DIECIMILA IN PIAZZA A SOFIA CONTRO LE POLITICHE LIBERISTE E LA POVERTA'
MARCH 22, 10:07 EST
Up to 10,000 Protest in Bulgaria
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Up to 10,000 people gathered in downtown Sofia
on
Wednesday to protest the country's unemployment, poverty and
temporary-employment contracts.
The rally started with 2,000 marching in the capital's main streets,
waving purple union banners with slogans reading: ``No to poverty'' and
``We want jobs and a decent living, not charity.''
The march was organized by the main Confederation of Independent
Unions, which claims over 1 million members.
Bulgaria's government, which has been implementing an International
Monetary Fund-advised austerity program, is facing rising public
resentment because it has failed to raise living standards and deliver a
promised economic growth of 4 to 5 percent a year. Last year's growth in
gross domestic product was 2.5 percent.
State company closures led to massive layoffs. In January, there were
657,100 out of work, or 17.2 percent of the workforce in this country of
8.2 million. That's up from 14.2 percent in September.
Union leader Zhelyazko Hristov argued on state radio that the real
unemployment rate was about 25 percent, because many people without jobs
were not counted in state statistics.
Hristov added that 680,000 employees worked with temporary short-term
employment contracts, which employers may easily refuse to renew if
workers as too demanding about their rights.
---
ATTENTATO NELLA REGIONE ARMENA DEL NAGORNO-KARABACH (AZERBAIDJAN)
Gunmen Wound President of Nagorno-Karabakh, Driver, Bodyguard
8:25 a.m. ET (1325 GMT) March 22, 2000
YEREVAN, Armenia — Gunmen opened fire on the president of
Azerbaijan's separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region early Wednesday,
seriously wounding him, his driver and a bodyguard, officials said.
The gunmen fired at the car carrying Arkady Gukasyan as he was being
driven home through Stepanakert, the enclave's capital, shortly after
midnight, the Nagorno-Karabakh government said.
Gukasyan was seriously wounded in the legs and underwent surgery, but
his life did not appear to be in immediate danger Wednesday, a
Nagorno-Karabakh government spokesman said.
The driver was hit in the head and chest, while one of Gukasyan's two
bodyguards in the car was wounded in the spine, according the spokesman,
who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A spokesman at Nagorno-Karabakh's Interior Ministry said the attackers
shot Gukasyan from a car that pulled up alongside his vehicle.
The spokesman said Nagorno-Karabakh's former defense minister, Samvel
Babyan, and his brother, Stepanakert mayor Karen Babyan, were arrested
along with more than 20 other people in connection with the attack.
Samvel Babyan was dismissed from his Defense Ministry post last December
after a feud with Gukasyan.
The government called the attack an attempt to derail Gukasyan's efforts
at democratic reform.
Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, declared
independence in 1988, igniting a war in which an estimated 15,000 people
were killed and about 1 million driven from their homes. With help from
Armenia, the separatists drove out Azerbaijan's troops. A truce signed
in 1994 ended the war, but tensions persist and clashes erupt
sporadically.
---
DOCUMENTI DAGLI ARMENI DEL NAKHIJEVAN E DEL CANADA
« NAKHIJEVAN » ARMENIAN COMPATRIOTIC UNION OF CANADA(NACUC)
UNION COMPATRIOTIQUE ARMENIENNE « NAKHIJEVAN » DU CANADA(UCANC)
MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA
SPECIAL MEETING BY THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF NAKHIJEVAN ARMENIANS HELD ON
MARCH 16TH, 2000, AT 11.A.M. IN YEREVAN, ARMENIA
Today, at the annniversary date of the Treaty of Moscow, signed on March
16th, 1921, between Soviet Russia and the Turkish government in Ankara,
the National Council of Nakhijevan Armenians held a special meeting in
Yerevan, in the presence of prominent members of the Armenian
intelligentsia. The meeting approved two documents to be sent, one to
the State Duma of the Russian Federation and the other, to the president
of the (Majlis) Parliament of the Nakhijevan Autonomous Republic. Also
it was decided to send copies of the letter to the Majlis of
Nakhijevan, to the Mejlis of Azerbaijan and to the UNESCO presidency
as well. In the first case, the National Council recommends the State
Duma of the Russian Federation to consider null the clauses of Treaty of
Moscow, pertaining to the Armenians. In the second case, it comes out
with a proposal of cooperation, addressed to the parliament of the
Nakhijevan Autonomous Republic.
Attached is the full text of the two documents above.
« NAKHIJEVAN » ARMENIAN COMPATRIOTIC UNION OF CANADA(NACUC)
UNION COMPATRIOTIQUE ARMENIENNE « NAKHIJEVAN » DU CANADA (UCANC)
MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA
THIS TEXT IS ISSUED FROM THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF NAKHIJEVAN ARMENIANS,
BASED IN YEREVAN, ARMENIA
Add. : Yerevan-19, Marshgal Baghramian ave. 24 c Tel. : 58-94-31. Fax
:/3742/151 795
PRESS RELEASE
16 MARCH, 2000
SPEECH ADDRESSED TO THE STATE DUMA OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
The present Autonomous Republic of Nakhijevan corresponds to the Sharur
district of Ayrarat province, to the Nakhijevan and Goghtn (now
Ordoubad) districts of Vaspurakan province, the Yernjak, Shahaponk and
Jahuk districts of Siunik province of Historical Armenia.
In 1828, after the Turkmenchai Treaty, Nakhijevan was incorporated first
into the Armenian province (Armyanskaya oblast) created by Russia
(1828-1840), then after its dissolution, into the province of Yerevan
(1849-1918).
At the end of 1918 and up untill 1920, the territory of Nakhijevan was
part of the First Republic of Armenia. After the establishment of the
Armenian Soviet Republic on December 2, 1921 and until the Kars Treaty
was signed on October 13, 1921, Nakhijevan region was de jure part of
Soviet Armenia. This reality corresponded with the position of the
supreme authorities of Azerbaijan, the Revolutionary Committee, which
on November 30, 1920, declared Nakhijevan and Artsakh (Karabagh) as the
undivided parts of Soviet Armenia. This special declaration of the
Revolutionary Committee of Azerbaijan was affirmed by leading figures
of Soviet Russia , in December 1920-January 1921.
Trampling on the basic rights of the Armenian people, especially those
of Armenians of Nakhijevan, Russia and Turkey, without participation of
representatives of the Armenian people, signed an illegal and
illegitimate treaty on March 16, 1921, by remitting Nakhijevan under
the ‘protectorate’ of Azerbaijan. This act permitted the annexation by
Soviet Azerbaijan a part of the Armenian homeland.
Under brutal suppression of Bolshevik Russia, this act was reconfirmed
in the Treaty of Kars on October 13, 1921, which was signed between
Turkey and the Transcaucasian republics. This act ratified the partition
of Armenia and the forcible detachment of Nakhijevan region from the
motherland
Thereafter, by an arbitrary decision of the highest leadership of the
soviet empire, and ignoring, at least in appearance, the agreement by
the signatories of this Treaty (Georgia, Turkey and Armenia), Azerbaijan
declares Nakhijevan as an autonomous republic on February 9, 1924. With
this illegitimate decision, the Soviet Union and Soviet Azerbaijan
violated the articles of March 16, 1921 and October 13, 1921 Treaties,
which were themselves illegal, by which the Nakhijevan region was not
annexed to Azerbaijan as a constituent part of that country, but was
put under its ‘protectorate’.
As a result of Azerbaijani aggression in 1918-1920 period, with the
collaboration of Turkey, the demographic picture continued to shift in
favor of the Azerbaijanis. Nevertheless, the Armenians constituted a
substantial part of the population of the Autonomous Republic of
Nakhijevan from 1920 to 1960’s. From 1921 and on, Azerbaijan run a
successive policy of violation of the human and national dignity of the
Armenian population of Nakhijevan, aiming at the ousting of
Nakhijevan Armenians from the land of their ancestors, as a result of
which the region was fully cleaned from its indigenous Armenian
population, between 1921 and 1989.
Today, about 400,000 Armenians of Nakhijevan, deported to the Republic
of Armenia and to many countries of the world, are deprived not only
from the right of resettlement on the land of their ancestors, but also
from the right and possibility of visiting the dwellings, the churches,
the monuments and the cemeteries built by them.
The Russian Federation, being the legal inheritor of Soviet Russia which
forcibly annexed the Nakhijevan region to Azerbaijan by an illegal and
illegitimate treaty, bears direct responsibility for that obvious
injustice.
THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF NAKHIJEVAN ARMENIANS , issued from the Congress
of All-Armenians form Nakhijevan and convened in Yerevan in September
1999, appeals, as the representative body of Nakhijevan Armenians, to
the Russian State Duma to declare NULL articles related to Armenia and
embodied in the illegal Russo-Turkish Treaty of Moscow of March 16,
1921, signed under the name ‘Friendship and Brotherhood’. These
articles hinder the fortification of the Armenian-Russian friendship,
the establishment of confidence and sincere comprehension between the
peoples of the two countries.
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF NAKHIJEVAN ARMENIANS
« NAKHIJEVAN » ARMENIAN COMPATRIOTIC UNION OF CANADA(NACUC) founded on
January 27th, 2000, is a non-profit organization, affiliated with
the family of « Nakhijevan » Compatriotic Union of Armenia (NCUA).
For further information, please contact M. Antranig Bedrossian at
e-mail: antranig bedrossian <antranig@...>
« NAKHIJEVAN » ARMENIAN COMPATRIOTIC UNION OF CANADA(NACUC)
UNION COMPATRIOTIQUE ARMENIENNE « NAKHIJEVAN » DU CANADA (UCANC)
MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA
THIS TEXT IS ISSUED FROM THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF NAKHIJEVAN ARMENIANS,
BASED IN YEREVAN, ARMENIA
Add . : Yerevan-19, Marshal Baghramian ave. 24c. Tel :58-94-31 Fax
:/3742/151 795
PRESS RELEASE
16 MARCH, 2000
To the President of Majlis (Parliament) of Nakhijevan Autonomous
Republic,
Honorable Mr. President,
As you know from the mass madia, the Armenians deported from the
Nakhijevan Autonomous Republic, who live in the Republic of Armenia,
have established the National Council of Nakhijevan Armenians, which
is aiming to defend the political, economic and human rights of the
Armenians expulsed from the Nakhijevan Autonomous Republic.
On behalf of the National Council of Nakhijevan Armenians, I refer to
you proposing a meeting which will discuss the following issues.
The National Council of Nakhijevan Armenians pursue to revive the trade
between the Nakhijevan Autonomous Republic and the Republic of Armenia,
so that villagers of the Autonomous Republic can sell their goods in the
Republic of Armenia, as it has been the case from many decades ago till
the recent past.
