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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 2, No. 166, 98-08-31Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 2, No. 166, 31 August 1998CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] GEORGIAN PRESIDENT CRITICIZES UN ROLEFollowing a meeting with U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Nancy Soderberg on 28 August, Eduard Shevardnadze said through his press service that UN Security Council resolutions on Abkhazia had been "less effective" in dealing with Abkhazia than had "European structures," ITAR-TASS reported. (On 3 August, Shevardnadze had characterized the most recent UN resolution as a breakthrough for Georgian diplomacy, given that its tone was "firmer and more categorical" in its condemnation of Abkhazia than earlier resolutions.) The press statement also indicated that "certain forces would not like the peace process" in Abkhazia to go forward. Soderberg, for her part, said that it was "imperative" for UN resolutions to be implemented, including the dispatch of "a certain UN contingent to the conflict zone." PG/LF[02] SHEVARDNADZE SOFTENS CRITICISM OF SECURITY FORCESIn his regular weekly radio broadcast on 31 August, Shevardnadze warned against "seeking scapegoats" and "blaming the power ministries for all misfortunes," Caucasus Press reported. That statement represents a retreat from his recent categorical criticism of the work of the security ministry (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 28 August 1998). Shevardnadze stated that he will not dismiss National Security Minister Djemal Gakhokidze, reasoning that "the change of one minister for another one may be justified, if the new candidate is better than the previous minister, and we do not have such candidates today." Gakhokidze was appointed in July 1997 following the resignation of Shota Kviraya, who had been accused of blackmarketeering, telephone tapping, and the shooting of six men suspected of looting (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 7 July 1997). LF[03] RUSSIAN-GEORGIAN BASES DECISION POSTPONEDMeeting in Moscow on 27 August, Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeev and his Georgian counterpart Davit Tevzadze agreed to postpone any further discussion of the future of the Russian military bases in Georgia pending the drafting of a concept of bilateral military cooperation, ITAR-TASS reported. The two ministers also agreed that Sergeev's planned visit to Georgia, originally scheduled for February but postponed three times, will take place only after a new Russian government is named. Moscow has consistently rejected Georgian claims for financial compensation for military equipment allegedly removed from Georgia following the demise of the USSR. LF[04] ARMENIAN PREMIER ASSESSES ECONOMIC IMPACT OF KARABAKH CONFLICTMeeting on 28 August with a group of visiting Finnish parliamentarians, Armen Darpinian said it is wrong to proceed on the assumption that Armenia is incapable of developing economically until a final settlement of the Karabakh conflict is reached, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. He said that overcoming that "illusion" would contribute to reaching a settlement of the conflict. Darpinian argued that both Georgia and Azerbaijan would benefit if the blockade of Armenia by Azerbaijan and Turkey were lifted, adding that Armenia and Azerbaijan could become "natural economic partners, " according to Interfax. LF[05] ARMENIAN PRESIDENTIAL POLITICAL COUNCIL CONVENESArmenian President Robert Kocharian chaired on 28 August the first session of the political council he created to provide a forum in which those political parties not represented or underrepresented in the National Assembly can exchange views, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Kocharian characterized the creation of the council as "the first attempt to consolidate political forces" and called upon the eleven parties represented on the council to demonstrate tolerance towards each other in the runup to next year's parliamentary elections. Union of Constitutional Rights chairman Hrant Khachatrian, who was elected the council's first chairman, told RFE/RL on 29 August that he will endeavor to persuade the Communist Party and Vazgen Manukian's National Democratic Union to name representatives to the council. They have thus far declined to do so. LF[06] AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION PROPOSES CONVENING PEOPLE'S CONGRESSOn 26 August the Democratic Congress, which comprises a dozen influential opposition parties, set up a working group to prepare for a people's congress to debate the problems Azerbaijan currently faces and possible solutions to the present political crisis, according to Turan on 27 August and "Russkii telegraf" of 29 August. The Azerbaijani authorities have rejected the opposition's application to hold a mass demonstration on 5 September on Baku's Freedom Square, RFE/RL's Baku bureau reported. Musavat Party chairman Isa Gambar told Turan that the opposition will demand legal proceedings against the city's mayor for "illegally" violating citizens' constitutional right to hold such demonstrations. On 26 August, the Ministry of Justice refused for the second time to register the Movement for Democratic Elections and Democratic Reforms as a public organization, Turan