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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 3, No. 119, 99-06-21Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 3, No. 119, 21 June 1999CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN PREMIER SUBMITS PROGRAM TO PARLIAMENTVazgen Sargsian outlined his cabinet's program to the new Armenian parliament on 18 June, Reuters and RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Sargsian pledged to continue with liberal reforms while seeking to minimize the economic hardships that they have caused to much of the population. He warned that the government will crack down on corruption and tighten its supervision of investment policy, and might take unspecified "unpopular measures" to counter tax evasion. Sargsian also vowed that Armenia will continue to work closely with international financial organizations. Parliament deputies declined to challenge the program, effectively giving it the green light. On 19 June, Minister for State Revenues Smbat Ayvazian told journalists that current 1999 budget projections, especially as regards revenues, are "unrealistic" and spending cuts may be necessary. LF[02] ARMENIA DENIES NEW CLASHES NEAR KARABAKHA Yerevan-based spokesman for the unrecognized Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh told Reuters on 19 June that Azerbaijani claims that Karabakh Armenian forces had opened fire on Azerbaijani positions on the previous evening with automatic weapons and rocket- propelled grenades were untrue. Also on 19 June, Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ara Papyan proposed that OSCE monitors should be deployed permanently along the "Line of Contact" east of the disputed enclave, Interfax reported. Karabakh officials told RFE/RL's Stepanakert correspondent that the OSCE will conduct an inspection of the Mardakert sector of the line this week. Papyan also said that Armenia opposes NATO involvement in the Karabakh peace process. Azerbaijan's Defense Minister Safar Abiev had advocated such involvement last week (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 June 1999). LF[03] RUSSIAN JETS VIOLATE GEORGIAN AIR SPACEThe Georgian Foreign Ministry will officially protest the unsanctioned overflight of Georgian air space on 18 June by four Russian military jets, Deputy Defense Minister Grigol Katamadze told journalists in Tbilisi the following day. The aircraft were en route from a Russian base in Rostov to Armenia. Katamadze also denied rumors that the Georgian air force, which currently has at its disposal 10 military aircraft and four helicopters, is to be liquidated. Interfax on 19 June quoted Rezo Adamia, chairman of the parliamentary committee on defense and security, as stating that the U.S. has allocated $18 million towards the cost of building radar and other navigation facilities that will form the nucleus of Georgia's air defense system. LF[04] GEORGIANS STAGE NEW PICKET OF INGURI BRIDGESome 100 Georgians having been blocking motor traffic across the Inguri bridge linking Abkhazia with the rest of Georgia since 18 June, Caucasus Press reported. The protesters are demanding the release of four Georgian residents of Abkhazia's southernmost Gali raion arrested in May 1998 by the Abkhaz authorities on suspicion of maintaining contact with Georgian guerrilla organizations operating in Gali. LF[05] KAZAKHSTAN SIGNS PIPELINE AGREEMENTThe government of Kazakhstan signed a memorandum of intent on 18 June with British Gas, Italy's Agip, Texaco, and Russia's Lukoil on construction of a 460 kilometer, $440 million pipeline from the Karachaganak field to Atyrau. The pipeline will be connected in 2001 to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium from Tengiz to Novorossiisk, and will enable Kazakhstan to export up to 12 million tons of oil and gas condensate per year. Also on 18 June, the president of Kazakhoil State Company, Nurlan Qapparov, told journalists that media reports that Moscow intended to renege on an agreement signed in late 1998 by Kazakh Premier Nurlan Balghymbaev and then Russian Prime Minister Yevgenii Primakov allowing Kazakhstan to export 9 million tons of crude in 1999 via the existing Atyrau-Samara pipeline are incorrect, RFE/RL's Astana bureau reported. LF[06] FOUR MORE TAJIK OPPOSITION REPRESENTATIVES APPOINTED TO GOVERNMENT POSTS...Following the agreement reached on 17 June between Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov and United Tajik Opposition leader Said Abdullo Nuri on renewed cooperation, the next day Rakhmonov named four opposition candidates to government posts: Mirzokhudja Nizomov as Customs Committee chairman, Khakim Kalandarov as deputy chairman of the Border Guards Committee, Khabib Sanginov as first deputy interior minister, and Khakhnazar Goibnazarov as deputy minister for social protection. A decision is to be reached by 25 June on the