HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------1. US team urges reform in UZBEKISTAN, new war ally (Reuters)
2. TURKISH hunger striker dies, toll reaches 46 (Reuters)
3. SLOVAK NATO entry hinges on next cabinet -US envoy (Reuters)
4. GERMAN troops leave for AFGHANISTAN (AP)
5. CROATIA PM pledges 37,000 new jobs by end 2003 (Reuters)
6. MILOSEVIC calls judges biased
U.S. team urges reform in Uzbekistan, new war ally
By Shamil Baigin
TASHKENT, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Visiting U.S. senators said on Sunday Washington would press Uzbekistan's government to show more respect for human rights and democracy, despite the Central Asian country's new role as an ally in the "war on terrorism."
The nine senators, led by Democrat Joseph Lieberman and former presidential candidate Republican John McCain, arrived from Turkey late on Saturday and held talks with President Islam Karimov and his defence minister on Sunday.
"The United States will remain faithful and persistent in advocating increasing democratisation and recognition of human rights here," Lieberman said.
"The reality is that where there is no freedom and economic opportunity there is the ground in which extremism can grow."
Lieberman said that it had taken the September 11 attacks to open Washington's eyes to the reality of post-Soviet Central Asia and vowed it would keep the region on its radar screens in the future.
"Our interest in this region post September 11 is going to be permanent," Lieberman said. The senators praised Uzbekistan's support for U.S. military action in Afghanistan.
Uzbekistan, where Karimov tolerates little opposition to his rule and economic reforms have been put on hold, has become a key U.S. ally in Central Asia after allowing use of its Khanabad airbase in the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan.
Tashkent, harshly critical of the purist Taliban movement which it had accused of drugs and "terrorists" sent to destabilise ex-Soviet Central Asia, hailed the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan and the ensuing change of government there.
Karimov has repeatedly stressed that the Khanabad base can be used only for humanitarian and search and rescue operations.
But the base deal created an important precedent, and Central Asian neighbours Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have also agreed to allow coalition forces to use their airfields.
IRON HAND
Karimov, a former Communist party apparatchik, has ruled his Muslim nation of 25 million with an iron hand since Soviet days. He has muzzled the opposition and international human rights groups regularly report on abuses by security forces.
Karimov has been strengthened by international recognition of his role in the "war on terrorism," and the docile parliament last month voted to hold a referendum on extending his present five-year term by two years to 2007. The poll will be held later this month.
A similar nationwide poll in 1995 extended Karimov's time in office until 2000 when he was part-way through his first term.
Karimov, 63, says he is concerned by militant Islamic extremism of the Taliban type and therefore the state must control tightly all facets of political life in the country.
His critics argue however that low living standards stemming from snail-paced reforms, and political repression, drive some Uzbeks to seek consolation in radical Islam.
The U.S. delegation aimed to visit Tajikistan, Pakistan, Oman and India as part of a week-long tour "to gather information on the war on terrorism," the U.S. embassy in Tashkent said.
12:33 01-06-02
Turkish hunger striker dies, toll reaches 46
ANKARA, Jan 8 (Reuters) - A 27-year-old Turkish woman has starved to death, bringing the death toll to 46 in more than a year of hunger strikes in protest at prison conditions, a human rights group said on Tuesday.
Lale Colak died in an Istanbul hospital on Monday night. She was the third hunger striker to die this year.
Hundreds of leftist prisoners and a few of their supporters started the hunger strikes more than a year ago in protest at plans to introduce new prisons with small cells for one to three inmates.
The protesters say the small cells isolate prisoners and leave them vulnerable to abuse by prison wardens.
Accusations of torture are common in police stations and prisons in Turkey, a candidate for European Union membership.
The government says the new prisons meet European standards and argues the old-style dormitory wards were controlled by political and criminal gangs.
Ankara says the hunger strikers are controlled by leftist "terrorists" and has refused to negotiate with them.
Security forces raided jails across the country in December 2000 in a bid to end the hunger strikes and enforce transfers to the new prisons but the protests have continued. Thirty inmates and two soldiers died in the raids.
