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Subject: IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, NO. 38
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2000 17:45:55 +0100
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WELCOME TO IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, NO. 38, June 30, 2000

A CONFLICT OF INTERESTS  Experts agree that talk of a "stability pact" in
the South Caucasus is premature while regional conflicts remain unresolved.
Ara Tadevosian reports from Yerevan

NEW HOPE FOR AZERBAIJAN'S POLITICAL PRISONERS  Human rights campaigners
claim the Azerbaijani government is holding far more political prisoners
than it is prepared to admit. Eldar Zeynalov reports from Baku

COLD COMFORT FOR GEORGIA'S STREET CHILDREN  Conditions in Georgia's state
orphanages are so harsh that many youngsters prefer to take their chances on
the streets. Sozar Subeliani reports from Tbilisi

MILITARY CABAL TAKES REINS OF POWER  Once again, the North Caucasus
republics are falling under the sway of Russia's generals. Yuri Akbashev
comments from Kabardino-Balkaria

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A CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

Experts agree that talk of a "stability pact" in the South Caucasus is
premature while regional conflicts remain unresolved.

By Ara Tadevosian in Yerevan

Armenian president Robert Kocharian is spearheading an ambitious plan to
boost security in the South Caucasus by forging a "stability pact" between
the former Soviet republics and their political allies.

But choosing suitable partners could prove problematic in a region where
America, Europe, Iran, Turkey and Russia all have conflicting interests. And
some critics argue that the idea is impractical while the Nagorno-Karabakh
peace talks remain in deadlock.

The idea of establishing a regional security system was first mooted by
Kocharian and his Azerbaijani counterpart, Heidar Aliev, at the OSCE summit
in Istanbul. Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze also voiced his general
support for the initiative.

Kocharian later presented his ideas at a speech to the Georgian parliament.
"It is evident," he said, "that nine years after our nations won their
independence, we need to look closely at the political realities of a region
which enjoys the undivided attention of the international community."

The Armenian president went on to say, "Resolving our historical antagonisms
is one of the most serious challenges which faces us. This kind of system
should not exclude the possibility of allying with a power which has direct
influence on the region."

Kocharian is proposing a pact which brings together Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Georgia, Turkey, Iran, the European Union and the United States. However,
his formula has been greeted with scepticism by most political analysts,
both at home and abroad.

Ashot Manucharian, national security advisor to Armenia's former president
Levon Ter-Petrosian, told the Golos Armenii newspaper that Russia was the
most obvious partner for such a pact. He described any "revolutionary
formula" involving the EU and America as "unacceptable - particularly in
view of the interests of our allies, Russia and Iran."

Wayne Murray, director of the European Communities Programme, commented that
any security pact in the Caucasus region which does not include Russia
"would inevitably fail". 

Murray, who served on US defence minister William Perry's staff in 1994,
also pointed out, "The regional system suggests shared interests over
questions of security. As long as Armenia and Azerbaijan are technically
still at war, they cannot have these kind of shared interests."

Meanwhile, Iran has shown little enthusiasm for any pact which includes the
United States. Morteza Sarmadi, deputy minister of international affairs in
Tehran, said, "The three states in the region should first form a security
alliance with one another and only then should other nations be invited to
join."

The Kremlin, too, is suspicious of divided loyalties and opposes any formula
which gives Russia a back-seat role. Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov, head of
the international military co-operation department within the Russian
defence ministry, said, "Of course, we are against any separate deals being
struck with other parties. The interests of Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Russia, Georgia and Turkey are all at stake. America is perhaps the least
interested party."

However, Ara Papaian, spokesman for the Armenian foreign ministry, predicted
that Russia would eventually accept a secondary role and "all countries
interested in the region should somehow be introduced into this process".

Talk of Azerbaijan and Georgia making overtures to NATO has also complicated
the issue. Papaian described these ambitions as "only a wish" and commented,
"It will be a long time before either country can meet NATO standards.
During that time, neither Georgia nor Azerbaijan can exist in a security
vacuum."

