From: trh@jack.sns.com (Al Trh)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.turkish
Subject: News Dec 12 (from Haluk)
Date: 12 Dec 1992 15:44:40 -0600
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
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Forwarded message:
>From cms1.ucs.leeds.ac.uk!TEX5HAD Sat Dec 12 08:43:42 1992
Via: uk.ac.leeds.ucs.cms1; Sat, 12 Dec 1992 15:35:10 +0000
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 92 15:34:10 GMT
From: Haluk DEMIRBAG <TEX5HAD@cms1.ucs.leeds.ac.uk>
Subject: News Dec 12 (fwd)
To: TRH@JACK.SNS.COM
Message-Id: <12 Dec 92 15:35:12 GMT #2592@UK.AC.LEEDS.CMS1>

- Coalition partners ask Turkey to allow forces to stay
- CIS defense chief raises doubts about alliance
- Panic draws thousands in former Milosevic stonghold
- New Tadzhikistan government sets up in capital

Subject: Coalition partners ask Turkey to allow forces to stay

        ANKARA, Turkey (UPI) -- The United States, Britain and France asked
Ankara Friday to allow coalition forces to remain on Turkish soil
another six months to continue sending humanitarian aid to Iraqi Kurds
and protect them from possible attack by Baghdad's troops.
        The request came at a meeting in Ankara between officials from the
three Western countries and Turkish representatives.
        The meeting took place days before the Grand National Assembly, or
Parliament, was due to debate a six-month extension of the mandate of
the coalition forces in Turkey, due to be expire Dec. 31.
        The government of Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel needs the approval
of Parliament to allow the coalition forces to stay.
        A joint statement issued after the meeting said the United States,
Britain and France sought ``the concurrence of Turkey for an extension
of Operation Provide Comfort,'' in which the coalition forces provide
humanitarian assistance to Iraqi Kurds.
        Ankara's Western allies said Turkey's ``continued participation in
this collective endeavor is essential for the preservation of calm in
the region.''
        Operation Provide Comfort is being run in parallel with another
operation code-named ``Poised Hammer,'' under which coalition warplanes
remain on standby in Turkey as a rapid reaction force to strike at Iraqi
troops in case they attack the Kurds again.
        Both operations were begun in 1991, after forces loyal to Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein launched brutal attacks on the Kurdish
civilians in northern Iraq, in the wake of an uprising led by rebel
Peshmergas, or Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas.
        The Iraqi military attacks led to a massive flight of Kurdish
refugees to the borders of Turkey and Iran.
        The Kurds only returned home after the Western allies, acting under a
U.N. Security Council resolution, set up a safe haven for them in
northern Iraq, and established a ``no-fly zone'' north of the 36th
parallel to keep Iraqi aircraft from attacking civilians.
        Turkey, a coalition partner in the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq,
allowed the Western forces to use its territory, but some opinion polls
have indicated recently that a sizeable number of Turks preferred that
the coalition troops now pull out.
        The three Western countries represented in Friday's meeting noted
that there was still a need for ``deterrence against renewed fighting''
in northern Iraq.
        The joint statement said that with this deterrence, and ``by
providing for the basic needs of the people, it remained possible to
avoid successfully a recurrence of the tragic events of Spring 1991.''
        The participants however ``reiterated their government's firm stand
for the preservation of the independence, unity and territorial
integrity of Iraq,'' and their opposition to acts ``that may lead to
the...dismemberment of that country,'' it said.
=========================================================================
Subject: CIS defense chief raises doubts about alliance

