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Central Asia / Siberia
NEWSLINE: Central Asia, Transcaucasia and RussiaRadio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Kazakh troops to remain on Tajik-Afghan border
Kazakhstan's border guard chief, Major-General Toktasyn Buzubayev, said at a press conference in Almaty on 17 March that his country will not withdraw its battalion from Tajikistan, Interfax reported. Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have withdrawn their troops from the CIS peacekeeping force (see ''RFE/RL Newsline,'' 23 November 1998 and 23 February 1999), leaving only battalions from Tajikistan, Russia, and Kazakhstan guarding the Tajik-Afghan border. Interfax also reported that the size of Kazakhstan's battalion in Tajikistan has been reduced from 500 to 300 men. (Bruce Pannier)
Turkmenistan to require visas from most CIS visitors
Turkmenistan is to require citizens of most CIS states to obtain a visa before visiting that country, Interfax reported on 17 March. Turkmenistan is the first country to announce it is withdrawing from the CIS Free Travel Agreement. A ''source'' told Interfax that one reason for the decision is that ''mass migration and other travel are becoming increasingly uncontrollable.'' Another reason, according to the same source, is that Turkmenistan has become a haven for those wanted for crimes elsewhere in the CIS. Citizens from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are exempt from the new requirement, which is expected to go into effect beginning 9 June. (B.P.)
Kyrgyz parliament debates payments for Uzbek gas
Lawmakers on 17 March discussed purchasing natural gas from Uzbekistan, RFE/RL correspondents in Bishkek reported. Sagyn Ainakulov, the director of the state gas company, Kyrgyzgaz, said that as of 1 March Kyrgyzstan owes Uzbekistan more than $6 million for gas supplies. Several deputies said they have reviewed the contracts with Uzbekistan for gas supplies and have objections to its terms. They noted that Kyrgyzstan pays $50 per 1,000 cubic meters and has resorted to settling its debt through shipments of flour. That flour sells for $220 per ton, but the deputies claimed that the world price for 1,000 cubic meters of gas is $38 and for 1 ton of flour $320. They argued that the government and state gas company are criminally negligent for agreeing to such conditions. (B.P.)
More Tajik opposition members get govt. posts
Another five members of the United Tajik Opposition have been given government positions in line with terms of the Tajik Peace Accord signed in June 1997, ITAR-TASS and AP reported on 17 March. Abdunabi Sattarov from the democratic wing of the UTO was appointed deputy premier. The other posts given to the UTO are the deputy heads of the Health Ministry, the State Statistical Board, and the Special Property Committee as well as the head of the Geological Board. However, no decision has been taken on the UTO nominations for defense minister and head of the State Committee for Industry. (B.P.)
Armenian Speaker warns against pressure
Khosrov Harutunian told RFE/RL's Yerevan bureau on 17 March that he will not tolerate ''public pressure'' on the parliament to adopt in the second reading an opposition-sponsored bill lowering energy prices. Hundreds of opposition supporters picketed the parliament building on 15 March when the bill underwent its first reading. (Liz Fuller)
Azerbaijan oil consortium plans to double output
In a press release issued in Baku on 17 March, David Woodward, president of the Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC), the only international consortium at present extracting off-shore Caspian oil, said the consortium plans to double output in 1999 to 5.2 million metric tons, Turan and Dow Jones Newswires reported. Woodward noted that the two existing export pipelines from Baku via Russia and Georgia have a combined throughput capacity of 10 million tons. The Main Export Pipeline, the optimum route for which he said the AIOC has not yet decided, will be economically viable only when other consortia or other countries (such as Kazakhstan), begin to export oil. That is unlikely to happen before 2003, Woodward predicted. (L.F.)
Azerbaijan, Georgia discuss pipeline protection
Proceeding on the assumption that the Baku-Ceyhan route will ultimately be chosen for the Main Export Pipeline, Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar Abiev and Georgian Minister of State Vazha Lortkipanidze discussed in Tbilisi on 17 March creating a legal basis for cooperation between their two countries on protecting oil and gas export pipelines, Caucasus Press reported. Also on 17 March, Abiev said that the Russian military bases in Georgia pose a threat to Azerbaijan, according to Interfax. He also expressed displeasure that a Russian army facility in Tbilisi is engaged in repairing tanks for the Armenian army. Abiev has held talks with his Georgian counterpart, David Tevzadze, and with Georgian parliamentary speaker Zurab Zhvania. (L.F.)
Four Tashkent bomb suspects held in Ukraine
Ukrainian police have arrested four Uzbek nationals suspected of involvement in the Tashkent bombings last month (see ''RFE/RL Newsline,'' 16 February, 1999), Interfax reported. The four were apprehended in Kiev. In a 16 March statement, Amnesty International names two of the detainees as Yusif Ruzimuradov and Muhammed Bekjon, both members of Uzbekistan's banned Erk Party. Bekjon is the brother of Mohammed Solih, whom Uzbek President Islam Karimov has named as an organizer of the bombings (see ''RFE/RL Newsline,'' 17 March 1999). (B.P.)
Yeltsin orders probe into prosecutor-general sex film
Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Prime Minister Yevgenii Primakov met privately with Prosecutor-General Yurii Skuratov on 18 March, after slamming the Federation Council's decision the previous day to reject Skuratov's resignation. According to the Kremlin press service, ''the fight against crime can be conducted only by morally unstained people.'' Just hours after the Federation Council decision, Russian Television showed footage of a man looking a lot like Skuratov, who is married and the father of two children, dallying with two prostitutes. Before his meeting with Yeltsin and Primakov, Skuratov told NTV that the film was used to blackmail him to drop a case concerning a Swiss firm. Yeltsin ordered a probe into the film itself, ordering the Security Council to conduct a thorough check of information smearing the honor and dignity of an official of the Prosecutor-General's Office, ITAR-TASS reported. (Julie A. Corwin)
Progress made in IMF talks
Evaluating the past week's negotiations with the IMF, the Ministry of Economics issued a statement noting that ''considerable progress has been made in coordinating the parameters of the Russian government's economic policy.'' Remaining differences will be settled before Prime Minister Primakov's visit to Washington next week, according to the ministry. First Deputy Prime Minister Yurii Maslyukov, who was in Asia for most of the time that the IMF mission was in Moscow, told reporters on 18 March that he will meet with the IMF mission on 19 March. ''Kommersant-Daily'' reported on 16 March that according to its sources, the main sticking points between the fund and the Russian government's remain the latter's desire to cut value- added tax and its reluctance to increase energy export duties. (J.A.C.)
Russia, N.Korea initial treaty
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigorii Karasin and his North Korean counterpart, Ri In Gyu, initialed a new cooperation agreement in Pyongyang on 17 March, according to Interfax and the South Korean news agency Yonhap. Few details of the treaty have been made public, but Karasin called it ''an absolutely normal agreement that complies with international law and is not directed against any third countries.'' The formal agreement, which replaces the one signed in 1961, is expected to be signed when Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov visits North Korea later this year. (B.P.) ©1998 RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.
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RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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March 20, 1999
