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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 1, No. 83, 97-07-29Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 1, No. 83, 29 July 1997CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT OPPOSED TO PEACE-KEEPERS' WITHDRAWALIn his weekly radio address, Eduard Shevardnadze on 28 July advised against the withdrawal of the CIS peacekeeping force deployed along the border between Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia when the force's mandate expires on 31 July. The Georgian parliament had adopted a resolution on 30 May demanding that the force leave Georgia after 31 July if a decision taken by the March CIS heads of state summit were not implemented. According to that decision, the force's mandate was to be broadened to enable the peacekeepers to protect those who are repatriated. Shevardnadze argued that the peacekeepers should remain in Georgia until a formal decision is taken on sending a UN force to replace them, according to ITAR-TASS. He said the CIS Heads of State Council should decide at its next session in September whether the peacekeepers' mandate should be prolonged.[02] TURKMEN PRESIDENT SAYS NO COMPROMISE ON CASPIAN OIL FIELDRussian Deputy Prime Minister Valerii Serov met with Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov in Ashgabat on 28 July, Reuters and ITAR-TASS reported. Niyazov told Serov that the deal signed by Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR and Russia's LUKoil and Rosneft in early July to work the Kyapaz field in the Caspian Sea was unacceptable as the field belongs to Turkmenistan. Representatives from LUKoil and Rosneft were also at the meeting. Serov called the issue an "unfortunate misunderstanding" and said Russia was under the impression that Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan had settled the question prior to the contract's signing. Niyazov called on Russian President Boris Yeltsin to declare the agreement void. Niyazov will meet with Yeltsin in Moscow on 7 August.[03] KAZAKH DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER FIREDPresident Nursultan Nazarbayev on 28 July signed a decree dismissing Nigmatjan Isingarin as deputy prime minister, according to RFE/RL correspondents in Kazakhstan. No reason was given for his dismissal. Isingarin remains the chairman of the inter-government council of the four- country union of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.[04] KAZAKH OPPOSITION MOVEMENT HOLDS CONFERENCEThe Kazakh opposition movement Solidarnost held a conference on human rights in Almaty on 28 July, according to RFE/RL correspondents in Kazakhstan. Leaders of the movement noted that while President Nazarbayev had named 1997 a year of commemoration for the victims of Stalin's repression, there had already been 10 registered cases of human rights violations in Kazakhstan so far this year. By way of example, they named Madel Ismailov, who served almost two months in jail for organizing a demonstration on 30 May even though Solidarnost had claimed that the demonstration was organized not by a single person but by the "deceived people of Kazakhstan."[05] TAJIK PRESIDENT SIGNS DECREE ON NATIONAL COMMISSIONImomali Rakhmonov on 28 July signed a decree ordering the government to determine the responsibilities of members of the National Reconciliation Commission as well as the commission's structure and budget. The commission will aid in the process of reunifying the country and preparing amendments to the constitution for elections in late 1998. The second meeting of the commission, scheduled for 27 July, was postponed because Said Abdullo Nuri, the chairman of the commission and the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) leader, is still in Tehran. Nuri is scheduled to travel to the Tajik capital once 460 UTO fighters are stationed there as protection for the UTO members of the commission. But the UTO "body guards" are unlikely to arrive until after the Tajik parliament passes the law on a general amnesty, which it is scheduled to do at its 1 August session.[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[06] NEW ALBANIAN GOVERNMENT PRESENTS PROGRAMPrime Minister Fatos Nano told the parliament in Tirana on 28 July that his government's first priority is to combat lawlessness and restore order. He intends to eliminate gangs, organized crime, and smuggling and to disarm the population. Nano wants to coordinate economic policy with the World Bank and IMF and will aim at speeding up privatization, curbing corruption, and promoting a market economy. His chief foreign-policy priority is good relations with the U.S., but he will also devote attention to ties to the EU and neighboring countries. Referring to Kosovo, the prime minister said that "the realization of the legitimate rights of the Albanians of Kosovo...could be of advantage to the whole region." Nano also pledged to revamp the armed forces with an eye toward his chief policy goals of joining NATO, the EU, and regional bodies.