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OMRI: Daily Digest, Vol. 3, No. 18, 97-01-27
From: Open Media Research Institute <http://www.omri.cz>
Vol. 3, No. 18, 27 January 1997
CONTENTS
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] NEW ARRESTS IN GEORGIA.
[02] SHEVARDNADZE SETS CONDITIONS FOR REMAINING IN RUSSIAN "SPHERE OF
INFLUENCE."
[03] ARMENIAN OFFICIAL ON FUTURE OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH NEGOTIATIONS.
[04] OFFICIALS SAY COUP ATTEMPT IN AZERBAIJAN THWARTED.
[05] DISARMAMENT BEGINS IN TURSUN ZADE.
[06] LANGUAGE LAW REVIEWED IN KAZAKSTAN.
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[07] RIOTS THROUGHOUT ALBANIA . . .
[08] . . . WHILE PARLIAMENT CALLS IN MILITARY.
[09] POLITICAL DEADLOCK IN BULGARIA CONTINUES.
[10] BELGRADE DEMONSTRATIONS CONTINUE.
[11] MORE VIOLENCE AGAINST MUSLIMS TRYING TO GO HOME.
[12] MUSLIM-CROAT TENSIONS CONTINUE.
[13] FORMER BOSNIAN SERB LEADER DIES.
[14] BOSNIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ON MUSLIM-CROAT RELATIONS.
[15] CROATIAN OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATION PAYS TAXES FOLLOWING EVASION CHARGES.
[16] NEW GOVERNMENT IN SLOVENIA.
[17] ROMANIAN ROUNDUP.
[A] TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA
[01] NEW ARRESTS IN GEORGIA.
Georgian police have arrested 12 people who, according to Interior Minister
Kakhi Targamadze, plotted to assassinate several high-ranking officials and
were "partially funded from abroad," international agencies reported on 24
January. Targamadze alleged that some of those arrested are members of the
banned Mkhedrioni paramilitary organization that helped to overthrow former
President Zviad Gamsakhurdia. Procurator General Jamlet Babilashvili said
the "terrorist group" had links with former Security Minister Igor
Giorgadze, who, according to Georgian authorities, was implicated in the
assassination attempt on President Eduard Shevardnadze in August 1995. --
Emil Danielyan
[02] SHEVARDNADZE SETS CONDITIONS FOR REMAINING IN RUSSIAN "SPHERE OF
INFLUENCE."
Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze said his country will not remain in
Russia's "sphere of influence" unless Moscow helps Georgia restore its
sovereignty over the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia,
international agencies reported on 26 January. According to AFP,
Shevardnadze earlier cited Russian officials as complaining that the West
wants to "lure Georgia away" from Russian influence. Georgia has repeatedly
threatened to make the presence of Russian troops on its territory
contingent on Moscow using its influence to resolve the Abkhaz and South
Ossetian conflicts. Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry of the self-proclaimed
Republic of Abkhazia has blamed "Georgian secret services" for attacks on
Abkhaz military posts, ITAR-TASS reported on 24 January. The Georgian
Security Ministry denied the allegations. -- Emil Danielyan
[03] ARMENIAN OFFICIAL ON FUTURE OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH NEGOTIATIONS.
Zhirayr Libaridian, the chief aide to Armenian President Levon Ter-
Petrossyan, said Armenia will no longer hold direct negotiations with
Azerbaijan without the participation of representatives of the self-
proclaimed Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, Noyan Tapan reported on 24
January. Libaridian said the decision was taken in the wake of the December
1996 OSCE summit in Lisbon. Libaridian, who previously had a number of
meetings with his Azerbaijani counterpart Vafa Guluzade, argued that
Azerbaijan wants to use its rich oil reserves as a bargaining chip in
settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In related news, Azerbaijani
President Heidar Aliev met Russian presidential aide Emil Pain, in Baku.
