No. 167, 01 September 1992

SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR

FIGHTING CONTINUES IN ABKHAZIA. Despite the ceasefire agreement
reached on 29 August,fighting continued on 31 August near Gagra
between Georgian National Guard troops and Abkhaz and North Caucasians.
Georgian forces also launched a massive attack on Gudauta, the
headquarters of Abkhaz Parliament Chairman Vladislav Ardzinba,
Interfax reported. At an emergency session of the Georgian State
Council on 31 August, State Council Chairman Eduard Shevardnadze
stated that Georgia must take all measures to bring about a ceasefire
before his scheduled meeting in Moscow with Russian President
Yeltsin and Abkhaz and North Caucasian representatives on 3 September,
but that a ceasefire must be linked to the withdrawal of all
North Caucasian irregulars from Georgian territory. (Liz Fuller,
RFE/RL, Inc)

SHEVARDNADZE TO RUN FOR GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT CHAIRMAN. Arguing
that "Georgians cannot help being original," Georgian State Council
chairman Eduard Shevardnadze told Georgian Radio on 31 August
that he will stand for the post of parliament chairman in the
11 October parliamentary elections, ITAR-TASS reported. The existing
election law was amended on 29 August, after Shevardnadze had
announced his intention to stand as a candidate for the bloc
that includes the successor party to the Georgian CP, to make
provision for the simultaneous election of a parliament chairman,
who may not be a member of any registered political party. (Liz
Fuller, RFE/RL, Inc.)

IMF WARNS OF HIGHER INFLATION IN RUSSIA. The International Monetary
Fund believes that there is a serious risk of a further intensification
of inflationary pressures in Russia because of a lack of monetary
and fiscal control. The warning comes in an IMF report due to
be released later in September and which was quoted by AP on
31 August. The IMF estimates that retail prices in Russia rose
by 875% during the first eight months of 1992. The Russian GDP
declined, in real terms, by 9% in 1991 and by 14% in the first
half of 1992. Net financial flows to the former Soviet republics
amounted to $9.25 billion in 1991 and are expected to reach $21
billion in 1992. (Keith Bush, RFE/RL, Inc.)

CIVIC UNION WANTS TO CHANGE CIS INTO CLOSER UNION. The Political
Council of the Civic Union has spoken out in favor of initiating
in the parliaments and governments of CIS states the recreation
of a closer union of states, Nezavisimaya gazeta reported on
1 September. The council recommended the establishment of a collective
organ that would conduct a unitary economic, scientific and cultural
policy on the territory of the CIS. The council emphasized the
need to defend Russian minorities in former Soviet republics.
The major force behind the attempt to recreate the union is the
industrial lobby, which is most interested in preserving links
between various industrial entreprises on the territory of the
former Soviet Union. (Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)

VOLSKY: INDUSTRIALISTS RESPONSIBLE FOR STABILITY IN RUSSIA. The
leader of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneures,
Arkadii Volsky, denied that he intends to become Prime Minister.
In an interview with Delovoi mir (no 166), he said he wants to
make his union as powerful as the industrial lobbies in Western
countries. He added that the industrialists understand the economic
situation better than the present government. He maintained that
the enterprise directors have put a lot of effort into protecting
the social welfare of their factory workers and in doing so have
saved the reform process. He said that the newly created Civic
Union, which is dominated by the industrial lobby, could win
as a bloc in the next parliamentary elections. (Alexander Rahr,
RFE/RL, Inc.)

KHASBULATOV DEMOTES HIS FIRST DEPUTY. The chairman of the Russian
parliament, Ruslan Khasbulatov, issued an order on 21 August
concerning the division of responsibilities between the chairman
and the deputy chairmen of the parliament. This change deprived
his first deputy, Sergei Filatov, of most of his powers and limited
his functions to such areas as control over agriculture, an RFE/RL
stringer reported on 27 August. While Khasbulatov's policy has
been and remains directed toward fighting the executive branch,
Filatov always tried to find a compromise between the executive
and legislative branches. The order is being regarded as further
evidence that Khasbulatov is fighting to increase his own personal
power. (Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL, Inc.)

