From: trh@jack.sns.com (Al Trh)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: News Dec 15 (from Haluk)
Date: 17 Dec 1992 14:48:36 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
Reply-To: Turkish Cultural Program List <TRKNWS-L%USCVM.BitNet@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

Forwarded message:
>From cms1.ucs.leeds.ac.uk!TEX5HAD Thu Dec 17 00:00:10 1992
Via: uk.ac.leeds.ucs.cms1; Wed, 16 Dec 1992 20:07:09 +0000
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 92 20:06:15 GMT
From: Haluk DEMIRBAG <TEX5HAD@cms1.ucs.leeds.ac.uk>
Subject: News Dec 15 (fwd)
To: TRH@JACK.SNS.COM
Message-Id: <16 Dec 92 20:07:11 GMT #7918@UK.AC.LEEDS.CMS1>

- Milosevic attacks sanctions, jeered at rallies
- New Russian premier says reforms will continue
- Uzbekistan president in Cairo
- German skinheads sentenced to prison for killing leftist punk

Subject: Milosevic attacks sanctions, jeered at rallies

        BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (UPI) -- The race for the presidency of Serbia
heated up Tuesday as hardline communist incumbent Slobodan Milosevic
accused Western powers of slapping economic sanctions on the republic to
promote the candidacy of Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan Panic and impose
a ``puppet government.''
        Milosevic made his charge as he stumped through industrial towns in
Serbia's heartland with only two days of campaigning left before a
cooling-off period required in advance of Sunday's election.
        Also at stake will be the communist-controlled federal assembly and
the two communist-controlled republican assemblies of Serbia and
Montenegro.
        At several stops, Milosevic's well-oiled rallies were disrupted by
hundreds of jeering opposition supporters who chanted ``red gang,''
``Slobo, go away'' and slogans in support of Panic.
        The 51-year-old Serbian strongman sounded the nationalistic and
xenophobic themes that swept him to power seven years ago and that most
analysts believe lit the fuse for the bloody collapse of former
Yugoslavia.
        Milosevic also renewed his attacks on the May 30 economic sanctions
slapped on Serbia by the United Nations for the military, political and
financial support he has provided to the ongoing Serbian ``ethnic
cleansing'' offensive to conquer a self-declared state in neighboring
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
        ``Serbia will not bend,'' Milosevic declared to thousands of
supporters in the central city of Kraljevo, signaling a determination to
defy international demands that he halt his support for the Bosnian Serb
land-grab.
        He also asserted that the sanctions, which included bans on oil sales
and trade, were intended to ``influence the Serbian elections.''
        ``Those who imposed the sanctions want to bring a puppet government
which would dance to the tune played by the great powers,'' Milosevic
said. ``They will soon be ashamed of their deeds and they will cancel
their unjust decision.''
        ``We will never succumb to outside pressure and jeopardize our vital
national interests,'' he said, asserting that Serbs would not give their
votes to ``imported democrats.''
        His comments were clearly aimed at Panic, a 62-year-old Belgrade-born
naturalized U.S. citizen whose candidacy has received open support from
senior Western officials. They have also warned that Milosevic's re-
election could bring further sanctions.
        In his campaign speeches, Panic has contended that only Milosevic's
ouster could end the sanctions, which deepened the already serious
economic chaos ignited in Serbia by the disintegration of former
Yugoslavia, last year's Serb-Croat conflict in Croatia and the ongoing
Bosnian war.
        Panic spent the afternoon campaigning in the northern province of
Vojvodina.
        The most recent opinion poll showed Panic, a self-made California-
based multi-millionaire who has sworn to bring American-style democracy
and peace to the rump Yugoslav union of Serbia and Montenegro, six
points ahead of Milosevic.
        But, Panic's victory is still far from being certain. Milosevic has a
iron grip on the communist-packed election machinery, security apparatus
and media, all of which he has employed to stymie his rival's chances at
the polls.
        Two months ago, Milosevic-controlled Serbian police occupied the
federal police headquaters in an apparent show of force intended to
demonstrate the powerlessness of Panic's federal government.
        In late November, Panic's candidacy was rejected by the Serbian
Election Commision because of his alleged failure to fulfill a one-year
residency requirement. The commision's decision was over-ruled by the
Serbian Supreme Court less than two weeks before the election.
        Milosevic-controlled Serbian television has been waging an
unprecedented smear campaign against Panic, broadcasting endless ``news
reports,'' ``documentaries'' and ``commentaries'' depiciting Panic as a
``foreign agent'' and a ``traitor to his country.''
==================================================================
Subject: New Russian premier says reforms will continue

