No. 135, 19 July 1994

                              RUSSIA

RUSSIA, US CLASH ON IRAQI SANCTIONS. A UN Security Council
decision on 19 July that maintained sanctions against Iraq failed
nevertheless to resolve mounting differences between Russia and
the US on how Iraqi behavior is to be assessed in the future.
According to Reuters, Russia spearheaded an effort, backed by
France, China, and Brazil, aimed at least at winning UN
recognition that Iraq is making progress in complying with UN
disarmament demands. The US, backed by Britain and other
countries, strongly opposed such a statement. Reuters quoted the
council president, Jamsheed Marker, as saying that the divisions
in the 15-member council were so severe that "no consensus" could
be reached on issuing any official statement. The same report said
that Russia interpreted the original 1991 ceasefire resolution as
conditioning the lifting of the oil embargo on Iraq solely upon
Baghdad's compliance with disarmament demands; the US wants to tie
the lifting of the embargo to a broader pattern of Iraqi
compliance.  Stephen Foye, RFE/RL, Inc.

VORONTSOV ON RUSSIA'S POSITION. Russia's permanent representative
to the UN, Yurii Vorontsov, told journalists on 18 July that
Moscow was calling upon the UN to establish a "limited-term
deadline" on the lifting of the oil embargo and urging that
"clearer procedures" be put in place to assess compliance with
Security Council demands, Reuters reported. He was quoted by
ITAR-TASS as saying "we think that the positive aspect of Iraq's
meeting the disarmament requirements . . . has greater weight than
the doubts that remain" and, in apparent criticism of the US
position, added that "any attempt . . . to interpret the
formulation of the Security Council resolutions in a broad manner
is in contradiction to the task of strengthening the legal basis
of the Security Council's authority." On 7 July Russian Foreign
Minister Andrei Kozyrev met unexpectedly in St. Petersburg with
Iraq Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, who reportedly asked for
Moscow's support in lifting the oil embargo on Iraq.  Stephen
Foye, RFE/RL, Inc.

CONTINUING CONTROVERSY OVER JOINT RUSSIAN-US EXERCISES. On 16 July
a delegation from the Russian State Duma, led by defense committee
chairman Sergei Yushenkov, arrived in the Orenburg region of
Russia to assess the merits of conducting a joint US-Russian
peacekeeping exercise at the Totsk training ground there. The
exercise was originally scheduled for 6-14 July, but was postponed
due to opposition in the Russian parliament. According to
ITAR-TASS reports, the visiting deputies were scheduled to meet
not only with local leaders, but also with Colonel General Eduard
Vorobev, Ground Forces First Deputy CINC, and officers from the
27th Guards Motor Rifle Division, which has been tapped to
participate in the joint maneuvers. Although Yushenkov, as well as
the Defense and Foreign Ministries, favor holding the exercise, it
remains a politically charged issue. ITAR-TASS quoted Nikolai
Bezborodov, deputy chairman of the Duma defense committee, as
saying that the exercise should be postponed because of local
opposition; another legislator suggested that the exercise should
be conducted without the US forces because their presence "might
have unpredictable consequences." A local legislator suggested to
ITAR-TASS that the exercise was resented because it had been
planned without consulting regional leaders. Stephen Foye, RFE/RL,
Inc.

GERMANS CONCERNED OVER RUSSIAN NUCLEAR SMUGGLING. The Chief of the
German Federal Chancellery Bernd Schmidtbauer said that the German
authorities are very alarmed by smuggling of nuclear materials
involving both international criminal rings and some Russian
officials, German TV reported on 16 July. Schmidtbauer, who is
responsible for the German security services, said that the German
police in Stuttgart recently discovered highly radioactive
material produced in Russia. The recent case of nuclear smuggling
gives a new dimension to the whole problem, because it was
impossible without involvement of some Russian officials,
Schmidtbauer noted. He expressed fear that such nuclear materials
could fall into the hands of terrorists and find their way into
unstable areas, in particular the Balkans. Schmidtbauer added that
German security authorities were in a position to find out the
origin of the confiscated material, as it bears "fingerprinting"
which ties it to a specific production facility. He said that this
data will be transferred to Russian law enforcement organs and may
help them to find the officials responsible for the recent case of
smuggling. Victor Yasmann, RFE/RL, Inc.

