NO. 191, 7 OCTOBER 1994

                              RUSSIA

FINANCE MINISTER ORDERED TO PAY ARMED FORCES. After Defense
Minister Pavel Grachev complained that he did not have enough
money to prepare the armed forces for the winter, First Deputy
Prime Minister Oleg Soskovets ordered the finance minister to work
out within 24 hours a schedule to clear the government's debts to
the military. According to Interfax on 6 October, Grachev said the
Defense Ministry had received only 38% of the defense spending
approved by the parliament. He reported that the military were
owed 3 trillion rubles for food, weapons, and other supplies and
that oil companies would no longer supply fuel to the military
because of 600 billion rubles in unpaid fuel bills. Grachev said
the armed forces needed to spend a further 150 billion rubles to
prepare barracks for the winter season and 730 billion to buy
fuel. Doug Clarke, RFE/RL, Inc.

PRESIDENT'S REPRESENTATIVES TO TAKE OVER MEDIA CONTROL. On 6
October the head of Yeltsin's Administration, Sergei Filatov,
presided over a conference of the president's regional envoys,
held behind closed doors, Russian TV newscasts reported that day.
The participants discussed the failure of the provincial media to
convince the population of the correctness of presidential and
governmental policies. They apparently agreed that the heads of
local administrations (governors)--who with a few exceptions were
appointed by President Boris Yeltsin--were responsible for cases
in which publications sympathetic to the opposition received
preferential treatment. The conference concluded that government
newspapers should be subsidized. "In view of the forthcoming
elections," the Russian TV report continued, the participants felt
also that it would be appropriate to transfer control over the
media's financial resources from the governors to the president's
representatives. Julia Wishnevsky, RFE/RL, Inc.

GORBACHEV: "YELTSIN RULES RUSSIA IN AUTHORITARIAN WAY." In an
interview with Moscow News (no. 43), former Soviet President
Mikhail Gorbachev accused Yeltsin of ruling Russia in an
authoritarian fashion. Gorbachev reiterated his opposition to the
extension of either the parliament's or the Russian president's
term of office, saying that this would put an end to democracy in
Russia. The Nobel peace prizewinner described the president's use
of tanks against the parliament in October 1993 as completely
unjustified. He also stressed once again the need for a democratic
alternative to the Yeltsin regime, adding that the Social
Democratic Union, currently being set up by his former closest
associate, Aleksandr Yakovlev, could not play such a role. Along
with Russia's Democratic Choice (led by former Deputy Prime
Minister Egor Gaidar), the SDU, Gorbachev said, was intended to
provide yet another support base for the current regime rather
than a real alternative. Julia Wishnevsky, RFE/RL, Inc.

FOUNDING CONGRESS OF SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC UNION TO OPEN IN DECEMBER.
According to ITAR-TASS on 6 October, the founding congress of the
Social Democratic Union, organized by Ostankino Radio and TV
Company head Aleksandr Yakovlev and other prominent politicians of
the Gorbachev era, will open in December. The agency quoted the
organizers as expressing concern over what they termed "the real
threat of a bureaucratic transformation of democracy" and over
"the seizure of power by government officials, who tend to ignore
the law." The Social Democrats have also criticized the
government's alleged tendency to tolerate the growth of
neo-Fascism, racism, and chauvinism in Russia. Julia Wishnevsky,
RFE/RL, Inc.

FEDERATION COUNCIL REJECTS YELTSIN'S DECREE ON OSSETIA-INGUSHETIA.
The Federation Council again failed on 6 October to approve
Yeltsin's decree of 4 October extending for a further two months
the state of emergency currently in force in the region of the
Ingush-Ossetian conflict, Russian and Western agencies reported.
Interfax quoted Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Shakhrai as
expressing the hope that a compromise solution could be reached on
7 October, although he characterized the positions of the North
Ossetian and Ingush deputies as "poles apart." Liz Fuller, RFE/RL,
Inc.

KURILS EARTHQUAKE DESTROYS MILITARY FACILITIES. Interfax reported
on 6 October that three servicemen had been killed and many
military facilities destroyed during the recent devastating
earthquake in the disputed southern Kuril Islands. The agency said
that storage facilities containing arms and military equipment had
been completely destroyed in Kunashir Island, which is only some
25 kilometers from Japan. "Armaments are lying all around," it
reported. Some 85% of the military facilities on Shikotan--another
of the islands claimed by Japan--were destroyed, while
communications, water, and electricity were cut on the island of
Iturup. Doug Clarke, RFE/RL, Inc.

