RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 20, 00-01-28

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RFE/RL NEWSLINE

Vol. 4, No. 20, 28 January 2000

CONTENTS

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIA, U.S. FORM ECONOMIC 'TASK FORCE'

[02] ARRESTED FORMER ARMENIAN EDUCATION

[03] ARMENIAN JOURNALIST'S JAIL SENTENCE

[04] PROVISIONAL DATE SET FOR AZERBAIJANI

[05] AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT DISMISSES TOP ENERGY

[06] AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION PLANS 'NATIONAL

[07] RUSSIA RETURNS SOME IMPOUNDED MILITARY

[08] GEORGIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY DISCLOSES

[09] CHECHENS BEGIN PUBLISHING NEWSPAPER IN

[10] KAZAKHSTAN'S FOREIGN MINISTER DISCLOSES

[11] NGOS IN KYRGYZSTAN PROTEST STATE

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[12] NEW CROATIAN GOVERNMENT GETS DOWN TO

[13] CROATIAN MINISTER: HAGUE HAS JURISDICTION

[14] CONSERVATIVE VOTERS TO DECIDE CROATIAN

[15] CROATIA'S BILL FOR TUDJMAN'S FUNERAL:

[16] CROATIAN EX-MINISTER DETAINED ON

[17] NATO CONFINES HERZEGOVINIANS TO BASE

[18] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA AS 'BEACON'

[19] SERBIAN OPPOSITION LEADER BLASTS EU

[20] STUDENTS JEER PROFESSOR SESELJ

[21] BELGRADE REOPENS AIR SPACE

[22] NEW LOOK OF MONTENEGRIN CABINET

[23] TIRANA OPERA MUSICIANS TO CONTINUE

[24] ROMANIAN EDUCATION MINISTER RESIGNS

[25] IMF GIVES HOPEFUL SIGNAL TO ROMANIA ON

[26] MOLDOVAN PREMIER DISCUSSES

[27] HOLOCAUST CONFERENCE REJECTS BULGARIA'S

[28] FORMER BULGARIAN AMBASSADOR SEEKS

[C] END NOTE

[29] A New Vocabulary For An Old Agenda

[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

[01] ARMENIA, U.S. FORM ECONOMIC 'TASK FORCE'

State Department coordinator Bill Taylor signed an

agreement in Yerevan on 27 January establishing a

task force to promote bilateral economic ties and

ensure the more rational use of U.S. economic aid,

RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Several U.S.

government agencies, including the Agency for

International Development and Eximbank, will be

represented on the new task force. Taylor also met

with Armenian President Robert Kocharian, who

pledged Armenia's willingness for economic

cooperation with other regional states, according to

ITAR--TASS. Taylor told Sargsian on 26 January that

the World Bank supports the U.S. initiative to convene

an international conference on economic

reconstruction in the Caucasus. LF

[02] ARRESTED FORMER ARMENIAN EDUCATION

Ashot

Bleyan, who has been held in pre-trial detention since

May, has declared a hunger-strike, Snark reported on

26 January. Bleyan is charged with embezzlement of

public funds (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 26 March and 15

May 1999). He has rejected those charges as politically

motivated. LF

[03] ARMENIAN JOURNALIST'S JAIL SENTENCE

Armenia's Court of Review on 27

January suspended the one-year prison sentence

handed down last year to Nikol Pashinian, editor of the

newspaper "Haykakan Zhamanak," but failed to clear

him of criminal charges, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau

reported. Pashinian was found guilty last year of

insulting law-enforcement officials, declining to

publish a retraction, and slandering two persons (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 1 and 2 September 1999).

Pashinian said he will challenge the Court of Review's

failure to throw out the charges against him with the

higher Court of Appeal. LF

[04] PROVISIONAL DATE SET FOR AZERBAIJANI

Azerbaijani Deputy

Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov told journalists in

Baku on 27 January that President Heidar Aliev is

likely to visit Iran in February or March of this year,

Turan reported. The visit had been scheduled for last

September but failed to take place, partly because of

Azerbaijan's annoyance at Tehran's reluctance to

extradite to Azerbaijan former Azerbaijani special

forces officer Mahir Djavadov, whose brother,

Rovshan, was killed in 1995 in what Azerbaijan claims

was an attempt to overthrow Aliev (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 3 August 1999). LF

[05] AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT DISMISSES TOP ENERGY

At an emergency meeting of energy sector

officials late on 26 January, President Aliev blamed the

energy shortage that has necessitated rationing on

corruption and inefficiency, Turan and AP reported.

