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RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 4, No. 143, 00-07-27Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty: Newsline Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty <http://www.rferl.org>RFE/RL NEWSLINEVol. 4, No. 143, 27 July 2000CONTENTS[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA
[B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE
[C] END NOTE
[A] TRANSCAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA[01] ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT GIVES GO-AHEAD FOR ENERGY PRIVATIZATIONFollowing a stormy three-day debate, deputies voted on 26July by 64 to 38 to approve new government proposals for the conduct of a tender between four international companies to privatize four state-run energy distribution networks, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. Deputies had blocked the tender in April to protest the exclusion of a subsidiary of Russia's Gazprom from the companies shortlisted (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 19 and 26 April 2000). The World Bank, which has made disbursement of further badly-needed credits contingent on the privatization, criticized that move (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 15 May 2000). Deputies representing the Republican Party (HHK), the Kayunutiun faction and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation--Dashnaktsutiun (HHD) voted in favor of the government bill, while the People's Party, which is the HHK's partner in the majority Miasnutiun coalition, the Communists, and the Right and Accord faction voted against. LF [02] DEFEATED CANDIDATE CHALLENGES FINAL RULING ON ARMENIAN BY-ELECTION OUTCOMEThe Armenian Constitutional Court ruled on 26 July that HHD candidate Kim Balayan is the winner of the contested 9 July by-election in a Yerevan constituency, and that he was not responsible for irregularities adduced by rival candidates who challenged the poll outcome RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. The election of Balayan, a qualified lawyer, raises to nine the number of deputies in the HHD faction. On 24 July, Artur Mirzoyan, a proxy for defeated candidate Yeghia Shamshian, told journalists that the decision by a local court to uphold Balayan's victory was groundless and a violation of the Armenian Electoral Code, Armenpress reported. LF [03] TWO AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION PARTIES FORM ELECTION BLOC...At a26 July meeting in Baku of the 10 opposition parties aligned in the Democratic Congress, the Azerbaijan Popular Front and Musavat parties reached agreement on fielding a joint list of candidates in the 5 November parliamentary elections, Turan reported. Both parties have, however, said they will contend that ballot only if the existing election legislation is amended to ensure that the polls and free and democratic (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 25 July 2000). Also on 26 July, a spokesman for the Union of Azerbaijani Forces, which comprises the small left-wing Vahdat, Namus and Social- Democratic Parties, told Turan they too intend to boycott the 5 November poll if no "positive changes" are made to the electoral legislation. LF [04] ... AS AUTHORITIES AGAIN REJECT U.S. CRITICISMBut MubarizGubanly, a leading member of the ruling Yeni Azerbaycan party, said on 26 July that the leadership will not yield to U.S. criticism of the laws. He termed that criticism "non- objective" and one-sided and said the U.S. State Department's assessment of the situation in Azerbaijan is "superficial," AP reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 25 and 26 July 2000). Meanwhile the Central Electoral Commission on 26 July published a list of mostly government-sponsored newspapers which, together with state radio and television, will publish political parties' election programs, Turan reported. LF [05] AZERBAIJAN OPPOSITION PROTESTS PICKETERS' ARRESTElevenopposition parties on 26 July issued a statement protesting what they termed the "illegal" 24 July arrest of three young members of the Azerbaijan National Independence Party (AMIP), Turan reported. The young men were picketing the home of parliament deputy Shamil Gurbanov to protest insulting remarks he had made about AMIP chairman Etibar Mamedov. AMIP deputy chairman Nazim Imanov termed the arrest "political persecution." LF [06] AZERBAIJAN-UZBEKISTAN GOVERMENT COMMISSION MEETSDuring a 25July session of the Azerbaijan-Uzbek intergovernment economic commision in Baku, Azerbaijan's First Deputy Prime Minister Abbas Abbasov and his Uzbek counterpart Rustam Yunusov signed bilateral agreements on cooperation in combating crime and on simplifying customs procedures, Turan and "Nezavisimaya gazeta" reported. Referring to the opening next month of the transport corridor across the Caucasus and Central Asia, via Uzbekistan, to China, Yunusov proposed a program of measures to coordinate the work of Poti, Baku, Turkmenbashi and several Chinese ports. LF [07] GEORGIA, TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTERS DISCUSS SOUTH CAUCASUSMeeting in Trabzon on 24-26 July, Irakli Menagharishvili andIsmail Cem discussed the planned pipelines to transport Caspian oil and gas via Georgia to Turkey, the optimum configuration for the proposed South Caucasus Stability Pact, military cooperation, and integration with NATO and European organizations, Caucasus Press reported. Cem assured his Georgian colleague that Ankara is prepared to play a more active role in the search for a solution to the deadlocked Abkhaz conflict. On 27 July, "Nezavisimaya gazeta" castigated Turkish