[07] ITALY WANTS ALBANIAN ARMY TO RESTORE SECURITYItalian Defense Minister Beniamino Andreatta said in Rome on 28 July that "before the end of the year, we must try to bring some regiments of the Albanian army back into service. The Defense Ministry is studying a plan to reconstruct at least a few mobile regiments that could act as an element of internal security." In Tirana, Italian Chief-of-Staff Gen. Guido Venturoni did not rule out that Italy might keep some troops on in Albania in order to help train the Albanian military. Operation Alba is slated to end on 12 August. Elsewhere in Albania, total deaths in gang violence in central town of Berat since 24 July now stand at 20. The Interior Ministry said that police killed a highly wanted criminal in a shoot-out on 27 July in the far north, where smuggling to Montenegro remains lucrative. And in Lushnja, south of Tirana, an explosion destroyed the mayor's house.[08] ETHNIC ALBANIANS CHARGED IN KOSOVOThe District Prosecutor's office in Pristina on 28 July charged 21 ethnic Albanian men with setting up the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) and carrying out terrorist activities. The prosecutor's office said in a statement that the group sought to use an illegal and violent organization in order to secede from Serbia. The statement added that the UCK has claimed responsibility for several terrorist acts. Some 18 of the 21 individuals are under arrest. The UCK has increased the number of its attacks since late last year and has singled out specific targets rather than continue its earlier practice of carrying out random violence. But ethnic Albanian activists have charged that those whom the government has placed on trial have been scapegoats and that the evidence against them has been manufactured.[09] MONTENEGRIN PROTESTERS STONE MILOSEVIC'S LIEUTENANTS...Some 3,000 demonstrators hurled rocks and eggs at the cars of four top officials of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) in Podgorica on 28 July. Montenegrin President Momir Bulatovic, who held talks with the Serbs and who is Milosevic's main ally in the mountain republic, criticized the anti-Milosevic Interior Ministry for failing to keep order. The ministry replied that it would have been "too risky" to try to disperse such a large crowd. The demonstration was called to register opposition to what the organizers said was Milosevic's colonialist attitude and behavior toward Montenegro, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from Podgorica.[10] ...WHO, IN TURN, HUMILIATE MONTENEGROSPS Vice President Zoran Lilic, who is also his party's candidate for the Serbian presidency, said after talks with Bulatovic that Serbia will go ahead with plans to change the Yugoslav Constitution, despite the fact that not a single Montenegrin political party agrees with the move. Milosevic is anxious to increase the powers of the federal presidency at the expense of the individual republics. In Belgrade, the pro-Milosevic media said that the SPS delegation spoke to Bulatovic in his capacity as president of the Democratic Socialist Party (DPS). The media thereby ignored the fact that the reformist majority in the DPS earlier voted Bulatovic out of that office. The SPS also said it will be sending a delegation from the Belgrade party organization to talk to the Podgorica chapter of the DPS, although the reformists earlier dissolved that branch organization, the RFE/RL correspondent from Podgorica added.[11] MONTENEGRO TO HELP HAGUE COURTPublic Prosecutor Vladimir Susovic said in Podgorica on 28 July that the Justice Ministry will assist the Hague-based war crimes tribunal in its request for evidence in one specific case (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 28 July 1997). Susovic added that the crime involved deporting Montenegrin Muslims to Bosnia and returning Bosnian Muslim refugees to Bosnian Serb forces in May and June 1992, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from Podgorica. Susovic did not name the individual wanted by the court. He added, however, that the investigation will involve the highest officials and that the interior minister in 1992 was Pavle Bulatovic, the present Yugoslav defense minister. President Momir Bulatovic previously told the parliament that the deportations were "our tragic mistake."[12] WESTENDORP CALLS FOR FINANCIAL MEASURES AGAINST WAR CRIMINALSCarlos Westendorp, the international community's chief representative in Bosnia, urged the UN Security Council on 28 July to pass a resolution calling for the freezing of all bank accounts belonging to indicted war criminals and the confiscation of their property. Westendorp argued that this would be a good way to put pressure on the war criminals, who, he said, are still blocking the implementation of the Dayton agreement. Radovan Karadzic and other indicted Bosnian Serb war criminals are believed to have accumulated huge fortunes in war profiteering and sent much of the money to Switzerland or Cyprus.