No. 192, 06 October 1993

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Inc.





RUSSIA



CASUALTY FIGURES CLIMB, VARY. Initial reports of casualty figures
appear to have been underestimates. Reuters on 5 October reported
that 60 people were killed in the attack on the Ostankino TV
studio, implying that a far fiercer battle took place than had
originally been reported. Ostankino TV reported on the morning
of 6 October that the Russian minister of health stated that
137 people had died and 549 were hospitalized during the last
few days. Investigators are working in the White House and more
bodies are expected to be found there. -John Lepingwell

ORGANIZERS OF DISTURBANCES TO BE REPORTEDLY CHARGED WITH TREASON.
According to the Western news agencies and RFE/RL correspondents
in Moscow, former Vice President Aleksandr Rutskoi and parliamentary
speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov, now in custody in Moscow's Lefortovo
prison, will be charged with treason and armed insurrection.
The charges could carry the death penalty. Several leaders of
opposition groups, including Ilya Konstantinov of the National
Salvation Front and Sergei Baburin of the hard-line "Rossiya"
parliamentary faction, are also arrested and confined to Lefortovo,
RFE/RL correspondents said on 5 October. -Vera Tolz

MILITARY LEADERSHIP WAS RELUCTANT SUPPORTER OF YELTSIN. According
to the Washington Post of 5 October, Russian military leaders
were split over whether or not to support Boris Yeltsin during
a crucial meeting of the Defense Ministry Collegium on the eve
of the 4 October crackdown in Moscow. Their backing of the Russian
president, it was said, was the result of two blunders by Vice
President Aleksandr Rutskoi. The first was the appointment by
Rutskoi in late September of Vladislav Achalov as "shadow" Russian
Defense Minister, a move that angered Grachev and a military
leadership whose greatest fear was that the army would split.
Rutskoi's second mistake was said to have occurred on 3 October,
when he urged an anti-Yeltsin mob to take the Russian Ostankino
television facility. According to the same report, because of
manpower shortages and the fact that many soldiers in the Moscow
area were aiding in the harvest, the forces that were eventually
used for the assault on the "White House" had to be cobbled together
from a number of different divisions. -Stephen Foye

ARMY FEELS IT DESERVES SPECIAL TREATMENT. In remarks reported
by the Chicago Tribune on 6-October, the commander of Russian
forces in Germany, Col. Gen. Matvei Burlakov, said that the army's
participation in the assault on the parliament building was a
limited action and should not be construed as a sign of unconditional
loyalty to Yeltsin's program of reform. Burlakov reportedly expressed
disdain for Aleksandr Rutskoi and Ruslan Khasbulatov, but insisted
that the army feels that it deserves a restoration of the status
it was accorded during the Cold War. Burlakov said that he was
first summoned to Moscow for a "crisis meeting" on 23 September,
and that the seniors generals present moved the meeting to a
secret location out of fear that Rutskoi's paramilitary forces
might attack. -Stephen Foye

VLADIMIR SHUMEIKO APPOINTED NEW INFORMATION MINISTER. President
Yeltsin issued a decree temporarily appointing Vladimir Shumeiko
to the post of information minister, ITAR-TASS reported on 5-October.
Shumeiko has been first deputy prime minister. The post of the
information minister has been vacant for over a month following
the resignation of Mikhail Fedotov. In subsequent interviews
with the Russian press, Fedotov said he had resigned because
of disagreements with the head of the Federal Information Center,
Mikhail Poltoranin. -Vera Tolz

PROSECUTOR GENERAL REPLACED. On 5 October, President Yeltsin
dismissed the Russian Prosecutor General, Valentin Stepankov.
Stepankov had supported Yeltsin during the crisis, but had previously
been a leading investigator of corruption charges lodged against
the Yeltsin government. On 6 October, ITAR-TASS reported that
Aleksei Kazannik had been appointed to the position. Kazannik
is a member of the Presidential Council and was previously an
administration official in the Omsk oblast and a professor of
law at Omsk University. He served as a USSR people's deputy from
1989 to 1992, and in 1989 surrendered his seat in the USSR Supreme
Soviet to Boris Yeltsin, who had failed to win election by the
Congress to that body. Kazannik is a specialist on environmental
law and apparently has little or no experience in criminal law.
-John Lepingwell and Elizabeth Teague

