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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 43, 00-03-01Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 4, No. 43, 1 March 2000CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ANOTHER ARREST IN CONNECTION WITH ARMENIAN PARLIAMENTSHOOTINGSArmenian Interior Ministry official Armen Harutiunian was arrested late on 28 February on suspicion of having failed to inform his superiors that the killings of a number of senior parliamentary and government figures were being plotted, ITAR-TASS reported on 29 February, quoting a spokesman for the Armenian Prosecutor-General's Office. Fifteen people have been detained to date in connection with the 27 October shootings, including the five gunmen who committed the killings. LF [02] COMMUNISTS THREATEN TO PULL OUT OF NEW ARMENIAN CABINETSenior Armenian Communist Party member Frunze Kharatianwarned on 29 February that his party will recall its newly appointed cabinet minister, Leonid Hakobian, if the new government rejects the party's demands for a state monopoly on the import of gasoline and grain, Armenpress reported. Observers believe that gasoline imports are controlled by a cartel of some seven or eight individuals close to the Yerkrapah union of veterans of the Karabakh war. LF [03] AZERBAIJAN'S PRESIDENT CONFIRMS CHECHENS ARE BEING TREATED INBAKUOn his return to Baku on 28 February following a visit to the U.S., Heidar Aliev told journalists that a 24 February Russian Foreign Ministry statement that wounded Chechens are undergoing hospital treatment in Baku is correct, Turan reported on 29 February (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 28 February 2000). But Aliev stressed that those Chechens are civilians, not fighters, and that during his last visit to Moscow he had informed acting Russian President Vladimir Putin of their presence in the Azerbaijani capital. Aliev said that it would be "inhuman" to deny the injured Chechens medical care. LF [04] RUSSIA AGAIN ACCUSES GEORGIA OF HARBORING CHECHEN MILITANTSColonel General Yevgenii Bolkhovitin, who commands the NorthCaucasus detachment of the Russian Border Guard Force, charged on 29 February that an unspecified number of Chechen militants are hiding in the Chechen-populated areas of Georgia's Akhmeta Raion, which borders on Chechnya, Caucasus Press reported. Georgian National Security Ministry spokesman Gela Suladze told Caucasus Press later the same day that he cannot confirm Bolkhovitin's allegations and what his sources are. LF [05] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT CONSULTS WITH HEAD OF TURKMEN GAS PIPELINECONSORTIUM...In Tbilisi on 29 February, Eduard Shevardnadze met with Edward G. Smith, head of the U.S. consortium PSG, which is negotiating with the Turkmen government to build the planned Trans-Caspian gas export pipeline, Caucasus Press reported. Shevardnadze assured Smith that Georgia will not create obstacles to implementation of the project, and he expressed the hope that disagreements between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan over the use of the planned pipeline will not prevent the project going ahead. Azerbaijan wants the use of 50 percent of the planned pipeline's throughput capacity of 16 billion cubic meters per year, while Ashgabat is prepared to allow Azerbaijan to transport only 5 billion cubic meters. LF [06] ...AS TURKMENISTAN ACCUSES U.S., AZERBAIJANSpeaking inAshgabat on 29 February, Turkmenistan's Oil and Gas Minister Reidjepbai Orazov said that Azerbaijan's demand to use 50 percent of the planned pipeline's throughput capacity constitutes a violation of the Declaration of Intent signed last November by the governments of Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, Interfax reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 19 November 1999). Azerbaijan's claim is supported by the U.S. Orazov said that by adding what he termed "a political dimension" to the pipeline negotiations, Azerbaijan and Georgia risk thwarting the entire project and thus losing out on transit tariffs. He added that Ashgabat had suggested that Baku and Tbilisi use those tariffs to repay their respective debts to Turkmenistan for supplies of natural gas for domestic consumption. The combined debts of the two countries since 1995 amount to some $400 million. LF [07] TWELVE CANDIDATES QUALIFY FOR GEORGIAN PRESIDENTIAL POLL...Twelve of the 16 people whose applications to contest the 9April Georgian presidential election have been approved by the Central