RFE/RL - November 28th, 2003

Chisinau, 28 November 2003 (RFE/RL) -- The Moldovan capital Chisinau is bracing today for a fourth day of protests sparked by opposition to a Russian-backed plan to end the crisis over the separatist region of Transdniester.

Yesterday, some 3,000 mainly ethnic Romanian students and members of the country's opposition took to the streets to protest the deal.

Under the plan, Transdniester -- populated mainly by ethnic Russians and Ukrainians -- would officially be named the Moldovan Transdniester Republic.

Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin earlier this week rejected the agreement and yesterday he explained why. Voronin said the plan gives too much authority to the region and strengthens Russia's role there.

Voronin also said he is opposed to Russia overseeing its troops in Transdniester without supervision from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The OSCE, Russia, and Ukraine are mediating the conflict.

Correspondents say Voronin's comments yesterday came after officials from several OSCE countries -- including the United States -- expressed reservations about the plan.

Fearing that it would reunite with Romania, pro-Russian separatists in Transdniester broke away from Moldova in 1992, sparking fighting that left more than 1,500 dead. Russia eventually brokered a truce and still maintains peacekeepers there.

Chisinau, 26 November 2003 (RFE/RL) -- Several thousand people protested today in the Moldovan capital Chisinau for a second day against the communist government of President Vladimir Voronin. Moldovan police using truncheons attacked protesters outside Voronin's residence, beating two opposition deputies, Vlad Cubreacov and Eugen Garla.

Reports say several protesters were beaten and detained during the protest. The opposition-led demonstration blocked traffic for hours in downtown Chisinau. "This crowd of policemen rushed upon the protesters, they beat men, women, and children. They hit me on the legs and even after I showed my identification papers, they dragged me on the pavement," Cubreacov said.

The protests were triggered yesterday by a Moscow-sponsored plan to settle a dispute over Moldova's pro-Russian breakaway Transdniester region. Protesters said the plan, which provided for turning Moldova into a federation secured by Russian troops already present in the region, would lead to the country losing independence.

First deputy chief of staff in the Kremlin administration, Dmitrii Kozak, commented on the refusal: "I don't think the events in Georgia had any influence or any impact [on this decision]. Most likely it is the result of the absence of political courage. The step made by one of the sides is indeed a serious mistake and now they might spend another 10 years trying to reach agreement."

A top Russian military official, General Yurii Baluevskii, today said Russia will maintain its 2,000 troops in Transdniester to avert violence.

A former senior Croatian Serb leader charged with murdering and persecuting non-Serbs has appeared at The Hague war crimes tribunal.

Milan Babic, 47, was indicted last week for crimes against humanity and war crimes during the 1990s. His appearance at the tribunal had not been expected.

Full story here.

Pictures of underfed young conscripts toiling hard at generals' dachas may not be unfamiliar to Russian television viewers these days.

But the rent-a-soldier scam exposed earlier this week in Samara, 600 miles east of Moscow, has taken aback even hardened observers of Russia's underfunded military.

Russian TV said six conscripts from a motorised rifle battalion were discovered working long shifts, day in, day out, as porters at a local cardboard factory, where they had also been housed for six months.

Their commander had decided that instead of honing their combat skills, the soldiers would better serve the Russian army by earning him a steady income of one dollar a day each.

Russian military prosecutors have put Anton's commander under arrest and set up a round-the-clock phone line for reporting similar incidents.

They admit that conscripts in Russia are being used as free labour for all sorts of purposes by their officers, from building cottages to baby-sitting.

But hiring soldiers out for profit has never been reported before, they insist.

Full story here.

HONG KONG (AP) -- Hong Kong voters punished the territory's top pro-Beijing party in local elections Sunday, an apparent backlash against unpopular leader Tung Chee-hwa that raises the stakes in next year's legislative contests.

The opposition Democratic Party picked up 93 of the 326 contested seats, government-owned radio station RTHK said. The party's politicians called the results -- and the record-high turnout -- proof that voters want Tung to speed the move toward full democracy in the Chinese territory.

The pro-China Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, or DAB, ended up with about 20 fewer seats then it won in 1999. The radio station said the party won 64 seats while a worker at the party headquarters said the total was just 62. In 1999, it won 83 seats.

Party Chairman Jasper Tsang responded by offering his resignation over ``the worst defeat we have suffered since the founding of the DAB 11 years ago.'' The party said in a statement its central committee would not decide until Tuesday whether to accept his resignation.

