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<P ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="7">Events of May 1996</FONT></FONT></P>
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<P ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="6"> Anne D. Baylon</FONT></FONT>
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<P ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="4"><B><I>Albania
</I></B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 27</B> In
parliamentary elections, President Sali Berisha's Democratic Party of
former Communists claims victory with over 50% of the votes against less
than 25% for the Socialists, despite concerns by monitors from the
European Union and the U.S. about widespread fraud and intimidation at the
polls. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 28</B> At a
rally banned by President Berisha that calls for new elections, Government
riot policemen beat and arrest opposition party protesters; but Western
Europe and Washington, which have endorsed Dr. Berisha as “their man
in a pivotal region of the Balkans,” remain silent about the election
fraud.   </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 29</B> The
two major electoral monitoring organizations in Albania's parliamentary
elections—the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and
the International Republican Institute—officially confirm “serious
irregularities” in the vote. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 30</B> As
the poorest nation in Europe, with a $600 a year per capita income,
Albania's economical survival depends on three unusual resources: foreign
aid, mostly given by Europeans as a way to prevent Albanians from
immigrating illegally to Italy or Germany; earnings from the 400,000
Albanians who work abroad and send money home; and contraband, with a high
volume of hard drugs transiting through Albania to Western Europe. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 31</B> Since
becoming President four years ago, Sali Berisha has pushed aside those who
helped him found the Democratic Party, relying on former Communist leader
Enver Hoxha's insiders instead. Although Dr. Berisha claims that  the
press is free, journalists have been arrested and jailed and the recent
police beatings and arrests of opposition supporters have prompted critics
to say that Dr. Berisha is turning into another Balkan dictator. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="4"><B><I>Bulgaria
</I></B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 13</B> As
the Bulgarian government faces its most severe economic crisis since the
collapse of Communism, it is considering a plan to close 65 state-run
companies that employ 29,000 workers. According to Prime Minister Zhan
Videnov, the plants, which account for 29% of the national budget deficit,
must be closed in order to avoid “grave financial destabilization.”
Transition to a market economy in Bulgaria has been hindered by political
infighting and by the various post-Communist governments' wavering on
implementing reforms. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="4"><B><I>Lithuania
</I></B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 14 (reported
in NY Times, May 21)</B> Lithuania arrests six people who were trying to
sell 29 pounds of radioactive uranium. It is the third uranium seizure in
Lithuania during 1996. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="4"><B><I>Poland
</I></B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>NY Times, May 5</B>
Although Poland's crime rate is low, it has been rising, prompting
citizens to demand capital punishment for perpetrators. Yet Poland needs
to abolish the death penalty (a move already made by Hungary, the Czech
Republic, and Romania) if it is to ultimately join the European Union.
President Aleksander Kwasniewski and Prime Minister Wlodzimierz
Cimoszewicz support abolishing the death penalty, but the Polish Peasants'
Party—the minority partner in the government coalition—insists
on maintaining it. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>NY Times, May 14</B>
For the first time since the collapse of Communism, economists are
witnessing the emergence of a Polish middle class that owns businesses and
buys consumer goods such as cars (car sales went up 40% in the first three
months of 1996) and refrigerators. It is estimated that 10% to 15% of the
population of almost 40 million, or about 6 million, belong to the middle
class, defined as earning between $800 and $1,600 a month for a family of
four with two working parents (the average Pole earns $300 per month).</FONT></FONT></P>
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<P ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="4"><B><I>Commonwealth
of Independent States </I></B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>NY Times, May 26</B>
The Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991 resulted in one of the largest and
most complex migrations ever faced by international relief agencies.