Edvard Dzheredzhian, director of the James Baker Institute, said military
and political competition between the South Caucasian states could lead to
"a serious destabilisation of the region". Wayne Murray supported this view:
"The idea of Georgia and Azerbaijan joining NATO is absurd. Both
Shevardnadze and Aliev know perfectly well that NATO membership is an
impossibility. They talk about NATO for purely political reasons - to goad
Moscow and Tehran."

Ted Carpenter, vice-president of the Kato Institute of Defence and Foreign
Policy, pointed out that any attempts to create a security pact in the South
Caucasus would be frustrated if any of the three nations joined NATO.
"Fortunately, a powerful opposition against NATO expansion has formed in the
Caucasus," he added.

Meanwhile, the Centre for European Policy Studies has devised a formula of
its own. The Brussels think-tank is proposing a "Caucasus G8" comprising the
EU, Russia, America, Iran, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. However,
the details of the pact bear little relationship to the structure envisaged
by Robert Kocharian.

The experts agree that any talk of a stability pact is premature while
regional conflicts - especially the Nagorno-Karabakh impasse -- remain
unresolved. Benita Ferrero-Valdner, acting chairman of the OSCE, said she
found Kocharian's proposal interesting but added, "The time for realising
these ideas has not yet come. I discussed this question with President
Shevardnadze during my recent visit to Georgia. We agreed the political
resolution of the Karabakh conflict is one of the most important
prerequisites for strengthening regional co-operation."
	
Ferrero-Valdner concluded that, when the right time came, the OSCE might
well be able to play a pivotal role in forging a stability pact "using all
the experience at its disposal".

By Ara Tadevosian is director of Mediamax, an independent Armenian news
agency


NEW HOPE FOR AZERBAIJAN'S POLITICAL PRISONERS

Human rights campaigners claim the Azerbaijani government is holding far
more political prisoners than it is prepared to admit

By Eldar Zeynalov in Baku

The Council of Europe is calling on the Azerbaijani authorities to release
more than 50 political prisoners who have been languishing in jail cells
since the early 1990s.

The continued existence of political prisoners is one of several issues
which scuppered Azerbaijan's bid to join the Council of Europe last month.
The application will be reconsidered after the parliamentary elections later
this year and success depends largely on the nation's willingness to extract
the skeletons from its closet.

Officially, the Baku government has admitted to holding a total of 55
political prisoners in jail but campaigners believe there may be hundreds
more, arrested in the wake of nine attempted coups staged between 1992 and
1995.

They say many are serving sentences for trumped-up criminal charges  - such
as the owner of a restaurant where one group of conspirators met and the
manager of a hotel patronised by insurgents.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, PACE, has demanded that
the former Soviet republic address the issue of political prisoners at the
earliest opportunity.

At a May meeting, delegate Jacques Baumel urged the PACE political affairs
committee to "review the cases of certain prisoners who are defined by human
rights organisations as 'political' and consider the possibility of their
release."

It was only after the question was raised that the Azerbaijani delegation to
the Council of Europe admitted to the existence of 55 "politicals" - a
similar figure to the total cited by a US State Department report earlier
this year.

But human rights campaigner Saida Godzhamanly says this figure relates only
to the number of radical opposition politicians who united to form the
Democratic Congress. Godzhamanly estimates that more than 900 people were
jailed in connection with the coups.

The National Foundation for Democracy, NFD, in Azerbaijan, which is close to
the opposition, has published an additional list of 51 prisoners who are
members of the People's Front party. However, NFD sources say this doesn't
include the repressed relatives of political prisoners or non-party
opposition figures.

Other campaigners have raised the question of prisoners who were arrested
for complicity in the coups - including the head of the justice ministry who
was jailed for registering a humanitarian organisation which later developed
extremist tendencies. Their names did not appear on the official list.

According to rules defined by Amnesty International, any political prisoner
is entitled to full legal rights and a fair trial whilst personal motivation
should be a vital consideration in any court proceedings.

But the Baku authorities have resorted to legal subtleties in a bid to muddy
the issue. The justice ministry argues that there is no section in the
Criminal Code dealing with political prisoners, therefore the status does
not legally exist. The convicts in question are merely political figures who
have fallen foul of the law.

