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<TITLE>April</TITLE>
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<CENTER><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+4">Events
of April 1997</FONT></FONT></FONT></CENTER>
<HR WIDTH="100%">
<CENTER><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+1">Anne
D. Baylon</FONT></FONT></FONT></CENTER>
<CENTER><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+1"> </FONT></FONT></FONT></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+1"><I>CENTRAL
EUROPE</I><FONT SIZE="+1"></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></B></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+1"> </FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+0">Albania</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
2</B> In Tirana, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi meets with Bashkim
Fino, his Albanian counterpart, to firm up plans to send to Albania an
international aid force of 5,000 led by Italy.</FONT></FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
9</B> Prime Minister Prodi wins parliamentary approval to send an
Italian-led multinational force to Albania, but his coalition government
is seriously weakened when crucial political allies fail to support him.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
12</B> Albania's long-exiled king, Leka I, visits Albania, promising his
supporters that "we will work together to save and rebuild Albania."
King Leka's father, King Zog, fled the country with his family in 1939.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
15</B> The first troops of a force of 6,000 soldiers from eight countries
(France, Spain, Greece, Romania, Denmark, Austria, Turkey, and Italy)
arrive in Albania as do 470 tons of food supplies from the U.N. World Food
Program.</FONT></FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
17</B> Following talks led by OSCE envoy Franz Vranitzky of Austria,
political parties agree to hold parliamentary elections on June 29. The
military missions spread further across Albania to reach the key rebel
stronghold in Vlore.</FONT></FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
20</B> Although the multinational troops in Albania say that their mission
is to escort humanitarian aid to the hungry, relief agencies in charge of
distributing the food say that the force is not needed because "there
are very few hungry people and no one is starving."</FONT></FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>NY
Times, Apr. 24</B> During the March riots, looters ransacked government
storehouses for weapons. A substantial portion of these weapons is now
being smuggled over the mountains to the neighboring Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia or to the Kosovo area of Serbia, which has an
Albanian majority.</FONT></FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>NY
Times, Apr. 25</B> In addition to having to operate under an uncertain
mandate, Italian troops in the international force must deal with an
historically hostile relationship between Albania and Italy: Albania was
occupied by Italian troops during the two World Wars.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
</P>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+0">Bulgaria</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
20</B> Bulgarians vote for a new Parliament. Two-hundred-and-forty seats
are to be distributed among an anti-Communist coalition (the Union of
Democratic Forces), the Socialists (or former Communists) who are accused
of allowing crime and corruption to thrive and of failing to make urgent
economic reforms, and three smaller parties.</FONT></FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>NY
Times, Apr. 21</B> The reformist Union of Democratic Forces wins 52
percent of the votes against 22 percent for the Socialists.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
</P>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+1">EASTERN
EUROPE</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+0">Russia</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>NY
Times, Apr. 1</B> In what many view as political suicide, Boris Nemtsov,
the young and newly appointed First Deputy Prime Minister, has vowed to
end energy and transportation monopolies, find ways to pay pensions, and
fight corruption in Russia. As governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region for
five years, Mr. Nemtsov is credited with turning it into a bastion of
free-market reform.</FONT></FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
4</B> Parliament adopts a bill that allows Russia to keep almost all the
art it seized from Nazi Germany at the end of World War II--a priceless
collection of paintings and sculpture. President Yeltsin, who opposes the
bill out of fear that it will harm relations with Chancellor Helmut Kohl,
is expected to block the measure in court.</FONT></FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
16</B> In a symbolic gesture, President Yeltsin arrives in Germany for
talks with Chancellor Helmut Kohl, bringing wwith him for restitution
several pieces of art seized from the Nazis.</FONT></FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+0">Russia/Belarus</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
2</B> Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Belarus President Aleksandr
Lukashenko sign a charter that, if ratified, would lead to the union of
