* Polonia: gli agricoltori contro l'Unione Europea (The Guardian)
* Lo stato della Russia (Golos Kommunista)
* La NATO ed il nazionalismo ungherese (The Rockford Institute)
* Polonia: i CRETTINs - COALITION OF ROBBERS AND EXPLOITERS OF
TECHNOLOGY TUMOR INFESTED NATIONS - stanno distruggendo il paese (M.
Glogoczowski)
* Romania: l'embargo contro la Jugoslavia e la politica interna (IWPR)
* Ucraina: Ritornano i latifondisti (STOPNATO)
* Ucraina: rispettati gli impegni con gli strozzini mondiali (Reuters)
* Romania: esercitazioni militari (US Army)


---

>Polish farmers declare war over EU membership
>
>Thousands of smallholders claim they are being pushed
>to the wall in the Warsaw government's rush to
>negotiate with Brussels on entry
>The European Commission: special report
>
>Tony Paterson in Augustow, north-east Poland
>Tuesday April 18, 2000
>The Guardian
>
>Poland's politicians may be embracing early membership
>of the European Union but its farmers are furious
>about the move, which could wipe out their
>livelihoods.
>
>This week, as the European commission finalises its
>draft plan for the inclusion of Poland, Hungary, the
>Czech Republic, Estonia, Slovenia and Cyprus in the
>union, many of the fields around Augustow remain a
>wasteland.
>
>"Polish agriculture is already ruined," said one
>farmer, Stanislaw Bojkowski, 67, who tills 50 acres
>near Augustow.
>
>"Farming was worthwhile under communism, but Warsaw's
>European Union madness is driving us out of business."
>
>
>He is not alone. According to estimates from the
>Polish Peasants' party, only 600,000 of the country's
>2m farms will survive the process of joining the EU.
>
>Yet Warsaw's liberal-conservative coalition government
>is adamant that Poland must join as soon as possible.
>
>Mr Bojkowski is cultivating only half of his land this
>year - he cannot afford the fertilisers needed for the
>rest.
>
>"The money I get for the wheat and potatoes I manage
>to produce hardly makes it worthwhile. The bulk of my
>income these days derives from my old-age pension," he
>said.
>
>Two miles away, Mieczyslaw Suchocki, 43, has tried to
>offset his farming losses by taking a share in a
>grocery store.
>
>In the 1980s his 74-acre farm, producing potatoes,
>wheat and tobacco, was subsidised by the state. A
>single tobacco crop earned Mr Suchocki enough to buy a
>car.
>
>Now the terms of growing are set by the multinational
>British American Tobacco company. "Starting next year,
>BAT is only buying tobacco from farmers who plant and
>dry it with the special drying equipment we can buy
>from them.
>
>"I would need a $10,000 loan to purchase the equipment
>and I simply can't afford it. Producing tobacco on a
>small scale is out," he said.
>
>The collapse of small-scale farming is a dilemma faced
>by all the EU candidate countries but it is acute in
>Poland, where some 26% of the working population is in
>agriculture.
>
>Roman Jagielinski of the Polish Peasants' party argues
>that the state must make social security provision for
>farmers forced out of business. He wants the rest to
>receive subsidies from Brussels.
>
>But Brussels has so far turned a deaf ear. The common
>agricultural policy subsidy budget, which amounts to
>more than £25bn a year in direct aid to EU farmers,
>has been fixed until 2006.
>
>It contains no provision for EU candidate countries,
>although Poland is still aiming for a 2003 entry date.
>
>
>The anger of Polish farmers boiled over last year,
>when the militant agricultural workers' union
>Samoobrona (Self- Defence) staged countrywide protests
>against the flood of cheap EU imports.
>
>This persuaded Warsaw to temporarily ban grain imports
>and raise the amounts paid for home-grown pork.
>
>But the moves were not enough to satisfy Samoobrona's
>leader, Andrej Lepper, who will run as a candidate in
>the presidential election this autumn.
>
>"Poland is not being treated as a partner by the EU.
>We are simply being used as a dumping ground for their
>surplus products," he said.
>
>Two-thirds of large farm owners recently declared
>their readiness to take part in further militant
>protests.