We also propose to discuss the following points during the
negotiations:
As it is known, the Christian World is celebrating this year the 2000th
anniversary of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Armenian
people will celebrate next year the 1700th anniversary of the
declaration of Christianity as state religion in Armenia. On these
occasions, the National Council of Nakhijevan Armenians intends to
organize pilgrimages to the churches and holy places in the Nakhijevan
Autonomous Republic, beginning from the summer of this year.
We should propose to you to take the necessary procedures, so that the
competent bodies of Nakhijevan Nakhijevan Autonomous Republic and
Republic of Armenia jointly prepare the list of the monuments to be
visited.
I am fully optimistic that the result of our meeting will have a
positive feedback both from the Nakhijevan Autonomous Republic and the
Azerbaijani intelligentsia, as well as from the international
community. This will greatly assist in mutual understanding of the
peoples and the countries of the region and will enhance the solidarity
between them.
ON BEHALF OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF NAKHIJEVAN ARMENIANS
RAPHAYEL HAMPARTSOUMIAN - PRESIDENT
« NAKHIJEVAN » ARMENIAN COMPATRIOTIC UNION OF CANADA(NACUC) founded on
January 27th, 2000, is a non-profit organization, affiliated with
the family of « Nakhijevan » Compatriotic Union of Armenia (NCUA).
For further information, please contact M. Antranig Bedrossian at
e-mail: antranig bedrossian <antranig@...>
---
LE SS DI NUOVO IN MARCIA IN LETTONIA
Latvia Waffen SS To Hold March
By STEVEN C. JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
RIGA, Latvia (AP) -- Despite criticism from Jewish and Russian groups,
300 veterans of the Latvian Waffen SS marched today in a procession to
an independence monument to remember their fallen comrades with a
wreath-laying ceremony.
The annual march, held on March 16 to mark a major battle between the
Latvian Waffen SS and the Red Army on the same date in 1944, provoked a
storm of protest at home and abroad the last two years.
Supporters say the Latvian Waffen SS, also known as the Latvian Legion,
was a conscripted, front-line army and wasn't the same thing as
Germany's Waffen SS -- Adolf Hitler's elite force that carried out the
Holocaust and other atrocities.
Russia said the march showed contempt for millions of Soviet war dead.
Members of Latvia's 11,000-strong Jewish community said the march was
insensitive to the memory of 80,000 Latvian Jews massacred during the
1941-44 Nazi occupation.
The former soldiers, most in their 70s and 80s, first gathered in a
church to sing and pray before beginning a slow march across the old
city's cobble-stoned streets to lay flowers at a nearby independence
monument.
Some of the gray-haired veterans clutched bouquets of flowers or carried
Latvian flags as they walked. Two held Latvian Waffen SS flags with
''the 19th division'' and ''15th division'' scrawled across the maroon
and white banners.
Some local residents lined the street to watch, though the crowds were
smaller than last year. The police presence, heavy during last year's
march, was also less noticeable.
''We just want to remember the comrades we lost and teach our children
the truth about what happened to this country in the 20th century,''
Visvaldis Lacis, a 76-year-old Waffen SS veteran, said before the march
started.
Many of the veterans were clearly struggling to walk the short
procession route, some of them using canes. One veteran collapsed from
an apparent heart attack and was rushed to a hospital, the Baltic News
Service reported
But some bystanders, especially members of the former Soviet republic's
million-strong Russian-speaking minority, jeered or sang Soviet war
songs as the procession passed. One elderly women shook her cane at the
passing veterans
''This is unforgivable,'' 78-year-old ethnic Russian Nina Noshina said.
''These men were part of Hitler's fascist army. Why does Latvia
celebrate fascists when they are condemned everywhere else?''
Controversy was heightened last year after parliament declared March 16
an official day of remembrance. But earlier this year, parliament sought
to reduce tensions and international criticism by rescinding that
decision.
Latvians say the controversy stems from a misunderstanding of history.
The Soviets occupied Latvia at the start of the war in 1940, Germany
ruled here from 1941-44, and the Soviets retook it in 1944. Latvia
regained its independence from Moscow in 1991 following the collapse of
the Soviet Union.
With Latvia sandwiched between the Nazi and Soviet armies, 250,000
Latvians ended up fighting on one side of the conflict or the other,
usually after being conscripted. Some 150,000 Latvian combatants died.
Many Latvians, like Lacis, say they volunteered to fight for Waffen SS
on behalf of Latvian independence from the Soviets, not out of any
sympathy for Nazi ideology.
While privately sympathetic, leaders argue that any official sanction of
the day was sure to draw condemnations from around the world and could
even undermine the nation's bid to win membership in the European Union
and NATO.
Nils Muiznieks, a leading political commentator, said the damage to
Latvia's international image has already been done.
''This is always going to be a black eye for Latvia, regardless of
whether it's a state holiday,'' he said. ''Veterans will march, cameras
will roll ... It's a nightmare from the state's point of view.''
---
MAI PROCESSATO IL MEDICO DI AUSCHWITZ
Saturday, 11 March, 2000, 17:31 GMT
"Auschwitz doctor escapes trial"
Dr Muench boasted of his experiments at Auschwitz
Hans Muench, the last surviving doctor from
the Auschwitz concentration camp, has been
declared unfit to stand trial for murder.
Public prosecutors in the German state of
Hesse have dropped their investigation against
Dr Muench, 88, after medical examiners found
he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Prosecutors had not yet
turned up sufficient
evidence to justify
action against Dr
Muench,
said Job
Tilmann, chief
spokesman in the
Frankfurt prosecutor's
office.
However, he said the investigation has been
called off because Dr Muench's poor health
makes a trial impossible in any case.
Experiments
Dr Muench, who now lives in Bavaria, is the
former director of the Institute of Hygiene for
the Waffen SS.
He was an accomplice of the notorious Nazi
doctor Josef Mengele.
He conducted medical experiments on
Auschwitz inmates between 1943 and 1945
and has been repeatedly cited in media
interviews as being unrepentant about his
past.
He was tried for war crimes at a trial in Poland
in 1947 for his malaria and rheumatism
experiments in which Jews were infected on
purpose to study if they were immune.
He was acquitted after former inmates he had
worked with in the Auschwitz laboratory
testified he had helped save their lives.
Gassed
But a fresh murder investigation was launched
against him in 1998 after he boasted in an
interview of killing Auschwitz internees.
Dr Muench recalled how he had ordered whole
barracks of inmates to be gassed if one person
contracted a contagious disease and said he
had no regrets about conducting grotesque
experiments on the camp's Jewish internees.
"I could conduct experiments on humans that
otherwise are only possible on rabbits," he
said.
He further praised Dr Mengele, whose own
experiments led to countless deaths, as highly
intelligent and cultured.
Dr Mengele, who was never tried, escaped to
Argentina after the war and drowned in 1979.
A Paris court also wants to try Dr Muench in
absentia for approving the murder of gypsies
after he said in a French radio interview that
gassing them "was the only way to handle
them".
You are in: World: Europe (BBC WORLD)
---
NOTEVOLE PEGGIORAMENTO DELLA CONDIZIONE DELLA DONNA ALL'EST
Nezavisimaya Gazeta (Russia)
March 7, 2000
Cinderellas of Perestroika and Market Reform
Summary
On the eve of International Women's Day, it is time to
reflect on working women in Russia. In the Soviet
Union, women were guaranteed equal payment to men for
equal work. In the seventies and eighties, the average
woman's wage accounted for about seventy percent of
the average man's wages. This rate was approximately
the same as in developed countries worldwide.
Perestroika of the late eighties and the subsequent
market reforms brought serious changes to Russia’s
labor market. According to official government
statistics, in 1992, women accounted for 75 percent of
total registered unemployment in Russia. And half of
these unemployed women held degrees from institutions
of higher education.
According to recent studies, the level of women's
unemployment has dropped slightly, primarily due to
the emergence of small business. The more alarming
figure is that women's wages account for only fifty
percent of the average man's wage. Mostwomen in Russia
work in public, state-funded sectors like health care
or education where salaries are half the national
average. Very few women work in wealthy industries
like oil or gas, where wages are 300 to 400 times
higher than the average in Russia.
[7 March 2000, page 1]
Hindustan Times
March 8, 2000
Opinion
Enslaved to the system
(Chanchal Sarkar)
Barely has a new millennium begun with brave words of
doing better in every way than in the one exhausted,
that rends have appeared in the fabric. The Western
world thought that with the stamping out of slavery
from the Atlantic circuit — from the West African
coast to the Americas — it had ended for good. But
neo-slavery is in many ways worse as neo-colonialism
is worse than colonialism proper.
Scholars have the habit and the ability to serve up
the most disquieting and shocking facts. In Index on
Censorship one such scholar, after studying slavery in
several continents, says, “Slaves today are cheaper
than ever in human history... overpopulation has made
slaves plentiful, cheap and disposable.” A slave in
Alabama sold for $ 1,000 ($ 40,000 in today’s money)
and the new owner expected a bill of sale and a title.
Profit made from such a slave varied between five and
10 per cent. Today it costs $ 2,000 to enslave a young
woman in a brothel in Thailand. There she could
generate a profit of as much as $ 75,000 a year.
As India leads in some undesirable directions, the
scholars say (and we know) that a child here can be
placed in bondage for a trifling $ 45. Swami Agnivesh
has said that there are 65 million bonded child
labourers in India. A frightening thought. Devadasis
are slaves of a kind.
Sifting through the various kinds of information, the
scholars roughly divide modern slavery into (i) the
old colonial “chattel slavery” where the slave’s
person was owned by the master; (ii) nuptial slavery;
(iii) sex slavery; (iv) domestic slavery and (v) debt
slavery. Except in some areas like south-western
Sudan, chattel slavery is now uncommon. Not for any
high-minded or moral reason but simply because the
threat and use of violence is enough to subdue the
recalcitrant. Some US missionary organisations have
been buying freedom for Sudanese slaves but there are
allegedly holes in the procedure.
Nuptial slavery is becoming more frequent. In the West
where there are immigrants from the subcontinent,
there are cases of young women being forced by their
families into marriage with men not of their own
choice. These women are often kept in confinement in
their home, roughed up, and sometimes whisked back to
India, Pakistan or Bangladesh and kept there till
their spirit is broken. India also has nuptial slavery
cases of Arabs from West Asia coming to buy and take
woman away after a form of marriage. Our governments
have done precious little to stop this.
Debt and labour-slavery have the cruel falsification
of accounts to go with it as we know only too well
from our rural areas. Pakistan’s feudal landowners are
pastmasters at this kind of slavery.