BASHKORTOSTAN PRIME MINISTER SUBMITS RESIGNATION. Bashkortostan's
Prime Minister Anatolii Kopsov submitted his resignation on 18
July after local television broadcast a program about his lavish
villa. ITAR-TASS quoted Kopsov as saying his decision was
"dictated by circumstances which do not let me perform my duties."
The speaker of the republican parliament, Yurii Demin, told
reporters that deputies were reluctant to accept the resignation.
Vera Tolz, RFE/RL, Inc.

TURKEY WANTS CONSULATE IN KAZAN. Turkish deputy premier Murat
Karayalcin asked Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg
Soskovets on 18 July for Russia's cooperation in opening a Turkish
consulate in Kazan in the light of the expanding business ties
between Turkey and Tatarstan, ITAR-TASS reported. Russian Deputy
Foreign Minister Albert Chernyshev (former Soviet and then Russian
Ambassador to Turkey) was quoted as saying he expected a swift and
positive response to the Turkish request. During his 6-day
official visit Soskovets is expected to discuss with Turkish
leaders the controversial new Turkish restrictions on shipping
through the Turkish straits which threaten to curtail a projected
expansion of oil exports from and via Russia.  Liz Fuller, RFE/RL,
Inc.

RUSSIAN TV URGED TO STOP AIRING ADS OF TWO COMPANIES. Russia's
anti-monopoly committee has addressed Aleksandr Yakovlev and Oleg
Poptsov, chairmen of the two federal broadcasting companies,
Ostankino and Russian Television, respectively, with a request to
stop airing ads of two Russian financial corporations, GMM and
MMM. The committee claimed that the ads, broadcast on both
channels several times a day, violate at least two provisions of
President Yeltsin's decree on fairness in advertising: they claim
to guarantee future profits of their clients, and they do not
reveal the precise figures of the dividends they have paid to
shareholders. Although Ostankino reported the request in its 18:00
evening news on 18 July , the ads of the two companies continued
to be broadcast on both channels later that night. It may be noted
that in December 1993, one of the firms, GMM, was accused of
having financed the campaign of the ultranationalist
parliamentarian, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, and thus has been a target
of continuous attacks ever since.  Julia Wishnevsky, RFE/RL, Inc.

                               CIS

CIS DEFENSE MINISTER MEET; AGREEMENT APPROVED. CIS Defense
Ministers opened a three-day meeting in Moscow on 18 July under
the chairmanship of Russian Deputy Defense Minister Boris Gromov;
cooperation in peacekeeping operations was reportedly the focus of
the first day's discussions. Col. Gen. Viktor Samsonov, chief of
the coordination committee for CIS military cooperation, told
ITAR-TASS that consensus had not been reached on the issue of
participation in peacekeeping activities. Interfax reported that
an agreement on principles of collective security was reached,
however, by the signatory states to the CIS Collective Security
Agreement. The document, which will be submitted to a future
meeting of the CIS Heads of State, says that signatory states can
use all means at their disposal to ensure collective security,
giving priority to non-violent means. It also describes
territorial claims, local wars and armed conflicts along CIS
borders, and the proliferation of nuclear and mass destruction
weapons as primary security threats, and says that the task of
Russia's strategic nuclear forces is to prevent aggression against
treaty countries. ITAR-TASS reported that nine CIS states had sent
Defense Ministry heads to the meeting; Ukraine, Turkmenistan, and
Moldova sent observers.  Stephen Foye, RFE/RL, Inc.

MOLDOVAN VIEW OF RUSSIAN PRESSURE. Moldovan Parliament
Vice-Chairman Nicolae Andronic, a key leader in the ruling
Agrarian Democratic Party, told Radio Chisinau on 16 July that
Russia's Duma and Foreign Ministry are advancing unacceptable
conditions for ratification of the Russian-Moldovan interstate
treaty, signed by Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Mircea Snegur in
September 1990 and ratified one month later by Moldova, in which
the sides had recognized each other's territorial integrity.
Ratification by Russia "could end territorial demands and attempts
at dismembering Moldova, and would prevent certain Russian
dignitaries from describing Transdniester as a separate republic,"
Andronic said. However, Moscow now demands dual Russian-Moldovan
citizenship, the recognition of Russian as an official language on
a par with the native language in Moldova, and the signing of a
document on the status of Moldova's "Russian-speaking population"
as preconditions to treaty ratification, Adronic said.  Vladimir
Socor, RFE/RL, Inc.