All sides agreed that DAB paid the price for backing Tung, who ran into his biggest crisis in July when 500,000 people marched against an anti-subversion measure they viewed as a threat to Hong Kong's civil liberties.

Tung eventually retreated on the bill while Hong Kong residents celebrated their ``people power,'' showing Sunday they might carry that momentum into legislative elections in September.

``I believe the government got the message,'' said Yeung Sum, chairman of the opposition Democratic Party. ``The citizenry's democratic aspirations are very clear.''

More than 1 million people voted Sunday -- a 44 percent turnout, compared with a 36 percent turnout in the 1999 District Council elections. There was a recent surge in new voter registration.

Among the DAB's casualties, party vice chairman Ip Kwok-him was defeated by pro-democracy lawmaker Cyd Ho by just 64 votes.

Ho called her victory a win for democracy and ordinary voters.

``They spoke very loudly and clear through the ballot box that people in Hong Kong are asking for more political rights,'' Ho said. ``I hope it gives a clear message to Tung's administration that thou shalt give no more delays to democratic reforms.''

Although the 18 district councils are charged only with advising the government on such local issues as sanitation, environment and infrastructure, Sunday's vote was the first since the mass rally and has been seen as a preview of the Legislative Council races in September.

Ordinary Hong Kong residents have no say in choosing their leader and were able to pick only 24 of 60 Legislative Council seats in the 2000 election. However, their voice is growing and they will pick half of the legislative seats in September.

Rank-and-file voters went overwhelmingly in favor of pro-democracy candidates last time and are expected to do so again. The other 30 seats will be filled by special interest groups, who are likely to return a few pro-democracy lawmakers.

Opposition politicians have long accused Tung of proceeding slowly toward full democracy. Under the charter negotiated for Hong Kong before Britain handed the colony back to China in 1997, the territory is supposed to get full democracy, but no time-table was set.

Many of new voters are believed to have been politicized by the July 1 protest. Before the rally, the DAB had been expected to emerge the biggest winner in Sunday's elections because of its strong grass-roots network.

The protest ultimately forced Tung to withdraw the anti-subversion bill. His low popularity has been aggravated by a struggling economy.

``I support democracy and the Democrats. Tung Chee-hwa has made a mess of Hong Kong,'' said one 80-year-old woman who only gave her surname, Lau, as she waved her fist in anger outside a polling station.

A pre-election survey by Baptist University showed that the DAB's popularity had plunged since the march, with public dissatisfaction toward the party surging to 74 percent. The DAB still has its supporters, however.

``If Hong Kong is run by the Democrats, we're finished. There is nothing to be gained from opposing the Communist Party in China,'' said taxi driver Lai Yiu-kee.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- A U.N. General Assembly committee approved a resolution Friday expressing serious concern at human rights violations in Iran.

The Canadian-sponsored draft resolution was adopted by a vote of 73-49 with 50 abstentions. It now goes to the full General Assembly where a similar vote is expected.

The United States and most European countries supported the resolution while Islamic nations opposed it.

The resolution expresses serious concern at ``the continued deterioration of the situation with regard to freedom of opinion and expression'' and at the use of torture and other forms of cruel and inhuman punishment.

At the same time, it welcomed Iran's invitation to human rights groups in April 2002 to visit the country and the opening of a human rights dialogue with a number of countries.

Before the vote, Iran's representative said that a journalist with dual Iranian and Canadian citizenship had died in Iranian custody, and said it was regrettable. The government has taken all necessary measures to bring those responsible to justice and an inquiry is under way, the diplomat said.

An Iranian intelligence agent has been charged in the murder of photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who died July 10 after suffering fatal head injuries during 77 hours of interrogation following her June 23 detention.

The Iranian diplomat stressed that the incident involving Kazemi was not enough to determine that there was no freedom of press in Iran.

Iranian hard-liners have jailed several dozen reformist journalists and political activists and closed about 100 pro-democracy publications during the past 3 1/2 years for criticizing the rule of the country's unelected hard-liners.

President Mohammad Khatami, who was elected on promises of introducing social and political reforms to Iran, has said newspaper closures and arrests of intellectuals and writers without trial or in closed, jury-less trials violated the constitution. Hard-liners have ignored his warnings.

The European parliament has attacked what it describes as the repression of religious groups in Vietnam.

The parliament accused the Communist authorities in Hanoi of adopting a "deliberate policy" of eliminating non-recognised churches.

It called for the release of dissident Buddhist leaders and others "detained because of their faith".

Vietnam has been under international scrutiny over its treatment of religious and political dissidents.

Full story here.

