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<P ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="7">Events of July
1996 </FONT></FONT></P>
<HR SIZE="1">
<P ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="5">Anne D. Baylon <BR></FONT></FONT></P>
<DIV ALIGN="center"><FONT SIZE="+1"><I>with Deb Hammels</I></FONT></DIV>
<DIV ALIGN="center">
<CENTER>
<ADDRESS> <FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="4"><B><I>CENTRAL EUROPE
</I></B></FONT></FONT></ADDRESS> </CENTER></DIV>
<P ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="4"><B><I>Czech
Republic </I></B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 2 </B>Prime
Minister Václav Klaus formally submits a new coalition cabinet to
President Václav Havel after elections on May 31 and June 1 gave a
strong second place to the opposition Social Democrats and stripped the
governing coalition of its majority. Mr. Klaus hopes to submit his new
government’s program to parliament by mid-July. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="center"> <FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="4"><B><I>EASTERN
EUROPE </I></B></FONT></FONT> </P>
<P ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="4"><B><I>Russia
</I></B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 1 </B>After
canceling a series of public meetings, President Yeltsin attempts to
compensate for his total absence from the public view for a week by making
a brief, “wooden, tightly choreographed” television speech
urging Russians to vote for him in the July 3 elections. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 3 </B>Defeating
Communist leader Gennadi Zyuganov, President Boris Yeltsin is reelected by
a wide margin of 13.3 percentage points. Mr. Yeltsin‘s victory is due
in part to the 15 million voters who had supported Gen. Lebed in the first
round of elections and overwhelmingly voted for Mr. Yeltsin this time; it
also reflects Mr. Yeltsin’s “extraordinary personal resilience”
and Russia’s rejection of the return of its Communist past. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 4 </B>President
Yeltsin reappoints Viktor Chernomyrdin as Prime Minister. Promising to “resurrect
Russia,” Mr. Yeltsin urges the nation to end the political discord
between the “victorious and the vanquished.” </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 9 </B>Gen.
Lev Rokhlin, the chairman of parliament’s defense committee, accuses
high-ranking officials of using the military budget to gain personal
financial benefits. Among the accused are former national security advisor
Gen. Pavel Grachev, his key aides, and other high-ranking officers who are
described as “mired in corruption.” </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 10
(Reported in NY Times, July 12)</B> President Yeltsin signs a decree that
gives Aleksandr Lebed, his new security adviser, “expanded power to
fight crime and restore order in Moscow.” </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 11</B> A
bomb explodes in a trolley bus in Moscow, wounding five and challenging
President Yeltsin’s promise to crack down on crime. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 12</B>
After another trolley bomb explodes in Moscow and 60 bomb threats are
reported, President Boris Yeltsin declares the city “infested with
terrorists” and sends 1,000 elite soldiers onto Moscow’s
streets. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 15</B>
President Yeltsin retreats to the Barvikha sanitarium (where he was
treated twice before for heart problems) for two weeks after canceling a
meeting with U.S. Vice President Al Gore and appointing a free-market
advocate, Anatoly Chubais, as his new chief of staff. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 16</B>
Although President Yeltsin finally meets with Vice President Gore at the
sanitorium, he appears “wan and stiff.” </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 17</B>
Russian army Gen. Igor Rodionov is selected by President Yeltsin as the
new Russian Defense Minister replacing Gen. Pavel Grachev, who was ousted
in June. Gen. Rodionov, whom a Western expert describes as “not
corrupt, well-educated on foreign affairs, and ruthless,” is closely
associated with Aleksandr Lebed. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 22</B> In
an internal power struggle indicative of the discord and disarray among
Communist factions after their defeat in the presidential election, Viktor
Anpilov, the leader of the hard-line Communist Workers’ Party, is
dismissed from the Moscow party organization where he held the position of
first secretary. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3">The IMF delays a
$330 million monthly payment to Russia, part of a $10.2 billion three-year
loan it granted Moscow in February. IMF officials say that, although
Russian expenditures have remained on target, revenues from taxes are way
under tax projections; this is partly due to the fact that some companies
did not pay taxes until they were certain that the Communists would not
win the elections. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 24</B> The
Communist-dominated parliament rejects government-supported legislation
that would encourage foreign companies to invest billions of dollars in
the oil and gas industry and thus generate badly needed revenue. The
Communists’ success in blocking the legislation shows that, despite
their recent defeat in the presidential election, they still have the
power to stall market reforms.   </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 30</B>
Unable to withstand Russia’s shift from Communism and the new
competitive marketplace, Pravda, Russia’s “oldest and most
famous Communist newspaper,” ceases publication. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="4"><B><I>Russia/Chechnya
</I> </B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 7</B>
Ignoring a deadline that is part of the Russia/Chechnya peace agreement,
Russian troops remove only 4 of the 32 checkpoints that they had agreed to
dismantle by July 7. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 10</B>
Despite President Yeltsin’s promise to end the war in Chechnya,
Russian forces attack two Chechen villages south of Grozny in violation of
the peace agreement and kill dozens of civilians. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 11</B>
Russian forces attack the village of Makhkety, which they suspect to be
the headquarters of Chechen rebel leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev; leading
commanders on both sides of the fighting are killed. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 13</B>
Despite his original conciliatory approach to the war in Chechnya,
national security advisor Aleksandr Lebed refers to the Chechen rebels as
“bandits,” and reasserts that “Chechnya is on the territory
of Russia.” He also reiterates his desire to become President.
</FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 15</B> As
Russian troops blockade villages in southeastern Chechnya, Chechen rebels
attack an armored Russian vehicle in Grozny. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 20
(Reported in New York Times, July 22)</B> In a new assault, Russian troops
attack a base 30 miles south of the capital of Grozny, killing 5 Chechens
and wounding 18 others. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="4"><B><I>Ukraine
</I></B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>NY Times, July
16</B> Coal miners protest unpaid wages by blocking a rail line in eastern
Ukraine.  Corruption, combined with the slow pace of privatization,
has caused Ukraine’s standard of living to lower. As a result,
millions of workers have not been paid for months. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="center"> <FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="4"><B><I>THE
FORMER YUGOSLAVIA </I></B></FONT></FONT> </P>
<P ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="4"><B><I>Bosnia
</I></B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 2 </B>The
U.S. Department of Defense announces that 1,200 armored American troops in
Bosnia will be replaced with members of the military police from several
American forts. Although they will not have the firepower of the troops,
the military police will be more appropriate for dealing with the
September elections and the resettlement of the refugees. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 3 </B>The
Clinton Administration pledges to send $360 million in military aid to the
Bosnian government if it agrees to merge the Muslim and Bosnian Croat
troops into one single army (the aid would provide weapons and training
needed by the merged army if it ever had to fight the better-equipped
Bosnian Serbs). But, despite the creation of the Muslim-Croat Federation
under the peace accord, tensions still remain between Muslims and Bosnian
Croats who fought each other in a vicious war in 1993 and 1994, and both
sides resist the merger. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3">In an effort to
pressure NATO nations into arresting the two indicted Bosnian Serb
leaders, Gen. Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, investigators of the war
crimes tribunal in The Hague present the court with details of the mass
murders committed under the two Serbs’ responsibility in the city of
Srebrenica during the war. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3">Despite
encouragement from his supporters, Radovan Karadzic announces that he will
not be running in Bosnia’s September elections. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 4</B>
Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic meets in Belgrade with Biljana
Plavsic, Radovan Karadzic’s successor, to discuss Mr. Karadzic’s
future  and how much influence he still wields over the ruling Serb
Democratic Party in the Bosnian Serb republic. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 6 </B>NATO
Commander in Bosnia Admiral Smith says that he has no orders to hunt down
Radovan Karadzic and no plans to intimidate or arrest him. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 8 </B>Robert
Frowick, the U.S. diplomat who leads the mission to organize Bosnian
elections, threatens to block the Serb Democratic Party from the Sept. 14
elections unless its leader, Radovan Karadzic, steps down. (Although Mr.
Karadzic handed his powers to Biljana Plavsic, his deputy, he retained his
title and was reelected chairman of the Serb Democratic Party for four
years.) </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 9 </B>The
Muslim-Croat Federation adopts a law to merge the Muslim and Bosnian Croat
armies, prompting Washington to begin delivering arms and a training
program to bring the federation’s forces up to the level of the
better-equipped Bosnian Serbs. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3">U.N. war crimes
investigators begin to exhume bodies from a mass grave in Cerska, near
Srebrenica, where Bosnian Serb soldiers are believed to have buried
thousands of Muslims they killed. The findings will be used in the trials
of Gen. Mladic and Radovan Karadzic if they are arrested. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 11</B> The
U.N. war crimes tribunal issues international arrest warrants for Radovan
Karadzic and Gen. Ratko Mladic. Although the warrants require U.N.
