Dear Colleagues,
I have been forwarding the TOL Newsletter from time
to time - may I suggest you might like to join yourselves
and receive your own copy?
Go to the website at the foot of this message to join up.
All the best,
Andrew Jameson
Lancaster, England.
----- Original Message -----
From: Transitions Online <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2001 6:21 PM
Subject: New at TOL - 30 July 2001
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Transitions Online - Intelligent Eastern Europe
New at TOL: Monday, 30 July 2001
--------------------------------------------------------------------
--- WEEK IN REVIEW ---
Romania: Selling the Beast
The Romanian government demonstrates its change of heart on foreign
investment by selling off the country's largest state-owned company.
by Zsolt Mato
http://www.tol.cz/week.html
Belarus: Bashing the Bison
In pre-election Belarus, the authorities are clamping down on the young
opposition movement, Zubr.
by Alex Znatkevich
http://www.tol.cz/week.html
Bulgaria: A Fresh Start?
Bulgaria gets a new government headed by its former king, Simeon II.
by Polia Alexandrova
http://www.tol.cz/week.html
Poland: The Water is Wide
Flood damage continues across Poland, causing economic and personal
hardship.
by Wojtek Kosc
http://www.tol.cz/week.html
Macedonia: A Compromise Required
Negotiations between representatives of Macedonia's two main ethnic
groups resume after a decisive intervention from NATO and EU envoys.
by TOL
http://www.tol.cz/week.html
MORE WEEK IN REVIEW
http://www.tol.cz/week.html
Boost to Tech Sector in Latvia
Disgruntled Slovene and Croat Border Residents Decry Deal
Writer Wins Free Speech Case Against Slovakia
Changes at the Top in Crimea
Second Victim Dies of AIDS in Mongolia
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
- - - TOL MESSAGE - - -
***ADDING MORE ORIGINAL DAILY CONTENT FROM THE REGION***
TOL Wire - Daily News. Local Angle.
TOL has launched a daily news service bringing together breaking news
and in-depth analysis from selected independent newsrooms
--(http://wire.tol.cz)
==> unique material: expanded and alternative coverage of the region -
material translated from local languages, cross-regional perspective.
==> greater regional and international exposure to local media outlets
whose material is often inaccessible to foreign readers.
Keep an eye on the site that will be constantly expanding and bring
readers a broader selection of local media content partners!
Want to become a partner? Interested to know more about the project?
Contact Virginie Jouan, TOL Wire Editor, at: [log in to unmask]
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
--- OUR TAKE: A Recipe to Head Off Disaster ---
The United States should commit troops to Macedonia.
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=2
2&NrSection=16&NrArticle=1762&ST1=body&ST_T1=wir&ST_max=1
- - - TOL MESSAGE - - -
Be sure to visit our new mediakit. We reach thousands of people with
this newsletter every week. Your future business partners, customers and
readers are probably among them. No one reaches the region like TOL -
visit our mediakit for more information:
http://archive.tol.cz/mediakit/index.html, or e-mail us at
[log in to unmask]
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
--- IN FOCUS: More on EU Accession ... ---
A Bitter Pill
Eastern Europeans are crying foul at the EU's acceptance of restrictions
on the free movement of labor.
by Yordanka Nedyalkova and Victor Gomez
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=2
2&NrSection=2&NrArticle=1713
Getting In
Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar talks to TOL about the European Union,
transition periods, euro-skepticism, and NATO membership.
by Victor Gomez
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=2
2&NrSection=2&NrArticle=1654
Laborious Questions
Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek exchanges views with the EU's
commissioner for enlargement, Gunter Verheugen, over transition periods.
Excerpted from an EU enlargement panel discussion.