reported. LF[07] KARIMOV WARNS DEPUTIES OF TALIBAN THREATUzbekistan's parliament opened its 12th session on 28 August, ITAR- TASS and Interfax reported. President Islam Karimov began the session by warning about the possible consequences of the Taliban movement's successes in neighboring Afghanistan. Karimov said the conquest of Afghanistan may not satisfy the Taliban and "we have to take this into account." Karimov dismissed claims that the Taliban seek to spread their rule to Uzbekistan's ancient city of Samarkand, saying "someone wants to create a conflict." Karimov also spoke about Tajikistan, voicing his support for "the government led by Imomali Rakhmonov" and adding that "these (Uzbek-Tajik) relations should remain stable and solid." The parliament approved Ghofur Barnoyev as head of the Central Electoral Commission. BP[08] KARIMOV'S HOPES ON RUSSIAOn Russia, Karimov said the economic crisis there would affect Uzbekistan and hoped "Russia will ensure currency and financial stability as soon as possible." Karimov noted, however, that Russian banks are not very active in Uzbekistan and that Russia accounts for only 15-20 percent of Uzbekistan's turnover of goods. Karimov said he supports Viktor Chernomyrdin in the post of prime minister, adding "we regard him as the organizer ... of our republic's gas complex." BP[09] KAZAKHSTAN TO SHUT DOWN AGED NUCLEAR REACTORKazakhstan will decommission a 25-year old nuclear reactor in Mangyshlak with U.S. assistance, Interfax reported. The reactor was built to last 20 years but following the collapse of the USSR in 1991 the Kazakh government did not have the funds to shut the reactor down. Spent nuclear rods were stored in a special pool but such facilities provide for a storage time of three years and the rods have been there for ten years. The U.S. will provide special containers and railway cars to ship the rods to a burial site in Kazakhstan's Semipalatinsk region, the former site of Soviet nuclear tests. BP[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[10] KOSOVARS CALL FOR INVESTIGATION OF CREMATORY CHARGEThe Serbian Interior Ministry said in a statement in Belgrade on 29 August that members of special police forces found a crematory two days earlier in the village of Klecka near the Prishtina-Prizren road. The text added that ethnic Albanian "terrorists" had allegedly killed 22 Serbian civilians in July and cremated their remains in a limekiln. The statement added that police found remains of the incinerated bodies nearby. In Prishtina, the pro-Kosovar Board for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms called for an investigation by independent forensics experts to determine if the remains are indeed those of Serbian civilians. Spokesmen for the Board hinted that the Serbian police may have planted the alleged evidence. PM[11] BELGRADE SEEKS BAN ON UCKThe Serbian government issued an appeal to the international community on 29 August, in which it called for the condemnation of the Kosova Liberation Army (UCK) as a terrorist organization. The statement added that some unnamed governments have taken a "tolerant attitude" toward the UCK and allow it to conduct recruitment and other activities on their territory. The next day, Serbian Justice Minister Dragoljub Jankovic said in Belgrade that the authorities have filed charges against more than 300 persons for "terrorism" this year. In Duha, which is southwest of Prishtina, police Colonel Bozidar Filic said on 28 August that, for the first time in nearly four months, Serbian police are in control of the entire Prishtina-Prizren road. He added that police are now in control of all major highways in Kosova. PM[12] GREECE BLOCKS SANCTIONS AGAINST JATGreek diplomats appealed to other EU ambassadors in Brussels last week to postpone until at least 8 September a decision on whether to deny landing rights to Yugoslav state airlines (JAT), the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" reported on 29 August. EU diplomats agreed in June to seek a ban on landing rights for JAT in response to the Serbian crackdown in Kosova. JAT has since threatened to bar EU carriers from landing in Serbia in retaliation. German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel in May expressed concern that such countermeasures would make it difficult for Germany to continue deporting refugees back to Yugoslavia (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 5 May 1998). PM[13] ALBRIGHT WARNS CROATIA OVER BOSNIA...U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said in Zagreb on 30 August that the Croats of Bosnia-Herzegovina must be first and foremost citizens of that country and participate in its political structures. President Franjo Tudjman replied that "the main problem between the United States and Croatia is the problem of Bosnia...Croatia...is obliged by its constitution to take care of Croats outside the Republic of Croatia." Albright also said that Croatia has yet to meet "European standards" in democratization, minority rights, and independence of the media. To underscore her concern for democracy in Croatia, she met with the leaders of six major opposition parties. Two days earlier, representatives of those parties agreed to prepare joint draft election and media laws, an RFE/RL correspondent reported from Zagreb. PM[14] ...AND URGES BOSNIAN SERBS TO BACK DAYTONAlso on 30 August, Albright