---

L?état de la Russie

Selon le rapport des Nations unies, à présent la Russie est 71ème sur
174 pays, sur l?échelle du
Potentiel de développent humain. Le plus grand et, en ressources
naturelles, un des plus riches
pays dans le monde, avec une population des mieux éduquées, la Russie
traîne derrière le
Venezuela, le Panama, le Mexique, Grenade, la Malaisie, Cuba, la
Biélorussie, Fiji, la Thaïlande et
la Roumanie sur la liste des Nations unies.... Peut-être, néanmoins, que
la Russie puisse être
«fière» d?un meilleur niveau de vie que la Lituanie, l?Ukraine et la
plupart des pays dans le
Caucase et l?Asie centrale...
Le Produit national brut par habitant est tombé à la 116 place (!) dans
la liste des pays - après
avoir été la seconde puissance industrielle dans le monde.... Tels pays
que le Barbados, la
République Dominicaine, la Turquie, le Liban, le Gabon , Trinidad,
Panama et l?Île Maurice
produisent actuellement plus par tête d?habitant que la Russie! Dans 13
pays ce taux est dix fois
supérieur à celui de la Russie, alors qu?au Luxembourg et en Suisse il
est de 16 fois supérieur!
Les Russes aujourd?hui mangent moins et vivent moins longtemps qu?en
1970. Alors, l?espérance
de vie était en général de 68,7 ans, maintenant elle est de 66,6.
Entre temps le gouvernement russe se prépare à retarder l?âge de départ
en retraite, pour les
hommes de 60 à 65 ans, et pour les femmes de 55 à 65. La plupart des
hommes russes, ne vivront
pas assez longtemps pour prendre leurs retraites... C?est précisément
l?objet de cette réforme:
économiser de l?argent sur les retraites!). Actuellement les habitants
de pays tels que le Panama,
le Costa Rica, le Honduras et le Surinam ont commencé à vivre plus
longtemps!
Les Russes consomment maintenant moins de calories que les Tunisiens,
les Algériens, les
Malais, les Indonésiens, les Turcs, les Iraniens, les Chiliens e les
Argentins.
En même temps la Russie détient le plus grand taux d?incarcération dans
le monde 1538 sur
100.000 habitants. Le petit Swaziland vient en seconde place, avec
presque la moitié de ce taux,
967...
La Russie est aussi un des pays en tête en ce qui concerne le nombre de
suicides. Chaque année
73 hommes et 14 femmes sur 100.000 de la population se suicident, suit
la Lituanie avec 79
hommes et 15 femmes. À noter que d?autres pays de l?Europe de l?Est et
de la Baltique suivent la
Russie de très près....Voilà le «bonheur» des réformes?
Selon des enquêtes sociologiques, la plupart des femmes russes ont un
sentiment «d?horreur et
renoncent à vouloir vivre» quand elles se découvrent enceinte.
Eh bien, merci beaucoup pour cet «avenir brillant» de notre nation,
Monsieur Gorby et K!

(source Golos Kommunista, avril 2000)
[Traduit par I.R et A.M.]
Diffuso dalla Editions Democrite, Francia

---

The Rockford Institute

July 3, 2000

NATO AND NASCENT HUNGARIAN REVISIONISM

by Gabriel Neagu

In his remarkable article “Bad treaty that won’t go away,” published in
The Washington Times on June 4
(www.washtimes.com), Balint Vazsonyi, director of the Center for the
American Founding, made an impassioned and
unrestrained plea for the revision of the Treaty of Trianon, named for
the palace in Versailles where peace was concluded
between Hungary and the Entente powers in 1920. Dr. Vazsonyi’s article
is a timely prompt to appraise NATO’s impact on
the geopolitical architecture of the Danubian basin, with particular
reference to Hungary’s nascent revisionism

The article contains references to non-Hungarian ethnic groups that are
conceited and in poor taste, if not grossly insulting. If,
for example, “Slovaks had lived in the Northern counties of Hungary for
a thousand years, and their only path to social
advancement was to become Hungarianized,” there is no more to say about
their right to self-determination. If Transylvania as
a Hungarian province “had everything, including enormous historic
importance to Hungary,” it is implicit that no such
importance can be attached to its original and all-time majority
inhabitants, the Romanians. The statement that “the towns, the
great centers in Slovakia, in Transylvania, in Vojvodina were not built
by Slovaks, Rumanians or Serbs” is disingenuous:
pre-Hungarian Europeans did not wait for the Hungarians to build their
towns, schools, churches, and societies.

Something is wrong when a director of the “Center for the American
Founding” states that “something is not right about the
manner in which the plight and cultural destruction of the Hungarian
millions in Slovakia, Romania and Serbia has been
ignored.” How many millions of Hungarians were destroyed in Slovakia,
Romania, and Serbia? When and where? On what
sources is that audacious claim based? In Serbia Hungarians have enjoyed
for decades – and still do, even under the
disgraceful Mr. Milosevic - the rights and privileges on par with any
West European country’s treatment of its minorities.
Romania’s Hungarian minority has grown in numbers since Trianon. At the
same time, Hungary’s Romanian minority -
numerous at the end of World War I - has decreased dramatically. “There
is nothing to show for the untold suffering of
millions of Hungarians,” laments Dr. Vazsonyi. But his attempt to
include his compatriots in the list of approved victimhood
rests on the flimsiest of grounds.

