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OMRI Daily Digest, Vol. 2, No. 199, 96-10-14
From: Open Media Research Institute <http://www.omri.cz>
Vol. 2, No. 199, 14 October 1996
CONTENTS
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT LIFTS A BAN ON RALLIES AND DEMONSTRATIONS.
[02] FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER IN BAKU.
[03] RUSTAVI-2 HASSLED OVER COVERAGE OF ADZHAR ELECTION.
[04] COMMUNISTS OF KAZAKSTAN GIVE UP IDEA OF REVIVING USSR.
[05] A RUSSIAN ASSESSMENT OF UZBEKISTAN'S AFGHAN RESPONSE.
[06] TURKMEN-IRANIAN GAS PIPELINE.
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[07] SERBS CONTINUE BOYCOTT OF JOINT BOSNIAN INSTITUTIONS.
[08] STANDOFF BETWEEN MUSLIMS, BOSNIAN SERB POLICE.
[09] OSCE MONITOR SAYS BOSNIA NOT READY FOR LOCAL ELECTIONS.
[10] SERBIAN NATIONALIST ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL.
[11] ALBANIAN GRAVES DESECRATED IN KOSOVO.
[12] CROATIAN AUTHORITIES CLOSE EAST SLAVONIAN MARKET.
[13] DIVERGING POLLS ON ROMANIAN ELECTIONS.
[14] ROMANIA AND NATO.
[15] SNEGUR ON RELATIONS WITH DNIESTER SEPARATISTS.
[16] BULGARIAN PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS DEBATE NATIONAL SECURITY.
[17] BULGARIAN TOP OFFICIALS' SALARIES FROZEN.
[18] ALBANIAN LOCAL ELECTION UPDATE.
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] ARMENIAN PRESIDENT LIFTS A BAN ON RALLIES AND DEMONSTRATIONS.
Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrossyan lifted a ban on rallies and
demonstrations imposed on 26 September arguing that there is no longer any
"direct threat to the constitutional order," Russian and Western media
reported on 11 October. The government withdrew its last troops from the
capital Yerevan on 11 October. Shavarsh Kocharyan and Samvel Shahinyan, two
prominent opposition members, were released from prison on 9 October.
Meanwhile, former National Security Minister David Shahnazaryan called for the
dismissal of the prime minister and the defense and interior ministers
claiming that they are to blame for the tense situation in the country, Radio
Rossii reported on 12 October. Hanneke Gelderblom-Iankhout, a member of a
Council of Europe delegation visiting Armenia, told AFP that the election was
not democratic. The delegation will release its report in November. -- Emil
Danielyan
[02] FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER IN BAKU.
During a one-day visit to Baku on 11 October, French Foreign Minister Herve de
Charette met with Azerbaijani President Heidar Aliev and Foreign Minister
Hasan Hasanov, Turan and ITAR-TASS reported. The talks focused on France's
participation in the Nagorno-Karabakh mediation process, the prospects for
French participation in the exploitation of Azerbaijan's Caspian Sea oil
deposits, Aliev's scheduled January visit to France, and French support for
Azerbaijan's cooperation with the EU and the Council of Europe. -- Liz
Fuller
[03] RUSTAVI-2 HASSLED OVER COVERAGE OF ADZHAR ELECTION.
Gia Bokeria, chairman of the private Georgian TV company Rustavi-2 which
recently had its license revoked by the Georgian government, said on 9 October
that security officials confiscated and erased his cameramen's footage of
voting during the 22 September parliamentary election in Adzharia, BGI
reported. The coalition between Adzhar leader Aslan Abashidze's All-Georgian
Union of Revival and Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze's Union of
Citizens of Georgia won an overwhelming majority in the vote. -- Liz
Fuller
[04] COMMUNISTS OF KAZAKSTAN GIVE UP IDEA OF REVIVING USSR.
Members of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan on 13 October voted to remove a
clause from their charter that called for a proletarian dictatorship and the
reformation of the USSR, Ekho Moskvy reported. More than 80 delegates form
around Kazakstan attended the 24th congress in Almaty, despite the fact that
the party is in the process of being re-registered after it was suspended in
March by the Kazakstani Justice Ministry. The delegates also moved to create a
nationwide Komsomol organization which will hold a congress in early 1997. One
party leader said the party has 50,000 members registered in the party, most
of them elderly. -- Bruce Pannier
[05] A RUSSIAN ASSESSMENT OF UZBEKISTAN'S AFGHAN RESPONSE.
Uzbekistan has moved some of its elite troops to Termez, the military garrison
on the border, and has asked its officers not on active duty to reregister,
NTV reported on 11 October. According to the report, there is no basis for
Uzbekistan's fear of a Taliban invasion, but a defeat of General Rashid
Dostum's forces in northern Afghanistan could lead to "crowds of [ethnic
Uzbek] refugees" flooding into Uzbekistan. Also, "a victory by the
fundamentalists" would have a negative influence on the situation in the
Fergana Valley where the Uzbek government has been fighting to keep organized
Islamic groups under control. -- Bruce Pannier
[06] TURKMEN-IRANIAN GAS PIPELINE.
