No. 108, 09 June 1993

RUSSIA



TEMPORARY "CONSTITUTIONAL LAW" PROPOSED. A group of delegates
at the Constituent Assembly suggested that the assembly should
work out a temporary "constitutional law" that would define presidential
and parliamentary powers and initiate new parliamentary elections,
Reuters reported on 9 June. The new parliament would then adopt
the new constitution, the final draft of which is to be prepared
by the Constituent Assembly. The agency quoted presidential political
advisor Sergei Stankevich as saying the idea was supported by
all five working groups at the assembly. He said President Boris
Yeltsin is also in favor of the proposal. In turn, Deputy Prime
Minister Sergei Shakhrai called the proposal "a minimum compromise
in the current situation." Even Sergei Baburin, a hard-line deputy
of the Russian parliament, said that it would be "reasonable"
to draw up such legislation. He added, however, that the existing
Congress of People's Deputies should still have the final say
on the constitution. -Vera Tolz

REPUBLICS AND CONSTITUTION. The meeting between the heads of
sixteen republics and Yeltsin on 8-June seems to have been chiefly
concerned with trying to ensure that Yeltsin and parliamentary
chairman Ruslan Khasbulatov should work together to produce the
new constitution, Russian and Western media reported. Shakhrai,
who is one of the chairmen of working group of subjects of the
federation, said that both the presidential and parliamentary
drafts were being taken for the basis of discussion in this group.
He reiterated that the question of equal status for all subjects
of the federation was the most complicated issue, but thought
a compromise was possible by equalizing the rights of the krays
and oblasts with those of the republics in most but not all respects.
Other working groups, however, have come out in favor of full
equality for all the subjects of the federation. The working
group of parties and social organizations has in addition decided
that the text of the federal treaty should not be included in
the constitution, as the republics and regions insist, because
it would mean making a step from a federation to a confederation,
Russian television reported. -Ann Sheehy

KHASBULATOV ATTACKED BY PARLIAMENTARY PRESIDIUM MEMBERS. Eight
members of the 32strong parliamentary presidium have attacked
their chairman Ruslan Khasbulatov for his "voluntaristic, authoritarian
leadership style," AFP reported on 8 June citing Interfax. Chairman
of the parliament's International Affairs Committee Yevgenii
Ambartsumov said that Khasbulatov's behavior had stymied participation
by the parliament early on in the constitutional process, but
pledged to rectify this by encouraging deputies to make a constructive
contribution to the debate over Russia's new constitution. The
deputy parliamentary speaker Nikolai Ryabov told ITAR-TASS on
8 June that he believed a law should be passed defining the functions
of the parliamentary presidium and chairman, as the current constitutional
provisions on this issue were too vague. -Wendy Slater

DEMOCRATIC PARTY RECALLS REPRESENTATIVES FROM CIVIC UNION. The
Democratic Party, one of Russia's strongest political parties,
has recalled its representatives from the ruling bodies of the
Civic Union because it considers that the latter has "moved towards
the socialist camp," ITAR-TASS reported on 7-June. The decision
was taken at the 5-June meeting of the DPR's leadership, and
was prompted by the Civic Union's recent offer of a coalition
agreement with a broader range of parties than currently have
membership [see 3-June RFE/RL Daily Report]. Among the parties
which accepted the offer were the Socialist Party of Working
People and the Party of Labor. The DPR, which had been opposed
to the coalition initiative from the start, said that it considered
the Civic Union to have exhausted itself as a centrist election
bloc. -Wendy Slater

ZORKIN'S DEPUTY URGES HIS RESIGNATION. The deputy Chairman of
Russia's Constitutional Court, Nikolai Vitruk, called on the
court's Chairman Valerii Zorkin to resign, an RFE/RL correspondent
reported on 9 June. Vitruk said that most judges of the Constitutional
Court disapproved of Zorkin's "political activities." Zorkin
was one of the Constitutional Assembly delegates to quit the
session on 5 June in protest at President Yeltsin's refusal to
allow parliamentary speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov to speak. Vitruk
also voiced his concern over the future of the court, in particular
whether it would retain judicial independence or become "an instrument
in the hands of one or other branch of power." -Wendy Slater