HEAD OF US 6TH FLEET VISITS RUSSIAN BLACK SEA PORT. Admiral Joseph
Prewar, commander of the US Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean,
visited the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiisk aboard the
missile cruiser Belnap, Interfax reported on 5 October. Admiral
Pyotr Svyatashov, Black Sea Fleet chief of staff, noted at a
welcoming news conference that the Belnap visit was the thirteenth
by a US ship to the Black Sea this year and said that this was
evidence of the greater attention NATO was paying the CIS. Prewar
countered that NATO ship's entered the Black Sea only when invited
by countries in the region. He also announced that there would be
a joint naval exercise involving Romanian, Ukrainian, Russian, and
NATO ships in late October. Doug Clarke, RFE/RL, Inc.

                  TRANSCAUCASIA AND CENTRAL ASIA

AZERBAIJAN'S PRIME MINISTER DISMISSED. On 6 October Azerbaijan's
President Heidar Aliev issued a decree dismissing Prime Minister
Suret Huseinov from his post for his alleged involvement in the
attempted coup of 3-4 October, Western and Russian agencies
reported. At the beginning of a parliamentary session convened to
approve the decree, Huseinov again protested his innocence,
although he conceded that some of his relations might have been
implicated, and said that he would not resign; the parliament
approved Aliev's decree anyway. Aliev also replaced as Procurator
General Ali Omarov, who reportedly suffered serious injuries
during his abduction by renegade Interior Ministry forces.
Corroborating the hypothesis that Aliev exaggerated the
seriousness of the threat to his position to get rid of Huseinov,
who in an interview with Nezavisimaya gazeta on 22 September had
criticized both Aliev's leadership style and the signing of the
Western oil deal, Azerbaijan Social Democratic Party leader Araz
Ali-Zade told Interfax that the clashes in Gyandzha were no more
than infighting between rival clans. Liz Fuller, RFE/RL, Inc.

BADAKHSHAN OPPOSITION CALLS FOR ELECTION BOYCOTT. A coalition of
opposition groups in Tajikistan's autonomous region
Gorno-Badakhshan has declared that it will boycott the
presidential election and referendum on a new constitution that
have been scheduled for 6 November, ITAR-TASS reported on 6
October. A spokeswoman for the Badakhshani opposition group
explained that the boycott decision was based on the group's
assessment that it would be impossible to have a free and
democratic election: too many Tajiks are still refugees abroad,
the candidates nominated so far represent only a single region,
and the country is too unstable. Tajik head of state Imomali
Rakhmonov's press secretary told Interfax the same day, however,
that it was unlikely that the Badakhshani legislature had voted to
boycott the election, though he admitted that it would be
difficult to conduct the election in Badakhshan because of the
political and economic situation in the region. Bess Brown,
RFE/RL, Inc.

MALAYSIAN PREMIER VISITS TURKMENISTAN. Malaysia's Prime Minister
Mahathir Mohamad, on a state visit to Turkmenistan, has told
Turkmen President Saparmurad Niyazov that his country plans to
participate in development projects in Turkmenistan, ITAR-TASS
reported on 5 October. The visit is the first by a top Malaysian
official to the Central Asian country. Leaders in several Central
Asian states have cited Malaysia as an important development
model, and some have visited the country. Malaysia, in the view of
its prime minister, can help Turkmenistan develop a functioning
market mechanism and is prepared to offer, in addition to
investment, a privatization program that would not endanger reform
by being too hasty. Bess Brown, RFE/RL, Inc.

                               CIS

SQUARING THE CIRCLE ON THE CIS. At a press conference reported by
Ostankino TV and Rossiiskaya gazeta on 4 and 5 October,
respectively, Yeltsin said that Russian troops "might stay with
basing rights in some CIS member states, but only at their
request." He said that Russia "faces the complex task of
guaranteeing the rights and interests of millions of our
compatriots without violating international norms . . . of
facilitating a solution to these problems in ways painless to the
population insofar as possible, and consistent with national
security interests." Chastising politicians who call for "quick"
and "primitive" solutions, Yeltsin felt that in the wake of his US
visit and UN address, "international public opinion understands
better that we are motivated not by alleged imperial ambitions but
by compassion and by vital necessity." Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL,
Inc.

