No. 169, 03 September 1992

SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR

NABIEV APPARENTLY OUT. Tajik Radio announced in the early morning
of 3 September that the Presidium of Tajikistan's Supreme Soviet
and its Cabinet of Ministers had issued a statement declaring
no confidence in President Rakhmon Nabiev and removing him from
power because of his failure to end the crisis that threatens
to destroy the country. The statement also said that Nabiev has
not tried to create solidarity among the country's political
parties; rather, he has lost credibility with the leaders of
other states, thereby damaging Tajikistan's interests, and has
taken refuge with the military units of another country (CIS
officers deny this). A session of the Supreme Soviet has been
called for 4 September, presumably to rafity Nabiev's removal
and to choose an interim successor. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL Inc.)


NAVZHUVANOV RESIGNS. Tajik Minister of Internal Affairs Mamadaez
Navzhuvanov resigned on 3 September, according to ITAR-TASS,
saying that he refused to take part in fratricidal wars and saw
no way out of the current situation. Navzhuvanov, who is counted
as an opposition sympathizer, threatened to resign in August
if internal affairs troops were to be used to put down by force
factional fighting in southern Tajikistan. His resignation, which
he may withdraw now that Nabiev has been ousted, would probably
contribute further to unrest in Tajikistan. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL
Inc.)

ABKHAZ UPDATE. Georgian State Council Chairman Eduard Shevardnadze
flew to Moscow on 2 September for talks the following day with
Russian President Yeltsin and Abkhaz and North Caucasian representatives.
Georgian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandre Kavsadze told ITAR-TASS
on 2 September that Georgia would condone Abkhaz autonomy as
long as it did not jeopardize Georgia's territorial unity; he
rejected the proposed deployment of CIS peacekeeping troops in
Abkhazia as "unnecessary." Meanwhile, Georgian and Abkhaz troop
commanders in Abkhazia agreed to a temporary ceasefire late on
2 September, according to ITAR-TASS and Interfax. (Liz Fuller,
RFE/RL Inc.)

MAJOR STRIKE UNDERWAY IN UKRAINE. On 2 September, supporters
of Ukraine's independent Association of Free Trade Unions began
a major strike action for better pay and working conditions as
well as for the same legal recognition enjoyed by the former
Communist trade unions. Among those who heeded the call to strike
were thousands of train drivers, pilots and air-traffic controllers,
with the result that, as CIS and Western agencies reported, many
of Ukraine's railway stations and airports were paralyzed. Some
coal mines have also joined the strike. According to Western
agencies, the leaders of the strike have threatened to make political
demands if their grievances are not promptly redressed. (Bohdan
Nahaylo, RFE/RL Inc.)

RUSSIAN CENTRAL BANK'S RESERVES LOW. The acting chairman of the
Russian Central Bank, Viktor Gerashchenko, said on 2 September
that the bank had spent more than $650 million so far this year
to support the ruble, Interfax and Western agencies reported.
"We are not giving up the practice of hard-currency interventions,
but we can run out of money at any moment." Gerashchenko announced
that the bank has, at most, $100 million left in convertible
currency reserves to support the ruble. He reiterated his conviction
that the money used to prop up the ruble's exchange rate would
have been better used to repay some of the former Soviet Union's
convertible currency debt. Gerashchenko also said that he favors
making Russian exporters convert all of their hard-currency revenues
into rubles. (Keith Bush, RFE/RL Inc.)

CHANGES IN RUSSIAN ENERGY PRICES IMMINENT? At a meeting with
economic counselors from foreign embassies in Moscow on 2 September,
Russian Economics Minister Andrei Nechaev said that a government
decree reviewing energy prices has been prepared and should be
signed very shortly, Russian and Western agencies reported. The
decree will be "a decisive step towards liberating fuel prices.
It does not mean that prices will go up further but they will
be given more freedom, with certain limitations." At the current
rates of exchange, the domestic Russian prices for energy-carriers
are 10- 15% of world prices. The Russian government has committed
itself to bringing domestic prices up to world levels within
the next two years or so. (Keith Bush, RFE/RL Inc.)

