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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 2, No. 194, 98-10-07Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 2, No. 194, 7 October 1998CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] KAZAKH PARLIAMENT APPROVES AMENDMENTSA joint session of the Kazakh parliament on 7 October passed amendments to the country's constitution, RFE/RL correspondents in Astana reported. Under those amendments, the term of deputies in the lower house would be extended from four to five years and in the upper house from five to six years. The president's term in office would be increased from five to seven years, and parliamentary and presidential elections would be held in January 1999, one year ahead of schedule. BP[02] UN RESUMES FOOD PROGRAM IN TAJIKISTANDespite the fact that most of the personnel of the UN mission to Tajikistan remain outside that country's borders, the program to supply food to fighters of the United Tajik Opposition resumed on 6 October, ITAR-TASS reported. The UN mission is providing food and blankets to 10 UTO centers in eastern Tajikistan at the request of the Tajik government. The bulk of the UN mission will not return until an investigation into the murders of four UN employees in late July has been completed and the findings made public. BP[03] ARCHITECT FOR NEW KAZAKH CAPITAL CHOSENKazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev on 6 October announced the winner of a competition to design the new Kazakh capital, Astana, Interfax reported. Japanese architect Kise Kurokawa was selected from the 27 competitors. Nazarbayev said the winning design reflects a symbiosis of European and Asian cultures and of nature and man. BP[04] KYRGYZ GOVERNMENT RELEASES INITIAL ESTIMATE OF ISSYK KUL DAMAGEDeputy Prime Minister Boris Silayev has said that according to a preliminary estimate, the damage caused by the sodium cyanide spill earlier this year in the southern area of Issyk Kul totals 91 million som (about $4 million), Interfax reported on 7 October. In May, a truck belonging to the Kumtor gold mine overturned into the Barskoon River, which flows into Issyk Kul, spilling 1.7 tons of sodium cyanide into the water. Silayev, who heads the government commission investigating the damage to the area, said the estimate does not include agricultural losses. An RFE/RL journalist who visited the village most affected by the spill, Barskoon, found that while a medical center has been set up there, residents have not received compensation for their losses and humanitarian aid to the village amounted to one notebook, one pen, and five pieces of candy per inhabitant. BP[05] ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT CONTINUES ATTACK ON GOVERNMENTOpposition deputies stepped up their attacks on the government's privatization program during a special meeting of the parliament on 6 October, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported. Vano Siradeghian, chairman of the former ruling Armenian Pan-National Movement, said that President Robert Kocharian is intent on replacing the current parliament with a rubber-stamp legislature. He said that Kocharian may seek to dissolve the assembly before the end of this year and call elections that are likely to be manipulated by "people with money and levers." PG[06] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT WANTS ENHANCED RUSSIAN ROLE IN CAUCASUSKocharian said on 6 October that Yerevan will seek to expand Moscow's role in the Caucasus, including in the transport of oil and gas, ITAR-TASS reported. Kocharian also said that his government highly values Russia's role in resolving conflicts across the region. PG[07] ARMENIAN COMMUNISTS PLEDGE SOLIDARITY WITH RUSSIAN PROTESTThe Armenian Communist Party issued an appeal on 6 October calling for its supporters to take to the streets to express "solidarity" with the mass protest action scheduled to take place in Russia the next day, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported. Sergey Badalian, the party's leader, said that he expects "tens of thousands" of supporters to march in central Yerevan, adding that "there is a revolution going on in Russia." Badalian also said that he and his supporters will demand the ouster of the "anti- popular" Yerevan government and Armenia's inclusion in a "new union" of former Soviet republics. PG[08] SHEVARDNADZE PRAISES OSCE ROLE IN CAUCASUSSpeaking to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Tbilisi on 6 October, President Eduard Shevardnadze praised the role of the OSCE in seeking to settle conflicts in the Caucasus region, Interfax reported. Shevardnadze said that he is particularly pleased that the OSCE has become the first international organization to "bravely and openly" declare that Georgians