Issue No. 173. - May 10, 2000.
Contents :
1.Azerbaijan: OPPOSITION PRESS WITH REFORMS
By Hikmet Hadjy-Zadeh
2.Croatia: 100 DAYS AFTER
By Goran Vezic
3.Cuba: ELIAN AND THE INTERNAL OPPOSITION VICTORIES
By Zoltan Guba
4.Special addition : NEW AT TOL
Five years of frustration fueled the April 29 confrontation in Baku
between opposition supporters and authorities. Now, as the dust settles
from the street clashes, leading opponents of President Heidar Aliev are
vowing to press on with a campaign to open Azerbaijan's political system.
The Azerbaijani parliament adopted a resolution May 2 condemning the
unrest, describing the protest as an attempt to damage Azerbaijan's image.
Meanwhile, the main opposition Democratic Bloc assailed authorities for
using excessive force against demonstrators.
Opposition discontent has simmered since Azerbaijan’s 1995 parliamentary
elections. That vote, as well as subsequent elections for President in
1998, and for municipal representatives in 1999, was considered by many
international observers to have been rigged. Organizers of the April 29
protest were aiming to prevent vote rigging in parliamentary elections
to be held later this year.
The protest strategy began taking shape immediately after the municipal
elections of November 1999. Key democratically oriented parties - Musavat,
the Popular Front Party, the Party of National Independence and the Democratic
Party' set aside philosophical differences and agreed on a concrete, unified
program for fair elections. Among the objectives that the alliance is striving
to achieve are:
a.. The reorganization of the Central Election Commission,
and local election commissions, to facilitate greater opposition participation
in election oversight.
b.. The implementation of comprehensive election
monitoring.
c.. The guarantee of equal campaign conditions for
all parliamentary candidates, including access to state television.
d.. The release of all political prisoners.
The new alliance resolved to conduct nationwide demonstrations to advance
their cause. Authorities employed a wide variety of bureaucratic weapons
in the attempt to frustrate the opposition. Nevertheless, the alliance
has held firm.
Three hours before the April 29 demonstration, police blocked all roads
to the rally venue, Fizuli Square. At 4 p.m., up to 8,000 demonstrators
started moving towards the Square, walking in four columns. In the vicinity
of the Square, club-wielding police officers and plain-clothes security
officials attempted to stop the advancing demonstrators. At one point,
Musavat leader Isa Gambar told supporters: "This manifestation is only
the beginning of our fair struggle for electing a government that is responsive
to the people, and no one can stop us". Police tried to arrest Gambar,
but demonstrators offered stiff resistance and did not let that happen.
The objective of the police was to squeeze the demonstrators out of
the rally zone, which turned out to be too difficult a task in the densely
built part of the city. Demonstrators would disperse and then gather again,
singing the national anthem, chanting slogans in support of free and fair
elections and civil rights.
Much to the surprise of policemen, demonstrators gathered in an adjacent
square, in front of the "Republican" concert hall, where the rally lasted
for another hour and a half. According to various sources, over 165 opposition
supporters and over 30 law enforcement officials sustained injuries during
the street clashes. In addition, 46 demonstrators, including secretary
of the Musavat Party Arif Hajiyev, chairman of the People's Party Panah
Husseinov, chairman of Ahrar Party Vagif Hajibayli and other rally organizers,
were detained and sentenced to up to 15 days in prison.
The impact of the rally, which paralyzed the center of the capital,
was a lot greater than it would have been if the authorities had allowed
for the manifestation to be held in peace. All through the action, the
confrontation was televised live by the private ANS channel. Reports on
the manifestation were also televised by Russian and Turkish central television
channels. Only after the organizers called for an end did demonstrators
disperse at 6.30 p.m.
Immediately after the rally, the Democratic Bloc announced that it
would push ahead with protest actions. The alliance also demanded the release
of arrested demonstrators. The Democratic Bloc took the additional step
of issuing an international appeal, calling on the Azerbaijani government
to fulfil its human rights obligations.
At a May 1 news conference, Gambar declared; "the April 29 rally is
a moral victory for democracy." Asked if the alliance's action might provoke
a government crackdown, Gambar answered that "no one can divert us from
the course we have taken."