MORE DETAILS ON RUSSIAN PRIVATIZATION. Russian Deputy Prime Minister
Anatolii Chubais told a gathering of industrial managers on 31
August that because of inflation, privatization vouchers with
a nominal value of 10,000 rubles will be worth 150,000-200,000
rubles once large-scale privatization gets under way, Interfax
reported. Chubais told ITAR-TASS in Chita that the privatization
program was being impeded by local officials. He also mentioned
complications due to unresolved problems between Moscow, Tatarstan,
and Chechnya. (Keith Bush, RFE/RL Inc.)

RECOMMENDATIONS ON RUSSIAN EXPORT CURBS WITHDRAWN. The Russian
Central Bank has reversed its recommendation, circulated at the
end of June, to Russian enterprises "to limit exports" to other
CIS members, Interfax reported on 31 August. The original recommendation
arose from the perceived need to curb the growing arrears in
payment to Russian suppliers. The decision to reverse the recommendation
was taken after the Russian Antimonopoly Committee accused the
central bank of exceeding its powers. (Keith Bush, RFE/RL Inc.)


SOLZHENITSYN ON KGB AND PRESENT REGIME IN RUSSIA. "An amalgam
of former Party functionaries, 'quasi-democracts,' KGB officers
and 'black market' wheeler-dealers, which are gaining power now
[in Russia], represents a dirty hybrid unseen in the history
of the world," said Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in a film that was
screened on prime time Ostankino TV on September 2. According
to Solzhenitsyn, the KGB has only changed its facade and colors
while retaining its networks and influence, particularly in the
provinces. He labled as a "cunning lie" the thesis that the exposure
of KGB informers would lead to a "witch hunt." "Without the purification
of our society, there will be no democracy for this land," he
said. Finally, Solzhenitsyn called on Russian journalists to
confess that they have supported totalitarianism by spreading
lies for decades, rather than concentrate solely on reporting
the sins of others as they are doing now. (Victor Yasmann, RFE/RL
Inc.)

CONFLICTING VIEWS ON THE KURILES DISPUTE. Although the Russian
and Japanese foreign ministers said on 1 September that their
two countries had moved closer to an agreement on the Kuril Islands
dispute, the contentious issue seemed far from solved when President
Yeltsin met Japanese Foreign Minister Michio Watanabe the next
day. Yeltsin's spokesman, Vyacheslav Kostikov, was quoted by
UPI as saying that the Russian president "evaded a discussion
of the matter" during the 35-minute meeting. ITAR-TASS quoted
Kostikov as saying that the Japanese position on the islands
"has only complicated a solution to the issue and inflamed public
opinion passions both in Russia and Japan." (Doug Clarke, RFE/RL
Inc.)

RUSSIA WILL CONTINUE ESPIONAGE ABROAD. "We are going to carry
out our intelligence work, when and whereever necessary," said
the former Chief of the KGB's "Illegal" Foreign Intelligence
Department, Vadim Kirpichenko, in an interview with Patriot,
(no. 34.). Kirpichenko, who is now the Director of the Advisory
Group at Russian Foreign Intelligence Headquarters, was for many
years in charge of Administration "C" within the First Main Administration.
Administration "C" was responsible for directing KGB officers
working abroad under false identities as foreign nationals. Kirpichehko
also revealed that Russian Foreign Intelligence has lost power
vis-a-vis the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). During
the Gorbachev period, the KGB took part in foreign policy decision-making
together with the MFA; today its activities are more restricted
than before to the area of intelligence collection. (Victor Yasmann,
RFE/RL Inc.)

DIPLOMATIC MANEUVERING OVER KARABAKH CEASEFIRE. Italy is hoping
that Azerbaijan will follow the example of Armenia and the government
of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and consent
to formalize the abortive NagornoKarabakh ceasefire agreed to
late last month and allow international monitoring of it, Reuters
reported on 2 September. Italy is due to host a new round of
preparatory peace talks on Nagorno-Karabakh beginning 7 September;
the previous round of talks ended in deadlock on 5 August. Speaking
at a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Djakarta on 2 September,
Armenian Foreign Minister Raffi Hovanissian called for UN sanctions
against Azerbaijan if it declined to participate in talks on
resolving the Karabakh conflict. He also called on the international
community to extend diplomatic recognition to the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic. (Liz Fuller, RFE/RL Inc.)

