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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 7, 99-01-12Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 3, No. 7, 12 January 1999CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] CONGRATULATIONS, CRITICISM FOLLOW ELECTIONS IN KAZAKHSTAN...Nursultan Nazarbayev received messages of congratulations from heads of states around the world on 11 January following his victory the previous day in Kazakhstan's presidential elections. Judy Thompson of the OSCE indicated that the organization retains the position it adopted before the elections. At a press conference in Almaty on 11 January, she said the OSCE considers that "the electoral process was far from the standards which [Kazakhstan] promised to follow as an OSCE member," Interfax reported. Thompson pointed out violations that the OSCE had previously noted, adding that "the mandate of the mission does not include recognition of the latest elections." Another critic of the elections, the U.S., backed the OSCE's stance. State Department spokesman James Rubin said on 11 January that "the electoral process in Kazakhstan fell far short of international standards for open, free, and fair elections." He added that the elections have "tarnished Kazakhstan's reputation" and "cast a shadow on our bilateral relations." BP[02] ...WHILE DEFEATED CANDIDATES COMPLAINThe Communist Party's candidate in the elections, Serikbolsyn Abdildin, said on 11 January that the election results were falsified and numerous violations of the election regulations committed, RFE/RL correspondents in Almaty reported. Another candidate, Customs Committee Chairman Gani Kasymov, said he plans to appeal the results to the country's Constitutional Court. BP[03] KIDNAPPINGS ON TAJIK-AFGHAN BORDERThree Tajik border guards in the Kalaikhum region, close to the Afghan border, were taken hostage on 10 January by a group of Afghans who had crossed the frontier, ITAR -TASS reported. The three men are reportedly in good condition. Their captors are demanding explosives to clear away debris from a mountain path used by Afghan villagers. The path was blocked in December when Tajik road workers used explosives to clear a road on the Tajik side of the border. BP[04] TAJIKISTAN CHANGES CUSTOMS REGULATIONSThe Tajik government on 9 January ordered the Ministry of Economics and the Customs Committee to alter tariffs and import duties in order to facilitate the country's entry into the CIS Customs Union, ITAR- TASS reported. Tajikistan is expected to join the four-country Customs Union (whose members are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Belarus) when the union holds its next summit. Once Tajikistan is admitted to the union, the new customs regulations will go into effect. BP[05] TURKMEN MARK ANNIVERSARY OF RESISTANCE TO RUSSIANS...Turkmenistan on 12 January marks the 118th anniversary of the fall of the Geoktepe fortress to the Russian army, ITAR-TASS reported. That battle was the last major resistance the Turkmen mounted against Tsarist armies and, according to ITAR-TASS, "the deciding moment in the annexing of Turkmen land to Imperial Russia." BP[06] ...WHILE KYRGYZ TO BUILD MONUMENT TO SOVIET ENEMIESA group of people in the southern city of Osh have formed a committee and are raising funds to build a monument to "red terror victims," Interfax reported on 11 January. The monument will be dedicated to the "Basmachi," guerrillas who fought against the Red Army until the 1930s. The committee has requested a site for the monument that is located near a statue of Felix Dzerzhinskii, the founder of the Soviet secret police, the Cheka. BP[07] KYRGYZ PRESIDENT DECREES TIGHTER CONTROLS OVER GOVERNMENT- GUARANTEED LOANSKyrgyz President Askar Akayev has signed a decree "on urgent measures to ensure timely return of budget loans and foreign credits received under Kyrgyz government guarantees," Interfax reported on 11 January. An aide to Akayev said the decree gives the government one month to draw up "austerity measures" that will ensure that such loans and credits are repaid on time. Enterprises in Bishkek alone owe 780 million som (about $26 million). Akayev said at a cabinet meeting on 10 January that from now on, foreign loans and investments will be extended only for the implementation of specific industrial projects. Akayev said a priority for the government in 1999 is to achieve 100 percent of budget revenues, which he said, can be achieved only by collecting taxes in full. BP[08] REPUBLICAN PARTY AFFIRMS SUPPORT FOR ARMENIAN PRIME MINISTERAndranik Markarian, a leading member of the Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), said on 11 January that the party will not seek to replace Armen Darpinian as premier if it wins