An optimist might say that Dr. Vazsonyi is a harmless nostalgist, that
his irredentist dreams cannot be taken seriously in view of
Hungary’s desire to become integrated in the political and defense
structures of “the West.” But will NATO curb or boost
Hungary’s revisionism? The record is ominous: NATO is Washington’s
military arm and, after its aggression against
Yugoslavia, a criminal organization. Washington has developed one of the
most sophisticated webs of deceitful relationships in
human history. By virtue of wielding ultimate power, Washington remains
its key puppeteer. When there was a USSR, the
U.S. did make elaborate efforts to feed the illusion that international
organizations were not its own instruments, but real
international forums. A decade ago Washington attacked Iraq only after
having maneuvered the UN into giving its blessing and
the “international community” into “building a consensus.” Such finesse
is no longer needed.

Like father, like son: the “new” NATO has violated its own charter, the
US Constitution, the UN Charter, international laws
and conventions, and has committed war crimes. Its policy is based on
double standards, duplicity, and favoritism. Even in the
old days NATO did not have a history of restraining its more bellicose
members. What did NATO do to prevent its member
Turkey from invading northern Cyprus in 1974? It still keeps that
territory under illegal military occupation, but NATO does
not look offended. More recently, Washington and London have declared
no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq, claiming
that they want to protect the Kurds in the north and Shiites in the
south against Saddam. However, Turkey is allowed to
violate Iraq’s borders and to murder with impunity the Kurds in northern
Iraq. And only a few weeks ago, acting as UN
Security Council proxies of Washington, NATO members USA, France, and
Britain banned Yugoslavia from an international
discussion on the future of the Balkans and, implicitly, of Yugoslavia
itself. In their warped view of the world, if they disdain a
country, that country should not be allowed to discuss its own future,
let alone have a say in deciding it.

Such spirit of NATO encourages an openly revisionist Hungarian policy.
According to a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
(RFE/RL) report of October 21, 1998,

“After just a few months in office, it has become clear that the
new Orban government is taking a more vigorous
approach to supporting the claims of ethnic Hungarians living in
the neighboring countries of Romania, Slovakia and
former Yugoslavia.” (Hungary: New Government Feels Responsible For
Minorities Abroad by Kitty McKinsey)
Citing only Hungarian sources, the RFE/RL report went on to enumerate
many Hungarian claims, which were uncritically
presented as legitimate. Hungarian Undersecretary of State Tibor Szabo
was approvingly quoted as saying that “the Hungarian
nation does indeed not coincide with the borders of Hungary.” Given that
RFE/RL is one of Washington’s basest propaganda
agencies, the biased views presented by that report might well be just
another expression of Washington’s preferences. It does
not mind Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban declaring that “the
Constitution of Hungary defines our responsibility for
Hungarians living outside the borders” at the conference Hungary and
Hungarian Minorities Living Abroad in February
1999. In plain language, this implies Hungary’s constitutional “right”
of direct interference in its neighbors’ internal affairs,
which is very different from the normal, and legitimate, concern for the
well-being of one’s compatriots in other countries.

In conclusion, NATO will not curb Hungary’s revisionism if it can
contribute to the destruction of national sovereignty and of
the historically constituted national states. Some Hungarians may hope
to ride on the coat-tails of the project, but they, too, will
be its victims. The NWO seeks a world in which a minuscule, rootless,
and unprincipled financial oligarchy will exploit
everybody, without respect for borders, traditions, religions, cultures,
nations, or any other loyalty that can withstand the
upcoming enslavement. Its “democracy” and “human rights” are strictly
selective (the Serbs, for example, have none), and they
are invoked – to reward or to punish – only inasmuch as they serve the
oligarchy’s interests.

The phenomenon is not new. When the late Rumanian dictator Nicolae
Ceausescu was deemed to serve the interests of the
then still concealed NWO, the Queen of England decorated him and treated
him to a tour of London in her own blazoned
carriage. His appalling human rights record was deemed irrelevant. But
when he paid off Romania’s international debt and
started turning a profit in an economy that was not based on “free
market” fallacies, he became a “nationalist” and was
dispatched by the Romanian subsidiary of the globalist project.

New NATO member Hungary undoubtedly feels encouraged in its revisionism.
It should remember that any short-term
rewards may soon prove to have carried an exorbitant price tag.

Mr. Neagu, a native of Rumania and a former Radio Free Europe analyst,
writes from Washington D.C.

---

The speech of Marek Glogoczowski, a Poland's representative at the
European
Future Congress held at Bratislava, July 2nd, 2000.