met with Republika Srpska President Biljana Plavsic and Prime Minister Milorad Dodik in Bijeljina and praised the two as a "good ticket" committed to the Dayton agreement. Albright reminded Bosnian Serb voters that the international community is prepared to deliver economic and reconstruction assistance, but only to those officials who back the Dayton accords. Her basic message, she added, is that "Dayton pays." Dodik, however, said that the international community should grant local authorities more decision-making powers and cut the size of the peacekeeping force. Meanwhile, near Mostar the previous day, some 150 Serbs returned to their former homes in two villages for the first time in six years. This was the fourth time in recent weeks that a group of Serbs went home in that part of Herzegovina, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM[15] CRITICISM OF PRIVATIZATION IN BOSNIAA spokesman for the international community's Carlos Westendorp said in Sarajevo on 29 August that Muslim and Croatian authorities are issuing privatization vouchers to former soldiers in place of back pay for political reasons. He noted that giving compensation to former soldiers is a way to "win votes" in the 12-13 September general elections. Elsewhere in Sarajevo, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit pledged economic and political support for Bosnia. He said that a $10 million reconstruction grant will be paid soon, along with $4 million in assistance for Air Bosna. Ecevit suggested that the Turkish government might soon decide to admit Bosnian-built Volkswagens to the Turkish market duty-free. PM[16] OSCE, COUNCIL OF EUROPE CALL FOR CALM IN ALBANIA...Representatives of the OSCE and Council of Europe issued a joint statement in Tirana on 30 August, in which they urged Albanian political parties to stop making a political issue of the recent arrest of six former government officials on charges of committing crimes against humanity (see "RFE/RL Newsline" 28 August 1998). The text read: "we find recent statements and reports that cast this issue only in political terms to be counterproductive." The statement also urged all parties to allow justice to take its course and warned that politicizing the case risks compromising the ability of the legal institutions "to implement due process." It added that "we are very concerned about statements that contain violent rhetoric and we call upon all parties to refrain from any statements that may hinder peaceful and democratic procedures." FS[17] ...WHILE PRIME MINISTER PLEDGES TO INCREASE SECURITY AHEAD OF DEMONSTRATIONAs political tensions mount in the wake of the arrests, Fatos Nano pledged in Tirana on 29 August to strengthen the police, defense forces, and the secret service "to show the real force of the state by applying the law correctly." Former President Sali Berisha the same day said that Nano has "torn up the agreement that prevented civil war and [he] will face all the consequences of [his] unilateral act." Berisha called on his supporters to turn out for a rally slated for 31 August. Interior Minister Perikli Teta banned the demonstration, charging that "criminal elements" were planning to cause trouble. Six opposition supporters and six policemen were injured during a banned rally in Tirana on 27 August (see "RFE/RL Newsline" 28 August 1998). "Rilindja Demokratike" on 30 August quoted Berisha as saying that "nobody can stop the protest," adding that "the fall of Nano starts tomorrow." FS[18] GREECE OPENS SECOND CONSULATE IN ALBANIAGreek Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos and his Albanian counterpart Paskal Milo opened a Greek consulate in Korca on 30 August. Milo praised the opening as "a major contribution to the further expansion of [bilateral] relations." Greece opened its first consulate in postcommunist Albania in Gjirokastra in 1994. Albania has a consulate in Ioannina and plans to open one in Thessaloniki soon. Meanwhile, the Greek consul in Gjirokastra on 28 August asked police to ensure the protection of the ethnic Greek community there following threats by masked gunmen against villagers. FS[19] ROMANIAN PREMIER CRITICIZES PRIVATIZATION PACERadu Vasile, speaking on Romanian state radio on 29 August, criticized the slow pace of privatization and said changes will soon be made in "the second and third echelons" of the State Property Fund, where some officials are "blocking privatization." One day earlier, at a meeting of the leadership of the National Peasant Party-Christian Democratic (PNTCD), Vasile criticized the performance of Privatization Minister Sorin Dimitriu, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. The 28 August meeting was "tempestuous, " with former Premier Victor Ciorbea saying the government has met none of its deadlines. A meeting of the party's leading bodies must be convened and "fixed deadlines" must be established for carrying out the reforms, he said. Interior Minister Gavril Dejeu said he demands that Vasile "state clearly" if he intends to sack him. MS[20] MORE ROMANIAN JOURNALISTS SENTENCEDTwo Romanian journalists working for the Botosani "Monitorul" newspapers were fined 100 million lei ($11,250) after being convicted of libel, AP reported on 29 August. The journalists had written that a local politician had abused his position by quashing court proceedings against his son, who was accused