REPUBLICAN PARTY WARNING ABOUT KHASBULATOV. The Political Council
of the Republican Party of the Russian Federation has issued
a warning about attempts by the Russian parliament and its leader,
Ruslan Khasbulatov, to take power in the country. The statement,
published in Nezavisimaya gazeta on 1 September, asserted that
the leadership of the conservative parliament wants to deprive
President Boris Yeltsin of his additional powers, replace reformers
in the government with hardliners, and hold elections on the
local level to bring the old nomenklatura back into power, thereby
halting the economic reform process. The Republican Party also
called upon democrats to quit the Civic Union and to form a new
bloc of parties around "Democratic Russia." (Alexander Rahr,
RFE/RL, Inc.)

MORE ON EXIM BANK DEALS WITH RUSSIA. The Export-Import bank will
be starting negotiations with Russia next month for guarantees
on a 2 billion-dollar purchase of oil and gas equipment, an RFE/RL
Washington correspondent reported on 28 August. Vice-chairman
of the EXIM Bank Eugene Lawson expects that the deal will be
completed by October. The report also clarifies ITAR-TASS coverage
of the recent $102 million dollar guarantee agreement signed
on August 27 (Daily Report, #165, p. 2) which involves $121 million
dollars worth of purchases for nuclear power facilities, car
and battery factories, as well as pre-fabricated construction.
ITAR-TASS reported that EXIM bank activity with the region, then
the USSR, was stopped due to US objections to Soviet emigration
policies. ITAR-TASS apparently was confusing the Jackson-Vanik
amendment with the Stephenson and other amendments which blocked
credits and guarantees but which were not tied to emigration.
(Erik Whitlock/Robert Lyle, RFE/RL, Inc.)

. . .RUSSIAN TRADE BANK DENIES BLOCKING DEALS. In a related story,
Rosvneshtorg bank defended itself against accusations that it
is obstructing over 100 projects by not cosigning deals that
have already received EXIM bank approval (Daily Report #159,
p. 2). According to the Journal of Commerce on 31 August, Deputy
Chairman of Rosvneshtorg bank Sergei Osinyagov said that his
bank considers many of the Russian partners in the proposed deals
utterly incapable of paying back loans and thus it may not approve
their purchases at all. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)

RUSSIA REFUTES WESTERN BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS CHARGES. Izvestia on
31 August carried a rebuttal to recent Western hints that Russia
might not have ended its illegal program to produce offensive
biological weapons. The paper quoted a foreign ministry staff
member as saying it was "impossible to imagine that the President
of Russia should not be in control of an area so important to
Russia's strategic defense." President Yeltsin has banned the
production of biological weapons. Western press reports on 31
August indicated that the United States and Britain had doubts
that Yeltsin's orders were being carried out. The two countries
were said to have asked Russia to take "concrete steps" to prove
that the program--outlawed by international agreement--had been
ended. (Doug Clarke, RFE/RL, Inc.)

UKRAINE TO TAKE GRADUAL APPROACH TO TRANSITION. First Deputy
Prime Minister Valentyn Symonenko told a press conference on
31 August that, although pressing forward with reform of the
Ukrainian economy, the nation would not opt for a "shock therapy"
approach, Western news agencies reported on 31 August. "We are
not talking about speedy changes but about evolutionary work,"
he was quoted as saying. Symonenko used the opportunity to touch
on a number of other topics as well. He discussed Ukraine's voucher-privatization
scheme which is to begin this fall with the opening of special
bank accounts to citizens valued at 30,000 coupons (about $100)
for use in purchasing shares in state companies. Symonenko, saying
there "was no way back," also reaffirmed the government's intention
to introduce its own currency, the hrivnya, by the end of the
year. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL, Inc.)

RUSSIAN DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER KHIZHA MEETS NORTH CAUCASIAN LEADERS.
In advance of the 3 September meeting in Moscow between Yeltsin
and Shevarnadze to discuss Abkhazia, Russian Deputy Prime Minister
Georgii Khizha met the heads of the North Caucasian republics
(except Chechnya and Ingushetia), Krasnodar and Stavropol krais,
and Rostov oblast, as well as representatives of the peoples
of the North Caucasus and Cossacks in Armavir on 31 August, ITAR-TASS
reported. Khizha said that the withdrawal of Georgian troops
from Abkhazia and the disbandment and disarming of armed formations
were essential to the establishment of a lasting peace. Participants
denounced the Confederation of Mountain Peoples' call for the
despatch of volunteers to Abkhazia to fight on the side of the
Abkhazians. There were also calls to turn the administrative
frontier between Russia and Georgia into a formal state one.
(Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL, Inc.)

