Newsgroups: soc.culture.romanian
Subject: RFE/RL Daily Report 29 SEP, 1992 (long)
From: msirbu@next5.cs.umr.edu (Mihai Sirbu)
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 14:37:02 GMT
Organization: University of Missouri-Rolla, Missouri's Technological University

The RFE/RL Daily Report is a digest of latest developments
in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. It is published
Monday through Friday (except German holidays) by the
RFE/RL Research Institute (a division of Radio Free Europe/
Radio Liberty, Inc.). Copyright 1992 RFE/RL, Inc.


----------------------------------------------------------------
F.................................................................M............M
                       RFE/RL Daily Report

                                        No. 187, 29 September 1992

                   SUCCESSOR STATES TO THE USSR

RUSSIA SENDS REINFORCEMENTS TO TAJIKISTAN AS FIGHTING CONTINUES.
The head of Kurgan-Tyube's city council, Nurali Kurbanov, told a
press conference that hundreds of people, including the city's
chief law enforcement official, were killed on 27 September in an
attack on the city by Tajik forces loyal to deposed President
Rakhmon Nabiev, Interfax, as quoted by Western agencies, reported
on 28 September.  Kurbanov also claimed that Russian troops
stationed in Tajikistan were helping the pro-Nabiev forces from
Kulyab Oblast.  Tajik Radio was quoted as having said that acting
President Akbarsho Iskandarov had sent a protest to Russia over
the use of Russian tanks by Kulyab forces. The tanks were
supposedly stolen by Kulyab fighters from a Russian unit.
ITAR-TASS reported that additional Russian troops were being sent
to Tajikistan to help those already there defend themselves. (Bess
Brown, RFE/RL Inc.)

YELTSIN-SHEVARDNADZE MEETING ON ABKHAZIA.  Following Georgian
State Council Chairman Eduard Shevardnadze's protest on 27
September against the Russian parliament's statements on the
conflict in Abkhazia, Russian President Boris Yeltsin met with
Shevardnadze for talks at the latter's request on 28 September in
Moscow. According to Vyacheslav Kostikov, the Russian president's
press secretary, the two leaders discussed ways to implement the
Russo-Georgian agreement of 3 September on settling the Abkhazian
conflict. Yeltsin and Shevardnadze also agreed to hold regular
talks and scheduled a meeting for 13 October.  Shevardnadze said
he was satisfied with the talks. Speaking at a news conference
after the meeting, Shevardnadze said Yeltsin is determined to
follow through on democratic reforms in Russia, ITAR-TASS
reported.  (Suzanne Crow, RFE/RL Inc.)

FIRST NORTH CAUCASIAN VOLUNTEERS LEAVE ABKHAZIA.  The first group
of fighters sent to Abkhazia by the Confederation of Mountain
Peoples of the North Caucasus left Abkhazia for Groznyi on 28
September, ITAR-TASS reported. About one hundred were flown out in
a Russian plane.  The Abkhaz had stated earlier that their
departure had been suspended.  (Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL Inc.)

RUSSIAN PARLIAMENT DEBATES LAW REDUCING YELTSIN'S POWER.  The
draft law "On the Council of Ministers and the Government of
Russia" is currently being examined by the presidium of the
Russian parliament, Interfax reported on 28 September. The draft
law gives President Yeltsin the right to appoint the prime
minister and other leading cabinet members only with the approval
of the parliament.  If the parliament does not approve the
president's candidate, the president will have the right to
appoint an acting prime minister for three months. If the law is
adopted, Yeltsin will loose his present powers to appoint
ministers without the parliament's approval. The presidium of the
parliament also proposed two alternative dates, 15 December and 12
January, for convening the Seventh Congress of People's Deputies.
(Alexander Rahr, RFE/RL Inc.)