BELGRADE (Reuters) - In a hard slap in the face for Serbia's disarrayed and disenchanted reform parties, voters on Sunday handed a moral victory to hard-line nationalists who would turn back the clock on cooperation with the West.

At the end of the day, the presidential election was invalid because turnout fell well short of the required 50 percent. But the writing on the wall was clear: squabbling reformists court defeat in a December 28 general election unless they unite.

Tomislav Nikolic, candidate for the ultranationalist Radical Party whose leader is currently awaiting trial at The Hague on war crimes charges, outpolled would-be reformist unifier Dragoljub Micunovic by around 46 percent to 35 percent.

Those were preliminary figures. But the outcome was a far bigger surprise than the failure of the presidential election -- the third botched attempt to choose a head of state in just over a year because of low turnout.

For Serbia, it may be a wakeup call like the shock inflicted on France by far-right campaigner Jean-Marie Le Pen's defeat of Socialist leader Lionel Jospin to win a place in the run-off vote for the presidency against Jacques Chirac in April 2002.

That ended in a rout for Le Pen, but only after the political establishment buried the hatchet to unit against him.

Radicals' deputy president Aleksandar Vucic did not see that happening in Serbia.

``Serbia finally received hope that things can be different...that it can start with creating the state with the rule of law, true democratic order and different economic changes,'' he said.

He predicted the Radicals would come out on top when the general election is held in six weeks -- a year early.

Independent pollster Srdjan Bogosavljevic said that claim was exaggerated because the Radicals famously disciplined turnout meant ``Nikolic got all he could get.''

A SERIOUS THREAT

Analysts said Nikolic had walked in through the door left open by rival reform groups led by Yugoslavia's last president Vojislav Kostunica and the government's presidential candidate of 2002, Miroljub Labus, who urged voters to stay at home.

If 50 percent had voted instead of 38 percent, ``most probably those 600,000 would be first of all for Micunovic. These are people who are closer in their political opinion to'' the rival reformist parties, Bogosavljevic said.

The analyst added, however, that it was ``really a pretty serious threat to the entire democratic bloc...they showed they have a potential to be the strongest party in the country.''

In his campaign, Nikolic accused ruling reformers of introducing ``brutal'' capitalism in Serbia and said Belgrade should stop handing over suspects to the U.N. war crimes tribunal.

He said he would demand the resignation of Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic if he was elected head of state and threatened to call his supporters on to the streets if he refused.

``One million workers are without jobs, factories are not working at all, Serbia does not have production,'' he told Reuters in a pre-election interview.

Many Serbs are disillusioned that life has not improved since former President Slobodan Milosevic was ousted three years ago, and, in a move many felt dishonored the nation, transferred to The Hague for trial on charges of genocide.

Nikolic wants Serbia to stop handing over suspects, including the top fugitive, Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, and look more to Russia and the Third World for partnerships.

His showing Sunday virtually up-ended poll forecasts showing he would take about 39 percent of the vote compared with 47 percent for veteran pro-democracy politician Micunovic.

BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) -- Serbia dissolved its parliament and announced early elections Thursday, signaling the collapse of the government three years after the ouster of Slobodan Milosevic.

The pro-democracy coalition that came to power in 2000 has nearly unraveled, forcing Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic to agree -- under pressure from political defectors and Milosevic supporters -- to set a new parliamentary vote for Dec. 28, a year ahead of schedule.

The decision was officially announced by parliamentary speaker and acting president, Natasa Micic, who also dissolved the existing, 250-seat assembly.

``For the work ahead, we need a stable Serbia. Unfortunately, we do not have that at the moment,'' Micic said, expressing hope that the vote will ``help restore wisdom and harmony.''

Promises by the post-Milosevic leadership to usher in an economic recovery, increase living standards and root out corruption have been only partly fulfilled. Prices have soared and labor unrest has spread.

Zivkovic's Cabinet has struggled against dwindling support in the parliament, where one-time allies have teamed up with ultranationalists, conservatives and Milosevic's Socialists in a bid to unseat the government.

Zivkovic finally agreed to risk elections after his opponents threatened to hold a vote of confidence on the government. Over the past weeks of parliamentary debate, the opposition has accused the government of incompetence and rampant corruption.

Zivkovic conceded Thursday that his government had become paralyzed by the allegations and political fighting, leaving it unable to revive the economy devastated by Milosevic's long and ruinous rule.

``We can no longer continue work on important reforms,'' he said. ``This government has made its task to bring democracy to the country and ... seeks renewed confidence from citizens at the polls.''

