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Subject: IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, NO. 64
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2001 15:25:39 -0000 
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WELCOME TO IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, NO. 64, January 8, 2000

COMMENT: AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION 'BETRAYED' BY EUROPE  Why is the Council of
Europe urging Azerbaijan's opposition parties to abandon their boycott of
the newly elected parliament? By Kemal Ali in Baku

JAILED POLITICIAN CLAIMS GOVERNEMENT CONSPIRACY  Human rights campaigners
believe corruption charges against Ashot Bleyan were trumped up by the
authorities. By Mikael Danielian in Yerevan

ENERGY CRISIS SPARKS GROWING UNREST  Georgia faces a bleak mid-winter as
electricity supplies fall to an all-time low. By  Zurab Tchiaberashvili in
Tbilisi

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AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION 'BETRAYED' BY EUROPE

COMMENT. Why is the Council of Europe urging Azerbaijan's opposition parties
to abandon their boycott of the newly elected parliament?

By Kemal Ali in Baku 

Azerbaijan's beleaguered political opposition is being forced to swallow the
bitter pill of defeat. 

Apparently outwitted by President Heidar Aliev's ruling party, the mutinous
opposition has now been betrayed by its erstwhile ally, the Council of
Europe. And its faith in Western democratic values has suffered a resounding
blow.

In the wake of November's controversial elections, the opposition parties
announced a unanimous boycott of Milli Medjlis, the Azerbaijani parliament,
on the grounds that their candidates had been unfairly excluded from the
electoral race and voting laws had been blatantly infringed.

They hoped this move would persuade the Council of Europe to bring pressure
on President Aliev and force him to declare the election results null and
void.

Last month, however, representatives from the Council of Europe and the OSCE
(the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) urged the
opposition to abandon the boycott and acknowledge the legitimacy of the
newly elected parliament. For the opposition parties, it was the ultimate
betrayal.

In the event, President Aliev proved himself to be a master of diplomacy and
intrigue. In response to Council of Europe protests, he overturned the
election results in 11 voting districts across Azerbaijan. He also announced
that a number of highly placed officials had been charged with intimidating
local electoral commissions.

In fact, independent observers had reported violations in a further 88
districts and, according to Azerbaijani law, if the results are overturned
in 25 districts or more, the government is forced to call new elections.

But Aliev's magnanimous gesture achieved the desired result: it served to
mollify the Council of Europe and to ensure that his party, Eni Azerbaijan,
retained its parliamentary majority.

Aliev also agreed to bring forward the second round of voting from January 4
to January 7 in order to ensure that Western monitors would be able to
attend - evidently, a further sign of his commitment to fair and democratic
elections.

The Europeans were quick to respond to Aliev's show of good will. 

During a meeting with top government officials in Baku, Andreas Gross, head
of the OSCE mission, praised the measures taken by the Azerbaijani
authorities to address the violations reported in November's elections.
(Just weeks earlier, Gross had branded the voting results a "complete
fabrication".) 

The OSCE delegation also met with the leaders of the Musavat and Popular
Front parties and pressed them to accept the Eni Azerbaijan victory.

Meanwhile, the ambassadors of several European countries gave interviews to
local newspapers in which they urged the opposition to take part in the
January elections.

In addition, a Council of Europe commission which visited Baku in December
noted a new readiness on the part of the ruling authorities to champion the
cause of human rights. 

Naturally, the Council of Europe's change of heart has inspired a new
optimism in Azerbaijan's ruling cabal. On December 19, parliamentary
chairman Murtuz Aleskerov commented, "We have done everything that was asked
of us to ensure that Azerbaijan is accepted into the Council of Europe." 

And Ali Gasanov, head of the socio-political department on the president's
staff, stated publicly that, if Azerbajian were not accepted into the
Council of Europe, it would be the opposition's fault. 

Azerbaijan's ongoing bid to join the Council of Europe will be formally
reviewed on January 17. But, smarting from last year's humiliation when
neighbouring Armenia was granted a seat on the council and Azerbaijan was
rebuffed, Baku has taken a defiant stance over the whole membership issue.

Last November, Aliev reportedly told the British ambassador, "The Council of
Europe needs Azerbaijan far more than Azerbaijan needs the Council of
Europe." 

And following a recent visit to Strasbourg, Azerbaijani human rights
campaigner Eldar Zeynalov reported that council members were genuinely
concerned the former Soviet republic would refuse outright to join their
ranks.

It is clear that this issue lies at the heart of the Council's recent
volte-face over Azerbaijan's parliamentary elections. 

Currently, only a small minority of ministers actually opposes Azerbaijan's
membership bid but this number is likely to grow if the opposition continues
to boycott the Milli Medjlis parliament. The lack of a democratic opposition
in Azerbaijan's primary legislative body means the bid will encounter fierce
resistance from the Council of Europe's human rights lobby.

