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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 2, No. 108, 98-06-08Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 2, No. 108, 8 June 1998CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] TWO MORE CIVILIANS KILLED IN ABKHAZIATwo Georgians were shot dead and another three injured by Abkhaz militants in Abkhazia's southernmost Gali Raion on 6 June, Reuters reported. Two days earlier, Georgian Prosecutor-General Djamlet Babilashvili said that a total of 35 Georgian civilians and 17 Interior Ministry troops were killed in last month's hostilities and 1,695 Georgian homes burned, according to ITAR- TASS. Caucasus Press on 5 June quoted unnamed Georgian government officials as saying the number of displaced persons who fled from Abkhazia to Georgia's Zugdidi and Tsalendjikha Raions outnumbers permanent residents of those districts. Those officials warned of possible unrest if the fugitives are not quickly repatriated. LF[02] ABKHAZ PEACE TALKS CONTINUEAbkhaz and Georgian presidential envoys Anri Djergenia and Vazha Lortkipanidze continued their talks in Moscow on 5-6 June, Russian agencies reported. On 5 June, they also met with CIS Executive Secretary Boris Berezovskii. The two envoys have drafted several documents for discussion at the proposed meeting between Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze and his Abkhaz counterpart, Vladislav Ardzinba. (No date has yet been set for that proposed meeting.) The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry special task force for Abkhazia, Lev Mironov, told Interfax that one of the documents deals with the repatriation of Georgian displaced persons to Gali. Other Russian Foreign Ministry officials have cast doubts on the effectiveness of Berezovskii's mediation. Georgian Parliament Defense and Security Committee Chairman Revaz Adamia told Caucasus Press on 5 June that he fears antagonism between Berezovskii and the Russian Foreign Ministry could negatively affect the chances of resolving the conflict. LF[03] GEORGIAN COMMUNIST PARTY MAY BE BANNEDSpeaking at a news conference in Tbilisi on 4 June, Georgian Prosecutor- General Djamlet Babilashvili said the United Communist Party, headed by General Panteleimon Giorgadze may be banned for "anti-constitutional activities", including calls for the overthrow of the present Georgian leadership, Interfax reported. Giorgadze, for his part, rejected the charge of anti-state activities and said his party will go underground if it is banned, Caucasus Press reported on 6 June. LF[04] ARMENIAN CONSTITUTIONAL COMMISSION MEETSPresident Robert Kocharian on 6 June presented a nine- point program to the first session of the recently created commission to amend the country's constitution, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. The proposals include restrictions on the powers of the president, the decentralization of government, greater access to the Constitutional Court, and the lifting of the ban on dual citizenship. Kocharian said he is ready to cede part of his powers to the legislative and judicial branches, but he ruled out any "revolutionary" change in the current constitutional order. His proposals would place restrictions on the president's unlimited right to dissolve the parliament and abolish the mandatory presidential endorsement for government decisions. Those amendments, together with others proposed by the commission, will be put to a nationwide referendum after they are approved by the parliament. LF[05] ARMENIAN ECONOMIC GROWTH CONTINUESThe Armenian economy grew by 6.4 percent during the first three months of this year, compared with the same period in 1997, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported on 6 June, citing official statistics. Industrial output was up 4.3 percent, with a dozen enterprises significantly increasing output. Foreign investment totaled $100 million. Inflation reached 8 percent in late March but fell 2 by percent in April. The annual inflation rate is projected at 10 percent, While exports rose by 58 percent to $56.7 million, they have failed to substantially reduce Armenia's huge trade deficit because imports totaled $201 million. The government also reported vastly improved tax revenues, up 84 percent during the first five months of this year, compared with the same period in 1997. LF[06] ANOTHER SEVEN UZBEK TERRORISTS SENTENCEDUzbekistan's Supreme Court on 5 June sentenced seven men to prison terms of between six and 10 years , Reuters and Interfax reported. All seven were found guilty of "undermining the constitution, fomenting racial and religious hatred, and illegally crossing the border." All were branded by the government as "Wahhabis." The prosecution had demanded sentences of 13- 20 years, but the court took into consideration the "sincere repentance" showed by the men. The seven are the first to be sentenced in Tashkent for crimes committed last December in the eastern Uzbek city of Namangan. In May, a Namangan court found 12 men guilty of involvement in the violence in Namangan and sentenced them to between five and eight years. Another eight men are due to go on trial in Tashkent soon. BP[07] TAJIK PRESIDENTIAL GUARD ATTACKEDA 4 June attack on a presidential guard unit in the Faizabad District, 50 kilometers east of Dushanbe, left one Tajik soldier dead and two others wounded, ITAR-TASS and Reuters reported. Presidential guards fought off the attackers, estimated