Events of November 1996
Anne D. Baylon
Bulgaria
Nov. 3 In presidential elections, preliminary results show the victory of Petar Stoyanov, the opposition candidate who campaigned on a pledge to speed the pace of economic reform, over Ivan Marazov, his ex-Communist rival.
Czech Republic
Nov. 8 Defense Minister Miloslav Vyborny announces that the government will investigate whether Czech troops received adequate chemical protection during the Gulf war. Mr. Vyborny promises that health problems related to service would be compensated financially.
Lithuania
Nov. 11 In parliamentary elections, the party of Vytautas Landsbergis, the man who led the independence movement in Lithuania, wins with a large margin over its former Communists rivals.
Romania
Nov. 2 President Ion Iliescu, a former high-ranking Communist and close aide of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, is up for reelection after seven years in power.
Nov. 4 President Iliescu will have to face a runoff on Nov. 17 against Emil Constantinescu, an academic and centrist politician. Mr. Iliescu's party, the Party of Social Democracy, loses parliamentary elections that were held on this day. The voting reflects disillusion with Mr. Iliescu's policies, which have led to a lower standard of living.
Nov. 13 In Bucharest, 10,000 people rally in support of Emil Constantinescu, who received 28% of the votes in the Nov. 3 first-round election, against 32% for President Iliescu.
Nov. 17 Emil Constantinescu becomes Romania's President with 53% of the votes. Mr. Constantinescu's victory creates a totally new political alignment in Romania--the only country in Central and Eastern Europe to have elected governments of former Communists repeatedly since 1989.
Nov. 18 Saying that “Romania comes back now to the great concert of a democratic Europe,” President Constantinescu announces that economic reform is the main priority and that the austerity program that he intends to carry out will start “with austerity for people at the top.”
EASTERN EUROPE
Belarus
Nov. 18 After threatening to step down unless President Aleksandr Lukashenko cancels a Nov. 24 referendum that could grant the President almost absolute power, Prime Minister Mikhail Chigir resigns when Mr. Lukashenko insists that he has no plans to cancel the voting.
Nov. 22 Worried about the crisis within neighboring Belarus, Russia attempts to broker an agreement between President Lukashenko and his opponents. But Belarus's parliament refuses to endorse the compromise, saying that it leaves Mr. Lukashenko with “the upper hand.” Under the compromise, the referendum's results would not be binding but parliament would have to end its bid to impeach Mr. Lukashenko. Belarus announces the shipping of its last nuclear warheads to Russia.
Nov. 23 President Lukashenko says that the referendum to expand his powers will be binding.
Nov. 24 President Lukashenko goes ahead with the referendum, sparking fears that Belarus, a small nation of 10 million people, is heading back toward a Soviet-style dictatorship; he also confirms that the last nuclear missiles will be sent to Russia within a week.
Nov. 25 Although the Speaker of Parliament, Semyon Sharetsky, calls the referendum “a farce,” President Lukashenko declares himself the victor and moves to expand his power.
Nov. 26 Parliament splits as 112 members out of 199 vote in support of President Lukashenko to make the results of the referendum binding and set up their own assembly.
Nov. 27 Pro-Lukashenko deputies abolish the old parliament and approve the creation of a new lower house.
Nov. 28 President Lukashenko signs a new Constitution that gives him control of all branches of government and extends his term by two years to 2001. Denouncing opposition deputies as traitors, he posts guards outside their building. He also reiterates his opposition to NATO's planned expansion.
Russia
Nov. 2 President Yeltsin's daughter, Tatyana Dyachenko, has become his “closest confidante and adviser,” acting as a guardian of the President's health and image. Without political experience until she joined her father's reelection campaign, Mrs. Dyachenko has emerged as one of the most powerful people in Russia.
Nov. 4 Paul Tatum, an American businessman involved in a dispute over control of the Radisson-Slavyanskaya Hotel--one of Moscow's best-known hotels--is shot to death in Moscow by an unknown assailant. Although businessmen have frequently been killed in Russia, the slaying of foreign businessmen is rare.
Nov. 5 President Yeltsin undergoes a successful heart operation.
NY Times, Nov. 9 One quarter to one third of all Russian consumer goods are imported into the country by about 10 million Russian “shuttle traders” who earn a living by flying between Russia and Turkey, southern Europe, Poland, China, and South Korea and buying low-quality goods that they resell in street markets all over the former Soviet Union. Shuttle trading has become a $10 billion import business.
Nov. 10 A bomb explodes at a Moscow cemetery, killing 13 and wounding dozens more. The explosion underscores the role of organized crime in Russia. There are at least 500 criminal organizations in Moscow alone.