AMBARTSUMOV ON FOREIGN POLICY PROBLEMS. The influential head
of the Russian parliamentary Committee for International Affairs
and Foreign Economic Relations told reporters on 8 June that,
although his committee and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs continued
to have some "serious disagreements" on issues that included
ties with other former Soviet republics and sanctions against
Serbia, in general relations between the two bodies had warmed
considerably, ITAR-TASS reported. Evgenii Ambartsumov praised
in particular the Foreign Ministry's initiatives on regulating
the conflict in the former Yugoslavia and its abandonment of
what he characterized as its formerly "excessive Pro-American"
orientation in the broader conduct of foreign policy. Turning
to particulars, Ambartsumov criticized a US-Russian agreement
governing American aid for the storage, transport and elimination
of nuclear weapons; he also suggested that Russia should not
let the dispute over ownership of Crimea undermine Russian-Ukrainian
relations. -Stephen Foye

MONTHLY INFLATION RATE PICKS UP. The rate of inflation in May
rose slightly to 19%, bringing the increase for the first five
months to 164%, ITAR-TASS reported on 8 June. The monthly rates
so far in 1993 are reported to have been 27%, 25%, 17%, 16%,
and 19%. -Keith Bush

GOVERNMENT SHY TO FREE COAL PRICES. Deputy Prime Minister and
Minister of Finance Boris Fedorov is having mixed success pushing
through his recent proposals to reduce government spending. The
cabinet of ministers did not approve of his plan to free coal
prices in order to cut subsidies to coal mines, the Financial
Times reported on 4 June. The cabinet did, however, agree to
large increases in coal prices and decide to cut import subsidies
significantly. It also voted to restrict the Russian Federation's
Pricing Committee's tasks to forecasting and combating unfair
pricing practices. The Pricing Committee on 3 June proposed that
price controls be reintroduced on a wide variety of products.
-Erik Whitlock

CRITIQUE OF ARMS TRADE. An informative but very critical appraisal
of the former Soviet Union's and Russia's arms exports appeared
in Novoye vremya, no.-17, 1993. It lists the recipients of Soviet
and Russian weapons and equipment during the 1980s and 1990s.
The nominal value of such sales amounted to over $121-billion,
but only one-tenth of this sum "went into the state treasury."
A large percentage of the deliveries were in the form of "fraternal
aid," or financed by long-term and preferential credit, "payments
for which we have not managed to collect up to now." The critique
highlights the lack of coordination in the arms trade, competition
among sellers, and the continuing secrecy. -Keith Bush

COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES



SEVASTOPOL NOT FOR RENT. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has
issued a statement saying that press reports about the possible
leasing of the Black Sea port of Sevastopol to Russia "cannot
be taken seriously," Ukrainian TV reported on 8 June. The Ministry
says that renting out Sevastopol would not be in Ukraine's security
interests and is therefore unacceptable. It also maintains that
the Ministry has never considered such a possibility. The division
of Ukrainian land, says the statement, or the leasing of Ukrainian
cities "is impossible." -Roman Solchanyk

TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA



AZERBAIJANI LEADERSHIP BEGINS NEGOTIATIONS WITH REBELS. Addressing
a meeting of Azerbaijan's National Assembly (the rump parliament)
on 8-June, Azerbaijan's President Abulfaz Elchibey ruled out
the use of force to end the uprising in Gyandzha and stated that
negotiations have begun with military commander Surat Huseinov,
Western agencies reported. Parliament speaker Isa Gambar, whose
resignation, along with that of Prime Minister Panakh Guseinov
and Elchibey, has been demanded by the rebels, told the Turan
News Agency that the revolt had been provoked by "outside forces"
with the aim of restoring a pro-Russian regime in Azerbaijan,
according to AFP. Nakhichevan parliament chairman Geidar Aliev,
rumored to be in line to become the new prime minister, was expected
to travel to Baku. On 8 June Tehran Radio condemned Huseinov's
seizure of Gyandzha and called on Azerbaijanis to join forces
to drive the occupying Armenian troops out of Azerbaijan, Reuters
reported. -Liz Fuller

KOZYREV TO GEORGIA. Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev is
scheduled to travel today to Tbilisi, Gudauta, and Sukhumi to
seek a resolution of the conflict in Abkhazia, ITAR-TASS reported
7 June citing a highly-placed Russian diplomat. The visit follows
a series of violations by both sides of a 20 May ceasefire which
resulted from a 14 May meeting between Russian President Boris
Yeltsin and Georgian Parliament chairman Eduard Shevardnadze.
Speaking in Sukhumi on 6-June while Abkhaz forces shelled the
city, Shevardnadze raised the possibility of Georgian troops'
taking offensive measures to end the conflict, according to ITAR-TASS.
Also on 6 June, unknown forces fired on a Russian helicopter
carrying humanitarian cargo near Tkvarcheli. Abkhazia and Georgia
both deny responsibility for the attack. In response to these
events, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 7 June called
on both sides to end hostilities and to create the conditions
necessary for the delivery of humanitarian aid. Rounds of firing,
resulting in casualties, continued through 8-June, prompting
a Georgian official to call on Russia and other neighboring states
to help mediate an end to the conflict, according to ITAR-TASS.
-Catherine Dale