[13] IZETBEGOVIC PROMISES INVESTIGATION INTO CORRUPTION CHARGESAlija Izetbegovic, the Muslim member of the Bosnian joint presidency, suggested in Sarajevo on 28 July that the World Bank, Westendorp's office, and the EU each name a member of a new commission to probe corruption charges. Izetbegovic said that he will arrest anyone found guilty of the charge. He added that, if the charges prove false, foreigners who have spread what he called "such lies" will be asked to leave Bosnia. British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook was quoted by "The "Sunday Times" on 27 July as saying corrupt Bosnian officials have taken millions of dollars of reconstruction money and put it into their private accounts.[14] ROMANIAN NEGOTIATIONS WITH IMF TO CONTINUEFollowing talks with Premier Victor Ciorbea and members of his cabinet in Bucharest on 28 July, the IMF chief negotiator for Romania, Poul Thomsen, refused to make a statement on the progress of reforms in the country. He said only that the discussions were "useful" and will continue shortly after the government proposals on restructuring the current budget have been examined (see below), RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. Before meeting with Thomsen, Ciorbea admitted that the pace of privatization and restructuring was not as quick as had been expected, but he stressed that the government has succeeded to bring about "macrostabilization." After Thomsen's visit, the IMF is to decide whether to release the second $86 million installment of a $430 million standby loan approved earlier this year.[15] ROMANIAN CABINET DEBATES BUDGET RESTRUCTURINGThe government on 28 July discussed the restructuring of the current budget but failed to reach an agreement, Radio Bucharest reported. Finance Minister Mircea Ciumara agreed to supplement the budgets of the Ministry of Education and of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection. But he said that no other ministries will benefit from budget supplements in the second half of the year. Minister of Health Stefan Dragulescu said that the health system will collapse if no additional funds are provided. The IMF has said the budget deficit must not exceed 4.5 percent of gross domestic product.[16] FLOODS IN ROMANIA, MOLDOVAOne person is reported dead in the Vaslui area, in the eastern Romanian province of Moldavia, and hundreds had to be evacuated after swollen rivers flooded several regions in the country, RFE/RL's correspondents reported. The hardest-hit areas are the western region of Banat, the Crisana region near the border with Hungary, central Transylvania, and the eastern regions of Moldavia. The Ministry of the Environment announced that 1,000 hectares of farmland are under water. But government officials said this year's grain harvest will not be affected. In the neighboring Moldovan Republic, floods, hail storms, and strong winds have caused the death of nine persons this month, three of whom are children, BASA-press reported. Damage is estimated at 198 million lei ($43 million).[17] NEW MOLDOVAN FOREIGN MINISTER APPOINTEDPresidential counselor Nicolae Tabacaru was appointed as foreign minister on 28 July, RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau reported. Tabacaru replaces Mihai Popov, who resigned on 25 July on health grounds and was appointed ambassador to France. Before his appointment as presidential counselor in 1996, the 42-year-old Tabacaru served at different Moldovan diplomatic representations abroad and was director of the Europe and North America Department in the Foreign Ministry.[18] MOLDOVAN DEFENSE MINISTER IN RUSSIAVisiting Moldovan Defense Minister Valeriu Pasat and his Russian counterpart, Igor Sergeev, met in Moscow on 28 July and signed an agreement on military cooperation, ITAR-TASS and Radio Bucharest reported. The agreement provides for the training of Moldovan officers in Russia beginning 1 September and for conducting joint maneuvers of peacekeeping forces. The first such maneuvers are to be held in Moldova in October. Pasat also met with Premier Viktor Chernomyrdin, with whom he discussed the withdrawal of the Russian troops from the breakaway Transdniester region. Pasat is also scheduled to meet with Defense Council Secretary Yurii Baturin.[19] BULGARIAN PRESIDENT IN TURKEYPetar Stoyanov, at the start of a three-day visit to Turkey, met with his Bulgarian counterpart, Suleyman Demirel, on 28 July. Turkish dailies report that Stoyanov asked Demirel to use his influence to bring about the removal of Bulgaria from the list of countries deemed by the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to mistreat Muslims. Bulgaria had been placed on the list in the late 1980s, after the campaign by Todor Zhivkov regime's against the Turkish minority. Turkish officials said the OIC decision will be made after a team of rapporteurs visits Bulgaria to prepare a report. Also on 28 July, Turkey and Bulgaria signed cooperation agreements on the protection of the environment, transportation, tourism, and nuclear safety. Demirel said Turkey was willing to participate in efforts to achieve peace and stability in the Balkans.[20] BULGARIA, VIETNAM TO EXPAND COOPERATIONBulgarian Prime Minister Ivan Kostov says his country and Vietnam plan to expand bilateral cooperation, BTA reported. He said the two countries are working on a plan for the settlement of mutual debts, but he did not give any details. Kostov spoke after talks with Vietnamese Defense Minister Doan Khue, who ended a three-day visit to Bulgaria on 28 July. Khue expressed a strong interest in cooperation with the Bulgarian arms industry.