CIVIC UNION INCREASES PRESSURE ON THE GOVERNMENT.  The three
principal leaders of the Civic Union have increased their pressure
on the government.  Russian Vice President Aleksandr Rutskoi told
a youth gathering that some ministers should resign because "their
radicalism gives nothing to society," ITAR-TASS reported on 28
September. Arkadii Volsky, the president of the Russian Union of
Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, urged the government to make way
for a team of industrial managers who understood how to run the
country.  Nikolai Travkin, the leader of the Democratic Party,
said that it was necessary to remove from the government State
Secretary Gennadii Burbulis, Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev,
Deputy Prime Minister Anatolii Chubais, and Economic Minister
Andrei Nechaev. All three Civic Union leaders emphasized, however,
that Prime Minister Egor Gaidar should stay.  (Alexander Rahr,
RFE/RL Inc.)

VOLSKY PLAYS DOWN DIFFERENCES WITH GAIDAR. Despite his increasing
criticism of specific Gaidar economic policies, Arkadii Volsky,
president of the Russian Union of Industrialists and
Entrepreneurs, seems reluctant to be branded as an anti-reformer.
At a press conference in St.  Petersburg, Volsky said that his
group's recently released 13-point "anti-crisis" program is not an
"alternative to the present economic course" of the Gaidar
government, "Vesti" reported on 27 September. "We never set
ourselves the task of creating an alternative program .  .
[T]here can be no alternative to a transition to the market,"
Volsky emphasized.  (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL Inc.)

NECHAEV ON FALL IN INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION.  Russian Minister of the
Economy, Andrei Nechaev, told a conference of young business and
political leaders on 28 September that the nation's industrial
production is expected to fall by 20% this year, ITAR-TASS
reported. According to official statistics, last year's drop was
2.2%.  Nechaev also disclosed that state orders from the defense
industry this year were cut by 68%. In a subsequent interview with
an ITAR-TASS correspondent, Nechaev said that the government
intended to limit the decline in 1993 to 8%.  In a related story,
Nechaev announced that the government had reached a compromise
with the Central Bank on a limit of new credit creation to
increase enterprise liquidity, according to "Novosti" on 27
September.  There were few details. (Erik Whitlock, RFE/RL Inc.)

RUSSIAN DEFENSE BUDGET FOR 1993. Russian Economics Minister Andrei
Nechaev on 28 September provided details about the 1993 defense
budget. According to Interfax, defense expenditures will total
between 1.55 and 1.65 trillion rubles in July 1992 prices,
compared to 632 billion rubles in 1992.  (Comparing real outlays
is complicated by rapid inflation and the arbitrary pricing
structure of Russian arms.) Most of the increase is due to
personnel and housing construction costs.  Procurement spending
has been set at 170 billion rubles, a rejection of the Industry
Ministry's call to increase it by 60%. Weapons production levels
would reportedly remain at the same level as in 1992. (John
Lepingwell)

RUSSIA NEGOTIATING WITH DEBTORS. Russia is making some progress in
settling debts with less-developed countries. According to
Interfax on 28 September, Minister of Foreign Economic Relations,
Petr Aven, announced that India is soon to begin payments on its
$15 billion debt to Russia.  Negotiations are also progressing
with Tanzania and Poland. Last week Aven said that less-developed
nations, many of them former Soviet client states, owed Russia
some $142 billion.  Aven said he does not expect much of this to
be repaid. Cuba, for example, has officially informed Russia that
it will not pay back its $28 billion debt.  Others owing sums of
$10 billion or less, such as Iraq, Angola and Zaire, are in such
bad economic condition that repayment is similarly unlikely. (Erik
Whitlock)

GORBACHEV REFUSES TO TESTIFY AT THE CPSU HEARING.  Russian TV
newscasts on 28 September cited a press release made by the
Constitutional Court, which quotes a letter sent to the Court by
former Soviet Communist Party General Secretary, Mikhail
Gorbachev. Asked to testify in the current trial of the party,
which was banned by President Yeltsin after the failed coup of
August 1991, Gorbachev expressed in the letter his "profound
respect" for the court as an important democratic institution, but
added that he will not take part in the hearing, because the two
opposing sides, i.e., those supporting Yeltsin's ban of the party
and those defending the CPSU, are eager to exploit it for their
own political purposes. (On Friday, 25 September, "Novosti"
reported that one of the judges on the Constitutional Court had
declared Gorbachev's refusal to appear contempt of court.
According to the press release, other former Party leaders have
agreed to testify. (Julia Wishnevsky)

