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OMRI: Daily Digest, Vol. 3, No. 7, 97-01-10
From: Open Media Research Institute <http://www.omri.cz>
Vol. 3, No. 7, 10 January 1997
CONTENTS
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] U.S. MAINTAINS PRESSURE ON GEORGIA OVER FATAL CAR ACCIDENT.
[02] HIGH LEVEL GEORGIAN-ABKHAZ TALKS.
[03] AMERICAN JOURNALIST MURDERED IN ALMATY.
[04] FIRST BRIGADE TO LEAVE TURSUN ZADE.
[05] TAJIK GOVERNMENT SCOFFS AT OPPOSITION PROPOSAL.
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[06] BELGRADE STUDENTS WIN STANDOFF WITH POLICE.
[07] CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY FOR SERBIA?
[08] BOSNIAN SERBS SAY TRACKING DOWN WAR CRIMINALS WOULD ENDANGER PEACE.
[09] BRCKO'S FATE CONTINUES TO HANG IN BALANCE.
[10] CROATIA EXTENDS LICENSE OF ZAGREB INDEPENDENT RADIO.
[11] U.S. OFFICIAL ON ROMANIA'S CHANCES OF EARLY ADMISSION INTO NATO.
[12] LUCINSCHI RESIGNS AS MOLDOVAN PARLIAMENTARY SPEAKER.
[13] ANTI-SOCIALIST DEMONSTRATIONS CONTINUE IN BULGARIA.
[14] BULGARIAN INFLATION IN 1996 REACHED 310%.
[15] WIDOW OF ALBANIAN DICTATOR RELEASED FROM PRISON.
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] U.S. MAINTAINS PRESSURE ON GEORGIA OVER FATAL CAR ACCIDENT.
U.S.<strong> </strong>Secretary of State Warren Christopher has asked
Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze to ensure that diplomat Georgi
Makharadze, who reportedly caused a five-car accident in Washington in
which an American girl was killed (see OMRI Daily Digest, 7 January 1997),
is not recalled home until the United States gets a formal response from
Georgia to its waiver request, Western agencies reported on 9 January.
Meanwhile, an unidentified U.S. official said Makharadze will "leave the
country shortly." The report contradicts an earlier statement by Georgian
Foreign Minister Irakli Menagarashvili that the diplomat will not be
recalled until the investigation is complete. -- Emil Danielyan
[02] HIGH LEVEL GEORGIAN-ABKHAZ TALKS.
The foreign ministers of Georgia and its breakaway republic of Abkhazia
have met in the Abkhaz resort town of Gagra, Russian and Western media
reported on 9 January. According to Abkhaz Foreign Minister Konstantin
Ozgan, the fact of direct talks testifies to the two sides' readiness to
reach a compromise on the Abkhaz conflict and is not a sign of Russia's
decreased role in settling it. Georgian Foreign Minister Irakli
Menagarashvili warned the Abkhaz side that Georgia will ask CIS member
countries to tighten the blockade of Abkhazia unless the latter provides
for the return of more than 200,000 ethnic Georgian refugees.
Menagarashvili said there was no progress on the issue of Abkhazia's future
status. -- Emil Danielyan
[03] AMERICAN JOURNALIST MURDERED IN ALMATY.
The body of the director of the Internews Network Agency in Kazakstan, 28-
year-old Chris Gehring, was found in his apartment on 9 January, Western
and Russian media reported. Chief detective Alibek Shapenov said Gehring
was apparently murdered during a burglary that went wrong. As a foreigner
in Kazakstan Gehring was likely to be considered wealthy. Gehring's
computer was missing and boxes containing a stereo, VCR, and television
were found near the doorway. However, many journalists doubt the validity
of the burglary theory, noting Gehring was found with his hands and feet
bound and his throat cut. Gehring had been working in Kazakstan since May
1995 as part of a US AID-funded project to aid independent media. The
Committee to Protect Journalists has sent a strongly worded note to the
Kazakstani government demanding an immediate investigation. -- Bruce
Pannier
[04] FIRST BRIGADE TO LEAVE TURSUN ZADE.
The commander of Tajikistan's First Brigade, Col. Mahmud Khudaberdiyev,
said on 9 January, he and his unit are ready to comply with a presidential
order that they return to their base in Kurgan-Tyube, international media
reported. Khudaberdiyev's unit managed to push the outlaw group of Kadyr
Abdullayev outside the city limits, according to Russian television.