Almost nine million people were uprooted, with two million fleeing
regional conflicts such as those in Tajikistan and Georgia; millions more
tried to undo the Stalinist Era deportations or fled ethnic tensions that
arose after the fall of Communism, while others were victims of either
ecological disasters that forced them to move or of traffickers who lured
them into illegal immigration. </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>May 1</B>
Gennadi Zyuganov, the Communist Party leader who is challenging President
Boris Yeltsin for the presidency, has been helped in his rise by Aleksandr
Prokhanov, an anti-Semite whose opposition newspaper calls for the violent
overthrow of the President. Mr. Prokhanov was a major force in bringing
Communism back to life (five years ago, it was banned from Russian life)
and was able to forge an alliance between Communists and nationalists that
has led to Mr. Zyuganov's new popularity. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 5</B> Saying
that the country is not ready for the June 16 presidential elections, Maj.
Gen. Aleksandr Korzhakov, President Yeltsin's security chief and closest
ally, calls for a postponement. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 6</B>
President Boris Yeltsin rebukes his aide's remarks and says that voting
will take place in June as planned. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 6 </B>With
only one month before the elections, the Communists have yet to produce an
economic program. Eager to reassure Russian and Western business
executives, however, they say that they will “support a mixed economy
of private and Government-controlled enterprises” if they win the
election. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>NY Times, May 7</B>
Crime has been mounting in Russia since 1991 and is expected to more than
double by 2000, with a large percentage of the crimes committed by
organized groups and by minors. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 9</B> For
many Russian voters, the health of President Yeltsin has become a central
issue. Mr. Yeltsin, who drinks heavily, has a long history of health
problems including two heart “ailments” which developed last
year.  Russia's lack of a vice presidency would make it impossible
for Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin or any other political ally to run
in Mr. Yeltsin's place should he die or become incapacitated before the
elections. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 10</B> Still
lagging in the polls behind his Communist opponent Gennadi Zyuganov,
President Yeltsin has begun negotiations with his democratic rival,
Grigory Yavlinsky, an economist who founded the Yabloko faction of
Parliament, to create an anti-Communist coalition that would prevent Mr.
Zyuganov's victory. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 13</B>
Unlike the Communists who are relying on “old-style rallies,
leafleting and canvassing” for their presidential campaign, President
Yeltsin uses all the privileges of his position, such as the government's
virtual monopoly on electronic media, political consulting, and polling
data, to win reelection. Mr. Yeltsin has also enlisted the help of his
daughter and wife and has begun to travel extensively. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 16</B>
Running for the presidency, former President Mikhail Gorbachev has been
greeted at every stop of his campaign with indifference or rancor. Most
Russians blame Mr. Gorbachev for the collapse of the Soviet Union and
public opinion polls invariably give him no more than 1% of the vote.
</FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 17</B> Hopes
for an anti-Communist coalition between President Yeltsin and Grigory
Yavlinsky are lost after Mr. Yavlinsky sends the President a letter
detailing conditions for his support, including the demand—unacceptable
for Mr. Yeltsin—that he dismiss all his top government aides. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 18</B>
President Yeltsin discloses that he offered Mr. Yavlinsky the post of
Deputy Prime Minister in charge of market reforms but that Mr. Yavlinsky
had wanted more. Trained at Harvard and fluent in English, Mr. Yavlinsky
is a strong market reform proponent. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 20</B> As an
increasing number of polls show a slight lead for President Yeltsin,
Gennadi Zyuganov asks Communist Party members to refrain from using “frightening
words” in their remarks about nationalizing private property. Mr.