UTO's demand that its commander, Mirzo Zioyev, be appointed defense minister. The UTO is also to compile a list of 14 cities and towns in which its nominees will be appointed to head local government bodies, according to Interfax. Arriving in Dushanbe on 18 June, OSCE representative Wilhelm Hoeynck stressed the need for Tajikistan "to conduct the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in compliance with world standards, " ITAR-TASS reported. LF[07] ...AS TRIAL OPENS OF INSURGENCY PARTICIPANTSThe trial has begun of 20 people accused of participating in the November 1998 uprising in Khujand, north of Dushanbe, led by rebel colonel Mahmud Khudoiberdiev, Russian agencies reported on 18 June. An additional 80 people are also awaiting trial in connection with their alleged role in the mutiny, in which 200 people died (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 5 and 9 November 1998). LF[08] CHILDREN DETAINED FOR DISTRIBUTING ISLAMIC LITERATURE IN UZBEKISTANPolice in Tashkent detained 25 boys aged from 9- 12 for allegedly spreading leaflets propagating fundamentalist Islam and calling for the overthrow of President Islam Karimov, AP and Interfax reported on 18 June. LF[09] UZBEK, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTERS MEETAbdulaziz Komilov met in Moscow on 19 June with his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov to discuss bilateral relations and the situation in Kosova and Afghanistan, Russian agencies reported. Komilov later told journalists that Ivanov expressed support for the Uzbek initiative to convene an international conference on Afghanistan to which the six countries bordering on Afghanistan and representatives of both the Taliban and the Northern Alliance would be invited (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 2 and 4 June 1999). LF[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[10] UCK, KFOR SIGN DEMILITARIZATION DOCUMENTHashim Thaci, who is the prime minister of the Kosovar provisional government, and General Sir Michael Jackson, who is KFOR's commander, signed a document on 20 June on the demilitarization of Thaci's Kosova Liberation Army (UCK) and its "reintegration into civil society." The UCK commits itself to establish weapons storage sites to be verified by KFOR within seven days. It also promises to gather its forces in specified areas. Outside those areas, the fighters will carry side-arms only. After 30 days KFOR and the UCK will take joint control of those sites, and after 90 days KFOR will take full control. By then, all UCK forces will cease wearing military uniforms and surrender automatic small arms. The UCK, however, said in the document that it "is committed to propose individual current members to participate in the [UN civilian] administration and police forces of [Kosova], enjoying special consideration in view of the expertise they have developed." FS[11] UCK'S SEJDIU SAYS TEXT 'ONLY THE FIRST STEP'Pleurat Sejdiu, who is the UCK's London representative, told the BBC on 21 June that the document marks "only the first step" towards the transformation of the UCK into a Kosovar police force and "national guard." Meanwhile, General Jackson told AFP in Prishtina that the document "is not [an agreement.]...It is a unilateral undertaking by the leadership of the UCK." The commander said that this is no "subtle distinction" and stressed that Thaci "offered" the pledges outlined in the document, while Jackson merely "received" them. FS[12] REFUGEES RETURN IN LARGE NUMBERSSome 135,000 refugees returned from Albania and Macedonia to Kosova by 21 June, UNHCR officials told AP in Geneva. The previous day alone the number of people crossing Albania's Morina border into Kosova reached 17, 500. An RFE/RL correspondent reported that a refugee camp in Tirana, which was overcrowded three days before, was half-empty that day. He predicted that the number of returning refugees will continue to rise quickly. The refugees have left the camps despite calls from international aid agencies and the UNHCR to wait for an organized return. The refugees have also ignored warnings of minefields and booby traps that have not yet been cleared. NATO and UNHCR officials, however, have responded to the wish of most refugees to go home. The two organizations have accelerated their repatriation plans and said that the organized return could start within two weeks, involving trains, planes, and buses. FS[13] UN AIRLIFTS FOOD TO KOSOVAA spokeswoman for the UN's World Food Program said in Skopje on 20 June that her organization has begun helicopter airlifts of food from Macedonia to northwestern Kosova, where some 120,000 displaced persons and refugees are living, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM[14] SERBIAN FORCES COMPLETE WITHDRAWALA KFOR spokesman said in Prishtina on 20 June that Serbian forces completed their withdrawal from Kosova nearly 