KAZAKHSTAN TO DEVELOP OIL RESERVES. A consortium of one domestic
and seven foreign oil firms are to sign an agreement on 9 June,
to develop a vast oilfield in the Caspian Sea, an RI analyst
reports from Alma-Ata. Kazakhstan has already signed similar
agreements with Elf and Chevron for other fields; on 9 June The
New York Times writes that Chevron has begun producing oil, five
years after exploration began. RI's analyst and The New York
Times note that there are several obstacles facing potential
investors: the local bureaucracy, political risk, unsettled border
questions in the Caspian Sea, and Kazakhstan's requirement that
foreign firms train local specialists. Nonetheless, most oil
companies seem to believe that allowing their competitors greater
access to one of the potentially largest oil fields in the world
constitutes an even graver risk. -Bess Brown and Keith Martin


CSCE UNVEILS NEW KARABAKH PEACE PROPOSAL. Delegates to last week's
CSCE Minsk Group meeting in Rome drew up a new peace plan for
Nagorno-Karabakh that was submitted to the leaders of Armenia,
Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh on 7 June, according RFE/RL's
Washington correspondent. The plans takes as the basis for a
settlement UN Resolution 822, which has been endorsed by Armenia
and Nagorno-Karabakh but not by Azerbaijan, and replaces the
tripartite US-Russian-Turkish initiative rejected by the Nagorno-Karabakh
leadership in May. The new plan provides for the withdrawal of
Armenian forces from Kelbadzhar, a ceasefire, the lifting of
blockades and a return to normal communications, and international
monitoring of the truce. -Liz Fuller

CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE



TRAVNIK CHRONICLE. On 8-9 June the BBC's Serbian and Croatian
Services report on the flight of thousands of Croat soldiers
and civilians before a Muslim offensive around Travnik. The Muslims
are apparently trying to push through the valley toward Zenica.
British observers rescued one group of 170 Croats, and elsewhere
found "strong evidence of atrocities." Bosnian Croat leader Mate
Boban claims that Croat soldiers are being tortured and killed
by Muslims, but foreign peacekeepers have no independent confirmation
of Boban's charges against his erstwhile allies. British witnesses
nonetheless saw Muslim troops fire on Croatian civilians trying
to flee the onslaught. The Croats who made it out alive surrendered
to the Serbs, who said that civilians will be free to go wherever
they choose. About 750 Croat soldiers and other men, however,
were taken to the former detention camp at Manjaca, where the
Serbs said they will be under Red Cross supervision. No independent
observers have confirmed that the men are safe or under what
conditions they are being held. Meanwhile, after months of blaming
alleged Serb agents among the Muslims for Muslim attacks on Croats,
the Croatian media as of 8-June had not reported that the Croats
had actually surrendered to the Serbs. The Serbian media, however,
gave wide publicity to the development. Borba of 9-June, moreover,
quotes Croatian President Franjo Tudjman as saying that the Croat-Muslim
alliance nonetheless is not dead. Tudjman, who is on a week-long
visit to China, also told his Chinese hosts that Marco Polo was
a Croat. -Patrick Moore

KRAJINA SERBS WARN OF TOTAL WAR. The prime minister of the self-proclaimed
Republic of Serbian Krajina, Djordje Bjegovic, warned that the
Serb-held region of Croatia stands on the verge of total war.
In an interview with Vecernje novosti on 8 June, Bjegovic explained
that the Vance peace plan for Croatia is "dead" and, lacking
an alternative plan, Serbs had been "forced to seek new ways"
of resolving the situation. On 5 June the "Assembly of the Republic
of Serbian Krajina" announced a referendum on unification with
the self-styled Serb Republic in Bosnia-Herzegovina with balloting
scheduled for 19-20 June. The Croatian government condemned the
move. Bjegovic remarked that Croatia's army views the referendum
as a "new challenge" and has mobilized 200,000 troops and placed
Scud missile units on alert. He predicted war will return to
the region "in a matter of days." Radio Serbia reports on 8 June
that Krajina Serb military officials have ordered a general mobilization.
-Milan Andrejevich