MOUNTAIN PEOPLES' CONFEDERATION TEMPORARILY SUSPENDS DESPATCH
OF VOLUNTEERS. The Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the North
Caucasus issued a statement on 31 August saying that from 1 September
they were suspending the despatch of volunteers to Abkhazia,
ITAR-TASS reported citing CIS TV. The suspension would be in
operation until 4 September, when the outcome of the 3 September
talks in Moscow between the leaders of Russia, Georgia, Abkhazia,
and the North Caucasus should be known. (Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL,
Inc.)

ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT. Azerbaijani presidential
spokesman Niazi Ibragimov is quoted by ITAR-TASS as asserting
that an incident on 29 August in which a KAMAZ truck rammed a
police car escorting Azerbaijani President Abulfaz Elchibei's
car near the raion center of Geranboy was an assassination attempt.
The truck driver, whose identity is not known, was detained;
Elchibei was not injured. (Liz Fuller, RFE/RL, Inc.)

DEMONSTRATORS TAKE HOSTAGES IN DUSHANBE. Threatening that if
Tajik President Rakhmon Nabiev would not meet with them voluntarily,
they would haul him out by force, a group of opposition picketers
invaded the Presidential Palace in Dushanbe on 31 August, and
held government employees and members of the president's staff
hostage, ITAR-TASS reported. The opposition had set 31 August
as the deadline for Tajik President Rakhmon Nabiev either to
stop the fighting that has turned much of southern Tajikistan
into a civil war zone for the last two months, or resign. There
was no sign that Nabiev intended to resign. The demonstrators
also demanded the release of General Rakhim Nurullobekov, who
has been detained by National Security in connection with the
assassination last week of the state prosecutor. (Bess Brown
RFE/RL,Inc.)

CIS MIILTARY OBSERVERS IN TAJIKISTAN. A group of military observers
from Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and CIS armed forces headquarters
are visiting the parts of southern Tajikistan where fighting
is occurring, Khovar-TASS reported on 31 August. The observers
are assessing the potential danger for the rest of the Commonwealth
and the possibilities for reconciling the warring groups. They
were invited by the Tajik government, which has been criticized
by the opposition for an agreement reached last week between
President Nabiev and CIS armed forces commander Evgenii Shaposhnikov
on the deployment of CIS peacekeeping forces in Tajikistan. (Bess
Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)

TAJIK PRIME MINISTER RESIGNS. ITAR-TASS reported on 31 August
that Tajik President Nabiev had accepted the resignation of Prime
Minister Akbar Mirzoev on 30 August. No reason was given for
Mirzoev's departure. He was appointed to the post in January
and was considered a close associate of Nabiev. Mirzoev is one
of the government officials who came from Kulyab Oblast, which
has rejected the Dushanbe coalition government because it contains
members of the opposition. His departure from the government
may further exacerbate relations between Kulyab and Dushanbe.
(Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.)

KAZAKH-US AGREEMENT ON ENERGY. A memorandum between Kazakhstan
and the United States concerning cooperation on energy was signed
in Alma-Ata on 31 August, ITAR-TASS reported. The memorandum
provides for the privatization of Kazakhstan's existing energy
complex and US assistance in the preparation of laws on energy.
(Bess Brown, RFE/RL Inc.)

LEBEDAGAIN CAUTIONED AGAINST POLITICAL STATEMENTS. Russia's Defense
Minister, General Pavel Grachev, told Izvestiia of 1 September
that he has "issued additional written instructions to General
Lebed," the commander of Russia's 14th Army in Moldova, on "the
impermissibility of [making] political statements." Grachev's
announcement followed complaints by Moldova's ambassador to Russia,
Petru Lucinschi, to Grachev about Lebed's recent public statements
terming the Moldovan government "fascist" and "criminal" and
pledging continued Russian assistance, including military aid,
to the "Dniester republic." Lucinschi told Grachev that such
statements undermine Yeltsin's policy, contravene CIS commitments,
fuel Moldovan suspicions of Russia, and cause "an explosive situation"
in Moldova, Izvestia reported. Lebed had been instructed to refrain
from political statements in early July following his first series
of statements, but he continued to make them afterward. (Vladimir
Socor, RFE/RL, Inc.)

CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

ALEXANDER DUBCEK IN CRITICAL CONDITION AFTER CAR ACCIDENT. CSTK
reports that Alexander Dubcek, former chairman of the Czechoslovak
Federal Assembly and leader of the 1968 Prague Spring, was involved
in a car accident on the highway connecting Prague and Bratislava
in the morning of 1 September. Dubcek was transported to a hospital
in Humpolec, where he was diagnosed as having suffered a broken
spine, ribs, and hips. (Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL, Inc.)

MAZOWIECKI WARNS OF SPREADING ETHNIC CLEANSING. Western news
agencies on 31 August quoted UN human rights monitor and former
Polish prime minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki as blaming all sides
for human rights violations in the Yugoslav conflict. He added,
however, that Croatian persecution of Serbs "cannot be compared
to the systematic use of violence against ethnic Croatians and
Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina." Mazowiecki cited systematic execution
of prisoners by Serbian irregulars, as well as "particularly
grave incidents of physical abuse of Catholic priests and nuns."
There were signs that the Serbs were beginning to extend ethnic
cleansing to the Sandzak, Kosovo, and Vojvodina, and international
monitors should be sent to those areas soon, he concluded. He
also requested more UN peace keepers for the conflict and asked
that they be given powers to intervene to stop human rights violations.
(Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.)

VANCE: ALL SIDES HAVE BROKEN LONDON AGREEMENTS. The chief UN
envoy in the Yugoslav conflict, Cyrus Vance, said on 31 August
that all parties had already violated the terms they had approved
on 26 and 27 August, including the cease-fire. Western news agencies
added that Vance would consider taking up some of the recommendations
in Mazowiecki's 18-page report. The envoy will resume negotiations
on the crisis on 4 September in Geneva. (Patrick Moore, RFE/RL,
Inc.)

UN SANCTIONS BROKEN AT HUNGARIAN BORDER. According to Reuters
on 31 August, UN trade sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro
are repeatedly being broken by shipment of goods across the Hungarian
border. The report was based on an interview with a representative
of the Dutch transport union Vervoersbond FNV, who was sent to
the border to investigate claims that drivers passing through
Serbia are often forced to load cargoes in violation of the sanctions.
(Judith Pataki, RFE/RL, Inc.)

PANIC TO FACE NO-CONFIDENCE VOTE. Radio Serbia reported on 31
August that the federal assembly of the rump Yugoslavia will
take a vote of no-confidence on Prime Minister Milan Panic. The
motion was proposed by 68 deputies of the ruling Socialist Party
and the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party. The vote could
take place as early as 3 September and would require only a simple
majority of the 178 deputies to pass. Expressing the view of
those deputies who oppose Panic, Brana Crncevic, a popular columnist
and socialist deputy, said Panic's talks with Croatian President
Franjo Tudjman and Kosovo's leader Ibrahim Rugova in London "exceeded
the boundaries of his mandate" since the talks "were conducted
in secret." Crncevic also complained that Panic acted without
giving prior notice to members of the Serbian and Montenegrin
delegations in London and disregarded the assembly's instructions
in connection with the London meeting. Crncevic also said that
Panic's pledges on recognizing the independence of Croatia and
the restoring Kosovo's autonomy were out of line. (Milan Andrejevich,
RFE/RL, Inc.)

REACTIONS TO THE NO-CONFIDENCE PROPOSAL. President of the rump
Yugoslavia Dobrica Cosic told Tanjug that he is surprised by
the move, as are Deputies of Montenegro's Democratic Party of
Socialists (formerly League of Communists). Svetozar Marovic,
a Montenegrin deputy, expressed his doubts that such a "radical
and one-sided move" can contribute to the stabilization of the
situation in the country." Panic's spokesman, David Calef, told
reporters that Panic is "not worried." It is widely believed
that the latest action may be the result of Panic's attempts
to restrain Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, widely regarded
as the chief instigator of continuing warfare in the former Yugoslavia.
Earlier Panic put Milosevic on notice that he must comply with
the London agreements "or else . . . I will demand his resignation."
On 29 August, however, Panic said his statement had been misinterpreted:
"I said if anyone fails to comply, he would have to resign."
Radio Serbia carried the reports. (Milan Andrejevich, RFE/RL,
Inc.)