TWO REGIONAL GOVERNORS DISMISSED. Reuters reported on 5 October
that Yeltsin had fired the heads of administration in Novosibirsk
and Amur Oblasts on the grounds they had opposed his decision
to dissolve parliament. This is not the first time Yeltsin had
crossed swords with the governor of Novosibirsk, Vitalii Mukha.
Yeltsin tried to sack Mukha earlier this year, after Mukha tried
to suspend the public auction of shares in state enterprises,
but there was such a public outcry that Yeltsin had to apologize
and allow Mukha to keep his job. During last week's siege of
the White House, Novosibirsk's leaders offered to provide the
Russian parliament with a temporary exile. After the 5 October
closure of the Moscow city soviet and a number of Moscow district
soviets (see RFE/RL Daily Report no.-191), there is much speculation
that Yeltsin will soon order the closure of all local soviets.
-Elizabeth Teague

ZORKIN TOLD TO RETIRE. Yeltsin is within his rights in firing
regional heads of administration whom he himself appointed, but
firing the chairman of the Constitutional Court is another matter.
Radio Liberty's Russian Service was informed by the Court's Press
Center on 5 October that the presidential chief of staff, Sergei
Filatov, had that morning telephoned Valerii Zorkin and told
him that if he did not resign from his post he would face criminal
charges of "providing the legal basis for the extremist activities"
of former Vice President Aleksandr Rutskoi and parliamentary
speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov. -Elizabeth Teague

CENSORSHIP OF RUSSIAN MEDIA. A number of Moscow newspapers appeared
on 5 and 6-October with blank spots instead of articles that
had been withdrawn by censors. The chief editor of the newspaper
Moskovskaya pravda complained that the new censorship seemed
"purely political" and without military justification. Several
TV programs were also banned on 5 October. -Vera Tolz

YELTSIN PROMISES TO STOP CENSORSHIP. This crackdown on the media
provoked a strong protest on the part of journalists and Russian
intellectuals, including those supportive of Yeltsin. In response,
on 6-October, Yeltsin's press secretary made a statement to the
effect that none of Yeltsin's three decrees on the introduction
of a state of emergency in Moscow stipulated the introduction
of media censorship. The measures were introduced in the first
few days "critical for the future of democracy," because the
Russian law on the state of emergency permits such censorship.
Kostikov assured journalists that in the morning of 6 October
the president had ordered that any censorship of the media be
stopped, ITAR-TASS reported. -Vera Tolz

FEDERATION COUNCIL TO MEET END OCTOBER? IN PLACE OF THE CANCELLED
MEETING OF THE FEDERATION COUNCIL ON 5 OCTOBER, PRIME MINISTER
VIKTOR CHERNOMYRDIN MET WITH THE HEADS OF ADMINISTRATION OF THE
REGIONS AND THE PRESIDENTS OF THE REPUBLICS, RADIO MAYAK REPORTED.
According to Ingush President Ruslan Aushev, the meeting was
devoted primarily to economic issues, but an announcement had
also been made about the convening of the Federation Council,
which would most likely take place at the end of November. -Ann
Sheehy

BANKS TOLD NOT TO DO BUSINESS WITH BANNED PARTIES. The Russian
Central Bank, which is now subordinated to the president, has
told commercial banks in Moscow to halt financial transactions
with those political parties and newspapers that have been banned
by the government for taking the side of the parliament in the
recent struggle. The order was contained in a letter made public
by the Central Bank, ITAR-TASS reported. It listed 17 organizations
including the Russian Communist Party, National Salvation Front,
"Pamyat," and "Shchit" (the independent trade union for members
of the armed services); and 13 publications, including Pravda
and Sovetskaya Rossiya. -Elizabeth Teague

CIS

NEW CHARGES OVER WARHEAD STORAGE. The Russian government has
again criticized the storage of nuclear warheads at the Pervomaysk
ICBM site. ITAR-TASS reported on 5-October that the number of
warheads at the site was 6-8 times higher than the limit and
that both temperature and radiation levels had increased as a
result. A Russian foreign ministry spokesman said that the solution
to the problem was to transfer the warheads to Russia. The Russian
warnings apparently stem from the inspection conducted in mid-September
at Ukrainian request. Ukrainian authorities subsequently claimed
that there had been no increase in radiation levels and that
the storage problem had been solved. -John Lepingwell