SHAKEUP IN THE BOSNIAN MILITARY. The BBC and Radio Bosnia-Herzegovina
report that on 8 June the Bosnian government took a series of
steps aimed at "bringing the army and the police under political
control." An orderly system of ranks will be introduced to help
combat warlordism, and both the defense and interior ministers
have been replaced. Outgoing Defense Minister Sefer Halilovic
was blamed by many for the Bosnian army's poor performance in
recent months, and, as a native of the Sandzak, was regarded
by some Bosnians as an outsider. His replacement is Rasim Delic,
who has been in charge of strategic planning. The new appointees
both come from top-level jobs, and the outgoing men will take
on important assignments. -Patrick Moore

SECOND YUGOSLAV SOLDIER RUNS AMOK. Radio Serbia reports on 8
June that an army private Nandor Kis, an ethnic Hungarian, killed
a fellow soldier and then committed suicide at an army barracks
in Sabac in western Serbia. It is the second such incident in
less than a week-on 3 June a soldier murdered seven fellow soldiers
before committing suicide at an army base near Vranje in southeastern
Serbia. No motive for either attack was given. The army has established
a commission to investigate the incidents. Radio B92 suggests
that the incidents point to ethnic tensions within the military.
Many Albanians, Hungarians, and Muslims in Serbia-Montenegro
have sought to avoid conscription by claiming discrimination
by Serbs. -Milan Andrejevich

HUNGARY: UN HELP NEEDED TO REOPEN PIPELINE. Gabor Jozsef, head
of the Hungarian state oil company, said that UN help is needed
to reopen the Adria Pipeline that connects Hungary with the Adriatic
Sea, MTI reports. The pipeline, which crosses Serb-held Croat
territory, was closed in September 1991 due to the fighting.
Since then Hungary has had to rely entirely on oil delivered
through the Friendship Pipeline from Russia via Ukraine. Hungary
formerly received about 40% of its total oil import through the
Adria Pipeline. -Karoly Okolicsanyi

BULGARIAN ECONOMIC NEWS. Bulgaria's prime interest rate is being
lowered, BTA reported on 31 May. In accordance with a decision
of the Bulgarian National Bank, on 4 June the prime rate was
adjusted from 51% to 48%. The BNB says the move is a response
to a decrease in domestic inflationary pressure over the last
months, as well as to a general drop in interest rates on international
money markets. Meanwhile, on 1 June the new telecommunications
charges went into force. A local phone call now costs 40% more
than previously, whereas businesses need to pay four times more
than private households. The increase had initially been announced
for 1 May. -Kjell Engelbrekt

BULGARIA, RUSSIA SIGN ECONOMIC ACCORDS. Following a two-day session
of a top-level joint trade commission, on 8 June Russian Deputy
Premier and Finance Minister Boris Fedorov and Bulgarian Finance
Minister Stoyan Aleksandrov finalized agreements on avoidance
of double taxation and protection of investments and another
outlining bilateral cooperation in the machine-building sector.
More importantly, the two agreed that Russia will continue to
supply natural gas to Bulgaria until 1997. Fedorov indicated
that some progress was made toward solving the problem of mutual
indebtedness, and Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Valentin Karabashev
told BTA that a comprehensive trade protocol is likely to be
concluded within 10 days. -Kjell Engelbrekt

ROMANIA OPENS BIDDING FOR HIGHWAY PROJECT. On 8 June bidding
opened for local and foreign construction companies for a project
to modernize Romania's highways, Western agencies report. The
$381-million project will be funded by the government and foreign
creditors, including the EBRD. The first roads to be modernized
will be those linking Bucharest with the Hungarian border and
Constanta, the main Black Sea port. -Michael Shafir

CZECH REACTOR MAY HAVE TO BE SHUT DOWN. Two of four reactors
at the Moravian Dukovany nuclear power plant may have to be shut
down if its operators carry out resignation notices they gave
last week, Mlada Fronta dnes reported on 8 June. The daily quotes
Ivan Cestr, a board member of the Czech Energy Company CEZ, as
saying that 51 of the 105-staff members at the station handed
in their resignations on 31 May, citing poor management practices.
Cestr said that the operators were still on the job but that
if talks fail, parts of the power plant may have to be closed
down. The energy loss would have to be compensated by coal-fired
plants. -Jan Obrman