..AND PROBABLY WITH GOOD REASON. A 25 September article in the
emigre weekly Russkaya mysl', written by its Moscow correspondent,
quotes Yeltsin's supporters at the CPSU hearing as saying that no
matter what he might say, Gorbachev's testimony may enable his
democratic opponents to diminish the former General Secretary's
popularity in the West by putting him in the dock for the "party's
crimes." Meanwhile, writing in Gudok on 1 September, a
representative of the communist side, Anatolii Salutsky, predicted
that an "unlimited" opportunity for hardliners to question
Gorbachev and Aleksandr Yakovlev in court could bring about
"dramatic political consequences . . . on a world scale." (Julia
Wishnevsky)

CHINA WELCOMES RUSSIAN WITHDRAWAL FROM MONGOLIA.  A spokesman for
the Chinese Foreign Ministry on 28 September welcomed the
announcement that all Russian troops have been withdrawn from
Mongolia. ITAR-TASS said that the announcement of the final
withdrawal was made on the previous day. The last troops left in
September. Then Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev had
announced a partial Soviet troop withdrawal from Mongolia in
January 1989, and talks on a complete pullout began in February
1990.  At one time there were as many as 70,000 Soviet troops in
Mongolia. (Doug Clarke)

PLUTONIUM REACTOR SHUT DOWN.  On 29 September, ITAR-TASS reported
that the second plutonium production reactor near Krasnoyarsk has
been shut down, ending plutonium production for nuclear weapons in
Russia. The Krasnoyarsk site housed two reactors deep underground,
which for 30 years produced the weapons material that allowed the
rapid buildup of Soviet nuclear stockpiles. Specialists at the
site are proposing that it be used to build a prototype small
nuclear reactor that could provide power to remote locations in
Siberia and the north. (John Lepingwell, RFE/RL, Inc.)

INTELLIGENCE SPOKESWOMAN EXPLAINS PRIMAKOV'S PROPOSALS. The
moratorium on foreign espionage offered by the director of the
Russian foreign intelligence service, Evgennii Primakov,(see
RFE/RL Daily Report 28 September) can be realized only if there
are "collective guarantees" by the NATO countries, said the agency
spokeswoman, Tatyana Samolis, ITAR-TASS reported on 28 September.
Even if Great Britain, for example, agrees to cease intelligence
activities in Russia, it will still be able to obtain intelligence
information about Russia from its NATO allies. Therefore, Russia
must receive a collective guarantee from all NATO countries which
have "an integrated military and intelligence structure," she
added. In light of this statement, it is noteworthy that the
Primakov initiative may have the practical effect of dividing
Western military and intelligence services at the time when
European integration is experiencing a crisis over currency and
other issues.  (Victor Yasmann, RFE/RL Inc.)

FOKIN TO DETAIL ECONOMIC REFORMS. Ukrainian Prime Minister Vitold
Fokin is scheduled to address the Ukrainian parliament on 29
September, Interfax reported.  The parliament is expected to hear
details of the government's new economic program, developed by
First Deputy Prime Minister Valentyn Symonenko.  Both Fokin and
President Leonid Kravchuk are also expected to propose changes in
the composition of the government. (Roman Solchanyk, RFE/RL Inc.)

UKRAINIAN STUDENTS DEMAND CHANGES. The Third Congress of the
Ukrainian Students Union (USS) opened in Donetsk on 25 September,
Ukrainian TV reported. The USS is taking part in the campaign for
new parliamentary elections and supports radical economic reforms.
Together with the All-Ukrainian Association of Solidarity with
Toilers (VOST), the USS issued a statement calling for new
elections and the formation of a government worthy of the public's
trust. (Roman Solchanyk, RFE/RL Inc.)