MOUNTAIN PEOPLES' CONFEDERATION AND ABKHAZ TALKS. The Confederation
of the Mountain Peoples' of the North Caucasus on 2 September
denounced the leaders of the North Caucasian republics due to
take part in the Abkhazian peace talks in Moscow on 3 September,
the Western and Russian media reported. A Confederation spokesman
Danour Zantaria, cited in Kuranty, called the North Caucasian
officials "former leaders of the nomenklatura who no longer control
the situation," The Confederation has suspended the despatch
of volunteers to Abkhazia until the outcome of the talks is known.
(Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL Inc.)

NAZARBAEV'S FIVE PROPOSALS FOR BISHKEK. Kazakhstan President
Nursultan Nazarbaev told a meeting of Moscow's chief newspaper
editors in Alma-Ata that he would make five proposals at the
CIS summit in Bishkek on 25 September, Izvestiya reported on
2 September. They are: to organize a coalition council of economic
cooperation, to create a banking union based preferably on a
supranational currency, to form the CIS economic court, to enhance
the role of the CIS interparliamentary assembly and get more
CIS states to join it, and to build a defense union, which, he
said, could be most economically established within the framework
of the Commonwealth. Nazarbaev has, in fact, been pushing some
of these proposals at summit meetings for some time. (Ann Sheehy,
RFE/RL Inc.)

KARIMOV AND COLLECTIVE SECURITY PACT. In an interview on CIS
TV on 1 September, Uzbek President Islam Karimov said that when
Uzbekistan signed the collective security pact, it envisaged
Russia guaranteeing security in the Central Asian region. He
warned that, if Russia does not understand this, "then its distant
frontiers will become its near frontiers." Karimov signed the
pact in May chiefly out of concern over the political instability
in neighbouring Tajikistan. (Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL Inc.)

RUSSIAN AND UZBEK TV BROADCASTS STOPPED IN TAJIKISTAN. ITAR-TASS
reported on 2 September that the head of Tajik Television, Mirbobo
Mirrakhimov, had ordered that rebroadcasts of Russian and Uzbek
TV be stopped in Tajikistan because of the complicated situation
in the country. Mirrakhimov's decision suggests that anti-Russian
sentiments have increased in Tajikistan since rumors spread that
President Nabiev took refuge at a CIS military base to escape
demonstrators who seized his official residence and took many
government officials hostage. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL Inc.)

YELTSIN-SNEGUR MEETING. The Russian and Moldovan Presidents,
Boris Yeltsin and Mircea Snegur, met one on one in Yeltsin's
working cabinet in the Kremlin on 1 September for the fourth
time in the space of two months. A press release via ITAR-TASS
spoke of "a very warm, friendly, and businesslike atmosphere
devoid of tensions of any kind." Yeltsin offered to serve as
intermediary between Chisinau and Tiraspol concerning the future
political status of the left bank of the Dniester. Accepting
Yeltsin's offer, Snegur confirmed that Moldova was prepared immediately
to grant the right-bank city of Bendery the status of a free
economic zone (an offer Moldova had made to Bendery and the left
bank already in 1991) and to negotiate the political status of
the left bank "provided that the territorial integrity of our
state is maintained," Snegur told Moldovapres. Snegur also hoped
that a bilateral economic agreement "with specific targets" will
be concluded for 1993. (Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL Inc.)

MOLDOVAN MILITARY ISSUES ALSO DISCUSSED. The press release added
obscurely that Russia and Moldova were discussing "military issues,
as well as the question of a gradual withdrawal of [Russia's]
14th Army" from Moldova. (The wording apparently reflects Russia's
current attempt to link the issue of troop withdrawal to that
of "military cooperation" with Moldova). The sides agreed to
appeal jointly to Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk to cooperate
in the supply of Russian military units in Moldova and, subsequently,
to help faciliate their withdrawal through Ukrainian territory.
Russia has agreed to withdraw this year a paratroop regiment
stationed in downtown Chisinau and a pontoon regiment based on
the Dniester. (Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL Inc.)

"DNIESTER REPUBLIC" CELEBRATES. A mass rally and military parade--
attended by Maj. Gen. Aleksandr Lebed, commander of Russia's
14th Army-- were held in Tiraspol on 2 September, the second
anniversary of the proclamation of the "Dniester Soviet Socialist
Republic." Its president, Igor Smirnov, said in his address that
"the republic has survived only thanks to Russia and the 14th
Army," RFE/RL correspondents reported. While taking issue with
Yeltsin's stance on Moldova's integrity, Smirnov was also quoted
as announcing that Russia would provide 2 billion rubles in credits
to the "Dniester republic" for the purchase of grain and other
agricultural commodities. Both Smirnov and the "Dniester Guard"
commander, Maj. Gen. Stefan Kitsak, claimed victory over Moldova
and reiterated that the would-be republic would build its own,
professional army. "The Dniester republic's strategic course
toward forming the Dniester state is not subject to change,"
Smirnov said as cited by DR Press. (Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL Inc.)


CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

BOSNIAN UPDATE. The BBC said on 2 September that Bosnian Serb
leader Radovan Karadzic has ordered his men to put their heavy
artillery around Sarajevo under UN supervision, but he added
that the Serbs would want to use it in self-defense. The UN has
begun talks with the Bosnian government, which controls relatively
few heavy weapons, about registering its big guns as well. The
BBC said that UN officials doubt that the Serbs will really show
or register all their weapons and suspect that large reserves
are hidden in the wooded hills and mountains. Western news agencies
report heavy fighting around Gorazde, where the siege has just
ended. Serbian fighters told journalists that many Serbian civilians
had been massacred by Muslims in and around Gorazde since then,
and reporters are now seeking independent confirmation of the
accounts. Local Serbs said that Karadzic had sold them out by
agreeing to lift the siege. Talks begin in Geneva on 3 September
in the first follow-up meeting to the London Conference of 26-28
August. (Patrick Moore, RFE/RL Inc.)

COSIC PRAISES PANIC'S PERFORMANCE. Dobrica Cosic, president of
the rump Yugoslavia, sent a letter to deputies of the Socialist
Party of Serbia (SPS) and the Serbian Radical Party in the Federal
Assembly expressing his dissatisfaction over their intention
to subject Prime Minister Milan Panic to a confidence vote. Cosic
describes the demand "as hasty, [and] politically damaging."
Cosic praised Panic saying "his new-style foreign policy and
impressive communication skills show the peaceful, democratic
face of our forsaken, isolated country." Cosic admitted Panic
could be criticized fro his work with the federal assembly but
warned that passing a vote of no confidence now "would seriously
jeopardize results achieved at the London conference." Radio
Serbia carried the report on 2 September. (Milan Andrejevich,
RFE/RL Inc.)

SOCIALIST CALL TO DROP CONFIDENCE VOTE. After receiving Cosic's
letter, on 2 September the executive committee of the SPS recommended
that deputies seeking a vote of no-confidence in the Panic government
drop their motion-- if Panic is willing to accept "well-intentioned
and substantiated criticism and political warnings." SPS chairman
Borislav Jovic said there are good reasons why the Federal Assembly
should evaluate the federal government's performance. Jovic denied
reports that he and Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic had
planned the confidence vote. On 31 August a faction within the
SPS and all deputies representing the nationalist Radical Party
called for the vote, charging that Panic had betrayed Serbia's
interests at the London conference. (Milan Andrejevich, RFE/RL
Inc.)

FORMER POLISH PRIME MINISTER FOUND MURDERED. Former communist
prime minister Piotr Jaroszewicz and his wife were found dead
in their Warsaw home on 2 September. According to PAP reports,
Jaroszewicz was strangled and his wife, a former journalist in
a communist party paper, was shot with a hunting rifle. The police
provided no indication of the motives for the crime. Jaroszewicz
began his political career in the Soviet-sponsored Polish army
during the war and then switched to civilian government administration.
He became a deputy prime minister in charge of international
economic policy in 1952 and was appointed head of the government
in December 1970. He was forced to resign this post in early
1980. After the imposition of martial law in December 1981, Jaroszewicz
was interned alongside other former communist leaders on charges
of abuse of power. He was never tried and, having been released
in late 1981, lived in Warsaw as a pensioner. In 1991 he published
his memoirs in which he blamed both the Soviet and Polish communist
governments for Poland's problems and difficulties. (Jan de Weydenthal,
RFE/RL Inc.).

DUBCEK REGAINS CONSCIOUSNESS. A physician in Prague, where Alexander
Dubcek is hospitalized after a car crash, said that Dubcek regained
consciousness following a three-hour spine operation on 2 September
but his condition remains serious. Former Czechoslovak president
Vaclav Havel visited Dubcek in the hospital and had a short conversation
with him. (Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL Inc.)