However, the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has been
holding talks with the Azerbaijani government since November 1994, says that
any prisoner "jailed over considerations of state security" can be termed
"political".  In 1998, the ICRC introduced a new category entitled
"participants in attempts to overthrow the government".

The authorities in Baku are only too aware that the issue remains a major
sticking point in the Council of Europe bid. President Heidar Aliev has
pardoned 29 "politicals" in the last two years, although officials have been
careful to bury their names in the general lists of amnestied prisoners.

In the wake of the PACE hearings, President Aliev ordered the release of two
alleged putschists, Kyanan Gurel and Gadzhimurad Sadaddinov. Gurel had been
jailed for "conspiring to betray the Motherland" while Sadaddinov was found
guilty of being the driver of an "enemy of the people".

The presidential decree which amnestied both prisoners was careful to
ascribe their release to "a difficult family situation and health concerns"
with no mention of the prisoners' political status.

Eldar Zeynalov is director of the Human Rights Centre in Baku


COLD COMFORT FOR GEORGIA'S STREET CHILDREN

Conditions in Georgia's state orphanages are so harsh that many youngsters
prefer to take their chances on the streets

By Sozar Subeliani in Tbilisi

"Have you see them burying dead children in cardboard boxes?" asks an
orderly at the Kaspi children's home. "That is a terrible sight. Some people
take heart pills so they don't faint."

Just 40 miles from Tbilisi, the state-run orphanage is a breeding ground for
disease and misery. Conditions are medieval - the dormitories are freezing
cold and infested with insects while the children survive on bread and
water.

"In all the years I worked in Third World countries, I never saw anything as
appalling as the Kaspi children's home," said Lawrence Carry, a
representative of the US embassy in Tbilisi. "Even during the barbaric civil
war in Vietnam, children stood a better chance of survival."

The state allocates each child in Kaspi $1.50 a day but only 20 cents of
this money actually reaches the orphans. The rest is stolen or embezzled.
More than 100 of the children are desperately ill - and last year seven
cases of dystrophy were reported. But the sick can expect little in the way
of medicine - a slight improvement in their diet is the only treatment the
doctors can prescribe.

Kaspi is typical of state-run children's homes across the former Soviet
republic. Mzia Gelashvili, of the Frank humanitarian aid organisation,
estimates that less than half of Georgia's 16,000 homeless children live in
similar institutions, the rest simply roam the streets. It is hard to say
who is better off.

The orphanages, at least, offer the hope of adoption - the silver-spun dream
of any inmate. However, would-be parents are at the mercy of corrupt
administrators who can charge up to $3,000 for a healthy child. And
foreigners have been banned from adopting Georgian orphans since 1997 when
the government outlawed the practice of "selling our children abroad".

There are alternatives to the state system. In recent years, a number of
private organisations have sprung up, offering an alternative to this
Dickensian existence. The best known is probably the Dzegvi Children's Home
near Tbilisi.

The home was opened in the spring of 1995 when nuns from the Peristsvaleba
nunnery came across Shalva Japaridze lying asleep in the street. Shalva was
holding a sign which read, "Help me, I have a granny and a little sister and
I am hungry." The nuns took him in and fed him. On the next day, his brother
Mamuka appeared at the gates, begging for food. The nuns took care of him
too. Soon street urchins from across Tbilisi were flocking to Peristsvaleba
until the monastery could no longer accommodate them all.

"We had no experience whatsoever," remembers Gia Razmadze, the director of
Dzegvi. "We just knew that we couldn't let them go back to the streets. We
used to spend hours with them. Gradually, they started to trust us."

In the autumn of 1995, the children were moved to an abandoned nursing home
in Dzegvi, around 15 miles from the capital. Today Razmadze and his staff
work to provide basic food, comfort and schooling for 150 charges -- but
funds are irregular and the Dzegvi home exists from day to day.

"We aren't afraid for the future," says Razmadze, "because we have love and
compassion - and these qualities will help to raise the children."

Most importantly, Dzegvi manages to dissuade most of its charges from
returning to their former way of life. Appalling conditions in state
orphanages, on the other hand, simply drive many homeless children back to
the streets.

Here they join street gangs which haunt the markets and car parks. Many of
the gangsters have become totally alienated from society and live according
to their own moral code.

