Chronologies General Chronology of the Mediterranean

The general chronology presented continues to weaken and early elec- on 3rd July, after the scandal provoked here assembles details of the most tions are announced. by his insinuations about the assassi- Appendices relevant events that have taken place nation of the government labour con- in each of the states of the Mediter- Spain sultant, Marco Biagi. ranean region between July 2002 and • On 23rd July, President Carlo June 2003. The episodes are organ- • On 16th July, in the French depart- Aseglio Ciampi denounces the conflict ised according to the months in which ment of Les Landes four people are between Prime Minister Silvio Berlus- they happened, and each month is arrested and accused of belonging to coni’s political duties and his power 2003 headed by a schematic selection of ETA. In Paris, a court sentences ex- over the media. The President calls for news items; and accounts are given commander of ETA, Francisco Javier legislation that will assure its pluralism Med. of the most significant events in the dif- García Gaztelu, alias Txapote, to ten and impartiality. ferent countries. Furthermore, the es- years in prison for the planning of ter- tablishment of the African Union is in- rorist acts. Croatia cluded, as well as the monthly section • On 18th July, the French police, in that includes a segment about the Eu- collaboration with the Spanish Civil • After a crisis in the coalition gov- ropean Union, whose power and ini- Guard, arrest eight alleged members ernment, the reformist Prime Minister tiatives have a decisive influence on of the urban guerrilla group, the First of Ivica Racan resigns on 5th July, pub- 238-239 the Mediterranean area. October Anti-fascist Resistance Group licly expressing his wish to set up a (Grupo de Resistencia Antifascista new cabinet and continue to move for- Primero de Octubre or GRAPO), in- ward with key reforms until the general July 2002 cluding their suspected leader, Fer- elections set for 2004. On 30th July, nando Hierro Txomon. the Chamber of Representatives (the In what is believed to be a new act of lower chamber of the bicameral legis- the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), thir- France lature) approves the formation of a new ty-eight people die when a bomb ex- government led by Racan. plodes in Algeria. The neighbouring • A man linked to extreme right-wing • On 12th July, the UN Security Coun- country of Morocco frees more pris- groups fires shots at President Jacques cil approves resolution 1434 (2002), oners from the Polisario Front, and Chirac, on 14th July, during the Bastille thereby extending the term of the UN descends into shaky relations with Day celebrations in Paris. There are no Mission of Observers in Prevlaka, the Spain due to the occupation by Mo- injuries and the gunman is arrested. disputed peninsula between Croatia roccan soldiers of the tiny Spanish • Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Yugoslavia until 15th october. Perejil/Leila Island. In France, the and the Minister of Internal Affairs • On 31st July, Fikret Abdic, a Bos- Prime Minister and the Minister of In- Nicolas Sarkozy visit Corsica on 26th nian Muslim «warlord» and former con- ternal Affairs visit Corsica in an at- and 27th July in order to present their tender to the Bosnian presidency, is tempt to re-launch the island’s process plan for decentralisation to local lead- sentenced to twenty years in prison by toward autonomy. The EU announces ers, in an attempt to re-launch the a Croatian court after being found an important revision of the Common process of autonomy for Corsica that guilty of committing crimes against hu- Agricultural Policy (CAP), which they was initiated by the Jospin administra- manity during the war in Bosnia. will specify in the coming months, and tion and later immobilised by the Con- at the same time Bosnia and Herze- stitutional Council in January. Bosnia and Herzegovina govina serves as the setting for the United States´ refusal to be submitted Italy • At the beginning of July, the future to the recently created jurisdiction of of the SFOR and the UN Mission in the International Criminal Court. In • The Minister of Internal Affairs Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH) Turkey, Bulent Ecevit´s government Claudio Scajola resigns from his post appears bleak, with the US threaten- ing to abandon peacekeeping opera- eral Republic of Yugoslavia. This will Cyprus tions in Bosnia due to a disagree- shorten President Milan Milutinovic’s ment about the recently created In- term so that he may be transferred to • On 10th July, two commanders and ternational Criminal Court. On 12th the ICTY, where he will be tried for war three officials of the Greek-Cypriot air July, the US is able to temporaly safe- crimes committed in the Serbian pro- force die in a helicopter crash in which guard its peacekeeping troops from vince of Kosovo. they were realising defensive exercises. any investigation or processing by the • On 18th July, Serbian the legisla- new court. This step allows the UN ture approves a law establishing a new Turkey Security Council to extend the man- intelligence agency with the purpose date of the SFOR and the UNMIBH of fighting organised crime. • On 2nd July, a group of armed men until 31st December. • In Montenegro, Prime Minister Filip assassinate Ahmet Cevat Sevigli, the • On 2nd July, in Pale, Republic of Vujanovic fails in his attempt to form a Kurdish mayor of the south-eastern Srpska, SFOR troops raid the home new government, resulting in the dis- city of Kayablagar, at his home. of Rodovan Karadzic, Serbian-Bosnian solution of the legislature on 19th July, • The deteriorating health of Prime leader who served during the war and and legislative elections are planned Minister Bulent Ecevit continues to who stands accused of war crimes by for 6th October. Vujanovic had seen a dominate the political agenda, while the ICTY. loss of support from two parties in favour the coalition in power keeps losing • On 8th July, the ICTY confirms that of independence due to his agreement support. On 31st July, the Great Na- Bosnian Serb Miroslav Deronjic has to replace Yugoslavia with a new dual tional Assembly decides to move the been transferred to their Detention Unit state: Serbia and Montenegro. elections forward by almost eighteen in The Hague, after being arrested the • On 22nd July, Miroljub Labus, cur- months, to be held in November. previous day by SFOR troops in Bra- rently the Deputy Prime Minister, an- tunac. He is accused of crimes against nounces that he will stand in the presi- Lebanon humanity and of violations of the laws dential elections. and customs of war. • On 11th July, three members of the • On 10th July, Bosnian Serb Radovan Macedonia intelligence service of the Lebanese Stankovic is transferred to the Hague army are killed near the Ain al-Hilweh Tribunal, after having been arrested • On 4th July, Stojan Andov, President Palestinian refugee camp, the largest the day before near Foca by the SFOR. of the Sobranje, the unicameral leg- in the country. They are murdered He is accused of crimes against hu- islative body, fixes elections for 15th while on a mission to arrest Lebanese manity and of violations of the laws September. The last elections were national, Badih Hamada (Abu Ubaya- and customs of war. held in October and November of 1998. da), suspected of being involved with • On 31st July, Milojica Kos is re- The assembly, in accordance with the Palestinian Islamic activists. The sus- leased early from the ICTY Detention Ohrid accords of 2001, approves pect is eventually turned in by a dele- Unit in accordance with an order from the use of the Albanian language in the gation of religious leaders. the President of the tribunal, Claude legislative sessions. • On 30th July, the UN Security Coun- Jorda, given the day before. Despite cil approves Resolution 1428 (2002), having been found guilty of crimes Albania therefore extending the mandate of the against humanity, torture and violations UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) of the laws and customs of war, he was • On 24th July, Alfred Moisiu takes until 31st October 2003. freed due to his «willingness to reinte- over as president, replacing Rexhep grate into society; his determination Mejdani. On 25th July, Pandeli Majko Jordan not to re-offend; his good physical and of the Socialist Party of Albania (PSS) mental health; his exemplary behaviour resigns as Prime Minister and Moisiu • On 3rd July, the Executive Director during detention; his attachment to his immediately names Fatos Nano as new of the IMF approves a 97.2 million Euro family; and his probability of finding executive leader. On 31st July, the loan to Jordan in support of its econom- employment». This is the second such Popular Assembly, the unicameral leg- ic program. order made by the tribunal. islature, approves the formation of the • The Financial Times issue of 5th July Nano government. reports that Jordan has prevented a plot Yugoslavia to attack American and Israeli interests in Greece the country. The article states that collab- • On 8th July, the district court of orators in the plan were arrested some- Prokuplje in Serbia sentences Ivan • Police arrest fourteen members of time between April and June in Amman, Nikolic to eight years in prison for the 17th November terrorist group, in- and that the group was led by the Jor- killing two Albanian Kosovar in 1999. cluding its suspected leader, Alexan- danian Palestinian, Wail al-Shalabi. It is the first war crime case tried by a dros Yotopoulos, and assure that with Serbian court. this arrest they have dismantled the Egypt • On 18th July, early elections are group, which was founded after the mil- announced for 29th September in itary junta´s repression of student dis- • Saadeddin Ibrahim, the leading hu- Serbia, the largest republic of the Fed- sidence in November 1973. man rights activist who criticised the government for their lack of commit- • The pressure on the Stability and Spain ment to democracy, is sentenced to Growth Pact of the European Union, seven years in prison on 29th July, after which controls the single currency, in- • On 4th August, ETA sets off a car being found guilty of embezzlement, creases due to the plan announced by bomb next to a Civil Guard barracks in falsification and receiving foreign funds the Italian government of reducing tax- Santa Pola, Alicante, killing two peo- without authorisation. es at expense of the bridgetans deficit. ple and injuring thirty-four. • On 26th August, led by the Aznar Libya African Union administration, the Spanish parliament reverts to the recently passed Political • Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi • The African Union (AU) replaces Parties Law in order to demand that promises to lay out economic aid plans the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) the Supreme Court make Batasuna il- for the countries he visited after attend- and is officially launched in Durban, legal. On the same day, judge of the ing the inaugural ceremony of the Afri- South Africa on 9th and 10th July, with National Court Baltasar Garzón orders can Union in Durban, South Africa on ceremonies officiated by the heads of the closing of the party’s offices, cul- 9th July (Uganda, Mozambique, Malawi, states and governments from the ma- tural centres, establishments and web Zambia, Zimbabwe and Swaziland). jority of the fifty-three countries that pages and declares the suspension of make up this organisation, which has a all their activities. Appendices Algeria structure similar to that of the EU. The • On 27th August, the autonomous only states of the African continent police corps have to result to using • On 5th July, during the celebrations that are not represented by the African force in order to clear and seal off the of forty years of independence, a car Union are Morocco, due to the fact headquarters of Batasuna in the three bomb explodes in the market of Larba, that the AU recognises Western Sa- Basque capitals, in accordance with