UNIFICATION OF FORMER SOVIET SPACE SEEN AS PREORDAINED. "The
creation of a new state on the territory of the former Union" is
"a historically ordained necessity" and is "quietly understood as
such" in the CIS and the Baltic States, argued an article in the
reformist Nezavisimaya gazeta of 30 September. It blamed
resistance to the idea of the "unification" of post-Soviet states
on "the ambitions of a few heads of government and individual
political leaders, kinglets obsessed by national exclusiveness in
their self-proclaimed kingdoms." They do not accept that Russia's
neighbors "are Russia's blood brothers and in many cases also
brothers in religion. . . . Let no one sow confusion with the word
'empire,' something that we are and always were anyway." Vladimir
Socor, RFE/RL, Inc.

RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY ATTACKS ENERGY MINISTRY, AZERBAIJAN OVER
INTERNATIONAL OIL DEAL. Interviewed by Interfax on 3 and 5
October, the Russian Foreign Ministry Legal Department's first
deputy director, Yakov Ostrovsky, again accused Azerbaijan of
unlawfully extending its jurisdiction over certain Caspian oil
fields that are to be developed under Azerbaijan's 7.5 billion
dollar contract with an international consortium. Ostrovsky
announced that Russia would soon present proposals to the riparian
states for a multilateral agreement on the exploitation of Caspian
resources. He also accused Russia's Fuel and Power Ministry and
its chief, Yurii Shafrannik, personally, of failing to coordinate
its position with that of the Foreign Ministry and damaging
Russian interests by approving the terms of Russian participation
in the project. "Anything like this would previously have cost a
person his Party membership card," the spokesman said. Vladimir
Socor, RFE/RL, Inc.

                    CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

NEW CRIMEAN PREMIER NAMED. Interfax reported on 6 October that the
Crimean parliament voted unanimously to appoint Anatoly Franchuk
as prime minister and head of government. Franchuk, who has a
degree in economics, was formerly minister of state enterprises
and is a close friend of Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. He has
pledged that his top priority will be economic reform. Meanwhile,
Crimean President Yurii Meshkov denounced Franchuk's appointment
as illegal, Reuters reported. The row between the parliament and
Meshkov resulted in the passage on 5 October of constitutional
amendments effectively stripping Meshkov of his powers as head of
government. Stan Markotich, RFE/RL, Inc.

MUSLIMS MASSACRE SERBS NEAR SARAJEVO. International media report
on 7 October that French peacekeepers the previous day found the
bodies of 16 Bosnian Serb soldiers and four nurses near Sarajevo.
Many of the corpses had been mutilated. UN special envoy Yasushi
Akashi met with Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic to discuss the
incident, which observers feared would prompt Pale to cancel its
recent agreements on easing the renewed siege of Sarajevo. The New
York Times quotes Vice President Ejup Ganic as saying "our guys
there just wiped them out [but] we are not in the mutilating
business like the Serb side is." Bosnian Serb leader Radovan
Karadzic said the Serbs would retaliate in a manner of their own
choosing. Borba reports on 7 October that an exchange of 128 Serbs
and 166 Muslims was competed in Sarajevo the previous day and that
55 Serbs left the Muslim-controlled Gorazde enclave. Patrick
Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.

PURGE IN RUMP YUGOSLAV MILITARY? The Financial Times reports on 7
October that three top officers have "retired," prompting
speculation that Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic is removing
senior military personnel opposed to his policies toward the
Bosnian Serb leadership. The officers are navy chief Admiral
Dojcilo Isakovic and army commanders General Jevrem Cokic and
General Bozidar Djokic. Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.

JOVANOVIC CALLS FOR "COMPLETE LIFTING" OF SANCTIONS. Following his
meeting with UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali in New
York on 6 October, rump Yugoslav Foreign Minister Vladislav
Jovanovic told journalists that the biggest steps toward peace
throughout former Yugoslavia would be made only after the
international community lifted all sanctions. He said recent
international efforts to forge peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina
provided a solid foundation for advancing the peace process.
Jovanovic also repeated the claim that Serbia under President
Slobodan Milosevic is genuinely interested in regional peace
without any territorial annexations. Stan Markotich, RFE/RL, Inc.

SLOVENIA REPORTS PROGRESS IN DISPUTE WITH CROATIA. Reuters on 7
October quotes Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek as saying
that progress is being made in that country's border dispute with
Croatia but that a final agreement is unlikely before the end of
the year. The ongoing discussions also include the questions of
Croatian deposits in the Ljubljanska Banka and financing the Krsko
nuclear reactor. Drnovsek called both these questions "technically
complicated." Tensions between the two neighbors flared up on 3
October, when the Slovenian parliament passed an election district
law that included four Croatian villages on the Slovenian rolls.
Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.