HUNGARIAN FOREIGN MINISTER IN SLOVAKIA. Geza Jeszenszky met with
Slovak officials in Bratislava on 2 September, Czechoslovak and
Hungarian media report. Slovak Premier Vladimir Meciar said that
Hungary would like to conclude an agreement with Slovakia on
the treatment of ethnic minorities, but Slovakia "has reservations"
and looks to Hungary first to provide an example by good treatment
of its Slovak minority. Slovak Foreign Minister Milan Knazko
said that Hungary could be one of the first countries to recognize
an independent Slovakia. Knazko also said that one meeting with
Jeszenszky will not be enough to solve the Slovak-Hungarian dispute
over the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros hydroelectric project. Jeszenszky
told Radio Budapest the same day that his government "understands"
Slovakia's efforts toward attaining independence and will accept
any decision taken by the Slovak and Czech peoples regarding
their future. He said Slovakia's independence provides "great
opportunities" for deepening bilateral relations in all fields,
notably the economic, and for solving contentious issues such
as the Danube dam. Jeszenszky said Hungary would welcome a mutual
agreement about ways to coexist reached among Slovakia's citizens
of Slovak, Magyar, and other national origin. (Jiri Pehe & Alfred
Reisch, RFE/RL Inc.)

ETHNIC HUNGARIAN DEPUTIES EXPLAIN WALKOUT. According to the Magyar
deputies in Slovakia's parliament, the new Slovak constitution
adopted on 1 September does not guarantee the protection of Slovakia's
national minorities, Radio Budapest reported on 2 September.
Miklos Duray, chairman of the Coexistence Political Movement,
said the constitution should not have been adopted. Bela Bugar,
chairman of the Hungarian Christian Democratic Movement, said
the Magyar deputies walked out of parliament to protest the narrowing
of minority rights after none of the amendments submitted by
the Magyar deputies was accepted. (Alfred Reisch, RFE/RL Inc.)


TOKES STARTS PROTEST FAST IN ROMANIA. Laszlo Tokes, the Magyar
bishop in Oradea of the Reformed Church in Romania whose defiant
refusal to leave his parish in Timisoara sparked the December
1989 uprising against the communist regime, began a fast in Timisoara
on 2 September. In a message to Radio Bucharest Tokes demanded
justice for the victims of the uprising and punishment for those
guilty of "genocide." He called for investigations of the violent
incidents in Tirgu Mures and Bucharest in 1990 and for the freeing
of Magyars sentenced in connection with ethnic clashes in Tirgu
Mures and elsewhere. Tokes demanded that those guilty of persecuting
the leadership of his church in 1989 be brought to account and
insisted upon a clarification of the circumstances of the death
of two prominent community leaders under Ceausescu. (Michael
Shafir, RFE/RL Inc.).

ROMANIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY APPROVES SEARCH FOR MASS GRAVE. Agreement
has been given to search an army base in Vladeni, Transylvania,
for a mass grave alleged to contain the remains of people executed
by the communist regime, the independent news agency Arpres reported
on 2 September. A spokesman for the ministry quoted by Reuters
said that the excavation was demanded by the Association of Former
Political Detainees, which believes that executed anticommunist
member of the resistance were buried there. (Michael Shafir,
RFE/RL Inc.).

SOME KGB FILES RETURNED TO LATVIA. In accordance with an agreement
signed between Latvia and Russia on 3 August, some 3.4 tons of
KGB archival materials covering about 20,000 cases have been
returned to Latvia, Latvijas Jaunatne reported on 29 August.
The materials were stored in Ulyanovsk. Vilis Stals, general
director of Latvia's archives, said that these materials would
help in the rehabilitation of Latvian citizens who were detained
in the Soviet Gulag after World War II. (Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL
Inc.)



BULGARIAN GENERAL DENIES COUP RUMORS. On 2 September, Bulgaria's
Chief of General Staff Col. Gen. Lyuben Petrov categorically
denied what he termed "rumors" of a military coup to overthrow
the democratically elected government, BTA reports. Petrov said
the army is "a national, non-party, state institution" which
"neither does, nor will take part in political struggles." Coup
rumors, he charged, represent an attempt to shake public confidence
in the Bulgarian army. (Kjell Engelbrekt, RFE/RL Inc.)