Electoral Commission met the 29 February deadline to submit at least 50,000 signatures supporting their candidacy, ITAR-TASS and Caucasus Press reported. They are incumbent President Eduard Shevardnadze, Adjar Supreme Council Chairman Aslan Abashidze, parliamentary deputy Djumber Patiashvili, Mdzleveli Political Association member Avtandil Djoglidze, Progressive Party Chairman Vazha Zhgenti, National Ideology Party Chairman Zurab Gagnidze, former Finance Minister Guram Absandze, David Aghmashenebeli Party chairman Roin Liparteliani, independent candidate Tengiz Asanidze, Unity of Georgian Nationalists leader Gia Mamaladze, Georgian Corporation of Lawyers chairman Kartlos Gharibashvili, and Independent Association of the Unemployed representative Gela Gelashvili. Ushangi Dondzhashvili, acting head of the St. Ilia the Righteous Society Gia Chkhikvadze, and Georgian Communist Party Central Committee chairman Ivane Tsiklauri failed to collect the required number of signatures. LF. [08] ...AS GEORGIAN OPPOSITION ALLIANCE ANNOUNCES BOYCOTTNational Independence Party of Georgia Irakli Tsereteli toldjournalists in Tbilisi on 29 February that 14 of the 25 opposition parties aligned in the recently formed Georgian Center for Democracy and Freedom will do their best to prevent the holding of the presidential poll, Caucasus Press reported. Those parties include the Labor Party, the United Republican Party, and the Greens. Tamara Chkheidze of the Ilia Chavchavadze Society told RFE/RL's Georgian Service on 9 February that the center hoped to pressure the Georgian leadership to postpone the presidential poll until November, five years after the previous poll, as stipulated by the constitution. That delay, Chkheidze said, is needed in order to revise the election law to create more or less equal conditions for all candidates and to conduct a population census that would serve as the basis for new voter lists and thus help to prevent widespread falsification of the vote. LF [09] GEORGIAN COURT REJECTS PLEA TO BAN JEHOVAH'S WITNESSESATbilisi district court on 29 February rejected an appeal by Georgian parliamentary deputy Guram Sharadze to revoke the legal registration of the Jehovah's Witnesses, Caucasus Press reported. Sharadze had argued that the sect is anti-national and directed against the Orthodox Church. A group of experts appointed by the court rejected that argument. Sharadze said on 29 February that he will appeal the court ruling, adding that the legal registration of religious sects in Georgia is impossible, given that no law on religion exists. LF [10] RUSSIA WANTS KAZAKHSTAN TO EXTRADITE ALLEGED SEPARATISTSRussia's Minister for CIS Affairs Leonid Drachevskii hasasked the Prosecutor-General's Office to make a formal request to Kazakhstan to hand over an unspecified number of the 12 Russian citizens arrested last year for planning to declare an independent Russian Altai Republic on the territory of eastern Kazakhstan, Interfax reported on 29 February. A spokesman for Kazakhstan's National Security Committee said in December that the men would not be handed over to Moscow (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 23 November and 6 December 1999). LF [11] SOME OPPOSITION PARTIES IN KAZAKHSTAN ADVOCATE JOINING[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[12] U.S. WARNS BELGRADE OVER MONTENEGRIN-ALBANIAN BORDER...StateDepartment spokesman James Rubin said in Washington on 29 February that "the United States is concerned by the Yugoslav Army setting up a checkpoint last weekend and again today near the border crossing on Montenegro's border with Albania. We are watching the situation closely and remain in close contact with the Montenegrin authorities.... We call on Belgrade to dismantle the Yugoslav Army checkpoint and to join the Montenegrin and Albania governments in efforts to build peace and prosperity in Southeast Europe," an RFE/RL correspondent reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 29 February 2000). The spokesman also praised the Montenegrin authorities "for their show of restraint and their efforts to prevent the situation from escalating." PM [13] ...WHILE THAT FRONTIER IS RE-OPENEDOn 29 February, YugoslavArmy troops manned two checkpoints just inside the Montenegrin-Albanian frontier at Bozaj, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from Podgorica. The soldiers wrote down the license plate numbers of vehicles crossing the frontier but made no attempt to halt traffic. The border post is staffed by Montenegrin police. Some 50 