were subject to ethnic cleansing in Abkhazia. And he said that his government is prepared to help the OSCE find a settlement to the Karabakh dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan. PG[09] GUAM GROUP TO COOPERATE TO OVERCOME WORLD CRISISRepresentatives of the four GUAM countries--Ukrainian Premier Valery Pustovoitenko, Moldovan Premier Ion Ciubuk, Georgian state minister Bazha Lordkipanidze, and Azerbaijan presidential economic adviser Vakhid Akhundov- -issued a declaration in Washington on 6 October that their governments will work together to overcome the world economic crisis, Interfax reported. They said that they will both coordinate their policies and seek to promote transit across their region. PG[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[10] 'GRIMMEST SITUATION' REGARDING KOSOVAAn unnamed senior U.S. diplomat told Reuters in Belgrade on 7 October that U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke and other negotiators now face "the grimmest situation we've faced in this region." The previous day, Holbrooke discussed Kosova with ethnic Albanian leaders in Prishtina and then met for the second time within 24 hours with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 6 October 1998). In Washington, President Bill Clinton warned that "the stakes [in Kosova] are high...[and] the time to end the violence is now." He referred to the province as a "powder keg" and added that the crisis there threatens to destabilize other countries in the Balkans. PM[11] SECURITY COUNCIL TAKES NO ACTION ON KOSOVAThe UN Security Council issued a non-binding statement on 6 October demanding from Belgrade a "full and sustained compliance" with the council's recent call for a complete withdrawal of Serbian forces from the province. The highest UN body condemned the "tactics of indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force against civilians, as well as terrorist activities." It also called on both sides to comply but did not specify what the UN would do if they did not. The council urged the international community to "intensify efforts to prevent a humanitarian disaster." PM[12] ARKAN PREPARES TO RESIST NATOZeljko "Arkan" Raznatovic said in Jagodina on 6 October that he will reactivate his paramilitary forces in the event of NATO attacks on Serbia, "Nasa Borba" reported. "It is not important whom we have to face but the sanctity of that which we are defending--and we are defending sacred Serbian land.... We shall not kneel before NATO missiles.... We shall not allow ourselves to become the slaves of NATO or any other foreign power." In Prishtina, the Kosova Liberation Army (UCK) issued a statement reaffirming its claim as the sole representative of the Kosovars. The UCK stressed that armed struggle is the only sure way to end the Serbian crackdown. PM[13] ALBANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER URGES GROUND TROOPS FOR KOSOVAPaskal Milo told a press conference in Tirana on 6 October that NATO should consider sending ground troops into Kosova if air strikes fail to produce results. He added that "Albania supports air strikes by NATO forces against Serbian military installations as an effort to send a strong message to Milosevic to sit down at the negotiating table." Milo stressed that "if we have a continuing humanitarian problem, we would need [ground troops]. If we have an escalation of the conflict, then there should be a military presence." Milo also said that Albania hopes for improved cooperation with Kosovar leader Ibrahim Rugova. He added that Rugova has repeatedly turned down invitations to visit Tirana and discuss a coordinated foreign policy. FS[14] MONTENEGRO ASKS NATO TO RECONSIDERThe Montenegrin parliament passed a resolution on 6 October calling upon NATO to rethink plans for air strikes against Serbia, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from Podgorica. The legislators said that such attacks would only kill innocent victims and play into Milosevic's hands by giving him an excuse to crack down upon his domestic enemies (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 6 October 1998). PM[15] SESELJ THREATENS REBROADCASTERSSerbian Deputy Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj told independent Radio B-92 on 6 October that the government may soon take tough measures against Serbian radio and television stations rebroadcasting the programs of Western stations "that carry out hostile espionage propaganda against our country." He suggested that the authorities could close, seize the equipment of, or start legal proceedings against the offending Serbian stations. Seselj added: "I guarantee you personally that you will not [re]broadcast [the programs of] Radio Free Europe," the Belgrade independent daily "Danas" reported. Seselj and Serbian