POLAND, BELARUS REACH ECONOMIC AGREEMENTS. On 8 June a series
of economic agreements designed to bring the two countries closer
together was signed in Warsaw. According to PAP reports, the
agreements foster exchange of information between the two statistical
agencies, streamlining trade, and promoting civil aviation. The
two sides have also pledged to cooperate in building of a major
international road linking Berlin with Warsaw, Minsk, and Moscow.
-Jan de Weydenthal

WORKERS STRIKE IN UKRAINE, BELARUS. Workers in both countries
have gone on strike over price increases introduced over the
weekend, various agencies reported on 8 June. Both the Ukrainian
and Belarus governments blamed the increases on the raised price
of fuel imported from Russia. Unions in Kiev and Minsk threatened
to order general strikes unless the price hikes were rescinded.
Rents have been raised as much as 10 times, and the cost of other
commodities has gone up two to five times. In Ukraine's Donbass
region in Ukraine, 8,000 miners were reportedly on strike along
with construction workers, bus drivers and pensioners. They called
for a referendum on a vote of confidence in the president, prime
minister and parliament. -Ustina Markus

UKRAINE CONTINUES START DEBATE. Shifting his position on Ukraine's
nuclear status, Parliament Speaker Ivan Plyusch supported leading
politicians in calling for Ukraine to be proclaimed a nuclear
state, at least temporarily. He predicted that START-1 will be
ratified-with conditions-during the current session. In his view
Ukraine should refrain from joining the Nuclear Nonproliferation
Treaty, which is being debated alongside the START agreement,
as the country "cannot simply walk away from the nuclear club"
under the present situation, Reuters reported on 8 June. The
debate took a new twist last week after Prime Minister Leonid
Kuchma openly suggested that Ukraine keep 46-of its SS-24 missiles
for some time. Earlier this week President Leonid Kravchuk assured
visiting US Secretary of Defense Les Aspin that ratification
will take place, but the parliament, not the president, will
decide the issue. Kravchuk has frequently offered assurances
of imminent ratification to Washington, only to have the debate
and ratification delayed. This has underscored the split between
parliament and the president over the treaty. As a result of
his Kiev visit Aspin said he understands Ukrainian concerns better,
although the he finds the parliamentary politics perplexing.
-Ustina Markus

WORLD BANK APPROVES LOAN TO UKRAINE. The World Bank has approved
a loan totaling $27 million for economic reforms, its first loan
to Ukraine. The funds are intended to provide advisory services,
training, and equipment for promoting private sector development,
to build up a private banking system, and to help manage public
finance. According to the bank, Ukraine holds promise but its
progress in economic reform has been hampered by "an acute shortage
of professionals and institutions capable of guiding the country
out of 70-years of central planning," an RFE/RL correspondent
reports from Kiev on 8 June. -Ustina Markus

BELARUS NATIONAL BANK CREDIT POLICY EXAMINED. On 8 June the Supreme
Soviet received a list of credit transactions for 1992 submitted
by National Bank Chairman Stanislau Bahdankevich and began debating
the bank's credit policy, Radiefakt reports. This is one of the
most important issues on the agenda for this session, and the
debate is expected to be protracted. The Supreme Soviet will
probably seek to limit the bank's liberal credit policies. -Ustina
Markus

WITHDRAWAL OF RUSSIAN TROOPS FROM LITHUANIA. Col. Stasys Knezys,
the chief of staff of the National Defense Ministry, said that
the withdrawal of Russian troops from Lithuania should be completed
on schedule by 1 September, BNS reported on 8 June. By 1 June
the troops had been reduced to 9,000. Knezys noted, however,
that Lithuania will not receive any Russian compensation for
ecological damages, since no joint working group has been set
up and no funds have been made available for this task. -Saulius
Girnius

ESTONIAN-RUSSIAN TALKS: MORE PROBLEMS THAN SOLUTIONS. The 12th
round of Estonian-Russian talks ended inconclusively on 8 June
in Nakhabino, near Moscow. Russian delegation head Vasilii Svirin
was unhappy over the lack of results, while his Estonian counterpart
Juri Luik considered the talks fruitful, BNS reports. They initialed
an agreement on trade and economic relations, and then continued
the discussions started during previous interstate talks about
borders between Estonia and Russia, which Svirin called a painful
question. The two sides also discussed Russia's pullout of its
military forces from Estonia. Luik said that a draft treaty on
basic principles of the troop withdrawal was almost ready for
consideration by the two sides. -Dzintra Bungs