20 kilometres south of the capital Al- hara as a country, and Madagascar, as Garzón´s decree. 2003 giers, killing at least thirty-eight people it was not recognised by the OAU. Dur- and injuring more than eighty. The at- ing the last session of the OAU, held France Med. tack is attributed to the GIA, whose on 8th July, various leaders and the leader, Rachid Abu Tourab, may have General secretary of the United Na- • On 2nd August, there is a grenade been killed by the army on 28th July. tions, Kofi Annan, praised the decision attack on the police barracks in Solen- to create a new organisation with new zara, in the southern part of Corsica. Morocco principles, which include the promo- The previously unknown National Li- tion of democracy and economic de- beration Armada (ALN) claims respon-

• After months of uneasy relations velopment as goals for the region. sibility. 240-241 between Morocco and Spain, a territo- • On 4th August, the leader of the rial dispute occurs and is responsible separatist alliance Corsica Nation, Jean- for worsening bilateral relations, when August 2002 Guy Talamoni, calls for the French gov- Moroccan soldiers occupy the Pere- ernment to bring Corsican politicians jil/Leila Island on 11th July, and the Spain takes a decisive step toward ille- imprisoned in continental France clos- Spanish army retake it on 17th July. galising the political party Batasuna, er to the island. According to Talamoni, considered by the government to be this should help to re-establish the European Union the political wing of the terrorist organi- process toward autonomy. The process sation ETA. In the meantime, in Silvio experienced its latest setback on 1st • On 1st July, the rotating presidency Berlusconi’s Italy, political measures August, when the outlawed FLNC re- is formally shifted from Spain to Den- move forward which could complicate jected the government’s new autono- mark after the six-month period is end- the judicial processes faced by the mist proposals. ed. It is hoped that this new mandate Prime Minister. In the Balkans, Yugos- • On 6th August, the Council of Minis- is prepared for the EU enlargement lavia re-establishes diplomatic relations ters bans the extremist right-wing group and the development of plans in order with Albania at the same time as terri- Radical Unity, due to its relationship to reform its institutions. torial disputes worsen their relations with Máxime Brunerie, the assassin who • On 10th July, the European Com- with Croatia, which is also involved in failed in an attempt to shoot President missioner of Agriculture and Rural De- disputes with Slovenia. Turkey moves Jacques Chirac on 14th July in Paris. velopment, Franz Fischler, announces forward with measures such as the an ambitious revision of the Common abolition of the death penalty, in order Italy Agriculture Policy (CAP) aimed at pri- to bring them closer to being allowed to oritising the production of safe and enter the EU. In Jordan, the restriction • On 2nd August, the Senate (the healthy alimentary products and pro- on the freedom of the press is high- higher chamber of the Italian legisla- tecting the environment and animal lighted with the closure of the Aljazeera ture) approves a law that will allow de- welfare; a reorientation that has sparked headquarterq. Libya continues to open fendants to request a new trial if sound criticism from France and Spain, due itself up internationally, as it plays host indications exist that the judges are to the fact that it threatens their inter- to the first ministerial visit from the Unit- impartial. According to the opposition, ests in the sector. ed Kingdom since 1983. this law will contribute to a delay or even an acquittal in the case of Prime 29th September. Kostunica’s greatest • On 30th August, the pro-European Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is to ap- rival will be Miroljub Labus, currently General, Hilmi Ozkok, is appointed pear before a court in Milan at the end serving as Deputy Prime Minister. The Chief of Staff of the Turkish armed of 2002, in a case involving the bribery office of President of Yugoslavia will be forces, another sign of the country’s of judges. The opposition continues to dissolved when the federation is re- efforts at connection with the EU. denounce the incompatibility between modelled and becomes the union of • Prisoners continue their hunger Berlusconi’s post as Prime Minister and Serbia and Montenegro. strike in protest of the government’s his commercial interests as a television • On 26th August, after more than a attempts to introduce new penitentiary media tycoon. month of delays, the trial of former Yu- regimes. The strike began in 2001 and goslav President, Slobodan Milosevic, by the end of August has claimed fifty- Croatia reopens in the ICTY. Before the sum- five lives. mer holiday period, a medical report • At the beginning of the month, diplo- showed that Milosevic was at risk from Lebanon matic relations between Croatia and a heart attack. Yugoslavia worsen when the Croatian • On 29th August, a Hezbollah at- government demands that Yugoslavia Albania tack injures three Israeli soldiers along remove their troops from the area a disputed section of the Lebanese-Is- around the disputed island in the • On 23rd August, it is announced raeli border. The group had been al- Danube where Yugoslavian soldiers that Albania and the Federal Republic most inactive since April. recently opened fire on Croatian civil- of Yugoslavia will restore diplomatic re- ians. It is the most serious border dis- lations with regard to their embassies. Jordan pute between the two countries since Diplomatic relations became unstuck the end of the war over Croatian suc- during the 1999 conflict in Kosovo. • On 7th August, the government cession from Yugoslavia in 1995. Re- shuts down the offices of the Arab tele- lations between Croatia and Slovenia Cyprus vision station Aljazeera, for having pro- also deteriorate during August, due to voked «dissidence» with the broadcast- an incident involving a Croatian patrol • On 8th August, two journalists are ing of voices criticising past monarchs. boat and Slovenian anglers in the dis- sentenced to six months imprisonment • On 15th August, in a televised an- puted waters of the Piran Gulf. by a Nicosian court for having insulted nouncement, King Abdullah announ- the presidential authority in articles that ces that the elections scheduled for Bosnia and Herzegovina appeared in 1999 in Avrupa, the oppo- the end of 2002 will not take place un- sition’s newspaper that was later re- til the spring of 2003 due to «difficult • On 2nd August, the executive of named Afrika. regional circumstances». the IMF approves an aid loan for the • On 27th August, the sixth round of governmental economic program. peace talks begins in Nocisia between Egypt • On 21st August, violence breaks Greek Cypriot President, Glafkos Cle- out while Bosnia and Yugoslavia play rides, and Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf • On 4th August, the administration a friendly football match in the Bosni- Denktash. formally accuses twenty-six people, an capital of Sarajevo. three of them British subjects, of at- Turkey tempting to overthrow the government Yugoslavia in order to establish a new Muslim order. • On 2nd August, the Great National • On 15th August, the US govern- • On 11th August, the international Assembly declares the abolition of the ment announces that it will not give force in Kosovo (KFOR) arrests Rus- death penalty during peacetime, one any additional aid beyond the two bil- tem Mustafa, a former commander of of the reforms necessary for the coun- lion dollars guaranteed each year by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), try’s entrance into the EU. the 1978 Camp David accords, as a suspected of murder, torture and ille- • On 9th August, a labour reform bill form of protest at the recent incarcer- gal arrests. Thousands of Kosovars is passed that forces workers to give ation of Saadeddin Ibrahim, human protest against the arrest and there notice of one month before leaving a rights activist who holds both Egypt- are confrontations with the UN forces. union, and that allows them to demand ian and US citizenship. • On 22nd August, joint Russian and severance pay for unfair dismissal. The US forces seize enough uranium to previous day had seen the resignation Libya make three nuclear bombs at a nuclear of the Labour Minister, Yasar Okuyan, reactor near Belgrade. who stepped down in protest of the • On 7th August, UK Foreign Office • As anticipated, on 23rd August, the new legislation. Minister Mike O’Brien travels to Libya President of Yugoslavia, Vojislav Kos- • On 10th August, the Independent in the first ministerial visit since 1983. tunica, announces that he will run for Minister of Finance Kemal Dervis re- During his stay, Mike O´Brien talks with President of Serbia (the largest of the signs, another deserter in the deterio- Muammar al-Gaddafi and other Libyan two republics of the Federal Republic rating government of the battered Bu- authorities. Reports say that Gaddafi of Yugoslavia). The elections are set for lent Ecevit. made the promise to help in the inter- national fight against al-Qaeda, the in- agents were taking down a banner island. The outlawed FLNC claims re- ternational terrorist network under the bearing the ETA symbol and anagram sponsibility in several recent terrorist leadership of Osama bin Laden, and that threatened the Civil Guard. In Bil- attacks, which are added to the vari- the representatives debated the steps bao, just twelve hours earlier, two sus- ous bombings in September for which that Libya would be obliged to take in pected members of ETA die while the Resistenza Corsa and National order for UN sanctions to be lifted. planning a car bomb. Liberation Front claim responsibility. • On 23rd August, the London news- • On 27th September, the regional • On 18th September, the govern- paper Al-Hayat reports that Abu Nidal, Prime Minister of the Basque Country, ment approves an adjustment in the the Palestinian guerrilla leader who Juan José Ibarretxe, launches the pro- statuary thirty-five-hour working week died on 16th August in Iraq, told col- posal of a popular referendum during by increasing the total number of over- leagues that he had organised the the present legislative session in order time hours allowed from 130 to be- Lockerbie attack. to convert the Basque region into a tween 180 and 200 per year. free associated state to Spain. The • On 19th September, a court in Me- aim is to achieve a new status allowing lun, near Paris, sentences nine French September 2002 the Basque state to sign international nationals and a German to between treaties, have a direct presence in Eu- four and fifteen years in prison for Spain continues to have uneasy re- rope, as well as freedom to associate having been part of one the largest Appendices lations with Morocco. The Basque with other Basque territories, and to paedophile rings to be uncovered in regional leader, Juan José Ibarretxe, enjoy actual, far-reaching political au- France to date. presses the plan to make the region a tonomy, their own judicial power, and • On 25th September, a bar of the free associated state. In Italy, an immi- so forth. Shortly thereafter, the central explosive pentrite is discovered on a gration nightmare is brought to life government demonstrates its com- Royal Air Maroc aeroplane on the Mar- when a boat capsizes and thirty-six plete rejection of the Ibarretxe plan. rakech-Marseilles-Metz route. 