Information Minister Aleksandar Vucic have recently threatened legal measures against those who rebroadcast the programs of RFE/RL, VOA, the BBC, Deutsche Welle, or Radio France International (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 30 September and 6 October 1998). PM[16] MONTENEGRO SAYS LAW BACKS JOURNALISTSThe Republican Secretariat for Information issued a statement in Podgorica on 6 October that took issue with the "extremely crude" charges made by Vucic against the media. It stressed that Serbian officials have no right to criticize the media in Montenegro. The secretariat said that it has no evidence of any wrongdoing by domestic or foreign journalists or media working on Montenegrin territory. It stressed that the law guarantees the domestic and foreign media's right to conduct their professional activities peacefully and unhindered. The secretariat added that it is "extremely concerned about the...brutal attacks...against those stations that rebroadcast foreign news programs" or exercise their right to present their own point of view. PM[17] WESTENDORP SAYS SESELJ 'NOT ACCEPTABLE'The international community's Carlos Westendorp wrote Milosevic on 5 October that he expects the Yugoslav leader to "keep Seselj out of Bosnian politics." Westendorp described as "unwelcome" Seselj's recent calls on Bosnian Serb leaders to form an "all-Serb government" without Muslim or Croatian participation as well as his implicit threats to take SFOR peacekeepers hostage in the event of NATO air strikes against Serbia. Westendorp added that Seselj's "presence in the Republika Srpska would be interpreted as an unfriendly act aimed at disrupting the peace process...[and] I would have to consider taking direct action" against the Bosnian Serb branch of Seselj's Serbian Radical Party in reply. Also in Sarajevo, a spokesman for SFOR said that the peacekeepers "will not tolerate" any interference with their work in response to international military intervention in Kosova, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM[18] MILITARY EQUIPMENT FOR MACEDONIARepresentatives of the 10,000- strong Macedonian army on 6 October formally took possession of 60 armored personnel carriers supplied by Germany. The vehicles are BTR-70s that belonged to the former East German army and are accompanied by 35 tons of spare parts. The army will distribute the APCs to barracks in major towns throughout the country, AP reported. PM[19] FRIENDS OF ALBANIA SET PRIORITIESThe Friends of Albania, a new OSCE-sponsored group made up of representatives from international organizations and embassies, held their first meeting in Tirana on 6 October (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 1 October 1998). The group seeks to increase coordination between international organizations and help the Albanian government in its efforts to stabilize the political and economic situation. The group agreed that its main goals are: improving the country's security situation, fighting corruption, drafting a new constitution, assisting refugees from Kosova, promoting economic development, and encouraging professionalism in the media. Elsewhere, Prime Minister Pandeli Majko discussed measures aimed at fighting corruption at a meeting with the prosecutor-general, the secret service chief, the head of the anti-corruption agency, the justice minister, and the head of the parliament's legal commission. FS[20] ROMANIAN PRIME MINISTER URGES REFORMSRadu Vasile said on 6 October that the Romanian government must swiftly carry out long- delayed reforms or face the danger of becoming a "bad debtor," Reuters reported. Vasile, commenting in Bucharest upon arriving from the IMF-World Bank meeting in Washington, said Romania is entering "the 11th hour." In a report released by the executive directors of the IMF the same day, the fund warned Romania that its current fiscal and monetary policies are "unsustainable." It said Bucharest must bring the state budget under control and that the pace of privatization and collection of taxes needs to be increased. The report praised Romania's liberalization of the foreign exchange market and the government's focus on controlling inflation. Vasile added that the proposed deal with Bell Helicopters is "not feasible" in the near future. PB[21] RADIOACTIVE MUSHROOMS FOUND IN ROMANIA, BULGARIABulgarian officials said on 6 October that they have discovered mushrooms tainted with radioactive cesium 137 in the southern part of the country, AFP reported. An official said the radioactive levels recorded are the highest since the Chornobyl nuclear accident in 1986 and twice as high as generally accepted levels. Romanian officials said last week that they exported contaminated mushrooms to several EU countries but that the levels were not high enough to