Minister of State Abdulhaluk Cay for comparing Russia's actions in Chechnya to Hitler's annihilation of Germany's Jews. Conceding that Cay's remarks do not reflect official Turkish policy, the paper commented that Turkey's regional policy is clearly showing its leadership's panic and paralysis in the face of a more assertive Russian policy in the Caucasus. LF [08] KAZAKH OFFICAL'S ARREST CONNECTED TO MURDER CASE?Accordingto an unconfirmed Kazakh news agency report, Isa Koshkarev, who is chairman of the state-owned KazExport, was taken into custody on 25 July, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reported the following day. Local observers say Koshkarev's arrest may be connected with the murder in April 2000 of KazExport official and arms export expert Talghat Ibraev. Several arrests have already been made in connection with that killing (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 18 April, 22 May and 6 June 2000). LF [09] KYRGYZ PRESIDENT 'UNDECIDED' ABOUT SEEKING SECOND TERMIn aninterview published in "Kommersant" on 26 July, the first day of his two-day state visit to Russia, Askar Akaev explained his hesitation to announce formally that he intends to contend the 29 October presidential poll to the need first to complete "important and urgent tasks." Among those tasks Akaev cited his current trip to Russia, during which he and Russian President Vladimir Putin are to sign a declaration of eternal friendship between their two countries and a ten-year economic cooperation agreement. LF [10] TURKMENISTAN TO RESUME GAS SUPPLIES TO UKRAINE...Turkmenistan's Deputy Prime Minister Yolly Gurbanmuradov andhis visiting Ukrainian counterpart Yuliya Timoshenko signed a preliminary protocol on gas supplies for the period 2000- 2010, Interfax reported. Kyiv will purchase 20 billion cubic meters of gas this year, and 50 billion cubic meters annually for a ten-year period thereafter, at a price of $42 per thousand cubic meters. As under previous agreements, payment will be partly in cash and partly in goods and services. According to "Nezavisimaya gazeta" on 27 July, Timoshenko did not try to bargain over the price Ashgabat asked. LF [11] ...PROVIDED UKRAINE DOES NOT ANNUL AGREEMENTUkrainianPresident Leonid Kuchma has already cast doubt on that protocol, however. Kuchma said in Simferopol on 27 July that he "has prohibited the signing of any documents" on Turkmen gas deliveries, adding that such "agreements on principle" should be signed only by the presidents of both countries. "This is nothing short of deception," he said, noting that the final price of Turkmen gas, including its transportation costs to Ukraine, may amount to $90-$105 for 1,000 cubic meters. JM [B] SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE[12] SLOVENIA TO VOTE ON 15 OCTOBER...President Milan Kucan saidin Ljubljana on 27 July that he has called parliamentary elections for 15 October following consultations with various party leaders, Reuters reported. Kucan has long argued that the elections should be held as early as possible in order to end instability. He is also concerned lest time be lost for drafting and passing legislation in preparation for joining the EU, which enjoys broad public support. PM [13] ...AMID CHANGING POLITICAL LANDSCAPEPrime Minister AndrejBajuk will set up his own political party to contest the elections, "Delo" reported on 27 July. His break with his SLS/SKD Christian Democratic party came after that party voted with the center-left opposition to keep a proportional voting system for the fall election (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 26 July 2000). Foreign Minister Lojze Peterle, who also belongs to the SLS/SKD, said in Ljubljana that he will probably join Bajuk's party, AP reported on 26 July. The opposition center-left parties include people from the former communist nomenklatura, who dominated the government from independence in 1991 until the spring of 2000 (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 30 May 2000). The center-right government is led primarily by people with family roots in the anti- communist Domobrani (Home Guards) of World War II, including Bajuk, Peterle, and conservative Social Democratic leader Janez Jansa. PM [14] MACEDONIAN ALBANIAN UNIVERSITY LEGALIZEDThe parliamentvoted on 26 July to approve an OSCE-sponsored measure to legalize the underground Albanian-language Tetovo university as an accredited private institution (see "RFE/RL Balkan Report," 28 April 2000). The debate leading up to the vote included acrimonious exchanges between members of the government ethnic Albanian party, which supports the bill, and opposition Albanians, who want the Tetovo university to be a state institution on a par with the Macedonian-language one in Skopje, the private MIC news agency reported. After the vote, the Macedonian Academy of Sciences said in a statement that legalizing the Tetovo university is "one more step toward the partition" of Macedonia along ethnic lines, the BBC's Serbian Service reported. The Tetovo university question is one of the most divisive in Macedonian politics. The OSCE-sponsored measure envisions the university as an institution for training teachers and civil servants, who will have to demonstrate proficiency in Macedonian as well as in Albanian. PM [15] MILOSEVIC CALLS ELECTIONS FOR SEPTEMBERYugoslav PresidentSlobodan Milosevic announced in Belgrade on 27 July that federal parliamentary elections will be held on 24 September (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 26 July 2000). Serbian municipal and local elections will also take place that same day, Reuters reported. The Montenegrin authorities have