STATE OF EMERGENCY REVOKED IN KABARDINO-BALKARIA. The state of
emergency proclaimed in Kabardino-Balkaria on 27 September was
revoked on 28 September, Radio Mayak reported, and Musa Shanibov,
the president of the Confederation of the Mountain Peoples of the
Caucasus, was released, an RFE/RL correspondent in Moscow was told
by a local official. The state of emergency had been proclaimed
after supporters of the Congress of the Kabardian People staged
violent protests in Nalchik to protest Shanibov's detention on 23
September for his role in the despatch of volunteers to Abkhazia.
Shanibov is to address an extraordinary congress of the
confederation in Groznyi on 2 October. The events in
Kabardino-Balkaria are reminiscent of last year's events in
Chechnya when the Russian authorities also found it necessary to
back down in the face of local resistance.  (Ann Sheehy, RFE/RL
Inc.)

RUSSIAN CEASEFIRE OBSERVERS ARRIVE IN BAKU. A first batch of
Russian observers who will monitor a ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh
arrived in Baku on 28 September, Azerinform-TASS reported.
Additional observers from Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine are
expected soon.  Meanwhile, both the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides
accused each other of violating the ceasefire. On 28 September
Armenpress-TASS quoted a report from Stepanakert stating that
Azerbaijani forces had fired on the road connecting
Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia, but traffic did not stop moving.
Interfax reported the same day that Azerbaijan's minister of
internal affairs had rejected the idea of inviting in CIS troops
for peacekeeping duties in the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute. (Bess
Brown, RFE/RL Inc.)

UZBEK OPPOSITION LEADER ON CRACKDOWN. Uzbek writer Muhammed Salih,
chairman of the tiny opposition Erk (Will) Party, was quoted by
Reuter on 28 September as warning that he will call for street
demonstrations if the Uzbek government crackdown on the opposition
does not stop. Uzbek President Islam Karimov fears that unrest
will spread from neighboring Tajikistan and has taken various
measures to silence and intimidate the opposition in Uzbekistan.
Erk, the only genuine opposition party to be registered, has had
its newspaper closed and its bank account confiscated, according
to Salih. (Bess Brown, RFE/RL Inc.)

                    CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE

PARTIAL RESULTS IN ROMANIAN ELECTIONS. Latest figures released by
the National Statistics Board on 29 September (as of 3:00 a.m.)
confirm forecasts from exit polls made by a German and a Romanian
survey institute two days before. The partial results, based on
complete counts from roughly 65% of all stations, show the
incumbent Ion Iliescu leading in the presidential race with 47.3%.
He is followed by Emil Constantinescu from the centrist Democratic
Convention (DC) with 31.2%; Gheorghe Funar from the nationalist
Party of Romanian National Unity (PRNU) with 11%; Caius Traian
Dragomir from the National Salvation Front (NSF) with 4.7%; Ion
Manzatu from the Republican Party with 3.1%; and Mircea Druc, an
independent, with 2.8%. Though a runoff between Iliescu and
Constantinescu on 11 October seems inevitable, the former's
reelection appears almost certain.  The results also show the
Democratic National Salvation Front (DNSF), the party backing
Iliescu, as leading the vote for the 143-seat Senate with 28.6%
and for the 328-seat Chamber of Deputies with 27.6%. It is
followed by the DC with 18.6% and 18.7%, respectively; the NSF
(10.2% for both); the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (9.1%
and 8.9%); the PRNU (8.2% and 7.8%); the Greater Romania Party
(3.7% and 3.8%); the Democratic Agrarian Party (3.3% and 3%); and
the Socialist Labor Party, the reborn communist party (3.2% and
3%).  Most analysts see a coalition government looming, and
believe that the DNSF might form a alliance with nationalist and
leftist parties.  (Dan Ionescu, RFE/RL Inc.)