the two republics and be a symbolic response to NATO's plan to expand
eastward. But, under pressure from the liberals in his Cabinet who oppose
Mr. Lukashenko's centralized regime and authoritarian ways, Mr. Yeltsin
insists on a "watered-down" version of the charter that
maintains the sovereignty of each country.</FONT></FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
3</B> The government of Belarus begins the closed-door trials of
protesters who participated in a rally against unification between Russia
and Belarus. Since the beginning of the year, about 200 people have faced
such trials and only two have been acquitted.</FONT></FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+0">Russia/Chechnya</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
28</B> A bomb explodes at a train station in southern Russia near the
border with Chechnya, killing 1 and wounding 17. It is the second attack
in less than a week. Chechen guerrilla leader Salman Raduyev has claimed
responsibility for a bomb that exploded on April 23<SUP>rd</SUP> at a
rail station 140 miles west of the Chechen capital of Grozny, warning that
the bombing was the "beginning of a series of spot strikes throughout
Russia."</FONT></FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
30</B> Peace between Russia and Chechnya crumbles as the Russian police
and Chechen rebels engage in sustained fighting. Also, in an attack that
Russian officials attribute to Chechen rebels, a gunman kills a local
official in the neighboring republic of Ingushetia.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
</P>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+0">Tajikistan</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
30</B> President Emomali Rakhmonov is wounded in an assassination attempt
when a grenade explodes at his feet in Khodzhent, 125 miles north of the
capital of Dushanbe, killing 2 people and wounding 57 others.</FONT></FONT></FONT> <BR> </P>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+0">Ukraine</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>NY
Times, Apr. 9</B> Although Ukraine is the third-largest beneficiary of
American aid, it has been hindered in its transition to a free market by "rampant
official corruption." Westerners describe the business environment as
marked by bribes, threats, and violence and estimate that about $100
billion have been siphoned out of the country by profiteering officials.
Among those is Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, who is said to have made
millions through private business dealings while in office.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
14</B> In a victory for Western efforts to curb nuclear cooperation with
Iran (out of fear that Iran will develop nuclear expertise and weapons),
Ukraine decides not to supply turbines for a nuclear reactor that
cash-starved Russia is selling to Iran.</FONT></FONT></FONT> <BR> </P>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+1">THE
FORMER YUGOSLAVIA</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+1"> </FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+0">Bosnia</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>NY
Times, Apr.6</B> Since he stepped down as Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan
Karadzic has been running with Momcilo Krajisnik, the Serbian member of
the three-man Bosnian presidency, a monopoly over gasoline, cigarettes,
and other goods that earns him millions and deprives the government of tax
revenues. According to senior Bosnian Serb officials, the money should be
used instead to finance schools, hospitals, and government offices.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
15</B> In an important step toward unifying the state, members of Bosnia's
joint presidency agree on a currency, to be printed within 100 days, for
both halves of the country. The currency, called the convertible mark,
will be worth about 57 cents.</FONT></FONT></FONT> <BR> </P>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+0">Croatia</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>NY
Times, Apr. 12</B> President Franjo Tudjman and his party, who rose to
power by appealing to Croatians' national pride, have rehabilitated the
Nazi-allied fascist collaborators (known as the Ustashe) who ruled the
country during most of World War II and murdered hundreds of thousands of
Jews, Serbs, and Croatian resistance fighters. As a result, neo-fascist
groups protected by the state are thriving in Croatia and ready to use
violence against their critics.</FONT></FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>NY
Times, Apr. 13</B> Eastern Slavonia, a Croatian region that was seized by
Serbs after Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, will
revert to Croatia in July when the 5,000 U.N. soldiers administering the
region will leave. Croatian officials and thousands of displaced Croats
are expected to reclaim the land they were forced to abandon while at
least half of the 120,000 Serbs there will leave despite assurances by the
U.N. and the Croatian government that their rights will be respected.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
14</B> An opposition coalition of the Social Democrats and Social Liberals
defeats President Franjo Tudjman's nationalist party in city elections in
Zagreb, causing intense political maneuvering as each side seeks alliances
