12 September 2000
DAILY REVIEW FROM TATARSTAN
Tatarstan's Parliament Modifying Its Laws To Suit Moscow
The process of bringing Tatarstan's laws into conformity with Russian legislation is proceeding well, Modest Fatikhov, the senior assistant to Tatarstan's chief prosecutor, told Efir TV in Kazan on 11 September. The members of Tatarstan�s permanent parliamentary Legislation Commission that day reportedly considered seven issues of discord between the federal and republican legislation presented by the prosecutors. Following an order from the Russian General-Prosecutor's Office, Tatarstan's prosecutors made 35 protests regarding republican laws in Tatarstan. The protests mostly concern laws on licensing, the status of foreign citizens, punishments for violations of sanitary laws, traffic rules, and rules on firearms. The next session of the Legislation Commission is scheduled for 14 September.
Chally TPC Unhappy With 'New TPC'
The Chally branch of the moderate nationalist group Tatar Public Center (TPC) made an appeal to Tatar President Mintimer Shaimiev on 10 September. The TPC said that Chally Mayor Rashit Khamadiyev "attempted to organize a new TPC with a new chairman." They complained that the organizational meeting of the new TPC was held without inviting the members of the existing TPC. The appeal also said that the "coordinating board headed by Mayor Khamadiyev arranged this situation�and divided the ethnic movement into two separate groups, pitting their leaders against each other, and threatening that bloodshed would follow."
The TPC's Chally branch asked Shaimiev to alleviate the situation with "his own involvement being a guarantor of Tatarstan's Constitution." TPC members advised the president to send a governmental commission to settle the conflict. They warned that "if the rights of the original Chally branch of TPC are not protected, its three female and two male activists will commit acts of self-immolation in front of the city administration building in Chally's central square."
Government Sums Up Various Developments
Tatarstan's leading officials held a conference in the "Kazan Kremlin" on 11 September to report the results from their recent trips abroad. Tatarstan's president, Mintimer Shaimiev, commented on his recent visit to Japan as part of the delegation of Russian President Vladmir Putin. State Council Chairman Farit Mukhametshin told the conference about a visit by a delegation from Tatarstan to the Expo-2000 fair in Hannover, Germany. Deputy Premier Sergei Kogogin gave a report positively assessing the industrial development of Tatarstan thus far in 2000.
Later, Shaimiev sharply criticized the slow pace of state officials demolishing slum housing. He said that he would "put them in the slums for 1 and a half hours so that they could develop their care for common people."
By Iskender Nurmi