repeatedly said that they will boycott any federal elections held under Milosevic's new electoral legislation. The Serbian opposition is divided as to whether to participate in the federal and local vote. PM [16] SERBIAN COURT SENTENCES FILIPOVIC TO SEVEN YEARSA militarycourt in Nis sentenced Miroslav Filipovic on 26 July to seven years in prison for writing about atrocities committed by Serbian forces in Kosova in 1999 (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 26 July 2000). His attorneys will contest the ruling, "Blic" reported. In New York, Amnesty International said in a statement that the authorities should investigate the veracity of Filipovic's reports rather than put him in jail for writing them. In Washington, State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said that the court ruling "is, of course, in keeping with the [Slobodan] Milosevic regime's typical attitude to try to muzzle Serbia's independent media by seizing or shutting down facilities, by expelling foreign journalists, and threatening or even beating those brave enough to report the truth amongst their own journalist corps," AP reported. PM [17] ROBERTSON WARNS MILOSEVIC ON KOSOVA, MONTENEGROSpeaking inBrussels on 27 July, NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson praised the recent anti-violence agreement between several leading Serbian and Albanian political personalities from Kosova (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 25 July 2000). He added: "We will not allow Milosevic or any of the ethnic groups within Kosovo to plunge the region back into the horrific violence it suffered a year and a half ago," Reuters reported. Referring to Montenegro, Robertson said: "I say to Milosevic: watch out, look what happened the last time you miscalculated.... The international community will not appreciate it if Milosevic does something whose effect would be to remove a man elected by the Montenegrin people," namely President Milo Djukanovic. Asked whether such action would lead NATO to intervene, Robertson added: "We aren't saying what we will do. One of the lessons of Kosovo is that you don't reveal your cards too far in advance." PM [18] EU EXPANDS 'WHITE LIST' FOR SERBIAN BUSINESSESA spokesmanfor the EU's executive commission said in Brussels on 26 July that the EU has identified an additional 52 Serbian companies that it would like to add to its "white list" of Serbian firms exempt from sanctions. The EU will not announce their names until its representatives have spoken with those of the companies, Reuters reported. Such firms have been dubbed traitors by the Milosevic regime (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 25 July 2000). PM [19] HAGUE COURT INVESTIGATING MILOSEVIC'S FINANCES ON CYPRUSCypriot authorities have confirmed recent international pressreports that the Hague-based war crimes tribunal is investigating Milosevic's business ties and financial activities on that island, RFE/RL's South Slavic Service reported on 26 July. PM [20] EU AUTHORIZES FUNDS FOR CLEARING DANUBE RIVERThe EuropeanCommission on 26 July authorized the release of up to $20.5 million to cover part of the cost of clearing the River Danube of debris from bridges destroyed by the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia last year, AP reported. The money will be transferred to the Danube Commission, an international organization responsible for navigation on the river. MS [21] ROMANIAN PREMIER HINTING HE WON'T RUN FOR PRESIDENT?MugurIsarescu might delay until 15 August announcing whether he will run for president, Mediafax reported on 26 July, citing "sources close to the premier." Those sources said Isarescu, who has been urged to run by the National Peasant Party Christian Democratic (PNTCD) and the Union of Democratic Forces, is "not very enchanted" by the current political campaign involving his name and that he fears the campaign might undermine the cabinet's efficiency. The sources also said that so far Isarescu's reply to those who have urged him to run has been that "his only objective in 2000 is to organize correct elections, pursue negotiations for Romania's joining the EU, and renew economic growth." Meanwhile, the PNTCD leadership on 26 July decided against postponing parliamentary elections and in favor of holding them at the same time as the presidential ballot, RFE/RL's Bucharest bureau reported. MS [22] ROMANIAN NATIONALIST PARTIES TO MERGEParty of RomanianNational Unity (PUNR) Deputy Chairman Ioan Gavra announced on 26 July that the negotiations with the Romanian National Party (PNR) have ended with an agreement to merge the two formations. Gavra said there is a need to "unite all rational national forces" and that the agreement on the merger will be signed by 1 August and submitted for approval to their respective National Councils by 15 August. The PNR is headed by former Intelligence Service chief Virgil Magureanu. Both parties fared poorly in the June local elections. MS [23] PRIMAKOV SAYS OSCE, RUSSIAN POSITIONS ON TRANSDNIESTER'COINCIDE'Yevgenii Primakov, chairman of the special state commission on the settlement of the Transdniester conflict, said in Vienna on 26 July after meeting with current OSCE Chairwoman Benita Ferrero-Waldner that the Russian and the OSCE positions on that conflict "coincide," ITAR-TASS reported. Ferrero-Waldner the same day received a letter from separatist leader Igor Smirnov criticizing the organization and its chairwoman in particular, Infotag reported. "The unwillingness of the OSCE Council to allow the Transdniester delegation to address the recent OSCE meeting in Vienna has compromised both your personal authority and the