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From: Transitions Online <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: New at TOL
Date: 05 February 2001 22:11
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NEW AT TOL:
OUR TAKE: Tunnelers Beware
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=6&NrSection=16&NrArticle=566
The full text of this article appears below.
WEEK IN REVIEW: 29 January-4 February 2001
http://www.tol.cz/week.html
Anxiety Attack
Violence and rumors of possible arrests rock Yugoslavia.
by Dragan Stojkovic
http://www.tol.cz/week.html
Thank You, Mr. Butterfly
The savior of Slovak steel resigns in triumph.
by Barbora Maroszova
http://www.tol.cz/week.html
Stray and Not-So-Stray Bullets
Bulgarians alarmed after a shocking murder and an overall rise in crime.
by Konstantin Vulkov
http://www.tol.cz/week.html
The Tail of a Dragon
After a bone-dry summer and now in the midst of a harsh winter,
Mongolia faces agricultural disaster
by Nomin Lhagvasuren
http://www.tol.cz/week.html
Bear Power
The growing influence of Russia’s Gazprom in the Hungarian energy sector
is making Budapest nervous.
by Laszlo Szocs
http://www.tol.cz/week.html
More Week in Review:
http://www.tol.cz/week.html
Tug of War Heats Up Over Russia's NTV
Poland Plans Military Reorganization
Russian Foreign Minister Pays First Visit to Prague
Kyrgyzstan Tackles Toxic Waste
Kazakh Oppositionists Continue To Drop Out of Race
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YUGOSLAV SPECIAL REPORT: 100 Days To Skin A Cat
OVERVIEW: The Misery of Inheritance
by Svetlana Djurdjevic-Lukic
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=6&NrSection=1&NrArticle=563
A truncated piece of a broken, spotty mirror, a bare concrete floor, and
a 10-year-old girl saying: "This is my bathroom." The appeal from the
authorities to find homes for orphaned children vividly illustrates the
extent of the misery inherited by the new Yugoslav government. The
period of celebration is long gone. Cracks are starting to appear in
Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica's charisma. Now, more than 100
days after the revolution in Belgrade and the defeat of Slobodan
Milosevic, really only two things are crystal clear: There is no more
fear of the regime, and forming a healthy state and economy is going to
be a very long and arduous task.
PROFILE: Suspiciously Slick
by Tihomir Loza
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=6&NrSection=1&NrArticle=562
For a man who played the most important role in what is often seen as
one of the finest hours of his nation, Zoran Djindjic, Serbia's new
prime minister, is not a particularly popular politician in his native
country. A recent poll revealed that Djindjic, 48, didn't even make the
top 10. If anything, Djindjic has been notorious for being
unpopular--yet his ability to understand that and make it work for him
has made history.
ANALYSIS: Victim of His Own Virtue
by Ivan Milenkovic
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=6&NrSection=1&NrArticle=561
It must have been impossible even for Vojislav Kostunica--a
distinguished law professor currently performing the function of
president of an unusual, quasi state called the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia--to predict all the problems he would encounter after ousting
former President Slobodan Milosevic from power. Not only does he have to
acquaint himself with all the abysmal consequences of Milosevic's rule,
but on top of that, Kostunica the person is in a permanent state of
conflict with Kostunica the politician and statesman--perhaps the most
complicated predicament he must resolve.
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FEATURE: Fleeing Violence for Poverty
by Saidazim Gaziev
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=6&NrSection=2&NrArticle=560
It's been five years since Farakhnoz Abdul Kabir and her five children
fled Afghanistan and the wrath of the Taliban to settle in Uzbekistan.
Since then, they've been living precarious lives as refugees with no
special status. As they gathered around the table in their modest
Tashkent apartment during Ramadan celebrations, the sparse food was less
a concern than the possibility of being kicked out of their home in the
dead of winter. Refugees in Uzbekistan struggle to survive as foreigners
with few rights.
FEATURE: The Ice Kitchen
by Russell Working
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=6&NrSection=2&NrArticle=556
Sakhalin island is a remote former penal colony where the sea freezes
for up to six months a year and villagers have been known to sleep in
tents pitched in their bedrooms when the central heating goes out. In
recent years, power outages have periodically blacked out large parts of
the island, and motorists grouse about skyrocketing petrol prices at gas
stations. It is not a place one would expect to emerge as an energy
source for East Asia. But with offshore oil and natural gas reserves
thought to rival those of Europe's North Sea, an island still suffering
from the Russian Far East's perpetual energy crisis is poised to muscle
into the market as a major petroleum supplier for Japan, China, and
South Korea.
FEATURE: The Human Toll
by Jennifer Balfour
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=6&NrSection=2&NrArticle=555
Feature brought to you by EurasiaNet (www.eurasianet.org).