TAJIKISTAN UPDATE. Kazakhstan's Foreign Minister Tuleutai Suleimenov,
in New York to participate in the UN General Assembly, has asked
the world body to formally recognize the CIS armed forces stationed
in Tajikistan as a UN peacekeeping force, ITAR-TASS reported
on 5 October. The CIS force in Tajikistan, charged with protecting
the Tajik-Afghan border, consists of troops from Russia, Kazakhstan,
Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Suleimenov said that he spoke for
all CIS states in appealing for UN recognition of the forces
in Tajikistan. The same day ITAR-TASS reported from Dushanbe
that 300 armed Tajik oppositionists had crossed the border from
Afghanistan but had been stopped by Russian and Tajik forces;
the commander of the Russian border troops in Tajikistan was
unaware of the incident, but said that border troops had frightened
off small groups of oppositionists who had tried to cross the
Pyandzh River. -Bess Brown







TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA



GEORGIA/ABKHAZIA UPDATE. New clashes between Georgian government
troops and forces loyal to ousted president Zviad Gamsakhurdia
took place near the strategic rail junction of Samtredia on 5
October, AFP reported. In Tbilisi, Georgian parliament chairman
Eduard Shevardnadze imposed a 2300-0600 curfew, and ordered the
arrest of a number of Gamsakhurdia supporters, reportedly for
violation of emergency laws, illegal possession of firearms,
and sedition; he also closed down two pro-Gamsakhurdia publications,
according to Iberia News Agency. In Geneva, UN-sponsored talks
are due to begin on 6 October with an Abkhaz delegation on a
political settlement of the Abkhaz crisis, Western agencies reported.
-Liz Fuller

KAZAKHSTAN REQUESTS FUNDS FOR DENUCLEARIZATION. An RFE/RL correspondent
at the United Nations reported on 5 October that Kazakhstan's
Foreign Minister, Touleutai Suleimenov, has requested $2-billion
in aid for dismantling the nuclear weapons on its territory and
cleaning up the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site. Unlike Ukraine,
Kazakhstan has ratified the START-1 treaty, but has not yet acceded
to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), although President
Nazarbayev recently assured US Ambassador-at-Large Strobe Talbot
that it would do so in the near future. It is unclear whether
the aid request will be explicitly or implictly linked to NPT
accession. -John Lepingwell

CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE



IZETBEGOVIC'S TROOPS DEFECT TO ABDIC. A UN spokesman told news
agencies on 4-October that about 2,500 men from the Bosnian army's
Fifth Corps have gone over to the side of Bihac pocket leader
Fikret Abdic. Fighting continued for the third day between the
two rival Muslim forces, but observers said that Izetbegovic
probably could not launch a successful offensive without seriously
thinning out his lines opposite Serb or Croat positions elsewhere.
The colorful Abdic remains adamant that the Bihac pocket, or
Cazinska Krajina, with its history of good interethnic relations
even during World War II, will reject "death in [Bosnian President]
Alija [Izetbegovic's] tomb state." The northwestern Cazin region
fears that Izetbegovic will sell out its interests for those
of a unitary Muslim republic based around Sarajevo and in eastern
Bosnia, and Abdic added that Izetbegovic wants the region to
surrender "so that he could manipulate the 300,000 lives in the
province the way he did with 200,000 [already] dead Muslims."
Elsewhere in Bosnia, international media on 5 and 6-October point
out the plight of some 150,000 trapped people, mainly Muslims,
who are surrounded by Serbs in Maglaj and Tesanj to the south
of Doboj. -Patrick Moore

SANDZAK MUSLIM LEADER CALLS FOR UN INTERVENTION. The BBC's Serbian
Service on 5 October said that Sandzak Muslim leader Sulejman
Ugljanin told an audience in Istanbul that UN troops should go
to that region, which is divided between Serbia and Montenegro,
before its Muslims find themselves "in the same position as Bosnia's
Muslims." Sandzak's Muslims make up just over half of the area's
ethnically diverse population and have been subjected to pressure
and ethnic cleansing by Serb paramilitary forces for over a year.
Ugljanin said that he will not return there because Serbian authorities
have put a warrant out for his arrest. Police staged a crackdown
on Ugljanin's party last month and arrested several dozen activists
in the region known to students of European history as the Sandzak
of Novi Pazar. -Patrick Moore