The Cabinet was originally formed by Zoran Djindjic, Serbia's first democratic prime minister since World War II. He was assassinated March 12, allegedly by crime bosses and Milosevic-era paramilitary commanders.

Already this week, Serbia is holding presidential elections. It will be the third attempt in just over a year to fill the post vacant since a Milosevic ally stepped down and joined his former boss in The Hague, Netherlands, to answer war crimes charges related to the Balkan wars.

Both previous votes failed because of low turnout.

The coming race, on Sunday, pits Dragoljub Micunovic, a veteran politician with strong democratic credentials, against Tomislav Nikolic of the ultranationalist Serbian Radical party.

Micunovic leads in the polls, but the vote may fail if turnout again falls below 50 percent. Another failure would leave Serbia in a possible power vacuum with no elected president or parliament until Dec. 28.

Serbia forms a loose alliance with tiny Montenegro. The renaming and restructuring of what was once Yugoslavia took place earlier this year under European Union auspices.

LONDON (Reuters) - A British judge Thursday rejected Russia's bid to extradite Chechen rebel leader Akhmed Zakayev, saying it was politically motivated.

Judge Timothy Workman said he had found Russia was ``seeking extradition for the purposes of prosecuting Mr. Zakayev on account of his political opinions.''

Russia had sought his extradition on 13 counts including murder, kidnapping and soliciting others to murder during the war in the breakaway region.

But Judge Workman, giving his ruling in London's Bow Street Magistrates' Court, said that he believed Zakayev might be tortured if he returned to Russia.

``It would be unjust and oppressive to return Mr. Zakayev to Russia,'' he said.

The judge quoted one witness as saying: ``Chechens are almost always tortured'' and said he believed the evidence of another witness who testified that he had been held in a pit for six days and tortured with electric shocks to force him to make a statement against Zakayev.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi and U.S. rights investigators said on Saturday they suspected Iraq had up to 260 mass graves containing the bodies of at least 300,000 people murdered by the former regime of Saddam Hussein.

They told a conference that the task of identifying bodies and preparing evidence for tribunals could take years and millions of dollars, but the long process would be worth it to heal the wounds of three decades of brutal Baath Party rule.

``We have reports of 260 mass graves and we have confirmed approximately 40 of them,'' said Sandra Hodgkinson, director of the Coalition Provisional Authority's (CPA) mass grave action plan'.

``We believe, based on what Iraqis have reported to us, that there are 300,000 dead and that's the lower end of the estimates.

``In Bosnia it's now eight or nine years since similar atrocities and only 8,000 bodies out of 30,000 have been uncovered. Here in Iraq it's 300,000,'' said Hodgkinson, a human rights lawyer brought in by the CPA after U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam in April. More sites could still be found.

The three-day conference aims to prepare Iraqi rights workers and officials of the Iraqi human rights ministry for the process of disinterring graves and convincing families that they should wait rather than rush to dig up bodies themselves.

Hodgkinson said only 11 of the 260 sites had been disturbed since the graves were first discovered in May, when distraught families frantically dug around for the remains of loved ones.

Iraqi officials, who will gradually take over control of the investigations, also called for patience.

``Iraq doesn't have the capability at present to do the work of investigation. The main task for the moment is how to protect the sites which have been opened,'' Human Rights Minister Abdel-Basset Turki told the meeting.

KURDS VICTIMISED

The U.S. military has footed the bill for satellite imaging to identify sites, but Turki said more money would be needed.

Iraq's Governing Council asked an international donor conference in Madrid last month for $100 million to be spent on equipment and manpower over the next five years, but Turki said little has been forthcoming yet.

A team of forensic experts will arrive in Iraq in January to begin work on up to 20 sites around the country where evidence will be collected for future trials of regime figures. Work to identify bodies has begun at the other 200-odd sites.

Investigators have identified six major crime periods: 1983 attacks on Kurds, a 1988 campaign against Kurds, chemical weapons attacks on Kurds 1986-88, the 1991 crushing of a southern Shi'ite revolt, 1991 crushing of Kurdish insurrection, and crimes against all sectors of the population during the entire period of Baath rule.

Rafid al-Husseiny, a doctor who has led disinterring work at the Mahaweel site near Hilla south of Baghdad, is leading efforts to train Iraqis in the gravedigging process.

``Since May we have investigated a mass grave there of 3,115 people. We identified 2,115 bodies, which were reburied by their families,'' he said, stressing reconciliation among Iraqis.