Some of the children turn to drugs and glue in an effort to escape the harsh
realities of their existence. Others resort to prostitution and, in
Tbilisi's red-light area near Queen Tamara's Bridge, the more established
prostitutes are facing serious competition from 12- to 16-year-olds of both
sexes.

Meanwhile, Georgian newspapers repeatedly accuse the police of turning a
blind eye to the street gangs in return for a slice of the takings. But
officially no steps have been taken to investigate the allegations.

The authorities themselves stubbornly refuse to admit the scale of the
problem. Tbilisi's local government claims there are just 400 street
children in the capital whilst independent institutions say the real figure
is 10 times higher.

And the problem will persist as long as the government continues to see it
as an embarrassing inconvenience rather than a human tragedy. In the
orphanages themselves, the children's own tales give a disturbing insight
into the vast range of social factors which have left them dispossessed.

In one refuge, the House of the Future, the Tskhovrebadze brothers, aged 12
and 14, tell how they were thrown out onto the streets when their father
sold the family home. And one young girl remembers how her mother attempted
to marry her off to an old man in return for cash.

In this respect, the Dzegvi Children's Home offers far more than just food
and education - it restores the children's trust in their fellow human
beings. And that is probably the most valuable gift of all.

Sozar Subeliani is the editor of Georgia's Kavkasioni newspaper


MILITARY CABAL TAKES REINS OF POWER

Once again, the North Caucasus republics are falling under the sway of
Russia's generals

By Yuri Akbashev in Kabardino-Balkaria

For more than two centuries, the North Caucasus have stood as a kind of
Bermuda Triangle for Russia's general staff. The endless campaigns against
mutinous tribesmen have offered generations of military leaders equal
opportunities for glory and disgrace. And, now there is a sense that history
is repeating itself.

In the days of Paskevich, Yermolov and Vorontsev, Moscow sent her generals
to the Caucasus at the head of invading armies. Today, such crude tactics
are only evident in Chechnya - elsewhere the generals lead armies of
bureaucrats and solemnly assume the trappings of state.

The Kremlin has been manoeuvring soldiers into the governments of the North
Caucasus since 1993 when the airforce general Dzhokhar Dudaev was appointed
president of Chechnya. Soon afterwards, Ruslan Aushev, hero of the war in
Afghanistan, swept to power in neighbouring Ingushetia and a new pattern was
set.

The next Moscow-approved candidate was Lieutenant-General Sufyan Beppaev,
deputy commander of the North Caucasus Military District, who was to play a
pivotal role in the planned secession of Balkaria from the
Kabardino-Balkarian Republic. This process, however, was interrupted by the
1994-1996 Chechen war when the first phase of military expansion in the
North Caucasus came to an ignominious end.

By mid-1999, however, the Kremlin was back to its old tricks. Vladimir
Semenov, former commander-in-chief of the Russian land forces, won the
presidential elections in Karachaevo-Cherkessia amid widespread accusations
of voter intimidation and ballot-rigging. Ignoring the righteous indignation
of the republic's ethnic minorities, the Kremlin confirmed Semenov's
election victory in October that year.

Then the second Chechen campaign ushered in a new cabal of conquering
heroes. With almost indecent haste, General Victor Kazantsev was named
Governor-General of the North Caucasus - despite his appalling human rights
record in Chechnya which has provoked an international outcry. 

General Gennady Troshev soon emerged as the lynchpin of the military junta,
effectively serving as head of the temporary administration - even though
this role has officially been handed over to Akhmed Kadyrov, the Chechen
mufti. Troshev was born in Chechnya and later lived in Nalchik, so his
knowledge of the North Caucasian peoples made him an obvious candidate for
the job.

Meanwhile, Lt.-Gen. Mukhamed Batyrov, commander of the ground forces in
Northern Russia, announced his intention to run for presidency of
Kabardino-Balkaria in 2002. Born in the village of Psykhurei and an ethnic
Kabardinian, Batyrov can count on a significant following amongst local
voters.