the May 1999 parliamentary elections, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Markarian added, however, that the party might demand other cabinet changes, but he did not elaborate. His comments were in response to widespread speculation that Darpinian will be sacked whatever the outcome of the elections. The Republican Party recently merged with the Yerkrapah union of Karabakh war veterans, which is currently the majority group in the Armenian parliament. LF[09] LEGAL EXPERT CRITICIZES NEW ARMENIAN CIVIL CODEInterviewed on 11 January by RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau, former Supreme Court chairman Tariel Barseghian described the authors of the new civil code that went into effect on 1 January as "incompetents." Barseghian said the authors of the new code, which contains some 1,300 articles, have no knowledge of commercial law and that its introduction could have "dangerous consequences." Law professors at Yerevan State University appealed to the Armenian authorities last month to suspend the introduction of the new code, which is intended to underpin a market economy and is part of a sweeping reform of Armenia's legal system. Under that reform, the Supreme Court was replaced in 1998 by a Court of Appeals and the Soviet- era "People's Courts" by "Courts of First Instance." LF[10] ABKHAZIA TO ALLOW GEORGIAN FUGITIVES TO RETURN...Meeting in Sukhumi on 11 January with UN special envoy to Georgia Liviu Bota, Abkhaz President Vladislav Ardzinba said Abkhazia will permit ethnic Georgians who fled Abkhazia's southernmost Gali Raion either during the 1992-1993 war or during the renewed fighting in May 1998 to return to their homes beginning on 1 March, Russian agencies reported. Ardzinba said that Abkhazia will create a special government commission to oversee the repatriation process and to ensure adequate social and economic conditions in Gali. He asked the UN and the UN High Commission for Refugees to help with the repatriation process, promising that Abkhazia will guarantee the repatriates' "full security." Abkhazia previously pegged the beginning of repatriation to economic aid from Tbilisi. LF[11] ...BUT TENSIONS PERSISTAlso on 11 January, the administrative head of Gali Raion, Ruslan Kishmaria, told journalists that Georgian media reports that Abkhaz and Georgian detachments have begun jointly patrolling the security zone along the border between Gali and the rest of Georgia are incorrect (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 January 1999), ITAR-TASS reported. Kishmaria also accused the Georgians of failing to comply with an agreement reached in December to withdraw its police patrols from the border village of Khurcha. LF[12] GEORGIAN PREMIER, SOUTH OSSETIAN PRESIDENT MEETMeeting in Tskhinvali on 9 January, Vazha Lortkipanidze and Lyudvig Chibirov discussed resuming economic cooperation between the central Georgian government and the Republic of South Ossetia, which in the early 1990s was forcibly prevented from seceding from Georgia and uniting with the Republic of North Ossetia within the Russian Federation. Further talks that included Russian, North Ossetian, and OSCE representatives focused on cooperation in various sectors and culminated in agreement on creating a working group to draft a program for economic cooperation, "Nezavisimaya gazeta" reported on 11 January. The repatriation of Georgian displaced persons to South Ossetia was apparently not discussed. Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze characterized the talks as "useful" and "businesslike," but a spokesman for the Georgian displaced persons criticized them as an unwarranted concession to the South Ossetian leadership. According to Caucasus Press, South Ossetia demanded financial compensation from Tbilisi for damage inflicted during the fighting. LF[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[13] PROMINENT KOSOVAR JOURNALIST KILLEDUnidentified gunmen killed Enver Maloku in Prishtina on 11 January. Maloku headed the Kosova Information Center (KIC) news agency, which reflects the views of moderate shadow-state President Ibrahim Rugova and his Democratic League of Kosova. No one has claimed responsibility for the death of Maloku. Regional and international media reports suggest that Kosovar extremists may have been responsible for the killing. KIC reported in its obituary of Maloku that he survived an assassination attempt in July 1998 but that the authorities have yet to investigate the incident. Maloku was a journalist with the Albanian-language section of Radio-Television Prishtina until the Serbian authorities closed it in 1990. He joined KIC when it was founded in 1991 and headed it after 1993. KIC's obituary called Maloku "a man of integrityŠ[whom] we will sorely