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OMRI Daily Digest, Vol. 2, No. 191, 96-10-02
From: Open Media Research Institute <http://www.omri.cz>
Vol. 2, No. 191, 2 October 1996
CONTENTS
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] MANUKYAN ABJURES VIOLENCE.
[02] RUSSIA CONCERNED OVER SHEVARDNADZE'S STANCE ON BASES.
[03] RUSSIA DEBT TO KAZAKSTAN FOR BAIKONUR GROWS.
[04] MORE ON NIYAZOV IN BAYRAM-ALI . . .
[05] . . . AND TURKMENISTAN'S MILITARY DOCTRINE.
[06] TAJIKISTAN IMPACTED BY TURMOIL IN AFGHANISTAN.
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[07] MIXED BOSNIAN SERB REACTIONS TO NEW PRESIDENCY.
[08] PENTAGON: U.S. TROOPS IN BOSNIA UNTIL MARCH.
[09] SECOND ATTACK ON BOSNIAN CROAT OPPOSITION POLITICIAN.
[10] MURATOVIC PLEADS WITH IMF TO REDUCE BOSNIA'S DEBTS.
[11] HAGUE TRIBUNAL TO HOLD FIRST JOINT TRIAL.
[12] UN SECURITY COUNCIL LIFTS SANCTIONS AGAINST BELGRADE.
[13] ROMANIAN RULING PARTY ACCUSED OF 'DIRTY ELECTIONEERING.'
[14] FORMER BULGARIAN PRIME MINISTER KILLED.
[15] BULGARIAN HOSPITAL CHARGING FOR STAYS.
[16] CROATIAN PREMIER VISITS ALBANIA.
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] MANUKYAN ABJURES VIOLENCE.
In an interview broadcast by Russian Public TV (ORT) on 1 October, defeated
Armenian presidential candidate Vazgen Maukyan, who is currently in hiding,
stated that he favors a political, rather than a violent solution to the
problems facing the country. Speaking at a press conference in Yerevan on 1
October, the chairman of the Central Electoral Commission, Khachatour
Bezirjian, denied that there had been major irregularities during the 22
September presidential poll. Also on 1 October, U.S. State Department
spokesman Nicholas Burns expressed concern at reports that up to 250 Armenians
have been detained following the 25 September attack by Manukyan's supporters
on the Armenian parliament building, Reuters reported. -- Liz Fuller
[02] RUSSIA CONCERNED OVER SHEVARDNADZE'S STANCE ON BASES.
The Russian Foreign Ministry is concerned with Georgian President Eduard
Shevardnadze's continued insistence that ratification by the Georgian
parliament of the 1994 treaty allowing Russia to maintain military bases in
Georgia is contingent on the restoration of Tbilisi's rule over the disputed
region of Abkhazia, AFP reported on 1 October quoting an unidentified Russian
diplomat. Shevardnadze is under increasing domestic pressure to resolve the
issue of Abkhazia's status within Georgia. -- Liz Fuller
[03] RUSSIA DEBT TO KAZAKSTAN FOR BAIKONUR GROWS.
Russia's debt to Kazakstan for leasing the Baikonur cosmodrome has reached
$445 million, AFP reported on 1 October, quoting Kazakstani Deputy Prime
Minister Nigmadjan Issiguarin. Baikonur is still Russia's major launching
site. Under a bilateral agreement signed in 1994 and ratified by Russia in
April 1996, Moscow is supposed to pay $115 million a year over 20 years to
lease the site. However, no payments have been made. Russian officials say the
arrears are being set against Kazakstan's debt to Russia for energy and other
supplies, which amounts to some $1 billion. -- Natalia Gurushina
[04] MORE ON NIYAZOV IN BAYRAM-ALI . . .
During his 27 September speech to senior legislators in Bayram-Ali,
Turkmenistan's President Saparmurad Niyazov said he expected the country's
economy to grow 50-60% in the next five years, according to a BBC-monitored 28
September Turkmen Press report. He predicted that 110 billion cubic meters of
natural gas and 10 million metric tons of oil will be extracted yearly during
this period, most large and medium-sized firms will be privatized next year,
and that both the metallurgical plant in Mari and the Iranian-Turkmen gas
pipeline would be finished the following year. Niyazov also noted that annual
inflation is to remain within a 10-15% band and up to 60% of the state budget
will go to social spending. -- Lowell Bezanis
[05] . . . AND TURKMENISTAN'S MILITARY DOCTRINE.