of demolishing a building that was listed as a protected historical monument. This is the third time in recent months that journalists have been sentenced for libel in Romania. MS[21] ECUMENICAL GATHERING IN BUCHARESTBucharest is hosting the 12th international ecumenical gathering "People and Religions," which is being attended by Christian Orthodox, Catholics and Protestants, as well as by Muslims, Buddhists, and Jews. The event is sponsored by the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Italian Catholic organization Sant Edigio. An interdenominational chapel was inaugurated on 29 August. Addressing the opening ceremony on 30 August, President Emil Constantinescu said he hoped the gathering will pave the way for the planned Romania visit of Pope John Paul II. He added that conflicts between the Orthodox Church and the Uniate Church in Romania "are not grave." MS[C] END NOTE[22] Russia: A State Nation Among Nation Statesby Paul GobleUnderlying all of Russia's current problems -- the collapse of its currency, stock markets, and public confidence in its government -- is the fact that the Russian Federation is a country different from most others around the world. Russia is a state nation rather than a nation state. That is, the Russian people define themselves in terms of the state rather than the state being defined by the people, a pattern that undermines the state's ability to maintain authority when its power is weak. In contrast to most of its neighbors, the Russian state thus lacks the authenticity that states rooted in a nation generally have. Consequently, it cannot count on either the authority that such rooting often gives or on popular willingness to go along with the state when it is unable to deliver but has to make tough choices. And that, in turn, predisposes the Russian state whenever it finds itself weakened to try to demonstrate its effectiveness either by relying, as now, on outside support or by using coercive measures to compel its population to go along. Neither of these means represents a full solution to its political dilemmas, but the absence of the kind of natural deference to the political authorities that a nation state provides gives the Russian state few alternatives and helps to explain why historically it has been so difficult for Russia to escape from one of its periodic times of troubles. This very contemporary Russian problem has its origin in a special feature of Russian history. Namely, the Russian state became an empire long before the Russian people became a nation. Beginning half a millennium ago, the Russian state began a rapid expansion across an enormous territory coming to embrace dozens of different peoples and cultures. But because the central authorities, first tsarist and then Soviet, defined the population as Russia's, the ethnographic group known as the Russians was left in an extremely difficult position. On the one hand, their identities were defined by the state, leaving them at the mercy of its strength and also with no clear definition of who they were and equally important who they were not. And that, in turn, meant that they seldom were clear about the borders around themselves and their people. On the other hand, the state could claim the allegiance of these people not as its representative because of who they were but only in terms of its ability to demonstrate power and deliver the goods. Whenever the Russian state has been strong, the loyalty of the Russian people to it has been impressive, even remarkable. But whenever the Russian state has been weak, that loyalty has tended to snap, further reducing the ability of the state to gain the kind of support it needs to regain its strength without taking measures that will repel others. Just how serious this problem is for Russia becomes clear in any comparison with the nation states that surround it. Sometimes the relative success of the non-Russian countries which gained or regained their independence in 1991 is explained by their small size. Sometimes it is explained by the fact that these countries generally view the collapse of the Soviet empire as a gain rather than -- like most Russians -- as a loss. But underlying both of these is the presence in many of these countries of a bond of loyalty between the state and the nation, a bond that is inevitably complicated and imperfect but one that allows the state to count on at least some support even when it is relatively weak and when it cannot deliver everything it promises. To take the most dramatic example, the Estonian state immediately after the recovery of independence was able to ask its nation to make some extraordinary sacrifices in order to allow the country to escape the consequences of Soviet domination. Despite economic measures that hurt many people in that country, Estonians generally supported the state precisely because they saw an identity between its interests and their own. Since 1991, the Russian state has not been able to draw on such a reserve of support. And while that does not explain all of Russia's current difficulties, it does help to explain why they are as large as they are and why both the Russian state and the Russian people are having a far more difficult time than other states and nations in the region. 31-08-98 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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