2003 people drown. In the international rela- Business people from the Basque re- tions field of the Mediterranean region, gion and the European Commission Italy Med. tensions between Libya and Israel in- also oppose the plan. crease a notch, while relations seems • On 12th September, before an offi- to improve between Greece and Turkey France cial trip to Israel, Gianfranco Fini, Deputy despite the deadlock in the peace talks Prime Minister and leader of the far- in Cyprus. Turkey bans the most popu- • At least twenty-three people drown right group National Alliance (AN), lar candidate, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on 9th and 10th September, during apologises for the promulgation of an- from running in the upcoming elec- flash floods in the Rodano Valley due ti-Semitic laws in the 1930’s under the 242-243 tions. Elections are held in Yugoslavia, to torrential rains and the consequen- dictatorship of Benito Mussolini. Macedonia and Morocco. tial overflowing of the rivers. • Also on 12th September, the po- • On 11th September, the French lice accuse fifteen Pakistanis, arrested Spain government approves an increase in by immigration services in Sicily in Au- spending on defence strategies, adding gust, of conspiring to commit terrorist • On 8th September, local authori- a billion euros a year to this section of and subversive acts. They are believed ties in San Sebastian permit an offi- the budget, which will increase from to form a part of the terrorist network cially prohibited nationalist demonstra- representing 1.8 percent of the GDP al-Qaeda. tion, which triggers severe criticism to 2.5 percent. The idea is to reduce • On 15th September, thirty-six peo- from the central government. the gap with the United Kingdom in ple drown when a boat carrying illegal • The government receives criticism terms of military capacity, with the aim immigrants from Liberia capsizes. Po- from the opposition and some veteran of offering higher levels of coopera- lice and the coastguard are able to leaders of its own party when, mid- tion in terms of European defence and save ninety-two people. month, it is revealed that an organisa- security. • On 30th September, the govern- tion dedicated to the memory of the • On 11th September, the Minister of ment approves a budget draft for dictator Francisco Franco receives Justice Dominique Prevén and his Ital- 2003 that is to be debated in both eighty-three thousand euros in public ian counterpart, Roberto Castelli, se- houses of the legislature and that rep- funding. cure progress toward the extradition of resents the quest for balance between • On 16th September, Juan Antonio former terrorists from the extreme left the two government forces in keeping Olarra and Ainhoa Múgica, two veter- who were offered asylum in France un- their promise to cut taxes and the an leaders of the terrorist organisation der the so-called «Mitterrand doctrine». need to demonstrate their fiscal recti- ETA, are arrested in Bordeaux, France, • On 17th September, the separatist tude to other members of the EU. after a lengthy police investigation. movements Corsica Nation (CN) and Olarra is believed to have been the Independence propose the idea of a Croatia military leader of ETA since 2001. «local citizenship» in Corsica, under • On 24th September, ETA kills a civ- which those citizens would be given • On 17th September, the ICTY opens il guard and injures three others near preference in access to employment proceedings against eighty-three year Pamplona. A booby trap exploded as and the acquisition of property on the old General Janko Bobetko, who was the chief of the Croatian army during the Serbia has made «considerable progress sub-commander of the 17th November war of independence from 1991 to on the path toward democracy and group and one of the most wanted 1995, and who was regarded as a na- political pluralism». men in the country, turns himself in. tional hero. He is accused of crimes • On 29th September, elections are against humanity and violations of the held in Serbia, the largest republic of Cyprus laws and customs of war. the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. • On 23rd September, Prime Minis- Vojislav Kostunica, the candidate of • On 6th September, despite the cri- ter Ivica Racan announces that his the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) sis meeting in Paris backed by the government will not turn Bobetko over and current Federal President, assures General Secretary of the UN, Kofi An- to the tribunal in The Hague, despite victory over Miroljub Labus, the can- nan, negotiations between the Greek the fact that this could result in inter- didate of the Democratic Opposition Cypriot President, Glafkos Clerides, national isolation for Croatia. of Serbia (DOS) and former Yugoslav and the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Deputy Prime Minister, and who is Denktash, come to a standstill. Bosnia and Herzegovina backed by Kostunica’s major rival, the Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. Turkey • On 3rd September, a report from a However, since there is no absolute • In a new blow to Turkey’s EU aspi- governmental body in the Srpska Re- majority, Kostunica and Labus are set rations, on 18th September, Amnesty public (the Bosnian-Serbian entity of for a second round on 13th October. International publishes a study stating the federation) suggests that Bosnian that the Turkish state continues, rou- Muslims have either imagined or fabri- Macedonia tinely and systematically, to use tor- cated the 1995 massacre in Srebreni- ture, despite human rights legislation ca, with the objective of achieving in- • On 15th September, the people go that prohibits it. ternational implication in their conflict to the polls to elect the representa- • On 20th September, the highest with the Serbs. tives of the Sobranje, the unicameral Turkish electoral authority rules that • On 24th September, Zeljko Mar- legislative body, and in the results, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, former Mayor kovic, chief of the Public Security Cen- Prime Minister Ljubco Georgievski´s of Istanbul and leader of the Justice tre (the Bosnian Serb police force) administration (VMRO-DPMNE) is de- and Development Party (AKP), will not in Serbian Sarajevo, is assassinated in feated. The majority of seats (sixty) go be permitted to stand in the upcoming Sokalac. to the Together for Macedonia coali- November general elections as a re- tion led by the main opposition party, sult of having recited a poem consid- Yugoslavia the Social Democratic Alliance of ered seditious against the secular Macedonia (SDSM). The Democratic government, and inciting religious ha- • During the month of September, Union for Integration, which stems from tred. Erdogan, who according to the the trial of the former President of Yu- the National Liberation Army (NLA), polls heads the most popular party, is goslavia, Slobodan Milosevic in the wins sixteen seats, emerging as the seen by certain sectors, such as the ICTY, after Milosevic has answered largest ethnic Albanian party. With the justice system and the military, as a for the massacres and forced depor- aim of maintaining the peace, the UN potential threat to the secular order of tations of Albanians in the Serbian deploys 3,500 police and soldiers as the country. However, Turkey will have province of Kosovo, arrives at its criti- well as nine hundred observers from to reform the penal code that was cal point: the war crimes in Bosnia and the OSCE. used to convict him in order to gain Croatia. Milosevic denies having formed entrance to the EU. Erdogan, mean- part of a «joint criminal enterprise» to Greece while, continues with his campaign. create a Serbian state in Bosnia and • Prisoners maintain the hunger Croatia, «destroying or expelling» in- • Bilateral relations between Greece strike in protest of the government’s habitants who were not Serbs. The and Turkey seem to improve slightly as attempts to impose new penitentiary former President of Yugoslavia accus- a consequence of several meetings regimes. Two prisoners die during this es the US, the Vatican, the Croatian between ministers and high-level offi- month, bringing the death toll to fifty- people and Muslims of «victimising the cials from both countries. seven since the strike began in 2001. Serb people on a global scale». On • Starting on 3rd September, various 27th September, Milosevic makes a consumer groups organise massive Syria more concrete accusation: that the boycotts in protest of abrupt price in- French secret service orchestrated creases since the launch of the Euro in • On 13th September, the newspa- the massacre of Srebrenica in Bosnia, January. On 18th September, the gov- per Middle East International declares an event that claimed the lives of over ernment announces a series of meas- the end of the round of political trials seven thousand Muslims, in order to ures to set fixed prices for basic prod- that began with the arrest of numerous turn world opinion against the Serbs. ucts and prevent unjustified price figures from the opposition in Septem- • On 24th September, the Parliamen- increases. ber 2001. The state security court, a tary Assembly of the Council of Europe • On 6th September in Athens, after military tribunal, has recently dictated approves Yugoslavia’s entrance into fourteen of his colleagues are arrested, a sentence of ten years imprisonment the organisation. They consider that Dimitris Koufondinas, the suspected against economist Arif Dalila, and oth- ers of five years for engineer Fawaz Egypt lations, which are also strained with Tillu, five years for human rights ac- regard to immigration and the rights to tivists Walid al-Bunni and Habib Isa, • On 9th September, the trial of nine- fishing territories. The Spanish Minis- three years for physicist Kamal Lab- ty-four members of the Islamist group ter of Foreign Affairs, Ana Palacio, as- wani, and three years for professor al-Wa’d comes to an end. The tribunal sures that the helicopter never actually Hasan Sa’dun. accuses them of planning assassina- landed, but simply flew close to the is- tions and attacks against public build- land in order to investigate Moroccan Lebanon ings, and the court sentence fifty-one military operations. of the defendants to more than fifteen • On 25th September, Mohammed • A confrontation between Lebanon years in prison and acquits the remain- Benaissa accuses Spain of repeatedly and Israel over access to water in the ing forty-three. violating Moroccan airspace, as many former occupied territory in southern • Between 15th and 17th Septem- as sixty-one times, according to the Lebanon increases tension between ber, the eighth convention of the Na- Minister, and their waters some twen- the two countries during the month tional Democratic Party (NDP) is held ty-six times, since July. of September. The dispute has to do in Cairo. Highlights include the ap- • On 27th September, elections are with Lebanon’s programme of pump- pointment of Egyptian President, Mo- held for the lower chamber of the bi- ing water to border populations by hammed Hosni Mubarak´s son, Gamal cameral legislative, the Assembly of Appendices rerouting it from a river that flows in- Mubarak, to the recently created post Representatives (Majlis al-Nuwab). to the Jordan and Lake Tiberias, the of policy secretary. Gamal Mubarak There are newly drawn electoral dis- main source of Israel’s water supply. could carry on to succeed his father as tricts with two to five representatives Israel threatens, «to take measures» president. assigned to each one, and the parties if the water level is affected. In at- present up to five candidates per dis- tempt to calm the situation, the US Libya trict. Twenty-two of the twenty-six par- 2003 sends two hydrologists to supervise ties that run win seats. The new As- the project. • On 12th September it is announced sembly includes thirty-five women Med. • The edition of 2nd September of that the man found guilty in the Locker- (10.8 percent of the total members of the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, reports bie bombing, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the house), which is basically due, to a that Syria condemns the entrance of appeals against the received life sen- quota assuring women a minimum of between 150 and 200 Al-Qaeda op- tence in the European Court of Human thirty seats. The main opposition group, eratives into the largest Palestinian Rights. the illegal and Islamist Adl Wal Ihsan refugee camp in Lebanon, the Ain al- • In mid-September, news spreads (Justice and Charity), had called for a