CROATS HAPPY, SERBS ANGRY WITH TERMS OF UNPROFOR MANDATE. Croatian
politicians and the country's media continue to treat UN Security
Council Resolution 871 of 4-October as "satisfying all Croatian
demands," as President Franjo Tudjman said in a Vecernji list
report of 6 October. Vjesnik quotes Foreign Minister Mate Granic
as saying that the measure considerably raises Croatia's international
diplomatic standing, while a poll of politicians in that same
paper indicates general approval from several parties, although
not without some partisan sour grapes from one opposition leader.
Meanwhile, Serbian spokesmen slammed the resolution, the BBC's
Serbian Service reports. Rump Yugoslav Foreign Minister Vladislav
Jovanovic and his Krajina counterpart Slobodan Jarcevic both
attacked the measure, which the latter man said overlooks the
claim "that the [self-proclaimed] Serb Republic of Krajina is
a state." Borba of 6 October, finally, quotes Krajina leader
Goran Hadzic as adding that the resolution really adds "nothing
new" and that "a total war [between Serbs and Croats] has never
been closer." Patrick Moore

POLISH GOVERNMENT FORMS CRISIS TEAMS. At its regular weekly meeting
on 5 October Hanna Suchocka's caretaker government debated Poland's
security situation in the light of the Russian crisis. A special
crisis team was formed, under the chairmanship of Deputy Premier
Henryk Goryszewski, to monitor developments in Russia. Its members
include the ministers of defense and internal affairs, and the
heads of the Council of Ministers Office, the Central Planning
Office, the National Security Bureau and the State Security Office.
An inter-ministerial working group analyzing the effects of the
crisis on the Polish economy was also set up, PAP reported. -Anna
Sabbat-Swidlicka

WALESA ASSESSES SITUATION AFTER ELECTIONS. In a televised address
to the nation on 5 October President Lech Walesa said that people
should not over-dramatize the results of the recent parliamentary
elections because they were a victory for democracy. He pointed
out that the victory of the left was only relative because the
options of one-third of the electorate would not be represented
in parliament, and promised to keep in mind that a balance of
forces was essential to democratic rule. He would not allow the
achievements of the past four years to be destroyed and would
be on the look out to ensure that both the winners and the losers
keep within the bounds of the law. He pledged to defend Polish
foreign policy objectives: membership in NATO and the EC and
friendly relations with all neighbors. Walesa expressed concern
that political consultations "behind closed doors" on the formation
of a government were too protracted. Indeed, PAP reported on
5 October that differences have emerged in talks between economic
experts of the potential left-wing coalition partners, and that
a conclusion is not expected before Friday. -Anna Sabbat-Swidlicka


POLISH BROADCASTING COUNCIL ISSUES FIRST LICENSES. The National
Broadcasting Council issued the first licenses for radio and
television broadcasting to private broadcasters, PAP reported
on 5 October. The first 10-year license to broadcast information
programs nationwide was granted to Polsat, a satellite TV station
which has been broadcasting from Holland for 8-10 hours a day.
It is owned by Piotr Zygmunt Solorz. Wieslaw Walendziak is director
of programming. -Anna Sabbat-Swidlicka

SLOVAK PARLIAMENT TO INVESTIGATE "INDIAGATE." On 5 October the
Slovak parliament voted to establish a parliamentary commission
to examine the "Indiagate" affair, TASR reports. In a press conference
following Premier Vladimir Meciar's return from Luxembourg, he
said he will not comment on the scandal, which is based on "absolute
lies." He also said he is not opposed to setting up the commission,
since it will only discover that "the transactions took place
according to valid law." The scandal, which was reported by the
Slovak daily Sme on 28 September, implicated several top government
officials in a fraud involving $22-million. On 29 September the
paper said it did not check its sources before printing the story,
but several opposition parties have since recommended an investigation
of the affair. -Sharon Fisher

HUNGARIAN GOVERNMENT REITERATES SUPPORT FOR YELTSIN. Hungarian
State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Janos Martonyi told the Russian
ambassador in Budapest on 4-October that Alexander Rutskoi and
Ruslan Khasbulatov bear the responsibility for the eruption of
the bloody clashes in Moscow. Martonyi said that President Boris
Yeltsin had no choice but to suppress the Moscow revolt. Martonyi
also said that Yeltsin embodied the continuation of the democratic
reform process and pledged his government's continuing support
for the Russian president. This was reported to MTI by Hungarian
Foreign Ministry spokesman Janos Hermann on 5 October. -Edith
Oltay