member-nations to arrest the  two men if they enter their countries,
the warrants’ effect is limited by the failure of the West to order
their peacekeeping troops to pursue the two men. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 12</B> The
U.S. and Bosnia sign an investment pact that will give American businesses
incentives (i.e., financial support for long-term investment) to help
Bosnia recover from the war. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3">The OSCE, which is
in charge of supervising the September elections, disqualifies seven
candidates from the government’s Muslim Party as punishment for
physically attacking a rival politician. The June 15 attack was on former
Bosnian Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic, who was once a member of the party
before breaking away to create his own rival party. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 15</B> In
order to give the Bosnian Serbs more time to remove Radovan Karadzic,
their leader, Robert Frowick postpones the start of the election campaign
until July 19. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 19</B>  U.S.
envoy Richard Holbrooke announces that, in an agreement negotiated with
Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic has agreed to
surrender his political power and step down as chairman of the Serb
Democratic Party. But Dr. Karadzic will not be exiled and put on trial for
war crimes at The Hague as Wester nations have long been seeking. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 23</B> In a
breakthrough in the relations between Bosnia and Serbia, a 40-member
delegation of Bosnian officials and businessme makes an official visit to
Serbia for the first time since the Bosnian war began in 1992. They
discuss with President Slobodan Milosevic the removal of travel visas and
the restoration of communications. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 24</B>
Lieut. Gen. Patrick Hughes, head of U.S. military intelligence, warns
Congress that unless U.S. peacekeeping troops stay in Bosnia another year
(past the current year-end deadline), other NATO nations will pull out
their forces and Bosnia will be likely to return to a state of civil war.
 There are about 16,000 Americans in the peacekeeping force. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>NY Times, July</B>
<B>26</B> Deeply frustrated by his powerlessness to bring Radovan
Karadzic to trial<B>,</B> Antonio Cassese, president of the international
war crimes tribunal, warns of harsh consequences, including a loss of
credibility for the U.N. and other international organizations, if those
indicted for atrocities are not brought before the tribunal. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>NY Times, July
27</B> The 1,500 United Nations monitors in Bosnia have been given broad
powers to reform the local police forces who often violate people’s
most basic rights, especially those of Muslims; but they have become
highly critical of the United Nations for failing to support their efforts
at stopping the abuses and being “far too eager to seek change by
persuasio rather than by mor forceful efforts.” </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 29</B> A
high-level Bosnian Serb delegation meets with officials of the
international war crimes tribunal to discuss pressing charges against
Alija Izetbegovic, the President of the Muslim-led Bosnian government.
</FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="center"> <FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="4"><B><I>WESTERN
EUROPE / EASTERN EUROPE </I></B></FONT></FONT> </P>
<P ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="4"><B><I>Turkey
</I></B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 2 </B>Necmettin
Erbakan, Turkey’s first Prime Minister to represent an Islamic
political party since the republic was founded in 1923, announces to
visiting U.S. State Department officials his plans to develop closer ties
with the Arab world. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 8 </B>The
Turkish parliament approves a coalition government composed of Mr. Erbakan’s
Islamic Welfare Party and the True Path Party, the center-right party
headed by former Prime Minister Tansu Ciller. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="4"><B><I>U.S.A./Russia/Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty </I></B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 23</B>  In
an agreement announced by U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher and
his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov, the U.S. and
Russia agree to press for the international ratification of the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty; the treaty, which has been under
negotiation for over 18 months, would prohibit any nuclear testing in all
parts of the world. So far, the U.S., Britain, France, and Russia have
ended their testing. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>July 29</B>
China conducts a nuclear test but announces that it will be its last. The
announcement coincides with the resumption in Geneva of the 61-nation
disarmament conference intended to complete the draft treaty for the
worldwide ban on nuclear tests. </FONT></FONT> </P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT SIZE="+1"><A HREF="july96.htm">Go to top of page</A></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT SIZE="+1"><A HREF="96timelines.htm">Return to 1996
Timeline Table of Contents</A></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT SIZE="+1"><A HREF="../index.html">Return to NATO
Workshop Homepage</A></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left">Copyright © Center for Strategic Decision Research
1997</P>
<P><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="4"></FONT></FONT></P>
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