The April 29 demonstration could prove to be the start of a prolonged
political struggle, some opposition supporters suggest. They add that the
manifestation revealed law enforcement agencies to be far from omnipotent,
thereby undermining the "stability" established by Aliev's regime.
After a little over 100 days since the spectacular change of government
in Croatia (parliamentary and presidential elections in January and February),
the new government faced the first real test last Sunday ( May 7) - early
local election in the Croatian capital of Zagreb. Besides election of the
local government, those elections served to show the most recent positions
in Croatian political scene.
Croatian right parties got confirmation of their defeat also at Zagreb
local elections on Sunday. Radical Croatian Party of Rights (HSP) headed
by Ante Djapic didn't even get near to election minimum with its two per
cent support, while the former ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) declined
to as low as 11 per cent of the votes in the capital of Croatia, representing
almost the third of the total votes. That is half of what that party, which
has been an undisputed ruler ver Croatia for ten years, got at parliamentary
elections, where it was completely defeated.
Still, defeated right wants to leave seats in parliament and move to
street. One if its prominent members is Marinko Liovic, chief of Croatian
army invalids of the patriotic war (HVIDRA) and HDZ's representative in
the parliament, who threatened that invalids will block Croatian roads
and border traffic, destroy tourist season and send letters to the ambassadors
in Zagreb, informing them that their fellow citizens aren't welcome as
tourists to Croatia, unless the government accepts their demands for improving
of veterans' financial status and puts an end to "criminalization of the
Patriotic war", that is stops co-operation with the international criminal
court in the Hague (ICTY). It is enough to know that Croatia is expecting
3,5 billions US$ from the tourism to understand how these threats may shake
already deflated economy.
The threats met with a fierce reproval from Croatian political top
and public opinion, but the essence of the problem wasn't eliminated. After
spectacular victory of pro-democratic and pro-European political forces
in Croatia, there is now a phase of latent disappointment and disillusion
in what the changes have brought.
And that is the other side of the coin shown by the local elections
in Croatian capital.
Although victorious were the parties of the ruling coalition, there
was a huge number of those who abstained from the vote - only about 30
per cent of the voters cast their ballots. Most all relevant analysts of
Croatian politics say that abstinence is partly due to "material fatigue"
(third grand elections in only few months), but also a serious warning
to the ruling coalition that the people are displeased with what's done
so far. Therefore there is a justified fear that further increase of that
displeasure on one hand and now clear intention of Croatian right to return
its lost positions on the street on the other could cause a political chaos
with a catastrophic effect on new democracy in Croatia.
There is now more and more of those who remind coalition government
made out of six parties and headed by socialdemocrat prime minister Ivica
Racan on its key election promises.
It was clear that the government had to face difficult legacy left
behind by autocratic regime of Franjo Tudjman and his nationalistic party,
but it is the general remark that cleaning up of such legacy is going on
too slow and, in some very important aspects, too much superficially.
Although key members of the new government are socialdemocrats (reformed
communists), it seems as if they had chosen a very questionable and radical
liberal concept of solving difficult social and economical crisis the Croatia
is in. Prominent government officials talk about numerous bankruptcies
of the unsuccessful firms (as much as 30,000 potential bankruptcies) that
could in a very brief time increase the number of unemployed to about half
a million (Croatia today has slightly over 4 million people). At the same
time, official statistics about the number of the unemployed now list about
360,000 persons, and the number of the retired has reached 1 million. Put
together, that is more than the number of the employed at the moment. That
is the situation which is favourable for the radical right parties. At
the same time, new Croatian government is forced to fully co-operate with
international crime court in Hague and help return exiled Serbs, if it
wants to get Western support, which creates additional nationalistic frustrations
that are skilfully used by the extreme right.
Besides all that, there is also a political confrontation between the
government and president of the Republic. Although both are from the same
anti-HDZ coalition, they have different opinions on the future political
form of Croatian democracy. The government wants to completely strip the
president of all power, while president of the state Stipe Mesic wants
to keep at least some key authority (military, secret services, foreign
politics) that had his predecessor Franjo Tudjman.
And while Croatia is facing an economic abyss, key politicians are
more interested in their positions and potential political power than in
the most important issues in the country. That situation is also adding
to disappointment and strengthening of the right radicalism. The new government
has a very serious test during next several months - to confirm its promises
that Croatia will integrate into Europe.