Hilweh, near Sidon. The newspaper that Libya has renovated its 360 mil- boycott of the elections. Voter partici- 244-245 also refers to the armed struggle that lion dollar contract in order to supply pation was fifty-two percent, six points took place during August between Is- oil to Zimbabwe in exchange for the below the 1997 elections. lamist factors and members of Fatah, use of the country’s main resources. and which was initiated by al-Qaeda´s Furthermore, there are reports that European Union attempt to take over the camp. Libya has taken part in the oil infra- • On 3rd September, US envoy Da- structure in Mozambique, invested in • On 13th September, a meeting is vid Satterfield calls for Syria to take Namibia and Malawi and acceded to held between Ministers of Justice and control of Hezbollah in order to avoid the pay the debts and dues that are Internal Affairs, in which they decide to an increase of the tension felt along owed to the African Union (AU) by support the European Commission’s the Lebanese-Israeli border. In addi- more than ten African countries. proposal to establish a common defi- tion, on 5th September, Deputy Sec- nition for the refugee situation. This retary of State Richard Armitage ta- Tunisia agreement helps to pave the way for kes a firm stance by putting Hezbollah the EU to adopt a controversial plan to at the top of the list of terrorist organ- • On 4th September, President Zine repatriate several thousand Afghani isations. el-Abidine Ben Ali publicly announces refugees. • On 4th September, Lebanese army the restructuring of his administration. • The first EU military mission (for the units enter the Palestinian refugee control of the peacekeeping opera- camp of Jalil in Baalbek, a small and Morocco tions in Macedonia, set to start in Oc- generally peaceful camp located in the tober) suffers significant setbacks in Syrian-controlled area. Three Pales- • On 22nd September, the Moroc- the middle of the month when they are tinians and a Lebanese soldier die in can Minister Of Foreign Affairs and unable to settle a dispute with Turkey the raid, and weapons and ammunition Cooperation, Mohammed Benaissa, over EU military access to NATO re- are confiscated. cancels his visit to Spain that was sources in the country. • On 5th September, the Lebanese scheduled for 23rd September in • On 24th September, the European authorities shut down Murr Television protest over the supposed landing of Commission abandons the deadline of and Radio Mount Lebanon with the al- a Spanish helicopter on the disputed 2004 for the balancing of budgets, as legation of illicit broadcasting of prop- Perejil/Leila island. The visit was in- established in the Stability and Growth aganda during the elections in Metn. tended to help in the improving of re- Pact, which governs the workings of the Euro as the common currency. The tions with the al-Qaeda networks that ment, so that once there it will be read decision, which has roused criticism have recently been uncovered in Ger- for the second time without the expec- from countries such as Holland, Aus- many, France and Italy. tation of a great deal of opposition. tria and Spain, allows France, Italy • On the basis of the governmental • On 17th October, the Chamber of Germany and Portugal two more years, decree made public on 20th October, Deputies approves certain modifica- until 2006, to balance their budgets. the Islamic organisation, Global Relief tions to the Constitution, thereby re- Foundation, is placed on France’s offi- moving the last obstacle for the return cial list of «entities whose financing re- of the royal family. This marks the end of October 2002 lations are strictly controlled as part of exile for the Prince, Victor Manuel and the fight against terrorism». his son, Manuel Filberto. The exile was In October, there are strikes in Portu- • On 25th and 26th October, the imposed due to the family’s collabora- gal and Italy, action against interna- Minister of Internal Affairs, Nicolas tion with the previous dictator, Benito tional terrorism in Lebanon, Morocco Sarkozy, visits the island of Corsica in Mussolini. and France. Also in France, plans to order to launch the official government • On 18th October, the General Con- decentralise the government continue, plan for decentralisation of power in federation of Italian Workers (CGIL) as do the Corsican separatist attacks. the twenty-six French regions, which calls a strike in protest of the econom- In the Balkans, international war crime will then obtain autonomous control of ic policies set by the Berlusconi ad- tribunals advance, and elections are transport, housing, health and educa- ministration. More than a million peo- held in Bosnia and Herzegovina and tion as well as some revenue services. ple take part in the demonstration, Yugoslavia. There are also local elec- A reform of the first article of the Con- which affects the running of the coun- tions in Algeria, where the problems in stitution as well as citizen approval try, but does not succeed in bringing Cabilia intensify. The EU reaches an through a national referendum are it to a standstill. Unlike the previous agreement on the Common Agricultur- needed in order to implement the plan. strike held in April, which was backed al Policy (CAP), announces its largest • In the period drawing up to Minis- unanimously by the unions, this time expansion since the creation of the ter Sarkozy´s visit, there are as many the protest lacks the support of all European Economic Community in as fifteen bombings on the island, in of them. 1957, and offers specific details on fi- which one person is injured. During • On 31st October, Fiat, Italy’s nancing the enlargement. Libya leaves the course of his visit another attack largest industrial company, officially af- the Arab League. occurs, similar to the previous inci- firms that its automobile manufac- dents, for which no group claims re- turing firm is in crisis, and facing enor- Portugal sponsibility. Furthermore, prior to the mous financial losses, they will be ministerial visit, the French govern- forced to lay off more than five thou- • On 16th October, Lusa, a Portuguese ment announces that in response to sand workers. Once they have made news agency, reports that the twenty- local demand for mainland prisoners this announcement, the company is el- four hour strike called by the General to be moved closer to the island, a igible to apply for government aid. Confederation of Portuguese Workers penitentiary for those prisoners serv- • An earthquake measuring 5.4 on / National Intersyndical (CGTP/IN), ing less than ten years will be built in the Richter scale shakes the south of has brought work in the public sector 2007 on the island itself. However, the Italy on 31st October. In the village to a stop and forced hundreds of hos- announcement of this measure does of San Giuliano di Puglia, the roof of a pitals and schools to close. nothing to appease the local Anti-re- school collapses, killing an entire class pression Committee. of twenty-six children, none more than France • On 30th October, a Paris court six years of age, as well as three sentences Algerian nationals Smain adults. As a consequence, on 1st No- • On 6th October, the Mayor of Paris Ali Belkacem and Boualem Bensaid to vember the government declares a Bertrand Delanoë suffers serious in- life imprisonment for the 1995 assas- state of emergency in the region. juries when he is stabbed during a sination campaign carried out in Paris social event at the city hall. The attack- in the name of the Algerian GIA. Croatia er is a thirty-nine year old unemployed computer engineer with a criminal Italy • On 11th October, the UN Securi- and psychiatric record, who declares ty Council passes Resolution 1437 that he acted impulsively and dislikes • On 10th October, the Chamber of (2002), extending the mandate of the politicians and homosexuals such as Deputies approves a judicial bill of law UN Mission of Observers in Prevlaka Delanoë. backed by Silvio Berlusconi. The op- (UNMOP) until 15th December. Croa- • On 14th October, police arrest Tu- position sees this as a manoeuvre on tia and Yugoslavia are disputing the nisian national Lazahr ben Mohammed the part of Berlusconi to avoid having province. Tlilli in Marseilles. He is in possession to appear in court on charges of the • On 23rd October during her visit to of false identification documents and bribery of judges. On 29th October, a Croatia, Carla Del Ponte, Chief Prose- the telephone numbers of suspected special commission examines the bill cutor of the ICTY, once again requests Islamic terrorists in several European and approves that it be passed to the that the Croatian government extradite countries. Tilli is suspected of connec- Senate without any sort of amend- former army chief of staff Janko Bo- betko to the tribunal in The Hague. Del arms embargo on Iraq by selling mili- Macedonia Ponte states that Croatia’s behaviour tary equipment to them. The scandal has «not reached [the] stage of non- also makes its impact in Yugoslavia • On 14th October, NATO members cooperation». However, she adds, where the government removes the decide to extend Operation Amber «Justice must be carried out equally in Deputy Defence Minister and the head Fox until 15th December, following the the cases of all the accused». of the state-run import-export compa- confirmation that the Netherlands will ny Jugoimport-SDPR. continue to lead the mission. The EU Bosnia and Herzegovina would have liked to control the opera- Yugoslavia tions themselves, but the continual • On 2nd October, the former Presi- state of negotiations between Turkey dent of the Srpska Republic, Biljana • On 1st October, the Croatian Pres- and Greece render this impossible. Plavsic, who faces eight charges of ident, Stipe Mesic, appears before • On 15th October, the General war crimes in the ICTY for which she the ICTY to testify in the case of the Council of the World Trade Organi- accepted responsibility in January war crimes committed by former pres- sation (WTO) approves Macedonia’s 2001, pleads guilty to crimes against ident of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Mi- admittance into the organisation. The humanity. The prosecutor withdraws losevic. protocol signed by General Secretary the other seven charges. • On 10th October, international for- of the WTO, Supachai Panitchpakdi, Appendices • On 5th October, general elections ces are forced to employ tear gas to and the Macedonian Secretary of Econ- are held, in which the nationalists gain disperse violent Kosovar Albanian pro- omy, Besnik Fetai, must be ratified by greater power in the executive branch tests against the return of Serbs to the the Macedonian legislature (Sobranje) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. These elec- province. before 31st March 2003. tions decide the president of Bosnia, • On 13th October, Serbia holds the • On 18th October, the formerly the Bosnian Chamber of Representa- second round of the presidential elec- communist Social Democratic Alliance 2003 tives (the lower legislative chamber) tions, which are declared invalid due for Macedonia (SDSM) and the ethnic the Chamber of Representatives of the to the scarce participation of forty-five Albanian Democratic Union for Inte- Med. Muslim Croatian Federation, the Pop- percent, below the required fifty per- gration (BDI), the political reincarna- ular Assembly of the Srpska Republic, cent participation. Even though Vo- tion of the guerrilla group, the National the Presidency and Vice-Presidenal jislav Kostunica obtained the majority Liberation Army (NLA), announce the of the Srpska Republic and the can- of votes (sixty-seven percent), the formation of a coalition government tonal assemblies. These elections are elections will have to be repeated. This and the repartition of the fourteen min- the first to be organised locally without means another chance for Vojislav istries. Branco Crevenkovski, leader of