MACEDONIAN ELECTION UPDATE. The two rival wings of Macedonia's
largest ethnic Albanian party continue to fight over the right to
use the party's name. Arber Xhaferi, leader of the
nonparliamentary group of the ethnic Albanian Party of Democratic
Prosperity, has denied that his faction has applied to register
under a new name, Flaka e Vellazerimit reported on 30 September.
But he did admit that "some sympathizers of our party" have
applied to officially use the name "New Party of Democratic
Prosperity" to guarantee their "equal participation" in the
elections on 16 October. At the same time, Xhaferi stressed that
his leadership still claims to be the legitimate one for the whole
party. The Albanian Party of Democratic Prosperity split in two in
February, chiefly over the question of continued participation in
the government. The faction in favor of participating has launched
legal proceedings against Xhaferi's wing to force it to change its
name. Meanwhile, the final candidates for the Macedonian
presidency are incumbent President Kiro Gligorov and Ljupco
Georgievski of the radical nationalist VMRO-DPMNE. A candidate of
the Democratic Party of Turks failed to collect enough signatures
to qualify for the ballot, Borba reported on 30 September. Fabian
Schmidt, RFE/RL, Inc.

APPEAL FOR IMPROVED ENVIRONMENTAL FUNDING IN EASTERN EUROPE.
Meeting in Luxembourg, environmental ministers from the European
Union, the Scandinavian nations, and the six Eastern European
states that have applied for EU membership appealed on 5 October
for "an extensive exchange of information on environmental
policies" to provide for better funding for environmental projects
in Eastern Europe. The ministers also called for "better
coordination [of funding] with international finance institutions"
and the "extensive use of co-financing" for specific projects.
Western agencies report that between 1990 and 1994 the European
Union allocated $418 million for environmental projects in the six
East European countries. Jan de Weydenthal, RFE/RL, Inc.

WARSAW RESIDENTS AGAINST POLISH ROLE IN HAITI. Fifty percent of
Warsaw residents are opposed to Polish participation in the US
military intervention in Haiti, according to an opinion poll
published in Gazeta Wyborcza on 6 October. Thirty-one percent are
in favor and the rest undecided. The newspaper said the percentage
of those opposed would be much higher in the nationwide poll. The
Polish government has agreed to send a detachment of soldiers to
Haiti to take part in the international security force there. The
Polish troops will assist in training the Haitian police. Jan de
Weydenthal, RFE/RL, Inc.

MECIAR ACCUSES KOVAC OF ACTING AGAINST CONSTITUTION. In a letter
to Slovak President Michal Kovac dated 5 October, Movement for a
Democratic Slovakia Chairman Vladimir Meciar and his pre-election
coalition partner, Pavel Delinga of the Peasant Party, said they
believe their parties "will succeed in forming a cabinet that will
have the necessary parliamentary support and thus guarantee
stabilization." The two leaders also accused Kovac of violating
the constitution by calling coalition talks on 4 October rather
than immediately appointing Meciar as prime minister. Presidential
aide Milan Zemko on 6 October rejected Meciar's criticism, saying
that because party leaders were invited but not required to
attend, the talks cannot be judged unconstitutional. If the MDS
thought otherwise, it should not have sent representatives to the
meeting, he argued. Zemko said the president called the meeting
because of his responsibility to appoint a cabinet that has a
chance of winning majority support in the parliament. Sharon
Fisher, RFE/RL, Inc.

TALKS ON NEW SLOVAK COALITION CABINET GET UNDER WAY. TASR reported
on 6 October that the Christian Democratic Movement is holding
coalition talks with all parties that won parliamentary seats in
the recent elections. Olga Keltosova of the MDS said after
bilateral discussions that her party and the CDM managed to find
"some common space." But at a press conference the same day, CDM
Chairman Jan Carnogursky said his party will not form a coalition
with any group that would attack or take legal steps against the
president. Following talks between the MDS and the Slovak National
Party on 6 October, SNP Chairman Jan Slota said the two parties
agreed that all further steps taken by one partner regarding the
formation of a coalition government would have to be approved by
the other. Slota said he would not cooperate with the Hungarian
coalition or with the Democratic Union. Sharon Fisher, RFE/RL,
Inc.

ROMANIAN MILITARY TO SUPERVISE HUNGARIAN TANK REDUCTIONS. A team
of eight Romanian soldiers and military experts is due to arrive
in Hungary soon to supervise the reduction of Hungarian tanks, MTI
reported on 6 October. Under the European agreement on the
reduction of weapons, Hungary has to dismantle 510 tanks over the
next three years to comply with the quota assigned to Hungary.
Hungarian experts supervised a similar operation in Romania
earlier this year. Judith Pataki, RFE/RL, Inc.

ROMANIAN OFFICIALS: KING MICHAEL WILL NOT BE LET IN. Prime
Minister Nicolae Vacaroiu on 6 October said he had no information
about former King Michael's intention to arrive in Romania the
next day. Vacaroiu was quoted by Radio Bucharest as saying that
Romania was a country based on the rule of law and "until now the
former sovereign has not asked me to grant him a visa." The radio
also quoted Minister of Interior Doru Ioan Taracila as saying that
in a law-based state no one can be granted something for which he
has not asked. Taracila was referring to the fact that the former
monarch has not asked the authorities to grant him an entry visa
and intends to request one at Bucharest airport, according to
international press reports. Reuters quoted presidential spokesman
Traian Chebeleu as saying on 6 October that the former sovereign
can expect a repetition of his failed attempt in 1990 to return to
Romania if he arrives without a visa. Four years ago, the exiled
king was escorted out of the country within hours. Rompres, citing
AFP, said the former king has arrived in Paris from Switzerland
and intends to fly to Bucharest as planned, on 7 October. Michael
Shafir, RFE/RL, Inc.

ROMANIAN PARLIAMENT ADOPTS RESOLUTION ON CORRUPTION. A joint
session of the Romanian parliament adopted on 5 October a
resolution condemning the cases of corruption cited in a
parliamentary commission report. The resolution says the
allegations of corruption will be referred to the authorities, for
possible prosecution. It also states that the legislature is
committed to passing laws on fighting corruption. The
investigation commission will continue its work until the end of
the year. Deputies from the ruling coalition parties last week
accused members of former Prime Minister Petre Roman's government
of concluding contracts for personal gain. Opposition deputies on
the commission rejected the accusations and submitted a separate
report. Michael Shafir, RFE/RL, Inc.

URANIUM SMUGGLING IN ROMANIA. A Romanian Defense Ministry
spokesman said on 6 October that the radioactive material
confiscated last week was, in fact, uranium, according to RFE/RL's
correspondent in Bucharest. Earlier reports had claimed that it
was a substance other than uranium. Four people have been
detained. The spokesman told a news conference that the four
kilograms of uranium confiscated were not enriched enough to be
used in weapons. He said preliminary investigations showed the
material came from one of Romania's two nuclear facilities and was
intended for use at the country's first nuclear power plant, at
Cernavoda, when it begins operating next year. Michael Shafir,
RFE/RL, Inc.

ALBANIAN COURT CUTS SENTENCES FOR GREEKS. International media
reported on 6 October that an Albanian appeals court reduced the
sentences handed down to five ethnic Greeks by one to two years.
The politically active Greeks were sentenced for spying in the
wake of an incident in April after Greek-speaking gunmen killed
two Albanian soldiers at a boot camp near the Greek-Albanian
border. Athens has been vocally involved in the court case, which
it wanted thrown out altogether. A Greek government spokesman
called the mere reduction in the sentences disappointing and a
lost opportunity. Patrick Moore, RFE/RL, Inc.

ALBANIA INTRODUCES WAGE-PRICE CONTROLS. The Albanian government
and the Independent Trade Unions have agreed to introduce controls
on wages and prices, Gazeta Shqiptare reports. Beginning January
1995, a price index for 24 basic goods will be instituted. The
government and the trade unions will meet every six months to
adjust wages and pensions to reflect hikes in the prices of the 24
basic goods. Frequent wage increases and other measures have
failed to safeguard real incomes, especially those of low earners.
It is hoped that the new wage-price controls will help protect the
incomes of federal employees and the large number of unemployed
people. Louis Zanga, RFE/RL, Inc.

BELARUSIAN PARLIAMENT ENDORSES LOCAL GOVERNMENT RESTRUCTURING
PLAN. RFE/RL's Belarusian Service reported on 6 October that the
Belarusian parliament has endorsed most of President Alyaksandr
Lukashenka's plan that includes phasing out all village and urban
district councils. In addition, the power to appoint chairmen to
city and regional councils will be removed from those bodies and
transferred to the president. The stipulation that council
chairmen appointed by the president would receive no payment was
reportedly rejected by the parliament. Stan Markotich, RFE/RL,
Inc.

MOLDOVAN SCHOOL PROTESTERS MARCH ON TIRASPOL. Some 1,000 parents
of Moldovan schoolchildren in Bendery marched on 4 October from
that city to nearby Tiraspol to demonstrate for several hours
outside the House of Soviets of the "Dniester republic," where
they were joined by Moldovan parents from Tiraspol, Moldovan media
reported. The demonstrators were protesting administrative and
financial sanctions by the "Dniester" authorities against the last
few Moldovan schools still resisting orders to use the Russian
rather than Roman alphabet for writing and teaching in the
Moldovan/Romanian language. "Dniester" Russian officials dismissed
the demonstrators' demands by pointing to their "law," which
virtually precludes the use of the Roman alphabet in the region's
schools and public life. Picketing of schools and other protests
have continued since the beginning of the school year at the last
remaining Moldovan schools in Tiraspol, Bendery, and Rabnita.
Vladimir Socor, RFE/RL, Inc.

LITHUANIAN PREMIER DISCUSSES ISRAEL VISIT, TRAVELS TO MINSK.
Adolfas Slezevicius on 6 October told journalists that his recent
four-day visit to Israel was his most successful foreign trip to
date, BNS reports. The two countries signed agreements on legal
cooperation, promotion and protection of investments, and
cooperation in culture, education, and science, He corrected
Western press reports claiming he said Lithuania would change its
law to allow individual Jews to regain property confiscated by the
Nazis and Soviets. The planned changes, he stressed, would restore
property rights not to individuals but to religious groups as a
whole. Slezevicius will travel to Minsk on 7 October for talks
with his Belarusian counterpart, Mikhail Chyhir, on economic and
political issues. He will also give Belarusian President
Alyaksandr Lukashenka an official invitation from Lithuanian
President Algirdas Brazauskas to visit Vilnius. Lukashenka's visit
is unlikely to take place before the two countries reach an
agreement on settling their common border. The main stumbling
block to such an accord is the fate of the Adutiskis railway
station. Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL, Inc.

THREE CANDIDATES FOR ESTONIAN PREMIER. President Lennart Meri has
received the views of the parliament factions on three possible
candidates for prime minister, BNS reported on 6 October. Premier
Mart Laar was defeated in a no confidence vote on 26 September.
The three candidates are Bank of Estonia President Siim Kallas,
former prime minister and Chairman of the Assembly Party Tiit
Vahi, and parliament chairman Ulo Nugis. Meri is required to
present a single nominee by 10 October. Kallas is the most likely
candidate, since he reportedly has the backing of the Pro Patria,
National Independence Party, Moderate, and Liberal Democratic
Party factions. Pro Patria faction adviser Andres Herkel denied
charges that Pro Patria reached an agreement with the Centrist
Party faction whereby the latter would vote for Kallas and in
exchange receive support for the election of its chairman Edgar
Savisaar as parliament chairman on 17 October. Saulius Girnius,
RFE/RL, Inc.

DECLINING UNEMPLOYMENT IN LATVIA. Diena reported on 6 October that
6.1 percent of Latvia's active labor force (or 5.6 percent of the
entire working-age population) are unemployed. This represents a
decline of 0.2 percent over the end of August. Long-term
unemployment is put at 35,838, and some 81,327 people are seeking
jobs. Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL, Inc.

RIFKIND, LUIK ON NATO AND THE BALTICS. During his visit to Vilnius
earlier this week, British Defense Secretary Malcolm Rifkind and
his Lithuanian counterpart, Linas Linkevicius, signed a memorandum
on military cooperation, BNS reported on 6 October. The document
is similar to the ones signed a few days earlier in Riga and
Tallinn. Commenting on the Baltic States' prospects for joining
NATO soon, Rifkind said the three countries should now focus on
their participation in the Partnership for Peace program and on
attaining associated membership in the European Union. Estonian
Foreign Minister Juri Luik, during his visit to the US, urged that
the Baltic States be granted NATO membership--along with Poland,
the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary--if a decision is made
to expand NATO. He also stressed that the withdrawal of Russian
troops from the Baltics was an important "step toward achieving
security in the Baltic region. But it was only the first step. The
problem of Baltic security has not yet been solved, not by far,"
BNS reported on 6 October. Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL, Inc.

[As of 1200 CET]

(Compiled by Penny Morvant and Jan Cleave)
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