[C] END NOTE[21] Government Crisis in Latviaby Peter ZvagulisThe government crisis in Latvia, which began to intensify some two months ago, culminated with Prime Minister Andris Skele's resignation on 28 July. When Skele announced his intention to resign several days earlier, some Latvian leaders responded with sharp criticism of his performance as premier. Foreign Minister Valdis Birkavs of Latvia's Way commented that "there is only one person in the country who would not admit his mistakes," meaning Skele. President Guntis Ulmanis sounded a more conciliatory note, saying that "the Latvian government [would have had] broad opportunities to continue to work under the leadership of Prime Minister Andris Skele." The reasons for the government crisis are to be found within the government rather than in its performance on economic or social issues. The confrontation between the seven government parties and the prime minister had deepened signficantly of late. There were shady financial deals involving the state-owned companies Latvenergo and Ventspils Nafta as well as the Banka Baltija, which has since gone bankrupt. And it was alleged that Skele himself was involved in the misappropriation of G-24 credits, although he was later cleared of any involvement following an investigation. Even the recent European Commission's decision not to include Latvia among those countries invited to begin EU membership talks may have helped exacerbate the crisis (Latvia's foreign policy was sharply criticized at home in the wake of that decision). To make matters worse, five ministers have resigned over the past two months, four of whom were accused of violating the anti-corruption law: Roberts Dilba (agriculture), Rihards Piks (culture), Juris Vinkelis (health care), and Vilis Kristopans (transportation). Some of the accused had failed to state all their assets and business activities when filling out income declarations. None, however, was charged with any crime; and statements issued by the Prosecutor-General's Office failed to make clear whether or not the ministers were guilty. The fifth minister, Dainis Turlais, resigned the internal affairs portfolio over the fatal accident in the western town of Talsi on 28 June in which eight children were killed and 22 injured during a fire fighters' show. In December 1995, Skele was appointed head of the coalition government largely because he did not belong to any political party. Now, his non- affiliation is being cited as the reason why he came under pressure to step down. It may well be that Skele's political influence had grown to such an extent that political parties no longer considered him to be as neutral as he was in 1995. Moreover, they may have seen him as concentrating too much political power in his own hands. Over the past year, some parliamentary deputies had expressed dissatisfaction with what they called the "undemocratic tendencies" of Skele's government methods. Skele, for his part, pointed out that his reform-oriented economic program was extremely successful. During his term in office, the country's budget deficit of 90 million lats (some $158 million) changed into a budget surplus totaling 30 million lats. As a politician, Skele has a record of making unexpected moves. In January, he surprised his supporters and opponents alike by tendering his resignation following opposition within the cabinet to his candidate for finance minister. That move proved successful, since Skele was able to increase his popular support and form a new government. When the scandal over violations of the anti-corruption law began to emerge, he surprised everyone again by his reaction. Instead of threatening to resign, he went on national television to express his moral stance and to make clear that he would not cover up for any minister who had broken the law. The announcement last week of a government recovery plan was his last surprise move as prime minister. It was designed to gain time for himself and to test the will of the coalition parties to save the government. Following negotiations between the ruling parties and consultations with President Guntis Ulmanis, Economics Minister Guntars Krasts of the right-of- center Fatherland and Freedom party was nominated as Skele's successor. Born in 1957, Krasts graduated from the Economics Faculty of the University of Latvia. He has held several research posts and was a Riga municipal official before becoming minister of economics in December 1995. Some analysts speculate that one of the reasons for nominating Krasts as premier is that the ruling parties consider him less ambitious than his predecessor. The Economics Ministry seems likely to go to the left-of- center Democratic Party Saimnieks in return for its support of Krasts's candidacy as prime minister. Krasts has already said that the government lineup is likely to remain more or less unchanged. In any case, it seems a relatively safe bet that Birkavs will remain foreign minister. The author is director of RFE/RL's Latvian Service. Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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