Aliev charged that top officials not only take no

measures to prevent the embezzlement of heating oil

intended for the country's thermal power stations, but

some of them are even involved in that theft. He

further claimed that the population pays double the

officially stated figure of only 26 percent of the total

amount owed in electricity bills, and that corrupt

officials pocket the difference. He termed inadmissible

three instances of theft of crude from the Baku-Supsa

oil export pipeline. Aliev then dismissed the deputy

chairman of Azerenergy JSC and the acting chairman

of Azerigas for "serious shortcomings in their work." LF

[06] AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION PLANS 'NATIONAL

Meeting in Baku on 27 January,

representatives of most opposition parties decided to

set up an initiative group to create a new National

Resistance Movement, Turan reported. The aims of

that movement will be to campaign for a just solution

to the Karabakh conflict and for democratic elections.

Opposition parties have been discussing the

expediency of creating such a movement for several

months (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 21 October 1999). LF

[07] RUSSIA RETURNS SOME IMPOUNDED MILITARY

Russian customs has

released a consignment of arms impounded in Moscow

last year, Caucasus Press reported on 28 January. The

arms had been sent to Romania for an exhibit of

military technology and were being shipped back to

Georgia via Moscow. Russian customs impounded the

weapons, fearing they were destined for Chechnya (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 24 November 1999). But Russian

customs officials have not yet released a consignment

of 3,000 camouflage uniforms donated by the U.S. to

the Georgian armed forces (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 15

November 1999). LF

[08] GEORGIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY DISCLOSES

Some 3,000 servicemen

deserted from the Georgian army in 1999, Defense

Ministry spokesman Koba Liklikadze told journalists in

Tbilisi on 28 January, according to Caucasus Press. He

added that the primary reasons for deserting are

appalling living conditions and the lack of public

respect for military personnel. "Rossiiskaya gazeta" in

December 1999 estimated the total strength of the

Georgian armed forces at 33,000; ground forces

number 13,000. LF

[09] CHECHENS BEGIN PUBLISHING NEWSPAPER IN

A Chechen information bureau in Tbilisi

has begun publication--with the assistance of the

Association of the Georgian Free Press--of the

newspaper "Chechenskaya pravda," Interfax reported

on 26 January. The agency described the contents of

the paper as "anti-Russian." The Georgian authorities

deny any connection with the paper. LF

[10] KAZAKHSTAN'S FOREIGN MINISTER DISCLOSES

UZBEKISTAN

Erlan Idrisov told journalists in Almaty

on 27 January that Uzbek border guards, supported by

an armored personnel carrier, advanced 5 km into the

territory of Kazakhstan's Sary-Aghash and Qazyqurt

districts on 25 January and unilaterally demarcated a

60 km stretch of the border, RFE/RL's bureau in the

former capital reported. Local Kazakh residents

subsequently removed the border markings and held

protest meetings. Idrisov said Kazakh and Uzbek

government officials had reached agreement on the

sidelines of the 25 January CIS summit to set up a joint

commission to demarcate the border, which was to

meet for the first time in March. Idrisov affirmed that

Kazakhstan "will not cede one meter" of its territory to

Uzbekistan. LF

[11] NGOS IN KYRGYZSTAN PROTEST STATE

Tolekan

Ismailova, who is executive-director of the Coalition

for the Democratization of Society, which groups

together some 130 NGOs, told journalists in Bishkek on

27 January that her organization has appealed to

President Askar Akaev to prevent continued

government interference in the parliamentary election

campaign, Interfax and ITAR-TASS reported. The

coalition has compiled a report citing cases in which

local authorities have recommended appointing

specific individuals to local election commissions. The

Coalition also condemned the requirement imposed by

the Central Electoral Commission that prospective

candidates should pay a registration fee of 30,000

soms (approximately $600). As a result, far fewer

candidates have registered to contest the 20 February

poll than did the 1995 parliamentary elections.

RFE/RL's Bishkek bureau reported on 27 January that a

total of 455 candidates have registered to contend the

poll. LF

[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

[12] NEW CROATIAN GOVERNMENT GETS DOWN TO

The new government of Prime Minister

Ivica Racan agreed at its first session on 27 January to

cut ministers' salaries (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 27