        MOSCOW (UPI) -- C.I.S. Defense Minister Yevgeny Shaposhnikov Friday
warned the Russian Congress that the future of the post-Soviet
Commonwealth of Independent States appears in doubt.
        But the congress, embroiled in its own political conflicts, took no
immediate action in response to his dark words about the alliance.
        ``The present situation in the C.I.S. does not augur well for the
future,'' he said. ``The present is amorphous and uncertain. If this
situation is allowed to remain for some time more, the C.I.S. will be
doomed.''
        Shaposhnikov urged the Congress to ``launch political initiatives and
make practical steps'' to strengthen the weak young economic, military
and political alliance.
        The conservative Soviet-era 1,041-member Congress of People's
Deputies heard the C.I.S. defense chief out, but did nothing to take his
advice to bolster the alliance. The congress is caught up in a bitter
conflict with Russian Presidfent Boris Yeltsin over the course of
economic reforms and the balance of powers in Russia.
        ``The main danger,'' Shaposhnikov said, ``is not only further
disintegration of the economy, culture and politics, including the
military, but ... the virus of nationalism.''
        Although the C.I.S. remains nominally an alliance of 11 former Soviet
republics, ``there are destabilizing factors at work in the
Commonwealth,'' he said, and some members peel away.
        ``Those states which are not ready for integration may leave the
Commonwealth,'' he said. ``But then we will deal with them on the basis
of world prices and standards. Others may prepare for the status of
associate members, still others, the status of observers.''
        Shaposhnikov named five republics, in addition to Russia, that ``are
ready to cooperate'' -- Armenia and four Central Asian republics,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tadzhikistan. But Tadzhikistan is
wracked by civil war and the C.I.S. has tried without much success to
muster a peacekeeping force for deployment there and in other hot spots.
        Two other republics, Belarus and Turkmenistan, will cooperate ``under
certain conditions,'' he said.
        Omitted from the group of cooperating nations were Ukraine,
Azerbaijan and Moldova. Four other former Soviet republics, Georgia and
the three Baltic states, never expressed any intertest in becoming C.I.
S. members.
        The three Slavic states, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, formed the C.I.
S. one year ago as the Soviet Union was disintegrating and eight other
republics joined two weeks later.
        But the initial need to hold onto some coherent economic, military
and political ties and stability have failed to hold the republics in a
solid group.
        A collective security treaty remains a paper agreement only, not even
ratified by Russia.
        Republics are forming separate armies, and there is tension in the
military and competing oaths of allegiance. The formerly integrated
military-industrial complex has been broken up and economies are in
shambles. Ethnic strife has created legions of refugees and threatened
to embroil ex-Soviet forces.
        Shaposhnikov, who also was Soviet defense minister and serves as
joint C.I.S. commander of strategic forces, has played a role in
safeguarding the former Soviet nuclear arsenal left in four republics.
        But he told the Russian Congress that the status of strategic nuclear
forces based outside of Russia was ``unclear'' and that ``causes great
anxiety among the peoples of the C.I.S. and among the world community.''
        For many in Congress and the Kremlin, the current troubles in the
country pose serious questions about the fate of Russia. But
Shaposhnikov sought to direct concern to the fate of this alliance, too.
        He said, ``The time has come for Russia to make its choice and a lot,
if not everything, depends on the position it takes.''
=========================================================================
Subject: Panic draws thousands in former Milosevic stonghold

        NIS, Yugoslavia (UPI) -- Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan Panic on Friday
visited the heart of Serbia as he stepped up his long-shot quest for the
republic presidency, drawing thousands of cheering supporters in what
was a bastion of Communist incumbent Slobodan Milosevic.
        ``You are choosing between two systems, not two men,'' declared the
Belgrade-born naturalized U.S. citizen and self-made millionaire at a
downtown rally in this dreary, economically depressed industrial city.
        ``We are deciding our fate, not just choosing individuals,'' Panic
told the estimated 15,000 people, the largest crowd he has drawn so far
in his hectic uphill campaign to unseat Milosevic in a Dec. 20 election.
        Panic decided only Thursday to travel to Nis, the Milosevic-
controlled government of which announced earlier this week that the 62-
year-old federal premier was not welcome and that it would not cooperate
if he decided to visit.
        That hostility was only a tiny example of the obstructions to Panic's
independent candidacy raised by the Milosevic regime, which was widely
seen as being behind attempts by the Serbian Election Commission to
disqualify the premier.
        Panic, projected in polls as Milosevic's strongest challenger, won a
Serbian Supreme Court ruling verifying his candidacy Wednesday.
        His visit to Nis, once a thriving industrial center now gripped by
record unemployment and massive plant closings, underscored a strategy
to exploit raging discontent among workers who had formed a bedrock of
Milosevic support.
        ``Even though I am working, we are living like impoverished dogs,''
growled a 42-year-old textile worker who earns only $40 per month amid 3
percent daily inflation.
        ``The whole government are thieves,'' he said. ``Panic is certainly
qualified. He doesn't need to steal our money. He has enough of his own.
''
        The flamboyant founder of California-based ICN pharmaceutical Inc.
and self-proclaimed apostle of U.S.-styled democracy rode in a stretch
limousine that belonged to the late Communist dicatator Josip Broz Tito,
arriving at the giant E.I. Nis electronic-manufacturing complex to the
cheers of employees.
        ``If I didn't see some hope in Panic, I wouldn't be here.'' said
Hranislav Stojkovic, 52. He is among only 2,200 of the complex's 23,000
workers who have not been fired or sent on forced leave.
        At the downtown rally, Panic hammered the economic theme, repeating
charges that Milosevic was to blame for Serbia's escalating woes because
his fanning of nationalism led to the collapse of former Yugoslavia,
last year's war in Croatia and the ongoing conflict in Bosnia-
Herzegovina.
        ``You have to choose the people who are going to defend your national
interest,'' he declared. ``And, our most important national interest is
peace. Enough blood has been shed.''
        His comments were a play on Milosevic's assertions that Panic has
betrayed ``Serbian national interests'' by advocating peace with Crotia,
recognition of that former Yugoslav republic and Bosnia-Herzegovina and
autonomy for Serbia's ethnic Alabanian-dominated southern province of
Kosovo.
        Panic denounced Milosevic for bringing Serbia international isolation
through the U.N. economic sanctions imposed May 30 because of Serbia's
political military and financial suppport for the Serbian territorial
conquests in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
        ``Our interests are to...adopt the politics of negotiations and not
artillery,'' Panic declared. ``Don't be afraid of change.''
=========================================================================
Subject: New Tadzhikistan government sets up in capital