miss." PM[14] UCK TO BEGIN FREEING PRISONERS?A spokesman for the Kosova Liberation Army (UCK) said in Geneva on 11 January that the guerrillas "might" soon free some of the eight Yugoslav soldiers whom they have held since the weekend as prisoners of war (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 January 1999). The UCK's goal remains to obtain the release of nine guerrillas held by the Serbs, the spokesman added. Belgrade's independent Radio B-92 quoted one of the Serbian captives as saying that the UCK is treating them well. PM[15] VOLLEBAEK WARNS UCK THAT 'TIME IS SHORT'Norwegian Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek, who holds the rotating OSCE chair, said in Belgrade on 11 January that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic agreed to an extension of the deadline for the UCK to release the eight men before the Yugoslav army intervenes to free them. Vollebaek did not specify what either the original deadline or the extended date are, but he stressed that "it is very important that the UCK knows that we are very short of time." The next day in Prishtina, he called on the UCK to release the men unconditionally. Deutsche Welle quoted OSCE representatives as saying they warned the Yugoslav military not to try to free the prisoners because the UCK is holding the men in a remote mountainous area covered in ice and snow. PM[16] ALBANIA OFFERS MEDIATION IN HOSTAGE CRISISForeign Ministry spokesman Sokol Gjoka said in a statement on 11 January that Albania is working to help resolve the hostage crisis in Kosova. He added, however, that the international community must exert pressure on Belgrade to "stop the war" there, "Albanian Daily News" reported. Gjoka described the hostage crisis as "a grave incident that sets tensions spiraling" but "should not be viewed separately from the course of other [recent] serious incidents." He was referring to Serbian attacks on UCK positions in northeastern Kosova earlier this month. FS[17] RUGOVA'S PRIME MINISTER WANTS UCK INVOLVEDShadow-state Prime Minister Bujar Bukoshi told AP in Tirana on 11 January that a "future government of Kosova must be formed with the participation of all political forces, including the [UCK]." Bukoshi is the third high- ranking Kosovar politician to meet with Prime Minister Pandeli Majko this year. The other two are the UCK's political representative Adem Demaci and the nationalist Rexhep Qosja, who is a prominent academic and leader of Kosova's United Democratic Movement, which is in opposition to the LDK. Majko is trying to persuade all Kosovar political forces to adopt a joint strategy. He has also invited Rugova to Tirana (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 8 January 1999). FS[18] ALBANIA CHARGES YUGOSLAVIA WITH AIRSPACE VIOLATIONSA spokesman for the Interior Ministry accused federal Yugoslavia on 11 January of violating Albanian airspace, Reuters reported. He said that a plane flew 500 meters into Albania near the village of Morina, which is located close to the road linking Kukes with Prizren. It was the second airspace violation in three days (see "RFE/RL Newsline" 11 January 1999). FS[19] KOSOVA SERBS TO GO OWN WAY?Some 500 members of Kosova's Serbian minority attended a meeting in Prishtina on 11 January to protest what they said was their "abandonment" by Milosevic and the Belgrade authorities. Momcilo Trajkovic, who heads the local Serbian Resistance Movement, said that time has come for the Serbs of Kosova "to take things into their own hands." He stressed that the Serbs "have nowhere to go and do not want to leave" the province. Trajkovic argued that the Serbs must use only peaceful means and should set up as soon as possible a Serbian National Council headed by Serbian Orthodox Bishop Artemije. The council would represent the Serbs of Kosova at any talks dealing with the province's future, BETA news agency reported (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 6 January 1999). Artemije called for talks with the ethnic Albanians. He stressed that his goals are "a democratic Serbia in a democratic Balkan region in a united Europe." PM[20] POPLASEN WARNS NATO OF POSSIBLE REPRISALS...Hard-line Republika Srpska President Nikola Poplasen wrote in a 11 January letter to U.S. General Montgomery Meigs, who is NATO's top commander in Bosnia, that "nobody can take responsibility for the possible reactions of disturbed and dissatisfied citizens." He was warning SFOR peacekeepers that Bosnian Serbs might seek revenge for the recent killing by NATO soldiers of Dragan Gagovic, who is a Bosnian Serb indicted war criminal (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 January 1999). Poplasen called the killing "the deliberate liquidation of one more Serb who had no chance to prove