The economic and social reality we encounter at present in Poland is
much
the same as the one, described before me, by representatives of
Slovakia,
Estonia and Latvia. In particular, our Estonian friend told us that his
country is producing only 40 percent of food it consumes, and the rest
is
imported from European Union. In "communist" posteriority Poland had
well
developed agriculture, but due to "reforms" it also follows this pattern
of
development: ten years ago milk production in my country attained 16
millions tons, and last year it has dropped to only 8 millions. The same
holds in practically all other industries, and due to it, imports exceed
exports up to 12 billions dollars per year. This means that every
working
man and woman in my country receives from the West yearly up to thousand
dollars high "subvention" to his salary. My monthly salary - as of an
academic lecturer in philosophy - is precisely 200 dollars, which means
that it is in half "sponsored" by the West, which since ten years takes
care for the Poland's development. It is evident that for this,
"implanted"
by Coalition of Global Investors, Polish national debt, we will pay in
the
future with remnants of our national treasures, our forests and
agriculture
lands, and even with our children and houses.
As a philosopher "proletarized" by the West, I would like to put some
professional light at the process of globalization, for it was not
invented
out of nothing. Everyone, who studied the Bible in more detail, knows
the
religious root of this process. The well known prophets of this Book,
like
Zechariah or Isaiah, prophesized the oncoming "Thousand years of
Unified,
Global Kingdom", where there will be "One Lord and one His name", and
the
"Nation or kingdom that will not serve Him shall be utterly laid waste".
As
show it statistics, in United States half of the population believes in
these prophecies. Therefore it is evident that such Bible-directed
public
automatically backs American government, which tries to realize orders
given by the Holy Scripture.
As the idea of "globalization of the Globe" is already more than 2,5
thousand years old, the idea of "Europeanization of Europe" is
relatively
fresh. It is a product of scientific revolution of last two hundred
years,
and it was elaborated with high transparency by French positivist
philosopher August Comte, in the middle of 19th century. According to
his
fertile ideas, European nations should be homogenized, and Europe
unified
in a form of a super-state, consisting of smaller Euro-regions, each
inhabited by about 3 million people. The imagined by Comte future
positivistic society should be divided in castes: atop should be a
narrow
elite of bankers and their associates, below soldiers performing the
role
of police damping eventual disorders, and underneath the caste of
proletarians, working essentially for the glory - and moral values - of
the
work. According to the proposal of this philosopher, members of lower
castes should have no permission to form their individual,
non-controlled
by rulers, views. We may say that in such "positivistic" society,
democracy
might be only decoracy, a decoration masking the utterly despotic
character
of the modern state. As pointed it out a known Polish philosopher Leszek
Kolakowski, August Comte was in large extend the prophet of fascist
movements characterizing first half of 20th century.
How does it look, in this religious and philosophical setting, Europe at
the eve of 21st century? All vital for us decisions are taken at
semi-secret meetings of various informal associations of bankers and
media
owners, such as the Bildberg Group. One of illustrious participants of
these semi-secret, big-business linked associations, an American
publicist
Thomas Friedman defined recently, in very transparent terms, goals of so
called "globalization of the Globe". He did it in "New York Times", only
four days before the start of "friendly bombings" of Yugoslavia:
"For globalization to work, America can't be afraid to act like the
almighty superpower that it is. The hidden hand of the market will never
work without the hidden fist. McDonalds cannot flourish without
McDonnel-Douglas, the maker of the F-15. And the hidden fist that keeps
the
world safe for the Silicon Valley technologies is called the US Army,
Navy,
air force and Marine Corps."
Here we have at least an overt statement what kind of totalitarian
future
prepares for us this "almighty" Coalition (in German Koalizion) of
Global
Investors, known in literature under the abbreviation of KGI. "Adapt
yourself to US-invented life technologies or perish". That's the
essential
message of our Corporate Masters.
Screening the list of participants of these semi-secret Bildberg
"seminars", we may find names of heirs of the last century "Robber
Barons",
which ravaged our Earth from New York to Shanghai. For this historical