BALTIC PRIME MINISTERS TO MEET. The three Baltic prime ministers
have selected 11 September as the date for discussion of further
Baltic cooperation, BNS reports. Estonia's Tiit Vahi, Latvia's
Ivars Godmanis, and Lithuania's Aleksandras Abisala will meet
in Tallinn that day to talk about cooperation in customs, border,
and visa questions as well as trade issues. The three will also
touch on relations with the CIS and Russia. (Riina Kionka, RFE/RL
Inc.)

INDUSTRIAL UNREST WANES IN POLAND. Leaders of six radical labor
organizations met on 2 September in Warsaw to prepare a joint
strategy to force the government to talk with them on current
economic policies. According to a report in Rzeczpospolita, the
radical leaders concluded that strikes would not make the government
change its policies and appealed for mass demonstrations in front
of government offices. They stopped short of providing the date
for the demonstrations, however, and one of them remarked that
"society is not ready at this time to stage mass protests." There
was no immediate response from the government. (Jan de Weydenthal,
RFE/RL Inc.)

TATARSTAN DELEGATION IN VILNIUS. On 2- 3 September a delegation
from the Republic of Tatarstan headed by Vice President Vasilii
Likhachev paid an unofficial visit to Lithuania and held talks
with Supreme Council Chairman Vytautas Landsbergis, Prime Minister
Aleksandras Abisala and other officials on creating better economic
ties, Radio Lithuania reports. (Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL Inc.)


LITHUANIAN, LATVIAN EMIGRATION FIGURES. In the first six months
of 1992 3,826 people immigrated to Lithuania and 12,210 emigrated,
Gimtasis krastas reports in its 27 August- 2 September issue.
Some 3,545 immigrants are from former Soviet republics, including
2,101 from Russia, 435 from Belarus, and 330 from Ukraine, while
183 came from other foreign countries. Of the emigrants 11,469
are from former Soviet republics and 741 from other foreign countries.
According to data from the Latvian State Statistics Committee,
17,300 persons left Latvia during first half of 1992. Compared
with the same period last year, emigration from Latvia rose 170%
while immigration declined by 69.5%. The net population decline
has resulted, in part, due to emigration abroad, including the
USA, Israel, Germany, and the CIS states, Latvijas Jaunatne of
29 August reports. (Saulius Girnius & Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL Inc.)


MILLIONS OF RUBLES TRANSPORTED TO RUSSIA. On 2 September the
Latvian Supreme Council discussed a case involving the transport
of over 337 million Russian rubles out of Latvia in an unregistered
railroad car, Radio Riga reports. Latvian authorities discovered
the scheme on 28 July and arrested Sergei Trofimov, who at that
time said that 4 billion rubles had already been transported
out of Latvia in recent months. The case, which may involve currency
transactions at some Latvian banks, is being investigated by
special group of the Supreme Council. (Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL
Inc.)

AIDS PREVENTION IN ESTONIA. Representatives of the World Health
Organization told Estonian public health authorities on 2 September
that it may be too late to start an effective AIDS prevention
program there, BNS reports. Program officers from the WHO European
Bureau noted that 21 HIV carriers had been identified in Estonia,
but "the society is not yet aware of the danger of AIDS." A physician
from the Estonian Anti-AIDS Association told reporters that the
AIDS prevention program adopted last April in Estonia is virtually
bankrupt, but WHO officials said Estonia could not expect any
technical or financial aid for a program until it joins WHO.
(Riina Kionka, RFE/RL Inc.)

ESTONIAN BORDER GUARDS STOP IRAQIS. Estonian border guards stopped
10 Iraqi refugees from boarding an Estonian Air flight bound
for Stockholm on 1 September, ETA reports. According to Viktor
Hansen, chief of the Tallinn Border Authority, the Iraqis were
carrying professionally-forged Swedish, Norwegian, and Nicaraguan
passports with forged Estonian visas and were apparently seeking
to settle illegally in Sweden. Hansen said the refugees will
be sent back to Latvia and Russia, from where they had arrived.
(Riina Kionka, RFE/RL Inc.)

ROMANIA AND THE IRAQI CRISIS. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs
has "taken notice of the activities recently initiated by the
USA and its partners" south of the 32nd parallel in Iraq, a spokesman
said on 2 September. Radio Bucharest reports that Romania shares
the view that the developments were prompted by Iraq's refusal
to allow access to southern Iraq to UN observers and supports
implementation of Security Council Resolution 668. (Michael Shafir,
RFE/RL Inc.)

[As of 1200 CET]

Compiled by Hal Kosiba & Charles Trumbull