12 hours ahead of schedule (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 June 1999). Later, NATO Secretary- General Javier Solana said in a statement in Brussels that the Atlantic alliance's bombing campaign against Yugoslav targets is officially over. The BBC reported that some Serbian military or paramilitary "stragglers" remain in the province, but that they are expected to be gone shortly. AFP noted in Prizren that Serbian forces took at least several hundred Kosovar prisoners with them when they withdrew. The UCK's Kosovapress news agency wrote from Tirana that an unspecified number of Serbian paramilitaries have crossed from Montenegro back into Kosova. The AFP and Kosovapress reports have not been independently confirmed. PM[15] CONFUSION SURROUNDS SERBIAN MIGRATIONS...A spokesman for the UNHCR said that some 50,000 Serbian civilians have fled Kosova in recent days, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported on 20 June. In Belgrade, Serbian state media stated that several groups of Serbian refugees--including some 1,000 from Nis and smaller groups from Kragujevac and elsewhere--have returned to Kosova after receiving promises of government assistance. They also received a pledge by Deputy Prime Minister Milovan Bojic that KFOR will guarantee their safety. He urged the refugees to go home "within 48 hours." The private Beta news agency wrote that Serbian authorities will set up two "reception centers" in northern Kosova for the refugees. AP reported that the government wants to keep the Serbs from Kosova out of Serbia proper lest they become a catalyst for anti- Milosevic protests. On 20 June, several hundred Serbs from Kosova demonstrated in Belgrade for government security guarantees for their return home, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported. PM[16] ...WHICH CONTINUE APACE"Hundreds" of Serbs and Roma from Kosova left Belgrade, Kragujevac, and Krusevac for Kosova on 21 June, Reuters reported. The previous day, Serbian Labor, Social Affairs and Welfare Minister Tomislav Milenkovic reiterated Bojic's message that KFOR will protect the Serbs, who should go home quickly. He added that the province "is an integral part of Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia can be protected only if the Serbs and Montenegrins remain in their ancestral homes." PM[17] ORGANIZED OR ISOLATED REVENGE?Unidentified persons set fire to Serbian-owned homes at various locations in Kosova over the weekend, the BBC reported on 21 June. It is not clear why KFOR troops did not intervene in some of those cases in which peacekeepers were present on the scene. Nor is it clear whether the acts of destruction were isolated, local developments, or organized on a larger scale. Near Prizren, UCK fighters arrested 10 ethnic Albanians on suspicion of arson in several Serbian villages. There were also numerous Western media reports of Kosovars looting Serbian properties in various towns and villages in the province. A French peacekeeper told Reuters in Graca that he suspected that the looting there was organized by "you know who." In several towns, looters told reporters that they were taking back what belonged to them. PM[18] BLAIR SAYS SERBS SHARE RESPONSIBILITYBritish Prime Minister Tony Blair told the BBC in Cologne on 20 June that the Serbian people as a whole--and not just their leadership-- must share responsibility for the actions that Serbian forces committed in their name in Kosova. "The more that we see what has happened in [Kosova], the more we see that the Serbian people have got a responsibility to make [Yugoslav President Slobodan] Milosevic be culpable for these crimes. They cannot walk away from these crimes," Blair concluded. PM[19] CLARK: MILOSEVIC 'DOWN BUT NOT OUT'General Wesley Clark, who is NATO's supreme commander, said in Budapest on 21 June that Milosevic is "down but he's not out. He may well legitimate himself for a second or a third time." The general added that Milosevic might seek to provoke new armed conflicts in "Montenegro, Vojvodina, [or] the Republika Srpska." PM[20] SFOR TO STAY BUT ON SMALLER SCALEThe UN Security Council voted on 18 June to extend the mandates of the NATO- led Bosnian peacekeeping force SFOR and the UN police force for an additional 12 months. In Sarajevo the following day, SFOR commander General Montgomery Meigs said that the peacekeeping contingent will cut back its force of 32,000 this year by what he called "a significant amount." He did not provide any figures. He noted that one of the main reasons for the reduction is that NATO countries have acquired additional expenses for KFOR, Reuters reported. PM[21] CROATIAN ARMY PERSONNEL SENTENCEDA court in Split sentenced former Colonel Zeljko Maglov of the Croatian army and 11 other persons to terms of between six months and three years on 18 June for their role in the organized smuggling of food