Sex slavery is now a horrible scourge. Not only in
Thailand, in Japan, Hong Kong and the Arab world,
women from the Philippines, Indonesia, India,
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are easy prey. Many of these
women are lured by the promise of jobs. Here, too,
countries of their origin do very little for the
enslaved citizens.
Every year about 500,000 women from Central and
Eastern Europe are taken to European Union countries
for prostitution. Our own unworthy share relates to
Nepal, from where there are over 100,000 women in
Indian brothels and 5,000 women are trafficked here
every year. The Nepalese embassy and the Indian
authorities are blind to the suffering and
exploitation of these unfortunate women who are so
poor in their homeland that they have no other way to
make a living.
---
SULLO SCIOPERO DEI FERROVIERI IN SLOVACCHIA
(The...union is demanding a 10% increase in salaries
to match Slovakia's 1999 inflation rate of 11%, while
[Slovak Railways] management has offered a mere
2%....'no bank would give money to a company if it
knew the money would be used to increase the wages of
the company's employees....')
_______________________________________________________
March 6, 2000
Full Stoppage Of All Train Services To Go Into Effect
If Agreement On Wages Not Met
By Peter Barecz
After failing to reach an agreement with management
over a wage increase, employees at Slovak Railways
(ŽSR) are planning a mid-March nationwide strike that
would stop all train transport in the country. The ŽSR
union is demanding a 10% increase in salaries to match
Slovakia`s 1999 inflation rate of 11%, while ŽSR
management has offered a mere 2.4% raise, citing a
lack of funds.
If the strike were called - a possibility that ŽSR
management considers quite likely - both passenger and
freight transport would come to a halt for the first
time in Slovak history, and the rail company would
lose 60 million Slovak crowns ($1.4 million) a day.
Union officials have not said how long the strike
might last.
Although such a strike would cause huge inconveniences
for commuters and even more headaches for companies,
the governmnet hasn`t yet stepped in to mediate
discussions between ŽSR and the railway union."We
support ŽSR management and are consulting with them in
the steps they are taking," said Naïa Ondrišová, a
Transport Ministry spokesperson. "However, we would
only intervene in mutual discussions if there was a
real danger of a strike."
The union has been threatening a strike since the end
of last year, when ŽSR management realised that the
money the company had been allocated from the state
budget for 2000 was not enough to increase wages.
Management had promised a 10% increase before the
state budged was approved at the end of December last
year.
According to Slovak laws, at least 50% of company`s
employees must sign a petition to launch a strike. The
railway union, which launched its petition on February
20, expects to have a sufficient number of signatures
in one week.
"We cannot accept the proposal of ŽSR management for a
2.4% salary increase, because we based our demands on
the level of inflation and that`s why we`re asking for
a 10% wage increase," said Vladimír Pikna,
vice-chairman of the railway union strike committee.
According to Pikna, ŽSR has financial reserves which
could be used to increase employee wages. "This is the
main aim of the strike, and we feel that we will get
it," Pikna said.
However, with a preliminary loss of 5.2 billion crowns
for 1999, ŽSR management is desperately short of cash,
and will get no richer in the coming year. "Our loss
for this year is expected to be about 2.8 billion
crowns, so what reserves are they (the union) talking
about?" asked ŽSR spokesman Miloš Èikovský.
According to Èikovský, ŽSR will take a loan this year
from the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development which will be used to buy new trains and
renovate old boxcars and tracks." If this is the
reserve the unions are talking about, then they should
know that we [ŽSR] cannot use this money to increase
the salaries of our employees because the loan serves
as direct investment and no bank would give money to a
company if it knew that the money would be used to
increase the wages of the company`s employees,"
Èikovský said.
The reluctance of either side to compromise has for
the moment ended discussions on wage increases. "At
this point we don`t want to discuss with unions the
figures they have been proposing. We will do everyting
to avert the strike, but at the same we are preparing
for it because if it happens our losses will be huge,"
Èikovský said.
ŽSR is not the only potential loser in any strike; big
companies like eastern Slovak steel-maker VSŽ, where
ŽSR handles 95% of their traffic, also stand to take a
hit. "We`ve already had a negative experience with the
Hungarian Railway strike [in early February]," said
VSŽ spokesman Jozef Marko. "We`re not even talking
about what a future strike would do to ŽSR, when 30.5%
of their total transport is accounted for by us
[VSŽ]."
The average monthly wage of a ŽSR employee, excluding
management, is 7,560 crowns ($180), 3,000 crowns less
than the national average. The company employs about
50,000 people, which makes it the largest employer in
the country.
(C) 2000 Slovak Spectator
---
SUL MALCONTENTO DEGLI AGRICOLTORI IN POLONIA
(Farmers in Poland and Ukraine are fighting for their
livelihoods in the face of large-scale land grabs
orchestrated by the EU and the IMF/World Bank. The
procedure is generally privatization, then sell-off to
foreign concerns....The story following this one on
the site it appears is about Michael Jackson coming to
Warsaw to build a $500 million mega-amusement park. In
lieu of jobs and land the Poles will be offered bread
and circuses - without the bread.)
_______________________________________________________
Polish Police Out In Force To Prevent Road Blocks
WARSAW, Mar 7, 2000 -- (Reuters) Polish police came
out in force Monday to lift some 70 road blocks set up
across the country by farmers from the radical
Samoobrona trade union, a police spokesman said.
Police used force in the southern town of Latoszyn but
neither protestors of police suffered injuries. In
nine other areas, demonstrators themselves dismantled
the road blocks following the arrival of the police.
The populist leader of Samoobrona (Self-defense),
Andrzej Lepper, said the demonstrators had erected 70
road blocks, while about 500 farmers demonstrated in
the northern town of Olsztyn against the government's
agricultural policy.
Lepper nearly one year ago organized several huge
demonstrations by farmers in protest at falling prices
which culminated in some 400 road blocks put up across
the country.
...E PROTESTE ANCHE CONTRO LA SVENDITA DELLE IMPRESE AL CAPITALE
STRANIERO
> STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
>
> Polish daily "Gazeta Wyborcza" writes Feb 28/2000 that on March 6 the
> "Samoobrona" (self-defence) movement led by Andrzej Leppert will once again
> block the country's roads and occupy regional government administration and
> parliamentarian offices.
> "We do not intend to seek permissions for the protests," said Leppert.
> He announced that on March 14 there will be picketing of USA and German
> embassies in Warsaw "against buying of Polish enterprises by foreign
> capital."
>
> Peter Bein
>
---
GLI USA DIRIGONO LE PRIVATIZZAZIONI IN ROMANIA
U.S. Department of State
02 March 2000
Text: U.S. Assists Privatization Programs in Romania
(Trade and Development Agency grants $241,250 for
advisor) (380)
The United States Trade and Development Agency (TDA)
has awarded Romania a US$241,250 grant to assist
with strategic industrial privatization, according
to a March 2 TDA press release.
The TDA said the grant will fund an advisor to
provide policy,technical, and executive support to
the
Privatization Management Unit(PMU), which the
Romanian government established to develop
privatization plans for 64 key companies.
Romania has received half of a $300 million World
Bank loan to support privatization programs, and the
second half is contingent on additional reforms and
accelerated privatization, according to theTDA.
Following is a text of the release:
(begin text)
U.S. Trade and Development Agency (TDA)
(Bucharest)
March 2, 2000
Critical Romanian Privatization Programs to Move
Forward with U.S.Technical Assistance
Bucharest, Romania (2 March 2000) -- The U.S. Trade
and Development Agency (TDA) awarded a $241,250
grant to Romania's Ministry of Transportation to
provide strategic industrial privatization assistance.
The grant was signed today in Bucharest by the U.S.
Ambassador to Romania, James Rosapepe, and the
Romanian Minister of Transportation Traian Basescu.
Paving the path for privatization is a top
developmental priority for Romania. To accomplish
this long-term goal, the Privatization Management
Unit
(PMU) was established by the government to develop
the process for 64 key companies. The PMU is also
responsible for hiring investment bankers to prepare
the companies and help broker deals associated with
privatization. This TDA grant will provide for a
technical advisor to provide policy, technical and
executive support to PMU as it undertakes these
important tasks.
This privatization program is part of a $300 million
World Bank Private Sector Structural Adjustment
Loan.
To date, half of this loan has been administered,
but the second half is contingent upon additional
banking reform, improvements in the business climate,
accelerated privatization and social mitigation
elements.
The U.S. Trade and Development Agency, an agency of
the U.S. Government, helps form mutually beneficial
partnerships between U.S.private sector companies
and overseas project sponsors. Last year, TDA
provided
assistance in 67 nations around the world.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web
site: usinfo.state.gov)
This site is produced and maintained by the U.S.
Department of State. Links to other Internet sites
should not be construed as an endorsement of the
views
contained therein.
---
LA QUALITA' DELLA VITA E' PROFONDAMENTE PEGGIORATA IN BULGARIA
"Trud", a daily Bulgarian newspaper, September 28, page 4
People systematically do not eat enough, there are not enough medicines
Tuberculosis Caught 4000 Bulgarians More Only for One Year
New 4000 cases of tuberculosis are registered in Bulgaria only for one
year, doctors from the Clinics for Physiotherapy, Sofia Medical Academy,
announced yesterday. There has not been such a boom of the "Yellow
Lady-Visitor"* at least for 20 years, the doctors declare.
At the moment the general number of people with tuberculosis is 14990.
That is only the registered number, the real one is much greater.
Thousands of infected persons move among the healthy ones and spray
bacteria: some unintentionally, others - out of carelessness. The
statistics show that in 1998 the registered cases had been 1325 new
germ-carriers.
According to the doctors, specialists in lung diseases, everyone of them
infects more than 10 persons. The situation is fearful in the Roma
residential districts where it swarms with TB cases. Children usually
get the disease from their ill parents.
The poverty, the systematic malnutrition recently is the main cause for
the "Yellow Lady-Visitor" invasion. Most of the people do not go to
doctors because of the lack of money for medicine. At the same time they
are keeping a constant temperature in the range of 37,5 to 37,80C,
spitting blood, coughing and losing kilograms. The doctors cannot help
all of them. One X-ray photograph costs 6,5 leva ($1 = 1.87808 on Sept.
28, 99) and a very small number of people can afford that sum. Besides,
there are no X-ray films. There are not enough free of charge medicines
for TB treatment in many regions throughout the country. And when the
treatment course is broken, the infectious bacteria get more
treatment-resisting. The greatest number of TB cases is in Sofia.