SLOVAK PARLIAMENT DISCUSSES CONSTITUTION. On 31 August the Slovak
National Council opened a session dedicated to debating a draft
Slovak constitution. Presenting the draft, which had been prepared
by the Slovak government, Slovak prime minister Vladimir Meciar
called it Slovakia's first truly democratic constitution. He
also said that the constitution is based on "civic rather than
national principle." Meciar praised the fact that deputies have
submitted more than 400 amendments to the draft constitution.
He argued, however, that the efforts by ethnic Hungarian deputies
to have minority rights enhanced through amendments were "justly
rejected," because "they would cast doubt on the integrity of
the Slovak Republic." During the parliamentary debate, Hungarian
deputies criticized the draft as "repressive" and said they would
vote against it. Responding to criticism that the constitution
gives too much power to the government and weakens the parliament,
Meciar said that "the government is not parliament's front office."
(Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL, Inc.)

POLISH SENATE EXPERTS CRITICAL OF DRAFT CONSTITUTION. Several
constitutional experts have proposed that the Senate reject the
draft of a new Polish constitution that was approved by the Sejm
on 1 August. Testifying at a hearing held by the Senate's Constitutional
Commission on 31 August and reported by PAP, the experts said
that the draft rules for the formation of the government are
confusing and could complicate the operation of the government,
that the proposed constitution excessively limits the president's
prerogatives, and that it restricted the Senate's authority by
enhancing the Sejm's powers. The draft must be approved by the
Senate and signed by the president. Poland's current constitution
was adopted in 1952 at the height of communist rule and, as a
result of frequent amendments, it confuses rather than clarifies
the rules and procedures of government. (Jan de Weydenthal, RFE/RL,
Inc.)

ILIESCU LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN. On 31 August Romanian president Ion
Iliescu opened his campaign for reelection. He made a general
statement on Radio Bucharest and answered questions from listeners,
telling Romanians that his policies helped "demolish the communist
totalitarian system" in the country as well as avert "chaos and
anarchy" during the transition to democracy and a market economy.
A high-ranking communist party functionary under Ceausescu until
1971, Iliescu is backed by the Democratic National Salvation
Front, which broke away from the National Salvation Front in
April. (Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.)

ANTALL DISTANCES HIMSELF FROM CSURKA PAMPHLET. On 31 August,
the first day of parliamentary session after the summer break,
Prime Minister Jozsef Antall distanced himself from the "political
pamphlet" written recently by Istvan Csurka, vice-president of
the governing Democratic Forum, MTI reports. Antall called Csurka's
critical study of the performance of the Democratic Forum and
the government "politically harmful" because it gave wrong answers
to important questions. Antall stressed that neither he, his
cabinet, nor the party have identified with those answers. Antall
was also critical of a leading liberal member of his party, Jozsef
Debreczeni, who took the debate outside the party by publishing
an answer to Csurka's essay in the opposition daily Nepszabadsag.
(Judith Pataki, RFE/RL, Inc.)

HUNGARIAN PARTY DOCUMENTS TO BE MADE PUBLIC. Radio Budapest reported
on 28 August that several documents of the former Hungarian Socialist
Workers' Party will become accessible to the public on 1 September
when the law passed by Hungarian parliament last December on
the fate of the documents comes into effect. Some party documents,
such as membership lists, were returned to the Institute of Party
History. Although some material is readily available at the archives,
materials less than 30 years old can be researched only if the
Ministry of Education and Culture, which supervises the archives,
grants permission to do so. (Judith Pataki, RFE/RL, Inc.)

TROOPS TO BE WITHDRAWN FROM BALTICS IN 1993? On 31 August Oleg
Muradyan, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Baltic Affairs
department, told BNS that Russia is ready to withdraw its troops
from the Baltic States by the end of 1993. He said that this
is an "unofficial position" but that Russian President Boris
Yeltsin will make this proposal at his 8 September meeting with
Lithuanian parliament chairman Vytautas Landsbergis. In an interview
with the RFE/RL Lithuanian Service, Landsbergis said that the
"good will and flexibility" shown by the Russians in negotiations
on troop withdrawals made him "moderately optimistic" that an
agreement on a "package of documents" on the withdrawal could
be reached. (Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL, Inc.)