reason I propose to supplant the KGI term by a more suggestive
abbreviation
CRETTIN (with double T) - COALITION OF ROBBERS AND EXPLOITERS OF
TECHNOLOGY
TUMOR INFESTED NATIONS.
For a keen observer it is evident that this, parasiting on our vanity
and
stupidity, CRETTIN (with double T) has a well developed internal
structure,
covering practically all aspects of our culture, our science, and even
our
religion. Here I would like to concentrate on commercial youth
organizations affiliated to the CRETTIN establishment. Those numerous -
at
least in Central and Eastern Europe - youth organizations are raising
specific "scouts", which efficiently facilitate the "liberal
transformation" of KGI targeted nations.
The "Invisible Leader" of these "scouts of commercial freedom" is with
no
doubt the wordily known financier and philanthropist George Soros, He is
a
kind of Baden Powell of our post-modernist times. For this reason I will
call the organized by him youth movement "Soros Jugend", in the memory
of
German youth organization in 30ies and 40ties. (As George Soros recalls
it
in his writings, during his adolescent times he belonged to the
Hungarian
analogue of Hitlerjugend. He even participated, as this organization
activist, in the deportation of Hungarian Jews towards Auschwitz.)
To the Soros-controlled panoply of organizations belong Open Society
Foundations, which play essential role in politics of many countries,
especially of those freshly liberated from communism. George Soros
revealed
himself, in his book "Underwriting Democracy" published in 1993, the
goal
of all these noble institutions. He informs there that (his idea was)
"the
creation of an international web ... at the heart of which will be the
computerized base of (personal) data, which enable the Western
Multinational Societies to find candidates, which they are searching
for".
In short, all these Soros-educated young men and women are prepared to
fulfil functions comparable to that of Japanese geishas. These Young
Urban
Professionals, thanks to their multiple, delicate social contacts with
bureaucracy in target countries, facilitate the implementation in their
homelands of KGI run businesses. According to information gathered by
Schiller's Institute, the George Soros right arm in European Commission
is
professor Romano Prodi. It means that "the web" of Soros-led politicians
embraces all the Europe: according to our information in Russia with
this
banker's "web" are linked ex-(vice)PM Tchoubais, Kirilenko and Niemcov.
In
Poland we speak overtly that Soros is in fact an "invisible emperor",
which
is trying, with the help of his Legion of Geishas (or "Scouts") of the
Open
Society, to unify Europe according to the pattern traced earlier by
Napoleon and Hitler. One wonders, how many years will survive this new
version of "Thousand Jahre Reich". Of course, I have a project how to
humanize this latest, logical accomplishment of our positive, born with
French Revolution, European dreams. This my proposal is contained at the
end of a longer article "Quo vadis Europe?" which I've prepared for the
Ljubljana Euro-Future meeting.
(Below is only its short outline. It is based on experiences of my
youth,
when Yugoslavia was for me a positive model of communisto-capitalistic
country, where people were living in much better way than in the nearby,
sterile Austria. To my surprise, a similar opinion has Austrian writer
Peter Handke, and also the French historian Yves Bataille, whom I met
for
the first time two years ago at Prague, at the Slavic Congress. Of
course I
will be happy to rebuild - and even extend - the country which I have in
my
positive memory. How to realize it? In last month's municipal elections
in
Montenegro, the victorious (in an overall score) coalition "Pro
Yugoslavia"
consisted of honest socialist, nationalist and even communist parties,
all
of which I have in esteem. Such an "alliance of retrogrades" stirs an
overt
hostility of ruling at present in Europe - and also in Montenegro -
coalition "For better life", which in reality realizes anti-social
interests of supranational financial gangsters, backed by local
Mafia-linked "geishas".
Why not to project the extension of Montenegrin "Pro Yugoslavia"
coalition
onto other European countries? What about the revitalization of the
project
of de Gaulle's dreamed "Europe of nations", from Mediterranean to the
Atlantic Ocean? All this may sound like an irresponsible dream, but to
all
renegades of student 1968 movement I want to recall a slogan written on
walls of Paris in May 1968 "Soyez réalistes, demandez l'impossible".
From
my own experience is evident that - in a long term - it is better to
stay
together with those who proved to be courageous, smart and honest, than
to
go "down the drain", together with those who proved to be greedy liars,
prfessional swindlers and cowards.)