---
APPOGGI DALLA BULGARIA PER IL PROGETTO IRREDENTISTA GRANDE-ALBANESE
NOTIZIE EST #304 - BULGARIA 22 febbraio 2000
BULGARIA: SCANDALI 'KOSOVARI', MANOVRE POLITICHE
E UN PONTE CHE UNISCE E DIVIDE
[Segue una serie di aggiornamenti sulla
Bulgaria, tutti tratti dai numeri di gennaio e
febbraio del settimanale "Kapital" (http://www-
us.capital.bg/) e dalla selezione di articoli
dalla stampa bulgara pubblicata da "BGnews"
negli ultimi due mesi
(http://www.db.online.bg/bg/news.main).
Selezione di A. Ferrario]
HASHIM THACI E ARBEN XHAFERRI A SOFIA
L'anno politico e' cominciato in Bulgaria con
uno scandalo di vasta eco, trascinatosi per piu'
di due settimane, conseguente all'incontro
svoltosi a Sofia il 29 gennaio tra i leader
albanesi, rispettivamente del Kosovo e della
Macedonia, Hashim Thaci e Arben Xhaferri, e il
premier bulgaro Ivan Kostov. Le modalita'
dell'incontro sono state del tutto atipiche.
Infatti non solo la visita non e' stata una
visita di stato e i due si sono incontrati con
Kostov come leader del partito SDS, presso la
sede di quest'ultimo, ma oltretutto l'arrivo dei
due leader albanesi era previsto, almeno
ufficialmente, per una loro visita al congresso
del partito della minoranza turca della
Bulgaria, il DPS, al quale ne' Thaci ne'
Xhaferri invece si sono fatti vedere. Si tratta
della seconda visita di Thaci in un paese
balcanico nelle ultime settimane, la precedente
essendo stata quella a Sarajevo. Da parte
bulgara, l'incontro con i due leader albanesi ha
seguito di una settimana esatta la conferenza
dei primi ministri dei paesi balcanici tenutasi
sempre in Bulgaria su iniziativa dello stesso
Kostov, con la presenza del "ministro degli
esteri" europeo Solana e di alti funzionari
della NATO. Il tentativo di Kostov di giungere,
alla fine di tale conferenza, a una
dichiarazione dei paesi dei Balcani per la
cancellazione delle sanzioni contro la
Jugoslavia e' fallito a causa del veto
dell'Albania e dell'opposizione della Romania.
L'incontro tra Kostov, Thaci e Xhaferri e'
durato due ore e alla fine si e' tenuta una
conferenza stampa (alla quale non ha partecipato
Kostov, per la parte bulgara, bensi' un alto
funzionario del suo partito, Gocev), nella quale
Gocev ha affermato che Kostov visitera' Pristina
in una data ancora da stabilirsi e che la
Bulgaria ha "ribadito l'intangibilita' dei
confini nei Balcani" e "la necessita' che la
maggioranza albanese in Kosovo rispetti i
diritti della minoranza serba", aggiungendo la
contrarieta' a ogni progetto di "Grande
Albania". Thaci ha detto, tra le altre cose, che
"lo status del Kosovo non puo' essere vincolato
alle sorti dell'attuale regime di Belgrado o a
quelle dell'opposizione serba" e che
"l'indipendenza del Kosovo non significa un
cambiamento di confini, perche' il Kosovo aveva
gia' dei propri confini". Fin qui nulla che
andasse al di la' delle frasi di prammatica
pronunciate regolarmente dalle due parti anche
in altre occasioni. Il vero scandalo e'
scoppiato due giorni dopo, il 31 gennaio, quando
Asen Agov, parlamentare della SDS, che aveva
anch'egli assistito all'incontro tra Kostov e i
due leader albanesi e che riveste l'importante
carica di capo della commissione esteri della
camera, ha dichiarato al quotidiano "Standard"
quanto segue: "Le cose si evolvono, perche'
dobbiamo essere realisti. In una situazione in
cui i leader del Kosovo dicono in modo chiaro e
categorico che sono per l'indipendenza del loro
paese, quello che noi pensiamo ha un importanza
minima. Perche' se siamo davvero democratici,
dobbiamo lasciare che sia la gente a decidere da
sola il proprio futuro. Perche' dobbiamo imporre
le nostre opinioni?". Queste affermazioni hanno
scatenato reazioni durissime da parte
dell'opposizione e di tutti i media, con
l'eccezione di quelli controllati direttamente
dal governo, che hanno accusato il governo di
appoggiare l'indipendenza del Kosovo. Immediate
sono arrivate anche le reazioni internazionali,
come quella russa che ha chiesto immediati
chiarimenti al governo di Sofia. Ma la reazione
piu' energica di tutte e' stata quella degli
USA. L'ambasciatore statunitense a Sofia Richard
Miles, che ha ripreso a svolgere un importante
ruolo nella politica balcanica degli USA dopo
essere stato "congelato" durante i bombardamenti
[e' uno dei maggiori esponenti della lobby che
vede la Serbia come perno dei Balcani], ha
chiesto di essere immediatamente ricevuto dal
premier Kostov, un fatto che non ha precedenti
da quando Miles occupa la propria posizione.
L'ambasciatore ha ripetuto a chiare lettere che
gli USA e la comunita' internazionale sono
contrari all'indipendenza del Kosovo e ha
chiesto al premier bulgaro di fare altrettanto.
Kostov lo ha fatto (addirittura sul
"Pravitelstven Bjuletin", organo ufficiale del
governo), ha lanciato un attacco contro i due
leader albanesi, accusandoli esplicitamente di
raccontare falsita' sull'incontro (sia Thaci che
Xhaferri hanno successivamente dichiarato di
avere ribadito a Kostov, durante l'incontro, la
propria posizione favorevole all'indipendenza
per il Kosovo, mentre i bulgari hanno negato che
si sia parlato dell'argomento), ha rivolto un
invito ufficiale ai leader serbi del Kosovo a
visitare Sofia e non ha mancato di lanciarsi in
paranoiche accuse contro i servizi segreti serbi
che, secondo lui, avrebbero lanciato una
campagna disinformativa attraverso giornali che
offrono loro canali privilegiati (anche se tali
giornali esistono in Bulgaria, lo scandalo non
e' stato certo attribuibile a loro). Non si puo'
non notare che, a differenza di USA e Russia, i
paesi UE, almeno ufficialmente, non hanno
reagito alle dichiarazioni di Agov. Lo scandalo
si e' trascinato per numerosi giorni, fino a un
accesso dibattito parlamentare. Nonostante le
chiare prese di distanza di Kostov da Agov, il
fatto che la dichiarazione non sia stata solo
una gaffe lo dimostra la pubblicazione da parte
dell'organo del partito di Kostov,
"Demokracija", dopo che le acque si erano
parzialmente calmate, di un lungo articolo,
molto sfumato e diplomatico, nel quale tuttavia
si lascia nuovamente intendere in maniera
implicita che e' necessari sapere prendere atto
delle nuove realta' nei Balcani.
---
BULGARIA: KOSTOV VATTENE!!!
STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
Dear Friends,
I sent that letter in Bulgarian to almost all Bulgarian newspapers on
Sunday.
No reaction whatsoever till now.
I have sent its English translation to the THRACE List.
Today I am sending it to you too.
That is what I can - still - do!
Blagovesta
Encl.
Kostov*, Hand Your Resignation!
The end of January in Bulgaria has been marked with a remarkable event:
the Premier of a country with 13 century history met a proved fascist,
racist, terrorist, killer, a fireraiser and a drug merchant,
representing only himself and an ethnical minority in a neighbouring
country!
I do not believe somebody could reject HashiSH Taci - the Snakes
personal responsibility for the horror that has been raging in the Serb
province Kosovo since he and his cut-throats settled there under the
benevolent protection of Kushner and of their main mentor, The Stripes
and Stars.
More than 75 churches and monasteries in Kosovo have been burned and
demolished since the end of the criminal US-NATO bombing of Yugoslavia!
(See www.emperors-clothes.com!)
Serbs, Gypsies, Jews, Turks and people of other NON-ALBANIAN
nationalities have been tortured, killed and driven away!
If that is not a clear demonstration of a proven FASCISM and RACISM,
what is it then?
The meeting in the Minister Council building on January 29 is very
tragic in the eyes of the ordinary Bulgarians.
It has demonstrated the Bulgarian governments terrible dependence on a
third country.
Premier, ministers and members of the Parliament informed us without any
traces of uneasiness, that they are nothing more than service boys!
Shameful, sad, humiliating!
And some half-forgotten past events have suddenlty surfaced.
As an activist of the Union of Democratic Forces (which I name the Union
of the Bulgarian Secret Police), I took part in all its undertakings and
protests.
Mr. Saul Polanski, the US ambassador in Bulgaria in 1990, spent much of
his time in the streets, watching, appearing suddenly here and there.
On June 11 1990 Mr. Polanski came on foot to the UDF Party Building and
stayed there several hours (!), discussing the first "democratic"
election results with the UDF leadership then.
While the UDF 1997January Show was running, his successor, energetic
Mrs. Bowlen** tirelessly was hurrying to and fro among the brave UDF
warriors in the Parliament. (As a result of their common efforts, the
last Bulgarian national government had been forced to resign)
Then the memorable date, January 29 2000 comes and our government people
meet and talk for several hours with a notorious contemporary Racist,
Fascist, Drug Merchant and a Thug!
Nobody could accept that horrible event as a result of an independent
decision in a moment of a temporary insanity!
Then the new US ambassador, Mr Miles filled up the TV screen to tell us
how surprised he was at the talks about "independent" Kosovo. The
performance was laughable. (People talk that he had even taken part in
the meeting!)
The Bulgarian Socialist Party, that calls itself "opposition" (nobody
knows why) was dumb and deaf for two days. (Maybe they had been waiting
for instructions either from the UDF Party Building or from a well-known
Embassy in Sofia Center!). Then they tried to focus the public attention
on Mr. Agov, the MP who announced the Bulgarian government changed
position on Kosovo.
(Mr. Agov is only an insignificant detail of that tragic play: he used
to fulfill special tasks before 1989 when he was a privileged child of
the regime too; he was doing the same after 1989. He could not do
anything else, poor man: that is his level.)
The essence of the problem is in the person who has humiliated us as a
people and a country by meeting and talking from the position of a
premier with a Racist, a Fascist and a Murderer!
Kostov, you have many times demonstrated that you cannot behave with
dignity at that responsible position!
You DO NOT EVEN TRY to ward off - partly at least! - the foreign
countries aspirations!
You have no sense of a state, no responsibility for people and country!
You have no sense of proportion!
KOSTOV, HAND YOUR RESIGNATION!