and cars. Maglov was charged with abusing his position in the army for illegal gain. It is the first time that a former Croatian officer was charged and convicted for such conduct, AP reported. PM[22] ROMANIAN COALITION AGAIN TORN BY CONFLICTPresident Emil Constantinescu on 19 June met with leaders of the National Peasant Party Christian Democratic (PNTCD) and the Democratic Party (PD), after the Chamber of Deputies on 17 June approved a law on land restitution and on the dismemberment of the State Agricultural Farms (IAS) initiated by the PNTCD. The law provides for the restitution of up to 50 hectares of land and up to 30 hectares of forest. The Democrats agree to the restitution of only 10 hectares of forest and oppose the IAS dismemberment. The law was approved with the support of the opposition Party of Social Democracy in Romania and the Democrats reproach the PNTCD with disloyal behavior. A PNTCD- PD commission has been set up to search for a compromise. MS[23] ROMANIA APPROVES NEW SECURITY STRATEGYThe Supreme National Defense Council, meeting on 18 June, approved the country's new "Strategy of Security, Democratic Stability, Economic Development, and Euro-Atlantic Integration." The document will be presented to the parliament for approval by President Constantinescu, who chaired the meeting, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. The council also approved an outline on the modernization of the military forces, opting (out of three possible versions submitted by the Defense Ministry) for a total of 112,000 troops and 28,000 civil employees. MS[24] ROMANIAN OPPOSITION ATTEMPTING TO PRESENT 'NEW FACE'PDSR leader Ion Iliescu, addressing a gathering of PDSR mayors on 19 June, called on his party to refrain from displaying a "hostile attitude" towards the ethnic Hungarian national minority or to Budapest, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. Observers are of the opinion that the PDSR, whose popularity is rising, is trying to mend its image in the West, as also indicated by its support of the PNTCD-promoted land restitution law (see above). Iliescu's deputy, Adrian Nastase, called for early elections. Addressing a meeting of his party's National Council on 19 June, however, Iliescu condemned the decision to declare Milosevic and his regime "undesirable persons" in Romania. The council approved the merger into the party of the non-parliamentary Party of Romanian Unity Alliance, the Drivers' Party and the Party of Social Protection. MS[25] MOLDOVAN LEGISLATURE APPROVES MILITARY FORCES CUTThe parliament on 18 June approved a reduction in the country's military forces from 10,500 to 8,500 soldiers and from 3,200 to 2,400 civilians under contract, the RFE/RL Chisinau bureau reported. The reduction was requested by the government and President Petru Lucinschi and is prompted by budgetary constraints. Vladimir Misin, chairman of the parliament's Commission for State Security and Public Order, told the house that the decision also reflects the Western model of a professional army, which Moldova is striving to introduce. A special commission set up by Lucinschi in March 1997 to examine reform in the armed forces has not yet presented its findings. MS[26] NATO REQUESTS LAND CORRIDOR TO KOSOVA THROUGH BULGARIANATO on 18 June officially requested Sofia to allow the alliance to send troops and equipment through Bulgaria on its way to Kosova, BTA and Reuters reported. A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said Sofia will consider the request "within the shortest possible time." Agreement to the request will have to be approved by the parliament. Also on 18 June, Defense Minister Georgi Ananiev denied in the parliament that NATO planes had flown over the Bulgarian nuclear plant at Kozloduy. Ananiev was responding to a question by opposition Socialist Party deputy Ivan Borisov, who claimed that the planes had flown over the plant while he was there and that chief of staff General Mikho Mikhov was aware of the overflights. Ananiev and Mikhov demanded a public apology from Borisov for having insulted them. MS[27] BULGARIAN OPPOSITION PAPER FAILS TO APPEARSocialist Party leader Georgi Parvanov on 17 June said that a printing company's refusal to print the party's daily "Duma" earlier that day was "politically motivated" and could not be otherwise explained as "repression" by the government, BTA reported. However, the "Duma" editorial office, in a statement released the same day, said that a "financial conflict" with the company was the reason for it not being published. "Duma" also failed to appear on 18 June. MS[C] END NOTE[28] VIENNA CONFERENCE FOCUSES ON NUCLEAR SAFETY IN EASTERN BLOCBy Anthony WesolowskyIn 1986, the world was taught a chilling lesson about the shortcomings of Soviet-designed nuclear reactors when Unit 4 at Ukraine's Chornobyl power station exploded and spewed radiation across