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OMRI Daily Digest, Vol. 2, No. 109, 96-06-05
From: Open Media Research Institute <http://www.omri.cz>
Vol. 2, No. 109, 5 June 1996
CONTENTS
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] SHAH-DENIZ CONTRACT FINALIZED.
[02] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT VISITS GEORGIA.
[03] RFE/RL'S GAIN, RUSSIA'S LOSS IN UZBEKISTAN?
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[04] SERB MOB FOILS IFOR ATTEMPT TO ARREST WARLORD.
[05] BOSNIAN SERB POLITICAL UPDATE.
[06] NEW MASS GRAVE OF CROATIAN, MUSLIM WOMEN FOUND.
[07] GREEK TELECOM DENIES BREACH OF DAYTON ACCORD.
[08] OSCE CHAIRMAN SAYS BOSNIAN ELECTIONS NOT TO BE AUTOMATICALLY APPROVED.
[09] CROATIA ACCEPTS CONDITIONS FOR ENTERING COUNCIL OF EUROPE.
[10] MONTENEGRIN CATHOLIC BISHOP SLAIN.
[11] MACEDONIAN PARLIAMENT ON EARLY ELECTIONS, U.S. TROOPS.
[12] U.S. CONGRESS URGED TO APPROVE MFN STATUS FOR ROMANIA.
[13] BULGARIAN PRESIDENT ACKNOWLEDGES DEFEAT.
[14] ALBANIAN POLICE PREVENT OPPOSITION PROTESTS.
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] SHAH-DENIZ CONTRACT FINALIZED.
A consortium of European, Russian, Iranian, and Turkish oil companies signed a
major agreement estimated at $3-4 billion in Baku on 4 June to develop
Azerbaijan's Shah-Deniz off-shore oil and gas fields, ITAR-TASS and AFP
reported. Shah-Deniz contains reserves of 200 million metric tons of oil and
gas condensate and 400 billion cubic meters of natural gas. BP and Norway's
Statoil--which are the largest partners in the consortium to develop the
Chirag, Azeri, and Gyuneshli fields--have a 51% stake in the contract;
Russia's Lukoil and the Iranian state oil company have 10% each. -- Liz
Fuller
[02] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT VISITS GEORGIA.
Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrossyan arrived in Tbilisi on 4 June, Russian
media reported same day. Ter-Petrossyan and his Georgian counterpart, Eduard
Shevardnadze, are to sign several bilateral agreements and a communique
emphasizing the inviolability of the Armenian-Georgian border. -- Irakli
Tsereteli
[03] RFE/RL'S GAIN, RUSSIA'S LOSS IN UZBEKISTAN?
Nezavisimaya gazeta on 4 June speculated that the declining cooperation with
Russian journalists in Uzbekistan is linked to RFE/RL broadcasts to the
country. The article alleges that RFE/RL has taken a pro-government, anti-
imperial slant in its Uzbek reporting in an attempt to prevent the country
from falling back into the Russian orbit. The paper also noted that the radio
is supported by the U.S. Congress. While Uzbek President Islam Karimov assured
Russian journalists in February that accredited reporters would be allowed to
disseminate information in the country, the paper observed that shortly
afterward Russian journalist Sergei Grebinyuk was found dead and that two
other Russian journalists subsequently left the country. The article claimed
that an "iron curtain" had fallen between the two countries in the sphere of
information exchange. -- Bruce Pannier
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[04] SERB MOB FOILS IFOR ATTEMPT TO ARREST WARLORD.
U.S. and Italian peacekeepers on 4 June spotted Slavko Aleksic, the former
kingpin of Grbavica, in Lukavica near Sarajevo. He was carrying a pistol and a
hand grenade in violation of the Dayton agreements. When the soldiers tried to
arrest him, up to 300 Serb civilians formed a hostile crowd and surrounded the
troops. Some 30 French rapid reaction soldiers then arrived on the scene,
helped disarm Aleksic, and turned him over to waiting Serb police who had
begun to disperse the crowd as soon as the French appeared. Dayton requires
that civilians carrying illegal weapons be handed over to the local police,
who in Lukavica are Serbs, Nasa Borba pointed out. Bosnian Serb parliament
speaker Momcilo Krajisnik told AFP that there could have been much violence.