The DIRECTORIO is an organization founded in 1990 by workers, college
students, and professional executives who have forged together a strategy
for the liberation of Cuba from the totalitarian dictatorship, and for
the establishment of a Democratic Republic in Cuba. In carrying out its
strategy the DIRECTORIO extends multi-faceted support to many organizations
of the internal democratic opposition, and it has established alliances
with pro-democracy organizations and individuals throughout Europe and
Latin America who have organized permanent committees of active solidarity
with the internal democratic opposition in Cuba. The DIRECTORIO also disseminates
clandestine pro-democracy publications throughout Cuba.
Javier de Cespedes, co-founded the DIRECTORIO in 1990 and is its current
President. Javier has an MBA from a Catholic School in Florida and in addition
to his human rights and pro-democracy activism, he is a finance executive
in a company in Florida. Javier de Cespedes is the Great-great grandson
of "the Father of the Cuban Nation," Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, the Cuban
patriot who began the Cuban war for independence and the establishment
of a Democratic Republic in Cuba in 1868, and who was killed during the
struggle.
Q: What is the actual situation of the Campaign for General Amnesty
in Cuba?
A: The mothers continue to challenge the government and gather signatures
facing the harassment by the government which in November arrested 3 mothers,
Berta Antunez and Milagros Diaz among them and kept them in prison for
7 days in an attempt to scare them into stopping their work. Another of
their leaders Maritza Lugo Fernandez has also been arrested many times.
She is presently in prison and her 8 year-old daughter has posted a sign
outside her home that reads "Castro, Free my Mother", in response to the
propaganda that the Dictator has unleashed in the case of Elian.
Q: Which countries are involved at the moment in the campaign? What
is your experience?
A: The International Solidarity Campaign in support for the call for
a General Amnesty in Cuba lasted 3 weeks covering many countries from Latin
America and Europe, such as Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Dominican Republic,
Spain, France, Italy, Poland, Russia and Hungary. The campaign resulted
in a tremendous boost of optimism and activism within the Cuban opposition
movement especially after the approval by the Dictatorship of the infamous
law 88 and its draconian laws against all individual freedoms. The experience
coming from the International Campaign is that there is a lot that people
around the world can do to help those in Cuba fighting against tyranny
by showing them that they are not alone and offering them tangible support
in many ways. After the intense international campaign a growing number
of organizations have began to get in contact directly with the mothers
or through the Directorio to help them in many ways, by helping lift the
consciousness in their countries, and by helping them directly.
Q: What kind of help do you get and expect from Central and Western
Europe?
A: There is a growing interest around the world in the case of Cuba
who still suffers from a totalitarian regime, and much of this interest
has been materialized through the creation of Permanent Committees of Solidarity
with Democracy in Cuba which have been created in many countries such as
Mexico where several committees are operating, Chile, Argentina, and Dominican
Republic in coordination with the DIRECTORIO. The latest of this Committees
was created in Poland in Eastern Europe and it has began working very seriously
within Poland to channel support to the opposition in Cuba. We are confident
that the contacts that we established in Hungary in 1999 will lead to the
creation of another strong Permanent Committee of Solidarity with Democracy
in Cuba. Our experience in Hungary has convinced us that there is a great
level of enthusiasm and understanding of what we Cubans are going through
in our fight.
Q: What kind of events have happened since you were here in Hungary
last year?
A: Well, immediately after the end of the International Campaign the
Foreign Minister in Cuba was fired for "unrelated" reasons, and within
a few days the opposition began a National Fast in support of the General
Amnesty Campaign. The Dictatorship which is very susceptible to international
pressure did not interfere with the fast as it had usually done in the
past when hunger strikers were arrested and beaten. The fast originated
in an apartment house in Havana, in the street of Tamarindo #34. It soon
spread all across the country with more than 2,000 people participating
in all parts of the country. The fast was very significant considering
that the Dictatorship had passed the draconian law 88 just 4 months before.