Only North Ossetia has escaped the militarisation process - but here Moscow
has little to fear. The Ossetians have always been loyal Russian subjects,
furnishing the ranks of the Imperial and Soviet armies with some of their
most capable generals. Furthermore, the civilian president, Alexander
Dzasokhov, has shown few signs of resisting Kremlin policy in the North
Caucasus.

But, if the Caucasus offers the generals the chance to cover themselves in
glory, it claims its victims with equal determination. Dudaev was killed in
the first Chechen war - unless, as some believe, he is currently in hiding
in some Arab state. Aushev has incurred President Vladimir Putin's wrath
over his apparent sympathy for the Chechen cause: without Moscow support,
his presidency is looking increasingly unstable.

The fact is that a new cabal is rising to power in the North Caucasus.
Kazantsev, Troshev and Batyrov are all ground force generals and prot'g's of
General Semenov, the president of Karachaevo-Cherkessia. The stage has
already been set. Batyrov's bid for the Balkarian presidency throws down a
clear gauntlet to the incumbent, Valery Kokov. And Kokov, aware of the power
of the Semenov brotherhood, promptly offered Batyrov the post of interior
minister. But the general, confident of his military support, has refused
the olive branch and Kokov's days are clearly numbered.

The long-term implications of the "generalisation" of the North Caucasus
give some cause for concern. There is little hope, for example, that the
generals can tell the difference between a tank and a tractor - in other
words, their experience gives them few qualifications for the pressing task
of improving living standards.

The development of democracy will undoubtedly be stunted - to say nothing of
progress in the field of human rights. Ingush, Karachai, Dagestanis,
Cherkess and Kabardinians alike have witnessed Victor Kazantsev's brutal
repression of the Chechen people. There is no reason to suppose that he and
his former comrades-in-arms will not resort to the same terror tactics
elsewhere.

However, there are factions within the local governments who view the rise
of the generals with cautious optimism. They are confident that the military
leaders will oust the venal and corrupt politicians who have brought many of
the republics to the brink of bankruptcy. Appalled by the luxurious
lifestyle practised by the ruling elite, they have faith in the generals as
the trumpet-bearers of new and upstanding values.

And the generals? They have an indomitable faith in themselves.
 
Yuri Akbashev is an independent journalist in Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria

********** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: www.iwpr.net **************

IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service provides the regional and international
community with unique insiders' perspective on the Caucasus. Using our
network of local journalists, the service publishes objective news and
analysis from across the region upon a weekly basis.

The service forms part of IWPR's Caucasus Project based in Tbilisi and
London which supports local media development while encouraging better local
and international understanding of a conflicted yet emerging region.

IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service is supported by the UK National Lottery
Charities Board. The service is currently available on the Web in English
and will shortly be available in Russian. All IWPR's reporting services
including Balkan Crisis Reports and Tribunal Update are available free of
charge via e-mail subscription or direct from the Web.

The institute will be launching a fourth news service, IWPR Central Asia
Reports, in the coming months. To subscribe to any of our existing or
forthcoming news services, e-mail IWPR Programmes Officer Duncan Furey at
duncan@iwpr.net.

For further details on this project and other information services and media
programmes, visit IWPR's Website: <www.iwpr.net>.

Editor-in-chief: Anthony Borden. Managing Editor: Yigal Chazan; Assistant
Editor: Alan Davis. Commissioning Editors: Giorgi Topouria in Tbilisi,
Shahin Rzayev in Baku, Mark Grigorian in Yerevan, Michael Randall and Saule
Mukhametrakhimova in London. Editorial Assistance: Felix Corley and Heather
Milner. To comment on this service, contact IWPR's Programme Director: Alan
Davis alan@iwpr.net

The Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) is a London-based independent
non-profit organisation supporting regional media and democratic change.

Lancaster House, 33 Islington High Street, London N1 9LH, United
Kingdom.Tel: (44 171) 713 7130; Fax: (44 171) 713 7140. E-mail:
info@iwpr.net; Web: www.iwpr.net

The opinions expressed in IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service are those of the
authors and do not necessarily represent those of the publication or of
IWPR.

Copyright (c) IWPR 2000

IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, NO. 38

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Heather Milner
Assistant Editor
Institute for War and Peace Reporting


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