ROMANIAN PRESIDENT, CABINET ON RUSSIAN DEVELOPMENTS. In a cable
sent to Boris Yeltsin on 5-October, Romania's President Ion Iliescu
praised the swift victory of democratic forces and the resolute
manner in which Yeltsin had acted "in coping with that attempt
to stop the natural course of democratization" in Russia. Iliescu
also deplored the loss of human lives and material damage caused
by the armed revolt in Moscow. He further expressed hopes that
Yeltsin could hold early elections as promised to bring about
stability and economic recovery in Russia. In a statement broadcast
by Radio Bucharest on the same day, the Romanian cabinet reiterated
its support for Yeltsin's struggle "to overcome the [current]
political and constitutional crisis in the Russian Federation."
-Dan Ionescu

BLACK SEA MEETING OPENS IN BUCHAREST. A two-day conference of
Black Sea states seeking closer economic cooperation in the region
opened in Bucharest on 5 October. The meeting was the first staged
by the Black Sea Parliamentary Assembly's Committee for Economic,
Trade, Technology and Environment Cooperation. The Black Sea
cooperation process, which had been initiated by the late Turkish
President Turgut Ozal three years ago, has been joined by eleven
states-Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Armenia,
Georgia, Azerbaidjan, Moldova and Albania. However Russia, Georgia
and Azerbaidjan were notably absent from the Bucharest conference
because of domestic troubles. Radio Bucharest reported that Romanian
Chamber of Deputies Chairman Adrian Nastase and Turkish Parliament
Chairman Husamettin Cinboruk praised efforts to intensify cooperation
between the countries of the Black Sea zone. The ultimate goal
of the project is to create a new barrier-free regional economic
group similar to the European Community. -Dan Ionescu

BULGARIA'S PRESIDENT WARNS THAT SANCTIONS COULD HAMPER DEMOCRACY.
On 5 October, President Zhelyu Zhelev once again stressed that
the UN sanctions imposed against rump Yugoslavia could hinder
Bulgaria's economic development. Speaking before the UN General
Assembly, Zhelev remarked that last year Bulgaria lost $943 million
as a direct result of the sanctions, and said he expected that
this year's losses would total much higher. According to an RFE/RL
correspondent, Zhelev said that the strain placed on the Bulgarian
economy by the UN embargo against rump Yugoslavia could result
in social stability and democracy being threatened in Bulgaria.
Stan Markotich

UKRAINIAN SECURITY FEARS REEMPHASIZED IN CONNECTION WITH EVENTS
IN MOSCOW. On 5-October, at the weekly press briefing at the
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, spokesman Yurii Sergeev expressed
the hope that the defeat in Moscow of the hard-line opposition
forces will end what he called the "the chauvinistic, pro-imperial
policy of Russia toward Ukraine." Had "the Khasbulatovs and Rutskois"
won, he said, Ukraine would have been faced with the "direct
danger of Russian interference in our internal affairs and territorial
claims." The political conflict in Moscow, Sergeev added, should
also turn Europe's attention to Ukraine's various proposals concerning
the need for a new system of security in Eastern Europe. Commenting
on Sergeev's statements, Ukrainian Radio noted, however, that
it would be "illusory" to think that Ukraine's relations with
Russia will now automatically improve. It pointed out that President
Yelstin's advisors include people like Adranik Migranyan who,
it alleged, have "blatantly chauvinistic" attitudes and that
Russia's position on East European membership of NATO indicates
that it wants Ukraine and its neighbors to be part of its sphere
of influence -Bohdan Nahaylo

UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT APPOINTMENTS. The Ukrainian parliament has
endorsed four cabinet members for its new government, an RFE/RL
correspondent reported on 6 October. All four had held the same
posts in the previous cabinet. They included: the Minister of
Internal Affairs, Andrii Vasylyshyn; the Minister of Finance,
Hryhorii Pyatachenko; the Chairman of the State Border Guard
Committee, Valerii Hubenko; and the Chairman of the State Security
Service, Yevhenii Marchuk. A nominee for the post of Minister
of Defense is expected to be submitted on 7 October, following
the resignation of Konstantin Morozov as defense minister on
4 October. Last week President Leonid Kravchuk took over the
office of Prime Minister in addition to his presidential duties.
-Ustina Markus

