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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 2, No. 57, 98-03-24Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 2, No. 57, 24 March 1998CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN PRESIDENTIAL CHALLENGER AGAIN QUESTIONS POLL RESULT...Former Armenian Communist Party First Secretary Karen Demirchyan told journalists in Yerevan on 23 March that he would have been elected president with 53.3 percent support in the first round of voting if the 16 March poll had been free and fair, Interfax reported. Demirchyan claimed that supporters of Prime Minister and acting President Kocharyan are exerting "enormous pressure" on his campaign supporters. He called on the media to help ensure that the 30 March runoff is free and fair, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Demirchian also claimed that the 21 March arrest of four men, among whom were volunteers campaigning for him, was part of a deliberate attempt by the Armenian authorities to discredit him. The Armenian Interior and National Security Ministry said the men have been charged with illegal possession of arms and fake police identity cards. LF[02] ...WHILE ELECTORAL COMMISSION CONFIRMS RESULTAlso on 23 March, the Central Electoral Commission released the final results of the first round of voting, which differed from the provisional results by only 0.1 percentage point, ITAR-TASS reported. Commission secretary Armenui Zohrabyan explained that a computer error was to blame for the discrepancy of 60,000 votes between the two sets of figures, according to Noyan Tapan. The final results show Kocharyan polled 38.76 percent and Demirchyan 30. 67 percent. Kocharyan said on 23 March that he is opposed to Demirchyan's proposal that the election law be changed. He suggested that Demirchyan submit his proposals to the Constitutional Court, Interfax reported. Kocharyan said it is "strange" that Demirchyan had not publicly voiced his objections to the current law before the first round of voting. LF[03] AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION PARTIES FORM NEW ALLIANCERepresentatives of five major opposition parties and 20 public organizations attended the constituent congress of the Movement for Democratic Elections in the Azerbaijani capital on 19 March, RFE/RL's Baku bureau reported. The movement wants to ensure there are no violations during the presidential and local elections scheduled for fall 1998. Representatives of the Party of National Independence of Azerbaijan and the Social-Democratic Party told Turan that they will not join the new alliance as it does not include any pro- government party. LF[04] CENTRAL TAJIKISTAN BECOMES TROUBLE SPOTAnother six policemen were killed and four seriously wounded in the Kofarnikhon region of Tajikistan, 20 kilometers east of Dushanbe, RFE/RL correspondents reported on 23 March. Fighting broke out again the next day when government troops arrived in the region, and reports from the area say another 13 people have died. These latest attacks, like earlier ones, are being blamed on armed units of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO). But Interior Ministry officials say some of those units have left their assigned base areas in defiance of the UTO leadership. Meanwhile in Dushanbe, a bomb went off some 200 meters from the parliament building on 24 March, injuring two people. BP[05] KYRGYZ PRIME MINISTER RESIGNSApas Jumagulov resigned on 24 March, RFE/RL correspondents reported. President Askar Akayev accepted his resignation and appointed the head of the presidential administration, Kubanychbek Jumaliev, acting premier. A joint session of the parliament is scheduled for 25 March to discuss appointing a new prime minister. BP[06] KYRGYZ PASSPORTS TO REFLECT NATIONALITY OF HOLDERSThe government's press service on 20 March announced that a special decree on ethnic minorities has been passed, RFE/RL correspondents reported. Under that decree, members of ethnic minorities can change the "nationality" listed on their passport to reflect their true nationality. Many people in Kyrgyzstan are still designated as one of the titular groups from the former Soviet republics: Uyghurs, for example, are registered as Uzbeks, Turks and Kurds as Azerbaijanis, and Meskhetians as Georgians. BP[07] KYRGYZSTAN, RUSSIA SIGN COOPERATION AGREEMENTKyrgyz Prime Minister Apas Jumagulov and Russian acting Minister of Emergency Situations Sergei Shoigu have signed an agreement on cooperation in civil defense and emergency relief, RFE/RL correspondents in Bishkek reported on 23 March. Russia will help train Kyrgyz teams in mountain rescue techniques and emergency relief. Shoigu said he hopes a similar system of coordinating relief efforts in times of emergency can be devised for the entire CIS. BP[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[08] RUGOVA CLAIMS VICTORYTadej Rodiqi, the chairman of the Republican Election Commission of Kosovo, announced on 23 March in Pristina that shadow-state President Ibrahim Rugova was re-elected in the 22 March elections with more than 90 percent support, ATA reported. Campaign spokesmen of Rugova's Democratic League of Kosovo called the vote "the Kosovars' declaration of trust and support in their leaders and in their peaceful and democratic policy." The spokesmen added that "Rugova's re-election as president of the republic legitimizes and strengthens his position as the leader of the people of Kosovo in [possible future] negotiations" with the Serbian government, the shadow- state's information office reported. FS[09] SERBIA, KOSOVARS RELAUNCH EDUCATION AGREEMENTSerbian Minister without Portfolio Ratomir Vico and Rugova adviser Fehmi Agani signed an agreement in Pristina on 23 March to restore Albanian- language education in government school buildings. The agreement seeks to put into practice a document that was signed by Rugova and then Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic in September 1996 but subsequently proved a dead letter. According to the Vico-Agani text, Pristina's Albanian Studies Institute will resume work by 31 March and the entire Albanian- language state school system will be functioning by the end of June. Ethnic Albanians launched a boycott of the state school system seven years ago following the introduction of a centralized curriculum from Belgrade. They subsequently introduced a private school system, but that system is short on classrooms and supplies and lacks international accreditation. PM[10] AGANI OPTIMISTIC ON AGREEMENT...Agani said in Pristina on 23 March that he hopes that agreement on reopening Albanian-language educational institutions will not meet the same fate as its 1996 predecessor. He stressed, however, that Serbia has recently encountered great difficulties as a result of its policies in Kosovo and is no longer in a strong enough political position to disregard any agreement it reaches with the Kosovars. In Tirana, the daily "Republika" commented that the Kosovars will not be satisfied with the education agreement alone and will demand the full restoration of human rights. PM[11] ...BUT SERBIAN STUDENTS, PROFESSORS SLAM ITA spokesman for the main Serbian students' union in Kosovo said in Pristina on 23 March that the Vico-Agani agreement constitutes a "betrayal of [Serbian interests in ] Kosovo and a blow to the sovereignty of Serbia." He added that Serbian and Montenegrin students oppose letting ethnic Albanians design their own curriculum, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from Pristina. The spokesman announced the start of protests, which "will last until the questions of Kosovo and of [instruction at] Pristina University are solved once and for all." The Serbian Faculty Council at the university passed a resolution condemning the agreement as "illegal and unconstitutional." Rector Radovan Popovic told a rally of some 10,000 students, faculty, and local Serbs that the text "means the collapse of the Serbian state." He added that the university "will remain Serbian" and that anyone may study there but only "in the Serbian language." PM[12] SERBIA EXPELS NGO MONITORS FROM KOSOVOSerbian authorities have expelled six U.S. non-governmental election monitors from Kosovo (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 23 March 1998), ATA reported . The men from the San Francisco-based organization Peace Workers were arrested by police on 21 March and sentenced by a Pristina court to 10 days in jail. The U.S. embassy in Belgrade protested the sentencing. FS[13] ALBANIA LAUNCHES PLAN FOR KOSOVOThe government recommended to the international community on 23 March that Kosovo receive a self-governing republican status such as Montenegro enjoys within Yugoslavia and the Republika Srpska has within the Bosnian state (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 23 March 1998). Prime Minister Fatos Nano will present the plan to the meeting of the international Contact Group slated for 25 March in Bonn. PM[14] EU WARNS CROATIABritish Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, his Austrian counterpart Wolfgang Schuessel, and Luxembourg's Jacques Poos told Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic in London on 23 March that the EU is dissatisfied with Croatia's behavior toward the union. The three ministers called Granic's attention in particular to President Franjo Tudjman's recent refusal to receive a delegation from the EU and demanded that Tudjman meet with representatives from Brussels in the near future. The EU has recently criticized several public remarks by Tudjman as nationalist and disrespectful of Bosnia's sovereignty. PM[15] BOSNIAN SERB WAR CRIME SUSPECTS ARRESTEDThe Sarajevo Prosecutor-General's office on 24 March announced the arrest the previous day of 28-year-old Dragan Pejic, a former soldier in the Bosnian Serb army, on suspicion of war crimes during the Bosnian war. The statement did not specify the crime. It was the second such arrest within the past few days. Police of the mainly Muslim and Croatian federation arrested Milomir Tepes on 22 March on charges of war crimes in eastern Bosnia. The UN police will soon rule on whether Tepes's arrest was in keeping with internationally agreed upon rules on arresting and detaining war crimes suspects in Bosnia. UN police officials added that they have not received any information from the Yugoslav authorities on the whereabouts of Mirsad Hasanovic, the director of the Sarajevogas Company, whom Serbian police arrested in Sid on 22 March. PM[16] MORE CORRUPTION CHARGES IN ALBANIAN INTERIOR MINISTRYInterior Minister Neritan Ceka on 23 March charged former Deputy Interior Minister Agim Shehu with having misappropriated some $1 million in ministry funds. Ceka claims that police funds were spent on organizing Democratic Party demonstrations, "Koha Jone" reported. The Prosecutor-General's Office, meanwhile, has launched an investigation into possible abuse of office by Shehu between 1994 and 1997. Inspectors from the state anti- corruption agency recently found documents showing Shehu used what were reported to be unethical practices in granting government contracts. FS[17] ROMANIAN PREMIER NULLIFIES AGREEMENT WITH OPPOSITIONVictor Ciorbea told journalists on 23 March that the draft budget for 1998 has already been submitted to the parliament and will not be amended, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. Nor will the privatization law be modified to meet the demands of the opposition Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR), Ciorbea and National Peasant Party Christian Democratic (PNTCD) chairman Ion Diaconescu stressed. Both leaders denied rumors that a "deal" has been cut with the PDSR to replace Ciorbea as premier after the parliament approves the budget. Former Prime Minister Nicolae Vacaroiu said the PDSR is "amazed" that the PNTCD is going back on what was agreed at the 20 March meeting with Ciorbea. He added that the PNTCD will vote against the budget. MS[18] ROMANIA, GERMANY SIGN ENERGY ACCORDSRomanian Prime Minister Ciorbea and visiting German Economics Minister Gunther Rexrodt have signed two agreements on cooperation in the energy sector, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported on 23 March . The first accord provides for the delivery of 500,000 cubic meters of gas per year by Ruhrgas AC to the state- owned company Romgaz. The second stipulates that Bayernwerk will provide the Renel electricity company with know-how for the modernization of production facilities. Renel is currently being privatized. Rexrodt, who headed a large delegation of potential German investors, called on Bucharest to continue on its reform course and to remove bureaucratic hurdles hindering foreign investments. MS[19] ROMANIAN WEEKLY CALLS FOR 'FINAL SOLUTION'In an editorial published on 16 March in the xenophobic weekly "Atac la persoana," editor in chief Dragos Dumitru says the recent events in Kosovo demonstrate that U.S. policy is based on force and on the principle of "whoever is not with us is against us." He says NATO's "Terminator plans" are based on inciting national minorities and that the only possible defense against such plans is "the elimination of dangerous national minorities through any available means," ranging from "cultural assimilation to physical extermination." Dumitru says that after Serbia, Romania will become NATO's "next target" and that, "painful as this may sound, we have to prepare for the final solution." In a hint to the Hungarian ethnic minority, he ends the editorial by saying that "perhaps this [intention] should be displayed on multi-lingual signs." MS[20] ANTI-COMMUNIST COALITION IN MOLDOVA?Vladimir Voronin, the leader of the Party of Moldovan Communists (PCM), says that despite his party's victory in the 22 parliamentary elections, the PCM might not participate in the next coalition government. Voronin told an RFE/RL correspondent in Chisinau that the PCM would agree to a coalition with the pro-presidential For a Democratic and Prosperous Moldova Bloc (PMPD) and with the Party of Democratic Forces (PFD) only if those formations would "accept most of our electoral platform, which is unlikely." He spoke after meeting with President Petru Lucinschi on 23 March. PMPD leader Dumitru Diacov said a coalition between his party, the Democratic Convention of Moldova, and the PFD cannot be ruled out and that "the chances of cooperating with the Communists are few." MS[21] IMF LAUDS BULGARIAAnne McGuirk, the chief IMF representative in Bulgaria, said on 23 March that Bulgaria has achieved financial stability since the setting up of the currency board last year and that the IMF is "confident" that Sofia's "ambitious program for economic growth" is now feasible. She said the IMF is considering extending a three-year loan to Bulgaria to support economic recovery but added that the final decision will be made in April or May. An IMF delegation recently met with ministers in charge of the economy. MS[C] END NOTE[22] YELTSIN SACKS GOVERNMENTby Floriana FossatoRussian President Boris Yeltsin, who is known for his bold and unexpected moves, shocked politicians and observers on 23 March when he fired Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and the entire government. That move came on the heels of Yeltsin's return to the Kremlin following more than a week of political inactivity owing to