The hunger strikers have prolonged their protest by drinking sugared and salted water and taking vitamins to keep them alive.
10:09 01-08-02
Slovak NATO entry hinges on next cabinet -US envoy
BRATISLAVA, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Slovakia will not be invited to join NATO if autumn elections restore a government like that of former authoritarian Premier Vladimir Meciar, the U.S. ambassador in Bratislava said in Monday's Pravda newspaper.
Ronald Weiser said that if Slovakia did not get a green light to join at the alliance's November meeting in Prague, its bid to accede to the European Union by 2004 would be delayed or might not succeed at all.
The West kept Slovakia at arm's length for most of the 1990s because of undemocratic practices by Meciar, who was criticised for trampling on minority rights, hounding political opponents and the media and abusing privileges.
NATO excluded Slovakia when it invited neighbouring Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to join in a 1999 round of expansion. The EU also left Slovakia out of a first round of accession talks in 1998.
The current government of Premier Mikulas Dzurinda, which ousted Meciar in 1998 elections, has rebuilt Slovakia's ties with the West, but observers fear the autumn vote could return Meciar and his allies, who are leading opinion polls.
"The forming of the future government will influence whether Slovakia gets a (NATO) invitation or not. In 1998, Slovakia had a government that had different values than the alliance. If the situation repeats itself, there will not be an invitation," Weiser said in a thinly veiled warning about Meciar.
"If it will be a government that has the same values as NATO, then there will be an invitation... If Slovakia is not going to be a NATO member, its entry into the EU will be significantly delayed or won't happen at all."
Officials at the U.S. embassy were not immediately available for comment on the ambassador's interview.
Meciar also incurred Western anger by condemning the 1999 NATO-led bombing campaign in Yugoslavia and often quarrelled with Western European governments while in power.
The charismatic populist underwent an ideology makeover last year and now says he and his party are strong proponents of NATO and EU membership. But he has yet to explain the deeds of his past government.
Weiser's comments add to many already made by EU and NATO officials who, while usually avoiding mentioning Meciar and his HZDS party by name, have indicated their participation in the next government could torpedo Slovakia's accession aspirations.
05:45 01-07-02
German Troops Leave for Afghanistan
.c The Associated Press
BERLIN (AP) - A contingent of 70 German troops set off Tuesday for Afghanistan, Berlin's first contribution to the British-led international stabilization force in the country.
The German troops - 50 paratroopers along with 20 communications and medical experts - left Cologne-Bonn airport for the Dutch city of Eindhoven, where they were to join with 32 Dutch troops for the journey onward to Kabul, via Trabzon in northern Turkey. The Dutch Defense Ministry said the first of two planes carrying the soldiers would arrive at Bagram Air Base near Kabul Wednesday morning.
The peacekeeping force is charged with keeping security under the interim Afghan government led by Hamid Karzai, which is to run the country for six months.
Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping has yet to decide how many German troops will participate in the U.N. force, which is expected to number about 4,500 in total. Parliament has approved a maximum of 1,200 German soldiers.
AP-NY-01-08-02 0545EST
Croatia PM pledges 37,000 new jobs by end 2003
ZAGREB, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Croatian Prime Minister Ivica Racan pledged on Tuesday to create 37,000 new jobs by the end of 2003 through projects worth 1.3 billion kuna ($155 million) the reformists have drafted to combat high unemployment.
The main project, entitled "From University Straight to Work," envisages employing more than 18,000 young graduates. In addition, as many jobs will be found for artisans, invalids and war veterans in the next two years, Racan said.
"This will not solve the overall unemployment problem, which is really huge, but we felt we could no longer wait. We have to make a breakthrough," Racan told a gathering of university students while presenting the outlines of the project which will be launched in March.
Unemployment in Croatia, a country of some 4.5 million, stood at a high 22.5 percent with the total jobless put at 385,000 people at the end of November.
Provided there was no other labour market change, the project could lead to a reduction of the jobless rate to under 20 percent by the end of next year.