to gain control over the powerful Zagreb government (the opposition fell
short of a viable majority to win).</FONT></FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
26</B> Having won elections on April 24, the nationalist ruling party of
Croatia is now set to dominate Croatian political life for years. But the
West has become increasingly frustrated by the refusal of the Zagreb
government to rebuild the region, to allow 200,000 ethnic Serbs who were
driven from their homes in Croatia from returning, and to prosecute
indicted war criminals.</FONT></FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
28</B> Under U.S. pressure, the Croatian government extradites for the
first time a Croat, Zlatko Aleksovski, who has been indicted by the war
crimes tribunal in The Hague for mistreating Muslim prisoners while being
in command of a detention camp at Kaonik, near Sarajevo, during the
Bosnian war. Although Mr. Aleksovski had been arrested almost a year
before, Croatian authorities had refused to turn him over to The Hague.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
</P>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+0">Serbia</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
11</B> Gen. Radovan Stojicic, the head of the Serbian Interior Ministry
and President Slobodan Milosevic's right- hand man, is gunned down in a
Belgrade restaurant.</FONT></FONT></FONT> <BR> </P>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+1">WESTERN
EUROPE/EASTERN EUROPE</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+1"> </FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+0">Germany/Bosnia</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
1</B> German officials send back to Bosnia 30 Bosnian children who had
been rescued from Sarajevo's siege four years before and raised in German
orphanages. The move focuses attention on Germany's intent to deport tens
of thousands of Bosnian Muslim refugees whose homes are now in territory
controlled by the Bosnian Serbs. Since 1992, Germany has received almost
half of the 700,000 Bosnians who fled their country when war started.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
</P>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+0">Russia/NATO</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
9</B> After talks with French President Jacques Chirac, Russian Foreign
Minister Yevgeni Primakov agrees that, provided details can be worked out
satisfactorily and promptly, President Boris Yeltsin will sign the
NATO/Russia agreement in Paris on May 27. The agreement would establish a
permanent liaison between Russian and Allied military officers in Mons and
a consultative council in Brussels.</FONT></FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+0">Turkey</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
6</B> Foreign Minister Tansu Ciller, a leading member in the coalition
government of Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, is being accused
of enriching herself and her husband by illicitly diverting government
funds during her tenure as Prime Minister of Turkey from 1993 to 1996.
Accusers say that, in exchange for keeping the ruling Welfare Party in
power, Mrs. Ciller is getting protection against judicial investigation.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
7</B> A Parliamentary Commission recommends that two Parliament members be
stripped of their immunity and brought to trial for leading a gang used by
the government to assassinate "perceived enemies of the state."
Both men maintained close ties to Foreign Minister Tansu Ciller at a time
when she was Prime Minister and many of the "mystery killings"
took place.</FONT></FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
26 </B>Two ministers--both members of the secular partner party (i.e.,
former Prime Minister Tansu Ciller's party) in the government coalition of
Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan--resign in protest over Mr. Erbakan's
refusal to reverse some of the Islamic policies he had agreed to
reverse under pressure from Turkey's military. These two defections, along
with others, have caused the coalition to appear increasingly shaky.</FONT></FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>Apr.
28</B> For the first time since Turkey's military has been asking for a
government crackdown on illegal Islamic education centers, the police raid
and close down seven buildings in which unofficial Koranic courses were
operating in the western province of Bursa.</FONT></FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER><B><I><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+0">War
Crimes Tribunal in The Hague</FONT></FONT></FONT></I></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="-1"><B>NY
Times, Apr. 3</B> Although the Bosnian Serbs are usually blamed for the
horrors of the war, three Bosnian Muslims and one Croat are currently on
trial in The Hague for war crimes. Since its creation in 1993, however,
the war crimes tribunal has had little power, indicting 74 people but
holding only 7 in custody.</FONT></FONT></FONT> </P>
<P></P>
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<P><BR>
<FONT COLOR="#083250"><FONT SIZE="-2">Copyright @ Center for Strategic
Decision Research 1998</FONT></FONT> <BR><FONT COLOR="#083250"><FONT SIZE="-2">Strategic Decision Press</FONT></FONT>
</P>
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