P.S. Few days after my speech at Bratislava, where I proposed the term
"Coalition of Robbers and Exploiters" (CRE), I've found in N. Chmsky's
book
"What Uncle Sam Really Wants" a following, CRE related statement: "Who
is
going to win the race (in Eastern Europe) for robbery and exploitation.
Is
it going to be German-led Western Europe, or Japan, or the United
States?".
In fact it is a good question for the European Future Congress.

---

<< ROMANIAN SMUGGLING SCANDAL SPARKS POLITICAL TURMOIL

A political row has broken out in Romania over claims that senior
Romanian
politicians helped to organise the smuggling of oil to Yugoslav nearly
a
decade ago.

By Marian Chiriac in Bucharest

The scandal over illegal Romanian oil shipments to Yugoslavia during
the
Bosnian war has taken a new political twist with President Emil
Constantinescu accusing two prominent politicians of involvement in the
case.

Constantinescu alleges that his predecessor, Ion Iliescu, and former
Foreign
Minister, Teodor Melescanu, were involved in transporting the fuel, in
breach of a UN embargo against Yugolavia.

"Huge quantities of petrol were exported under the cover of the
darkness,"
Constantinescu said, claiming the Romanian secret service played a role
in
the smuggling, operating on "orders from above" - a clear reference to
the
country's former political leadership.

The president said Iliescu and Melescanu would be held responsible,
"regardless of whether they knew about it."

Melescanu immediately retaliated, accusing Constantinescu of attempting
to
discredit his rivals ahead of presidential elections in
November."Constantinescu is turning the presidential seat into a
soapbox
from which he can heap abuse on his political opponents," the former
minister said.

Without formally denying the accusations, Iliescu said the president's
remarks carried "a strong dose of electioneering." It was "unacceptable
and
dangerous" for the president to "take over the role of the judiciary,"
Iliescu said.

The smuggling operation followed the UN Security Council's decision in
1992
to impose an oil embargo on Yugoslavia to pressure Belgrade to stop
supplying fuel to the Bosnian Serbs.

Romanian police launched an investigation into the country's violations
of
the UN embargo three years ago. Local press reports earlier this year
said
Romanian investigators had established around 1,000 railway wagons
carrying
tonnes of fuel were smuggled across the Romanian-Serbian frontier at
Jimbolia.

According to the reports, secret service agents accompanied the trains,
which passed the Jimbolia crossing at night with their lights off.

"Operation Jimbolia blew a hole of $100 million in the public purse,"
the
daily paper, Evenimentul Zilei, reported. "The operation was financed
by the
state through preferential credits allotted to cronies of the former
government under the co-ordination of the Romanian Intelligence
Service."

Romanian judicial officials have refused to comment on the media
reports,
but say the investigation is continuing.

On July 5, however, former intelligence chief, Virgil Magureanu, said
in an
interview with the most popular daily paper Adevarul, "Romania's
violation
of the embargo against Yugoslavia was indeed a political decision, made
at
the highest level."

Magureanu said Western governments had also approved the shipments
because
the oil was meant only for humanitarian purposes. "Other countries like
Bulgaria, Hungary and Ukraine also carried out similar special
operations,"
he said.

Although international observers said UN rules had not been breached,
Romania is known to have a poor record of observing UN sanctions. The
embargo presented many people with an opportunity to ferry barrels of
oil
across the Danube in small boats. Hundreds of luxury villas, built on
the
proceeds of this lucrative trade, soon dotted the landscape.

But most Romanians look upon Constantinescu's sanction busting attack
on
Iliescu as nothing more than a political bluff. Iliescu was ousted by
the
reformist Constantinescu in the 1996 elections, but looks poised to win
back
the presidency in the November elections.

Constantinescu may also be sending a signal to the international
community
ahead of November's poll. Critics have accused Iliescu of maintaining
warm
relations with Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic. "The allegations
against Iliescu are unlikely to enhance Romania's bid to join NATO and
the
European Union," says Eliade Balan of the daily paper, Romania Libera,
"but
they should serve as reminder his election victory could complicate the
situation in the Balkans."

Marian Chiriac is news editor at the MediaFax News Agency in Bucharest
and
editor of Foreign Policy, a quarterly published by the Romanian
Academic
Society. >>

Fonte: IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, NO. 156, July 14, 2000 www.iwpr.net

---

The landlord returns to the Ukraine


By Lem Harris

Before the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Ukraine, about the size of
France, was
known as the bread basket of the Soviet Union. Today, elimination of all
collective
farms is underway. Ukrainian President Kuchma, by decree, and with no
confirmation by
the Ukrainian Parliament, removed all financial support, including
production credit,
from all collective farms. The decree includes the privatization of all
collective
farm land by assigning all such land in equal shares to former members
of the
collective.

One does not need a crystal ball to foresee what will happen. The New
York Times
reports that one enterprising Cossack, Vasily Kluga, member of a
dissolved collective,
saw an opportunity and took advantage of it.

Kluga, along with other members of his collective received title to
acres of the
collective by an earlier decree. That was a first step in the "reform"
policy for
doing away with collectives and opening the way for private ownership of
farm land.

Kluga moved fast. He borrowed money from what the Times correspondent
characterized as
a local "oligarch," that is one of the local insiders who bought some
former
state-owned enterprise for a song and is now comfortably rich. With this
money, Kluga
bought enough five-acre shares from his fellow members of the collective
to accumulate
title to over 200 acres. He also acquired necessary implements at fire
sale prices. Of
course, Kluga's oligarch was no philanthropist. He charged 40-percent
interest on the
loan, but Kluga was able to pay it off out of his harvest.