vehicles and 300 people pass through the recently reopened crossing daily, Reuters reported. The Yugoslav Army does not recognize the Montenegrin-Albanian agreement to reopen the crossing, which has been closed to all but local traffic since 1997. Elsewhere, "Vesti" reported on 1 March that the atmosphere at Bozaj is "peaceful" but that the Montenegrin authorities are concerned about the army's "increased military activity" at several places in the mountainous republic. PM [14] RUSSIAN PARATROOPER WOUNDED IN KOSOVA...In Moscow on 1March, a Defense Ministry spokesman told ITAR-TASS that unknown persons shot and wounded a Russian paratrooper in Skenderaj while he was on duty. Doctors operated on him and described his condition as "medium grave." French KFOR spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Chanliau told Reuters: "We know nothing of the identity of the assailant nor the motive." Chanliau noted that the soldier was shot in an area that Russian troops do not usually patrol. Peacekeepers are investigating the shooting. This is the second time since the beginning of the year that a Russian peacekeeper has been shot, the Russian news agency added. Skenderaj is a stronghold of the former Kosova Liberation Army. PM [15] ...AS IS UN EMPLOYEE IN BUJANOVACA UN spokesman said in NewYork on 29 February that unidentified men stopped a clearly marked UN vehicle near Bujanovac in southwestern Serbia and shot Marcel Grogan in the leg. He then underwent successful surgery at the U.S. Camp Bondsteel in nearby Kosova. Grogan is Irish and an employee of the UN's humanitarian affairs office in Belgrade (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 29 February 2000). PM [16] SERBIAN OPPOSITION LEADER WARNS ABOUT SOUTHWESTERN SERBIAVladan Batic of the opposition Alliance for Change said inBelgrade on 29 February that "violence has escalated again" in the Presevo-Bujanovac-Medvedja region, Reuters reported. He stressed that "it is high time that the international community put an end to Albanian terrorism and protect innocent victims instead of making threats against the Yugoslav Army." In Presevo, ethnic Albanian Mayor Riza Halimi described local inter-ethnic relations as good. He blamed the Serbian paramilitary police for causing a series of incidents in December. PM [17] U.S. TROOPS TO STAY IN OWN SECTOR?Defense Departmentspokesman Kenneth Bacon said in Washington on 29 February that General Henry Shelton, who heads the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wants U.S. troops in Kosova to concentrate on their assignments in the U.S. sector. Bacon stressed that U.S. peacekeepers should not take part in "out-of-sector" missions on a regular basis, AP reported. His remarks come in the wake of recent U.S. participation in a French-led search for illegal weapons in Mitrovica. Also in Washington, NATO's Supreme Commander in Europe General Wesley Clark defended U.S. participation in missions in all five sectors of Kosova. He said that the sectors are not "zones of occupation as in post-World War II Berlin. These are just tactical boundary areas that we'd have in any military operation." PM [18] WORKERS RALLY IN SKOPJESome 15,000 workers took part in atrade-union rally on 29 February to protest the economic policies of the center-right government, the World Bank, and the IMF. Union leader Zivko Tolevski demanded that the government not close down loss-making large communist-era companies. He also condemned Western sanctions against Serbia. PM [19] FRANCE TO TAKE STEPS AGAINST KARADZIC?French PresidentJacques Chirac said in The Hague on 29 February: "I want to stress France's determination to [provide] support in the arrests...notably of those who represent ethnic cleansing in its worst aspects, that is to say [former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan] Karadzic," Reuters reported. His remarks come in apparent reply to remarks by former war crimes tribunal Chief Prosecutor Louise Arbour and others to the effect that indicted war criminals roam freely in the French sector of Bosnia. Meanwhile in New York, the UN's Jacques Klein said that "Karadzic is still as far as I know from sources wandering around the eastern part of [Bosnia]." He also suggested that there is perhaps a lack of "national will, political will that is," to arrest him and send him to The Hague, an RFE/RL correspondent reported. PM [20] U.S. OPENS BUSINESS OFFICE IN CROATIAThe U.S. government'sOverseas Private Investment Corporation opened an office in Zagreb on 29 February to assist