Yeltsin's camp has played upon the voters' fears by brushing off Communist
promises not to confiscate property and warned that Communists might even
nationalize private apartments. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 28</B>
Gennadi Zyuganov unveils the outline of his economic program, which relies
heavily on protectionism, state control of key industries, and wage and
price controls. Critics in Russia and abroad view the plan as a revival of
the old Soviet command economy and claim that “it won't work now
because it didn't work before.” </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>NY Times, May 30</B>
Although a church ruling prohibits the clergy from campaigning in the
presidential election, the Russian Orthodox Church, which is now restored
after 70 years of oppression by the Soviet state, is telling parishioners
not to vote for the Communists. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 31</B>
President Yeltsin appeals to the voters for support and releases a
manifesto of his economic and political program called “Russia:
Individual Family Society State.” The manifesto emphasizes a free
market economy and promises stability and prosperity. </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>May 1</B>
Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, the new Chechen leader, meets the press to dispel
reports that he was killed in a fight with rival rebels. The condition he
sets for peace with Russia is “the total withdrawal of Russian
troops.” </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 22</B>
Fiercely battling Russian troops, Chechen rebels defend the western
Chechnya village of Bamut to protect what Russians suspect is a hidden
weapons cache. Forty Russians and 120 rebels are killed. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 23</B> The
Kremlin announces that President Yeltsin and Chechen rebel leader
Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev will hold peace talks in Moscow. The meeting offers
opportunities for Mr. Yeltsin to show his interest in a peace settlement
and for Mr. Yandarbiyev to attract attention to the Chechen cause. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 27</B>
President Yeltsin and Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev sign a treaty to end the war
in Chechnya. While negotiations  will continue, fighting is to stop
by June 1 and hostages are to be released. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 28</B>
Having said repeatedly during his presidential campaign that he would
visit Chechnya, President Yeltsin makes a bold one-day trip to Grozny,
Chechnya's capital. The trip is intended to convince the Russian military
to follow his orders and the Chechen rebel commanders to lay down their
arms by June 1. </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>May 27</B> In an
unexpected move, President Leonid Kuchma dismisses his Prime Minister,
Yevhen Marchuk, a former K.G.B. officer and head of Ukraine's security
service. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 28</B>
Pledging to uphold President Kuchma's economic reforms, Pavlo Lazarenko, a
former collective farm manager and close political ally of the President,
becomes the new Prime Minister. </FONT></FONT></P>
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<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>NY Times, May 1</B>
The Muslim-Croat Federation that was formed two years ago under the aegis
of the U.S. was to create a joint government structure and present the
city of Mostar as its showcase. Yet European Union officials in charge of
administering Mostar (which is divided into a Muslim zone and a Croat
zone) say that the city is out of control and that organized crime blocks
attempts to build a civil society. West Mostar, held by two Bosnian Croat
gangsters, has become “the car theft capital of Europe.”
Mostar's pre-war population of 130,000 (34% Muslim, 33% Croat, and 19%
Serb) has declined to 60,000, roughly split between Muslims and Croats.
</FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 1</B> In
defiance of the Dayton Accord, which calls for freedom of movement, Serbs
have been preventing Muslims attempting to visit their former homes from
entering their new republic. Many Serbs say that Muslims have been granted
too much in the accord while the Serbs are treated “like a poor
stepchild.” </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 2</B> The
Bosnian government has arrested two Muslims who were indicted by the war
crimes tribunal for crimes committed against Serbs in 1992 at the Celebici
prison camp in central Bosnia and will turn them over to the tribunal. The
arrests contrast with broken promises by Serbia and Croatia to cooperate
with the tribunal. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 6</B> The
first trial by the war crimes tribunal is scheduled to start on May 7, but
the tribunal, which has indicted 57 suspects (46 Serbs, 8 Croats, and 3
Muslims) has only one Serb and two Croats in custody. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 9</B>
Charged with murders, rapes, and torture of Serbs at the Celebici prison
in central Bosnia, Zejnil Delalic, the first Muslim taken into custody by
the war crimes tribunal, pleads not guilty. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>NY Times, May 12
</B>Despite the peace accord, Bosnian Serbs are defiant and view the world
as being against them. Their top leaders, Radovan Karadzic and Gen. Ratko
Mladic, have been indicted by the war crimes tribunal and, unless these
leaders are removed, the West will not give Bosnian Serbs reconstruction
aid; they perceive the NATO peacekeeping force as an occupying force and
