Events of April 1996
Anne D. Baylon
Latvia/Estonia/Lithuania
Apr. 14 In a dispute between Latvia and Estonia over sea borders and access to rich fishing grounds, Estonian Prime Minister Tiit Vahi and Latvian Prime Minister Andris Skele reach a temporary agreement to regulate fishing until Aug. 1. Disputes over sea borders have caused friction in Baltic countries' relations since they left the Soviet Union five years ago. (For example, Latvia also has a dispute with Lithuania over a sea area that Western oil companies plan to prospect.)
Poland
NY Times, Apr. 6 After 100 days in office, President Aleksander Kwasniewski, 41, Prime Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, 46, and Foreign Minister Dariusz Rosati, 49, give the image of young social democrats. Unlike some other Central European figures who received university degrees in the Soviet Union, Mr. Kwasniewski traveled to America for the bicentennial celebrations; Mr. Cimoszewicz studied for five years at Columbia University on a Fulbright scholarship; and Mr. Rosati, who also won a Fulbright, attended Princeton University in 1987.
Apr. 22 An investigation into whether former Prime Minister Jozef Oleksy spied for Moscow is closed for “insufficient evidence” and lack of “direct proof” against Mr. Oleksy. Mr. Oleksy, a friend and party ally of new President Aleksander Kwasniewski, resigned in January.
Apr. 25 Saying that it lacks jurisdiction, a provincial court in Gdansk drops its case against former Polish leader Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski. Gen. Jaruzelski has been held responsible for the deaths of 44 anti-Communism protesters shot by security forces in 1970 when he was Defense Minister.
Poland/Russia
Apr. 9 In his first visit to Russia as Poland's President, President Aleksander Kwasniewski meets with Russian President Boris Yeltsin. The two presidents fail to settle their differences over NATO's expansion plans as Mr. Kwasniewski reiterates Poland's desire to join NATO despite Russia's opposition.
Slovakia
Apr. 9 At the urging of the U.S. and the European Union, Slovak President Michal Kovác vetoes a law supported by Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar's government and approved by parliament that bans rallies “deemed to subvert the country's constitutional system, territorial integrity or defenses.” Although parliament can override the veto, it is unlikely to do so given the opposition at home and abroad (critics denounce it as Communist-style legislation).
EASTERN EUROPE
Russia
Apr. 4 Communist members of parliament prepare a platform for the June presidential election that could appeal to Communists and non-Communists alike by drafting a bill favoring heavy state intervention in the economy. The bill also curtails pro-market reforms and rejects key measures that were adopted at the IMF's insistence (the IMF recently granted Russia a $10.1 billion loan).
Apr. 13 Having collected the required one million voter signatures, former President Mikhail Gorbachev qualifies to be on the ballot for the June presidential election. Mr. Gorbachev has little chance of winning, however, since his stand in nationwide polls is at about 1%.
Apr. 15 U.S. spy satellites spot the construction of a “mammoth underground military complex in the Ural Mountains” served by a railroad, a highway and thousands of workers. According to senior Pentagon officials, the project appears to be defensive in nature and may be a command and control center for nuclear weapons as well as a bunker for military leaders.
Apr. 18 President Boris Yeltsin restores by decree the red banner, embossed with a gold star (instead of the Communist hammer and sickle) as a national emblem. The banner will be unfurled along with the Russian tricolor flag at patriotic ceremonies.
Apr. 29 Two rivals in the Russian presidential campaign, Grigory Yavlinsky—a well-known reform-minded economist—and Aleksandr Lebed—a former general who has the support of conservatives—try to negotiate an alliance that would unite both economic reform supporters and conservatives eager to restore national order. Opponents of it say that the alliance cannot win and that it will withdraw vital support from President Yeltsin in his race against Communist candidate Gennadi Zyuganov.
Russia/Chechnya
Apr. 1 After two weeks of continuous assault on Chechnya, Russian forces carry out an order by President Boris Yeltsin to stop the fighting. Mr. Yeltsin intends to open negotiations with Chechen leader Dzhokhar Dudayev.
Apr. 5 Despite President Yeltsin's cease-fire order on Apr. 1, Russian soldiers and rebels keep fighting.
Apr. 8 Russian forces attack Vedeno and Dargo, two villages in southeastern Chechnya that are important bases for the Chechen rebels.
Apr. 13 Through mediators, President Yeltsin tries to arrange a meeting with Chechen leader Dzhokhar Dudayev. Meanwhile, Russian attacks continue in southwestern Chechnya.