MOLDOVAN PARTIES ON RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA. On 4 and 5 October,
Moldovan political parties issued statements supporting Yeltsin's
victory over the rebels but at the same time reminding official
Russia of what Moldova sees as support for those same reactionary
forces in Moldova and other newly independent states. The Congress
of the Moldovan Intelligentsia said that "having failed to stand
up to Russian chauvinism on the periphery of the former Soviet
empire, Russia's leadership now came to face the same antidemocratic
forces in its own home," Basapress reported. According to Radio
Chisinau, the Social-Democrat Party which controls President
Mircea Snegur's group of advisers, said that the Moscow rebellion
is "just one more link in a bloody chain which passed through
Tbilisi, Baku, Vilnius, Riga, Dniester, Tajikistan, Abkhazia,
and has now reached Moscow. If those claiming to be democrats
fail to understand this process, we can not speak of a real victory
of Russian democracy." The Democratic Labor Party leadership
said, according to ITAR-TASS, that "[the rebellion's instigators]
Baburin, Rutskoi, Makashov, and the reactionary part of the Russian
Supreme Soviet, violated all international norms, under the false
slogan of 'defending the Russians' by means of the 'Dniester
republic,' [and] in practice created a bridgehead in Moldova
for the restoration of the Soviet empire. They never hid their
hatred for Russian democracy. The active participation of Tiraspol
fighters in the Moscow rebellion was a logical consequence."
-Vladimir Socor

LEBED LICENSED TO RUN OWN SHOW? PURSUANT TO A DECREE SIGNED BY
RUSSIAN PRESIDENT BORIS YELTSIN, MEDALS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
WERE AWARDED TO APPROXIMATELY 200-SERVICEMEN OF RUSSIA'S 14TH
ARMY, AT A CEREMONY ATTENDED BY THE ARMY'S COMMANDER, LT.-Gen.
Aleksandr Lebed, and by "Dniester republic" leaders, Basapress
reported from Tiraspol on 2 October. The medals were awarded,
some posthumously, for outstanding performance during military
missions. Most recipients had taken part in last year's operations
against Moldova. Basapress further noted, and Moldovan Defense
Ministry officials confirmed to the RFE/RL Research Institute,
that Lebed turned down an offer from Aleksandr Rutskoi and Ruslan
Khasbulatov to be appointed "Defense Minister" by the Russian
Supreme Soviet. However, in a statement on 3 October, reported
by Basapress, Lebed urged the presidential side and the Supreme
Soviet to revoke all their respective decrees issued since 21-September
and to agree to the holding of simultaneous presidential and
parliamentary elections-a position closer to that of the Supreme
Soviet than to Yeltsin's. -Vladimir Socor

ESTONIA CANCELS LOCAL ELECTIONS IN PALDISKI. On 5 October the
Estonian government decided that local elections would not be
held in Paldiski on 17 October because not a single candidate
had registered by the deadline, BNS reports. In addition, Russian
and police authorities in the city have not handed over the registry
and police files, making it difficult if not impossible to determine
who are legal residents entitled to vote. The term of the current
Paldiski council ends in October and Prime Minister Mart Laar
has not yet decided how the city will be governed, but a likely
option is appointing a special government representative. -Saulius
Girnius

ESTONIAN-RUSSIAN AGREEMENT ON REPATRIATS. In Tallinn on 5 October
Estonian Migration Department head Andres Kollist and Russian
Federal Migration Committee head Tatyana Regent signed an agreement
to assist people resettling across each country's borders, BNS
reports. Re-migrants are allowed to sell their property in their
former homeland and take their movable property to the new one,
which will guarantee assistance in finding a job and a place
to live. In 1992 24,800 people migrated from Estonia to Russia
and it is estimated that 15-20,000 will do so this year. The
agreement has yet to be ratified by the respective parliaments.
Lacking a current parliament, Russia intends to develop a mechanism
to implement the agreement before the new elections in December.
-Saulius Girnius

LITHUANIAN REBEL VOLUNTEER LEADER SURRENDERS. On 30 September
Lt. Jonas Maksvytis, who led the Volunteer Home Guard Service
in Kaunas in an insurrection during the month of September, voluntarily
surrendered to the police, BNS reported on 1-October. He gave
up his personal weapons, a machine gun and two pistols, to the
Kaunas prosecutor's office that released him after he pledged
not to leave the city. The charges against Maksvytis do not stem
from the insurrection, but are related to his involvement in
a June shooting incident in Kaunas between a group of criminals
and the police. -Saulius Girnius

[As of 1200 CET]

Compiled by Roman Solchanyk and Stan Markotich





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