to have numbered 70 or so, and chased them into the nearby mountains. Representatives of the government and United Tajik Opposition have visited the area and are attempting to identify who was responsible for the attack. BP[08] TURKMEN PRESIDENT INVITES CLINTON TO VISITDuring his 5 June meeting with Stephen Sestanovich, the U.S.'s special envoy to the Newly Independent States, Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov handed over an invitation for U.S. President Bill Clinton to visit Turkmenistan, Interfax reported. Niyazov and Sestanovich also reviewed progress in finding a company to conduct a feasibility study for a Trans- Caspian pipeline. Sestanovich said the winning company will be announced soon. When Niyazov visited Washington in April, the U.S. said it will donate $750,000 to the study BP[09] TURKMEN-PAKISTANI PIPELINE IDEA REVIVED?Despite renewed fighting between groups in Afghanistan, a Turkmen official said he has secured agreements from warring factions there to allow construction of the Turkmen-Afghan-Pakistan gas pipeline, ITAR-TASS reported on 6 June. Former Turkmen Oil and Gas Minister Gochmurad Nazjanov, who is now the Turkmen government's coordinator for the proposed pipeline, met with leaders from Afghanistan's Taliban Movement and the Northern Alliance at the end of May and received security guarantees for "the pipeline and its builders." The project has been discussed for several years, but fighting within Afghanistan has prevented work from starting. The Turkmen government, the U.S. company Unocal, Saudi Arabia's Delta Corp. and companies from Japan, South Korea, and Pakistan are all involved in the project. BP[10] KAZAKH PLANE WITH RADIOACTIVE CARGO GROUNDED IN UKRAINEAn Il-76 cargo plane belonging to a Kazakh airline has been grounded by Ukrainian authorities after police found 40 tons of "unidentified" radioactive material aboard, Interfax reported on 6 June. The plane, which was bound for Russia from Germany, stopped at Ukraine's Rovno airport for refueling when the discovery was made. The material was in metal barrels and measurements near the containers showed radioactivity levels "seriously above the norm." BP[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[11] EUROPEAN LEADERS CONDEMN SERBIAN MILITARY ACTIONBritish Foreign Secretary Robin Cook on 8 June said Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's "heavy- handed" actions against Kosovar Albanians makes the possibility of foreign military intervention more likely. Cook made his comments before a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg. He added that military intervention would require a mandate from the UN Security Council, which Russia has insisted on. Austrian Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schuessel, who met with Milosevic in Belgrade and Kosovar shadow state President Ibrahim Rugova in Prishtina on 6 June, said the situation is "drifting apart" and that "this powder keg" can be defused only by the deployment of NATO or UN troops. On 7 June, British Premier Tony Blair discussed the crisis on the telephone with U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin. A conference of Central European foreign ministers meeting in Brioni, Croatia, condemned the Serbian military action as "ethnic cleansing." PB[12] ANNAN, REFUGEES SPEAK OF ATROCITIESUN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on 5 June that he is "disturbed" by Serbian military actions in Kosova and condemned "atrocities" committed there, Reuters reported. He said Serbian forces cannot be allowed to repeat the "ethnic cleansing" that occurred in Bosnia- Herzegovina. U.S. Senate majority leader Trent Lott said on 7 June that the U.S. cannot allow "this slaughter to occur." The Belgrade-based independent news agency Beta quoted Kosovar refugees in Albania as saying they saw a mass grave near the village of Decan filled with the bodies of ethnic Albanian men killed by Serbian forces. Other refugees have spoken of corpses lying in the streets of their villages. PB[13] NATO TEAM VISITS ALBANIAN-KOSOVA BORDER...Two NATO officials on 7 June observed the situation in northeastern Albania, accompanied by Albanian Defense Ministry officials, Reuters reported. The officials also viewed the situation of refugees there and met with OSCE and UN humanitarian aid officials. They officials returned to Brindisi, Italy, following their eight-hour visit. PB[14] ...AS FIGHTING CONTINUESAlbanian Television reported on 7 June that Serbian forces are shelling two Kosovar villages visible from the border, Reuters reported. According to the agency, some 50 heavily armed Kosova Liberation Army (UCK) soldiers crossed the Albanian border into Kosova. The Serbian police headquarters in Ratkoc was reported blown up by the UCK amid fierce fighting and then abandoned by Serbian police. The Serbian Interior Ministry on 7 June said that three policeman died and five were injured in recent fighting but that the police had "annihilated strong terrorist gangs." In Prishtina, Serbian police used clubs on 7 June to break up a peaceful demonstration by several thousand ethnic Albanians. Three people were reported seriously injured. PB[15] KOSOVA REFUGEE INFLUX CONTINUESMore than 7,500 refugees had registered with the Albanian authorities by 7 June, "Koha Jone" reported. Another several thousand have arrived in Albania in recent days but have not yet registered. Several thousand have also fled to Montenegro. Foreign