Blagovesta Doncheva
Sofia,
Bulgaria
the Balkans
--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
http://www.egroups.com/group/crj-mailinglist/
------------------------------------------------------------
MARCH 22, 10:07 EST
Up to 10,000 Protest in Bulgaria
SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Up to 10,000 people gathered in downtown Sofia
on
Wednesday to protest the country's unemployment, poverty and
temporary-employment contracts.
The rally started with 2,000 marching in the capital's main streets,
waving purple union banners with slogans reading: ``No to poverty'' and
``We want jobs and a decent living, not charity.''
The march was organized by the main Confederation of Independent
Unions, which claims over 1 million members.
Bulgaria's government, which has been implementing an International
Monetary Fund-advised austerity program, is facing rising public
resentment because it has failed to raise living standards and deliver a
promised economic growth of 4 to 5 percent a year. Last year's growth in
gross domestic product was 2.5 percent.
State company closures led to massive layoffs. In January, there were
657,100 out of work, or 17.2 percent of the workforce in this country of
8.2 million. That's up from 14.2 percent in September.
Union leader Zhelyazko Hristov argued on state radio that the real
unemployment rate was about 25 percent, because many people without jobs
were not counted in state statistics.
Hristov added that 680,000 employees worked with temporary short-term
employment contracts, which employers may easily refuse to renew if
workers as too demanding about their rights.
---
ATTENTATO NELLA REGIONE ARMENA DEL NAGORNO-KARABACH (AZERBAIDJAN)
Gunmen Wound President of Nagorno-Karabakh, Driver, Bodyguard
8:25 a.m. ET (1325 GMT) March 22, 2000
YEREVAN, Armenia — Gunmen opened fire on the president of
Azerbaijan's separatist Nagorno-Karabakh region early Wednesday,
seriously wounding him, his driver and a bodyguard, officials said.
The gunmen fired at the car carrying Arkady Gukasyan as he was being
driven home through Stepanakert, the enclave's capital, shortly after
midnight, the Nagorno-Karabakh government said.
Gukasyan was seriously wounded in the legs and underwent surgery, but
his life did not appear to be in immediate danger Wednesday, a
Nagorno-Karabakh government spokesman said.
The driver was hit in the head and chest, while one of Gukasyan's two
bodyguards in the car was wounded in the spine, according the spokesman,
who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A spokesman at Nagorno-Karabakh's Interior Ministry said the attackers
shot Gukasyan from a car that pulled up alongside his vehicle.
The spokesman said Nagorno-Karabakh's former defense minister, Samvel
Babyan, and his brother, Stepanakert mayor Karen Babyan, were arrested
along with more than 20 other people in connection with the attack.
Samvel Babyan was dismissed from his Defense Ministry post last December
after a feud with Gukasyan.
The government called the attack an attempt to derail Gukasyan's efforts
at democratic reform.
Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, declared
independence in 1988, igniting a war in which an estimated 15,000 people
were killed and about 1 million driven from their homes. With help from
Armenia, the separatists drove out Azerbaijan's troops. A truce signed
in 1994 ended the war, but tensions persist and clashes erupt
sporadically.
---
DOCUMENTI DAGLI ARMENI DEL NAKHIJEVAN E DEL CANADA
« NAKHIJEVAN » ARMENIAN COMPATRIOTIC UNION OF CANADA(NACUC)
UNION COMPATRIOTIQUE ARMENIENNE « NAKHIJEVAN » DU CANADA(UCANC)
MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA
SPECIAL MEETING BY THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF NAKHIJEVAN ARMENIANS HELD ON
MARCH 16TH, 2000, AT 11.A.M. IN YEREVAN, ARMENIA
Today, at the annniversary date of the Treaty of Moscow, signed on March
16th, 1921, between Soviet Russia and the Turkish government in Ankara,
the National Council of Nakhijevan Armenians held a special meeting in
Yerevan, in the presence of prominent members of the Armenian
intelligentsia. The meeting approved two documents to be sent, one to
the State Duma of the Russian Federation and the other, to the president
of the (Majlis) Parliament of the Nakhijevan Autonomous Republic. Also
it was decided to send copies of the letter to the Majlis of
Nakhijevan, to the Mejlis of Azerbaijan and to the UNESCO presidency
as well. In the first case, the National Council recommends the State
Duma of the Russian Federation to consider null the clauses of Treaty of
Moscow, pertaining to the Armenians. In the second case, it comes out
with a proposal of cooperation, addressed to the parliament of the
Nakhijevan Autonomous Republic.
Attached is the full text of the two documents above.
« NAKHIJEVAN » ARMENIAN COMPATRIOTIC UNION OF CANADA(NACUC)
UNION COMPATRIOTIQUE ARMENIENNE « NAKHIJEVAN » DU CANADA (UCANC)
MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA
THIS TEXT IS ISSUED FROM THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF NAKHIJEVAN ARMENIANS,
BASED IN YEREVAN, ARMENIA
Add. : Yerevan-19, Marshgal Baghramian ave. 24 c Tel. : 58-94-31. Fax
:/3742/151 795
PRESS RELEASE
16 MARCH, 2000
SPEECH ADDRESSED TO THE STATE DUMA OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
The present Autonomous Republic of Nakhijevan corresponds to the Sharur
district of Ayrarat province, to the Nakhijevan and Goghtn (now
Ordoubad) districts of Vaspurakan province, the Yernjak, Shahaponk and
Jahuk districts of Siunik province of Historical Armenia.
In 1828, after the Turkmenchai Treaty, Nakhijevan was incorporated first
into the Armenian province (Armyanskaya oblast) created by Russia
(1828-1840), then after its dissolution, into the province of Yerevan
(1849-1918).
At the end of 1918 and up untill 1920, the territory of Nakhijevan was
part of the First Republic of Armenia. After the establishment of the
Armenian Soviet Republic on December 2, 1921 and until the Kars Treaty
was signed on October 13, 1921, Nakhijevan region was de jure part of
Soviet Armenia. This reality corresponded with the position of the
supreme authorities of Azerbaijan, the Revolutionary Committee, which
on November 30, 1920, declared Nakhijevan and Artsakh (Karabagh) as the
undivided parts of Soviet Armenia. This special declaration of the
Revolutionary Committee of Azerbaijan was affirmed by leading figures
of Soviet Russia , in December 1920-January 1921.
Trampling on the basic rights of the Armenian people, especially those
of Armenians of Nakhijevan, Russia and Turkey, without participation of
representatives of the Armenian people, signed an illegal and
illegitimate treaty on March 16, 1921, by remitting Nakhijevan under
the ‘protectorate’ of Azerbaijan. This act permitted the annexation by
Soviet Azerbaijan a part of the Armenian homeland.
Under brutal suppression of Bolshevik Russia, this act was reconfirmed
in the Treaty of Kars on October 13, 1921, which was signed between
Turkey and the Transcaucasian republics. This act ratified the partition
of Armenia and the forcible detachment of Nakhijevan region from the
motherland
Thereafter, by an arbitrary decision of the highest leadership of the
soviet empire, and ignoring, at least in appearance, the agreement by
the signatories of this Treaty (Georgia, Turkey and Armenia), Azerbaijan
declares Nakhijevan as an autonomous republic on February 9, 1924. With
this illegitimate decision, the Soviet Union and Soviet Azerbaijan
violated the articles of March 16, 1921 and October 13, 1921 Treaties,
which were themselves illegal, by which the Nakhijevan region was not
annexed to Azerbaijan as a constituent part of that country, but was
put under its ‘protectorate’.
As a result of Azerbaijani aggression in 1918-1920 period, with the
collaboration of Turkey, the demographic picture continued to shift in
favor of the Azerbaijanis. Nevertheless, the Armenians constituted a
substantial part of the population of the Autonomous Republic of
Nakhijevan from 1920 to 1960’s. From 1921 and on, Azerbaijan run a
successive policy of violation of the human and national dignity of the
Armenian population of Nakhijevan, aiming at the ousting of
Nakhijevan Armenians from the land of their ancestors, as a result of
which the region was fully cleaned from its indigenous Armenian
population, between 1921 and 1989.
Today, about 400,000 Armenians of Nakhijevan, deported to the Republic
of Armenia and to many countries of the world, are deprived not only
from the right of resettlement on the land of their ancestors, but also
from the right and possibility of visiting the dwellings, the churches,
the monuments and the cemeteries built by them.
The Russian Federation, being the legal inheritor of Soviet Russia which
forcibly annexed the Nakhijevan region to Azerbaijan by an illegal and
illegitimate treaty, bears direct responsibility for that obvious
injustice.
THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF NAKHIJEVAN ARMENIANS , issued from the Congress
of All-Armenians form Nakhijevan and convened in Yerevan in September
1999, appeals, as the representative body of Nakhijevan Armenians, to
the Russian State Duma to declare NULL articles related to Armenia and
embodied in the illegal Russo-Turkish Treaty of Moscow of March 16,
1921, signed under the name ‘Friendship and Brotherhood’. These
articles hinder the fortification of the Armenian-Russian friendship,
the establishment of confidence and sincere comprehension between the
peoples of the two countries.
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF NAKHIJEVAN ARMENIANS
« NAKHIJEVAN » ARMENIAN COMPATRIOTIC UNION OF CANADA(NACUC) founded on
January 27th, 2000, is a non-profit organization, affiliated with
the family of « Nakhijevan » Compatriotic Union of Armenia (NCUA).
For further information, please contact M. Antranig Bedrossian at
e-mail: antranig bedrossian <antranig@...>
« NAKHIJEVAN » ARMENIAN COMPATRIOTIC UNION OF CANADA(NACUC)
UNION COMPATRIOTIQUE ARMENIENNE « NAKHIJEVAN » DU CANADA (UCANC)
MONTREAL, QUEBEC, CANADA
THIS TEXT IS ISSUED FROM THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF NAKHIJEVAN ARMENIANS,
BASED IN YEREVAN, ARMENIA
Add . : Yerevan-19, Marshal Baghramian ave. 24c. Tel :58-94-31 Fax
:/3742/151 795
PRESS RELEASE
16 MARCH, 2000
To the President of Majlis (Parliament) of Nakhijevan Autonomous
Republic,
Honorable Mr. President,
As you know from the mass madia, the Armenians deported from the
Nakhijevan Autonomous Republic, who live in the Republic of Armenia,
have established the National Council of Nakhijevan Armenians, which
is aiming to defend the political, economic and human rights of the
Armenians expulsed from the Nakhijevan Autonomous Republic.
On behalf of the National Council of Nakhijevan Armenians, I refer to
you proposing a meeting which will discuss the following issues.