NEW WAVE OF "ETHNIC CLEANSING" IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA?  The 29
September Washington Post quotes international relief officials as
saying that Serbian forces have begun a systematic drive to expel
the remaining 200,000 Muslims from northwestern Bosnia centering
on Banja Luka. The account describes "bombings, burning, torture,
and murder," with one relief worker saying: "there's more of this,
and worse than anyone can imagine." At least four Muslim villages
were destroyed by masked Serbs going "from house to house lobbing
grenades, shooting--killing dozens .  .  ." during the week that
peace envoys Cyrus Vance and Lord Owen visited the region.
Desperate Muslims are paying Serbs large sums of money to be
allowed to make the dangerous trip to the Bosnian-held enclave of
Travnik, their one chance of escape. Meanwhile, the 29 September
New York Times says that the Bosnian government has again appealed
to the UN Security Council to allow it to buy arms to prevent what
the Bosnians claim is the Serbs' "final assault" on Sarajevo.
(Patrick Moore, RFE/RL Inc.)

CROATIANS DEMAND TO RETURN HOME. Reuter on 28 September and the
Los Angeles Times the following day report that up to 10,000 male
Croats have threatened to march on their former homes in the
Baranja region bordering Hungary.  UN peacekeepers are trying to
pressure the Croatian authorities, who may be encouraging the
refugees, to stop what the UN fears could be a massacre if unarmed
civilians walk into areas that have been held by Serbian militias
since the summer of 1991. The Croats are impatient at the UN's
failure to disarm the Serbs and enable the refugees to go home,
and this has become a major issue in the Croatian media and in
politics. The UN has succeeded in opening some formerly Serb-held
areas in the Dalmatian hinterland, but the Croatian authorities
and press warned civilians not to go home until the area has been
cleared of mines.  Some 600,000 people have been displaced in
Croatia since local Serbs with the backing of the former Yugoslav
army began taking control of Croatian territory in early 1991.
(Patrick Moore, RFE/RL Inc.)

KOSOVO DEVELOPMENTS. According to Radio Serbia, 19 Kosovo
Albanians went on trial in Pec on 28 September. The defendants,
members of the National Front of Albanians, have been charged by
Serbian authorities with the intention to stage an armed rebellion
to sever the Serbian province of Kosovo from Serbia and set up an
independent state or annex it to Albania. The defendants are
accused of buying foreign-made arms and ammunition and smuggling
them into Kosovo. Other charges include unlawful entry into a
local textile plant and the manufacture of military uniforms
marked with Albanian military insignia.  Belgrade Radio reports
that one defendant has confessed that he discussed "the defense of
Kosovo" with Albanian officers during a visit to Albania. He also
admitted smuggling a significant amount of weapons from
Switzerland. Before the trial began, the court denied the defense
attorneys' request to turn the case over to an international
organization.  (Milan Andrejevich, RFE/RL Inc.)

TALKS ON THE DIVISION OF CZECHOSLOVAK ARMY.  The State Defense
Council, the body supervising Czechoslovakia's defense policies,
met in Prague on 28 September to discuss the division of the
Czechoslovak army.  Speaking to reporters after the meeting,
Federal Prime Minister and Defense Council Chairman Jan Strasky
said that the council asked the chairmen of the republican defense
councils to work out details of the army's split. Defense Minister
Imrich Andrejcak was asked to prepare draft agreements on
cooperation between the two new armies after the split.  Andrejcak
told CSTK that the federal command of the army will cease to exist
on the day of Czechoslovakia's split.  Slovak Prime Minister
Vladimir Meciar walked out of the council's meeting in protest
against what he saw as unacceptable demands by the Czech side that
each republic keep those installations and assets now situated on
its territory.  Speaking on Slovak television, Ivan Gasparovic,
chairman of the Slovak parliament, argued that Slovakia could lose
as much as 80 billion koruny if the territorial principle were
applied to the division of the army's assets. (Jiri Pehe, RFE/RL
Inc.)

BULGARIAN ECONOMIC NEWS. European Community Finance Ministers,
meeting in Brussels on 28 September, discussed awarding additional
funds to Bulgaria and Romania.  Last week talks between Bulgaria
and the EC moved Bulgaria closer to associate status and trade
terms have been agreed upon, according an RFE/RL correspondent.
Further talks will be held on 15 and 16 October. The Sofia
government hopes for an agreement by year's end while EC leaders
are more reserved, awaiting results of the forthcoming
discussions.  Also on 28 September Bulgaria, together with
Australia, Greece, and Luxembourg, signed an agreement to prohibit
money laundering by organized crime.  The pact, already signed by
20 other countries but ratified only by Great Britain so far, will
make police detection of illegal money flowing into subscribing
countries easier.  (Duncan Perry, RFE/RL Inc.)