The two agreed that the any resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
should preserve Azerbaijan's territorial integrity while granting autonomy
and security guarantees to Nagorno-Karabakh, Russian media reported. --
Emil Danielyan
[04] OFFICIALS SAY COUP ATTEMPT IN AZERBAIJAN THWARTED.
Azerbaijan's Ministry of National Security and the state prosecutor issued
a joint statement on 24 January claiming that they thwarted a coup attempt
planned for late last fall, Azerbaijani and Russian sources reported the
same day. The statement says the coup was planned by former President Ayaz
Mutalibov, former Prime Minister Suret Huseinov, and former KGB chief Vagif
Huseinov, and involved unnamed foreign intelligence officers. The plot
allegedly unraveled when a key conspirator, former OPON Commander of Kazak
District Elchin Amiraslanov, was arrested for murdering three law
enforcement officials in October. Some 40 people have been arrested in
connection with the alleged coup attempt. -- Lowell Bezanis
[05] DISARMAMENT BEGINS IN TURSUN ZADE.
The commander of the Tajik Army's First Brigade, Col. Mahmud Khudaberdiyev,
began on 25 January to enforce a presidential order to disarm all non-
military formations in the city of of Tursun Zade, Russian sources
reported. For four years various outlaw groups have struggled to gain
control of the city, which is home to Central Asia's largest aluminum
factory. According to the presidential order, disarmament should be
completed by 28 January. Khudaberdiyev claims this will not be a problem
and that the people of the city support his efforts, but he warned that any
group which fails to comply will be eliminated. NTV reported on 25 January
that Khudaberdiyev's unauthorized early January attack on Tursun Zade
convinced President Imomali Rakhmonov to sign the disarmament order. --
Bruce Pannier
[06] LANGUAGE LAW REVIEWED IN KAZAKSTAN.
The upper house of the Kazakstani parliament on 24 January discussed a
draft of the country's language law, already passed by the lower house,
which would increase the use of the Kazak language in the country, ITAR-
TASS and Radio Mayak reported. Though Kazak is officially the state
language, the lower house claimed it is not fully used and is still
inferior to Russian. The bill gives ethnic Kazaks in the government until
2005 to master the language and ethnic Russians until 2010, but some
parliamentarians now doubt that this deadline can be met without greater
efforts to promote the state language's use. -- Bruce Pannier and Merhat
Sharipzhan
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[07] RIOTS THROUGHOUT ALBANIA . . .
Demonstrators clashed with police in towns throughout the country over the
weekend as they protested the recent collapse of pyramid schemes,
international media reported. Hundreds of thousands of Albanians have
reportedly lost their life savings because of the collapse. Around 30,000
people rallied in Tirana on 26 January. Police fired pistol shots into the
air when some 3,000 protesters tried to advance toward the parliament.
Eighty-four policemen were reported injured, some seriously. About 30
people were arrested. The Democratic Party headquarters and government
buildings were torched in Korca, Fier, and Vlora, while protesters set fire
to the building of the oil company Albpetrol in Patos. On 25 January,
demonstrators blocked the main north-south highway. Meanwhile, 230 rioting
inmates at the Barwhor prison near Kavaja tried to burn down the prison;
two prisoners died in clashes with the police in the night from 26-27
January. Justice Minister Kristofer Peci claimed the situation had returned
to normal by early this morning. -- Fabian Schmidt
[08] . . . WHILE PARLIAMENT CALLS IN MILITARY.
The parliament on 26 January gave President Sali Berisha special powers to
deploy military units to restore law and order, international media
reported. "A limited number of army units will be temporarily engaged
alongside police forces to protect state and public institutions and to
ensure the free flow of traffic on national roads," a parliamentary
statement said. But Foreign Minister and Democratic Party Chairman Tritan
Shehu, who was attacked at a demonstration in Tirana the previous day, said
the parliament's decision has "nothing to do with a state of emergency."