``Iraqi citizens must look with both eyes, one looking to the future and one looking toward the past.''

MOSCOW (AP) -- In the latest blow to the embattled oil giant Yukos, one of its top shareholders who is facing tax evasion charges was stripped of his seat in the federal parliament Thursday.

Vasily Shakhnovsky resigned last month as head of Yukos' day-to-day operations after a local legislature named him to the parliament's upper house, the Federation Council. A parliament seat would have given Shakhnovsky immunity from prosecution.

Local prosecutors appealed the election, and on Thursday the Krasnoyarsk Regional Court announced the election invalid. Shakhnovsky's lawyers said they would appeal, NTV television reported.

Last month, prosecutors charged Shakhnovsky with evading taxes equivalent to about $965,000 from 1998 to 2000.

The charges are part of a wide-ranging official probe against Yukos, which reached a peak with the Oct. 25 jailing of Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the subsequent freezing of a large chunk of Yukos shares.

The Yukos probe was widely seen in Russia and abroad as an attempt by some of President Vladimir Putin's ex-KGB lieutenants to curb Khodorkovsky's financial and political clout and avenge his funding of opposition parties.

The State Department last week said the actions against Yukos raised questions about the rule of law in Russia, and a U.S. official told The Associated Press in Washington that politics likely was ``the driving factor'' in Khodorkovsky's jailing.

Putin has denied any political undertones behind the Yukos probe, saying its goal was to protect the law. He pledged that it won't lead to a massive revision of the results of the controversial privatizations of the 1990s, in which tycoons such as Khodorkovsky snapped up valuable state assets in dubious actions at dirt-cheap prices.

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has praised Putin's handling of the case against Yukos, and said the company must be punished if it failed to pay taxes.

Gorbachev said he did not believe Putin had directed prosecutors to pursue Yukos. Nor does he believe that Putin will allow Russia to drift into authoritarianism, he said.

``Amid all the difficulties ... the situation is under the president's control. He has the support of the people and this is his most important resource,'' Gorbachev told a news conference.

In spite of such assurances, the crackdown on Yukos has driven its shares down and hurt the entire Russian stock market.

SHANGHAI, China - Two British men who spent more than a year retracing the rugged route of the 1930s "Long March" by Mao Zedong's communist guerrillas said Wednesday it turned out to be about one-third shorter than reported by Communist Party propaganda.

Ed Jocelyn and Andy McEwan said their findings showed the trek — a major event in the formative years of the party that took power in 1949 — to be some 3,700 miles.

History books often say the Long March covered 6,200 miles. Some say it was as long as 8,000 miles.

"Some will get upset at what they see as an attack on a central myth of the revolution. The Long March is the founding myth of the party," McEwan said by mobile telephone from near Yan'an, where Mao's forces settled in western China following the march.

Full story here.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Defense lawyers for ousted Ethiopian ruler Mengistu Haile Mariam begin their arguments in his trial in absentia on genocide charges on Tuesday, the latest stage in a hearing that has lasted almost a decade.

Some forty former top soldiers accused of genocide during Mengistu's 17-year rule are also on trial together with their former commander, who fled to exile in Zimbabwe he was toppled in 1991.

Suspects could face the death penalty if convicted at the trial which began in December 1994, part of a series of hearings that are among the largest of their kind since Nazi leaders were tried after World War II.

Since 1994, more than 5,000 people have been tried or await trial in Ethiopia on charges of murdering thousands of people during Mengistu's iron-fisted rule and ``Red Terror'' purges.

``It is now the turn of defense lawyers to rebut charges leveled against their clients,'' a lawyer following the case told Reuters.

The charges against former officials languishing in prison for the last 12 years include the killings of more than 1,000 people including Emperor Haile Selassie, who was dethroned in 1974 by Mengistu's junta, known as the ``Dergue.''

Other defendants in the joint trial include former prime minister Fikre-Selassie Wogderesse, former vice-president Fissiha Desta and three top military officials who were given sanctuary in the Italian embassy in Addis Ababa and have lived there ever since. The trio will be tried in absentia.

Under Ethiopian law, genocide is defined as the intent to destroy political as well as ethnic groups.

The prosecution concluded its presentation of more than 1,000 witnesses earlier this year at the trial, which has been repeatedly adjourned.

Human rights groups have expressed alarm at the amount of time the trial is taking. The prosecution says the complex nature of the evidence has increased the trial period.

Mengistu emerged as the most powerful of a group of Marxist military officers who ousted Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974. He was ousted when the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (ERPDF) seized Addis Ababa in 1991.