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=2
2&NrSection=7&NrArticle=1653
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
--- OPINIONS AND COLUMNS ---
Media Notes: Just Another Murdered Journalist
After the death of the Ukrainian journalist Gongadze last year, freedom
of speech continues to be seriously violated.
by Oleg Varfolomeyev
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=2
2&NrSection=17&NrArticle=1691
The Deep End: Not Getting Enough at Home
Quirky news from around the region.
by TOL staff
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=2
2&NrSection=17&NrArticle=1694
Russia Rising
Is Moscow a good partner or a loose canon?
by Elena Chinyaeva
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=2
2&NrSection=3&NrArticle=1707
Running in Place
Tbilisi State University is proud of its traditions, but the students
are demanding an outlook toward the future, not the past.
by Jaba Devdariani
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=2
2&NrSection=3&NrArticle=1695
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
--- FEATURES ---
Back to School
School is still proving elusive for many of Bulgaria's Roma. But recent
desegregation programs are starting to make a difference.
by Polia Alexandrova
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=2
2&NrSection=2&NrArticle=1709
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
From the newly launched Balkan Reconstruction Report
(http://balkanreport.tol.cz):
A Shy Reformer
Talking to TOL, Bulgarian Finance Minister Milen Velchev says the new
government is persuading young professionals working abroad to come back
to Bulgaria.
by Polia Alexandrova
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=2
2&NrSection=2&NrArticle=1728
Cookie-Cutter Formulas Challenged
Corruption and poor macroeconomic performance are the lowest common
denominators of Balkan economies. But each also has its own spectacular
failures, from inherited debt to natural-resource endowment.
Book review by Julia Gray
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=2
2&NrSection=5&NrArticle=1689
Maturity Test
In Albania's recent elections local institutions performed their
constitutional and legal duties with a previously unseen degree of
professionalism.
Opinion by Eno Ngjela
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=2
2&NrSection=3&NrArticle=1683
Tower of Babble
The talks continue among various experts in Macedonia, while
increasingly serious cease-fire breaches are reported in the Tetovo
region.
by Vlado Jovanovski
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=2
2&NrSection=3&NrArticle=1652
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
IN FOCUS: Water, Water Nowhere
Two reports on environmental dangers facing Central Asia, from TOL
partner Eurasianet (http://www.eurasianet.org):
Just Deserts
In Uzbekistan, global warming is already causing rapid desertification
and growing environmental problems.
by Alanna Shaikh
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=2
2&NrSection=2&NrArticle=1721
In Short Supply
A severe water shortage has hit Tajikistan, and there is no end in
sight.
by Konstantin Parshin
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=2
2&NrSection=2&NrArticle=1722
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
- - - TOL PARTNERS - - -
- The Network of Independent Journalists of Central and Eastern Europe
(NIJ), a weekly service run by the Croatian-based STINA press agency. To
subscribe to STINA's NIJ weekly service, giving you timely news of
events in the region, send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask]
- [http://www.eurasianet.org ] EurasiaNet is a website that provides
news and
analysis on political, economic, environmental and social developments
in the countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus, as well as in
Afghanistan, Iran, Mongolia, and Turkey. The web site also offers a
variety of other features including: hundreds of links; an extensive
research database; book reviews; newsmaker interviews and a discussion
forum.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
OUR TAKE: A Recipe to Head Off Disaster
The United States should commit troops to Macedonia.
The conflicts that accompanied the breakdown of the former Yugoslavia
were often anticipated well in advance-with some of them even described
with a certain accuracy. While war raged in Croatia in 1991, popular
wisdom among journalists and politicians was that it was only a
precursor for what would soon take place in Bosnia. As for Kosovo, it
was repeated throughout the 1990s that the shadow of Serbian leader
Slobodan Milosevic--who came into the limelight over the Kosovo crisis
in 1987--would eventually fall over the troubled province.
There were two schools of thought on Macedonia. One maintained that the
country would be spared because the Milosevic regime--the main source of
instability in the region--didn't have an obvious interest or excuse to
move against Macedonia and was anyway far too busy elsewhere. The other
saw a future violent conflict in the fragile republic as inevitable: The
ultimate Balkan nightmare scenario would unfold since literally all of
its neighbors have aspired--or were assumed to have had aspired--to one
or another part of its territory. In recognition of such a risk, the
first ever UN preventative mission, the UN Preventative Deployment
Force, was dispatched to Macedonia in late 1992.