Law 88 codified into law all kinds of human rights violations with the
excuse that Cuba is in a war against the United States, the excuse that
the Dictatorship uses to hide the true conflict which is between the Dictatorship
and the Cuban people. The fast lasted 40 days, one day for each year of
Dictatorship. After the fast, the opposition began preparing for a showdown
with the Government in November during the IX Ibero-American Summit. The
Dictatorship expected to come out of the summit showing that Cuba is a
normal country with a different kind of "Democracy". During the Summit,
however, it was the Cuban opposition who made its message known,
where 8 delegations including several presidents, publicly met with
the opposition, even amidst a wave of arrests and the use of street mobs
to put down peaceful demonstrations. Thus the year in which the Dictatorship
expected to be accepted by the world as a normal government following the
visit of the Pope ended as a year full of victories for the opposition.
Following the Summit the Dictatorship arrested the two most energetic Cuban
Activists, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet and Maritza Lugo Fernandez. The opposition
quickly began organizing small street demonstrations for their release
increasing the pressure on the Dictatorship. The Dictatorship in desperation
decided to make a whole publicity campaign around a 5 year old child who
was picked up in the ocean near Miami after his mother and other 8 people
had died escaping from Cuba. The father of the boy claimed that he be returned
to Cuba immediately while family members in Miami wanted the boy to remain
with them in the United States. In a desperate effort to deflect the attention
from the victories of the Cuban opposition the Dictator personally ordered
all its functionaries to participate in a campaign around the boy. While
the International Press in Cuba began attending those government staged
demonstrations, the Dictatorship began the worst wave of repression in
the last 10 years arresting hundreds of dissidents and even threatening
some with death such as was the case of Nestor Lobaina, President of Cuban
Youth for Democracy in Cuba who was taken in a car to the outskirts of
Santiago and told he would be killed unless he stopped his work in the
opposition. While the Dictatorship has succeeded in deflecting the attention
from the Cuban opposition for some months while increasing the repression,
the mechanics within Cuba have not changed, and the opposition with its
new level of self-confidence obtained during the victory at the Summit
continues to strengthen. During the year 2000 the call that has come out
of Cuba is Faith in Victory!
Q: How do you see the actual position of the opposition? Do you
see any chance that the opposition might take over the power in the near
future from Castro?
A: The opposition continues to strengthen. The victories during 1999
and the growing international support network have had a tremendous impact
in the opposition own confidence. The real chances of the opposition were
told by Dictator himself better than anybody during a long press conference.
He stated: "If they ( the opposition) win the majority, if they win the
streets, the revolution will lose power". There are clear signs that in
spite of the tight control on any form of the media the Cuban national
public opinion is beginning to grow. The Dictatorship staged demonstrations
asking for the boy's return to Cuba are an attempt to allow the mobs to
take over the streets permanently, but the dictatorship cannot sustain
that level of activity. The success of the opposition in Cuba is not in
the hands of Dictatorship but in themselves and those who make the network
of support outside Cuba.
Q: What is your reaction on the Elian case?
A: The Elian case is an attempt by the Dictatorship to hide the victories
of the opposition during 1999, which culminated in the tremendous victory
during the Ibero-American Summit, when many members of the opposition were
recognized by the presidents of Latin America, Spain and Portugal. The
Dictatorship uses the Elian case to hide the fact that two of the most
active Cuban opposition members responsible for the many victories of the
opposition, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet and Maritza Lugo Fernandez are in prison
waiting for the usual unfair trials. That Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina was
threatened with death, and that the Dictatorship has arrested, threatened
and harassed more than 200 Cuban opposition members while it has been using
the Elian case. It also uses the Elian case to hide the fact that political
prisoner Jorge Luis Garcia Perez "Antunez," is dying alone in his prison
cell as I speak. "Antunez" is dying because the Dictatorship refuses to
provide him with urgent medical assistance. That Berta Antunez, his sister
and the leader of Cuban Mothers for a General Amnesty, took medicines to
the prison for "Antunez," which the Dictatorship refused to give to him.
Instead the Dictatorship returned the medicines to Berta full of death
roaches and rat droppings. And laughing, they told her that nobody in the
world gave a damn for a "damn black prostitute" or for her brother's health,
and that "Antunez" would only get medicine when he stopped his pro-democracy
activism. The Dictatorship always has an excuse to deflect the attention
of the world away from the violations of human rights in Cuba and the struggle
of the larger than life heroes of the Cuban internal opposition. Every
time the Cuban Dictatorship says "Elian," behind the scenes it is violating
the human rights of yet another Cuban opposition member.