his innocence." NATO troops have evacuated "all foreign staff" from Foca, where the killing took place, AP reported on 11 January. The local mayor described the atmosphere there as tense. PM[21] ...WHILE WESTENDORP HOLDS FIRMThe international community's Carlos Westendorp said in a statement issued in Sarajevo on 11 January that "appropriate measures must be taken against those individuals responsible for inciting or committing violent acts against the international community." He was referring to an attack by angry Serbs on the UN police station in Foca following the killing of Gagovic (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 January 1999). PM[22] ZAGREB WARNS ARBOURCroatian Deputy Prime Minister Ljerka Mintas Hodak said on Croatian Television on 11 January that Louise Arbour, who is the Hague-based war crimes tribunal's chief prosecutor, was unjustified in her recent public criticism of Croatia's record of cooperation with the court (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 7 January 1999). Mintas Hodak charged that Arbour had tried to act as prosecutor and judge at the same time. The deputy prime minister stressed that Croatia will cooperate with the court in keeping with the provisions of the constitution and Croatian "national interests." PM[23] SUSPECTED CROATIAN SMUGGLER ARRESTEDA police spokesman said in Zagreb on 11 January that police arrested Zeljko Maglov in Split the previous day. Maglov is wanted on charges of running an international smuggling ring that stole 34 luxury cars, $200,000 worth of staple foods, and 2,000 liters of oil before police broke it up in 1997. Maglov was arrested that year but jumped bail before his trial. Police suspect that the former military police commander involved more than a dozen military and police officials in his smuggling operation, AP reported. In one incident during the Croatian offensive of 1995 in Krajina, he "captured" some 2,000 hams in the Drnis area, "Jutarnji List" added. PM[24] ROMANIAN MINERS ESCALATE CONFLICTStriking miners in the Jiu Valley have rejected an agreement reached the previous day by a miners' delegation and the government, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported on 11 January. According to that agreement, the mining company's $355 million debt to the state budget would be written- off provided the miners agreed to a cost-cutting program for the mining industry. The miners demand that President Emil Constantinescu intervene to solve the conflict and that either the president or Premier Radu Vasile travel to the valley for negotiations by no later than 12 January. MS[25] EXTREMIST ROMANIAN SENATOR TO LOSE PARLIAMENTARY IMMUNITY?Prosecutor-General Mircea Criste has begun proceedings to lift the parliamentary immunity of Greater Romania Party (PRM) chairman Corneliu Vadim Tudor on charges of "insulting the authorities." In a an open letter to the miners last week, Tudor sharply criticized President Constantinescu, Senate Chairman Petre Roman, and Industry and Trade Minister Radu Berceanu, saying, among other things, that Constantinescu will "soon be behind the same bars" as miners' leader Miron Cozma before his trial. Cozma is a member of the PRM. Tudor may also lose his immunity over his appearance on private Tele 7abc on 8 January, when he presented an alleged "diary" of actress Rona Hartner attesting to an affair with Constantinescu. Hartner said the diary was forged, and a presidential spokesman denied the allegations. Criste announced his office will launch legal proceedings against Tudor on slander charges. MS[26] FORMER ROMANIAN DEFENSE MINISTER TO STAND TRIALThe Supreme Court on 11 January backed an appeal by the Prosecutor- General's Office against a lower court's decision in November 1997 to suspend proceedings against Victor Stanculescu. The former defense minister was charged with fraud and complicity to fraud in connection with the purchase of telecommunications equipment for the army during his term in office from 1990-1991. The proceedings were suspended on the grounds that a minister cannot be charged without the approval of the parliament or the country's president, Mediafax reported. In other news, the National Statistics Board reported that inflation in 1998 was 40.6 percent, just below the government forecast of 45 percent. MS[27] IMF RESUMES LENDING TO MOLDOVAMark Horton, the IMF representative to Moldova, announced on 11 January that the fund will resume lending to Moldova, Infotag reported. Horton said a $35 million tranche will be disbursed later this week. A $190 million three-year loan to Moldova was approved in May 1996, and the IMF released three $52.5 million tranches between then and July 1997, when disbursement was halted owing to the country's poor economic