Then Kluga made his big move. Like many others, his collective was
bankrupt. Their
bankruptcy was a direct result of government "reform" measures. Under
Soviet
conditions many collective farms were prosperous. I have visited
collective farms in
this very area near Poltava, where Kluga lives, as well as in many other
regions. On a
number of occasions I sat down with the accountant of a collective to
examine a farm's
financial reports.

On one such farm in the North Caucasus, I still have the figures for the
1984 season
showing the net profit of 2.5 million rubles for that year's operations.
That profit
was distributed as follows:

. 30 percent for new construction of roads and buildings

. 40 percent for new tractors, trucks and implements

. 15 percent for bonuses (usually a 13th month wage payment)

. vouchers covering low-cost vacations in mountain or seaside resorts

. and new facilities for improving living standards

. 15 percent to the state fund of the Ministry of Agriculture.

At that time, living standards on well-run collective farms were equal
to those of
working families in the cities. But not any more. In both Russia and the
Ukraine, the
collective farms were sabotaged. Then Russian President Boris Yeltsin
tried to issue
decrees like Kuchma, but the Communist-dominated Russian Congress
stopped him by
passing laws protecting the collectives. However, often collectives had
to wait many
months before receiving payment for their grain and other farm products
shipped to the
government. During the delay in payment, inflation dropped the value of
the ruble,
resulting in a heavy loss for the farms. Also, for many years Yeltsin
bypassed the
collectives by buying dairy and meat products from abroad, seriously
cutting in to the
sales of domestically grown products.

Kluga saw his chance when Kuchma issued a new decree last December
privatizing all
Ukrainian collective farms! The decree divided the title of the farms'
land equally
among the farm's members. All further support for the collective was
terminated.

At this point Kluga's collective offered him the chairmanship of the
farm. But Kluga
was not one to assume responsibility for the collective's large debt. So
he made a
counteroffer. The collective could become bankrupt, but he would rent
the land now
owned by the 120 members, about 1,200 acres, and pay this rent with
shares of his
harvest - a smart deal, worthy of a young Carnegie. In this way, the
Times reports, he
would bypass the collectives' debts and probably become owner of all the
collective's
land and equipment in about two years. The collective, with little other
choice,
accepted his offer and now Kluga controls 1,730 acres, nearly three
square miles of
rich farm land.

Of course all was not clear sailing for Kluga. He had to borrow $10,000
more from the
oligarch for fuel and additional equipment. "I am running a very big
risk in taking
another loan, for everything depends on a good harvest," he said. "If we
are lucky, it
will rain."

Kluga's fortunes will depend on much more than rain. More critical will
be how free
enterprise Ukraine will determine grain prices. Will the "reform" policy
copy the
American experience and hold grain prices down to levels below his
costs?

If Kluga survives one is tempted to say he represents the return of
"kulaks," the
farmers in czarist days who exploited their poor neighbors. Kluga is
already bigger
than any kulak. He is the new landlord, like the hated czarist
"pomestchoki."

Working for him are 20 of the best workers of the former collective.
These include
72-year-old Ivan Nimchin, a skilled combine harvester operator. "The old
system was
better," Nimchin said, "but it is nice to get a paycheck once more."

Nimchin reminded me of an old man I met on my most recent trip to
Russia. He was on
horseback, herding cattle on the open prairie somewhere in the North
Caucasus. His
clothing was badly torn. "Look at me," he said. "I get paid almost
nothing. Things
were better under communism."

Fonte: STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM

---

Ukraine Meets Its First Half Debt Obligations in Full

KIEV, Jul 16, 2000 -- (Reuters) The Ukrainian government fully met its
debt
obligations in the first half of the year, paying $494 million of
foreign
debt and 1.075 billion hryvnias ($197.66 million) of domestic debt, the
prime
minister said on Friday.

"We as the government do not have any overdue payments either on
domestic
debts or foreign," Viktor Yushchenko told parliament. "The government
did not
receive a kopeck of foreign loans this year."

The International Monetary Fund and other lenders froze credits to
Ukraine
last September over slow reforms and the government has failed to
persuade
them to resume financing.

Yushchenko said a deal agreed in April to reschedule foreign debts did
not
increase the total amount of state debt. "Finally, Ukraine is living in
a
regime of reducing debts," he said.

The government restructured $2.37 billion in short-term commercial
obligations, converting the obligations into new seven-year Eurobonds
earlier
this year.

It still plans to restructure another $782 million in debts, including
$500
million to the Paris Club of sovereign creditors and $282 million to
Turkmenistan.

The government stopped payments on Paris Club debts in January but
cannot
formally approach the Paris Club until the IMF resumes disbursements.

Central Bank Chairman Volodymyr Stelmakh said earlier this month Ukraine
had
to spend $750 million on foreign debt payments in the second half of the
year.

Stelmakh said at the time that Ukraine had spent $955 million servicing
government and central bank foreign debt obligations in the first six
months
of the year.

