Asia Times: Tashkent bombings: Opposition leader accused



	March 09, 1999	atimes.com

Central Asia / Siberia

NEWSLINE: Central Asia, Transcaucasia and Russia

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Tashkent bombings: Opposition leader accused
The chairman of Uzbekistan's banned opposition party Erk has been named as a suspect in the 16 February bombings in Tashkent, Uzbek Television reported on 1 March. Mohammed Solih, who ran against incumbent President Islam Karimov in the 1991 presidential election, was called a ''traitor to his motherland'' and was accused of bringing ''young men'' to Chechnya via Turkey to receive training in sabotage. The television station also linked Solih with former Chechen acting President Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, calling the two ''friends.'' Interfax on 4 March cited an article in Uzbekistan's daily newspaper ''Pravda Vostoka'' as reporting that Solih also has connections with ''Takhir Yuldash, a Wahhabi.'' The article claimed Yuldash ''wanders around Peshawar, Istanbul, Chechnya, Kabul, and Karaganda'' and that ''we know what these secret meetings are aimed at. It's naive to believe that Yuldash has no hand in the attack on the president. Yuldash shamelessly says he will need Solih after seizing power.'' (Bruce Pannier)

IMF increases loans to Kyrgyzstan
The IMF on 4 March announced it will augment planned loans to Kyrgyzstan, Reuters and ITAR-TASS reported. The fund said it will provide $12 million in addition to an already approved three-year loan, bringing the loan to a total of $100 million. Kyrgyzstan will receive immediately a $26 million tranche, as well as the extra $12 million. The IMF said the increase is necessary owing to the ''external shock'' of Russia's financial crisis. The IMF predicted that Kyrgyz economic growth for 1999 will be 3 percent, up on last year's 2 percent growth but well short of the 10 percent registered in 1997. (B.P.)

Call for Armenian president to ensure fair elections
Senior members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (HHD), which supports President Robert Kocharian, told journalists in Yerevan on 4 March that the country's present leadership, and Kocharian personally, should ensure that the May 30 parliamentary elections are free and fair, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported. HHD leader Vahan Hovannisian stressed that the new parliament ''must be legitimate'' and its members elected on the basis of their ideological views. The HHD shares many opposition parties' reservations about the new election law and will continue to lobby for amendments to it, according to Rouben Hakopian, the HHD's only deputy in the parliament. The HHD has held talks with the Republican Party and the Communist Party on cooperating to prevent election fraud and will also discuss that issue with the National Democratic Union. (AZhM). (Liz Fuller)

Commission set up to probe privatization scandal
President Kocharian has formed a presidential commission to look into allegations that the creation of the ArmenTel telecommunications company in the early 1990s and the firm's subsequent privatization were characterized by large-scale corruption, RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau reported on 4 March, citing the presidential press service. Leading opposition parties had unsuccessfully attempted last month to create an analogous parliamentary commission. Some opposition leaders have alleged that senior Armenian government officials had accepted millions of dollars in kickbacks from ArmenTel's former U.S. shareholder, US Trans World Telecom (TWT). TWT had a 49 percent share in ArmenTel until December 1997, when Greece's OTE paid $142 million for 90 percent of its stock. ArmenTel's current Greek owner has so far refrained from commenting on the corruption accusations against its predecessors. OTE has been the target of much criticism in Amenia since last December, when it announced a drastic increase in telephone charges. (L.F.)

Moscow deports Georgian assassination suspect
Valerii Gabelia, former prefect of Georgia's Marneuli Raion, was flown to Tbilisi from Moscow on 4 March, Caucasus Press reported the following day, citing ''Dilis gazeti.'' A supporter of deceased President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Gabelia had been detained by Moscow police last month (see ''RFE/RL Newsline,'' 10 February 1999). The Georgian Prosecutor-General's Office has accused Gabelia of helping organize the failed attempt to assassinate President Shevardnadze in February 1998. (L.F.)