Nov. 15 The Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets publishes a transcript of a taped meeting in which President Yeltsin's chief of staff, Anatoly Chubais, plots to cover up evidence of illegal campaign spending during the presidential campaign. Mr. Chubais, who denies any involvement, accuses his ousted rival in the Kremlin, former chief of presidential security Maj. Gen. Aleksandr Korzhakov, of planting fake evidence.
Nov. 16 An explosion destroys a building housing Russian military officers in the southern region of Dagestan, killing 32 people. Since Dagestan borders Chechnya, officials suspect Chechen rebels of causing the explosion.
Russia/Chechnya
Nov. 23 President Yeltsin orders the removal of all Russian forces from Chechnya, to be completed by Jan. 27 when Chechnya holds elections to choose a new president and legislature. In a concession to Chechen rebels, a small military force that was to remain permanently stationed in Chechnya will be stationed in the North Caucasus across the border. Also, Russia and Chechnya sign an economic cooperation agreement that will restore trade and communications by December.
Ukraine
Nov. 4 Yevhen Shcherban, a well-known member of parliament and one of Ukraine's richest men, is shot down by three gunmen. Mr. Shcherban had been “indirectly accused” of involvement in an assassination attempt on Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko in July.
THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
Bosnia
Nov. 6 Bosnian Serb officials destroy the homes of 96 Muslim families who had asked to visit their homes in a Serb-controlled area. Under the Dayton Peace Agreement, refugees have the right to return to their pre-war homes but, so far, no refugees have been able to actually return despite the presence of 50,000 peacekeeping forces.
Nov. 7 A European intelligence report says that the Bosnian government is smuggling heavy artillery weapons into Bosnia through the Croatian port of Ploce in violation of the Bosnian peace agreement. NATO officials fear that the Bosnian Muslims are trying to stockpile arms in order to gain the advantage if the war resumes in Bosnia.
Nov. 9 The newly elected Bosnian Serb president, Biljana Plavsic, announces on Pale television the dismissal of Gen. Ratko Mladic, the military commander indicted for war crimes during the Bosnian war. She cites international opposition to the general as making it impossible for him to remain. Maj. Gen. Pero Colic, who is replacing Gen. Mladic, says that he supports the peace agreement.
Nov. 10 Eager to assert control over their army, Bosnian Serb political leaders swear in new military commanders, in effect sealing the decision announced by President Biljana Plavsic.
Nov. 11 Hundreds of Muslims storm a village near Koraj in northeastern Bosnia to reclaim their former homes in an area now held by Bosnian Serbs. American and Russian peacekeepers quell the fighting.
Nov. 12 A second fight erupts between Muslims and Serbs but NATO forces intervene to break it off, suggesting how essential NATO troops may be in preventing war.
In Paris, European officials and U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher meet with representatives of Bosnia's three ethnic groups to “chart a course toward peace.” They urge Bosnia's Serbs to respect the peace agreement and allow refugees to reclaim their homes.
Nov. 14 In order to punish Bosnian Muslim officials for inciting civilians to violence against Bosnian Serbs, U.S. peacekeepers raid a Bosnian army camp and confiscate weapons, but they are attacked in turn by Muslim rioters.
European and U.S. officials warn the leaders of Bosnia's three ethnic groups that they will stop providing economic aid after two years if peace has not taken hold by then.
Nov. 15 President Clinton announces that the U.S. is prepared to keep a force in Bosnia for an additional 18 months. While the American contingent is currently about 14,000 troops, the new force would have a limited mandate and would be reduced to about 8,500, with full withdrawal planned for June 1998.
Nov. 17 Supporters of Gen. Ratko Mladic, who was dismissed as the Bosnian Serb military commander, seize a television transmission tower. (The Bosnian Serb television is allied with President Plavsic.)
Nov. 17 (reported in NY Times, Nov. 19) NATO officials agree that up to 30,000 troops (including 8,500 U.S. troops) will stay in Bosnia after the mandate of the current force of 60,000 expires on Dec. 20. Final approval for the new force is due in early December when NATO defense and foreign ministers meet in Brussels.
Nov. 19 Acting under U.S. pressure, the Bosnian government dismisses Hasan Cengic, the Deputy Minister of Defense of the Bosnian and Croat Federation and a “fervent Muslim nationalist with very close ties to Iran.” American officials had made Mr. Cengic's departure a requirement for the delivery of $100 million of U.S. military tanks, helicopters, and rifles to the federated Muslim and Croat armies.
Nov. 27 Three weeks after Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic dismissed Bosnian Serb military leader Gen. Ratko Mladic, Gen. Mladic finally steps down but appoints his deputy, Gen. Manojlo Milovanovic, another officer dismissed by President Plavsic, to replace him.