RUSSIAN PARLIAMENTARY LEADER ON SETTLEMENT IN MOLDOVA. At an
international conference in Romania on security in Central Europe,
sponsored by the North Atlantic Assembly and attended by
representatives of major international organizations and of all
NATO's Partnership for Peace signatories, Russian State Duma First
Deputy Speaker Mikhail Mityukov touched in his address on the
principles for settling the conflict in Moldova. He said that
those principles must include Moldova's sovereignty and integrity
and at the same time "the granting to the Dniester region of a
state status," ITAR-TASS reported on 17 July. Mityukov, a member
of the democratic-liberal movement Russia's Choice, also argued
that Russia's 14th Army "guarantees peace" in Moldova and that its
eventual withdrawal is a bilateral matter between "sovereign
Moldova" and Russia. Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL, Inc.

                  TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA

PROGRESS IN AZERBAIJAN OIL DEAL. The talks initiated three years
ago between the Azerbaijani government and the consortium of eight
Western oil companies on the exploitation of the Azeri and Shirag
fields will probably be completed by the end of August, reported
Interfax on 17 July, quoting a source close to Azerbaijani
president Heidar Aliev. Azerbaijan has a 30 percent share in the
consortium of which it has given 10 percent to the Russian Lukoil
company. On 15 July Interfax reported that representatives of the
consortium and of Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR had reached
an agreement on exporting the oil via Russia, which will involve
construction of a pipeline from Baku to Grozny, rather than from
Baku via Turkey.  Liz Fuller, RFE/RL, Inc.

NEW FUND FOR CENTRAL ASIA. The Clinton administration announced
the creation of a Central Asian-American enterprise fund on 15
July, Reuters reports. It is to be capitalized with $150 million
in US government assistance over the next three to four years, and
is intended to promote private sector development in the five
Central Asian republics. Offices will apparently first be
established in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, because those republics
have shown the greatest commitment to market reform, Radio Liberty
has learned. President Bill Clinton named former Congressman
Stephen Solarz to chair the fund, as he has traveled to Central
Asia on several occasions, and is best known in the region for his
criticism of human rights abuses.  Keith Martin, RFE/RL, Inc.

                    CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

SERBS STILL DEBATING BOSNIAN PARTITION PLAN. RFE/RL's South Slavic
Language Service reported on 18 July that the Muslim consultative
assembly meeting in Sarajevo passed a non-binding resolution
approving the peace plan. The joint Muslim-Croat federal
parliament then went into session to endorse the measure, which
had earlier been backed by the Croat legislature. At nearby Pale,
however, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic issued what the 19
July Washington Post dubs a call for the Serb assembly to reject
the plan. He told his people: "if we reject the plan we must
prepare ourselves to reject all attacks by our enemies but also to
move into enemy territory and . . . utterly defeat our foes. We
must confront air strikes; we must down the largest possible
number of planes and take each downed pilot prisoner," Reuters
quoted him as saying. But the Post and the New York Times suggest
there is much confusion surrounding statements by US and UN
officials as to who would put up the extra military muscle
necessary to enforce the plan, and in what form. UN commander Gen.
Sir Michael Rose told Reuters that NATO, not UNPROFOR, would have
to do the work. The Post quotes another UN official as saying the
Americans, however, are "trying to get something on the cheap."
Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.

UN CONDEMNS LATEST SERB ETHNIC CLEANSING. AFP reported on 18 July
that the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees slammed
recent thefts, beatings, and expulsions of Muslims by Serbs around
Bijeljina and Janja in northeast Bosnia. The UNHCR has sent a
formal protest note to the Serb authorities. The brutal and
arbitrary expulsions recall not only the recent ones near Banja
Luka, but also those in 1992 described by Roy Gutman in his book
Witness to Genocide. Elsewhere in Bosnia, Reuters said on 17 July
that some local Muslim and Croat leaders were violating the letter
and spirit of their alliance and taking measures against the other
group's people. One relief worker said that "it's been amateur
hour in central Bosnia," while a diplomat in Sarajevo added: "the
Americans got credit for the Muslim-Croat federation and they
deserved it, but they're going to get the blame for its collapse,
and they're going to deserve that, too." Patrick Moore, RFE/RL,
Inc.