Turkmenistan's Peoples' Council [Khalk Maslakhati] made public a document
which elaborates on the country's military doctrine to insure that it conforms
with the "permanent neutrality" envisaged in its constitution, ITAR-TASS
reported on 1 October. According to the text published by the agency,
Turkmenistan regards no country as its enemy, it eschews participation in any
military blocs, alliances or "inter-state coalitions with rigid obligations or
contemplating collective responsibility." This language would appear to
preclude participation not only in CIS, but nascent inter-Central Asian,
security arrangements as well. The text specifically states that Turkmenistan
will not host foreign military bases. While there are no Russian bases in
Turkmenistan, the Turkmen border is currently patrolled by Russian troops
under contract. -- Lowell Bezanis
[06] TAJIKISTAN IMPACTED BY TURMOIL IN AFGHANISTAN.
Recent events in Afghanistan have started a flurry of diplomatic and military
activity in Central Asia, particularly in Tajikistan. Tajik President Imomali
Rakhmonov sent an appeal to the UN and "to world powers" asking for a
political settlement in Afghanistan, ITAR-TASS reported on 30 September. Along
the Tajik-Afghan border the situation remains tense. Russian sources on 1
October reported the deaths of four more Russian border guards in fighting
near Kalai-Khumb. Radio Rossii, also on 1 October, reported that the estimated
300 fighters of the Tajik opposition, massed in Afghanistan opposite border
guard positions, have been joined by "bands of Afghan Mojahedin" and now
number 1,500. -- Bruce Pannier
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[07] MIXED BOSNIAN SERB REACTIONS TO NEW PRESIDENCY.
The two most prominent Bosnian Serb politicians had very different things to
say about the first meeting of the three-man presidency on 30 September (see
). The Serbian representative on that body, Momcilo Krajisnik, told news
agencies that he was pleasantly surprised by the session: "It is hard to sort
out the feelings. I thought that such a meeting was in the far future, that
work in joint institutions is a fiction. ... Here, now, it became reality."
The president of the Republika Srpska, Biljana Plavsic, stressed, however,
that the unification of all Serbs in one state remains her ultimate goal. AFP
quoted her as saying: "Whether this ultimate goal is reached in 10 or 15 years
matters little. ... There is no force in the world that will prevent us acting
towards this end." -- Patrick Moore
[08] PENTAGON: U.S. TROOPS IN BOSNIA UNTIL MARCH.
Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said U.S. troops will be in Bosnia until
March as part of a new force to cover the withdrawal of IFOR, AFP reported on
1 October. Bacon said the U.S. troops will start arriving in Bosnia soon.
According to AFP, the new force will conform in size and make-up to a plan
being considered by NATO for a reduced version of IFOR remaining in Bosnia.
There are fears that war could break out in Bosnia if IFOR ends its mission on
20 December as scheduled. Bacon said the covering force's mission will be for
a defined period of time. Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. envoy for Bosnia,
said earlier that Bosnia needs "some kind of follow-on international security
presence." European allies have said they will participate in a post-IFOR
force only together with the U.S. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[09] SECOND ATTACK ON BOSNIAN CROAT OPPOSITION POLITICIAN.
Following a hand-grenade attack on the home of the Croatian Peasant Party's
Josip Jole Musa (see ), unidentified gunmen seriously wounded Musa by
spraying his apartment with machine-gun fire, Oslobodjenje reported on 2
October. Political violence was rampant in Mostar before the 14 September
elections, but this is the first instance of it since then. Musa's party
blamed the Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ) for the grenade attack,
arguing that no such act can happen in west Mostar without the party's
knowledge. In central Bosnia, a 46-year-old Roman Catholic nun was found
dead in Kakanj, which |. under Muslim control. Onasa reported on 1 October
that police are hunting for the killer. In the formerly Serb-held Sarajevo
suburb of Grbavica, forensic experts are investigating 31 garbage bags
found in a garage that contain human remains. -- Patrick Moore
[10] MURATOVIC PLEADS WITH IMF TO REDUCE BOSNIA'S DEBTS.
Bosnian Prime Minister Hasan Muratovic said Bosnia has met all the IMF's
conditions for assistance, calling for "immediate" negotiations to secure
financial support for Bosnia and establish its creditworthiness, AFP reported
on 1 October. Muratovic called for reducing and reprogramming Bosnia's foreign
debts, saying it was "a precondition for successful restoration of the
country's borrowing power and for attracting additional funds for
reconstruction." IMF officials have estimated the debt owed by Bosnia to
government and private creditors at about $2 billion. They have said talks in
Sarajevo could begin after the formation of a new Bosnian government at the
end of October. EU foreign ministers said the same day that the EU should
contribute for another two years to the peace process in Bosnia. The EU has
put op some $398 million in 1996 to help rebuild Bosnia-Herzegovina. -- Daria
Sito Sucic
[11] HAGUE TRIBUNAL TO HOLD FIRST JOINT TRIAL.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia rejected on 1
October motions for separate trials filed earlier this year by three Muslims
and one Croat charged with murder, torture, and rape at the Celebici camp in
central Bosnia, Onasa reported. The court decided that the four cases were
properly joined and there was no conflict of interests, and that separate
trials would involve much duplication of testimony, AFP reported. The
tribunal's new chief prosecutor, Louise Harbor, said that the main
responsibility for apprehending those accused of war crimes lay not with IFOR,
but with the countries where the accused are currently residing. The former
chief prosecutor, Richard Goldstone, had said he was saddened that IFOR did
not capture indicted Bosnian Serb war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko
Mladic. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[12] UN SECURITY COUNCIL LIFTS SANCTIONS AGAINST BELGRADE.
