![[ rfe/rl logo ]](/images/new/article-logo.gif){kind=logo}
| News & Analysis I RFE/RL Newsline® I Reports I Specials I RFE/RL Pressroom |
| About RFE/RL I Subscribe I Listen I RFE/RL Languages I Job Opportunities I Search I Site Map I |
|
|
||
|
|
|
Friday, May 9, 2008 Volume 12 Number 87
previous issue
| next issue  NOTE TO READERS:
RFE/RL announces with regret that due to financial constraints, this will be the last issue of "RFE/RL Newsline." In late June, RFE/RL will launch a redesigned English-language website (http://www.rferl.org) that will continue to cover developments in our broadcast region. Transcaucasia And Central Asia
EU ENVOY CALLS FOR END TO REPRISALS AGAINST ARMENIAN OPPOSITIONPeter Semneby, who is the EU special representative for the South Caucasus, met in Yerevan on May 7 with former President Levon Ter-Petrossian and with parliament speaker Tigran Torosian, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported. Semneby told Torosian that the EU considers it imperative that the Armenian authorities release detained Ter-Petrossian supporters and launch an independent investigation into the March 1-2 clashes in Yerevan between police and Ter-Petrossian supporters in which 10 people died. He said those moves would facilitate a dialogue between the authorities and opposition groups. Semneby was quoted as saying that he has the impression that Ter-Petrossian has modified his views on how to defuse the ongoing political crisis, but did not elaborate. A spokesman said on May 7, however, that Ter-Petrossian will not nominate a representative to the planned ad hoc parliament commission tasked with assessing international criticism of the February 19 parliamentary ballot in which Ter-Petrossian was defeated by then-Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian and proposing ways of eliminating violations during future ballots, including amendments to current election legislation (see "RFE/RL Newsline," May 7, 2008). The Zharangutiun (Heritage) party, the only opposition party represented in parliament, has agreed to nominate a member to the commission. LF SACKED ARMENIAN GENERAL DENIES BACKING EX-PRESIDENT In a written statement on May 8, Lieutenant General Manvel Grigorian, who was dismissed last month from the post of deputy defense minister (see "RFE/RL Newsline," April 2, 2008), denied that he supported Ter-Petrossian in his presidential bid either during the election campaign or, as Ter-Petrossian himself claimed, during the subsequent protests at vote rigging and other violations, RFE/RL's Armenian Service reported (see "RFE/RL Newsline," February 22, 2008). Grigorian further downplayed the involvement of members of the influential Yerkrapah union of veterans of the Karabakh war, which he heads, in Ter-Petrossian's election campaign and in the postelection protests that culminated in the March 1-2 violence. "I declare with all responsibility that Yerkrapah has never engaged, and will not become engaged in politics," Grigorian affirmed, stressing that "thousands" of war veterans campaigned for Sarkisian in the presidential ballot. LF RUSSIA RELEASES TROOP FIGURES FOR ABKHAZIA The Russian Defense Ministry released a statement on May 8 saying that the recent deployment of additional peacekeeping troops to the Abkhaz conflict zone raised the total figure from 1,997 to 2,542, Interfax and civil.ge reported. The statement said the Russian peacekeepers' presence "has only one goal -- to maintain peace and avoid bloodshed." Georgian Defense Minister David Kezerashvili, however, said on May 8 that Russia "long ago" exceeded the maximum number of troops (3,000) it is permitted to deploy in Abkhazia, but did not give concrete figures, according to Caucasus Press. Also on May 8, the UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) released a statement implicitly denying an earlier statement by the Russian Defense Ministry the same day that cited UNOMIG's Chief Military Observer Major General Niaz Muhammad Khan Khattak as saying the "actions by the Russian side do not violate basic agreements on the conduct of the peacekeeping operation." UNOMIG stressed that it has no authority to pronounce on whether the peacekeeping operation in Abkhazia under the aegis of the CIS conforms to the guidelines for that operation agreed in August 1994. At the same time, it said that UNOMIG patrols continue to monitor the situation in the conflict zone and have not reported to date any buildup of security forces by either side. That UNOMIG statement in turn calls into question repeated Georgian assertions in recent days that the two sides "are close to war." LF GEORGIAN DENIES FIFTH SPY DRONE DOWNED Speaking on May 8 in Batumi, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili denied that a fifth Georgian spy drone has been shot down over Abkhazia, kavkaz-uzel.ru reported. Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili likewise dismissed the claim made earlier that day by de facto Abkhaz Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Zaitsev that Abkhaz antiaircraft forces shot down the drone over Ochamchira Raion that afternoon. "Kommersant" quoted Abkhaz Defense Minister Merab Kishmaria as claiming that wreckage from the destroyed aircraft has already been recovered in Gali Raion. One Georgian drone was shot down in mid-March, a second on April 20, and two more on May 4. LF GEORGIA TO CUT DEFENSE SPENDING Georgia plans to reduce military spending over a five year period to 2012 from 5.6 percent to 2.3 percent of GDP, Caucasus Press reported on May 7, quoting the website of the Georgian Defense Ministry. Defense spending was 1.495 billion laris ($1.031 billion) in 2007 and 1.1 billion in 2008. LF RUSSIA, KAZAKHSTAN AGREE TO DOUBLE CPC THROUGHPUT CAPACITY Russian Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko and Kazakhstan's Minister for Energy and Natural Resources Sauat Mynbaev have reached agreement on more than doubling by 2012 the throughput capacity of the export pipeline that transports Kazakh oil from the Tengiz field to Novorossiisk, Interfax reported on May 7. Formally commissioned six years ago (see "RFE/RL Newsline," November 28, 2001), the CPC pipeline, the only one crossing Russian territory that is not state-owned, currently has an annual throughput capacity of 32 million tons; this will rise to 67 million tons. Of that quantity, 17 million tons will be transported by tanker across the Black Sea to Bulgaria for onward shipment via the planned Burgas-Alexandropoulis pipeline, expected to be completed no earlier than 2010, and in which Russia's Transneft, Rosneft, and Gazprom-Neft together hold a 51 percent stake. Until one year ago, Russia opposed expansion of the CPC capacity on the grounds that it would intensify competition between Russia and Kazakhstan for the limited number of oil tankers permitted to transit the Turkish straits. Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbaev announced after talks in Astana a year ago with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that the two sides reached agreement on the annual capacity of 40 million tons, but "Kommersant" on May 11, 2007, quoted Putin as saying that the issue is still under discussion, and Transneft CEO Aleksei Miller as complaining that expanding throughput capacity would only further increase the consortium's $5 billion debt. In October 2007, CPC shareholders raised the transport tariff from $27 to $38 per ton. LF JOURNALISTS ASK KYRGYZ PRESIDENT TO AMEND DRAFT LAW ON TV BROADCASTING The staff of the Kyrgyz radio and television company OshTV have appealed to President Kurmanbek Bakiev to amend the draft law on television and radio broadcasting passed by parliament in the first reading on April 24, the websites ferghana.ru and 24.kg reported on May 8. The journalists point to the problems inherent in complying with the articles of the law requiring that over 50 percent of broadcasting be in the state language (Kyrgyz) and at least 50 percent of programming be original. The population of Osh is estimated to be 40 percent Uzbek, and that percentage is rising as Kyrgyz leave the region to seek employment in Russia or Kazakhstan. Several local television channels are owned by Uzbeks, and the local authorities are reportedly wary of pressuring them to comply with the new law lest they trigger accusations of violating the rights of an ethnic minority. LF UZBEKISTAN PLANS TO ESTABLISH 'GREEN' PARTY The so-called Institute for the Development of Civil Society subordinate to the president's office has drafted the program and statutes of an ecological party, the website uzmetronom.com reported on May 8. Its activities will focus on conservation and providing aid to the population of regions of the country that are ecological disaster zones, especially areas bordering the Aral Sea. The party will probably be headed by Yusup Shadimetov, a former head of the Science Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan. LF
|
|
|
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © <%= year(now) %> RFE/RL, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Contact us: web@rferl.org
|
![[E-mail this page to a friend]](/images/newsline/email-icon.gif){kind=icon}