CROATIA DEMANDS UNPROFOR ACT AGAINST SERBS. Croatian and
international media reported on 18 July that the Croatian
parliament, or sabor, passed a non-binding resolution calling on
UNPROFOR to station itself along Croatia's borders to interdict
Serb supply lines, and to help refugees return to their homes in
the Serb-held 30% of Croatia's territory by 30 September, the day
that UNPROFOR's latest mandate expires. Impatience is again
growing in Croatia over UNPROFOR's repeated failure to reintegrate
the occupied areas into Croatia. The pattern over past renewals of
the mandate has been that the Croats threaten and protest; the
international community, especially Bonn and Washington, offers
Zagreb carrots and sticks to extend the mandate; and the Croat
authorities comply, declaring victory all the while. Reuters,
however, quotes a senior diplomat as saying that the reality is
that "a change in the mandate will not happen because the
international community will not fight wars for Croatia." Patrick
Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.

SLOVENIA SAYS NO' TO ITALIAN PROPERTY CLAIMS. Reuters reported on
18 July that Ljubljana has rejected Rome's demands that Italians
who fled or were driven from Tito's Yugoslavia be given back their
property if it is state-owned, or be allowed the first option to
buy it back if it is held by Slovenes. Italy has blocked
Slovenia's attempts to join the EU over the issue, which
Slovenia's foreign minister called "extortion." Ljubljana claims
that EU foreigners could be given legal rights to own property in
Slovenia once that country were invited to join the EU, and that
Italian claims have been adequately dealt with first by Yugoslavia
in 1975, and then by Slovenia and Croatia since independence. On
15 June the Neue Zuercher Zeitung pointed out that Italian
domestic politics are at the root of the problem, given the
political influence of refugees from the former Yugoslavia and the
position of the neo-fascists in the current coalition government.
Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.

SANDZAK UPDATE. In the region of Novi Pazar, Sjenica and Tutin, in
the Serbian part of Sandzak, police have recently made a series of
mass arrests and issued summons for so-called "informative talks,"
or interrogations, the Muslim National Council reported on 8 July.
In other instances, police abused citizens and engaged torture
while allegedly searching for arms. In a further development, 67
persons reportedly were arrested on the charge of possessing arms.
Similar cases were reported by the Humanitarian Law Fund, a
Belgrade-based human rights group already in March. The HLF
claimed that Muslims had been forced to buy weapons, only in order
to surrender them to the police later. Those who did not
participate in the farce reportedly risked being tortured by the
police.  Fabian Schmidt, RFE/RL, Inc.

POLISH SENATE BLOCKS RENT REFORM. Yielding to populist reasoning,
the Senate voted 37 to 16, with 13 abstentions, on 15 July to
reject legislation meant to enact a market-oriented "rent
revolution" in Poland, PAP reports. The legislation, backed by
Housing Minister Barbara Blida of the Democratic Left Alliance
(SLD), would have affected 3.5 million apartments owned by the
state and municipalities, or one-third of all units. It would have
empowered local communities to bring rents into line with
maintenance costs (the maximum rent has not been raised in more
than two years) and permitted the expulsion of non-paying tenants.
Poor families were to receive rental supplements. The Senate's
decision was unexpected, as the Sejm had passed the legislation by
a wide margin at the beginning of July. Most of the opposition
came from Blida's own SLD, as well as Solidarity; SLD senators
charged that the law would prompt mass expulsions and raise rents
to "inhuman" levels. The opposition Freedom Union was put in the
awkward but increasingly common position of defending government
legislation from ruling SLD deputies, whose instincts appear more
and more often to be fundamentally non-market. The Sejm can
override the Senate's veto if it musters a two-thirds majority.
Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.

"WEIMAR TRIANGLE" DEFENSE MINISTERS IN WARSAW. In the latest in a
series of contacts among officials from the "Weimar Triangle" of
France, Germany, and Poland, the three countries' defense
ministers met in Warsaw on 18 July, Rzeczpospolita reports. The
meeting yielded an agreement to stage joint military maneuvers in
France in the fall and to form a joint commission on arms
technology. German Defense Minister Volker Ruehe said that Poland
should be among the first East European countries to gain NATO
membership, and, speaking only for himself, predicted that this
could take place before the end of the century. Ruehe also
stressed that Russia's assent is not necessary to expand NATO. But
French Defense Minister Francois Leotard warned against "creating
new iron curtains in Europe." Leotard also told journalists, who
were disappointed at the lack of dramatic pronouncements, that
"Poland's difficulties in joining NATO are nothing in comparison
with the process of French-German reconciliation," Gazeta Wyborcza
reports.  Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.