PROCEEDINGS STARTED IN 1956 HUNGARIAN KILLINGS.  Hungarian TV
reported on 27 September that the Christian Democratic People's
Party (CDPP) has initiated proceedings against those who ordered
soldiers to fire into a crowd at Mosonmagyarovar during the 1956
Revolution.  Some 100 died and 200 were injured.  A 25-page brief
has been filed at the Gyor-Sopron County chief prosecutor's office
by two lawyers for the CDPP, against the former officials, who not
only have not been punished but currently receive substantial
state pensions.  The chief prosecutor turned the case over to the
military court in Gyor.  This is the first attempt by a political
party to press legal charges for a crime under the communist
regime but that has not yet been prosecuted. A law allowing
prosecution of such crimes was ruled unconstitutional by the
Constitutional Court earlier this year. The CDPP argues that 1956
offenses constitute war crimes and as such do not fall under the
statute of limitation.  (Judith Pataki, RFE/RL Inc.)

MEDIA WAR AT HUNGARIAN TV CONTINUES. According to Hungarian media
reports on 28 September, the president of Hungarian TV, Elemer
Hankiss, has fired Palfy G.  Istvan, the progovernment chief
editor of two influential news programs.  The decision is expected
to increase the tensions between the government and Hankiss, who
was dismissed earlier this year by Prime Minister Jozsef Antall.
President Arpad Goncz has repeatedly refused to sign Hankiss's
dismissal.  Hankiss claims that Palfy's programs were not
objective and failed to live up to "European standards." Only one
progovernment chief editor remains at the state-owned TV.  (Judith
Pataki, RFE/RL Inc.)

LITHUANIAN PRIME MINISTER IN WARSAW. Aleksandras Abisala met with
President Lech Walesa and Prime Minister Hanna Suchocka during a
one-day visit to Warsaw on 28 September. It was Abisala's first
foreign visit as prime minister.  Agreements were signed on
investment protection, the fight against organized crime, and
border controls.  Although both sides presented the visit as a
step forward, the tensions that have slowed work on a bilateral
treaty were also very much in evidence.  Polish officials pressed
for more equitable treatment of the Polish minority in Lithuania.
Abisala insisted that Lithuania's policy meets European standards.
For his part, he criticized the position of Poland's Lithuanian
minority and pressed for a reckoning with the past, especially the
Polish occupation of Vilnius in 1920. Lithuania's defense
minister, Audrius Butkevicius, begins a three-day visit to Poland
on 29 September.  (Louisa Vinton, RFE/RL Inc.)

LANDSBERGIS AT UNGA.  On 28 September Lithuanian Supreme Council
Chairman Vytautas Landsbergis addressed the UN General Assembly.
The speech, broadcast live by Radio Lithuania, focused on the need
for the Russian military to leave the Baltic States.  Landsbergis
noted that Russian conservatives were dividing foreign countries
into "inner" and "outer" spheres, with Russia marking out its
"special interests" in the former--states that could be taken over
much as was done in 1939. Landsbergis held talks with UN
Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali that day and on 29
September will meet former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
and British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd before returning to
Lithuania in the evening. He cancelled a planned trip to Chicago
on 30 September.  (Saulius Girnius, RFE/RL Inc.)

GROMOV ON TROOP PULLOUT FROM THE BALTICS. Russia's Deputy Defense
Minister Boris Gromov told Krasnaya zvezda of 25 September the
pullout of Russian troops by 1 September 1993 from Lithuania is
"by no means synonymous with a readiness to flee." He noted that
specific accords on the withdrawal remain to be ratified. (On 23
September Gromov told Interfax that Russian troops in Estonia and
Latvia are to be pulled out in 1994, though the final date must
still be negotiated.) He pointed out that Russia intends to keep
the presence of its Baltic Fleet in the region.  Gromov said that
there are still about 35,000 Russian officers and enlisted men in
Lithuania, over 15,000 in Latvia, and about 24,000 in Estonia.
These figures differ from those recently given by other Russian
officials.  (Dzintra Bungs, RFE/RL Inc.)