Serbian propaganda has recently stressed that provocation of the Serbs could
result in pandemonium. -- Patrick Moore
[05] BOSNIAN SERB POLITICAL UPDATE.
Confusion continues among NATO officials as to whether or not they have a new
mandate to catch war criminals (see OMRI Daily Digest, 3 June 1996), but
peacekeepers acted decisively to disband a regular press briefing in Pale to
protest the presence of a picture of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic in
the briefing room, Onasa reported on 4 June. Meanwhile in Foca, some 5,000
Serbs demonstrated in favor of Karadzic and fellow indicted war criminal Gen.
Ratko Mladic, AFP noted. "The attacks on President Karadzic...and General
Mladic are attacks against the Serb people," said Bozidar Vucurovic, the mayor
of Trebinje in eastern Herzegovina. Krajisnik said the Bosnian Serbs have so
far completed all the preparations for the elections, Onasa reported on 4
June. In Banja Luka, journalists at the government-backed paper Glas srpski
announced a strike unless the state authorities change a planned new media
budget. The journalists said the program favors Pale at the expense of Banja
Luka, Nasa Borba reported on 5 June. -- Patrick Moore
[06] NEW MASS GRAVE OF CROATIAN, MUSLIM WOMEN FOUND.
Bosnian Croat authorities announced that a site has been unearthed near Jajce
containing the bodies of at least 36 persons, mainly women. Spokesman Jerko
Radic said, "I think we made a mistake in our [original] calculations because
we thought there were 33 bodies, but there will be around 50. All of them are
civilians and mostly female as you can see. The fact that these were civilians
and mainly females shows the Serbs carried out genocide and that all those who
were not Serbs were killed, regardless of their age," AFP on 4 June quoted him
as saying. Jajce fell to the Serbs early in the war but was retaken by the
Croats last September. Before the war its population was 39% Muslim and 35%
Croatian. -- Patrick Moore
[07] GREEK TELECOM DENIES BREACH OF DAYTON ACCORD.
Greek and international media coverage of a deal between the Greek
telecommunications company OTE and the Republika Srpska (RS) has prompted
OTE's management to half-heartedly deny any violation of the Dayton agreement,
AFP reported. State-controlled OTE struck a deal with the RS to develop a
"master plan" for a modern telecommunications network for the Bosnian Serbs
(see OMRI Special Report, 21 May 1996), which would include military
communications and establish links between Pale, Banja Luka, and Belgrade but
not between the RS and the Croatian-Muslim federation. Elevtherotypia and
the Financial Times on 4 June reported that the deal totaling $248,000
violates the Dayton agreement and was protested by the international
community's High Representative Carl Bildt. OTE chairman Dimitris Papoulias
said his company carried out the study for free and did not breach the Dayton
agreement. Government spokesman Dimitris Reppas backed OTE's decision. --
Stefan Krause
[08] OSCE CHAIRMAN SAYS BOSNIAN ELECTIONS NOT TO BE AUTOMATICALLY APPROVED.
Despite pressure from the major European powers to keep Bosnia's first postwar
elections on schedule, OSCE chairman Flavio Cotti said reasonably free and
fair conditions must exist first, Reuters reported on 4 June. Foreign
ministers from the five countries representing the contact group on Bosnia at
their 4 June meeting in Berlin insisted that adhering to the timetable is of
central importance for the implementation of the peace plan. But, Cotti
informed them that intimidation and discrimination have increased in Bosnia
and election preparations are behind schedule. He clearly stated that he will
not automatically give his approval for elections unless certain minimum
prerequisite conditions are fulfilled, "so that the concepts 'free, fair, and
democratic' ... retain their meaning," Reuters quoted him as saying. -- Daria
Sito Sucic
[09] CROATIA ACCEPTS CONDITIONS FOR ENTERING COUNCIL OF EUROPE.
Meeting with a European Council delegation on 4 June in Zagreb, Croatian
Foreign Minister Mate Granic said Croatia is ready to accept the European
conditions for Croatian membership to the Council of Europe (see OMRI Daily
Digest, 4 June 1996), Nasa Borba reported the next day. Granic's statement
contrasted with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman's recent claim that Croatia
will accept no more dictates. Slobodna Dalmacija in its editorial on 5
June commented that Croatia has already accepted and partly fulfilled these
"new conditions." Granic announced he will visit Belgrade by the end of June
to discuss the normalization of relations between Croatia and rump Yugoslavia.