Neither theory has been accurate. The armed conflict that broke out in
February demonstrated that Serbian nationalism was not a necessary
ingredient of a post-Yugoslav conflict. As for the rest of Macedonia's
neighbors, they have all either exercised restraint or have sought to
play constructive roles. The situation in the Macedonian "neighborhood"
has radically changed since 1992. There is a democratic government in
Belgrade. In Sofia, a determination shared by all main parties not to do
anything that may put at risk Bulgaria's prospects of joining NATO and
the EU takes precedence over any smoldering Bulgarian territorial
ambitions that might still exist. The Greek establishment has realized
that its initial objections to Macedonia's right to exist simply made no
sense and that there are, in fact, good trade opportunities north of the
border. A combination of weakness and a desire to gain international
respectability induces soberness into Tirana's thinking. The irony is
that the only place in the neighborhood that exports trouble into
Macedonia is Kosovo, a territory controlled by NATO.
What the international community has on its hands in Macedonia is
low-intensity guerrilla/anti-insurgent warfare that doesn't threaten to
spill over too much. What it does threaten, if it is not brought to an
end this summer, is to destroy the last remnants of the social fabric
that linked the ethnic Macedonian majority and the ethnic Albanian
minority.
There are two long-term approaches that the international community--and
the West in particular--could take. It could essentially give up on
Macedonia as a multiethnic state and start from a recognition that the
pan-Albanian drive--fueled mainly from Kosovo to eventually incorporate
all Albanian-majority territories into one state--is unstoppable. The
approach would involve redrawing the international borders between
Macedonia, Serbia, and Albania to appease pan-Albanian nationalism. The
policy would appeal to many in
Pristina, Skopje, Belgrade, and Tirana. But the big question is whether
there could ever be a map that majorities in all three countries would
accept wholeheartedly. In addition, a remake of the borders in the
southern Balkans would reinvigorate the Serbian and Croatian aspirations
in Bosnia.
The other approach is the one that the West is pursuing right now.
Sophisticated power-sharing arrangements are proposed by the U.S.
mediator James Pardew and his EU counterpart, former French Defense
Minister Francois Leotard. The proposals provide for greater Albanian
participation in key segments of the state institutional structure, such
as the police and education, while the Albanian language is to be given
more of an official status than at present. Officially, that is all the
two main ethnic Albanian parties and the National Liberation Army (UCK)
ask for. That is also what many on the ethnic Macedonian side might be
ready to agree to if it is sufficiently camouflaged.
The ethnic Macedonians, however, don't believe the UCK rebellion was
about making sure Macedonia gets a constitution that guarantees its
multi-ethnic character. The UCK brutality and especially last week's
actions to expel ethnic Macedonians from the Tetovo region give credence
to such fears. In other words, there is no reason to believe that an
agreement--even if signed by all main players--would be fully respected
by any of them.
At present, the West plans to send a British-led, 3,000-strong NATO
force to supervise UCK arms decommissioning, if and when the political
agreement is achieved. The force is to leave the country once that task
is accomplished. Furthermore, the United States hasn't yet pledged any
combat troops to the force. That is plainly wrong.
The only way to make a success of the pursued approach of remaking
Macedonia as a multi-ethnic country in its present borders is to back
good constitutional arrangements with a long term, NATO-led armed
presence with significant U.S. participation. The importance of such
presence would be primarily political, while the military tasks would be
less difficult than they seem.
The United States bears a good measure of responsibility for the fact
that ethnic Albanian extremism hasn't yet been addressed and properly
condemned internationally. However, U.S. credibility among ethnic
Albanians is such that Washington could, if it wished, easily solve
things that others couldn't. Although anti-Western sentiments are strong
among ethnic Macedonians, Skopje's desire to eventually join Western
structures makes the West, including the United States, the most
influential force among them too.
Militarily, NATO has nothing to fear. The UCK is a small, easily
manageable force that will have no choice but to disband if NATO arrives
in the context of a political agreement between the main ethnic
Macedonian and ethnic Albanian parties.
A long-term NATO presence in Macedonia is what Pardew and Leotard should
immediately recommend to both Washington and Brussels. If NATO misses
the chance now, it may later have to come in on fighting terms.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To UNSUBSCRIBE from the TOL Weekly Newsletter, please go to
http://subscribers.tol.cz/newman/unsubscribel.php?idsubs=3177
To SWITCH TO HTML formatted newsletters, please go to
http://subscribers.tol.cz/newman/preferences.php?idsubs=3177&htmlmail=Y
|
