Events of February 1996
Anne D. Baylon
with Whitney Hischier
Poland
Feb. 7 Prime Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz and his 20 ministers are sworn into office, forming Poland's 7th government since 1989. Mr. Cimoszewicz replaces Jozef Oleksy,who resigned after being accused of passing state secrets to Moscow. Although he is not affiliated with any political party, he intends to pursue his predecessor's push for economic growth and European integration.
Russia
Feb. 1 Nearly 500,000 Russian coal miners strike for $200 million in back pay and protest government subsidy cuts in the industry. Most of the money, however, is owed not by the government but by faltering industries which cannot pay for the coal they use. The current strike is providing political ammunition for the Communists—President Yeltsin's strongest opponents in the June elections.
Feb. 3 Moscow ends the coal miners' strike by agreeing to pay $133 million in back wages.
Feb. 8 Saying that Russia had effectively controlled inflation and budget deficits, the IMF approves a $1.05 billion loan for Russia, the last portion of a $6.3 billion credit line the agency approved in 1995.
Feb. 13 The government bars Russia's only nationwide independent television network, NTV, from the Kremlin after a derogatory broadcast about President Yeltsin. The station is owned by Vladimir Gusinsky, a liberal millionaire who is a critic of the war in Chechnya.
Feb. 15 President Yeltsin announces that he will seek reelection in June and promises to “continue Russia's political and economic reforms.” At the same time, Mr. Yeltsin's Communist opponent, Gennadi A. Zyuganov, also announces his nomination, talking about limiting privatization and restoring Russia as a great power.
Feb. 17 President Yeltsin dismisses Oleg Poptsov, the chairman of Russian State Television, for “lies” and negative programming. Mr. Poptsov had run the TV network since it was created in 1990 and had often supported Mr. Yeltsin. The move undermines Mr. Yeltsin's reelection campaign by raising concerns that he is trying to control the media.
Feb. 22 The International Monetary Fund agrees to give Russia a $10.2 billion loan to carry on free-market reforms. The three-year loan is a boost for President Yeltsin, who claims that only he in Russia can secure such a loan. (Michel Camdessus, the IMF managing director, says that the loan will be cut off if the Communists come to power.) Mr. Yeltsin plans to use $4 billion of the loan, which will be handed out this year, to increase social spending before the elections and pay $2.8 billion in back wages.
Feb. 23 In an annual address before parliament, President Yeltsin blames his own government for Russia's problems, attacking corruption, false reforms, and poor military leadership. He stresses, however, that the toughest economic problems are behind him and that only he can ensure that reforms will continue.
Feb. 26 Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin agrees with President Yeltsin's criticism of the government, which failed to protect Russians' living standards while heading towards market economy, and says that he will “soften the process of economic reform.”
NY Times, Feb. 29 The World Bank promises a $500 million loan for the restructuring of Russia's coal mines (currently employing 800,000 workers), which have suffered from industrial decline, a subsequent lowered demand for energy, and structural inefficiencies. Creating a smaller, more viable, and competitive coal industry is central to Russia's plan to lower spending and inflation.
Russia/Chechnya
Feb. 5 The morale of the 40,000 Russian troops stationed in Chechnya declines as they lack food and sufficient equipment and are mocked by the Chechens. The soldiers do not wish to fight and want to return home.
Feb. 6 On Russian television, Chechen leader Dzhokhar Dudayev accuses the West of supporting Moscow's war in Chechnya with $6 billion in aid. Ten thousand anti-war demonstrators rally outside the presidential palace in Grozny.
Feb. 8 More than one thousand protesters who have rallied at the ruins of the presidential palace in Grozny are surrounded by Russian special forces.
Feb. 9 A bomb explodes among the protesters and kills three Chechens.
Feb. 10 Russian troops backed by the local police fire on the protesters.
Feb. 11 Protesters are persuaded to leave after reaching a compromise with the Russians. No details of the agreement are available, however.
Feb. 16 Infuriating local citizens, Russian soldiers demolish the ruins of the presidential palace—a symbol of Chechen resistance to Russia.
Feb. 19 Russian forces shell the Chechen village of Novogroznensky, near the border with Dagestan, where Chechen rebels have established an underground headquarters. The shelling began after the rebels fired on Russian positions outside the village.
Feb. 20 Despite President Yeltsin's promise to end the war in Chechnya, Russian troops step up their attack on Novogroznensky, claiming by day’s end that the town has been seized and that the rebels have fled.
Feb. 21 Contradicting Russian claims that the assault against Novogroznensky was delayed to allow civilians to flee, Chechen civilians say that they were fired upon as they fled and that others were trapped in the village.
Feb. 25 Russian troops move into villages in Ingushetia, a republic that borders on Chechnya, in search of Chechen rebels who might have sought refuge there (Ingushetia has close ethnic ties with Chechnya). They fire on six villages, killing civilians.