(C)2000 Copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or
redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited
without the prior written consent of Reuters Limited.

---

Subject: U.S. sponsors disaster-relief exercise in Romania
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 18:12:02 -0400
From: ArmyLINK News Story <armylinknews_sender@...>
To: ARMYLINKNEWS-L@...


Content-Length: 5211

Text Version



CONSTANTA, Romania (Army News Service, July 18, 2,000) --
Approximately 2,500 troops from 13 NATO and other partner nations are
participating this week in Exercise Rescue Eagle 2000 in areas
surrounding Constanta, Romania.
United States forces have joined participants and observers from
Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Moldova,
Slovakia and Turkey, Hungary and South Africa. The U.S. forces include a
large contingent from the Tennessee and Alabama Army National Guard.
U.S. Ambassador to Romania, Jim Rosapepe, visited the exercise
and participated in a mass casualty drill July 17. Rosapepe shed his
business suit and tie to don the apparel and simulated injuries of an
earthquake victim during the drill.
Wearing moulage to simulate a serious shoulder injury sustained
in a major earthquake, and wrapped in a shoulder sling, the ambassador
was processed and treated with other exercise participants before being
taken by helicopter to the field military hospital for further medical
treatment.
"...I was handled and treated by a combined team of American,
Romanian, and Moldaovan soldiers," he said. "I could see with my own
eyes the kind of cooperation that we have in the PfP (Partnership for
Peace) and in NATO."
Romania has expressed its interest in pursuing a path toward
eventual NATO membership, and the ambassador stressed the significance
of the Rescue Eagle exercise in supporting that vision.
"We in the United States in particular want Romania to be a
strong candidate for NATO membership and these types of exercises are
part of the process of strengthening Romania's candidacy for NATO,"
Rosapepe said. "I think you build relationships by working together, and
joint exercises of this sort are what it takes for our American
military, Romanian military, and other partners to develop the kind of
partnerships that lead to partnership and alliance," he said.
The exercise is designed to improve the ability of joint forces
to accomplish humanitarian assistance and disaster relief-type
operations, officials said, by using the scenario of a mock earthquake.
They said training objectives are specifically aimed at small units and
enhancing the abilities of forces to work together.
"This is part of our effort to try to help the Romanian Military
and our other partner countries to become modern, efficient and
interoperable with NATO," Rosapepe said. "The leaders of the government
of Romania, and the leaders of the United States very much want to
strengthen our relations-- particularly in the military realm -- and
bringing Rescue Eagle, which is one of the major exercises done in the
spirit of the Partnership for Peace this year, is a very important
signal."
During opening ceremonies for the exercise July 12, Constantin
Degeratu, consular of the President of Romania, stood alongside other
dignitaries to highlight the importance of the exercise before the
assembled nations' forces.
"It is a very important day because the exercise is occurring in
an unprecedented context, as today we are celebrating three years since
Romania and the United States signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement,"
Degeratu said. "I am confident that the experience accumulated [in this
training] allows us to start any kind of [humanitarian assistance]
activity from the same level as our partner nations."
Maj. Gen. David F. Bice, deputy commander of U.S. Marine Corps
Forces Europe, from Stuttgart, Germany, represented the lead U.S. unit,
and emphasized the significant future dividends the exercise will pay.
"There is an old saying that a warrior's biggest fear is letting his
buddies down," Bice said. "The result [of this training] is that we
[partner nations] can look to each other in times of disaster or
national crisis and say to ourselves, 'we won't let our partner nations
down.'"
The United States-sponsored, Romanian-hosted joint, combined exercise
will occur through July 20, and includes some 800 active-duty and
reserve U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. The second largest
U.S. exercise of its kind this year in Europe, Rescue Eagle is being
conducted in the spirit of the Partnership for Peace Program.
The stabilizing effect of exercises of this sort was a common theme
throughout the opening ceremony.
"Through exercises of this sort our men and women in uniform can cement
the bonds of fraternity and teamwork which promote peace and stability
throughout this region of the world," Bice said.
Speaking from the site of a massive tent camp erected to house the
exercise participants, Gen. Mircea Chelaru, chief of the Romanian
General Staff, echoed the same sentiment.
"If this exercise has a main goal of intervention for humanitarian
assistance, then there is nothing more humanitarian than keeping and
preserving the peace status," Chelaru said.
"We're looking to have as many exercises here as we can," Ambassador
Rosapepe said. "Certainly the support that Romania provided to NATO in
bringing rapid end to the war in Kosovo last year increased the interest
that NATO has in exercises in the region."


Link to original news item:
http://www.dtic.mil/armylink/news/Jul2000/a20000718eagleex.html



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