Racan said the government felt it was vital to stop the "brain drain" of young graduates, among whom unemployment was even higher at a staggering 42 percent.
"We want to remove the reasons and alibis young people find for going to look for work abroad... We expect major positive effects of this project," the prime minister said. The graduate programme applies to those under the age of 27 who will get government subsidies and a one-off bonus of 1,000 euros ($891.3) during the first year of their employment.
The government will also secure cheaper loans for their projects and employ some of the graduates in state administration, which needs rejuvenating, Racan said.
It is one of the two major projects Racan's cabinet has set out for the next two years. The other is the construction of a motorway linking the capital with the Adriatic coast which will be financed from excise on petrol and road tolls.
09:17 01-08-02
Milosevic Calls Judges Biased
By ANTHONY DEUTSCH
.c The Associated Press
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - Slobodan Milosevic made a defiant appearance at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal Wednesday, dismissing the judges as biased in his last hearing before going on trial for alleged war crimes in Kosovo.
Keeping up his opposition to the U.N. court, Milosevic clashed with presiding Judge Richard May of Britain and said his case was unfair because it was based only on British intelligence and would be presented by a British judge.
The hearing in The Hague, Netherlands, laid the groundwork for Milosevic's first trial, due to start Feb. 12. Prosecutors said they plan to call scores of witnesses and present more than 1,400 exhibits to prove the ousted leader led a Serb onslaught against ethnic Albanians in 1998-1999.
Milosevic was transferred to the tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, in June 2001 to answer to war crimes allegations for Kosovo.
He is charged in the deaths of nearly 900 Kosovar Albanians, the deportations of 800,000 people and sexual assault by Yugoslav army troops under his command.
Serb forces under Milosevic's control were driven from Kosovo after a 78-day NATO bombing campaign of Yugoslavia that ended the conflict and led to the toppling of Milosevic's government.
Since Milosevic was handed over to the court, prosecutors have issued two additional indictments against him for alleged crimes in Croatia and Bosnia, including the slaughter of several thousand Muslims in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica in 1995.
The court has refused to merge the three cases into a single trial. Prosecutors are appealing that decision.
During his six months at a U.N. detention unit in The Hague, Milosevic has appeared in court five times. He has repeatedly clashed with the panel of three judges and refused to appoint an attorney.
He has also filed proceedings at the French-based Court of Human Rights to contest the legality of the tribunal and his detention in The Hague.
As in earlier hearings, Milosevic said Wednesday that NATO forces were the true war criminals for ``killing innocent civilians in nighttime bombing raids.''
His troops fought to save their families and their country, he said.
After repeatedly asking Milosevic if he had any ``relevant'' comments, Judge May switched off his microphone and adjourned the session.
``This is not the time for speeches,'' May said, tossing his headphones onto his desk and marching out of the courtroom.
Milosevic looked relaxed and defiant as he listened to the proceedings flanked by two U.N. guards. He refused to respond to the court's offer to provide him with an investigator to help prepare for his upcoming trial.
When asked to comment on the proceedings, Milosevic instead accused NATO and ``Albanian terrorists'' of war crimes, including killing civilians and bombing maternity wards, hospitals, bridges and railways.
Prosecutor Geoffrey Nice said his team wanted to call 110 witnesses to testify against Milosevic, but May said he would allow 90 given ``the size and complexity of the case.''
Milosevic maintains that he will represent himself in court. The court entered innocent pleas for him after he refused to respond to any of the charges.
Three ``friends of the court'' have been appointed to ensure that Milosevic gets a fair trial. Instead of the usual two parties in court proceedings, arguments will be presented by the three sides.
The biggest challenge for prosecutors will be to link the widespread persecution and murder of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo to Milosevic and his policies. They will call witnesses, including former Serb government officials awaiting their trials in The Hague, to connect his government to the crimes.
Judge May indicated that the prosecution's case should finish before the court's summer recess in August. Milosevic will have the right to call witnesses, show exhibits or testify in his own defense.
AP-NY-01-09-02 1356EST
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