-- Daria Sito Sucic
[10] MONTENEGRIN CATHOLIC BISHOP SLAIN.
The retired Bishop of Kotor, Ivo Gugic, was found dead in his home on 4 June,
Montena-fax reported the same day. The 75 year-old clergyman became Bishop of
Kotor in 1982 and was also working with the Montenegrin government committee
for the protection of minority and ethnic group rights. Police already have a
man in custody who has reportedly confessed to the murder. -- Stan
Markotich
[11] MACEDONIAN PARLIAMENT ON EARLY ELECTIONS, U.S. TROOPS.
The Sobranie on 4 June ruled that it is not competent to decide on a petition
drive for early elections, Nova Makedonija reported. The majority decided
that while the parliament can dissolve itself, it cannot initiate a referendum
on early elections. A petition carrying more than 170,000 valid signatures and
demanding early elections was submitted to the parliament earlier this year.
The parliament also ratified an agreement with the U.S. providing for the
presence of U.S. troops in Macedonia if UNPREDEP is scaled down or its
mission terminated, AFP reported. The accord also defines rules for
participation of U.S. and other troops in military exercises in Macedonia
under the Partnership for Peace program and provides for training of
Macedonian officers in the U.S. -- Stefan Krause
[12] U.S. CONGRESS URGED TO APPROVE MFN STATUS FOR ROMANIA.
Senior U.S. government officials have urged the Congress to approve
legislation granting Romania permanent "most favored nation" (MFN) trade
status, an RFE/RL correspondent reported on 4 June. Iowa Republican Senator
Charles Grassley said Romania is the only U.S. trading partner that has
acceded to the World Trade Organization and has conditional MFN status,
Reuters reported. Romania's preferential treatment has to be approved each
year following a review of its compliance with international human rights
accords. U.S. State Department official Marshall Adair also spoke in favor of
extending the MFN status clause indefinitely. However, Republican Congressman
David Funderburk, a former U.S. ambassador to Bucharest, expressed
reservations about awarding MFN status to Romania on a permanent basis before
national elections set for this fall. MFN gives a nation's exports to the U.S.
non-discriminatory tariff treatment. -- Dan Ionescu
[13] BULGARIAN PRESIDENT ACKNOWLEDGES DEFEAT.
Zhelyu Zhelev on 4 June accepted the result of the 1 June primary elections
and said he will not run in the upcoming presidential elections, Reuters
reported. He said he will support the winner, Petar Stoyanov of the Union of
Democratic Forces (SDS) "so that Bulgaria will again have a democratic
president." Earlier that day, the leaders of the SDS, the People's Union (NS),
and the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedom (DPS) formally approved
Stoyanov as their common presidential candidate. Ivaylo Trifonov, the director
of Zhelev's presidential chancellery, and Yulia Gurkovska, the head of his
cabinet, resigned because of Zhelev's bad showing in the primary. Meanwhile,
the DPS and the Bulgarian Business Bloc announced they will support the no-
confidence motion in the Socialist government initiated by the SDS and the NS.
The big trade unions also voiced their support. -- Stefan Krause
[14] ALBANIAN POLICE PREVENT OPPOSITION PROTESTS.
After the government banned public demonstrations in Tirana on 4 June saying
former secret police officers and Socialist Party (PS) leaders "planned to
cause trouble," massive police forces prevented opposition supporters from
gathering outside the PS headquarters, Western media reported. Some 200 people
managed to gather near the building, which was encircled by two lines of
special police forces, while the rest were pushed away. Police vans also
blocked Skanderbeg Square, the scene of violent clashes between protesters and
police one week earlier. Meanwhile, 76 leading PS members ended their hunger
strike over alleged manipulations of the parliamentary elections, saying the
strike had achieved its main goal of denouncing President Sali Berisha and his
Democratic Party. They hope their move will calm political tension and open a
dialogue with the Democrats. -- Stefan Krause
Compiled by Victor Gomez and Deborah Michaels
News and information as of 1200 CET
This material was reprinted with permission of the Open Media
Research Institute, a nonprofit organization with research offices in
Prague, Czech Republic.
For more information on OMRI publications please write to [email protected].
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