The army has been put on alert in Tirana to guard ministries, the central
bank, and other strategic buildings. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Aleksander
Meksi has told the demonstrators that they will get their money back
beginning in early February. Authorities have seized around $300 million
from two pyramid scheme accounts, but that sum is unlikely to cover all
losses. Another mass demonstration is scheduled to take place in Shkoder
today. -- Fabian Schmidt
[09] POLITICAL DEADLOCK IN BULGARIA CONTINUES.
President Petar Stoyanov on 24 January held talks with leaders of the
ruling Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and the opposition in an attempt to
resolve the country's political crisis, RFE/RL reported. Stoyanov said no
agreement is possible unless both sides become far more flexible, and he
called the BSP's demands "very difficult" for the opposition to accept. BSP
leader Georgi Parvanov said his party will agree to a "non-Socialist, broad-
based" government that can take over until December 1997--provided that
government is headed by BSP premier-designate Nikolay Dobrev, who is
currently interior minister. On 26 January, Stoyanov had separate meeting
with BSP and opposition leaders. Meanwhile, thousands of people took part
in anti-BSP rallies over the weekend to demand new parliamentary elections.
The Confederation of Labor Podkrepa has announced it will stage strikes in
14 cities, including Sofia. -- Stefan Krause
[10] BELGRADE DEMONSTRATIONS CONTINUE.
By about 7:30 a.m. local time on 27 January, an estimated 300,000
demonstrators had taken to Belgrade streets in response to a call by
Orthodox Church leaders, Reuters reported. The elderly Patriarch Pavle
headed the demonstration, along with some two dozen priests, to mark Saint
Sava's day. Earlier, police withdrew the cordon around downtown Belgrade,
allowing some 50,000 students and others to march along the city's main
streets. These latest developments follow a weekend of low-level violence
in the capital and other Serbian cities. Meanwhile, Vojislav Seselj,
ultranationalist leader of the Serbian Radical Party, has met in Belgrade
with members of the Russian State Duma. Commenting on the mass
demonstrations, Seselj told the government-controlled Vecernje novosti
that "the leaders of [the opposition coalition Zajedno] are serving the
West, contrary to the interests of their own people..., while the
demonstrators march under foreign flags." -- Stan Markotich
[11] MORE VIOLENCE AGAINST MUSLIMS TRYING TO GO HOME.
Bosnian Serb crowds on 25 January attacked Muslims who were attempting to
deliver construction materials and otherwise help families seeking to
return to the village of Gajevi just inside Serb-held territory (see OMRI
Daily Digest, 24 January 1997). Some 100 men armed with crowbars attacked
and injured Semsudin Mujic, who was driving a tractor hauling prefabricated
building materials, AFP wrote. The attackers stole some of those materials.
A Muslim witness said that SFOR soldiers stood by and watched the beatings
but did nothing. U.S. spokesperson Sgt. Marianne Mirabella said, however,
that "security in the Republika Srpska is surely not the responsibility of
SFOR. That's the responsibility of Republika Srpska police. They ought to
be ashamed." The Muslim families are seeking to exercise their right under
the Dayton agreement to go home. They have been vetted under a system
supervised by the UN and agreed to by all sides. -- Patrick Moore
[12] MUSLIM-CROAT TENSIONS CONTINUE.
The Croatian member of the Bosnian presidency, Kresimir Zubak, accused the
Muslims of still harboring foreign Islamic fighters, AFP reported on 25
January. In further evidence of friction between the nominal allies,
Federal Deputy Minister Drago Bilandzija, a Croat, told Oslobodjenje that
the State Directorate--a major public-sector company--is laundering money
and evading taxes on a grand scale. He himself has been accused of
corruption by Muslim Prime Minister Edhem Bicakcic. Increasingly, public
tensions threaten to split the shaky coalition between the Muslim Party of
Democratic Action (SDA) and the Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ).