LAAR ON SECURITY PROBLEMS, BALTIC SOLIDARITY. Estonian Prime
Minister Mart Laar told parliament on 8 June that his government
does not expect to attain its goal of having the approximately
7,000 Russian troops out of the country by 1 August. He expects
that the deadline will have to be moved to 31-December 1993,
BNS reports. Laar noted that a protest note would be sent to
Moscow concerning intelligence-gathering operations at the Russian
base in Juri. He proposed the creation of a single front for
Baltic States' cooperation on security matters and to facilitate
the departure of Russian troops. -Dzintra Bungs

EXPANDED NATO EXERCISES IN BALTIC SEA. On 8-June, continuing
a tradition of more than 20 years, NATO began its annual naval
exercises in the Baltic Sea, Western and Baltic media report.
The first phase of the exercises involving noncombat operations
such as communications training, sea rescues, refueling, and
coast guard tasks are expanded to include for the first time
ships from neutral Sweden and Finland as well as from Poland
and Lithuania. A Russian ship was expected to participate, but
due to a lack of funds for docking fees had not arrived for the
start. Latvia and Estonia did not send any ships, but are participating
as observers. The second phase involving training in antiaircraft,
ship, and submarine warfare will be limited to NATO ships. -Saulius
Girnius

NEW DIRECTOR NAMED AT CTK. On 8 June a Czech parliament committee
appointed journalist Milan Stribal as director of the CTK news
agency, Czech newspapers report on 9-June. Stribal replaces Tomas
Kopriva, a member of Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus's Civic Democratic
Party. Kopriva was criticized for allegedly promoting government
policies and for some of his personnel decisions. Some 70 CTK
employees earlier threatened to quit. Stribal has worked for
CTK for the past 21 years but has no party affiliation. He was
chosen from a list of 17 candidates. -Jan Obrman

BULGARIAN LABOR CAMP OFFICIALS ON TRIAL. On 8 June a trial opened
against four Bulgarians-former Deputy Interior Minister Mircho
Spasov and three prison officers-charged with premeditated murder
between 1959 and 1962, Western and Bulgarian media report. Prosecutor-General
Ivan Tatarchev, who has personally led the investigation, accused
the four of being directly responsible for the death of at least
14-inmates in the Lovech and Skravena labor camps over 30 years
ago. Tatarchev demanded that the defendants be sentenced to death
in accordance with Article-116 of the criminal code. The seven-judge
panel accepted the prosecution's argument that an indictment
was impossible before the collapse of communism and therefore
agreed to disregard the fact that the 20-year statute of limitations
expired in the early 1980s. A government commission in 1990 established
that 147 of the 1,235 prisoners died from brutal treatment while
serving sentences in the camps. -Kjell Engelbrekt

FORMER ROMANIAN DISSIDENT TO BE UN AMBASSADOR? MIHAI BOTEZ, A
PROMINENT DISSIDENT UNDER CEAUSESCU, WHO RECEIVED POLITICAL ASYLUM
IN THE USA, HAS BEEN NOMINATED BY PRESIDENT ILIESCU TO BE AMBASSADOR
TO THE UNITED NATIONS. Botez, whose name was mentioned as a candidate
for the premiership last year, said in an interview with RFE/RL
on 8 June he is ready to take up the post. Confirmation hearings
for both Botez and another nominee, career diplomat Constantin
Ene, are scheduled in parliament for 9 June -Michael Shafir

NOTICE The RFE/RL Daily Report will not appear tomorrow, 10 June.

[As of 1200 CET] Compiled by Liz Fuller and Charles Trumbull







THE RFE/RL DAILY REPORT IS PRODUCED BY THE RFE/RL RESEARCH INSTITUTE
(A DIVISION OF RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, INC.) with the
assistance of the RFE/RL News and Current Affairs Division (NCA).
The report is available by electronic mail via LISTSERV (RFERL-L@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU),
on the Sovset' computer bulletin board, by fax, and by postal
mail. For inquiries about specific news items, subscriptions,
or additional copies, please contact: in North America: Mr. Brian
Reed, RFE/RL, Inc., 1201 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC-20036
Telephone: (202) 457-6912 or -6907; Fax: (202) 457-6992 or 828-8783;
Internet: RIDC@RFERL.ORG or Elsewhere: Ms. Helga Hofer, Publications
Department, RFE/RL Research Institute, Oettingenstrasse 67, 8000
Munich 22, Germany;.Telephone: (+49 89) 2102-2631 or -2624; Fax:
(+49 89) 2102-2648, Internet: PD@RFERL.ORG 1993, RFE/RL, Inc.
All rights reserved.