January 2000). Other government officials can expect

similar cuts in a move designed to reassure voters that

officials are sharing the economic difficulties of

ordinary citizens, "Jutarnji list" reported. Elsewhere,

Racan said that the government will not ask for a

rescheduling of the foreign debt. On 28 January,

Deputy Prime Minister Zeljka Antunovic called for a

war on graft and crony capitalism. She stressed that

corruption has penetrated "every level of state

administration," Reuters reported. PM

[13] CROATIAN MINISTER: HAGUE HAS JURISDICTION

Foreign Minister Tonino

Picula told "Jutarnji list" of 28 January that the Hague-

based war crimes tribunal has the legal right to

investigate war crimes committed in the course of

Operation Storm. The previous government held that

Storm, which the army carried out in August 1995 in

the Serb-held Krajina region, was an internal affair

outside The Hague's jurisdiction. Picula, who has

described himself as a "rocker at heart," is himself a

veteran of Operation Storm. He also told the Zagreb

daily that Croatia must quickly make up for lost time

and seek rapid integration into Europe. The EU

demands that Zagreb improve its cooperation with The

Hague as a pre-condition for better relations with

Brussels. PM

[14] CONSERVATIVE VOTERS TO DECIDE CROATIAN

The Rijeka-based daily "Novi

List" published a poll on 28 January which gives Stipe

Mesic 36.8 percent and Drazen Budisa 33.4 percent in

the 7 February runoff presidential vote (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 25 January 2000). Some 23.4 percent of

voters are undecided. The independent daily

concluded that people who voted for Mate Granic and

other defeated conservative candidates in the first

round have switched to Budisa or are undecided.

Budisa has strong anti-communist credentials. PM

[15] CROATIA'S BILL FOR TUDJMAN'S FUNERAL:

The funeral and tomb for late President

Franjo Tudjman cost the taxpayers a total of $662,000,

Hina reported on 27 January. The decision to cover the

costs was one of the last ones taken by the outgoing

government of Prime Minister Zlatko Matesa before

the new government took office. The bill includes the

funeral, the tomb, and the costs of providing free

public transportation to enable Croats from all over

Croatia and Bosnia to attend the funeral, AP reported.

PM

[16] CROATIAN EX-MINISTER DETAINED ON

Police in Zagreb

detained outgoing Minister of Tourism Ivan Herak on

27 January, just hours after the new government took

office. He is suspected of diverting $195,000 for the

reconstruction of a hotel on the island of Rab into an

account for his own company, "Jutarnji list" reported.

Herak is now in custody in Pula, where a judge will

soon determine whether there is enough evidence to

indict him. He is also under suspicion of having used

the ministry's advertising campaign to launder money.

PM

[17] NATO CONFINES HERZEGOVINIANS TO BASE

January that all ethnic Croatian forces in Bosnia-

Herzegovina (still widely known by their wartime name

of HVO) must not leave their bases or conduct training

exercises. NATO troops then surrounded HVO bases to

enforce the ban. A NATO spokesman said that the ban

will be lifted as soon as the Croats supply SFOR with

unspecified information. The spokesman added that

NATO's demands will be "easy to meet," AP reported

from Sarajevo. PM

[18] REPUBLIKA SRPSKA AS 'BEACON'

opposition leader Vladan Batic said in Banja Luka on

27 January that the Bosnian Serb entity is a "beacon"

for other Serbs because Prime Minister Milorad Dodik

and many other leaders refuse to take orders from

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. Batic is

attending a meeting of opposition leaders and political

personalities from the Republika Srpska, including

former President Biljana Plavsic, in honor of visiting

Crown Prince Aleksandar Karadjordjevic (see "RFE/RL

Balkan Report," 28 January 2000). PM

[19] SERBIAN OPPOSITION LEADER BLASTS EU

Djindjic of the Democratic Party and Alliance for

Change coalition told the "Berliner Zeitung" of 27

January that the EU has proven "a catastrophe as a

partner" for the opposition. He said that the EU makes

big promises but does not deliver on them. Djindjic

urged Brussels to pledge in the future to do only what

it is willing or able to do. Djindjic noted that the EU

recently refused to lift sanctions prohibiting oil

shipments or direct air flights to Serbia, both of which

would benefit ordinary Serbs and not the regime (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 26 January 2000). He said that by

refusing to make this minimal concession to the

Serbian opposition, the EU made the opposition look

ineffective in the eyes of voters. The opposition will

now begin "a pause" in its relations with Western

Europe, Djindjic added. He said that the opposition

must, in any event, change its tactics in Serbia and

stress domestic social issues in order to mobilize

popular support against the Milosevic regime. PM

[20] STUDENTS JEER PROFESSOR SESELJ

hundred students at Belgrade University's Law Faculty

jeered Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj

when he arrived at the university on 27 January in his

new capacity as a professor of law. The faculty's

Professor Knezevic resigned in protest over the

appointment of his new colleague, RFE/RL's South

Slavic Service reported. Knezevic called the

appointment a "caricature of education." His

resignation brings to a total of more than 150 the

number of professors to quit or be fired from the

university in the past two years, since the government

gave itself the right to appoint and dismiss faculty. PM

[21] BELGRADE REOPENS AIR SPACE

transport authorities allowed Western airlines to use

Yugoslav air space on 27 January for the first time

since NATO's bombing campaign in the spring of 1999.