POLISH BISHOP SOUNDS ALARM. In a pastoral letter read out in all
churches in the Lublin region on 17 July, Lublin Bishop Ryszard
Karpinski charged that a recent arson attack on a local church was
"the fruit of deliberate and consciously planned propaganda
against the Church." Arsonists daubed the church with anarchist
slogans before setting it afire on 11 July. According to Gazeta
Wyborcza, Karpinski condemned a "resurgence of antireligious
sentiments of a force unheard of even during the Occupation or
Stalinism" in the mass media. High-ranking state officials are
promoting "atheistic, antinational, and antihuman" values that
serve a "civilization of death," he charged This campaign has
proved persuasive, the bishop wrote, because such detrimental
principles are often cloaked in the garb of liberalism, freedom,
and "the return to Europe." The bishop's letter reflects the
hardening of attitudes that has resulted from the Sejm's vote to
delay ratification of the concordat and anticlerical statements
from the ruling coalition.  Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL, Inc.

CENTRAL EUROPEAN SUMMIT. The leaders of the 10-member Central
European Initiative (CEI) adopted in Trieste on 16 July an
economic document calling for the further liberalization of trade
between their countries. The CEI foreign ministers approved a
draft declaration that would become politically binding and would
strengthen the norms for the protection of minority rights.
According to Western news agencies and the 18 July issue of Magyar
Hirlap, the norms in part go beyond those already set by the
Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe and would, among
other things, make possible the erection of bilingual and
multilingual locality signs. Czech Premier Vaclav Klaus proposed
that Bulgaria, Belarus, Romania, and Ukraine, CEI associate
members since Spring 1994, be admitted as full members as soon as
possible, while Italy, now seemingly more interested in the Balkan
region than in Central Europe, called for Albania's admission.
According to CTK, Klaus' view is that the European Union and the
Central European Trade Agreement should be the forums for broader
economic cooperation in the region while the CEI should serve as a
top level forum for broad political dialogue.  Alfred Reisch,
RFE/RL, Inc.

SLOVAK CRIME INVESTIGATION IMPROVES. On 18 July Interior Minister
Ladislav Pittner announced that in recent months the number of
criminal cases which were solved improved by almost 20%. Police
Chief Stefan Lastovka said that of the 74,918 criminal cases which
occurred in the first half of 1994, the police solved 37.4%. The
police solved 68.4% of the 4,345 cases of economic crime and 84.6%
of the 5,089 cases of violent crime; of a total of 56 murder
cases, the police solved 51. Burglaries and property crime have
been more difficult; only 24.2% of the 22,913 cases of burglary
and about 25% of the 58,713 cases of property crime were solved.
Since the beginning of the year the number of motor vehicle thefts
has increased significantly, rising from 780 in January to 4,503
in June. Only 14.3% have been solved. Sharon Fisher, RFE/RL, Inc.

YUGOSLAV, HUNGARIAN FOREIGN MINISTERS MEET. The foreign ministers
of Hungary and rump Yugoslavia, Laszlo Kovacs and Vladislav
Jovanovic, met in Budapest on 17 July, MTI reports. Jovanovic
described the two countries' bilateral relations as "favorable"
and said Belgrade was ready to normalize them and supported
Hungary's active participation in solving regional problems.
Kovacs also called for upgrading bilateral ties and said Hungary
continued to pay "particular attention" to the situation of the
Magyar minority in Vojvodina and supported their "legitimate
aspirations" and the holding of talks between the Serbian
leadership and the Democratic Community of Hungarians of
Vojvodina.  Alfred Reisch, RFE/RL, Inc.

HUNGARIAN PREMIER IN BONN. Gyula Horn's first foreign visit took
him to Bonn on 18 July to discuss bilateral economic and European
Union related issues with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. According
to MTI, Kohl promised Germany's support in fixing a date and a
schedule for the negotiations leading to Hungary's full EU
membership. Horn asked for greater German participation in
Hungary's bank privatization process and infrastructural
investments as well as the cancellation of the remainder (DM 300
to 350 million) of Hungary's DM 400 million debt to the former
East Germany.  Alfred Reisch, RFE/RL, Inc.