most organizations such as the U.N. and the international press as opposed
to them. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 12</B> After
a six-day tour throughout Bosnia, U.N. officials in charge of helping two
million Bosnian refugees return to their homes (in accordance with the
Dayton Accord that grants all Bosnians freedom of movement and the right
to return home) say that two thirds of the refugees may never be able to
go back. Their trip, they claim, clearly shows that the “engineers of
ethnic cleansing are not willing to see it reversed.” </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 16</B> In a
power struggle between Bosnian Serb factions, Radovan Karadzic, the
hard-line Bosnian Serb political leader, fires Rajko Kasagic, the moderate
prime minister of the self-styled republic. The move prompts German
Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel, NATO Sec. Gen. Javier Solana and NATO's
Supreme commander in Europe Gen. George Joulwan to press Serbian President
Slobodan Milosevic for the surrender of Dr. Karadzic since he has been
indicted for war crimes. Mr. Karadzic is planning to run in elections
scheduled for September despite being barred from office by the Dayton
Peace Accord. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 18</B>
Although Radovan Karadzic has already appointed Goljko Klickovic, an
economist, as his new Prime Minister, Rajko Kasagic, who has Western
backing, refuses to step down. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 20</B> The
international campaign to oust Radovan Karadzic from office ends in
failure as Dr. Karadzic succeeds in replacing Prime Minister Rajko Kasagic
and appointing new hard-liners to key government posts. Dr. Karadzic's
moves threaten international efforts to prepare for Bosnian elections,
scheduled for Sept. 14. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 21</B> The
Bosnian government threatens to withdraw from the Sept. 14 elections
unless NATO arrests Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic
for war crimes and the voting rules are changed to prevent Serbs from
gaining electoral control over Muslim towns and villages they seized
during the war. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3">Richard Goldstone,
the war crimes tribunal's chief prosecutor, warns that NATO's refusal to
order its troops to arrest the accused Bosnian Serb leaders may undermine
peace in the Balkans. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 27</B>
Underscoring the Dayton Accord's failure to guarantee freedom of movement,
Bosnian Serbs block Muslim women from entering the Prijedor area in
northwestern Bosnia (Bosnian Serbs drove Muslims and Croats out of the
area during the war). </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 31 </B>In
what the U.N. says is tantamount to “ethnic cleansing,” the
Muslim Bosnian government has expropriated tens of thousands of Sarajevo
homes that were abandoned by fleeing ethnic Serbs or Croats and turned
them over to Muslim refugees. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="4"><B><I>Croatia
</I></B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 1</B> In a
move that reflects “growing intolerance and a refusal to accept
democratic change,” President Franjo Tudjman—a former Communist
general—dissolves Zagreb's elected city council, which appoints the
mayor and is dominated by the opposition. The move is accompanied by new
press laws that make it difficult to criticize the president or government
officials. </FONT></FONT></P>
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<P ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="4"><B><I>Conference
on Conventional Weapons </I></B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 3</B> An
international Conference on Conventional Weapons in Geneva agrees to
decrease the use of land mines in the next decade and to make them easily
detectable and self-deactivating. It stops short of banning these mines
totally, however, despite a worldwide campaign to ban their use. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="4"><B><I>Germany
</I></B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 14</B>
Germany's highest court upholds laws passed in 1993 to restrict the number
of foreigners permitted to enter Germany. Until 1993, Germany had very
liberal laws on accepting foreigners from outside the European Union, and
400,000 foreigners per year were applying for refugee status. After 1993,
the number of asylum applicants fell to 128,000 per year. Currently,
Germany offers refugee status only in cases of political persecution.
</FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 15</B> A
proposed merger between the city of Berlin and the eastern German state of
Brandenburg is defeated by Brandenburg's former Communist voters. The
results are evidence of the resentment the former East Germans feel toward
their Western counterparts (they complain that their concerns are not
taken seriously in Bonn). The merger has been viewed as “vital”
to giving the Berlin-Brandenburg region a leading role in Europe. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="4"><B><I>Italy </I></B></FONT></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="left"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="3"><B>May 16</B>
Romano Prodi, an economist who led a center-left coalition to victory in
April elections, is chosen to serve as Prime Minister of Italy's 55th
postwar government. </FONT></FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE="+1"><A HREF="May_1996.htm">Go to top of page </A></FONT></P>
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