Transitions Online (TOL) (http://www.tol.cz) is the
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NEW AT TOL:
FEATURE: Fumbling With History
by Howard Jarvis
http://www.ijt.cz/jul99/specr05001.html
At a January international forum on the Holocaust
in Stockholm, Ephraim Zuroff, the director of the Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal
Center, accused Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius of rewriting
history with regard to his country's role in the Holocaust. Like its fellow
Baltic states, Lithuania sits uncomfortably with its wartime past, and
a number of recent events have opened wounds that have been festering for
over 50 years. Many are the result of positive efforts by some Lithuanians
to bring the subject of the Holocaust back into the public eye.
FEATURE: Seductive Sellouts
by Viktor Luhovyk
http://www.ijt.cz/jul99/specr05002.html
>From banking to aluminum, Russia's big business
barons are taking over Ukrainian industries. While signs of danger have
yet to show themselves, analysts warn of corruption and a potential rejuvenation
of Russian dominance over Ukraine's economy. Still, Ukrainian officials
welcome the new investors as the only option for repaying the country's
massive foreign and domestic debts.
MEDIA: They're Not All Palace Kings
by Nicky Torode
http://www.ijt.cz/may00/theyreno.html
The British tabloid and right-wing press have no
excuse for branding Roma asylum seekers in their country as "spongers"
and "cadgers" who beg money on the streets of London to build palaces back
home. The author, from the London-based Minority Rights Group International,
examines the negative impact of a press biased against Roma and argues
that reporting has been one-sided and devoid of in-depth probing into the
real human rights question.
The following articles are more of the TOL Annual
Surveys for 1999: exclusive overviews of individual countries in the region
written for TOL by top local and Western analysts and edited by regional
specialist Professor Peter Rutland of Wesleyan University. These valuable
resources follow the fine tradition established by the OMRI/East-West Institute
Annual Surveys. Both sets of reports, old and new, can be found in our
expanded Country Files <http://www.tol.cz/links1.html> along with links
and maps for the 27 countries in the post-communist world.
Belarus 1999: Sinking Deeper
by Ustina Markus
http://www.ijt.cz/countries/belar99.html
Though 1999 saw stepped-up opposition activity in
Belarus, disunity among the ranks of malcontents only produced an even
more powerful and erratic Lukashenka. The president went from tossing his
critics and demonstrators in jail for a few days to making his opponents
disappear. When his term as president was to end in July 1999, Lukashenka
simply changed the constitution, prompting opposition leaders to hold shadow
elections that were declared invalid, and served more to show the disunity
among the opposition than to discredit the president.
Russia/Chechnya 1999: The Second Blood Bath
by Danielle Lussier
http://www.ijt.cz/countries/rusar99.html
After three years of de facto independence Chechnya
was once again invaded by Russian troops who leveled the capital city,
Grozny, to the ground and made clear their objective of an all-out military
victory. A series of apartment building explosions in Moscow--blamed on
Chechen terrorists but never proven--instilled a timely fear in the Russian
public, who quickly jumped on the Putin bandwagon.
WEEK IN REVIEW
compiled by our correspondents throughout the region
http://www.tol.cz/week.html
Putin's president--it's official ... Yakovlev, Artyemev
to face off in St. Petersburg's gubernatorial elections ... Anti-tourist
offensive threatened by Croatia's war veterans ... 100 injured, 100 arrested
in Croatian soccer violence ... Criminals open firms in Serbia with stolen
identifications ... Macedonian students protest classes taught in Albanian
... Ukrainian officials get the boot over missile launch mishap ... For
Westerners only: freer travel to Ukraine ... Keep the gunpowder dry! And
don't be pacified by the West cries Lukashenka ... Journalists plaster
their mouths shut in Belarus ... He's back: ex-Lithuanian president bids
for presidency ... A lawyer for president in Hungary? ... I know where
you are thanks to your GSM phone ... Drumming up business, Uzbekistan looks
to China, India.
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Positions are available in the editorial, marketing, and web departments.
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