        MOSCOW (UPI) -- Russia's new Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin said
Tuesday he would not deviate from the course of reform, but made it
clear some priorities in government economic policy were set to change.
        ``I am for deepening reforms -- there is no way back,'' Chernomyrdin
said at his first news conference, one day after he was chosen by
President Boris Yeltsin to replace acting Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar,
the architect of Russia's market reforms.
        Chernomyrdin told reporters he was ``surprised'' by Yeltsin's
decision to appoint him prime minister. His name had been put forward by
six mainly communist factions in the Congress.
        The former Soviet energy minister said there would be no changes in
Russia's mass privatization program, allaying fears his appointment
could cut short plans to auction off thousands of state-owned factories,
and stressed that government budget plans for 1993 would not be touched.
        But he did say there would be some new policy initiatives, including
more state support for insolvent enterprises and more money for social
welfare.
        ``The main issue is to stop the decline in production,'' he said.
        Pro-Gaidar lawmakers say Chernomyrdin represents vested interests in
Russia's conservative defense and energy sectors and will slow down
reforms, opting instead to prop up the ailing state sector with bigger
subsidies and credits, expand the money supply and stoke up
hyperinflation.
        Chernomyrdin, 54, was appointed to Gaidar's reform cabinet as energy
minister last May but is not a supporter of Gaidar's liberal economic
policies -- tight money, high taxes, price liberalization and ruble
convertibility.
        He told reporters he opposed attempts to release fuel prices, one of
the main objectives of the Gaidar team. The Russian government freed the
prices of most goods last January but retained state control of prices
for oil and gas.
        Yegor Gaidar resigned immediately after Chernomyrdin's appointment,
and there was speculation his Cabinet allies would follow suit. However,
Chernomyrdin said he wanted the government to retain its current line-up
-- with perhaps a few changes.
        ``The government we have now must go on working,'' he said. ``Its
basic, professional, experienced and honest members will remain,
although there will be some personnel changes.''
        Chernomyrdin spent his first day in office meeting with German
Economics Minister Jurgen Moelleman and a delegation of German
businessmen. He assured them his new government would continue the
reform course.
        The accession to power of Chernomyrdin was welcomed by Parliament
speaker Ruslan Khasbulatov, famed as Yegor Gaidar's most outspoken
critic and a leading opponent of the Russian government liberal,
monetarist policies.
        In a searing attack on Gaidar's legacy, Khasbulatov said Chernomyrdin
needed to ``sort out the chaos'' left behind by the outgoing minister.
He said Russian leaders had to think about ``the millions of people who
are now literally destitute'' as a result of Gaidar's reforms.
        Khasbulatov slammed the government's tough tax policy, rejected its
price liberalization, and criticized its privatization program, which he
said was reminiscent of Stalin's enforced industrialization campaign.
        The Parliament chairman was last week entangled in a major political
crisis with Yeltsin over attempts by the conservative-dominated Congress
of People's Deputies, the Russian super-parliament which Khasbulatov
chairs, to roll back reform and take power away from the President.
        Khasbulatov praised Chernomyrdin and rejected claims he had come from
nowhere. ``He is no new horse, but a trusty steed,'' the speaker said.
He added his appointment would send positive signals to Russia's
demoralized industry.
        Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev also spoke approvingly of
Chernomyrdin. ``He worked in the same team as Gaidar, and with Yeltsin,
so there is an element of continuity,'' he said.
        He rejected claims the arrival of Chernomyrdin meant the return of
the old-style Communist command economy and the end of Russia's
experiment in market reforms. ``We cannot go back, and no one will go
back,'' he said.
==================================================================
Subject: Uzbekistan president in Cairo

        CAIRO, Egypt (UPI) -- The president of the Muslim nation of Uzbekistan
in Central Asia, Islam Karimov, arrived in Egypt Tuesday on a three-day
trip as the first leader of the former Soviet republic to visit the Arab
country.
        Karimov said before the trip he hoped to sign several economic and
trade agreements while in Egypt as part of his country's efforts to
expand new ties now that it is independent of the former Soviet Union.
        Uzbek Foreign Minister Abead Allah Kazzamov told reporters in Cairo
Sunday that Karimov and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will also
discuss the war in the largely Muslim former Yugoslav republic of
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
        Karimov will receive an honorary doctorate from Al Azhar University
Wednesday in a ceremony to be attended by Egyptian Prime Minister Atef
Sedki and Grand Sheikh Gad El Haq, head of Al Azhar.
        Al Azhar University is the repository of religious teaching for
thousands of preachers from all over the Sunni Muslim world. With Gulf
funding, the university began sending Egyptian preachers to the Muslim
Central Asian republics shortly after the demise of the Soviet Union a
year ago.
        There has been competition over the past year between Shiite Iran,
the predominantly Sunni Arab countries and the more westernized Turkey
for religious, cultural and other influence over the newly independent
republics of Central Asia.
==================================================================
Subject: German skinheads sentenced to prison for killing leftist punk

        BERLIN (UPI) -- An eastern German court Monday sentenced three right-
wing skinheads to between two and six years in prison for participating
in a brutal attack on leftist punks in which one person was killed.
        Thorsten Lamprecht, 23, who was described as a member of the punk
scene, was beaten to death and eight others were seriously injured in
the attack by 60 skinheads in May.
        The court was not able to determine which of the 60 rightists had
killed Lamprecht, smashing his skull with a baseball bat.
        Witnesses at the trial said one of the skinheads had attacked
Lamprecht as he lay injured and helpless on the ground.
        The court sentenced one of the skinheads to six years jail for
attempted murder. Two others received between two and three years in
prison. Two other skinheads who were on trial in the incident were
placed on probation.
        The Social Democratic Party said Monday that rightists had tried to
burn down its office in the eastern German city of Cottbus.
        Swastikas and the word ``Revenge'' were painted on the outside wall
of the building, which was blackened by the flames.
        The head of Germany's intelligence service, Eckart Wesrthebach, said
Monday there were about 6,400 militant, potentially violent rightists in
the country.
        He said that 70 percent of them were 20 or younger and most of them
were skinheads. The official said that the rightists were currently only
loosely organized, but that this appeared to be changing.
            _
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