U.S. businesses in investing in Croatia. PM [21] HDZ OFFICIAL QUITS TO WORK FOR MESICVesna Skare-Ozbolt, whois a prominent politician in the moderate wing of the Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ), resigned her post as party deputy vice president on 29 February. Her move comes in response to criticism from some party officials of her decision to work as an aide to President Stipe Mesic. She is the most prominent former aide to the late President Franjo Tudjman whom Mesic has asked to stay on. PM [22] SERBIAN REFUGEES READY TO GO HOMEVeljko Dzakula, who headsCroatia's Serbian Democratic Forum, said in Zagreb on 29 February that some 16,500 Serbs want to go back to their homes in Croatia. He noted that some Croatian officials have discouraged the refugees from returning. He said that this is the case especially in the Knin, Gracac, and Pakrac regions. PM [23] CROATIAN SECRET SERVICE AGENT ARRESTEDPolice in Zagrebarrested an unidentified agent of the Croatian Intelligence Service on 29 February. He was in possession of 18 kilograms of explosives. Croatia's new government has pledged to uncover links between the intelligence services and the criminal underworld. PM [24] ROMANIAN ELECTIONS GENERATE CONSPIRACY THEORIESIn an openletter to President Emil Constantinescu, Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR) Chairman Ion Iliescu has demanded that the president respond to an "anonymous letter" that Iliescu claims to have received. The 29 February letter outlines alleged plans by the presidential office to obstruct Iliescu's candidacy for a third term as president; those plans supposedly range from character assassination to actual assassination, the latter to be achieved either by shooting Iliescu or infecting him with a virus that causes heart failure, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. Responding to the allegations, presidential spokesman Razvan Popescu said the PDSR has "made a habit" of attributing "false documents" to Constantinescu that are becoming "more and more puerile." "If now Mr. Iliescu is launching scenarios of bacterial assassination, one wonders what will he do when the electoral campaign really begins," Popescu commented. MS [25] ROMANIA'S DEMOCRATIC PARTY APPEALS TO COALITION PARTNERSThe Democratic Party leadership on 29 February appealed toits partners in the ruling coalition to help "overcome the political impasse" created by Victor Babiuc's resignation from the party and "make it possible" for the premier to appoint a new defense minister to replace Babiuc as soon as possible. In an apparent attempt to avoid the apology that the National Liberal Party (PNL) has demanded from Democratic Party Deputy Chairman Traian Basescu for having said the PNL "stole the Senate chairmanship" from his party, the Democrats said they regret if "some formulations" used by their representatives "affected the public image of the PNL." PNL Chairman Mircea Ionescu- Quintus responded that he will meet with his party's leadership to discuss the Democrats' appeal, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. MS [26] MOLDOVAN PARLIAMENT BUREAU CRITICIZES PRESIDENT LUCINSCHIThe Standing Bureau of Moldova's parliament said on 29February that President Petru Lucinschi is attempting to "discredit and destabilize" the legislature, RFE/RL's Chisinau bureau reported. Responding to Lucinschi's 25 February statement that "a few parliamentarians have usurped power," the bureau said the parliament is a forum that represents different political forces and whose decisions are "collective by their very nature." The bureau said it is "significant" that the president's statement came shortly after the parliamentary bureau changed its line-up--a move that "caused Lucinschi's discontent." MS [27] BULGARIAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OUTLAWS MACEDONIAN PARTYTheConstitutional Court on 29 February ruled by a vote of nine to three to outlaw OMO-Ilinden-PIRIN, a party that advocates autonomy for the Pirin region and regards the region's inhabitants as of Macedonian, rather than Bulgarian, nationality, BTA reported. The party's full name is United Macedonian Organization-Ilinden-Party of Economic Development and Integration of the Population (the last part was chosen to produce the acronym PIRIN). It was set up in February 1998 and registered following a Sofia tribunal ruling one year later. The party won three seats on municipal councils in last year's local elections. The decision to register the party was appealed by 61 deputies from