The Security Council voted 15-0 on 1 October to formally end trade sanctions
against rump Yugoslavia, imposed in 1992 for the country's role in fomenting
the war in Bosnia, Reuters reported. The sanctions were suspended last year
following the Dayton agreement. At the U.S.'s insistence, the council did not
lift Yugoslavia's suspension from the UN General Assembly and other UN bodies
or make any provisions for it to rejoin financial institutions such as the
World Bank and the IMF. Nor did it release Yugoslavia's frozen assets, which
remain disputed by the various Yugoslav successor states. The resolution
warned that the Security Council would consider reimposing sanctions if Serbia-
Montenegro or the Bosnian Serbs failed "significantly to meet (their)
obligations under the peace agreement." But Russia would probably veto such a
move. Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and Serbian President Slobodan
Milosevic will meet in Paris on 3 October to discuss building peace in Bosnia
and normalizing mutual relations. -- Fabian Schmidt
[13] ROMANIAN RULING PARTY ACCUSED OF 'DIRTY ELECTIONEERING.'
A group of journalists on 1 October accused the ruling Party of Social
Democracy in Romania (PDSR) of trying to manipulate voters ahead of
presidential and general elections due in a month, Reuters reported. According
to them, the PDSR commissioned a nationwide telephone opinion poll meant to
denigrate its rivals. The poll included a question suggesting that Emil
Constantinescu, Chairman of the Democratic Convention, wanted to restore
monarchy in Romania; it also cast shadows on Petre Roman, another major rival
of Ion Iliescu in the presidential race. A PDSR spokesman said the journalists,
helped by opposition members, had broken into the Bucharest premises of the
institute conducting the survey, and called their action illegal. He admitted
that the PDSR had funded the poll, but said it had no knowledge of the
survey's contents. -- Zsolt Mato
[14] FORMER BULGARIAN PRIME MINISTER KILLED.
Andrey Lukanov was shot dead at his home on 2 October, Bulgarian and Western
media reported. Police and the Interior Ministry declined to give any
information, but neighbors said Lukanov was shot in the head and the chest
while leaving his home. Coming from a family with a long communist tradition,
Lukanov was a candidate member of the Bulgarian Communist Party Politburo from
1979-1989, minister of foreign economic relations from 1987-1989, and deputy
prime minister from 1976-1987. After the fall of long-time party and state
leader Todor Zhivkov, Lukanov became prime minister in February 1990 but was
forced to resign in November 1990 following strikes and mass demonstrations.
Lukanov -- an outspoken critic of Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) leader and
Prime Minister Zhan Videnov -- belonged to the BSP top leadership until 1994
and even afterward remained one of the key power brokers within the party. He
was also an influential businessman. In July, Lukanov was dropped as chairman
of the board of the Russian-Bulgarian Topenergy company. -- Stefan
Krause
[15] BULGARIAN HOSPITAL CHARGING FOR STAYS.
Patients of the hospital of Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second largest city, have to
pay for hospitalization although the law provides for free medical treatment,
Kontinent reported on 2 October. Due to the hospital's financial situation,
patients are also asked to bring their own bed-sheets and pay for their food
and treatment. Hospital Director Gospodin Halachev said if the hospital did
not ask for money it would be forced to close down altogether. Health Minister
Mini Vitkova is reportedly informed of the situation but has so far not
reacted or commented. Meanwhile in Petrich in southwest Bulgaria, a 17-year
old boy died of meningitis. It is the second recent death in Bulgaria. He had
recently traveled to Hungary and returned via Romania. A doctor said it was a
unique and isolated case. -- Stefan Krause
[16] CROATIAN PREMIER VISITS ALBANIA.
Zlatko Matesa and his Albanian counterpart Alexander Meksi signed agreements
on cultural cooperation and consular services in Tirana on 1 October, ATSH
reported. On the first day of a two-day official visit, Matesa also met with
President Sali Berisha and discussed deepening mutual economic ties. Both
sides agreed on regional security policy issues and in particular on the need
for a peaceful solution of the Kosovo crisis and the return of Eastern
Slavonia to Croatia. -- Fabian Schmidt
Compiled by Pete Baumgartner and Tom Warner
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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