Abdullayev says he will not surrender nor heed Khudaberdiyev's order that
he permanently vacate Tursun Zade. Khudaberdiyev said he was satisfied with
the recapture of military hardware Abdullayev's group stole from the First
Brigade on 29 December and the departure of Abdullayev's criminal band from
the city. -- Bruce Pannier
[05] TAJIK GOVERNMENT SCOFFS AT OPPOSITION PROPOSAL.
Peace negotiations between the Tajik government and United Tajik Opposition
(UTO) taking place in Tehran became bogged down on 8 January, RFE/RL
reported. UTO representatives had the impression the planned National
Reconciliation Commission would consist of 40% representation from both the
government and the UTO, with the remaining 20% being made up of regional
and ethnic groups. However, government negotiators in Tehran now say they
want an 80% share of the commission to be from the Tajik government and
that all proposals for amendments to the constitution be approved by a two-
thirds vote. The deputy leader for the UTO, Ali Akbar Turajonzoda, said
that is not what was agreed at the Moscow talks in December between Tajik
President Imomali Rakhmonov and UTO leader Said Abdullo Nuri. -- Bruce
Pannier
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[06] BELGRADE STUDENTS WIN STANDOFF WITH POLICE.
Student protesters held a triumphant and noisy march through the heart of
the capital in the early hours of 10 January following the withdrawal of
security forces. The students had organized shifts in order to confront the
police for 13 hours, CNN and AFP reported. It was the first march since the
authorities banned such demonstrations on 25 December, and the students say
they will now seek a formal lifting of that prohibition. Opposition leader
Vuk Draskovic, for his part, demanded that Serbian President Slobodan
Milosevic resign. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on 9 January recognized the
opposition's 17 November election victory in Vrsac, but the protesters say
they will continue until all 14 of their successes are acknowledged. Also
on 9 January, 52 of the 160 members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences
warned the government to recognize all opposition victories lest the
country degenerate into "a complete police dictatorship" and civil war,
Nasa Borba wrote. -- Patrick Moore
[07] CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY FOR SERBIA?
Prince Alexander, heir to the throne from the Karadjordjevic dynasty, who
has spent his entire life in Britain, has said he has close links to the
Serbian opposition and is ready to return as king if the people want him.
He told the Daily Telegraph on 9 January that "it's time for a change.
The people are fed up." Royalist roots run deep in Serbia, and many
observers and politicians have suggested that the country might eventually
restore the Karadjordjevic dynasty, which the communists overthrew in 1945.
Alexander's realm would be confined to Serbia and Montenegro rather than
the entire former Yugoslavia, which his family had ruled since 1918. But he
does not exclude Bosnian Serb territories linking up with Serbia: "One day,
there will have to be a Dayton Two," he argued. He also warned that
"Milosevic is planning a collective suicide of the nation" and must be
gotten rid of. Alexander added that his role model is Spain's King Juan
Carlos, who helped Spain become a prosperous democracy integrated into
Europe. "What does the king provide? He provides unity," Alexander
concluded. -- Patrick Moore
[08] BOSNIAN SERBS SAY TRACKING DOWN WAR CRIMINALS WOULD ENDANGER PEACE.
Momcilo Krajisnik, the Serbian member of the Bosnian Presidency, has said
establishing an international police force to apprehend indicted war
criminals in Bosnia would pose a threat for peace in the country, Onasa
reported on 9 January, citing Bosnian Serb Radio reports. Krajisnik said
the Serbs are willing to try their own war criminals using files received
from the Hague-based international criminal tribunal. Meanwhile, Bosnian
Serb President Biljana Plavsic said in a letter to UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan that the Bosnian Serbs will not hand over their former President
Radovan Karadzic or military commander Ratko Mladic, both of whom are
indicted war criminals, Reuters reported on 9 January. Plavsic said the
indictments were no longer valid since fighting was over and there were no
more reports on war crimes in the Republika Srpska. Delivering Karadzic and
Mladic to The Hague would only threaten peace, Plavsic added. -- Daria Sito
Sucic
[09] BRCKO'S FATE CONTINUES TO HANG IN BALANCE.
While international mediators were meeting in Rome to discuss the fate of
Brcko (see OMRI Daily Digest, 9 January 1996), Bosnian Serb leaders
warned that war could re-ignite in the Balkans if the town was awarded to
the Muslim-Croat federation, Reuters reported. "Brcko is Serb and must
remain Serb," Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic said at a ceremony in
the northern Bosnian town marking the founding of the Republika Srpska.