Apr. 15 Russia pulls out two battalions from Chechnya as part of President Yeltsin's latest peace plan, but the fighting continues nonetheless.
Apr. 23 A Chechen official reports that Chechen leader Dzhokhar Dudayev was killed during a Russian rocket attack; but another Chechen aide contradicts the report, insisting that Mr. Dudayev is alive and well.
Apr. 24 Vowing to carry on the fight against Russian troops, Chechen rebels confirm the death of Dzhokhar Dudayev. Zelimkahn Yandarbiyev, the Chechen rebel vice-president who has a reputation for being a hard-liner on the independence issue, becomes Mr. Dudayev's successor.
Apr. 27 Alla Dudayeva, the widow of slain Chechen leader Dzhokhar Dudayev, is planning a peace mission to Moscow in order to stop the fighting in Chechnya.
Apr. 29 Unconfirmed reports indicate that Zelimkahn Yandarbiyev, the new Chechen leader, has been killed in a fight with other separatists.
THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
Bosnia
Apr. 2 War crimes investigators spot evidence of extensive soil tampering when they start examining a large field near Srebrenica where hundreds of Muslims are thought to have been killed and buried last July, suggesting that bodies were removed from the site. According to eyewitnesses, Bosnian Serb military commander Gen. Ratko Mladic supervised the killings there.
Apr. 6 Serbs renege on an agreement reached on Apr. 5 between Serbs, Croats, and Muslims to release all prisoners (except those suspected of war crimes). While the Bosnian government and Bosnian Croats free prisoners, the Bosnian Serbs fail to release the 16 captives they had agreed to free.
Apr. 11 The Bosnian Serbs refuse to attend a two-day international conference under one single delegation with Bosnia's Muslims and Croats, stating that they will participate only if they can have a separate delegation. Starting on Apr. 12 in Brussels, the conference is intended to raise money for rebuilding Bosnia.
Apr. 12 Following a December 1995 meeting in which $600 million were raised for the reconstruction of Bosnia, 55 countries meet in Brussels to try to raise an additional $1.2 billion for economic aid to Bosnia in 1996. But U.S. and European officials disagree on whether the Serb leadership should get any money: Europeans want to “extend a hand to everyone, including the Serbs,” while Americans say that none of the $200 million in U.S. funds earmarked for Bosnia are intended for Serbian-controlled areas.
Apr. 13 Governments and institutions pledge $1.23 billion more in aid to rebuild Bosnia. The money will go to repair water and sewer networks, roads, bridges, and houses in Bosnia and also start small businesses.
Apr. 14 In an official statement, NATO says that aerial intelligence photographs of the field near Srebrenica where hundreds of Muslims may be buried show that the field was not tampered with under their watch (war crimes investigators reported tampering on Apr. 2). NATO agreed in late January to monitor 200 sites that are thought to be graves.
Apr. 17 In the second accident of its kind since NATO forces arrived in Bosnia in December, two NATO peacekeepers are killed and two others wounded when their car hits a land mine near Tuzla.
Apr. 19 With the Dayton Accord stipulating that elections must take place in Bosnia within nine months of the accord, i.e., by Sept. 14, the international committee in charge of organizing the elections estimates their cost at $153 million, on top of the $1.2 billion in foreign aid already pledged for Bosnia's reconstruction.
Apr. 21 Since the Dayton Accord guarantees that the 2.4 million Bosnians who have been displaced by the war in Bosnia have the right to return home, many refugees are trying to go back. But NATO and U.N. observers report that refugees are facing opposition from officials and from the people currently occupying their homes.
Apr. 24 Serbian Gen. Djordje Djukic, the highest ranking of four suspects held by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, is released from U.N. custody after being found to be terminally ill. Gen. Djukic had been charged with planning and directing the 30-month bombardment of Sarajevo.
Apr. 25 At the request of Gen. George Joulwan, commander of NATO forces in Europe, U.S. and other peacekeeping forces will remain in Bosnia for at least one month after the Dec. 20 pullout deadline. Gen. Joulwan wants to maintain a “significant force there right up until the last day.”
Apr. 28 There is no effective mechanism to enforce the Dayton Accord's promise that refugees can return to their homes in areas controlled by their enemies. As a result, Bosnian Serb officials have been blocking non-Serbs from areas within their control and Muslims have threatened to forcibly get their homes back. The tension has led NATO forces to bar Muslim refugees from returning home in Serbian areas in order to avoid violence.
Apr. 29 Three Muslims are killed and dozens are wounded in angry confrontations near Sarajevo between Muslims seeking to return home and Serbs who do not want them to return.