OSCE chief Andreas Gross commented that, without any real opposition, the
Azerbaijani parliament would "lack the mantle of legitimacy". 

And his colleague, Gerhard Studmann, added, "We should be sure that the
Azerbaijani delegation to PACE represents the entire electorate and not just
a third of the people." 

Meanwhile, the future looks bleak for the opposition. Already, some of its
stalwarts are breaking ranks and jumping ship to the ruling party. The poet
and writer Vagif Samedoglu, who was dismissed from Musavat for refusing to
join the party boycott, has accepted his parliamentary seat. In December, he
joined the official Azerbaijani delegation to Strasbourg - a reward, no
doubt, for his sudden change of heart.


JAILED POLITICIAN CLAIMS GOVERNEMENT CONSPIRACY 

Human rights campaigners believe corruption charges against Ashot Bleyan
were trumped up by the authorities

By Mikael Danielian in Yerevan 

A controversial Armenian politician, once branded a traitor for his attempts
to secure peace in Nagorny Karabakh, has been jailed for seven years on
charges of corruption and embezzlement.

However, Ashot Bleyan's supporters claim the unusually heavy sentence is
politically motivated and the former education minister's only "crime" was
his fierce opposition to Robert Kocharian's government.

Even rival politicians were stunned by the sentence. Vaan Oganesian, a
leader of the Dashnaktsutiun party, commented, "Bleyan is our political
adversary and we believe that he should be jailed for his crimes but seven
years is an incredibly long time."

In a separate trial at the end of last year, former interior ministry
officer Vaan Arutyunian was given a similar jail term after being found
guilty of masterminding a series of hire killings.
 
Ashot Bleyan is no stranger to political controversy. In the dusk of the
Soviet era, he took an active part in the Karabakh freedom movement,
employing two members of the notorious Karabakh Committee at his Mkhitar
Sebastatsi education centre.

He weathered his first political storm in 1993, three years after being
elected to Armenia's Supreme Council. Appalled by the bloody fighting in
Nagorny Karabakh, the Armenian deputy set off on a peace mission to Baku,
hoping to strike a secret deal with the Azerbaijani government.

Although many people now believe the move was actually sanctioned by the
then president, Levon Ter-Petrosian, Bleyan was promptly dubbed a national
traitor and became one of the most hated figures on the Armenian political
scene.

Bleyan was appointed Minister for Education in 1995. However, his unorthodox
view of the Soviet-style education system soon aroused widespread opposition
from teachers and parents who bitterly resisted his attempts to introduce
new teaching methods and modern text-books.
 
In the aftermath of the scandal, Bleyan abandoned the political limelight
and went on to establish his own opposition party, Novy Put (New Way). Then,
in 1998, President Ter-Petrosian was forced to resign and Bleyan stepped
forward as one of 12 candidates in the Armenian presidential elections.

The former minister openly described this move as a public protest against
Robert Kocharian's candidacy. Supported by the powerful defence minister,
Vazgen Sarkisian, Kocharian was by far the strongest contender - even though
he had not lived in Armenia for the past 10 years, a condition required by
the Armenian constitution.

Bleyan later commented, "The only way to stop this gross violation of the
law was to register myself as a candidate for the presidency - although I
was under no illusions as to what the outcome would be."

Bleyan promptly appealed to the Constitutional Court to review the issue but
judges failed to reach a decision until after Kocharian's election victory.
They then ruled that the new president's candidacy had been legal.

In the following May, police burst into the school classroom where Bleyan
was teaching and took him to Yerevan's notorious First Isolation Block. He
was charged with appropriating state property, abusing his powers as a
minister and accepting bribes.

The courts rejected any attempts to change the terms of his custody or
protest against his detention. Meanwhile, according to Bleyan's lawyers, the
Yerevan prosecutor's office launched a terror campaign against his former
colleagues and pupils, interrogating some suspects for up to 10 hours at a
stretch.

Bleyan's political allies came under mounting pressure from the authorities.
Criminal proceedings were brought against Nikol Pashinian, editor of the
Oragir (Diary) newspaper, which was owned by the Novy Put party. Pashinian
had also headed Bleyan's electoral campaign. 

In January 2000, the paper was closed down by a court ruling and Pashinian
was given a suspended one-year jail sentence. 

Days later, Bleyan went on trial at Yerevan's Malatia-Sebastia court, with
judge Iskuy Vardanian presiding. The former education minister conducted his
own defence.

The trial sparked an international outcry, spearheaded by the Helsinki
Association -- Armenia's only human rights body -- which claimed the charges
were politically motivated. Bleyan was formally declared a prisoner of
conscience by Amnesty International.

Bleyan's supporters claim the court made no attempt to call key witnesses
while all petitions made by the defendant were refused out of hand. During
the trial, Bleyan was kept in an iron cage normally reserved for dangerous
criminals.