Krajisnik said Serbs would be compelled to wage war if the town were not in
Serbian hands. But the Bosnian Federation argues that Brcko should be
granted to Muslims and Croats, who constituted a majority of the city's pre-
war population and were subsequently "cleansed" by Serbs during the war.
Kresimir Zubak, the Croatian member of Bosnian Presidency, warned the Serbs
of "total defeat" if they were to go to war over Brcko, AFP reported on 9
January. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[10] CROATIA EXTENDS LICENSE OF ZAGREB INDEPENDENT RADIO.
The Croatian government has extended the broadcasting license of the
independent Radio 101 until the end of this month, Croatian media reported
on 10 January. The license was due to expire on 15 January. Some 100,000
people staged a protest in Zagreb in November when the government tried to
silence the station by granting its broadcasting concession to a rival
station. The government gave no reason for the short-term extension of
Radio 101's license. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[11] U.S. OFFICIAL ON ROMANIA'S CHANCES OF EARLY ADMISSION INTO NATO.
U.S. Defense Undersecretary for Policy Walter Slocombe, in Bucharest on 9
January for a one-day visit, said Romania's chances of early admission into
NATO have significantly increased following recent democratic elections and
improved relations with its neighbors, international media reported. But
Slocombe stressed that his visit to the Romanian capital should not be
interpreted as indicating which countries will be nominated to join the
alliance first. At meetings with senior defense officials, he discussed
Romania's efforts to join NATO. President Emil Constantinescu and Premier
Victor Ciorbea both argued for the country's integration into NATO,
stressing again that Romania has no alternative but to join NATO. -- Zsolt
Mato
[12] LUCINSCHI RESIGNS AS MOLDOVAN PARLIAMENTARY SPEAKER.
President-elect Petru Lucinschi on 9 January handed in his resignation as
parliamentary speaker, Moldpres reported. In a secret ballot the same day,
Dumitru Motpan, head of the ruling Agrarian Democratic Party, failed to win
the required 50% of the vote to be elected to that post. Another round of
voting is expected to take place today after further consultations. One of
the favorites for the post is Dumitru Diacov, who is deputy speaker and one
of the organizers of Lucinschi's election campaign. Lucinschi will
officially take office as president on 15 January. He defeated Mircea
Snegur in the second round of presidential elections last month. -- Dan
Ionescu
[13] ANTI-SOCIALIST DEMONSTRATIONS CONTINUE IN BULGARIA.
Thousands of people took to Sofia's streets again on 9 January to call for
new elections, AFP reported. Organizers have promised a third consecutive
day of protests today, saying they hope to form a human chain around the
parliament building. The protests follow the BSP's nomination of Interior
Minister Nikolai Dobrev to replace Zhan Videnov, who resigned as prime
minister on 28 December. Videnov had been blamed for Bulgaria's dire
economic situation. President Zhelyu Zhelev is scheduled on 11 January to
formally ask Dobrev to form a new government backed by the BSP and its two
allies, Ecoglasnost and the Agrarian Party. Dobrev has said he will take
no action against the demonstrators "unless they become violent."
Opposition leader Ivan Kostov has likened the Bulgarian protests to those
currently taking place in Belgrade. -- Fabian Schmidt
[14] BULGARIAN INFLATION IN 1996 REACHED 310%.
According to the Statistics Institute, inflation soared to 310.8% in 1996,
AFP reported on 9 January. The head of the institute said this was 10 times
the average rate in east and central Europe. Inflation in December totaled
26.9%--the highest monthly figure since prices were deregulated in February
1991. The institute forecast that inflation in 1997 would be 150%, but it
warned that if the lev continued to fall against the dollar, inflation this
year could exceed the figure for 1996. -- Fabian Schmidt
[15] WIDOW OF ALBANIAN DICTATOR RELEASED FROM PRISON.
Nexhmije Hoxha, the 76-year-old widow of late communist-era dictator Enver
Hoxha, was released from a Tirana jail earlier today, Reuters reported. She
was arrested in 1991 and sentenced in 1993 to 11 years in prison on
embezzlement charges, but her term was reduced three times in various
amnesties by President Sali Berisha. She is quoted as saying "I am very
pleased to be out but I am now rushing off to see my children and
family.... I don't know where I'm going to live because I have no home."
She added that one of her first priorities is to visit the grave of her
husband, which, she said, she has not seen. Enver Hoxha was buried in the
Martyrs of the Nation cemetery in 1985. His body was exhumed and re-buried
in a public cemetery in 1992. -- Fabian Schmidt
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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