The National Council of Nakhijevan Armenians pursue to revive the trade
between the Nakhijevan Autonomous Republic and the Republic of Armenia,
so that villagers of the Autonomous Republic can sell their goods in the
Republic of Armenia, as it has been the case from many decades ago till
the recent past.
We also propose to discuss the following points during the
negotiations:
As it is known, the Christian World is celebrating this year the 2000th
anniversary of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Armenian
people will celebrate next year the 1700th anniversary of the
declaration of Christianity as state religion in Armenia. On these
occasions, the National Council of Nakhijevan Armenians intends to
organize pilgrimages to the churches and holy places in the Nakhijevan
Autonomous Republic, beginning from the summer of this year.
We should propose to you to take the necessary procedures, so that the
competent bodies of Nakhijevan Nakhijevan Autonomous Republic and
Republic of Armenia jointly prepare the list of the monuments to be
visited.
I am fully optimistic that the result of our meeting will have a
positive feedback both from the Nakhijevan Autonomous Republic and the
Azerbaijani intelligentsia, as well as from the international
community. This will greatly assist in mutual understanding of the
peoples and the countries of the region and will enhance the solidarity
between them.
ON BEHALF OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF NAKHIJEVAN ARMENIANS
RAPHAYEL HAMPARTSOUMIAN - PRESIDENT
« NAKHIJEVAN » ARMENIAN COMPATRIOTIC UNION OF CANADA(NACUC) founded on
January 27th, 2000, is a non-profit organization, affiliated with
the family of « Nakhijevan » Compatriotic Union of Armenia (NCUA).
For further information, please contact M. Antranig Bedrossian at
e-mail: antranig bedrossian <antranig@...>
---
LE SS DI NUOVO IN MARCIA IN LETTONIA
Latvia Waffen SS To Hold March
By STEVEN C. JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
RIGA, Latvia (AP) -- Despite criticism from Jewish and Russian groups,
300 veterans of the Latvian Waffen SS marched today in a procession to
an independence monument to remember their fallen comrades with a
wreath-laying ceremony.
The annual march, held on March 16 to mark a major battle between the
Latvian Waffen SS and the Red Army on the same date in 1944, provoked a
storm of protest at home and abroad the last two years.
Supporters say the Latvian Waffen SS, also known as the Latvian Legion,
was a conscripted, front-line army and wasn't the same thing as
Germany's Waffen SS -- Adolf Hitler's elite force that carried out the
Holocaust and other atrocities.
Russia said the march showed contempt for millions of Soviet war dead.
Members of Latvia's 11,000-strong Jewish community said the march was
insensitive to the memory of 80,000 Latvian Jews massacred during the
1941-44 Nazi occupation.
The former soldiers, most in their 70s and 80s, first gathered in a
church to sing and pray before beginning a slow march across the old
city's cobble-stoned streets to lay flowers at a nearby independence
monument.
Some of the gray-haired veterans clutched bouquets of flowers or carried
Latvian flags as they walked. Two held Latvian Waffen SS flags with
''the 19th division'' and ''15th division'' scrawled across the maroon
and white banners.
Some local residents lined the street to watch, though the crowds were
smaller than last year. The police presence, heavy during last year's
march, was also less noticeable.
''We just want to remember the comrades we lost and teach our children
the truth about what happened to this country in the 20th century,''
Visvaldis Lacis, a 76-year-old Waffen SS veteran, said before the march
started.
Many of the veterans were clearly struggling to walk the short
procession route, some of them using canes. One veteran collapsed from
an apparent heart attack and was rushed to a hospital, the Baltic News
Service reported
But some bystanders, especially members of the former Soviet republic's
million-strong Russian-speaking minority, jeered or sang Soviet war
songs as the procession passed. One elderly women shook her cane at the
passing veterans
''This is unforgivable,'' 78-year-old ethnic Russian Nina Noshina said.
''These men were part of Hitler's fascist army. Why does Latvia
celebrate fascists when they are condemned everywhere else?''
Controversy was heightened last year after parliament declared March 16
an official day of remembrance. But earlier this year, parliament sought
to reduce tensions and international criticism by rescinding that
decision.
Latvians say the controversy stems from a misunderstanding of history.
The Soviets occupied Latvia at the start of the war in 1940, Germany
ruled here from 1941-44, and the Soviets retook it in 1944. Latvia
regained its independence from Moscow in 1991 following the collapse of
the Soviet Union.
With Latvia sandwiched between the Nazi and Soviet armies, 250,000
Latvians ended up fighting on one side of the conflict or the other,
usually after being conscripted. Some 150,000 Latvian combatants died.
Many Latvians, like Lacis, say they volunteered to fight for Waffen SS
on behalf of Latvian independence from the Soviets, not out of any
sympathy for Nazi ideology.
While privately sympathetic, leaders argue that any official sanction of
the day was sure to draw condemnations from around the world and could
even undermine the nation's bid to win membership in the European Union
and NATO.
Nils Muiznieks, a leading political commentator, said the damage to
Latvia's international image has already been done.
''This is always going to be a black eye for Latvia, regardless of
whether it's a state holiday,'' he said. ''Veterans will march, cameras
will roll ... It's a nightmare from the state's point of view.''
---
MAI PROCESSATO IL MEDICO DI AUSCHWITZ
Saturday, 11 March, 2000, 17:31 GMT
"Auschwitz doctor escapes trial"
Dr Muench boasted of his experiments at Auschwitz
Hans Muench, the last surviving doctor from
the Auschwitz concentration camp, has been
declared unfit to stand trial for murder.
Public prosecutors in the German state of
Hesse have dropped their investigation against
Dr Muench, 88, after medical examiners found
he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Prosecutors had not yet
turned up sufficient
evidence to justify
action against Dr
Muench,
said Job
Tilmann, chief
spokesman in the
Frankfurt prosecutor's
office.
However, he said the investigation has been
called off because Dr Muench's poor health
makes a trial impossible in any case.
Experiments
Dr Muench, who now lives in Bavaria, is the
former director of the Institute of Hygiene for
the Waffen SS.
He was an accomplice of the notorious Nazi
doctor Josef Mengele.
He conducted medical experiments on
Auschwitz inmates between 1943 and 1945
and has been repeatedly cited in media
interviews as being unrepentant about his
past.
He was tried for war crimes at a trial in Poland
in 1947 for his malaria and rheumatism
experiments in which Jews were infected on
purpose to study if they were immune.
He was acquitted after former inmates he had
worked with in the Auschwitz laboratory
testified he had helped save their lives.
Gassed
But a fresh murder investigation was launched
against him in 1998 after he boasted in an
interview of killing Auschwitz internees.
Dr Muench recalled how he had ordered whole
barracks of inmates to be gassed if one person
contracted a contagious disease and said he
had no regrets about conducting grotesque
experiments on the camp's Jewish internees.
"I could conduct experiments on humans that
otherwise are only possible on rabbits," he
said.
He further praised Dr Mengele, whose own
experiments led to countless deaths, as highly
intelligent and cultured.
Dr Mengele, who was never tried, escaped to
Argentina after the war and drowned in 1979.
A Paris court also wants to try Dr Muench in
absentia for approving the murder of gypsies
after he said in a French radio interview that
gassing them "was the only way to handle
them".
You are in: World: Europe (BBC WORLD)
---
NOTEVOLE PEGGIORAMENTO DELLA CONDIZIONE DELLA DONNA ALL'EST
Nezavisimaya Gazeta (Russia)
March 7, 2000
Cinderellas of Perestroika and Market Reform
Summary
On the eve of International Women's Day, it is time to
reflect on working women in Russia. In the Soviet
Union, women were guaranteed equal payment to men for
equal work. In the seventies and eighties, the average
woman's wage accounted for about seventy percent of
the average man's wages. This rate was approximately
the same as in developed countries worldwide.
Perestroika of the late eighties and the subsequent
market reforms brought serious changes to Russia’s
labor market. According to official government
statistics, in 1992, women accounted for 75 percent of
total registered unemployment in Russia. And half of
these unemployed women held degrees from institutions
of higher education.
According to recent studies, the level of women's
unemployment has dropped slightly, primarily due to
the emergence of small business. The more alarming
figure is that women's wages account for only fifty
percent of the average man's wage. Mostwomen in Russia
work in public, state-funded sectors like health care
or education where salaries are half the national
average. Very few women work in wealthy industries
like oil or gas, where wages are 300 to 400 times
higher than the average in Russia.
[7 March 2000, page 1]
Hindustan Times
March 8, 2000
Opinion
Enslaved to the system
(Chanchal Sarkar)
Barely has a new millennium begun with brave words of
doing better in every way than in the one exhausted,
that rends have appeared in the fabric. The Western
world thought that with the stamping out of slavery
from the Atlantic circuit — from the West African
coast to the Americas — it had ended for good. But
neo-slavery is in many ways worse as neo-colonialism
is worse than colonialism proper.
Scholars have the habit and the ability to serve up
the most disquieting and shocking facts. In Index on
Censorship one such scholar, after studying slavery in
several continents, says, “Slaves today are cheaper
than ever in human history... overpopulation has made
slaves plentiful, cheap and disposable.” A slave in
Alabama sold for $ 1,000 ($ 40,000 in today’s money)
and the new owner expected a bill of sale and a title.
Profit made from such a slave varied between five and
10 per cent. Today it costs $ 2,000 to enslave a young
woman in a brothel in Thailand. There she could
generate a profit of as much as $ 75,000 a year.
As India leads in some undesirable directions, the
scholars say (and we know) that a child here can be
placed in bondage for a trifling $ 45. Swami Agnivesh
has said that there are 65 million bonded child
labourers in India. A frightening thought. Devadasis
are slaves of a kind.
Sifting through the various kinds of information, the
scholars roughly divide modern slavery into (i) the
old colonial “chattel slavery” where the slave’s
person was owned by the master; (ii) nuptial slavery;
(iii) sex slavery; (iv) domestic slavery and (v) debt
slavery. Except in some areas like south-western
Sudan, chattel slavery is now uncommon. Not for any
high-minded or moral reason but simply because the
threat and use of violence is enough to subdue the
recalcitrant. Some US missionary organisations have
been buying freedom for Sudanese slaves but there are
allegedly holes in the procedure.
Nuptial slavery is becoming more frequent. In the West
where there are immigrants from the subcontinent,
there are cases of young women being forced by their
families into marriage with men not of their own
choice. These women are often kept in confinement in
their home, roughed up, and sometimes whisked back to
India, Pakistan or Bangladesh and kept there till
their spirit is broken. India also has nuptial slavery
cases of Arabs from West Asia coming to buy and take
woman away after a form of marriage. Our governments
have done precious little to stop this.
Debt and labour-slavery have the cruel falsification
of accounts to go with it as we know only too well
from our rural areas. Pakistan’s feudal landowners are
pastmasters at this kind of slavery.