Bosnia/Croatia
Apr. 24 According to Croatian officials, the Bosnian government is sending small commandos who are part of the Bosnian intelligence service and trained in Bosnia by Iranian specialists to kill or “capture enemies it has branded as war criminals” in Croatia. Croatia has sent a letter of protest and requested that the organization be disbanded since an “exclusively Muslim intelligence agency” within the Muslim-Croat Federation violates the terms of the Dayton Accord.
Croatia/Iran
NY Times, Apr. 24 It is disclosed that, in order to tighten its links with Croatia, Iran signed a secret arms cooperation agreement with Croatia in December 95 and that Washington blocked it after learning of it that same month. Throughout the war, Croatia allowed Iran to smuggle arms to Bosnia (which was strapped by the arms embargo) through Croatian territory in exchange for one third of all arms for their own use. The smuggling ended in January as planned by the Dayton Accord.
Yugoslavia/Macedonia
Apr. 8 Yugoslavia—i.e., Serbia and Montenegro—establishes diplomatic relations with Macedonia, its southern neighbor, thereby giving up any territorial claim on the former Yugoslav republic.
WESTERN EUROPE / EASTERN EUROPE
Arms Control Agreement on the Sale of Conventional Weapons
Apr. 4 In Vienna, the first meeting of 31 nations to start executing a new accord controlling the sale of conventional weapons is slowed by Russia's resistance. The accord, which aims to control sales which can lead to destabilization (such as sales to Iran, Irak, Libya, or North Korea), requires early notification of such sales, that is, at the time the export license is issued; but Russia wants to delay the notification.
Group of Seven Summit Meeting
Apr. 20 In Moscow, the leaders of major industrialized nations and President Boris Yeltsin call for a total ban on nuclear tests (including small experiments and “peaceful” explosions for construction purposes) to be negotiated by September. They also call for the prevention of nuclear smuggling through the sharing of intelligence and collaboration on customs and law enforcement. Finally, the leaders warmly endorse Mr. Yeltsin, who is facing a difficult re-election campaign.
Apr. 21 President Clinton and President Yeltsin celebrate the “American-Russian partnership” at a news conference following their meeting in the Kremlin. They report progress on several arms control areas (such as progress in distinguishing between anti-ballistic missiles systems limited by the 1972 ABM Treaty and theater missile defenses, which are not), and minimize their political differences on areas of disagreement (the war in Chechnya, the NATO plan to expand eastward, and Russia's sales of nuclear technology to Iran).
Russia/Kazakstan/Oman
Apr. 28 Russia, Kazakstan and Oman agree on a new accord to build a major oil pipeline that will connect Kazakstan's large Tengiz oil field to a Russian port to be built on the Black Sea. Eight Western, Russian, and Kazak oil companies will be involved in the project, which should cost about $1.2 billion.
Russia/Paris Club
Apr. 29 In Paris, Russia and its 18 creditor nations, known as the Paris Club (including Germany, France, Italy, U.S.A., other European countries, plus Australia, Canada, and Japan), agree to extend by seven years Russia's repayment of an accumulated debt of $40 billion. The plan would give Russia up to 25 years to pay off its debts.
Russia/United States
NY Times, Apr. 20 After the breakup of the Soviet Union, porous borders, combined with weakened government controls, growing criminal gangs, and declining nuclear scientists' wages, have created a new risk of nuclear materials thefts. As a result, Washington and Moscow have been working toward theft prevention and have agreed to improve security at 30 locations accounting for 70% of the places where Russia stores bomb-grade materials. At the current levels of funding, however, at least six years will be required to carry out the planned security improvements.
United Nations
Apr. 1 Constrained by the first no-growth budget in its 50-year existence, the U.N. plans to cut its operating expenses by $250 million by the end of 1997. The cuts will affect personnel, reports and publications, policy analyses, and construction and repair costs.
Apr. 29 Only four months into its budget year, the U.N. says that it has no money left for daily operating expenses and will have to borrow from cash intended for peacekeeping. The U.N. is owed $2.8 billion in unpaid assessments, with the U.S. owing $1.5 billion.
World Bank
Apr. 17 The U.S. and the European Union have turned over much of the reconstruction effort in Bosnia to the World Bank, an institution created in 1944 under U.S. leadership to help rebuild war-torn Europe which now specializes in helping Third-World countries. The bank, which will oversee a $5.1 billion reconstruction project in Bosnia, has been criticized in the past for its inability to move quickly and for being ineffective in similar projects.
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