A ceremony was held on 10 October to mark the start of construction work on
the 200 km-long Korpedzhe-Kordkuy gas pipeline, IRNA and Russian media
reported the next day. The pipeline deal, announced last year, has an
estimated value of $190 million and will be capable of moving 11 billion cubic
meters of natural gas annually. It is being built by Iran's state gas company.
-- Lowell Bezanis
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[07] SERBS CONTINUE BOYCOTT OF JOINT BOSNIAN INSTITUTIONS.
The Serbian member of the Bosnian presidency, Momcilo Krajisnik, has again
refused to sign a loyalty oath to Bosnia-Herzegovina, AFP reported on 12
October. Krajisnik said he objected to any ceremonies taking place in a
Sarajevo building associated with the Croat-Muslim federation and that he
would only sign on Bosnian Serb territory. He also refused to meet German
Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel together with the Croatian and Muslim members of
the presidency and met the German guest separately instead. Krajisnik, who had
earlier declined to come to Sarajevo out of alleged fears for his safety,
arrived there on 12 October to talk with Kinkel and U.S. special envoy John
Kornblum. The Serbs have engaged in a post-election war of nerves since the
first and only meeting of the presidency on 30 September. Krajisnik says he is
defending Serbian interests, Nasa Borba reported on 14 October. -- Patrick
Moore
[08] STANDOFF BETWEEN MUSLIMS, BOSNIAN SERB POLICE.
Another war of nerves is continuing, namely that between the Republika Srpska
police and the Muslim refugees who have returned to their homes on Bosnian
Serb territory. The RS authorities released three Muslims who had been jailed
in Zvornik, Dnevni avaz wrote on 14 October. The police in Jusici over the
weekend maintained a tense standoff with Russian IFOR troops -- whom they had
threatened on 11 October -- as well as the villagers. Early in the morning of
12 October, an explosion destroyed a Muslim home on the outskirts of the
nearby village of Mahala, in an area known as Hajvazi. The Muslims are
asserting their right to go back to their homes in keeping with the Dayton
agreement, much to the consternation of IFOR and the Serbs. -- Patrick
Moore
[09] OSCE MONITOR SAYS BOSNIA NOT READY FOR LOCAL ELECTIONS.
Ed van Thijn, the chief OSCE monitor during Bosnia's September general
elections, said he will not accept the same job in November municipal
elections because Bosnia is not ready for them, AFP reported on 13 October.
Van Thijn said municipal voting should be postponed until spring because voter
lists are not reliable and refugees still would not be able to vote where they
wish to in November. Municipal elections were postponed from September to
November after it was found that Bosnian Serbs were tampering with voter
registration. On 12 October, OSCE spokesman David Foley said delaying Bosnia's
municipal elections would undermine the peace process. AFP on 11 October
quoted Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic threatening: "If the process of
forced and illegal repopulation of the Republika Srpska continues, conditions
for [holding] local elections will not be reached." -- Daria Sito
Sucic
[10] SERBIAN NATIONALIST ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL.
Vojislav Seselj, leader of the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS)
and an accused war criminal, has emerged the strongest advocate of Serbian
state expansion ahead of the 3 November federal Yugoslav and Montenegrin
republican elections. On the campaign trail in Montenegro on 13 October,
Seselj called for "the creation of a unified Serb state [and] the liberation
of Serb Krajina, Serb Dubrovnik, Serb Bosnia, and Serb Macedonia," AFP, citing
local press, reported. At a rally in Niksic, Seselj said the eventual creation
of a greater Serbia would depend heavily on Russia's support, predicting that
"Great Russia will lift herself up, she will thunder across Europe and the
world, she will return to the Balkans, and when she does, day will dawn for
the Serbs." Meanwhile, the independent daily Nasa Borba carried poll results
showing the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia, along with its potential
coalition partners the United Yugoslav Left and New Democracy, with a 23.7%
share of voter support to the Zajedno opposition coalition's 23.9%. According
to the 20-26 September poll, 29.7% of voters remain undecided and 14% do not
expect to vote. -- Stan Markotich
[11] ALBANIAN GRAVES DESECRATED IN KOSOVO.
About 62 Kosovar Albanian graves were desecrated on 11-12 October in five
mosques in Pec, AFP reported. Unidentified vandals also reportedly set a fire
that destroyed parts of the Hamam Mosque's interior. In other news, Lenny
Fischer, chairman of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, said
respect for human rights and a political solution for Kosovo are preconditions
for economic and political cooperation between Belgrade and the EU, BETA
reported on 13 October. -- Dukagjin Gorani
[12] CROATIAN AUTHORITIES CLOSE EAST SLAVONIAN MARKET.