Nov. 29 In The Hague, the war crimes tribunal hands down its first verdict, sentencing a low-ranking 25 year-old ethnic Croat to 10 years in jail for his role in the Bosnian Serb army's massacre of Muslim civilians near Srebrenica in 1995. None of the senior military commanders who issued the orders have been arrested, however.
Croatia
NY Times, Nov. 16 According to White House officials, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman is seriously ill and undergoing cancer treatment in Washington, D.C.
NY Times, Nov. 17 U.N. officials report that the Croatian government has set up “bureaucratic roadblocks” intended to deny Serbs legal status in Croatia. With about 150,000 Croatian Serbs living in Eastern Slavonia—a region taken over by rebels backed by Serbia--the U.N. officials warn that, when their mandate expires in July and Croatia regains control of the region, these Croatian Serbs could be forced to flee to Serbia.
NY Times, Nov. 18 President Tudjman's grave illness is causing Western diplomats to worry that a powerful group of extreme nationalists, centered around Defense Minister Gojko Susak, might take over. These nationalists are against the idea of democracy and the Muslim-Croat Federation in Bosnia that was brokered by the U.S.
Nov. 20 The Croatian government announces that it will close Radio 101, the last independent radio station, for being “too politicized” (Radio 101 has been critical of President Franjo Tudjman). Six thousand people protest the decision in a spontaneous political rally in Zagreb.
Nov. 21 Although the government reverses its decision to close Radio 101, over 100,000 people keep demonstrating. The government controls both radio and television, and three of the four national newspapers.
Serbia
Nov. 3 President Slobodan Milosevic, who cannot run for the presidency again (his second and final term as Serbian President ends at the end of 1997), is intent on retaining the control he has exercised over the country for the past nine years. Mr. Milosevic increasingly governs Serbia in tandem with his wife, Mirjana Markovic, who heads a party allied with his own coalition, led by the Socialist Party of Serbia.
Nov. 17 Zajedno, an opposition coalition composed of four parties, claims victory in municipal elections and warns the leftist block, composed of Mr. Milosevic's Socialists and the neo-Communists of Mirjana Markovic, against trying to tamper with the vote.
Nov. 24 Despite protests by the opposition, President Milosevic annuls the opposition's victory in local elections.
Nov. 25 In the largest anti-government demonstration in five years, over 100,000 people block Belgrade's streets.
Nov. 27 Ignoring protesters, President Milosevic holds new elections in order to give his party the victory it failed to obtain at the polls. The opposition coalition calls for a boycott of the vote.
Nov. 30 In the fight against Mr. Milosevic's government, Zoran Djindjic, a 44-year-old articulate opposition leader, has emerged as the possible “new political power broker in Serbia and Montenegro.” But Western diplomats are nervous because they are not sure Mr. Djindjic “really believes in anything other than power.”
Slovenia
Nov. 11 Liberal Democrats, led by Janez Drnovsek, who was President of Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1990, win in parliamentary elections. The Liberal Democrats are eager to be part of the European Union and NATO.
WESTERN EUROPE / EASTERN EUROPE
Chemical Weapons Convention
NY Times, Nov. 3 The Chemical Weapons Convention, which bans the development, production, stockpiling, or use of chemical weapons worldwide and has been signed by 160 nations, receives its 65th ratification (by Hungary), enabling it to go into force in the spring 180 days later. The treaty will apply to all nations that signed it, whether they ratified it or not. The United States, China, and Russia have not yet ratified the treaty.
France/United States/NATO
Nov. 9 French/American relations have soured over the French demand in August that a European officer take over an important NATO command, Allied Forces Southern Europe, a post that has always been held by a U.S. admiral. France has threatened not to reintegrate the NATO military structure if Washington does not relent.
Russia
NY Times, Nov. 15 Vimpel-Communications, Russia's leading cellular telephone company, is about to become the first Russian company to trade on the New York Stock Exchange, offering investors a chance to buy part of a young company run by former Soviet military scientists who have reconverted themselves for the new market economy. The company is known to have “close connections to the Russian establishment.”
Spain/NATO
Nov. 14 After 14 years during which Spain was a member of the Alliance without participating in the NATO command, parliament votes to permit Spain's full participation in NATO's military structure. The government will now negotiate for Spain to become a full member of the Alliance.
U.S.A./U.N./70 Nations
Nov. 4 The U.S. introduces in the U.N. General Assembly a nonbinding resolution, co-sponsored by over 70 nations, that calls for the adoption of bans on the “transfer, use, production or stockpiling” of land mines. Land mines kill and maim thousands of civilians in former war zones where they are difficult to detect and remove.
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