UDF REACTION TO ZHELEV'S CRITICISM. On 31 August Bulgarian prime
minister and UDF leader Filip Dimitrov rejected the sharp criticism
directed at his ruling coalition by President Zhelyu Zhelev the
previous day. Dimitrov said Zhelev's claims that the political
situation in Bulgaria is tense and that the parliament and the
government are not functioning efficiently "do not correspond
to the truth," BTA reports. Following a meeting of the UDF Coordinating
Council, spokesman Mihail Nedelchev said Zhelev ought to have
made his remarks directly to the coalition before going public.
Zhelev is a founder and former leader of the UDF. (Kjell Engelbrekt,
RFE/RL, Inc.)

BULGARIAN GYPSIES MEET. On 30 August, leaders of the Bulgarian
Gypsy community, which has been rent by many divisions, ended
a two-day session which they called the "National Round Table
for the Union of Gypsies," BTA reported. The meeting yielded
a declaration which calls for equal treatment of Gypsies. It
indicates that Gypsies wish to cooperate with state agencies
in diminishing tensions between Gypsies and other citizens. Bulgaria's
Gypsy leaders wish to form a national organization and are planning
a conference in Sofia on 17 October to pursue this goal. Gypsies
comprise the third largest ethnic group in Bulgaria after Bulgarians
and Turks. (Duncan Perry, RFE/RL, Inc.)

BULGARIA TO SERVICE FOREIGN DEBT. Given the approval of the National
Assembly, from mid-September Bulgaria will resume payments on
its $12 billion foreign debt the government decided on 31 August.
According to BTA, Finance Minister Ivan Kostov told a press conference
that the decision is a result of concessions made by both Bulgaria
and its commercial creditors. Although he declined to reveal
details, Kostov said the creditor banks have agreed to Bulgaria's
request for a comprehensive settlement and is offering substantial
debt reduction. (Kjell Engelbrekt, RFE/RL, Inc.)

POLISH STRIKE UPDATE. PAP reports that on 1 September the management
of the car parts factory in Tychy began sending dismissal notices
to about 400 strikers occupying the plant. PAP also reported
that the management of the Silesian Rozbark coal mine made public
the names of 17 striking miners to be dismissed for disciplinary
reasons. Both strikes are regarded as illegal. In a related development,
workers in the Ursus tractor plant near Warsaw decided to continue
a partial strike. Prime Minister Hanna Suchocka declined the
workers' invitation for an urgent meeting to discuss their problem.
(Jan de Weydenthal, RFE/RL, Inc.)

STOLOJAN DEFENDS SUBSIDY CUTS; UNIONS CALL PROTESTS. In an interview
broadcast by Radio Bucharest on 31 August Romanian prime minister
Theodor Stolojan again defended his cabinet's decision to go
ahead with subsidy cuts planned for 1 September. Stolojan, who
admitted that the move was likely to have a negative impact on
the forthcoming elections, insisted that Romania cannot "afford
the luxury of linking its economic reforms to the electoral cycle."
The new round of subsidy cuts--the second this year--is expected
to lead to a substantial increase in prices for staples, services,
and energy. Romania's main trade union organizations called for
rallies on 11 September to protest sinking living standards.
(Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL Inc.)

START OF SCHOOL YEAR IN LITHUANIA. On 31 August Darius Kuolys,
Lithuanian minister of culture and education, told a press conference
that with the start of the school year on 1 September Lithuanian
education was entering its second stage of reform. More than
40 new textbooks will be used to replace Soviet materials throughout
the school system. Fourteen new primary schools and eight high
schools have been opened. "Moral training" classes, either in
religion or ethics, will be required for pupils in primary and
high schools. (Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL, Inc.)

CORRECTION: In RFE/RL Daily Report 165 of 28 August, The post
of Bulgarian Deputy Foreign Minister Valentin Dobrev was incorrectly
given. In the item on debt settlement (Daily Report 166) on 31
August, while Bulgaria's foreign debt amounts to $12 billion,
its commercial debt stands at about $10 billion.