PM

[22] NEW LOOK OF MONTENEGRIN CABINET

Minister Filip Vujanovic on 27 January made several

changes in the government. Branko Lukovac replaces

Branko Perovic as foreign minister. Perovic recently

resigned after an Italian court linked him to the mafia.

Budimir Dubak replaces Slobodan Tomovic as minister

of religious affairs. Tomovic alienated many supporters

of Montenegrin independence by recently showing

public support for the Serbian Orthodox Church and

belittling the rival Montenegrin Orthodox Church (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 10 January 2000). The Belgrade

daily "Danas" wrote that Serbian Orthodox

Metropolitan Amfilohije did not bless Dubak at the

ceremony. The other three appointments are Ljubisa

Krgovic as deputy prime minister for financial affairs,

Radojica Luburic as minister of culture, and Rade

Gregovic to manage land use and zoning. PM

[23] TIRANA OPERA MUSICIANS TO CONTINUE

Seven musicians vowed to continue their

hunger strike after police moved them from a theater

to a hospital "for tests" on 27 January, dpa reported

(see "RFE/RL Newsline," 24 January 2000). The artists

attended a rally of 200 colleagues and supporters in

central Skanderbeg Square. The government calls the

protest "illegal" and refuses to fire the culture minister

or abandon plans to privatize the opera and ballet. PM

[24] ROMANIAN EDUCATION MINISTER RESIGNS

Rompres reported. Government spokesman Ionut

Popescu said the minister offered to resign because "in

an impoverished economy with a small budget,

reforms are really difficult." He said the prime minister

had "taken note" of the resignation but did not specify

whether he had accepted it. The resignation came as

teachers across the country entered the fourth day of a

strike demanding an increase in wages (see "RFE/RL

Newsline," 24 January 2000). Romanian Radio

reported on 27 January that opposition deputies from

the parliamentary Education Committee released an

open letter in which they said the education system is

"about to collapse." VG

[25] IMF GIVES HOPEFUL SIGNAL TO ROMANIA ON

IMF representative

Emanuel Zervoudakis said on 27 January that the fund

may release the next tranche of a $547 million standby

loan to Romania provided certain measures are taken

in the next few weeks. Zervoudakis said the IMF will

make a final decision in March. He said the Romanian

parliament should pass a 2000 budget by then and

resolve issues related to salary policy. The IMF

disagrees with the government's recent 80 percent

increase in army salaries. In other news, Cluj Mayor

Gheorghe Funar on 27 January said he will sue the

prefect who suspended him from his post this week,

Hungarian Radio reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 27

January 2000). VG

[26] MOLDOVAN PREMIER DISCUSSES

Dumitru

Braghis discussed the possibility during his recent visit

to Brussels of holding a high-level meeting involving

representatives of Moldova, the breakaway

Transdniester region, and the EU, BASA-Press reported

on 27 January. The proposed meeting would

reportedly involve Moldovan President Petru Lucinschi,

European Commission President Romano Prodi, and EU

security envoy Javier Solana. Braghis said a schedule

for the meeting will be worked out according to the

schedules of the three political leaders. Meanwhile, a

Spanish military delegation on 27 January suspended

its efforts to inspect the Russian army depots in

Transdniester after twice being refused entry into the

region (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 27 January 2000),

BASA-Press reported. The Transdniester border guards

reportedly would have allowed the Spanish team to

enter on its own but refused to allow it to come in with

an escort of Moldovan government officials. VG

[27] HOLOCAUST CONFERENCE REJECTS BULGARIA'S

Organizers of the international Holocaust

conference in Stockholm on 27 January say they

rejected a request by Bulgaria to add a clause to the

forum's final declaration about the country's

exemplary treatment of Jews during World War II,

Reuters reported. The Swedish Foreign Ministry noted

that many countries made requests for additional

clauses but added that the organizers did not want

them included because they wanted the declaration to

be more general. The rejection was welcomed by the

Jewish community of Greece, which had expressed

outrage at the Bulgarian request. Bulgarian President

Petar Stoyanov told the conference that his country

takes pride in the fact that it rescued its entire 50,000-

strong Jewish population from being sent to Nazi

concentration camps. VG

[28] FORMER BULGARIAN AMBASSADOR SEEKS

Bulgarian Foreign Minister

Nadezhda Mihailova said on 27 January that Bulgaria's

former ambassador to Canada, Slav Danev, is asking

for asylum in that country, AP reported. She gave no

reason for Danev's actions, saying only that it is an

"extremely unpleasant incident." She said his refusal to

return home is illegal. Danev's mandate expired at the

end of last year, and the government appointed a new

ambassador to replace him. In other news, the

Bulgarian charge d' affairs in Moscow met with officials

at the Russian Foreign Ministry on 27 January to

express Bulgaria's "astonishment" at Russian criticism

of the recent Balkan summit in the town of Hissar (see