The recent discovery of a human organ smuggling ring in the southern
Uzbek city of Bukhara is focusing attention on the dangers of
widespread poverty, which is driving many to resort to desperate
measures in a search for economic security. Authorities have yet to
establish a final death toll, but at least 70 murders have been
attributed to the human organ smuggling ring. A Bukhara surgeon and her
husband, a professor at a local technological institute, stand accused
of the murders. The couple allegedly operated a phantom travel agency
that purported to arrange foreign work visas. Customers reportedly paid
$200 for the agency's services. However, an unknown number of those
seeking to emigrate ended up being killed and having their organs sold
for transplants.
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OUR TAKE: Tunnelers Beware
Czechs are rightly proud to claim original ownership of the word
"robot," which entered the English language via a story by Karel Capek.
Czechs are far less proud of another Czech word that, yes, existed in
the English language, but usually had other connotations before it
started to spring up in Prague and other cities across Central and
Eastern Europe: tunelovani or tunneling--meaning to siphon off a
company's best assets while allowing the (often state-owned) shell to
wither up and die.
Over the last 10 years, many a company in the Czech Republic and
Slovakia has ended up being "tunneled"--virtually no one had gone to
jail for these or similar illegal activities. And just as rarely, no one
had managed to come along and resurrect any of these high-profile
companies and bring them back from the dead.
On both counts, things seem to be finally changing. In the last two
months, over a dozen prominent Czech bankers and businessmen have been
either charged or convicted of bank fraud, insider trading, and other
corruption-related crimes--leading many Czechs to gleefully conclude
that finally the big shots are getting their comeuppance. Several of
those indicted had close political ties--which included financing some
of the country's largest parties--which may have shielded them in the
past, but no more. The government of Milos Zeman has predictably claimed
that the first wave of convictions represents the result of its own
efforts to crack down on white-collar crime--even though its "Clean
Hands" anti-corruption program failed miserably soon after its launch.
But it is unlikely than any kind of political order has brought these
tunnelers to justice. Rather, a natural progression has finally reached
its completion, as these complicated cases, many begun years ago, have
reached their day in court. Whether they were stalled for political
reasons, we will probably never know, but a greater brake on the system
has undoubtedly been the ignorance of the police, prosecutors, and
judges--who needed this much time to educate themselves and catch up to
the talented swindlers on the other side of the law. Finally, the
judicial system is able to see through the intricate wheeling and
dealing that took place in the 1990s and get convictions.
Now that heads are starting to roll, Czech judges must be careful to
base their verdicts on the merits of the case rather than on mere
suppositions, however likely those hunches may be. In a recent article
in the Czech weekly "Respekt," "A Bad Reputation Isn't Enough,"
journalist Tomas Nemecek pointed out holes in the cases of two of those
recently charged with tax invasion and insider trading--though they were
suspected of much worse, proof was lacking. Yet both ended up receiving
harsh sentences, Nemecek wrote, partly because Czech judges have yet to
learn how to suitably give sentences that fit the crime. He also blasted
the incredible delays still prevalent in the legal system: One of the
crimes dated back to 1993.
With such a logjam of cases, by the time most of those indicted will end
up in jail, the companies they destroyed will have been long dead and
buried--with their shareholders facing little or no chance of
recovering any of their investment. That's why it is even more
invigorating these days to see the rebirth of a company that had been
illegally run into the ground: the Eastern Slovak Steelworks (VSZ).
On 24 January, CEO Gabriel Eichler and his management team announced
that they would be leaving VSZ, after spending the last two years
rebuilding the Kosice-based company. Under former Prime Minister
Vladimir Meciar and his Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS), VSZ
had been privatized into the hands of HZDS cronies who managed to turn
one of the country's economic powerhouses into a carcass almost a half
billion dollars in debt. Not only did VSZ directors allegedly use
company funds to finance HZDS political activities, but they lived like
new era robber barons, buying up a Czech football club for fun and
sunning in villas they purchased on the Spanish coast.
Eichler succeeded in fighting off creditors, as well as shareholder who
opposed to his reforms because they shut the faucet of siphoned money
flowing out of VSZ. He leaves a healthy, well-managed miracle. "If I had
known two years ago what was in store for me, I would never have come,"
he said in his resignation speech. As the Slovak daily "SME" wrote on 26
January: "Lucky for VSZ and lucky for Slovakia that in December 1998 he
didn't know."
The newspaper might have added: Lucky for all of Eastern Europe that a
high-profile example of resurrection exists that, along with the
prosecutions in the Czech Republic, might indicate that the tide is
turning against the tunnelers.
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