Minister Paskal Milo told state television that the government expects up to 20,000 to register. Elsewhere in Tirana, the right-of-center Union for Democracy coalition organized a rally in Tirana on 6 June. The meeting was attended by some 5,000 people, many of whom held posters expressing support for the UCK or calling for armed resistance against Serbia. FS[16] YUGOSLAV OFFICIAL BLAMES TERRORISTS FOR REFUGEE FLIGHTDragomir Vucicevic, a high-ranking Yugoslav Foreign Ministry official, accused "Albanian terrorists" of causing Kosovars to flee their homes, dpa reported. Vucicevic told a group of foreign diplomats in Prishtina that the idea to have refugees was "invented by the terrorists and certain media in order to secure NATO intervention." He said the "terrorists" have destroyed houses and whole villages in Kosova in an effort to punish ethnic Albanians who are loyal to the Yugoslav government, Tanjug reported. PB[17] BERISHA PRAISES UCKFormer Albanian President and current Democratic Party leader Sali Berisha, speaking at a Tirana press conference on 5 June, "conveyed special greetings to the Kosova Liberation Army," the pro-Berisha daily "Albania" reported. Berisha called the UCK's struggle "holy" and described the Serbian forces as "barbarians." Berisha called on all Kosova Albanian men to return and defend their homes. The UCK, meanwhile, published a declaration in "Koha Ditore" on 7 June calling on all able bodied men aged 18 to 55 to remain in or return to Kosova and join the UCK. The BBC reported from Prishtina that many observers regard the statement warning men who fled Kosova in recent days to return and fight or face retribution. FS[18] YUGOSLAV OPPOSITION LEADER SUPPORTS DJUKANOVICSerbian Renewal Movement leader Vuk Draskovic on 6 June said that he supports the platform of Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, Beta reported. Draskovic said the victory of the For a Better Life coalition in Montenegro parliamentary elections must be honored by Belgrade. Draskovic said his party and Djukanovic's could be political partners working for the "mutual benefit of Montenegro and Serbia." PB[19] TRUCK DRIVERS DEMAND NEW BOSNIAN LICENSE PLATESBosnian Croat truck drivers in the Herzegovinian town of Mostar have demanded that they be given the internationally recognized car documents and license plates that Bosnian Croat officials have rejected. All the new documents use both the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, and the joint license plates make it impossible to distinguish from which region the vehicle comes. The new documents and plates were imposed by Bosnia's high representative, Carlos Westendorp, after Muslims, Croats, and Serbs refused to introduce them. Vehicles without the joint documents are unable to travel across state or country borders. The drivers said they will impose road blocks if their demands are not met. PB[20] TUDJMAN PRESSURES BOSNIAN CROATS TO REMAIN UNITEDBosnian Croat officials met with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman in Zagreb on 5 June to discuss the split within the main Bosnian Croat party, the Croatian Democratic Union (HZD-BH), Hina reported. The Croatian member of the Bosnian presidency, Kresimir Zubak, has announced his intention to form a more moderate splinter party. Zubak, a moderate, told the daily "Vjesnik" that he believes the HZD-BH's leadership still wants to annex southwestern Bosnia. The OSCE has approved the formation of the new party and will allow it to participate in the September parliamentary elections. A statement released after the meeting with Tudjman urged the HZD-BH to remain united during the Bosnian parliamentary elections. PB[21] ALBANIAN DEPUTY THREATENS PREMIERDemocratic Party legislator Azem Hajdari said Fatos Nano "should watch out for himself because his travel outside Tirana is no longer safe," "Gazeta Shqiptare" reported. Hajdari added that "Nano [may try] to flee the country but we will [bring him back] very soon." The daily wrote that this statement is a direct threat against Nano. Hajdari has accused Nano of being behind the 3 June assassination attempt against himself (see "RFE/RL Newsline" 5 June 1998). FS[22] ROMANIAN RULING PARTY DIVIDEDAt a seminar on the future of the National Peasant Party Christian Democratic (PNTCD) on 6-7 June, former Premier Victor Ciorbea strongly attacked the Democratic Party for having engineered the fall of his cabinet earlier this year. He also criticized "groups" within the PNTCD that failed to defend his government and said the main coalition party must return to its "moral values" and call early elections. PNTCD leader Ion Diaconescu distanced himself from the call for early elections but said he agrees that the PNTCD must form the next government alone. Prime Minister Radu Vasile, who was criticized by Ciorbea, said it is "unlikely" that the PNTCD will be able to form the government by itself. He called on the party to accommodate itself to the "realities of coalition rule," RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. MS[23] COALITION ALLIES RESPOND TO CIORBEAThe Democratic Party said in a press release on 7 June that it does not wish to "enter into public polemics" either with the former premier or with the "group in the PNTCD that supports him". Valeriu Stoica, deputy chairman of the National Liberal Party (PNL), told a party forum in Alba Iulia that the PNL is "fed up" with playing the "role of mediator" in the coalition and must show "more intransigence" toward its partners. Stoica also said the PNL must "forge its own identity within the Democratic Convention of Romania and become again "the representative of the national idea" that has been traditionally associated with the party throughout its history. MS[24] ROMANIAN TRIBUNAL REJECTS REGISTRATION OF NEW PARTYThe Bucharest Municipal Tribunal on 5 June accepted the objections raised by PNTCD deputy chairman Ion Ratiu against the registration of the Romanian National Party (PNR). Ratiu, a descendant of one of the founding fathers of the 19th-century PNL, said the party is "an insult" to the memory of the PNR founders. The formation was established in March by the Democratic Agrarian Party and the New Romania Party; its secretary-general is former Romanian Intelligence Service director Virgil Magureanu. In other news, a congress of the Socialist Labor Party (PSM) on 6 June elected former Ceausescu court poet Adrian Paunescu PSM executive chairman and called for the PSM's reunification with the Socialist Party. The latter split from the former in late 1994. MS[C] END NOTE[25] PRESIDENTS, PARLIAMENTS, AND POWERby Paul GobleThe transition from Communism in the post-Soviet states currently finds some countries with a strong president, others with a strong parliament, and a growing number in which real power lies outside the government itself. Examples of each have been very much in evidence recently. In Azerbaijan, where the executive is clearly in charge, President Heidar Aliev has dominated the discussions at a Baku meeting of Western oil companies interested in gaining access to the petroleum of the Caspian basin. In Ukraine, where the parliament is predominant, the failure of the parliament to elect a new speaker has sent shock waves through the political system and prompted predictions that Kyiv will remain unable to address the country's numerous economic problems. And in Russia, the country's economic crisis has highlighted just how much power has passed from the government to institutions beyond its reach. Instead of calling in bankers, journalists, and others and giving them directions, as would have been true only a few years ago, Russian officials from President Boris Yeltsin down have been consulting with them and requesting their assistance. Such variations are entirely natural and up to a point welcome. There is no one model for how democratic political regimes should organize themselves, nor for what should be the balance of power between the executive, the legislative, and society as a whole. The devolution of power from the executive, always the most powerful--in fact, if not on paper--in the Soviet era, is a necessary part of the transition from the communist past. But if this pattern is both natural and welcome, it also presents some real problems for the countries themselves, for their interactions with one another, and for other countries that seek to deal with them. For each of the countries of the region, this pattern has created two very different problems. On the one hand, most people living in these states began their post- communist existence with a belief that only a strong legislature could guarantee democracy. But experience has taught many of them that legislatures may, in fact, block further change and that only a strong executive can help them institutionalize the arrangements that make democracy possible. On the other hand, everyone in this region recognized that the all- embracing Soviet state was too strong. But ever more countries confront a situation in which the state is so weak that it cannot defend the interests of the population against uncontrolled private power or outside interference. For the region as a whole, such variations make it increasingly difficult for these countries to cooperate. Most immediately, it makes it difficult to decide who should meet with whom--sometimes the president in one country is the appropriate representative and sometimes the prime minister or speaker of the parliament. And perhaps more important, it means that even when the appropriate officials are brought together--which does not always happen--they lack the power to implement any of the commitments they make. For outsiders who want to work with the governments of this region, this incredible variety also creates some serious problems. Not only does it introduce a certain confusion over whether ambassadors focus on presidents, prime ministers, or someone else but it also means that outside governments may create problems by the choice they make in this regard. Some Western governments have promoted a "presidentialization of politics" in these countries, both for simplicity and out of a sense that it is easier to deal with one person rather than a group. While understandable, that approach carries with it some real dangers. Not only may it restrict the transition to democracy by consolidating executive power at the expense of the legislative; it also tends to ignore the real devolution of authority away from the governments to other centers of power in the society. Democracy, as any number of analysts have pointed out, is often a very messy form of government. But as the experience of the post-Soviet states shows, it can be even messier if those involved with it fail to understand just how many forms that messy system can take. 08-06-98 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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