Tajikistan
Feb. 4 Eager to avoid another civil war, President Emomali Rakhmonov, who installed a Communist government in Tajikistan after winning a civil war in 1992/93 against democratic and Islamic groups, agrees to demands by rebel army soldiers that he dismiss corrupt officials and improve the economy. He fires his Prime Minister, his Chief of Staff, and a southern governor, and also grants amnesty to the rebels. In exchange, the rebels promise to turn in their arms and return to their barracks.
Feb. 8 Becoming Tajikistan's new Prime Minister, Yakhyo Azimov, a carpet factory manager, vows to promote economic reform and to cooperate with the IMF and the World Bank in order to rebuild the economy.
THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
Bosnia
Feb. 2 In Tuzla, hundreds of women who were driven out of Srebrenica when Bosnian Serbs took the town last July demonstrate in front of government buildings, asking about the fate of the more than 8,000 men who have been missing since then. Some of these men are believed to be alive in Serbian prison camps.
The U.N. refugee agency announces a $5 million project to help reconstruct homes in Sarajevo in an effort to keep citizens from relocating. An estimated 12,000 Serbs have already left Sarajevo's suburbs, which will fall under the Muslim-led government's control on March 19th.
Feb. 3 The first American peace-force officer is killed after stepping on a land mine in the U.S.-controlled sector of northern Bosnia. There are over three million, often poorly marked, land mines throughout Bosnia. To date, nine NATO soldiers have been killed in Bosnia since the troops arrived in December.
Economic recovery in Bosnia is slow, with industry currently producing at 5% of pre-war levels. The economy needs $400 million for raw materials, parts, and wages. The World Bank plans to create 200,000 jobs.
Feb. 4 In the Serbian-held suburbs of Sarajevo, the Serbian police, which was to withdraw on Feb. 10 as part of the transfer to the Bosnian government, will be allowed to remain for 45 more days if they uphold the laws of the new Muslim-Croatian Federation. The agreement is an attempt by the U.N. to keep the 50,000 Serbs in Sarajevo from fleeing the Muslim-dominated government when it takes control in mid-March. Although the U.N. intends to send 1,600 unarmed international police monitors to Bosnia to help create a joint Muslim-Serbian force, only 300 officers have been deployed so far.
Feb. 6 After the Bosnian government arrests eight Serbs, including senior commander General Dzjordje Djukic—an aide to Gen. Mladic—on suspicion of war crimes, Bosnian Serbs halt all contact with the government and threaten to stop the free passage of Muslims through Serbian-held suburbs if the men are not released.
Feb. 7 The U.N. war crimes tribunal asks the Bosnian government to hold two Serbian officers (including Dzjordje Djukic) for war crimes. Gen. Mladic calls on Bosnian Serbs to “freeze” all contact with NATO forces.
Feb. 9 Bosnian Serb military commanders break all communication with NATO to protest the imprisonment of their two officers. Gen. Mladic orders Muslims and Croats to stay out of Serbian-held Bosnia.
The International Committee of the Red Cross reports that approximately 700 people—mostly Croatian and Muslim civilian men—are being held in slave labor camps in Serbian-held areas of Bosnia.
Feb. 10 The Bosnian Serbs ease their stance against NATO and continue military cooperation at the local commander level.
Feb. 11 Bosnian Serb government officials call Gen. Mladic's order to sever ties with NATO forces invalid, stating that “General Mladic does not speak for the government.”
Feb. 12 In an effort to be more compliant with the Dayton Peace Agreement, the Bosnian government announces that it will no longer arrest people on suspicion of war crimes without authorization from The Hague. Meanwhile, the two Bosnian Serb senior officers at the heart of the controversy are flown to the Netherlands and turned over to the war crimes tribunal.
NY Times, Feb. 13 Bosnian Croat nationalists see the federation created by the Dayton Agreement as a “betrayal of values” and a “Government of Muslims.” In fact, Bosnian Croat politicians believe that Bosnian Croats need their own state in Bosnia in order to protect their rights.
Feb. 13 After NATO officials in Bosnia complain of a lack of detailed information regarding suspected war criminals, the U.S. Defense Department announces that it will supply NATO troops with clearer descriptions of the suspects. Although Defense Secretary William Perry emphasizes that the U.S. and its NATO allies are not conducting an organized search, war criminals can be arrested at NATO checkpoints.
In a sign of a rift between Serb and Bosnian Serb leaders, Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic has agreed to the extraditions of the two Bosnian Serb officers without informing his Bosnian Serb allies.
Feb. 15 Raiding a house near Sarajevo, NATO troops arrest 10 Muslims soldiers—3 of them Iranians who were caught with plans to attack NATO military buildings—and confiscate weapons. U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher warns that the U.S. will not continue to equip and train the Bosnian army unless all foreign forces leave Bosnia (under the Dayton accord, all foreign volunteers were to have left by January 19th).
Concerned that the peace agreement will collapse, U.S. officials call an international conference in Rome to get the Presidents of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia to “recommit” to the Dayton Accord.