international supervision since the end Seselj of the ultra-nationalist Radical the SDSM and former Prime Minister, 246-247 of the civil war in 1995. The OSCE Serbian Party (SRS), who came out as will head the cabinet, which will not in- acts as an observer and assures that the third most voted candidate in the clude former NLA guerrillas, of whom the voting is undertaken according to first round. many occupy positions of leadership international regulations. • On 20th October, Montenegro within the BDI. • On 11th October, the indictment holds legislative elections, which were of wartime Bosnian Serb leader, Ra- planned in July when Filip Vujanovic´s Cyprus dovan Karadzic, is declared open. He cabinet lost the support it needed to faces charges of genocide, crimes continue in government. Milo Dju- • On 3rd and 4th October, the at- against humanity, the violation of the kanovic’s pro-independence Demo- tempts by Kofi Annan, General Secre- laws and customs of war, and violation cratic List for a European Montenegro tary of the UN, fail to renew peace ne- of the Geneva Conventions. secures the victory and wins the sup- gotiations between Greek Cypriot • On 17th October, Milan Simic, a port needed to continue in govern- President, Glafkos Clerides, and the forty-two-year-old Bosnian Serb who ment with the obtainment of thirty- Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash. voluntarily turned himself in to the au- nine out of the seventy-five seats. The Furthermore, the talks are suspended thorities and pled guilty to two ac- party in favour of the preservation of when Denktash is admitted to a US counts of torture, is sentenced to five the federal union with Serbia achieves hospital for emergency open-heart years in prison. On 21st October, the thirty seats. surgery. indictment is opened for the cases • The majority party in the Assembly against Bosnian Serbs Drago Nikolic, of Kosovo, President Ibrahim Rugo- Turkey Vujadin Popovic and Ljubisa Beara, ac- va´s Democratic League of Kosovo cused of war crimes against Bosnian (LDK), win the local elections on 26th • On 1st October, the Great Nation- Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995. October in the disputed Serbian prov- al Assembly confirms that the general • On 29th October, the Minister of ince of Kosovo. The turnout reaches elections will be held on 3rd Novem- Defence of the Srpska Republic, Slo- fifty-seven percent among Alban- ber, despite the fact that some parties bodan Bilic, and the army chief of staff, ian Kosovars, and twenty percent had requested that they be postponed Novica Simic, resign from office due to among Kosovars of Serbian decent, in order to recuperate votes. a scandal involving the state aviation whose parties obtain power in four • On 3rd October, the State Security company Orao, which violated the UN municipalities. Tribunal formally invalidates the death sentence given to Abdullah Öcalan, withdrawn from the Arab League for Forces (USFP) party was that which leader of the Kurdish Workers´ Party no apparent reason. However, the obtained the highest number of votes in (PKK). Öcalan´s death sentence, and 25th October edition of The Indepen- the legislative elections of September. those of twenty other activists, is re- dent reports that several high-ranking • On 28th October, the Court of Ap- placed with life imprisonment. civil servants have cited the League’s peal postpones the trial of suspected • On 16th October an Istanbul court inefficiency with the crisis in Iraq and al-Qaeda members until 25th De- sentences ten police agents to be- Palestine. cember. The defendants are accused tween five and ten years imprisonment of planning an attack on Western for acts of torture against juveniles in Tunisia warships stationed in the Strait of custody. The agents have already Gibraltar. been given four sentences against • On 8th October, the television which they plan to appeal. The case is channel Aljazeera broadcasts a record- European Union taken over by the European Commis- ed message in which Ayman al-Za- sion as an example of the slowness wahiri, member of al-Qaeda, claims • On 9th October, the European and inefficiency of the Turkish legal responsibility for the April bombing of a Commission announces that ten of system. synagogue on the Tunisian island of the thirteen members who applied for • On 23rd October, Sabih Kana- Djerba. Several German tourists were membership have been accepted. doglu, Chief Prosecutor in Turkey, turns killed in the attack. He also claims They will be admitted into the Union to the constitutional courts with the that al-Qaeda was responsible for the from 2004 onward in the organisa- aim of banning the Justice and Devel- suicide bombing in the Pakistani city tion’s largest expansion since the cre- opment Party (AKP), whose leader, of Karachi last May, which resulted in ation of the European Economic Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was not per- the deaths of eleven French naval Community in 1957. The ten coun- mitted to participate in the September engineers. tries to be awarded entry are Cyprus, elections. Malta, Hungry, Poland, Slovakia, Latvia, Algeria Estonia, Lithuania, the Czech Repub- Lebanon lic and Slovenia. The European Com- • At local elections held on 10th Oc- mission does not, however, clarify • At the beginning of the month, three tober, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika Turkey’s status and for the moment no supposed al-Qaeda members are ar- and Prime Minister Ali Benflis’ National date is given for the initiation of nego- rested. They are suspected of trying to Liberation Front (FLN) obtains political tiations, though the Commission does establish a refuge camp for members supremacy. In these elections of a see fit to double the current 172 mil- of Osama bin Laden´s network who low-turnout, the FLN gains control of lion euros in financial aid destined for have escaped from Afghanistan. 668 local assemblies out of 1,541 and this purpose. • On 16th October, President Emile wins half the seats in 323 others. They • On 17th October, Romano Prodi, Lahoud officially opens a controver- also gain control of forty-three out of the President of the European Com- sial water pumping station in the forty-eight regional assemblies. During mission, deals a tough blow to the Wazzami River near the border with the voting the country saw confronta- Stability and Growth Pact, the mechan- Israel, which responds by threatening tions between Berber activists and ism that regulates fiscal policy and to destroy the station and to increase government forces in the Kabylia re- the common currency, by describing its number of military flights over gion. The Arches, a coordinating or- EU budget rules as «stupid». He adds Lebanon. ganisation that brings together repre- that the rules regulating the Euro sentatives from the towns and tribes of should be applied with more flexibility, Jordan the Berber region of Algeria, and and that more power should be given which has led the revolt since April to the Commission in order to adjust • On 28th October, Laurence Foley, 2001, called for a boycott of the elec- the Pact. a US diplomat, is killed in Amman by tions, which appears to have been • On 24th and 25th October, at the an unidentified assassin. Sixty-two successful in view of the extremely summit in Brussels, the EU heads of year old Foley had worked as an ad- poor voter participation throughout the state set the budget for the enlarge- ministrator in the US Agency of Inter- region. ment process. Regardless of future national Development. His murder co- occurrences, during the period 2004 incides with a rising tide of hostility Morocco to 2006 the budget will not exceed the toward the US in the region, due to maximum spending amount that was the country’s supposed inclination in • On 9th October, it is announced agreed at the 1999 European Council favour of Israel and their plans to that King Mohammed VI has named in Berlin, a total of 42.59 billion euros. invade Iraq. Driss Jettou, who until now has occu- The EU will award future members a pied the position of State Minister of total of 23 billion euros, to be divided Libya Internal Affairs, Prime Minister. Jettou, between structural and cohesion who is not affiliated with any party, funds. Furthermore, at the same meet- • On 24th October, the official news takes over from Aberraman Yussufi, ing, France and Germany reach an un- agency Jana reports that Libya has whose Socialist Union of Popular expected agreement to contain agri- cultural spending from 2006, a topic aimed at satisfying EU demands for occasions the hijackers threatened to that had been deadlocked and that urgent action to reduce the budget set off a bomb, which was later re- had previously proposed a threat to deficit. vealed to be a sham as no bombs ex- the enlargement process. In virtue isted. One man was of Moroccan de- of the agreement, the EU promises to Spain scent and the other was a former maintain the Common Agricultural Pol- Italian police agent with a psychiatric icy (CAP), something that the UK and • The government faces harsh criti- record, who had previously hijacked the Netherlands question during the cism for its response to the ecological an Air France flight in March 2001, summit, although the agricultural sub- disaster caused by ten thousand tons and had also taken control of an Italian sidies will be frozen and even slightly of fuel released from the Prestige, the train in 1998. reduced from 2006. oil tanker which sank on 19th Novem- • On 24th and 25th November, in • On 28th October, Valéry Giscard ber in the north-western waters of the the Paris area, police arrest nineteen d’Estaing, the former President of peninsula. suspected al-Qaeda members. The France and the current President of the antiterrorist operation, organised on Convention responsible for proposing France the basis of information provided by the future forms of EU institutions, authorities in the UK, Germany and the made up of 105 members, makes • On 11th November, around a hun- Netherlands, is the largest to be imple- Appendices public a draft of what is to be the Eu- dred immigrants board themselves up mented in France since the 11th Sep- ropean Constitution. Certain contro- inside a church in Calais, on the north tember 2001 attacks in the US. versial