performance. Horton said the IMF is now "commending" Moldova for having adopted strict financial policies and for having approved a "cautious" state budget for 1999. At the same time, the fund urged the speedy implementation of privatization programs and of reforms in the health and education systems, the pension system, and public administration. Flux reported that the World Bank has also resumed loans to Moldova, approving a $35 million loan for structural reform and privatization. MS[28] FORMER BULGARIAN KING ROBBED IN SOFIAThieves stole a cellular telephone belonging to former King Simeon II and jewelry belonging to his daughter from their hotel room in the Bulgarian capital, dpa reported on 11 January, citing the daily "Standart." The former monarch's third visit to his country ended last weekend. MS[C] END NOTE[29] IS THE COLD WAR REALLY OVER?by Paul GobleA leading Russian foreign policy analyst has suggested that the Cold War is not yet over, an argument that not only challenges most assumptions about that conflict but also underscores the difficulties its participants may have in cooperating in the future. Writing in the current issue (No. 5, 1998) of the Russian foreign policy journal "International Affairs," Sergei Kortunov argues that the Cold War has not been about ideology or the containment of the Soviet Union, as Western writers claim, but rather reflects the West's "total rejection" of "the legitimacy and legality of historical Russia." Kortunov, who is the vice president of the Russian Foreign Policy Association, makes a number of points in support of this position. He says that Moscow won World War II "as Great Russia not as a Red Empire." He insists that neither the Soviet Union nor Stalin had any ambitions after 1945 and that that the West rejected all Moscow's efforts to ease conflict. And he argues that the West not only continued but expanded on the Nazi approach toward Russia by promoting the idea of "mythical" states to dismember the Russian heartland. Indeed, he says, "the world anti-Russian center moved from Berlin to Washington" following the defeat of Nazi Germany. Consequently, no right-thinking Russian, Kortunov adds, can accept the idea that the West has been "right" during the Cold War because that would mean not simply "the renunciation of Communism" but the acceptance of "the fallacy of the entire Russian historical idea--of the entire Russian Orthodox idea in history." That, in turn, would mean accepting what he suggests is the Western view of Russia as an evil empire or even--and here he quotes former U.S. National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski- -"a redundant country." Unfortunately, Kortunov goes on, "the most democrats" in Russia itself do not deny Moscow's "defeat" in the Cold War or conceal their "joy" over it or even their role in bringing it about. And he cites with approval the observation of one Russian analyst that "it is much more convenient for the 'democrats' to pretend that the West has never carried on an unrelenting struggle against our former motherland, Russia-USSR, and that it was only by our own efforts that we destroyed the 'evil empire.'" Kortunov argues that any fair-minded assessment will show that "strictly speaking, the Russian Federation was 'fighting' against the USSR on the side of the West" and that only after the 1991 breakup have some Russians begun to recognize that they have been helping the West to pursue an anti- Russian rather than anti- Soviet strategy. On the one hand, Kortunov's article offers nothing new. All his arguments have been made by Soviet ideologues in the past and by Russian nationalist writers in more recent times. And all his positions have been dismissed by the most serious scholars in both Russia and the West. On the other hand, Kortunov's argument is striking both substantively and politically. Substantively, his suggestion that the Cold War is not over and will continue until the West accepts Russia's legitimacy and even its moral equivalence highlights the deep suspicion many Russians now have about the West. Politically, the appearance of this article in Russia's premier foreign policy journal, one addressed not only to its own diplomats but also to the West, indicates that ever more people among the Russian political elite share Kortunov's anti-Western positions. And by providing ideological justification for those in Moscow who want to adopt a tougher line against the West, Kortunov's argument may become a self-fulfilling prophecy, exacerbating tensions between East and West to such an extent that he and others will be seen as justified in claiming that the Cold War is not yet over. 12-01-99 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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