Feb. 16 According to NATO officers, the house they raided on Feb. 15 was a terrorist training center run under the aegis of the Bosnian government. The Bosnian government denies the allegations, however, saying that NATO has misinterpreted what is an anti-terrorist operation being conducted with the help of foreign experts.
European and Bosnian government officials report that regular Croatian soldiers are often intermingled with Bosnian Croat troops in violation of the Dayton Agreement. Although Croatia claims that “there are no Croatian troops or soldiers or even instructors in all of Bosnia,” top officers in the Bosnian Croat army “are appointed by and are responsible to the President of Croatia,” a senior Western diplomat says.
Feb. 17 NATO Allies meet in Rome with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, and Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic in an effort to obtain from the three presidents a “recommitment to Dayton” and full compliance with the peace agreement. Among issues to be discussed are refugee and prisoner exchanges, departure of foreign military volunteers, apprehension of suspected war criminals, and increasing tensions within the Muslim-Croat Federation.
Feb. 18 In Rome, the leaders of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia agree to carry out the Dayton Accord. They pledge to resume contacts with NATO commanders, to create on schedule a unified administration for Sarajevo, to insure the safety of war prisoners and refugees, and to help in the prosecution of war crimes and human rights abuses.
Feb. 19 U.N. officials announce that Bosnian government police officers will move into Vogosca—the first Sarajevo suburb to undergo the transition to government control—on Feb. 23, weeks earlier than planned. The police forces will be under the supervision of 300 U.N. officers who will accompany them on patrols. Although Bosnian government officials have sought to reassure the Serbs living there, most of them have now fled.
Feb. 20 While Bosnian Serb leaders are urging Serbs living in Sarajevo to flee before the Muslim government takes control of the area, NATO and the U.N. are hoping to persuade the Serbs to stay and to make Sarajevo a multi-ethnic city again.
Feb. 22 Thousands of Bosnian Serbs flee Sarajevo and head toward Pale, the Bosnian Serbs' headquarters.
Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic is hospitalized for heart problems.
Feb. 23 Beginning the reunification of Sarajevo, the Bosnian government takes control of Vogosca's police station. The new police force, which is intended to reflect Sarajevo's pre-war ethnic composition, is composed of 16 Muslims, 14 Serbs, and 2 Croats, but most of Vogosca's 17,000 Serbian residents have now fled, making this suburb a “ghost town.” By the time all of Sarajevo's suburbs are turned over to the Bosnian government on Mar. 19, U.N. officials estimate that 60,000 Serbs (nearly 90% of their population) will have left.
In an effort to be elected Bosnian Serb president this fall (despite the Dayton Agreement which forbids him from seeking office), Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is talking about a project to build a $10 billion city called “Serb Sarajevo.” The city would stretch from Pale, Mr. Karadzic's headquarters, to Lukavica, a Serbian-held Sarajevo suburb and would be home for Bosnian Serbs currently living in Muslim-controlled areas.
Feb. 24 Feeling that Serbs in Sarajevo's suburbs are determined to flee, NATO agrees to allow the Bosnian Serb army to send trucks to transport them. Until now, NATO had refused to help Serbs leave, because it would have been a tacit form of “ethnic cleansing.”
Feb. 27 The U.N. and Yugoslavia lift sanctions against the Bosnian Serbs as a reward for withdrawing their forces from buffer zones set by the Dayton Accord. (Yugoslavia imposed sanctions 18 months ago on the Bosnian Serbs in order to try to get its own sanctions lifted by the U.N.; it obtained satisfaction in November.)
Feb. 29 As the second Sarajevo suburb of Ilijas is transferred to the Muslim-Croat Federation control, the Bosnian Muslim government officially declares Sarajevo's siege over. Only 100 Bosnian Serbs are now left in Ilijas.
WESTERN EUROPE / EASTERN EUROPE
France
Feb. 22 Saying that “cutting the 500,000-strong uniformed forces was long overdue after the end of the cold war,” President Jacques Chirac announces that the French armed forces will be reduced by one third and will become an all-volunteer force within six years.
Greece/Turkey/Western Europe
Feb. 8 New Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis is being attacked by his political opponents for his handling of a crisis with Turkey over a barren island in the Aegean Sea Greece calls Imia. (The crisis started when a Turkish ship ran aground on the island, continued with flag plantings by both sides, and ended with a U.S.-brokered resolution that called for mutual withdrawal.) Greece has claimed an inalienable sovereignty over the island.
Russia/U.S.A.
Feb. 10 Meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher in Finland, Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov says that Russia wants to work closely with the U.S. and has no plan to revive the Soviet Union. Mr. Primakov also agrees to a new effort to ratify the Start II strategic arms reduction treaty which was signed three years ago and to continue Russia's participation in the NATO-led troops in Bosnia.
United Nations
Feb. 5 Saying that the U.N. is “sliding toward bankruptcy,” the top U.N. financial official tells the General Assembly that 10% of the permanent staff of over 10,000 will have to be eliminated. The organization's debts are due to a combination of reduced budgets and the failure of member-nations to pay their dues on time.
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