aspects are shelved so that coast, and threaten to commit mass • On 25th November, air traffic and member states can take them up dur- suicide if they are not granted shelter motorway travel is disrupted when lor- ing the final stages of the negotiations at the nearby refugee centre in San- ry drivers and air traffic controllers to finalise to Constitution, set for June gatte. Access to the centre has been hold a protest in demand of higher 2003 2003. Despite the document’s lack of closed to immigrants since 5th Novem- salaries. specificity, the draft represents a step ber. The lock-in ends on 14th November • On 26th November, civil servants Med. forward, since it represents a growing with the eviction of the immigrants, the demonstrate in Paris and other cities consensus concerning the proposal of majority of whom have applied for po- against the privatisation plans of the adopting a Constitution. litical asylum in France. government. • On 17th November, the Union for Presidential Majority (UMP), the al- Italy November 2002 liance of centre-right parties that won the presidential and parliamentary • In mid-November a crisis in the 248-249 The UN presents a peace plan for elections in the first semester of 2002, RAI, the Italian state media group, Cyprus that will be the basis for the officially unites to from a single party, threatens to damage the reputation of difficult negotiations between the two the Union for the Popular Movement, Prime Minister Berlusconi when con- sides. Trouble brews in Spain with which keeps the initials of the alliance: flicts between his duties as Prime Min- the sinking of an oil tanker. Portugal UMP. Alain Juppé, currently in the post ister and his position as a media deals with another strike, and Italy of Mayor of Bordeaux, and Prime Min- tycoon are made patent. On 20th faces difficult times with the disinte- ister from 1995 to 1997, is elected as November, two of the five directors on gration of an important company, the the leader of the new party. the administrative council of the televi- continuation of the economic crisis, • On 19th November, the French sion agency resign, declaring that and the citizens’ loss of faith in insti- Supreme Court, the highest court Berlusconi wields so much influence tutions. In Algeria, Islamist violence of appeal, denies anti-globalisation over RAI that it threatens freedom of tarnishes the month of Ramadan. leader José Bové´s appeal against a expression in Italy. The rapidly-ap- France takes action against interna- six-month prison sentence for his at- pointed replacements are closely con- tional terrorism and holds a donor tack on a field of genetically modified nected to the government, and their conference in Paris that produces crops in 1999. Furthermore, Bové is appointment does nothing but exacer- considerable economic aid for Leba- condemned to serve a further eight bate the situation. non. Controversial elections are held months in prison for a more recent at- • On 17th November, the court of in Turkey, and elections also take tack on another field of genetically appeal of Perugia shakes up the coun- place in Slovenia. modified crops. try’s political sector by sentencing for- • An apparent hijack attempt on an mer Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti to Portugal Air-France flight from Canada to Paris twenty-four years imprisonment for or- on 22nd November is followed, on dering the killing, in March 1979, of in- • Civil servants hold a strike on 14th 27th November, by a similar incident vestigative reporter Mino Pecorelli. November, causing schools, hospi- on an Alitalia flight on route from The tribune also sentences Mafia boss tals, courts and other public services Bologna to Paris. The pilot is forced to Gaetano Badalamenti to twenty-four to shut down throughout the country. execute an emergency landing in Lyon. years for his role in the murder. An- The strike is called in protest against The alleged hijackers were arrested, dreotti, who served seven terms as measures imposed by the government and there were no victims. On both Prime Minister and was cleared of the same charges in 1999, announces course of his visit, part of a larger tour presidency to be changed every ten that he will appeal against the sen- through the Balkans. months. Furthermore, it calls for bi- tence. Prime Minister Berlusconi pro- • On 23rd November, there are re- cameral legislature and a supreme nounces his disagreement with the ports that four former members of the court composed of nine judges: three ruling and considers it the judges’ Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) have from each state and three non-Cypri- vengeance against former enemies. been accused of committing war ots. Under pressure from UN officials, crimes against fellow citizens of Al- on 30th November the two leaders Slovenia banian ethnicity. One of the accused agree to use the UN plan as a basis for is Rustem Mustafa, whose arrest in negotiations. • On 10th November, Slovenians August provoked huge demonstra- • On 25th November, the UN Secu- head to the ballots in the election of tions in the north-east of Kosovo. rity Council passes Resolution 1442 their president. The current Presi- • On 25th November, after the Octo- (2002), which extends the mandate of dent, the independent Milan Kucan, is ber elections in Montenegro, Milo the UN Peacekeeping Forces in Cyprus not permitted to run for a third term Djukanovic resigns as President of the (UNFICYP) for six more months. How- due to provisions in the Constitution. Republic of Yugoslavia, with the hope ever, on 26th November, leaders from Since no one wins by absolute major- that the new legislature names him the Turkish Republic of northern ity, the two candidates with the most Prime Minister of Montenegro. Cyprus declare that the resolution is votes from the first round, Prime Min- • On 25th November, the UN Interim not valid and that their government ister Janez Drnovsek (of the Liberal Administration Mission in Kosovo (UN- does not consider itself subject to it Democracy Party of Slovenia) and the MIK) takes control of the Serbian zone since the resolution was passed with independent Barbara Brezigar, for- of the divided village of Mitrovice. This only the consent of the Greek Cypriot mer Minister of Justice and Attorney feat, achieved three years after NATO government. General, will come head to head in troops expelled Yugoslav troops from a second round scheduled for 1st Kosovo, is achieved thanks to an agree- Turkey December. ment between the UNMIK and the Yu- goslav government, which allows the • On 3rd November, the Justice and Bosnia and Herzegovina UN to take control of the whole of Development Party (AKP), the Islamist Kosovo. party founded in 2001 by the former • On 8th November, the ICTY indict- Mayor of Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdo- ment opens in the case of the former Macedonia gan, wins the general elections with an commander of Bosnian Serb forces, absolute majority. They obtain 363 of Ratko Mladic, who is accused of war • On 1st November, the new Mace- the 550 seats of the Great National crimes, crimes against humanity and donian government headed by Bran- Assembly, the country’s unicameral violations of the laws and customs of co Crvenkovski, leader of the ex-com- legislature. Aside from the Islamist war. munist Social Democratic Alliance for party, only the Popular Republican Party • After the general elections held at Macedonia (SDSM), is formally ap- (CHP) acquires representation in the the beginning of October, on 28th No- proved by the Sobranje, the unicam- Assembly by surpassing the ten per- vember Dragan Cavic, member of the eral legislature. Members of the Dem- cent of votes needed to win seats, Serbian Democratic Party (SDS), ocratic Union (BDI), the political and it constitutes the first time that swears the oath of office as President reincarnation of the ethnic Albanian there are only two parties in the As- of the Srpska Republic. guerrilla group, the National Liberation sembly since the multiparty democra- • On 29th November, the ICTY sen- Army (NLA), also form part of the new cy began in 1954. The Democratic tences Bosnia Serb Mitar Vasiljevic to government. Leftist Party (DSP) suffered the biggest twenty years in prison after finding him setback, falling from 22.06 percent of guilty of committing crimes against hu- Cyprus the vote in the 1999 elections to 1.23 manity and violating the laws and cus- percent this year. toms of war. • On 11th November, UN special en- • On 8th November, Valery Giscard voy, Álvaro de Soto, presents a new d’Estaing, the former President of France Yugoslavia peace plan to the Greek Cypriot Pres- and the current President of the con- ident, Glakfos Clerides, and the Turk- vention responsible for writing the • On 17th November, an orthodox ish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash, in European Constitution, stirs up a big church in the western part of the dis- Nicosia. The plan presented calls for debate when he states that Turkey puted province of Kosovo is attacked the creation of an indissoluble associ- should never be permitted to form part and destroyed, only a few hours after ation state, with a common govern- of the EU, and that its admittance the smashing up of another. The at- ment and two equal states, construct- would signify the end of the Union. tacks occur a day before the General ed in accordance with the Swiss • On 13th November, Recep Tayyip Secretary of the UN, Kofi Annan, is model. The plan proposes a six-mem- Erdogan, leader of the AKP, promises scheduled to visit Kosovo. Annan ber presidential council, to be distrib- to introduce new human rights reforms, plans to meet with various Serb and uted proportionally according to the including a «zero tolerance» policy on Albanian Kosovar leaders during the population of each state and a rotating torture. Erdogan promises to revise the Turkish Constitution with the pur- • At the end of November, the US for which no one claims responsibility. pose of adapting it to the human rights Peace Corps, an independent federal The number of deaths caused by ex- standards established by the EU, and agency that specialises in rural devel- tremist activists since the start of the trusts that in December Turkey will opment projects, pulls out of Jordan holy month of Ramadan, on 6th No- able to begin negotiations for its future due the increased risk to US person- vember adds up to more than thirty. membership in the EU. nel in the country, leaving behind sixty Ramadan continues to be a period as- • President Ahmet Necdet Sezer en- local volunteers. The decision follows sociated with an increase in Islamist trusts Abdullah Gul, an important the US State Department’s decision violence in the country. member of the AKP, with the formation to reduce embassy staff in Amman of the government. Gul, an experi- after Lawrence Foley was killed in Morocco enced economist and member of the October. last cabinet, has been chosen by • On 1st November, approximately the leader of the AKP – Recep Tayyip Egypt fifty people die and about ninety are in- Erdogan – since Erdogan himself has jured in a fire in the Sidi Moussa prison been prohibited to serve as Prime Min- • On 14th November, Mustafa Mash- in El Jadida, 170 kilometres from Ra- ister by the courts. On 28th Novem- hour, leader of the outlawed but offi- bat. The cause of the fire is unknown, ber, the Great National Assembly con- cially tolerated Muslim Brotherhood, although there is speculation about an Appendices firms the appointment, although Gul is dies aged eighty-one. On 15th No- electrical accident. not expected to remain at the post for vember some hundred thousand peo- • On 7th November, King Mohammed long due to the fact that the AKP is ple attend his funeral in the Rabia al- VI devises a new government headed making efforts to reform the consti- Adawiya Mosque, north-east of Cairo. by Prime Minister Driss Jettou. The new tution so that Erdogan may serve as • On 20th November, the UN Com- administration includes many figures