various political formations. MS [C] END NOTE[28] PUTIN'S UNITY PARTY REACHES FOR POWERBy Sophie LambroschiniAt a constituent congress of more than 1,000 delegates in Moscow on 27 February, Unity leaders said the movement should become a powerful, national party that could rival the country's only successfully organized national party--the Communists. They also said Unity should play a role similar to that of the Rally for the Republic party, which was Charles de Gaulle's chief political support during his transformation of France into a presidential republic in the 1950s. Similarly, acting President Vladimir Putin sees the future of Unity, created as a pro-Putin movement not long before the December 1999 State Duma elections, as a party supporting his leadership. Unity fared well in last December, gaining some 23 percent of the vote to come in a very close second to the Communists. Its success apparently encouraged the Kremlin to have yet another go at an enterprise that has so far failed in independent Russia--the construction of a political party directly backing the executive. In his address to the congress, Putin named the Communist Party as a good example of the kind of organization Unity should become. "There are a lot of untapped [political] forces among the people and the state institutes," he said. "It's wrong to wait for the situation to change by itself. We have to create conditions where several national parties function with ideas based on a modern model. You can think what you like about communist ideology, you can criticize or support it. But you cannot not admit that there already is such a party. I hope that Unity will become a real representative of a powerful political force." Putin admitted that previous attempts at creating a party of power were failures. He said that was because earlier, such parties had counted on the state's administrative resources instead of seeking popular support: "We have already made attempts to create parties strongly supporting those in power. But their success depended mainly on the presence of their representatives in the executive. As a result, the parties of power became parties of civil servants." Two previous "parties of power"--former Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar's Russia's Choice and former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin's Our Home Is Russia--enjoyed some success in parliamentary elections and served to dilute the anti-Kremlin opposition in the parliament. But once their legislative duties were over, the popularity of both parties waned. For the moment, Unity's delegates seem to differ little from the Our Home Is Russia bureaucrats. Almost half of Unity's delegates hold office in either government or legislative structures at the federal or local levels. They are links in the political web the movement is weaving across Russia. Today, Unity boasts members in 88 regions--only one fewer than the Communists, who are represented in all 89 regions. Unity's 27 February congress was conducted in a familiar atmosphere of sober speeches, unanimous votes, and solemn pledges to defend Russia's interests. Despite promising political and spiritual renewal, the movement's leaders appeared to have a hard time shedding their Soviet-era habits. The first throwback to tradition was the venue for the congress--the Kremlin State Palace, where Communist Party congresses took place until 1991. A long drop-cloth bore Unity's symbol, a Russian brown bear, and the list of regions where Unity is already established. There were, however, subtle differences: while Soviet rhetoric called the Communist Party the "party of the people," Unity has given itself a more staid moniker: "party of the citizens." In a recent analysis, political scientist Andrei Piontkovskii said that the similarities between Unity and the Communists are understandable. He said Russia's entire political and business elite is made up of the people who formed the Soviet political class. Piontkovskii also noted that Unity members are virtually interchangeable with Communist Party members, having the same background, social status, political instincts, and even physical appearance. He pointed out that the new party of power has adopted some classic Communist ideas, notably the consolidation of society around common enemies: namely, "traitors," the West, and the Chechens The author is a Moscow-based RFE/RL correspondent. 01-03-00 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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