authority of your organization," Smirnov wrote. Speaking on Transdniester Television one day earlier, Supreme Soviet chairman Grigorii Marakutsa had said that negotiations over the status of the region "cannot continue for ever" and the Transdniester will now "concentrate its efforts on creating a sovereign and independent state," AP reported. [24] U.S. AGENCY, SOROS TO SET UP PRIVATE EAST EUROPEAN BUSINESSFUNDThe U.S. governmental Oversees Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and billionaire financier George Soros announced on 26 July they will establish a $150 million fund to spur private business in southeastern Europe, AP reported. Soros will contribute $50 million to the fund and the remainder will be provided by the OPIC. OPIC chairman George Munoz said the fund will encourage private ventures in Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Slovenia, and Turkey. Munoz said Kosova is not included because it lacks the necessary governmental structure, while Serbia "has excluded itself." MS [C] END NOTE[25] FEDERATION COUNCIL APPROVES PUTIN-LED REFORMSby Sophie LambroschiniBy approving a law removing them from the parliament and by adopting a new tax code, Russia's regional governors have submitted to the inevitable. In so doing, they relinquished the idea of a last stand in a protracted conflict with the Kremlin over President Vladimir Putin's large-scale centralization plan. The law on the upper house was adopted on 26 July after little more than an hour's debate. The Federation Council was slightly more resistant when it came to the discussion of the tax code, which lasted into the afternoon. The tax reform that was finally adopted could undermine the governors' economic power by reducing their financial resources. Tax and revenue distribution was always at the heart of their tug-of- war with the federal authorities. The bill overhauling the Federation Council passed by a vote of 119 to 18 with four abstentions and 35 members absent. Russia's 88 governors and presidents (excluding Chechnya), as well as 88 regional assembly heads, agreed to give up their seats in the upper house, an important political platform with the power of approving presidential decrees, including sending Russian troops abroad. After a gradual rotation to be completed by 2002, they will be replaced by representatives appointed by regional officials. The bill was the result of a compromise with the State Duma (lower house) over a harsher proposal made by Putin two months ago. Federation Council speaker Yegor Stroev, who met with the president the day before the vote, made clear that any further fight was useless. He said: "We all know the bill will be passed." That was an apparent reference to a constitutional provision allowing a bill to be passed if the Duma overrides a Federation Council veto by more than 300 votes. So far, all three laws implementing Putin's vast centralization plans have been adopted by the Duma with more than 300 votes. Chuvash President Nikolai Fedorov, a strong opponent of the reform, argues that the changes only strengthen the president's powers at the expense of the parliament and the regions. But even Fedorov says the governors cannot resist a movement that is approved by Russian society, which he comments is longing for a strong hand. "I must conclude, unfortunately, that we all aimed for and tried to build a state with the rule of law," he said, "But it turns out now that society--or at least the prevailing atmosphere--is such that the will of the emperor, the will of the president, is law." Putin argues his reforms are aimed at strengthening the rule of law and preventing regional separatism. He says the changes will put an end to local fiefdoms in which governors have passed unconstitutional laws and substituted domestic for federal powers such as the police and the courts. But many governors argue that they helped save Russia from disintegrating into civil war by intervening when the federal government did not do its job. They cite their actions after the August 1998 financial crisis, when some governors imposed illegal price controls over basic products and limited exports out of their regions as a way to lessen the blow of a tumbling ruble. Most analysts say the real issue is regional economic power, which the Kremlin-proposed tax reform adopted by the Federation Council reduces by centralizing taxes. Both bills approved on 26 July are part of a larger tax reform that introduces measures such as the world's lowest income tax, a flat 13 percent rate. The new tax legislation, which cuts into the regions' tax allowance, has already been adopted by the Duma. It reduces that part of tax revenues that the regions may keep for themselves. For example, the regions now receive 15 percent of the collected value-added tax. The new bill transfers total control of VAT over to the federal government. Another measure, hailed by businesses but criticized by the regions, is the planned elimination of a 4 percent turnover tax that was mostly spent in the regions. Russia's 19 "donor" regions--those that give more to the federal budget than they receive--are especially critical of the reform. These relatively affluent areas, which include Moscow and oil-producing regions, feel that under the principle of tax redistribution, they will unfairly share their economic wealth with poorer areas. But many poorer regions feel they can only win from a reform that could increase tax distribution in their favor. The author is an RFE/RL correspondent based in Moscow. 27-07-00 Reprinted with permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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