EASTERN EUROPE

U.S.: CHECHNYA ELECTION HAD ‘SERIOUS FLAWS’

The republic of Chechnya’s election won by Russian-backed presidential candidate Major General Alu Alkhanov had “serious flaws,” the Bush administration said.

The Chechen election yesterday “did not meet international standards for a democratic election,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington.

Mr. Boucher cited the disqualification of “a leading candidate on a mere technicality.” It was reported that a candidate considered General Alkhanov’s main challenger, Malik Saidullayev, was disqualified by the election commission on grounds his application contained errors, including listing his birthplace as “Chechnya,” not “Chechen-Ingush Republic,” as it was known when he was born.

General Alkhanov, supported by President Putin, won 73.9% of the vote to replace Akhmad Kadyrov, who was assassinated in May, the Central Electoral Commission said on its Web site. Since 1994, Russian soldiers have been fighting Chechen rebels seeking to establish a separate Islamic state.

“Mr. Alkhanov now faces the difficult task of broadening support among the people of Chechnya, of bringing pluralism into the political process and finding ways to achieve a comprehensive settlement of the conflict,” Mr. Boucher said. – Bloomberg News

BLACK BOX REVIEW: CREW COULDN’T CONTACT GROUND

MOSCOW – Russia’s transport minister, citing a “black box” recording from one of two planes that crashed minutes apart last Tuesday, said yesterday there was no evidence of a hijacking attempt or any other disturbance before explosions aboard the jetliners.

The conversation inside the cockpit of the Tu-154 plane indicated the crew was unable to contact traffic controllers and tried to manage the jet for some time after the blast on board. “The words spoken by the crew members among themselves are [about] work by the crew to save the plane,” the minister, Igor Levitin, said.

Also, new details emerged about two Chechen women who are the focus of suspicions that the planes were blown up by terrorists. According to the BBC, “both planes were destroyed as the result of terrorist acts,” spokesman Lieutenant General Andrei Fetisov said. All 90 people aboard the aircraft were killed. He reiterated that traces of the high explosive hexogen were found in the wreckage.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

JEW SUSPECTED IN ARSON OF SOCIAL CENTER

PARIS – Paris police arrested yesterday morning a suspect in the arson of a Jewish social center.

The soup kitchen located near Place de la Bastille was torched early in the morning of August 22. The place was also covered with anti-Semitic inscriptions and swastikas. According to police sources, the suspect is a Jewish homeless person who was formerly employed by the center as a guard.

“This person was never employed here,” one of the volunteers running the soup kitchen said. “Our entire operation is based on voluntary help. How could we pay anyone? The suspect used to come to get some warm food; like others, he sometimes helped around. That’s all.” The suspect, Raphael X, a man in his fifties, reportedly told police that management of the soup kitchen had fired him, and he torched the place in revenge. Police said the man had been high on their list of suspects from the start of the investigation. The arrest of a Jewish suspect is a major embarrassment both to the Jewish community in France and to French political leaders.

– Jerusalem Post

OLYMPIC COMMITTEE GIVES AWARD TO ANTI-SEMITE

An award presented to Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, known both for scores such as “Zorba the Greek,” and also his virulent anti-Semitic speeches, provoked “shock, anger, and disbelief” from the Anti-Defamation League yesterday.

The International Olympic Committee awarded Mr. Theodorakis the Olympiart Prize just days after Haaretz newspaper published an interview with him in which he compared the state of Israel to the Nazi regime. Mr. Theodorakis also invoked anti-Semitic stereotypes of Jews being greedy, secretive, controlling, and hungry for wealth or power in the August 27 interview. Last year, Mr. Theodorakis made the highly publicized statement in front of the Greek Ministers of Education and Culture that Israel is “the root of evil.”

“It is incomprehensible that the International Olympic Committee has conferred a prize that recognizes values of harmony and peace on an unrepentant anti-Semite who makes no apologies for his views,” said the national director of the ADL, Abraham Foxman. “The awarding of the Olympiart Prize to Mikis Theodorakis is contrary to the Olympic spirit of peace, freedom, understanding, and equality among nations.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

MILOSEVIC TO OPEN DEFENSE

THE HAGUE – The war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav president, enters a new phase today when he opens his defense. The man charged with presiding over genocide and mass deportation during three Balkan wars will be given four hours to outline his case before calling his first witness next week. Bill Clinton and Tony Blair are among the 1,400 people Milosevic intends to summon before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague. But that number will undoubtedly be reduced by the three judges.

Mr. Milosevic has been given 150 court days, each of four hours, to complete his case in the hope that the trial, which began in February 2002, will end in 2006. After the opening statement the court will hear more evidence about Mr. Milosevic’s health, the cause of repeated delays.

The court is likely to appoint a lawyer to represent Mr. Milosevic, who has insisted on defending himself, if he is incapacitated by illness. His team of Serbian lawyers claims that Yevgeni Primakov, the former prime minister of Russia, and Constantine Mitsotakis, the former prime minister of Greece, are among those who have agreed to testify.

– The Daily Telegraph