PERRY IN BUCHAREST . . . On 18 July US Defense Secretary William
Perry ended a two-day visit to Bucharest, Radio Bucharest and
Western agencies report. Romania is the first leg of a tour that
also includes Bulgaria, Macedonia, Croatia, Greece, Albania,
Turkey and Italy. Perry will also visit Sarajevo on 22 July. In
Bucharest, he discussed bilateral military cooperation, NATO's new
role in Europe, and the crisis in former Yugoslavia with Romania's
President Ion Iliescu, Premier Nicolae Vacaroiu, Foreign Minister
Teodor Melescanu and Defense Minister Gheorghe Tinca. Perry
predicted a deeper US and NATO military involvement in Bosnia,
irrespective of the outcome of negotiations over an international
plan designed to bring peace in the region. Senior Romanian
officials expressed satisfaction over the visit's outcome. The two
countries agreed on holding joint military training exercises. In
addition, the US promised to provide some equipment and to assist
Romania in reforming its army.  Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL, Inc.

. . . AND SOFIA. In the afternoon, Perry traveled on to Bulgaria
where he was met by Foreign Minister Stanislav Daskalov. Perry and
Daskalov held extensive talks on US-Bulgarian defense cooperation
within the framework of the Partnership for Peace program, and
subsequently signed a memorandum to that effect. BTA says the key
features of the document are US assistance in developing new
Bulgarian defense legislation, training of military personnel,
exchange visits of defense ministry staff and warships. In the
evening, Perry was received by President Zhelyu Zhelev, with whom
he discussed regional security and, in particular, issues related
to the latest Bosnian peace plan. Zhelev said he had no
disagreements with Perry but that the UN, NATO, the US and Russia
appear to find themselves "on the eve of important decisions."
Asked how Washington would react if the Bosnian Serbs rejected the
peace plan, Perry remarked that the US is not the only actor and
that Bosnia in the end will need a political settlement.  Kjell
Engelbrekt, RFE/RL, Inc.

KUCHMA SWORN IN AS PRESIDENT. In a modest ceremony Leonid Kuchma
was sworn in as president of Ukraine on 19 July, various agencies
reported. Kuchma has made economic reform his top policy priority.
He has said that he will ease the tax burden and liberalize
foreign exchange controls in an attempt to start economic reforms.
Kuchma has also played down the notion that he seeks to restore
any close political links with Russia.  Ustina Markus, RFE/RL,
Inc.

WILL KUCHMA REPLACE THE DEFENSE MINISTER? On 16 July Ukrainian
television reported rumors that newly elected President Kuchma
plans to replace the defense minister, Vitalii Radetsky. The
ministry will reportedly be offered to the chief-of-staff, Ivan
Oliinyk. Oliinyk has a doctorate in technical science and worked
in the strategic rocket forces. He had served a deputy defense
minister when Konstyantyn Morozov was the defense minister.
Ustina Markus, RFE/RL, Inc.

LATVIA TO BUY UKRAINIAN ARMS. Following a three-day visit to Kiev,
Latvian Defense Minister Valdis Pavlovskis told Diena of 14 July
that his country and Ukraine had forged an agreement on various
forms of military cooperation, including the exchange of
information and experience. On 18 July ITAR-TASS reported that the
agreement allows Latvian officers to act as international
observers with Ukrainian units in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It also
says that Latvia will buy weapons from Ukraine.  Ustina Markus and
Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL, Inc.

BALTIC-EU FREE TRADE ACCORDS SIGNED. The twelve states of the
European Union signed in Brussels free trade agreements with
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania on 18 July, Western agencies
reported. The accords, which will come into effect on 1 January
1995, provide for free trade of industrial goods and some
concessions on agricultural products. German Foreign Minister
Klaus Kinkel, whose country holds the EU presidency, said that
increasing trade was the most important way to foster economic
reforms in the Baltic States and added that the accords took into
account "the deep European identity" of the Baltics.  Dzintra
Bungs, RFE/RL, Inc.

BALTIC MILITARY LEADERS SATISFIED WITH MANEUVERS. Commanders of
the Baltic armed forces--Aleksandr Einseln of Estonia, Dainis
Turlais of Latvia, and Jonas Andriskevicius of
Lithuania--expressed satisfaction with the first joint maneuvers
that were held in Lithuania from 12 to 15 July. The troops used
only light weapons and blank cartridges during the exercises.
Afterwards, the commanders discussed the formation of the Baltic
peacekeeping battalion and some of the envisaged structural
changes. An agreement on the battalion, to operate under a UN
mandate, must still be endorsed by the Baltic governments and
parliaments.  Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL, Inc.

  [As of 1200 CET]

  Compiled by Keith Martin and Stan Markotich
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