Prime Minister. mittee Against Torture declares that that do not form part of any political 2003 there they have found evidence of tor- party, including Jettou and the Minister

Lebanon ture in arrests made by Egyptian se- of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Med. curity forces. The committee points Mohamed Benaissa. As part of the • On 21st November, an US nurse, out that many of these actions are cabinet, the king also includes mem- Bonnie Weatherall, is killed in Sidon, a protected under the emergency laws, bers of six parties with representation coastal town in the south of Lebanon. which were approved after the assas- in the legislature. No group claims responsibility for her sination of Anwar al-Sadat, and which • After several weeks of heavy rain, killing. Weatherall worked for a church authorised wide use of detentions and on the night of 24th November more

and an evangelical Protestant school arrests. than sixty people drown in torrential 250-251 in a militant Sunni Muslim environment. • During the month of November, downpours that cause the rivers of • On 23rd November, a total of Egyptian television begins to broad- southern Casablanca to overflow. On eighteen countries and financial insti- cast a series divided into forty-one the following day, the flooding provoke tutions meet in Paris for a donors’ con- episodes based on an anti-Semitic a fire in the country’s most important ference to raise aid for Lebanon. The booklet, «The Protocols of the Learned oil refinery, located in the area sur- donors agree to give 4.3 billion dollars Elders of Zion». The US State Depart- rounding Mohammedia, in which two in economic aid to the country, which ment and the Israeli government re- workers die. has severe national debts. quest that the series be banned. European Union Jordan Tunisia • On 5th November, the EU calls for • On 10th November, the Jordanian • On 5th November, the French Portugal to lower their budget deficit security forces storm the city of counterintelligence agency, DST, ar- to a level that conforms to the maxi- Maan, in the south, in a failed attempt rests eight people near Lyon, who are mum of three percent required by the to arrest local Muslim leader, Mo- supposedly linked with the April Stability and Growth Pact responsible hammed Shalabi, better known as attack on a synagogue on the Tunisian for the regulation of the function of the Abu Sayyaf. Authorities affirm that island of Djerba. Many German tourists common currency. Similarly, on 13th Sayyaf is suspected of organising died in the attack, for which Osama November, EU Commissioner of Eco- gangs that are dedicated to armed bin Laden´s al-Qaeda has claimed nomic and Monetary Affairs Pedro robbery, drug trafficking and arms responsibility. Solbes formally directs orders to trade. He is also suspected of being France and Germany to control their involved in the January unrest in Maan Algeria rising budget deficits. after a juvenile died in police custody. • On 15th November, leaders of the During the military operation, three • On 21st November, nine civilians ten countries who are to be admitted civilians and two police officers die, die in two different attacks carried out into the EU in 2004 meet in Varsovia, dozens of gang members are arrested by Islamist activists in M´sila (250 kilo- Poland, in order to coordinate their po- and a large quantity of weapons are metres southeast of Algiers) and el- sitions in a period when negotiations confiscated. Ancer (250 kilometres east of Algiers), have reached their most crucial point. At the meeting, they agree to request order to avoid EU sanctions are met a loss and has accumulated several more aid for the enlargement process, with widespread public opposition debts, and of which the government with the argument that with the current and strikes, including a particularly owns 55.5%, will receive a nine billion figures of planned aid, per capita, they well-supported one called on 10th Euro government loan in order to car- would receive less than half of the December. ry out a three-year plan of financial amount received by the poorest cur- reconstruction. rent EU members. This issue is espe- Spain • On 12th December, the twelve ju- cially important for Poland. On 18th ror commission appointed by Presi- November, at a meeting of EU Foreign • On 3rd December, the terrorist or- dent Jacques Chirac in July with the Affairs ministers in Brussels, the official ganisation ETA detonates a car bomb function of examining the rules that date for the admittance of the ten fu- in a car-park in Santander, a city along regulate the levels of criminal respon- ture members is set for 1st May 2004. the northern coast of the Peninsula. sibility assigned to the Head of State, • On 25th November, ministers of No one is injured. finds that the current president should the fifteen member states reach an • On 17th December, near Madrid, enjoy total legal immunity. The deci- agreement for the creation of a single Spanish police arrest two suspected sion, which must be passed by parlia- market of energy suppliers. With the members of ETA after open fire is ex- ment, means that the president, whose hurdle of French opposition overcome, changed and a civil guard is killed. A second term ends in 2007, will be the member states agree to open their third suspect escapes. protected from all legal repercussions energy markets in July 2004 to com- • On 21st December, Ibón Fernán- of his suspected corruption for as long panies, and to private users in 2007. dez Iradi, member of ETA, escapes as he remains in office. from the Bayona prison in France, af- • December brings what appears to ter being arrested two days earlier in be an important sign of Corsican December 2002 a nearby area along with eight other recognition of the governmental policy suspects. regarding the region. On 13th Decem- The situation of instability continues in • At the end of December, fishing as- ber the main faction of the outlawed Italy, as do the strikes in Portugal, de- sociations in Galicia take legal action FLNC announces the effective sus- spite improvement in the macroeco- against the Aznar administration for not pension of its political military actions, nomic indicators. The EU adjusts its responding adequately to the fuel leak- thereby re-establishing the ceasefire estimations of the expense that the age from the Prestige tanker that sank signed in December 1999 and aban- enlargement process will entail, spec- at the northeast of the Iberian Penin- doned at the end of 2001. ifies the timeline for the procedure, sula. During the month of December, • On 20th December, a Paris court and tackles the issue of future negoti- there are demonstrations and hunger rules that US multimillionaire George ations with Turkey. As for Cyprus, the strikes while the tanker, which sank in Soros is obliged to pay a fine of 2.2 EU blocks the admittance of the Turk- November, continues to leak fuel into million euros for wrongful use of privi- ish nation due to their rejection of the the water. Galician fishermen fear eco- leged information about the takeover revised UN peace plan. Croatia and nomic ruin as valuable sources of fish of the Société Générale bank in 1988. Yugoslavia, still suffering problems and large quantities of shellfish have Soros immediately declares that he with their open electoral processes, been contaminated. will appeal against the ruling. move closer towards an agreement • On 20th December, following the regarding the peninsula of Prevlaka. France advice of the Minister of Internal Affairs Actions are taken in Jordan and Nicolas Sarkozy, representatives from France against international terrorism. • Over the course of the month, sev- the significant French Muslim commu- France also receives good news in the eral suspected members of Islamist nity (consisting of about five million form of a ceasefire on the part of one groups are arrested: three Algerians people) agree to create a national of the main separatist factions in Cor- and a Maghrebi in Paris on 16th De- council in order to enable relations with sica. Tunisia incorporates women into cember, an Algerian on the Spanish the French state to be more fluid. military service, and Egypt appears border on 21st December, and four willing to settle a dispute with the men of Maghrebi descent in Paris on Italy United States that stems from the ar- 24th December. They are believed to • On 6th December, the Senate (the rest and sentencing of a human rights have connections with the al-Qaeda higher chamber of the bicameral legis- activist. network, as well as with Chechen ter- lature) votes in favour of the controver- rorism, and to have made attempted sial bill of devolution that broadens re- Portugal attacks on Russian targets in Paris, gional control over health, education in revenge for the failed action in and the implementation of policies. • Prime Minister José Manuel Durao Moscow in October when Chechen The separatist Northern League (LN) Barroso achieves unprecedented suc- terrorists took control of a theatre full had threatened to withdraw from the cess in the challenge of reducing the of hostages. coalition government if the law was budget deficit to 2.8 percent of Por- • According to reports on 5th De- not passed. tugal’s GDP. However, the serious cember, the French telephone compa- • On 23rd December the budget, measures taken by the government in ny Telecom, which has been running at modified considerably since it was originally presented in September, it is situated in Croatian territory, but Yugoslav Popular Socialist Party of passed by both chambers. The revised controls access to the Kotar Bay, Montenegro (SNP) and the Liberal Al- budget includes an increase in spend- Yugoslavia’s most important deep- liance (LSCG). New first-round presi- ing on higher education, in reaction to water port. dential elections are announced for the threat of resignation from seventy- • On 13th December the legislature 9th February 2003. seven university rectors made on 10th adopts a new constitutional law con- • On 30th December, President Mi- December if university spending was cerning the rights of national minori- lutinovic, accused of war crimes, is cut, as originally planned. In order to ties. The law is intended to improve provisionally replaced by the President face the high deficit of the Italian pub- political representation for Serbs and of the Serbian legislature, Natasa Mi- lic sector, the government decides to other nationalities, and allow them the cic. Once removed from office, Miluti- sell stocks in Telecom Italia and issue right to education in their own lan- novic immediately looses his immunity. government bonds valued at 39.4 bil- guage. The approbation of this bill is lion euros. one the requirements for Croatia’s Greece • During the trial of Berlusconi’s possible entrance into the EU. partner, Marcello dell’Utri, the Prime • Armed with a homemade rifle, a Minister is once again accused of hav- Bosnia and Herzegovina man shoots at the Mayor-elect of ing received political and financial Athens, Dora Bakoyianni. She only Appendices support from the Mafia. Antonio Giuf- • The Bosnian collective presidency suffers minor injuries, but her driver is fre, a former Mafia boss, goes so far as designates Adnan Terzic, member of seriously hurt. The attacker, a thirty- to declare that Berlusconi has dealt the (Muslim) Democratic Action Party five year old man with a psychiatric personally with Mafia barons. (SDA), as the new President of the record, is caught by police and later • The crisis that Fiat, Italy’s leading Council of Ministers of all Bosnians. accused of attempted murder. He al- car manufacturer, announced in Octo- • Dragan Cavic, President of the leges that he was protesting against 2003 ber, continues with twenty-four hour Srpska Republic, names Dragan Mik- the policies of Prime Minister Costas strikes in protest of plans to make erevic, member of the moderate Dem- Simitis. Med. 8,100 people redundant. ocratic Progress Party (PDP), as Prime Minister of the Bosnian Serb entity. Cyprus Slovenia Mikerevic had formerly been Pres- ident of the Council of Ministers of all • On 9th December, the UN presents • Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek, Bosnians and minister of European a revised plan for the peaceful reunifi- member of the Liberal Democracy Integration. cation of Cyprus. However, Rauf Denk-