Georgia, Turkey to intensify defense ties
Representatives of the Turkish armed forces general staff and the Georgian Defense Ministry signed a protocol in Tbilisi on 4 March whereby Turkey will provide additional financial and technical aid to the Georgian armed forces over five years, Interfax and Turan reported. Last year, Ankara allocated $5.5 million to the Georgian armed forces. Turkey will also continue training Georgian military officers in Turkey. (L.F.)

Moscow swirls with reshuffle rumors
A report in ''Argumenty i Fakty'' from 3 March that President Yeltsin will soon reshuffle Yevgenii Primakov's cabinet by firing all Communists has unleashed a frenzy of speculation. Presidential administration officials were busy on 4 March making television appearances to deny an imminent shake-up. Presidential spokesman Dmitrii Yakushkin told reporters that Yeltsin has not ordered Primakov to fire all Communists from the government. He noted that ''it's sad to see that a brief report that is all fabrication could snowball with details and take on a kind of reality.'' State Duma Chairman Gennadii Seleznev told reporters that media reports were ''disinformation and absolute fiction,'' while Communist Party leader Gennadii Zyuganov warned that ''either the government continues to work with the same composition or there will be a serious government crisis.'' (Julie A. Corwin)

Russian officials cool over NATO expansion
With three former Soviet bloc countries poised to join NATO on 12 March, Duma Chairman Seleznev said on 4 March that he feels ''regret, if not surprise'' over the eagerness of East European leaders to join the alliance, since history shows that when a grouping claims a leading role in Europe, destructive conflicts tend to flare up. First Deputy Chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff Colonel-General Valerii Manilov told members of the Duma that ''the NATO military machine is approaching the Russian border'' and ''demands concerted, well-coordinated, and confident actions from Russia.'' Liberal Democratic Party of Russia leader Vladimir Zhirinovskii had other ideas, suggesting in a proposal to the State Duma that Russia cut off natural gas supplies to the Czech Republic the day after it joins the alliance, CTK reported. (J.A.C.)

Primakov, Camdessus meeting on schedule
Prime Minister Primakov and IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus will meet in Washington on 24 March, RFE/RL's Washington bureau reported on 4 March. Meanwhile, First Deputy Prime Minister Yurii Maslyukov adopted a more conciliatory tone toward the fund than he had used in the past week, returning to his former optimism. He said that ''a real rapprochement in negotiations with the IMF might be expected within the next few days, which might be followed by the arrival of an IMF mission in Moscow.'' The same day IMF Moscow representative Martin Gilman told Interfax that the situation regarding the timing of the return of the IMF mission to Moscow has not changed. According to Gilman, the mission could return at any time, but only if talks are likely to be productive and ''will lead to a rapid conclusion of an agreement for [IMF] support for the Russian government's program.'' (J.A.C.)

Russia has low expectations for foreign investment
Although the government has finally taken action to improve Russia's investment climate, such as adopting amendments to production-sharing agreement (PSA) legislation, it expects to attract only a ''maximum of $1 billion in foreign investment'' in 1999, ''Kommersant-Daily'' reported on 4 March. But even the government understands that for investors, the advantages of PSAs are not very great at the moment. At the latest government meeting on investment policy, it was clear, according to the newspaper, that the government ''is eager to support investments but it does not know how. The only question it has decided is that of state investments.'' The cabinet decided to devote only 15 percent of GDP to investment--the same policy that was followed at the beginning of the 1990s. The newspaper concluded that with such a low level of investment, ''the nation is destined to descend the staircase of the world economic hierarchy'' and ''will have to scale down its high-technology industries.'' (J.A.C.)

Moscow pooh-poohs U.S. human rights report
The press service of the Moscow city government told ITAR-TASS on 4 March that information contained in the U.S. State Department's human rights report is misleading and inaccurate. According to the service, the Moscow city government has never pursued a policy, as the report alleges, of deporting Chechens and other persons of Caucasian nationality from Moscow. Press service officials responded to the report's criticism that Moscow has not allowed entry to refugees from Armenia, Asia, and African countries with a legitimate need for political asylum, noting that Moscow is not a sovereign state and issues such as the granting of asylum come under the jurisdiction of federal authorities. (J.A.C.)

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