Sex slavery is now a horrible scourge. Not only in
Thailand, in Japan, Hong Kong and the Arab world,
women from the Philippines, Indonesia, India,
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are easy prey. Many of these
women are lured by the promise of jobs. Here, too,
countries of their origin do very little for the
enslaved citizens.
Every year about 500,000 women from Central and
Eastern Europe are taken to European Union countries
for prostitution. Our own unworthy share relates to
Nepal, from where there are over 100,000 women in
Indian brothels and 5,000 women are trafficked here
every year. The Nepalese embassy and the Indian
authorities are blind to the suffering and
exploitation of these unfortunate women who are so
poor in their homeland that they have no other way to
make a living.
---
SULLO SCIOPERO DEI FERROVIERI IN SLOVACCHIA
(The...union is demanding a 10% increase in salaries
to match Slovakia's 1999 inflation rate of 11%, while
[Slovak Railways] management has offered a mere
2%....'no bank would give money to a company if it
knew the money would be used to increase the wages of
the company's employees....')
_______________________________________________________
March 6, 2000
Full Stoppage Of All Train Services To Go Into Effect
If Agreement On Wages Not Met
By Peter Barecz
After failing to reach an agreement with management
over a wage increase, employees at Slovak Railways
(ŽSR) are planning a mid-March nationwide strike that
would stop all train transport in the country. The ŽSR
union is demanding a 10% increase in salaries to match
Slovakia`s 1999 inflation rate of 11%, while ŽSR
management has offered a mere 2.4% raise, citing a
lack of funds.
If the strike were called - a possibility that ŽSR
management considers quite likely - both passenger and
freight transport would come to a halt for the first
time in Slovak history, and the rail company would
lose 60 million Slovak crowns ($1.4 million) a day.
Union officials have not said how long the strike
might last.
Although such a strike would cause huge inconveniences
for commuters and even more headaches for companies,
the governmnet hasn`t yet stepped in to mediate
discussions between ŽSR and the railway union."We
support ŽSR management and are consulting with them in
the steps they are taking," said Naïa Ondrišová, a
Transport Ministry spokesperson. "However, we would
only intervene in mutual discussions if there was a
real danger of a strike."
The union has been threatening a strike since the end
of last year, when ŽSR management realised that the
money the company had been allocated from the state
budget for 2000 was not enough to increase wages.
Management had promised a 10% increase before the
state budged was approved at the end of December last
year.
According to Slovak laws, at least 50% of company`s
employees must sign a petition to launch a strike. The
railway union, which launched its petition on February
20, expects to have a sufficient number of signatures
in one week.
"We cannot accept the proposal of ŽSR management for a
2.4% salary increase, because we based our demands on
the level of inflation and that`s why we`re asking for
a 10% wage increase," said Vladimír Pikna,
vice-chairman of the railway union strike committee.
According to Pikna, ŽSR has financial reserves which
could be used to increase employee wages. "This is the
main aim of the strike, and we feel that we will get
it," Pikna said.
However, with a preliminary loss of 5.2 billion crowns
for 1999, ŽSR management is desperately short of cash,
and will get no richer in the coming year. "Our loss
for this year is expected to be about 2.8 billion
crowns, so what reserves are they (the union) talking
about?" asked ŽSR spokesman Miloš Èikovský.
According to Èikovský, ŽSR will take a loan this year
from the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development which will be used to buy new trains and
renovate old boxcars and tracks." If this is the
reserve the unions are talking about, then they should
know that we [ŽSR] cannot use this money to increase
the salaries of our employees because the loan serves
as direct investment and no bank would give money to a
company if it knew that the money would be used to
increase the wages of the company`s employees,"
Èikovský said.
The reluctance of either side to compromise has for
the moment ended discussions on wage increases. "At
this point we don`t want to discuss with unions the
figures they have been proposing. We will do everyting
to avert the strike, but at the same we are preparing
for it because if it happens our losses will be huge,"
Èikovský said.
ŽSR is not the only potential loser in any strike; big
companies like eastern Slovak steel-maker VSŽ, where
ŽSR handles 95% of their traffic, also stand to take a
hit. "We`ve already had a negative experience with the
Hungarian Railway strike [in early February]," said
VSŽ spokesman Jozef Marko. "We`re not even talking
about what a future strike would do to ŽSR, when 30.5%
of their total transport is accounted for by us
[VSŽ]."
The average monthly wage of a ŽSR employee, excluding
management, is 7,560 crowns ($180), 3,000 crowns less
than the national average. The company employs about
50,000 people, which makes it the largest employer in
the country.
(C) 2000 Slovak Spectator
---
SUL MALCONTENTO DEGLI AGRICOLTORI IN POLONIA
(Farmers in Poland and Ukraine are fighting for their
livelihoods in the face of large-scale land grabs
orchestrated by the EU and the IMF/World Bank. The
procedure is generally privatization, then sell-off to
foreign concerns....The story following this one on
the site it appears is about Michael Jackson coming to
Warsaw to build a $500 million mega-amusement park. In
lieu of jobs and land the Poles will be offered bread
and circuses - without the bread.)
_______________________________________________________
Polish Police Out In Force To Prevent Road Blocks
WARSAW, Mar 7, 2000 -- (Reuters) Polish police came
out in force Monday to lift some 70 road blocks set up
across the country by farmers from the radical
Samoobrona trade union, a police spokesman said.
Police used force in the southern town of Latoszyn but
neither protestors of police suffered injuries. In
nine other areas, demonstrators themselves dismantled
the road blocks following the arrival of the police.
The populist leader of Samoobrona (Self-defense),
Andrzej Lepper, said the demonstrators had erected 70
road blocks, while about 500 farmers demonstrated in
the northern town of Olsztyn against the government's
agricultural policy.
Lepper nearly one year ago organized several huge
demonstrations by farmers in protest at falling prices
which culminated in some 400 road blocks put up across
the country.
...E PROTESTE ANCHE CONTRO LA SVENDITA DELLE IMPRESE AL CAPITALE
STRANIERO
> STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
>
> Polish daily "Gazeta Wyborcza" writes Feb 28/2000 that on March 6 the
> "Samoobrona" (self-defence) movement led by Andrzej Leppert will once again
> block the country's roads and occupy regional government administration and
> parliamentarian offices.
> "We do not intend to seek permissions for the protests," said Leppert.
> He announced that on March 14 there will be picketing of USA and German
> embassies in Warsaw "against buying of Polish enterprises by foreign
> capital."
>
> Peter Bein
>
---
GLI USA DIRIGONO LE PRIVATIZZAZIONI IN ROMANIA
U.S. Department of State
02 March 2000
Text: U.S. Assists Privatization Programs in Romania
(Trade and Development Agency grants $241,250 for
advisor) (380)
The United States Trade and Development Agency (TDA)
has awarded Romania a US$241,250 grant to assist
with strategic industrial privatization, according
to a March 2 TDA press release.
The TDA said the grant will fund an advisor to
provide policy,technical, and executive support to
the
Privatization Management Unit(PMU), which the
Romanian government established to develop
privatization plans for 64 key companies.
Romania has received half of a $300 million World
Bank loan to support privatization programs, and the
second half is contingent on additional reforms and
accelerated privatization, according to theTDA.
Following is a text of the release:
(begin text)
U.S. Trade and Development Agency (TDA)
(Bucharest)
March 2, 2000
Critical Romanian Privatization Programs to Move
Forward with U.S.Technical Assistance
Bucharest, Romania (2 March 2000) -- The U.S. Trade
and Development Agency (TDA) awarded a $241,250
grant to Romania's Ministry of Transportation to
provide strategic industrial privatization assistance.
The grant was signed today in Bucharest by the U.S.
Ambassador to Romania, James Rosapepe, and the
Romanian Minister of Transportation Traian Basescu.
Paving the path for privatization is a top
developmental priority for Romania. To accomplish
this long-term goal, the Privatization Management
Unit
(PMU) was established by the government to develop
the process for 64 key companies. The PMU is also
responsible for hiring investment bankers to prepare
the companies and help broker deals associated with
privatization. This TDA grant will provide for a
technical advisor to provide policy, technical and
executive support to PMU as it undertakes these
important tasks.
This privatization program is part of a $300 million
World Bank Private Sector Structural Adjustment
Loan.
To date, half of this loan has been administered,
but the second half is contingent upon additional
banking reform, improvements in the business climate,
accelerated privatization and social mitigation
elements.
The U.S. Trade and Development Agency, an agency of
the U.S. Government, helps form mutually beneficial
partnerships between U.S.private sector companies
and overseas project sponsors. Last year, TDA
provided
assistance in 67 nations around the world.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web
site: usinfo.state.gov)
This site is produced and maintained by the U.S.
Department of State. Links to other Internet sites
should not be construed as an endorsement of the
views
contained therein.
---
LA QUALITA' DELLA VITA E' PROFONDAMENTE PEGGIORATA IN BULGARIA
"Trud", a daily Bulgarian newspaper, September 28, page 4
People systematically do not eat enough, there are not enough medicines
Tuberculosis Caught 4000 Bulgarians More Only for One Year
New 4000 cases of tuberculosis are registered in Bulgaria only for one
year, doctors from the Clinics for Physiotherapy, Sofia Medical Academy,
announced yesterday. There has not been such a boom of the "Yellow
Lady-Visitor"* at least for 20 years, the doctors declare.
At the moment the general number of people with tuberculosis is 14990.
That is only the registered number, the real one is much greater.
Thousands of infected persons move among the healthy ones and spray
bacteria: some unintentionally, others - out of carelessness. The
statistics show that in 1998 the registered cases had been 1325 new
germ-carriers.
According to the doctors, specialists in lung diseases, everyone of them
infects more than 10 persons. The situation is fearful in the Roma
residential districts where it swarms with TB cases. Children usually
get the disease from their ill parents.
The poverty, the systematic malnutrition recently is the main cause for
the "Yellow Lady-Visitor" invasion. Most of the people do not go to
doctors because of the lack of money for medicine. At the same time they
are keeping a constant temperature in the range of 37,5 to 37,80C,
spitting blood, coughing and losing kilograms. The doctors cannot help
all of them. One X-ray photograph costs 6,5 leva ($1 = 1.87808 on Sept.
28, 99) and a very small number of people can afford that sum. Besides,
there are no X-ray films. There are not enough free of charge medicines
for TB treatment in many regions throughout the country. And when the
treatment course is broken, the infectious bacteria get more
treatment-resisting. The greatest number of TB cases is in Sofia.