threaten public health. PB[22] BULGARIA LOOKS AT COSTS OF CLOSING DOWN NUCLEAR REACTORSIvan Shilyashki, the chairman of Bulgaria's Power Generation Commission, said on 5 October that it will cost some $100 million to decommission the two largest reactors at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant, BTA reported. Shilyashki's committee is charged with formulating the country's national strategy on nuclear power for the next 30-50 years. The European Union has made repeated calls for Bulgaria to close down Kozloduy, which the EU deems unsafe. Shilyashki said Bulgaria will continue to transport spent nuclear fuel rods to Russia. He added that it is 25-30 percent cheaper to send the rods there than to Western Europe. PB[C] END NOTE[23] RUSSIAN CRISIS HITS UKRAINIAN FIRMSby Stefan KorshakUkraine's Motor-Sych appeared to have it all: direct government support, an expanding Russian customer base, cheap labor and materials, as well as a weak national currency to exploit those advantages even further. Then the Russian financial crisis set in, sending the ruble into freefall. Motor Sych's customer base of large Russian aerospace companies dried up almost immediately. The few customers that remained operational could pay only in rubles. Moreover, a number of Russian suppliers of key components shut down their production lines. Motor Sych, Ukraine's largest engine maker, is among a host of companies paying for Ukraine's inability--or unwillingness--to loosen the economic bond with Russia. The recent price of maintaining such close ties has been steep. Falling exports to Russia have crippled key industries such as metallurgy and machine building. And it has forced the government to devalue the hryvna. Through August, Russia had accounted for almost half (44.3 percent) of Ukraine's general trade turnover in 1998. Most exports (55 percent) to Russia were products of the former Soviet military-industrial complex: for example, metallurgical products (15 percent), heavy machinery (14 percent), and chemicals (10 percent). In July, Russia slapped a 3 percent import duty on Ukrainian industrial and agricultural commodities. Then the crisis hit. The hryvna's downslide, rooted in Ukraine's long-standing foreign currency crunch, might also have been prompted by a calculated effort by the government to make exports competitive. Paul Gregory, head of the research section at Alfa Capital Kyiv, told RFE/RL that "one way for the Ukrainian government to increase income is to increase the volume of its exports." He said "one means of doing that is worsening the hryvna's exchange rate against other currencies, so Ukrainian products become cheaper." But Gregory also said that even if the Ukrainian exchange rate winds up lower relative to the ruble than it was before the crisis, it will not affect trade statistics until some time next year. The Donetsk Iron and Steel Works (DISW), one of Ukraine's metal exporters, was another company hit first by the Russian excise duty and then by the fall of the ruble. Olexsander Pilipenko, DISW's vice president, told RFE/RL that his company is not currently receiving many new orders from Russia. He said the main reason is that Russian companies are short of funds. A partly privatized mill and a leader in the Ukrainian steel industry, DISW was in the process of expanding and modernizing its product line when the Russian crisis hit. The crisis put a damper on that process. Pilipenko said that as of the beginning of September, many Russian firms stopped sending payments to his company. He said Russian companies buy only 10 percent of his firm's products, adding that "non-payment by any customer is by no means good news." With some 80 percent of its products traditionally labeled for Russia, Motor Sych is worse off. Vladislav Matvienko of Motor Sych's import-export division said its "Russian customers are experiencing certain problems in settling contracts agreed with earlier." He said Russian firms "are still paying, but sometimes with a delay." And when they pay, he added, they do it often in rubles, which only adds to Motor-Sych's problems. Matvienko added that "like many other companies," his is having trouble exchanging rubles paid by Russian firms. He noted that his company sometimes has to exchange into a third currency- -a so-called multi-stage currency exchange --in order to get the currency it needs to make its own payments. The Ukrainian government has curtailed sales of dollars and the conversion of rubles on Ukrainian exchanges, making the Russian currency essentially worthless. There are no clear prospects of a change in that situation any time soon. The author is a Kyiv-based RFE/RL correspondent. 07-10-98 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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