documents recording cooperation between the Soviet KGB and the Bulgarian communist Secret Service will be open to the public once the parliament passes the necessary legislation.[20] BULGARIAN PARLIAMENT REPLACES CHIEF OF NEWS AGENCYMilen Valkov has been replaced as head of the official news agency by Panayot Denev, RFE/RL's Sofia bureau reported on 11 July. Denev is a BTA veteran and was its deputy chief for a short period following the collapse of communism in 1989. He later became an editor of "Demokratsiya," which supported the Union of Democratic Forces in the recent elections.[21] CORRECTION:"RFE/RL Newsline" on 11 July incorrectly reported that the parliament appointed Vyacheslav Tunev to take over from Liljana Popovna as head of the state radio. In fact, Popovna was appointed to replace Tunev as state radio chief.[C] END NOTE[22] UNDERMINING NATO'S TIMETABLEby Paul GobleThe timetable for NATO expansion announced at the Madrid summit on 8-9 July may break down even before the alliance takes in its first new members two years from now. The summit invited three countries-- Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic--to begin accession talks leading to membership by 1999. The alliance leaders indicated they will consider inviting a second group of countries in that year and that they will keep the process of including ever more East European countries in the alliance both open and deliberate after that time. This carefully worked-out timetable reflected calculations by some NATO leaders about how both their own populations and Moscow would react. Many NATO leaders noted that they could not hope to win popular support for the costs of expansion if the alliance tried to take in too many countries too quickly. Even more NATO leaders suggested that a slow, step-by-step expansion is the only way to avoid offending Moscow and pushing Russia back into an adversarial role. But there are already at least three indications that the Western alliance may have a number of difficulties in holding to that script. First, many of the countries that had hoped to be invited into the alliance now or in the near future are stepping up their campaigns for membership rather than accepting the Madrid timetable. The countries that had hoped to make it into the first round--Slovenia, Romania, and the three Baltic States-- indicated that they will increase their efforts to be included sooner than the Madrid schedule. Lithuanian President Algirdas Brazauskas, for example, pointed out on 9 July that "a long-term cataclysm could occur in three, four, or five years." As a result, he said, Vilnius wanted "guarantees for the future" sooner rather than later. Other East European countries that were not expected to be included took courage from the alliance's decision to expand and indicated that they, too, might press for membership far sooner than the NATO leaders had planned. Buoyed by their charter with the Western alliance, several Ukrainian political figures said they hoped Ukraine will achieve NATO membership in the not too distant future-- something no one in the alliance now appears to be contemplating. Second, the three countries that were invited to join at Madrid reportedly have agreed to press for the more rapid inclusion of the Baltic States into the Western alliance. The presidents of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary met with their counterparts from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania on 9 July and told them they will press for Baltic membership in the alliance as soon as possible. Latvian President Guntis Ulmanis said he and his Baltic colleagues looked to the three Madrid invitees "to become advocates" of the rapid inclusion of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Such support for Baltic membership may be more difficult to resist than the NATO planners expected. In addition to Polish, Hungarian, and Czech support, the Balts received backing from Thomas Siebert, the ambassador to Sweden. Siebert told the Swedish newspaper "Dagens Nyheter" on 9 July that "we will not consider the expansion of NATO to be accomplished or successful unless or before the Baltic States' ambitions are fulfilled." Both the efforts of those who hope to join and the attitudes of those already invited to do so will put pressure on the alliance to move more quickly than it had planned, especially since those on the outside are likely to view any delay as a sell-out of their security. But the third indication that the Madrid timetable may not be kept suggests that NATO may not expand as quickly as the Madrid summit planned. The pressure on NATO from both those included and those not yet in inevitably raises the stakes of the first round of alliance expansion and thus virtually guarantees increased opposition to any growth in the alliance from both Moscow and many in the West. Russian leaders, including President Boris Yeltsin, have indicated that they can accept NATO's expansion only if it is both limited and deliberate. Consequently, at least some in Moscow are likely to consider the statements of those countries not invited in and especially of those invited to join at Madrid to pose a threat--one, moreover, that Russia is likely to respond to. Such a response will have an impact on the ratification debates in the current NATO member countries and provide ammunition to those who oppose any growth in the alliance. As a result, the euphoria about the Madrid NATO summit could quickly evaporate, as some countries discover that their own enthusiasms threaten their own interests. Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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