a wide swath of Europe. The accident prompted fears that the 67 Soviet-designed reactors in operation throughout Central and Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union itself were fundamentally flawed and needed to be repaired, if not shut down altogether. Prompted by the Chornobyl disaster, the G-7 group of major industrialized nations in 1992 recommended that the 25 most dangerous Soviet-designed reactors in operation-- particularly two older reactor types known as the RBMK and the VVER-230--should not operate any longer than absolutely necessary. The seven Western nations also urged safety upgrades at safer Soviet-designed power stations. Eight years later, however, not one of the suspect Soviet-designed nuclear power stations has been closed. Even an agreement between the G-7 and Kyiv to close the remaining functioning reactors at Chornobyl by next year faces an uncertain future. Lars Larsson is the director of the EBRD's Nuclear Safety Department. He told our correspondent in Vienna that the world community's first mistake was underestimating how long economic and energy-sector reform would take in the former communist states: "One of the most important things also [was] the economic development of these countries has been much, much slower than originally anticipated. And with the slowdown of economic development there also goes, unfortunately, the slowdown of nuclear safety. They all go along. For instance, if you have economic problems, and it is not possible to pay salaries to the operators, of course this is a safety concern." Luke Lederman is a nuclear safety official with the International Atomic Energy Agency. He told RFE/RL that many of the most-pressing improvements have finally been carried out at most of the region's plants. Lederman and other Western officials stress that some of the biggest changes have come in the so-called "safety culture" at nuclear power plants. In other words, Lederman says operators at nuclear power stations in Eastern and Central Europe and in the former Soviet Union are doing a better, safer, and more careful job. Lederman said nuclear regulatory agencies have also been given more power and autonomy, making their job of monitoring nuclear safety much more effective. The EBRD's Larsson singled out Armenia as having made some of the greatest strides in the past four years toward improving its nuclear regulatory regime. Armenia's two Soviet-designed VVER-230 reactors at Medzamor were shut down in 1989 after a devastating earthquake prompted fears of a nuclear disaster because of their proximity to a fault line. In November 1995, Yerevan restarted Unit 2 at the Medzamor plant. Vartan Nersesyan of Armenia's Nuclear Regulatory Authority told RFE/RL that safety upgrades have been made at the plant to protect it against seismic activity. But he said the country has no current plans to restart Unit 1. "The situation was analyzed, the system was re- evaluated, and improvements were made accordingly." Like Armenia, Bulgaria is equipped with the controversial VVER-230 Soviet- designed reactor. There are four of them at the country's Kozloduy nuclear power plant, along with two of the more advanced Soviet-designed VVER- 1000's. Unlike the VVER-1000, the VVER-230 reactor does not have an adequate containment unit. In the event of a nuclear disaster, radiation could leak into the atmosphere. Recently, the EU renewed its pleas for Bulgaria to shut down Kozloduy, considered one of the riskiest nuclear power plants in Eastern Europe. But Grigory Kastchiev of the Bulgarian Nuclear Regulatory Agency told our correspondent that there have been more than 1,000 recent safety upgrades at Kozloduy's four VVER-230 reactors at a cost of $100 million. He said the country is planning another $150 million worth of upgrades. He said Sofia has no plans to shut any of the reactors down soon. "The strategy plan of the Bulgarian State Electric Company is to operate Units 1 and 2 at least until 2005, and Units 3 and 4 until at least 2012. This is really a necessity from the [standpoint of the] energy situation in Bulgaria and the stability of the country." Bulgarian officials also say the western-based Westinghouse company has won a $200 million contract to upgrade the two VVER-1000 reactors at Kozloduy. Westinghouse secured similar contracts in 1995 to modernize the two uncompleted nuclear reactors at the controversial Temelin nuclear power station in the Czech Republic. Officials from the Czech state electricity utility, CEZ, told the Vienna conference that Temelin--which is already facing cost overruns and delays-- will incorporate state-of- the-art safety measures. Czech nuclear regulators also announced safety improvements at the country's only working nuclear power station at Dukovany. 21-06-99 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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