Leaders of the two parties, meeting over the weekend, issued an 11-point
program aimed at harmonizing their relationship, Oslobodjenje wrote on 27
January. According to that text, the presidency and vice presidency of the
federation will rotate annually between Croats and Muslims. The president
for 1997 will be a Croat. -- Patrick Moore
[13] FORMER BOSNIAN SERB LEADER DIES.
Nikola Koljevic (60) died on 25 January in the Belgrade military hospital
as a result of a suicide attempt in Pale on 16 January, AFP said, quoting
Tanjug. As a vice president of the Republika Srpska, he had helped
negotiate the Dayton agreement. But he had been pushed to the political
sidelines by the Bosnian Serb leadership after the 14 September elections.
He became depressed as a result of this treatment, as he himself made clear
in a suicide note left for his family (see Pursuing Balkan Peace, 21
January 1997). -- Patrick Moore
[14] BOSNIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ON MUSLIM-CROAT RELATIONS.
Jadranko Prlic on 24 January met with his Croatian counterpart, Mate Granic,
to discuss worsened relations between Muslims and Croats in the Bosnian
Federation, international media reported. Prlic attributed that development
to the increasing harassment of Muslims in Mostar and differences over
issues such as defense, AFP reported. But he added "there is no problem
that cannot be resolved with dialogue." Both officials agreed that the
Federation Forum--over which U.S. envoy to Bosnia-Herzegovina John Cornblum
is to preside--should convene "as soon as possible." Prlic also met
Croatian Defense Minister Gojko Susak to discuss Croatia's assistance in
training the Bosnian federal army, Dnevni Avaz reported on 27 January.
The ministers discussed bilateral cooperation in preventing border
incidents and implementing an agreement on sub-regional weapons control. --
Daria Sito Sucic
[15] CROATIAN OPEN SOCIETY FOUNDATION PAYS TAXES FOLLOWING EVASION CHARGES.
The Croatian office of the international humanitarian organization
sponsored by George Soros has paid $500,000 in taxes one month after
Croatian financial police charged the office with tax evasion, Reuters
reported on 25 January. Office executive director Srdjan Dvornik said the
taxes had been paid in order to prevent further problems in Croatia. He
added that the foundation will appeal to get the money back once the police
has sent the conclusions of its investigation. State-run television
commented that by paying the taxes, the foundation has admitted it violated
the law. Croatian financial police stormed the Zagreb premises of the
organization in December and claimed to have found evidence of " financial
malpractice." -- Daria Sito Sucic
[16] NEW GOVERNMENT IN SLOVENIA.
Janez Drnovsek, prime minister-designate and leader of the Liberal
Democrats (LDS), on 24 January announced he has formed a new government,
Radio Slovenija reported. Talks between the LDS and the three conservative
Slovenian Spring parties--which have 44 of the 90 parliamentary seats--
broke down earlier this month. Drnovsek said he has forged a coalition with
the former communist United List of Social Democrats and several minor
parties, resulting in a one-seat majority. He said the LDS will have nine
portfolios, the former Communists five, and two minor parties one seat
each. The agriculture and justice portfolios still have to be filled.
Drnovsek may attempt to extend an olive branch to the Slovenian Spring
parties with offers of those two posts. -- Stan Markotich
[17] ROMANIAN ROUNDUP.
The Executive Bureau of the Party of Social Democracy in Romania on 25
January said it will propose a "political and social pact" at a meeting
later this week with President Emil Constantinescu, Radio Bucharest
reported. The bureau said it was "concerned" about what it called the new
government's "political purges." It asked the president to use his
influence over the governing coalition to put an end to the firings and
hirings among the heads of state institutions. Meanwhile, a Bucharest
appeals court on 24 January rejected Miron Cozma's request for bail, Radio
Bucharest reported. Cozma is being detained on charges of "undermining
state authority" by helping organize the miners' rampages in the Romanian
capital in 1990 and 1991. Cozma's lawyer said after the ruling that he was
dropping the case because of a "work overload." Miners held protest rallies
earlier this month to demand Cozma's release on bail. -- Zsolt Mato
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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