what was reportedly a respiratory sickness. Most observers in Moscow believe the move is intended to signal that the president is firmly in control and will not allow others to make--or even be perceived to be making--political decisions in his place. Political analysts Sergei Markov and Andrei Piontkovskii told RFE/RL that, above all, the move "benefits Yeltsin" and also gives a "partial boost to the positions of the reformers." At the same time, they say, Yeltsin's decision and the way it was announced "is a blow and a warning to Chernomyrdin." According to the two analysts, Yeltsin has been worried by recent Kremlin infighting over who will succeed him in the year 2000. According to many commentators, in the last few months powerful Russian financial and business tycoons who control media outlets seemed to be consolidating their support for Chernomyrdin, who was premier for more than five years. Those commentators say Yeltsin was possibly disturbed by signs of Chernomyrdin's new independent stance. Former First Deputy Prime Ministers Anatolii Chubais and Boris Nemtsov, the Chernomyrdin government's perceived top economic reformers, have been locked in a power struggle with some of Russia's main financial tycoons over control of the economy. Among the tycoons were those who played a key role in backing Yeltsin's 1996 re-election, including Boris Berezovskii. Berezovskii said in an interview with NTV broadcast on the evening of 22 March that Yeltsin could not be elected president for a third consecutive term in 2000. He said that "even though Yeltsin is now undoubtedly the number one political figure, I believe he will not be electable in 2000." He added that "new authorities should not cash in on the mistakes of their predecessors but build on the positive achievements of today's regime." Many observers were surprised by the businessman's remarks. Political analyst Markov said Yeltsin may have viewed Berezovskii's comments as a "provocation" or as a challenge to Yeltsin's authority. And Markov noted that Yeltsin's move shows "the president wants to decide himself who will be the best candidate for the 'party of power' in the next presidential election." Appearing on NTV a few hours after the Kremlin announcement, Yeltsin said he has "instructed Chernomyrdin to concentrate on political preparations for the presidential elections in the year 2000." He added that "for us, the 2000 elections are very important. One can say that this is the future destiny of Russia." The president praised Chernomyrdin as "thorough, reliable, and trustworthy," adding that "we have worked together for more than five years. He has done a lot for the country." But Yeltsin also argued that "Russia now needs a new team that can get real results." Some commentators in Moscow have interpreted those remarks as Yeltsin's farewell to Chernomyrdin. Yeltsin said Chernomyrdin's cabinet did well in some areas but "is lagging behind in the social sphere." He said that a new team will have to concentrate more on economics and less on political infighting. He also stressed repeatedly that the dismissal of the government does not mean a change of the reform course. Following his meeting with Chernomyrdin on 23 March, Yeltsin signed separate decrees firing not only the premier but also Chubais and Interior Minister Anatolii Kulikov. Political analyst Markov said Chubais, who has recently been suggested as a new board chairman of the electricity monopoly Unified Energy Systems, will likely continue acting alongside other reformers. Kulikov's future is viewed as less easy to predict. Chubais has said he will remain a member of Yeltsin's "team" but did not say in what capacity. In a sign that he remains committed to reform, Yeltsin appointed 35- year- old Sergei Kirienko as a first deputy prime minister who will also act as chief of the government. Kirienko, who served as fuel and energy minister in Chernomyrdin's government, is seen as an ally of Nemtsov. Kremlin sources tell RFE/RL that Kirienko's name as a temporary replacement for Chernomyrdin was suggested by Nemtsov. Analysts believe that Kirienko's appointment may be only temporary and that Nemtsov's position in the government may be strengthened. Under the constitution, Yeltsin has two weeks in which to name a new premier. The appointment must be approved by the State Duma, and most observers agree that Kirienko's approval by the Communist- and-nationalist- dominated lower house of the parliament could prove "problematic." Communist leaders in the Duma have already said their faction will not support Kirienko's candidacy. However, Kremlin spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembskii said late on 23 March that Kirienko is the "strongest and the most real candidate" for the post. Most experts say that Yeltsin will likely be able to find a compromise with the Duma on the issue since it would be in the interests of neither Yeltsin nor the legislators to start a confrontation now. The author is an RFE/RL correspondent based in Moscow. 24-03-98 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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