"RFE/RL Newsline," 24 January 2000), Bulgarian Radio

reported. The Bulgarian official said the Russian

reaction was characteristic of international relations

during the Cold War. VG

[C] END NOTE

[29] A New Vocabulary For An Old Agenda

At the Moscow summit of the Commonwealth of

Independent States this week, acting Russian President

Vladimir Putin used a new vocabulary with which few

could disagree in the pursuit of an old goal which far

fewer support.

Putin said that the post-Soviet states must band

together in "the fight against international terrorism,

extremism, and separatism." Such goals, stated in this

way, drew little dissent either from the participants of

the CIS meeting or among leaders of the international

community as a whole.

But recent Russian rhetoric about Chechnya

suggests that Putin is using these words less as a

precise statement of Moscow's specific intentions than

as a means of increasing Russian power over the 11

other former Soviet republics now part of the CIS,

something most appear likely to oppose.

Indeed, Putin's remarks this week appear to reflect

the difficulties Moscow has had in trying to justify both

its efforts to develop the power of the Russian state

and its struggle to find a way to describe its campaign

in Chechnya in a palatable manner.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian

leaders regularly talked about the importance of

building democratic institutions, a position they saw as

enhancing their chances of getting Western aid but

ones that put Russia at odds with the even more

authoritarian regimes in some post-Soviet countries.

But in recent months and especially since the

appointment of Putin as acting president, Russia's

rhetoric has shifted away from democratic norms to

the need to build state power in the name of fighting

terrorism and extremism.

Such a shift might have been expected to cost

Moscow support in the West, except for the fact that

many Western leaders have accepted the notion that

the Russian state had become too weak to achieve

anything and that its strengthening was thus a priority.

But such a shift clearly could and did win support

both from authoritarian leaders in some post-Soviet

states who were looking for a justification for their

style of rule and from more democratic ones who face

real challenges on the ground.

Thus, the highly authoritarian president of

Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, greeted Putin's words this

week as an indication that Russia now represented the

only power capable of foiling "the geopolitical plans of

the supporters of extremism and terrorism."

And more reformist but increasingly threatened

leaders in several other post-Soviet states saw Putin's

words as a kind of justification for their adoption of

tougher positions toward their own populations.

All of these tendencies have been exacerbated by

the Chechen war. Moscow began its campaign there in

the name of blocking an independence movement and

opposing the spread of Islamic fundamentalism.

These slogans initially appeared to confer certain

advantages, but each of them entailed serious

drawbacks. Talking about opposition to national

independence did not play well in many of the post-

Soviet states that only a decade ago had been a part of

the Soviet Union.

And opposing Islam, while acceptable as a

principle of action in some Western countries, was less

and less plausible for a country with a rising

percentage of Muslims in its own population and one

that seeks to recover its influence over neighboring

states with predominantly Muslim populations.

Consequently, Putin in particular and Moscow

leaders in general have recast their campaign in

Chechnya as a struggle against bandits, terrorists, and

extremists--a goal which few either in the West or in

the post-Soviet states are prepared to reject as

illegitimate.

That helps to explain why there has been such

muted Western criticism of Russia's actions in

Chechnya compared to five years ago. And it also helps

to explain why so many of the participants in the CIS

summit appeared to be such enthusiastic supporters of

Moscow's current line.

Indeed, some observers have gone so far as to

suggest that Putin won an important victory at this

meeting. After all, they note, all the CIS presidents

came out against the same things Moscow said it was

against.

But that is a misreading of both what the leaders

of the non-Russian countries actually feel and what

Moscow all too clearly hopes to achieve. Many leaders,

including Ukraine's Leonid Kuchma, were very explicit

that the CIS was far from being an effective institution,

even though they and he backed Putin's language on

"bandits."

Moreover, Putin's use of the CIS summit to

celebrate the new Russian-Belarusian "union" shows

that his intentions are not limited to fighting terrorism.

For both these reasons, the agreement at this CIS

summit, as has been true at so many earlier ones, was

more apparent than real, a reflection of Putin's

rhetorical skill and also of the near certainty that many

of the leaders at this meeting will ultimately likely see

through it.

28-01-00

Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
URL: http://www.rferl.org

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