In his concluding speech, the defendant said the charges had been trumped up
by Robert Kocharian's regime in a bid to discredit a political rival. He
accused the Armenian legal system of compromising its independence by taking
orders from the authorities.

It was 45 days before the Yerevan judges reached their final decision and
sentenced Bleyan to seven years' hard labour. They also ordered the
confiscation of 50 per cent of his property and imposed a fine of 3.5
million drams (nearly $6,400)

Two co-defendants, Rimma Pogosian and Aida Avakova, who worked at Bleyan's
Mkhitar Sebastatsi education centre, were jailed for six and two years
respectively.


ENERGY CRISIS SPARKS GROWING UNREST

Georgia faces a bleak mid-winter as electricity supplies fall to an all-time
low

By Zurab Tchiaberashvili in Tbilisi 

Police in Tbilisi went on high alert over the New Year holidays amid fears
that Georgia's worsening energy crisis could spark mass protests across the
capital.

Most Tbilisi apartments currently have electricity for just four hours a day
whilst many are completely without central heating. Families are resorting
to kerosene-fuelled stoves in a bid to combat sub-zero temperatures.

At the end of last year, residents in the Bake district of Tbilisi staged an
angry demonstration on Prospect Chavchavadze, effectively blockading one of
the city's main arteries.

The protesters took to the streets after David Mirtskhulava, the energy
minister, announced that electricity in Tbilisi would only be available
between 7am and 1am.

When pressed on the issue by community representatives, Mirtskhulava was
forced to modify his statement. "I guarantee that there will be no
electricity between 1am and 7am," he said.

The incident provoked a swift reaction from the interior ministry, which
announced a massive security clamp-down across Tbilisi. Interior minister
Kakha Targamadze warned, "We have details of all the activists responsible
for this kind of incident."

Meanwhile, Tbilisi residents - forced to spend their meagre incomes on
kerosene and firewood - are getting increasingly desperate.

Pensioner Izolda Nikoleishvili shares a two-room flat with seven members of
her family. She buys between 80 and 90 litres of kerosene a month - at a
cost of 70-80 lari ($35-$40).

And Tamar Tkemaladze, 75, who hasn't received her 12-lari pension for the
past five months, claims, "It's very much in the interests of the kerosene
mafia to keep this crisis going and force us to huddle around our primitive
heaters."

Certainly, the electricity crisis is showing no signs of lifting. The city's
most powerful generating plants - Units 9 and 10 of the Tbilisi GRES - have
been dogged by technical problems since they were bought out by the American
company AES Silk Road at the end of 1999.

Unit 10 was recommissioned in September after an extensive refit while Unit
9, which was damaged by fire in 1998, was finally opened on December 9 but
was closed again on the following day due to technical failure. AES Silk
Road has ploughed around $20 million into the refurbishment of these two
units, part of its $150 million investment in the Tbilisi electricity grid.

According to some industry experts, a large portion of the GRES output never
reaches the consumers. Michael Scoley, general director of AES Telasi, which
controls Tbilisi's electricity supply, said that 16 million kilowatt hours
of electricity mysteriously vanished in the first 11 days of December alone.

The Tbilisi government blames the American companies involved. Zurab
Tskitishvili, chairman of the parliamentary committee for trade and
economics, is currently urging the authorities to revise the agreement
signed with the American companies, AES Telasi and AES Mtkvari, a subsidiary
of Silk Road.

And energy minister David Mirtskhulava has said publicly that the use of
foreign loans to reconstruct Units 9 and 10 was a mistake and that the money
should have been spent on enforcing stricter controls on the distribution of
electrical energy.

At the same time, the electricity providers are owed around 120 million lari
(around $60 million) by industrial consumers. The company Azota alone has
debts totalling 13 million lari. 

On November 27 last year, a state commission set up to study the causes of
the energy crisis ruled that non-payers should have their electricity supply
cut off. This decision, however, has yet to be enforced. 

Since 1994, $116 million has been invested in the Georgian electricity grid
with a further $134 million pledged by a range of international financial
institutions.

However, last year Jonathan Walters, head of the World Bank mission to
Georgia, announced that any further loans would depend on the effectiveness
of the government's fight against corruption within the industry.

The energy sector has been plagued by a long history of criminal activities.
Two years ago, the government's energy control commission invited a team of
American experts to help tackle the problem. 

Several top officials have already been arrested on embezzlement charges
including Emzar Chachkhiani, general director of Gruzenergo, deputy director
Georgy Makashvili and Iveri Shalamberidze, director of the wholesale market.

However, most people in Tbilisi believe the arrests are evidence of a power
struggle in the criminal clans which dominate the energy sector rather than
a result of the government's fight against corruption.


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Copyright (c) IWPR 2000

IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, NO. 64

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