TROOPS CLASH OVER BUILDING IN KAUNAS. On 28 September, as a group
of unarmed Lithuanian soldiers began to take inventory of a
building in Kaunas that had been used by the Russian army, ten
armed Russian soldiers burst into the building, threw the
Lithuanian soldiers out, and barricaded themselves on the second
floor.  The Russians later left the building, Radio Lithuania
reports, but three unarmed officers remained on the second floor.
The first floor is controlled by Lithuanian troops. (Saulius
Girnius, RFE/RL Inc.)

RIGA AVIATION SCHOOL MAY LOSE ITS FOREIGN STUDENTS.  BNS reports
that as of 1 October the Riga Aviation University may lose nearly
500 of its foreign students because the Latvian government will
not take over the costs of their stipends--$2-3,000 per student
annually--from Moscow, which sent them for study in Latvia.  What
is more, Russia has not paid off its debt of 36 million rubles for
the education of its students over the last academic year nor made
any payments for the first semester of this year. (Dzintra Bungs,
RFE/RL Inc.)

IS RUSSIA PREPARING ESTONIA SANCTIONS? The Russian government
plans to adopt a political resolution regarding relations with
Estonia in the next few days, BNS reports on 28 September, quoting
Interfax.  The resolution may well direct the government to
introduce "political and economic sanctions" against Estonia for
its alleged discriminatory treatment of ethnic Russians,
especially with regard to Estonia's parliamentary elections last
week. (Riina Kionka, RFE/RL Inc.)

CONGRESS OF ESTONIA HOLDS FINAL SESSION. The Congress of Estonia
movement held its tenth and final session on 28 September, local
media report. The meeting adopted a resolution stating that
Estonia has restored the constitutional state structure according
to the will of the republic's citizens--this had been the goal of
the alternative parliament ever since it was established in March
1990. (Riina Kionka, RFE/RL Inc.)

POLAND'S COL. KUKLINSKI: HERO OR TRAITOR?  The Washington Post of
27 September carried a lengthy report on Col. Ryszard Kuklinski,
the highly-placed Polish officer who spied for the US for 11 years
and revealed the plans for martial law to the CIA before escaping
from Poland in 1981. According to sources quoted in the report,
Kuklinski, who now lives in the US under a false identity,
provided the CIA with 35,000 pages of documents that one
specialist said "virtually defined our knowledge" of Soviet
military plans and equipment.  The account has evoked discussion
in Poland because of Kuklinski's foiled attempts to have his 1984
death sentence for treason (later reduced to 25 years
imprisonment) overturned.  Defense Minister Janusz Onyszkiewicz
called the case a "moral dilemma" because of the implications
Kuklinski's exoneration could have for the Polish army. (Louisa
Vinton, RFE/RL Inc.)

[As of 1200 CET]
Compiled by Hal Kosiba & Charles Trumbull
The RFE/RL Daily Report is produced by the RFE/RL Research
Institute (a division of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Inc.)
with the assistance of the RFE/RL News and Current Affairs
Division (NCA). The report is available by electronic mail
via LISTSERV (RFERL-L@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU), on the
Sovset' computer bulletin board, by fax, and by postal mail.

For inquiries about specific news items, subscriptions, or
additional copies, please contact:

In USA:
Mr. Jon Lodeesen or Mr. Brian Reed
RFE/RL, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20036.
Telephone: (202) 457-6912 or -6900
fax: (202) 457-6992 or -202-828-8783;
Internet: RI-DC@RFERL.ORG
or in Europe:

Ms. Helga Hofer
Publications Department
RFE/RL Research Institute
Oettingenstrasse 67
8000 Munich 22
Telephone: (+49 89) 2102-2631 or -2642
fax: (+49 89) 2102-2648
Internet: Pubs@RFERL.ORG

Copyright 1992, RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.

Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish