No. 119, Part II, 19 June 1996

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Available soon -- The OMRI Annual Survey of Eastern Europe and the
Former Soviet Union -- "1995: Building Democracy." Published by M.E.
Sharpe Inc., this 336-page yearbook provides a systematic and
comprehensive review of the most pivotal events in the 27 countries of
the former Communist bloc and former Soviet Union during 1995. Available
to OMRI subscribers at a special price of $25 each (plus postage and
handling). To order, please email your request to: annual@omri.cz
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This is Part II of the Open Media Research Institute's Daily Digest.
Part II is a compilation of news concerning Central, Eastern, and
Southeastern Europe. Part I, covering Russia, Transcaucasia and Central
Asia, is distributed simultaneously as a second document. Back issues of
the Daily Digest, and other information about OMRI, are available
through OMRI's WWW pages: http://www.omri.cz/Index.html

CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

FURTHER RESHUFFLING IN UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT. President Leonid Kuchma has
appointed Vasyl Durdynets, deputy prime minister for security and
emergency situations, as first deputy premier, Ukrainian and Western
agencies reported on 18 June. Durdynets replaces Pavlo Lazarenko, the
new prime minister. Kuchma also sacked Finance Minister Petro Hermanchuk
and appointed Valentyn Koronevsky as his replacement. No official reason
was given for the move, but Kuchma had recently accused Hermanchuk, who
was appointed by former President Leonid Kravchuk, for mishandling the
government wage debt crisis. Virtually unknown at the national level,
Koronevsky was in charge of the regional administration's finances in
Zaporizhzhia Oblast. -- Chrystyna Lapychak

UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSIONS CONCLUDE POWER-SHARING ACCORD STILL
VALID. Two parliamentary commissions have concluded that a June 1995
power-sharing agreement between President Kuchma and a majority of
deputies is still valid, Ukrainian Radio reported on 18 June. Both the
human rights commission and commission on legal policy and judicial
reform agreed that the wording of the so-called constitutional agreement
makes it valid until a new Ukrainian constitution is adopted.
Parliamentary speaker Oleksander Moroz was recently criticized by the
parliament for claiming the accord expired on 8 June. -- Chrystyna
Lapychak

KYRGYZ PRESIDENT IN UKRAINE. Askar Akayev, arriving in Kyiv on 18 June
for an official visit, called for closer cooperation between Ukraine and
Kyrgyzstan, Ukrainian Radio reported. Following a meeting with his
Ukrainian counterpart, Akayev said the signing of a treaty on friendship
and cooperation, expected to take place during his visit, would lift the
"artificial barriers" between the countries. More than 300 agreements
exist between Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan, but trade between them amounted to
only $17 million in 1995. -- Ustina Markus

THIRD MEETING OF RUSSIAN-BELARUSIAN EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. Russian Prime
Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin chaired the third session of the Russian-
Belarusian Executive Committee for integration in Moscow on 18 June,
ITAR-TASS and Russian Public TV reported. Delegates discussed social
issues, setting up a joint customs space, and establishing a unified
statistics service. Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka was
supposed to attend the meeting but was not present. He is quoted as
having said that the first round of the Russian presidential elections
showed that Russians were opposed to reform. -- Ustina Markus

ESTONIAN CABINET GIVES RESIDENCE PERMITS TO 3,000 RUSSIAN MILITARY
RETIREES. The Estonian government on 18 June announced it will grant
residence permits to some 3,000 retired Russian officers and their
family members, BNS reported. Five-year permits were granted to 2,965
officers, while the others received permits for between two and four
years. The government still has to decide the fate of some 8,000 other
military retirees and family members. Until now, no application has been
rejected. -- Saulius Girnius

SIX DEPUTIES QUIT "FOR LATVIA" CAUCUS. Six deputies of the Popular
Movement for Latvia caucus in the Saeima on 18 June announced they are
leaving the parliamentary group, BNS reported. The deputies cited the
"undemocratic atmosphere" in the caucus. They claimed that all decisions
were made by caucus chairman Odisejs Kostanda and German-born party
leader Joachim Siegerist. The six deputies do not intend to establish a
new caucus immediately but may do so during the fall session. -- Saulius
Girnius

POLISH PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSION FINISHES DRAFT CONSTITUTION. The Polish
parliamentary commission on drafting a new constitution has adopted the
final article (no. 218), which stipulates the procedure for making
changes to the basic law. According to this article, a relevant bill
must gain a two-thirds majority in the Sejm and an absolute majority in
the Senate. If changes are proposed to those articles dealing with
general constitutional principles, citizens rights, or the procedure for
changing the constitution, a national referendum may be called,
Rzeczpospolita reported on 19 June. -- Jakub Karpinski

BRITAIN TO RENT MILITARY TRAINING GROUNDS IN POLAND. British Defense
Minister Michael Portillo on 18 June signed an agreement with his Polish
counterpart, Stanislaw Dobrzanski, allowing Britain to use training
grounds in Poland. Britain will pay $100 a day for each soldier. The
first major exercise will take place in September at Drawsko and will
involve 3,500 troops from the Seventh Armored Brigade, Rzeczpospolita
reported on 19 June. This is the first such agreement that Poland has
signed with a NATO member country. -- Jakub Karpinski

CZECH POLITICAL UPDATE. Talks on forming a minority coalition government
led by incumbent Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus are nearing an end, Czech
media reported on 18 June. Klaus's Civic Democratic Party (ODS) has made
a number of concessions to its two junior coalition allies--the Civic
Democratic Alliance and the Christian Democratic Union--including giving
up its resistance to subdividing the country into regions. The ODS
continues to insist on having a majority of cabinet positions but is now
willing to give its coalition allies the right of veto in government
decision-making. The coalition parties are still opposed to the
opposition Social Democrats' proposal that important parliamentary posts
be proportionately divided among all parties with representation in the
legislature, including the extreme-right Republicans and the extreme-
left Communists. -- Jiri Pehe

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CRITICIZES CZECH REPUBLIC. In its 1995 report,
Amnesty International has criticized the Czech Republic for what it
calls "discriminatory instructions" issued by the Interior Ministry
permitting police to search Romani homes with loaded weapons, CTK
reported on 18 June. But Czech police told CTK the same day that the Law
on Police, which defines the police's use of weapons, does not mention
any ethnic or national group. Amnesty International cited the case of a
Romani man shot by police while in custody in 1994. No charges were
brought at the time. The human rights organization asked the Czech state
to provide information for an investigation. -- Alaina Lemon

GERMANY SUSPENDS ARREST WARRANT FOR SLOVAK PRESIDENT'S SON. Michal Kovac
Jr.'s lawyer, Jan Havlat, announced on 18 June that Germany has
suspended his client's arrest warrant in connection with the $2.3
million Technopol fraud, RFE/RL's Slovak Service reported. Kovac Jr. can
now travel to Germany for questioning without fear of being arrested,
Havlat said. It is unclear, however, whether the Slovak authorities will
allow Kovac Jr. to travel there. On 13 June, Slovak police said the
president's son is unable to leave the country because of fraud charges
filed against him in December. -- Sharon Fisher

SLOVAK POLITICAL ROUNDUP. Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar's health is
better, but he remains unable to fully carry out his duties, his
spokeswoman Magda Pospisilova announced on 18 June. After attending the
cabinet session led by Meciar, TASR director Dusan Kleiman noted that he
is "just as dynamic" as before his illness . In other news,
parliamentary chairman Ivan Gasparovic said the question of expanding
the board that oversees the Slovak Information Service could be added to
the agenda of the parliament's session that begins on 19 June.
Gasparovic and Meciar, both members of Movement for a Democratic
Slovakia, on 18 June met with representatives of the opposition Party of
the Democratic Left (SDL) to discuss domestic and foreign policy as well
as the possibility of expanding the board to include SDL deputies. --
Sharon Fisher

HUNGARIAN PARLIAMENT CHANGES HOUSE RULES. The parliament on 18 June
approved a proposal that changes house rules to the opposition's
disadvantage, Hungarian dailies reported. Leaders of the socialist-
liberal coalition submitted a proposal in early June to limit the number
of morning debates, saying that, among other things, the opposition's
"unserious" contributions are damaging the parliament's prestige. The
new regulation limits the debates to once a week and allows only caucus
leaders to speak. Opposition parties see their basic rights violated by
this move, not least because their contributions and air time during the
televised debates will be reduced just before the 1998 election campaign
begins. Moreover, some important scandals, such as "Oilgate," have been
revealed by the opposition during the morning debates. -- Zsofia
Szilagyi

SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

ARMS EMBARGO ON FORMER YUGOSLAVIA ENDS. International restrictions on
the export of weapons to the former Yugoslavia became history on 18
June, AFP reported. The move was made possible in accordance with the
terms of the Dayton agreement following the signing of a regional arms
control agreement on 14 June (see OMRI Daily Digest, 17 June 1996).
Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina will now enjoy
parity in heavy weapons in a ratio of 5:2:2. Within the Bosnian
allotment, the Croatian-Muslim federation will be allowed more weapons
than the Bosnian Serbs. The embargo went into effect on 25 September
1991 following Serbia's invasion of Slovenia and Croatia. The ban served
to preserve Belgrade's existing military preponderance, but all sides
found ways of circumventing the restrictions, the BBC noted. It is
unlikely that the latest arms control agreement will be any more water-
tight than was the embargo. -- Patrick Moore

BOSNIAN SERB WOMEN HOLD OSCE REPRESENTATIVES CAPTIVE. Dozens of Bosnian
Serb women who wanted help in finding relatives missing since last
summer surrounded the OSCE offices in Banja Luka on 17 June, preventing
staff from leaving the building, AFP reported. Twenty-four hours later,
they left the area outside the building, following talks with Michael
Steiner, deputy of the High Representative for Bosnia. Leader of the
Bosnian Serb missing persons' group said the women's action was
"political" and aimed at diverting the attention of UN organizations to
the problem of missing Serbs in Bosnia. But Alexandar Ivanko, UN
spokesman in Sarajevo, said the UN international police consider it "not
a political but a criminal action." -- Daria Sito Sucic

TUDJMAN SKEPTICAL BOSNIA WILL SURVIVE AS STATE. NATO diplomatic sources
in Brussels describe the recent talks between NATO Secretary-General
Javier Solana and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman as having been
"extremely difficult," Nasa Borba reported on 19 June. The NATO official
was "not impressed" by Tudjman's readiness to cooperate in solving
Bosnian problems. Moreover, he was discouraged to find out that Tudjman
does not believe that Bosnia-Herzegovina will survive as a single state
and that the Dayton peace accord is valid only temporarily. Tudjman
believes that in the long run, Bosnia will be divided between Serbs and
Croats, Nasa Borba reported. -- Daria Sito Sucic

MORE FALLOUT OVER HERZEGOVINIAN CROAT "GOVERNMENT." The Croatian
Democratic Community (HDZ), the leading Croatian political party in both
Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, denied on 18 June that recent political
changes in the self-proclaimed Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosna are a
breach of the Dayton agreement (see OMRI Daily Digest, 17 June 1996).
The HDZ's Bozo Rajic said that the changes involve only reorganizing an
existing cabinet and that the republic remains legal until the Croatian-
Muslim federation comes into effect. The Muslims charge that the quasi-
state should have been disbanded long ago. Federal Vice President Ejup
Ganic has demanded the recall of federal Foreign Minister Jadranko
Prlic, a Croat, since his appointment was conditional on the disolution
of Herceg-Bosna, Onasa reported. The Russian Foreign Ministry has also
protested the Croatian moves, Nasa Borba wrote on 19 June . The Muslim
position seems to be the one most in keeping with Dayton, but western
Herzegovina functions in any event as a part of Croatia. -- Patrick
Moore

RUMP YUGOSLAVIA PARDONS DRAFT DODGERS. The rump Yugoslav parliament on
18 June approved an amnesty for some 12,500 conscripts who avoided
military service or deserted during the wars in Croatia and Bosnia-
Herzegovina between 1991 and 1995, Reuters reported. The law does not
apply to professional soldiers and active officers. Previously, draft
dodgers and deserters faced up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Tens
of thousands of young men fled rump Yugoslavia to avoid having to fight
in the war. Rump Yugoslav authorities repeatedly rounded up men born in
Croatia and Bosnia and sent them to fight there, according to human
rights monitors. -- Stefan Krause

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA SEMINAR CLOSES IN BELGRADE. A three-day seminar on
media freedom, organized by London's Article 19 and Belgrade's Media
Center, ended in the Serbian capital on 18 June. Journalists from all
parts of the former Yugoslavia and all neighboring Balkan countries took
part in the meeting to discuss the role of the independent media in a
post-conflict environment, journalistic ethics, and how to deal with the
"advocacy of national, religious, racial, and religious hatred." Igor
Mekina of the Slovenian weekly Mladina said a relatively good legal
framework in Slovenia did not prevent the courts and political
structures from being insensitive to the need to promote media freedom,
Nasa Borba reported on 18 June. B-92 Director Veran Matic said that
since Dayton, the number of free media organizations in Serbia has been
reduced owing to the regime's machinations. -- Stanko Markotic in
Belgrade

SHOOTING INCIDENTS IN KOSOVO. One Serbian policeman was killed and two
wounded in separate shooting incidents on 16 and 17 June in Kosovska
Mitrovica and Podujevo, Reuters reported. Unidentified gunmen also
opened automatic gun fire and threw a hand grenade at the police station
in Luzane. Kosovo's Albanian-language media reported that police began
harassing and beating Albanians following the incidents. In similar
incidents earlier this year, five Serbs were killed within a few days.
The Liberation Army of Kosovo, which was previously unknown claimed
responsibility for those attacks. No group has yet owned up to these
most recent attacks, which, the Socialist Party said, "undermine all
efforts to restore a lasting peace in the province." -- Fabian Schmidt

CROATIA, BULGARIA SIGN MILITARY COOPERATION AGREEMENT. Croatian Defense
Minister Gojko Susak and his Bulgarian counterpart, Dimitar Pavlov,
signed a military cooperation agreement in Zagreb on 18 June, Hina
reported. Susak said the agreement provides for close military
cooperation once the arms embargo on the former Yugoslavia is lifted. He
noted that it is "no secret" that Croatia is interested in buying anti-
armor rockets and possibly producing them in cooperation with Bulgaria.
Pavlov proposed that Croatian officers attend training courses at
Bulgarian military academies. -- Stefan Krause

ROMANIA'S RULING PARTY CONCEDES LOSS OF VOTES IN TOWNS. Adrian Nastase,
executive chairman of the ruling Party of Social Democracy in Romania
(PDSR), on 18 June conceded that his party lost most big towns--
including Bucharest--in local elections held on 2 and 16 June, Reuters
and Romanian media reported. Nastase said voter frustration with the
ongoing reforms were responsible for his party's poor showing. He also
claimed that "We lost the battle at the mass media level," saying that
in the big towns, the press waged a campaign against the party. But
Nastase praised the loyalty of the rural electorate toward his party,
whose nationwide performance he described as "a success." Preliminary
results show that the PDSR won nearly 32% of the 2,610 mayoralties. --
Dan Ionescu

SOME 3 MILLION BULGARIANS BUY PRIVATIZATION VOUCHERS. The Center for
Mass Privatization on 17 June announced that just over 3 million people-
-or 48.7% of those eligible--have bought privatization vouchers,
Bulgarian media reported. Of those who bought vouchers in the second
round of purchasing, roughly two-thirds paid the full price of 500 leva
($3.50) for one voucher, whose nominal value is 25,000 leva. The rest
paid the reduced price of 100 leva intended for pensioners, students,
and soldiers. In other news, the National Statistical Institute
announced that the prices of goods monitored by the government went up
by 10.8% in the first half of June. This is twice the increase predicted
by economists and statisticians. -- Stefan Krause

ALBANIAN MEDIA CAMPAIGN AGAINST OSCE. The daily Albania has published a
series of articles alleging a conspiracy between Norwegian, Danish,
Bulgarian, and German OSCE monitors. The newspaper, which backs the
government, claims the monitors were either old friends of late
communist dictator Enver Hoxha or spies. It adds that they were
therefore biased in their report on the recent elections, which pointed
to irregularities and manipulation. Among those accused by Albania is
the head of Deutsche Welle's Albanian Service, a Danish sociologist, who
himself was banned from Albania beginning in the 1970s, and a senior
German judge. Most allegations are based on their having spent time in
Albania during the communist era. Radio Tirana recently stopped
rebroadcasting Deutsche Welle programs on short wave because of its
criticism of the elections. -- Fabian Schmidt

TURKEY UPSET WITH GREEK-ARMENIAN ACCORD. Ankara has reacted angrily to a
military cooperation accord signed by Armenia and Greece in Athens on 18
June, the Turkish Daily News reported. Turkish Defense Minister Oltan
Sungurlu commented that Turkey is in a position to "have such an
agreement cancelled." He also said that no threat was posed to Turkey by
Greece's stated desire to establish a "defense forum" among countries
known to harbor strong misgivings about Turkey's intentions. Those
countries, he said, include Greece, Armenia, Iran, Syria, "certain Arab
countries," and Georgia. -- Lowell Bezanis

[As of 12:00 CET]

Compiled by Jan Cleave

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            Copyright (c) 1996 Open Media Research Institute, Inc.
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