        MOSCOW (UPI) -- Tadzhikistan's month-old government took up residence
in the capital Dushanbe for the first time Friday on the heels of pro-
Communist clan fighters who took control of the city from opposition
forces.
        As the capital changed hands for the third time in four months in the
chaotic civil war, international agencies meanwhile searched for ways to
help 600,000 people who have fled the fighting.
        The refugees, who comprise more than 10 percent of the population,
may face winter without shelter in the mountainous former Soviet
republic.
        Ex-Communists who lead the Central Asian country's fourth government
in a year of independence moved into government buildings Friday. The
offices were being guarded by tanks and armed militants who took the
town Thursday, pushing out forces supporting the Islamic-democratic
opposition.
        Witnesses reached by telephone from Moscow said the center of
Dushanbe was relatively calm Friday, but gunfire and explosions could be
heard from the outskirts and fighting was reported in other regions of
the small country.
        The new government was appointed in mid-November at a meeting of the
old Supreme Soviet, revived from the Soviet era. The parliament met in
the northern city of Khodzhand because opposition supporters controlled
the capital.
        One of the country's previous governments, led by the Islamic-
democratic coalition, resigned in November in a futile effort to reduce
the warfare by allowing the Supreme Soviet to meet. But supporters of
the Islamic-democratic coalition had maintained control of Dushanbe
until Thursday.
        Russian troops left in the country from the days when it was part of
the Soviet Union tried to function as peacekeepers. The troops guarded
the airport and important facilities, but did not overtly interfere in
the fighting for control of the city.
        Civil war has raged in Tadzhikistan since the Islamic-democratic
coalition ousted ex-Communist President Rakhmon Nabiyev in September.
The fighting pits one rough alliance of clans and regions supporting
former Communists against another alliance backing Islamic and
democratic parties and leaders.
        As clan fought clan and region fought region, an estimated 600,000
people were forced to flee their homes in the country of roughly 5
million people. About 110,000 refugees are reported in Dushanbe, but the
largest concentration seems to be along the southern border with
Afghanistan.
        Delegations from the International Committee of the Red Cross and the
International Organization for Migration were in Dushanbe Friday, and
the U.N. High Commission for Refugees sent aid workers to the Afghan
side of the border.
        A UNHCR spokeswoman, Sylvana Foa, said in Geneva Thursday as many as
5,000 refugees a day were braving the dangerous crossing of the icy Amu
Darya River on the border to avoid border guards and reach Afghanistan --
many barefoot and almost all without warm clothes.
        Foa said about 35,000 had reached Afghanistan. At least three times
that number and perhaps many more were crowded into makeshift camps on
the Tadzhik side of the frontier with poor shelter if they had any at
all.
        ICRC officials currently in Dushanbe were to travel to the border
area Saturday to investigate conditions and try to find ways to help.
        ``They are in difficult conditions,'' an international aid agency
official said by telephone from Dushanbe of the refugee situation.
        The official, who asked not to be identified, said the international
agencies were working with the new government to develop programs
providing shelter, food and medical care for the refugees.
            _
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