---
APPOGGI DALLA BULGARIA PER IL PROGETTO IRREDENTISTA GRANDE-ALBANESE
NOTIZIE EST #304 - BULGARIA 22 febbraio 2000
BULGARIA: SCANDALI 'KOSOVARI', MANOVRE POLITICHE
E UN PONTE CHE UNISCE E DIVIDE
[Segue una serie di aggiornamenti sulla
Bulgaria, tutti tratti dai numeri di gennaio e
febbraio del settimanale "Kapital" (http://www-
us.capital.bg/) e dalla selezione di articoli
dalla stampa bulgara pubblicata da "BGnews"
negli ultimi due mesi
(http://www.db.online.bg/bg/news.main).
Selezione di A. Ferrario]
HASHIM THACI E ARBEN XHAFERRI A SOFIA
L'anno politico e' cominciato in Bulgaria con
uno scandalo di vasta eco, trascinatosi per piu'
di due settimane, conseguente all'incontro
svoltosi a Sofia il 29 gennaio tra i leader
albanesi, rispettivamente del Kosovo e della
Macedonia, Hashim Thaci e Arben Xhaferri, e il
premier bulgaro Ivan Kostov. Le modalita'
dell'incontro sono state del tutto atipiche.
Infatti non solo la visita non e' stata una
visita di stato e i due si sono incontrati con
Kostov come leader del partito SDS, presso la
sede di quest'ultimo, ma oltretutto l'arrivo dei
due leader albanesi era previsto, almeno
ufficialmente, per una loro visita al congresso
del partito della minoranza turca della
Bulgaria, il DPS, al quale ne' Thaci ne'
Xhaferri invece si sono fatti vedere. Si tratta
della seconda visita di Thaci in un paese
balcanico nelle ultime settimane, la precedente
essendo stata quella a Sarajevo. Da parte
bulgara, l'incontro con i due leader albanesi ha
seguito di una settimana esatta la conferenza
dei primi ministri dei paesi balcanici tenutasi
sempre in Bulgaria su iniziativa dello stesso
Kostov, con la presenza del "ministro degli
esteri" europeo Solana e di alti funzionari
della NATO. Il tentativo di Kostov di giungere,
alla fine di tale conferenza, a una
dichiarazione dei paesi dei Balcani per la
cancellazione delle sanzioni contro la
Jugoslavia e' fallito a causa del veto
dell'Albania e dell'opposizione della Romania.
L'incontro tra Kostov, Thaci e Xhaferri e'
durato due ore e alla fine si e' tenuta una
conferenza stampa (alla quale non ha partecipato
Kostov, per la parte bulgara, bensi' un alto
funzionario del suo partito, Gocev), nella quale
Gocev ha affermato che Kostov visitera' Pristina
in una data ancora da stabilirsi e che la
Bulgaria ha "ribadito l'intangibilita' dei
confini nei Balcani" e "la necessita' che la
maggioranza albanese in Kosovo rispetti i
diritti della minoranza serba", aggiungendo la
contrarieta' a ogni progetto di "Grande
Albania". Thaci ha detto, tra le altre cose, che
"lo status del Kosovo non puo' essere vincolato
alle sorti dell'attuale regime di Belgrado o a
quelle dell'opposizione serba" e che
"l'indipendenza del Kosovo non significa un
cambiamento di confini, perche' il Kosovo aveva
gia' dei propri confini". Fin qui nulla che
andasse al di la' delle frasi di prammatica
pronunciate regolarmente dalle due parti anche
in altre occasioni. Il vero scandalo e'
scoppiato due giorni dopo, il 31 gennaio, quando
Asen Agov, parlamentare della SDS, che aveva
anch'egli assistito all'incontro tra Kostov e i
due leader albanesi e che riveste l'importante
carica di capo della commissione esteri della
camera, ha dichiarato al quotidiano "Standard"
quanto segue: "Le cose si evolvono, perche'
dobbiamo essere realisti. In una situazione in
cui i leader del Kosovo dicono in modo chiaro e
categorico che sono per l'indipendenza del loro
paese, quello che noi pensiamo ha un importanza
minima. Perche' se siamo davvero democratici,
dobbiamo lasciare che sia la gente a decidere da
sola il proprio futuro. Perche' dobbiamo imporre
le nostre opinioni?". Queste affermazioni hanno
scatenato reazioni durissime da parte
dell'opposizione e di tutti i media, con
l'eccezione di quelli controllati direttamente
dal governo, che hanno accusato il governo di
appoggiare l'indipendenza del Kosovo. Immediate
sono arrivate anche le reazioni internazionali,
come quella russa che ha chiesto immediati
chiarimenti al governo di Sofia. Ma la reazione
piu' energica di tutte e' stata quella degli
USA. L'ambasciatore statunitense a Sofia Richard
Miles, che ha ripreso a svolgere un importante
ruolo nella politica balcanica degli USA dopo
essere stato "congelato" durante i bombardamenti
[e' uno dei maggiori esponenti della lobby che
vede la Serbia come perno dei Balcani], ha
chiesto di essere immediatamente ricevuto dal
premier Kostov, un fatto che non ha precedenti
da quando Miles occupa la propria posizione.
L'ambasciatore ha ripetuto a chiare lettere che
gli USA e la comunita' internazionale sono
contrari all'indipendenza del Kosovo e ha
chiesto al premier bulgaro di fare altrettanto.
Kostov lo ha fatto (addirittura sul
"Pravitelstven Bjuletin", organo ufficiale del
governo), ha lanciato un attacco contro i due
leader albanesi, accusandoli esplicitamente di
raccontare falsita' sull'incontro (sia Thaci che
Xhaferri hanno successivamente dichiarato di
avere ribadito a Kostov, durante l'incontro, la
propria posizione favorevole all'indipendenza
per il Kosovo, mentre i bulgari hanno negato che
si sia parlato dell'argomento), ha rivolto un
invito ufficiale ai leader serbi del Kosovo a
visitare Sofia e non ha mancato di lanciarsi in
paranoiche accuse contro i servizi segreti serbi
che, secondo lui, avrebbero lanciato una
campagna disinformativa attraverso giornali che
offrono loro canali privilegiati (anche se tali
giornali esistono in Bulgaria, lo scandalo non
e' stato certo attribuibile a loro). Non si puo'
non notare che, a differenza di USA e Russia, i
paesi UE, almeno ufficialmente, non hanno
reagito alle dichiarazioni di Agov. Lo scandalo
si e' trascinato per numerosi giorni, fino a un
accesso dibattito parlamentare. Nonostante le
chiare prese di distanza di Kostov da Agov, il
fatto che la dichiarazione non sia stata solo
una gaffe lo dimostra la pubblicazione da parte
dell'organo del partito di Kostov,
"Demokracija", dopo che le acque si erano
parzialmente calmate, di un lungo articolo,
molto sfumato e diplomatico, nel quale tuttavia
si lascia nuovamente intendere in maniera
implicita che e' necessari sapere prendere atto
delle nuove realta' nei Balcani.
---
BULGARIA: KOSTOV VATTENE!!!
STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
Dear Friends,
I sent that letter in Bulgarian to almost all Bulgarian newspapers on
Sunday.
No reaction whatsoever till now.
I have sent its English translation to the THRACE List.
Today I am sending it to you too.
That is what I can - still - do!
Blagovesta
Encl.
Kostov*, Hand Your Resignation!
The end of January in Bulgaria has been marked with a remarkable event:
the Premier of a country with 13 century history met a proved fascist,
racist, terrorist, killer, a fireraiser and a drug merchant,
representing only himself and an ethnical minority in a neighbouring
country!
I do not believe somebody could reject HashiSH Taci - the Snakes
personal responsibility for the horror that has been raging in the Serb
province Kosovo since he and his cut-throats settled there under the
benevolent protection of Kushner and of their main mentor, The Stripes
and Stars.
More than 75 churches and monasteries in Kosovo have been burned and
demolished since the end of the criminal US-NATO bombing of Yugoslavia!
(See www.emperors-clothes.com!)
Serbs, Gypsies, Jews, Turks and people of other NON-ALBANIAN
nationalities have been tortured, killed and driven away!
If that is not a clear demonstration of a proven FASCISM and RACISM,
what is it then?
The meeting in the Minister Council building on January 29 is very
tragic in the eyes of the ordinary Bulgarians.
It has demonstrated the Bulgarian governments terrible dependence on a
third country.
Premier, ministers and members of the Parliament informed us without any
traces of uneasiness, that they are nothing more than service boys!
Shameful, sad, humiliating!
And some half-forgotten past events have suddenlty surfaced.
As an activist of the Union of Democratic Forces (which I name the Union
of the Bulgarian Secret Police), I took part in all its undertakings and
protests.
Mr. Saul Polanski, the US ambassador in Bulgaria in 1990, spent much of
his time in the streets, watching, appearing suddenly here and there.
On June 11 1990 Mr. Polanski came on foot to the UDF Party Building and
stayed there several hours (!), discussing the first "democratic"
election results with the UDF leadership then.
While the UDF 1997January Show was running, his successor, energetic
Mrs. Bowlen** tirelessly was hurrying to and fro among the brave UDF
warriors in the Parliament. (As a result of their common efforts, the
last Bulgarian national government had been forced to resign)
Then the memorable date, January 29 2000 comes and our government people
meet and talk for several hours with a notorious contemporary Racist,
Fascist, Drug Merchant and a Thug!
Nobody could accept that horrible event as a result of an independent
decision in a moment of a temporary insanity!
Then the new US ambassador, Mr Miles filled up the TV screen to tell us
how surprised he was at the talks about "independent" Kosovo. The
performance was laughable. (People talk that he had even taken part in
the meeting!)
The Bulgarian Socialist Party, that calls itself "opposition" (nobody
knows why) was dumb and deaf for two days. (Maybe they had been waiting
for instructions either from the UDF Party Building or from a well-known
Embassy in Sofia Center!). Then they tried to focus the public attention
on Mr. Agov, the MP who announced the Bulgarian government changed
position on Kosovo.
(Mr. Agov is only an insignificant detail of that tragic play: he used
to fulfill special tasks before 1989 when he was a privileged child of
the regime too; he was doing the same after 1989. He could not do
anything else, poor man: that is his level.)
The essence of the problem is in the person who has humiliated us as a
people and a country by meeting and talking from the position of a
premier with a Racist, a Fascist and a Murderer!
Kostov, you have many times demonstrated that you cannot behave with
dignity at that responsible position!
You DO NOT EVEN TRY to ward off - partly at least! - the foreign
countries aspirations!
You have no sense of a state, no responsibility for people and country!
You have no sense of proportion!
KOSTOV, HAND YOUR RESIGNATION!
Blagovesta Doncheva
Sofia,
Bulgaria
the Balkans
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