Local authorities in the Osijek-Baranja district ruled on 10 October to close
down the market on the border between Serb-held eastern Slavonia and Croatian-
controlled territory, Vecernji List reported. On 12 October, Croatian
authorities began turning back Croats on their way to the market, claiming it
was for health and hygiene reasons, AFP reported. Jacques Klein, head of the
UN Transitional Administration in Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES), supported the
market as a place where confidence between Serbs and Croats was being rebuilt.
UNTAES spokesman Douglas Coffman said the market helped over 45,000 people
from both sides to reestablish contacts broken by the war, and that the UN
"deeply deplored" the decision to close it down. Meanwhile, UN special human-
rights reporter Elisabeth Rehn had talks with Croatian Foreign Minister Mate
Granic on the human-rights situation in the country, AFP reported. Rehn said
Croatia had made "positive steps." -- Daria Sito Sucic
[13] DIVERGING POLLS ON ROMANIAN ELECTIONS.
Emil Constantinescu, candidate of the Democratic Convention of Romania (CDR),
for the first time placed first in a poll measuring support for presidential
candidates, Romanian media reported on 12 October. The poll, conducted by the
Department of Statistics of the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies on
behalf of the private Antena 1 TV station, puts Constantinescu ahead with
31.6% of the electorate's backing to Social Democratic Union (USD) candidate
Petre Roman's 28.2% and incumbent President Ion Iliescu's 24.2%. The poll
shows the CDR favored by 39.9% in parliamentary elections, the ruling Party of
Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR) by 20.5%, and the USD by 19.6%. However,
another poll conducted by IMAS shows Iliescu ahead in the presidential race
with 33%, followed by Constantinescu (27%) and Roman (24%), and gives the CDR
only a narrow lead in parliamentary voting (30% to the PDSR's 29%, and the USD
with 21%). Media reports suggested the former poll's sampling techniques were
questionable. Both elections are scheduled for 3 November. -- Michael
Shafir
[14] ROMANIA AND NATO.
Foreign Minister Teodor Melescanu on 14 October continued the Romanian
campaign to convince NATO states that his country should be among the first
admitted to NATO. Melescanu is traveling for this purpose to London and Paris,
meeting British Foreign Minister Malkom Rifkind and the French Minister for
European Affairs, Michel Barnier. On 11 October in Brussels, he met NATO
General Secretary Javier Solana, to whom he conveyed a message from President
Ion Iliescu, and also conducted talks with his Belgian counterpart, Erik
Derycke. Also on 14 October, a new NATO exercise within the Partnership for
Peace Program is starting at Bucharest's Otopeni airport. Four NATO countries
(the United States, Turkey, Greece, and Italy) as well as the Czech Republic,
Slovakia, and Moldova are participating in the exercise. Hungary, Slovenia,
and Macedonia are sending observers, Radio Bucharest reported. -- Michael
Shafir
[15] SNEGUR ON RELATIONS WITH DNIESTER SEPARATISTS.
Moldovan President Mircea Snegur told the Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta
that separatist leaders in Tiraspol believe they are backed by Russia as well
as by "some Moldovan leaders," Radio Bucharest reported on 13 October. Snegur
said no compromise can be reached on the breakaway region's status because
the separatists constantly raise new demands and Chisinau would never
recognize the region as enjoying an independent international status. --
Michael Shafir
[16] BULGARIAN PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS DEBATE NATIONAL SECURITY.
The major candidates for the 27 October presidential elections held their
first debate on state TV and radio on 10 October. Petar Stoyanov of the united
opposition and the presidential and vice-presidential candidates of the
Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), Culture Minister Ivan Marazov and Deputy
Foreign Minister Irina Bokova, discussed national security issues. Stoyanov
said Bulgaria should join NATO to secure its security interests. Marazov and
Bokova said the parliament or the people should decide on that question.
Standart reported on 12 October that Stoyanov's appearance met with 28%
approval, against 14% for Marazov, while the BSP's Duma claimed in a
headline that "Ivan and Irina razed their opponent to the ground." -- Stefan
Krause
[17] BULGARIAN TOP OFFICIALS' SALARIES FROZEN.
Retroactively from 1 October, salaries of parliamentary deputies, ministers,
National Bank directors, and other high officials in the budgetary sphere will
no longer be adjusted to compensate for inflation, parliament decided on 11
October. Bulgarian Socialist Party faction leader Krasimir Premyanov said it
is intolerable that politicians' salaries grow in times of crisis. The
opposition dismissed his proposal as a "cheap populist move" ahead of the
upcoming presidential elections. Freezing deputies' stipends had been debated
since May. The basic deputy stipend is three times the average salary, or 32,
184 leva ($150) at present. -- Maria Koinova
[18] ALBANIAN LOCAL ELECTION UPDATE.
A Tirana court rejected an appeal by the Center Pole coalition to reduce the
minimum age for election monitors to 18, Albania reported on 12 October. The
Center Pole had criticized a ruling that Albanian monitors had to be at least
25 years old, while for foreign monitors the minimum age is 22. Meanwhile, an
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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