Party of Slovenia (LDS), defeats Bar- tash, leader of the self-proclaimed 252-253 bara Brezigar in the second round of Yugoslavia Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, presidential elections held on 1st De- immediately rejects the new plan. The cember. Drnovsek takes the oath of • On 8th December Serbia fails, for special UN envoy, Álvaro de Soto, office 22nd December, and the follow- the third time in three months, to elect tries to assure a peace accord before ing day officially takes over for Milan a president for the replacement of Mi- the European summit in Copenhagen, Kucan. On 11th December, the House lan Milutinovic, whose term is due to scheduled for 12th and 13th Decem- of State, the lower chamber of the bi- end on 29th December. Once his term ber, when Cyprus will be offered en- cameral legislature, approves the ap- ends, Milutinovic, who has been ac- trance into the EU. Emergency negoti- pointment of the current Minister of Fi- cused of committing war crimes, will ations that de Soto is able to set up nance, Anton Rop (also a member of lose his immunity and it will be possi- between Denktash and the Greek the LSD), as the new Prime Minister to ble to extradite him to the ICTY. Cypriot leader, who does accept the replace Drnovsek. Finally, a new gov- Miroljub Labus of the Democratic Op- peace plan, are later to come to noth- ernment is approved by the State position of Serbia (DOS) withdraws ing when Denktash is unable to attend Chamber on 19th December. from the new elections and Vojislav due to poor health. Kostunica, member of the Democratic • On 13th December, Cyprus is in- Croatia Party of Serbia (DSS), secures the vited to join the EU. However, it is victory, in a clear a defeat for radical specified that, since no peace agree- • On 10th December, Minister of nationalism. However, the ballot re- ment was reached, only the Greek part Foreign Affairs Tonino Picula, and his sults are once again declared invalid of the island will be able to join. This Yugoslav counterpart Goran Svi- due to a voter participation of less than sparks immediate protests from the lanovic, sign a provisional protocol re- forty-five percent. Turkish Cypriot community. garding the disputed Prevlaka penin- • On 22nd December, presidential • On 26th December, around thirty sula. The agreement will allow the UN elections are held in Montenegro, but, thousand Turkish Cypriots demon- to conclude its work – a mission that just as happened in Serbia, the elec- strate in the divided capital of Nicosia has lasted a decade – once the man- tions are declared not valid due to in- in favour of reunification. Denktash is date of the UN Mission of Observers sufficient voter participation. The ex- accused of blocking negotiations and in Prevlaka (UNMOP) is ended on 15th tremely low turnout is due, in large the demonstrators call for him to step December. The peninsula in question part, to the boycott called by the pro- down. Turkey • On 5th December, Ramzi Nahra, bicameral legislature) to sell military described as a freelance agent of the supplies to Algeria for the first time, • On 13th December, the EU com- regional intelligence service, and his despite doubts concerning the situa- mits to initiating negotiations for Tur- nephew both die when a bomb goes tion of human rights there. Burns key’s admittance into the Union in De- off alongside the road that connects praised the way Algeria is fighting ter- cember 2004, providing the country Ibl al-Saqi and Kawkaba. The Shiite rorism and predicted intense coopera- meets the requirements before that group Hezbollah blames Israel for their tion between the two countries on se- date. In response, Turkey gives the go deaths. curity issues. ahead for a cooperation strategy be- tween the EU and NATO, and promis- Jordan European Union es to hold new trials for politicians jailed under laws restricting freedom • On 14th December, authorities an- • On 5th December, the EU trans- of expression and to take measures to nounce the arrest of two men linked port ministers reach a final agreement eradicate torture. with the killing of US diplomat Laurence on the «Single European Sky» law, • On 27th December, the Great Na- Foley at the end of October. The gov- which will unify air traffic control on the tional Assembly, Turkey’s unicameral ernment states that both men, a Jordan- continent from 2005. legislature, grants its approval, on its ian called Yasser Fathi Ibrahim and a • On 12th and 13th December, in second reading, of a set of constitu- Libyan national named Saad Salem bin Copenhagen, Denmark, the EU ap- tional modifications that should permit Suwaid, are part of Osama bin Laden´s proves the incorporation of ten new Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leader of the al-Qaeda network and were trained in members: Cyprus, the Czech Repub- governing Justice and Development Afghanistan. Furthermore, it is believed lic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Party (AKP), to run in a new electoral that they received orders from Jordan- Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. process in February and to become ian Fadel Nazzal Khalayla, an al-Qaeda The accession treaties will be signed Prime Minister. Thereby, Erdogan is no member who is wanted for organising at the Athens summit in April 2003, longer disqualified from office as a re- terrorist attacks against tourists during and will have to be ratified by the sult of an alleged case of inciting reli- the millennium celebrations. member and candidate states prior gious hatred. to 1st May 2004. The EU decides to • On 30th December, various Che- Egypt continue negotiations with Romania chen guerrillas, who in April 2001 took and Bulgaria, with a view to their ad- the staff of an Istanbul hotel and 120 • On 3rd December, the highest mittance in 2007. Furthermore, in guests hostage, are sentenced to be- Court of Appeal lifts a seven-year last-minute negotiations instigated tween three and eleven years impris- prison sentence pronounced in July by Poland, the total amount to be onment. The defendants claim that against Saadeddin Ibrahim, and orders spent on the enlargement process is they simply wanted to draw interna- a re-trial for 7th January, 2003. Ibrahim set at 40.8 billion euros, of which Po- tional attention to Russian operations is a human rights activist who holds land will receive a billion euros in im- in Chechnya. both Egyptian and US citizenship, mediate aid. whose incarceration, after being found • With regard to Turkey’s request for Syria guilty of embezzlement, falsification admission into the Union, EU leaders and receiving foreign funds without decide that Turkey’s progression to- • President Bashar al-Assad officially authorisation, has marred relations be- ward meeting the European standards visits the United Kingdom from 15th to tween the US and Egypt. of democracy and human rights will be 18th January, the first such visit made reviewed in December of 2004, and by a Syrian leader. The leaders of the Tunisia that negotiations for admittance into two countries, Assad and Tony Blair, the Union will begin immediately in the out an emphasis on the need to achieve • On 26th December, the Minister of case that the review yields favourable peace in the Middle East, and together Defence announces that women will results. The countries, such as the they call for Iraq to disarm. Assad, be called for mandatory military serv- United Kingdom, that are in favour of however, is against any military inter- ice starting in 2003. Analysts declare Turkey’s admission see their aspira- vention in Iraq, and with regard to ter- that this manoeuvre highlights gender tions vetoed by France, while the rorism, denies that there are Palestin- equality in this Arab country, which is French obtain the assurance of Ger- ian terrorists hiding in Syria. known for its progressive attitude to- many’s crucial support for a less spe- ward women’s rights. cific commitment to Turkey. The fail- Lebanon ure to find a solution to the Cypriot Algeria crisis is given great importance at the • On 4th December, a Sunni Muslim summit, and the part of the island that mausoleum is destroyed outside Anjar, • William Burns, US assistant secre- is under Turkish occupation remains where the Syrian intelligence depart- tary of state for Near Eastern affairs, blocked from admission into the EU. ment of Lebanon is located. The attack, announces that the government of the • A long dispute with Turkey over the in which no one is injured, is attributed United States is in the process of au- conditions under which a possible EU to Wahhabi extremists. thorising a proposal in Congress (the Rapid Reaction Force would have ac- cess to NATO’s planning and logisti- Iraq. Morocco negotiates a free trade head of the Bank of France, Jean- cal means in future troop deployment agreement with the US, as relations Claude Trichet, whose aspirations to comes to and end. NATO and the EU with Spain see a slight improvement, be president of the Central European sign the final agreement of strategic and in Algeria there is a surge of Is- Bank by mid 2003 are under threat by cooperation on 16th December. The lamist violence. the accusations. document explicitly declares a princi- • On 6th January, official statistics ple of reciprocity that prevents the EU Spain reveal that the emigration of French from launching a military attack against Jews to Israel has doubled from 2001 any NATO member (such Turkey, for • On 2nd January, seven people to 2002, reaching the total figure of example), and vice versa. The agree- drown off the southern coast as they 2,326 people, the highest number in ment guarantees that the EU will not try to reach Spanish soil. The Spanish the past thirty years. According to deploy troops in Turkey’s area of influ- Civil Guard rescues thirty-five other Jewish leaders, this trend corresponds ence (Cyprus and the Aegean Sea), people when their inflatable boat cap- to the increase in violence against the and also assures that allied troops will sizes as they attempt to cross the French community of 1,200,000 Jews. never act against an EU member state, Strait of Gibraltar from Morocco. The aggressors are usually young such as the Greek part of Cyprus, who • On 3rd January, authorities release Muslims who are infuriated by Israeli will be admitted into the EU on 1st official statistics stating that the number treatment of Palestinians. Appendices May 2004. The solution to this issue of immigrants who try to illegaly enter • The separatist movement Resis- also carries with it the changeover Spain by crossing the Strait of Gibraltar tenza Corsa claims responsibility for from the NATO peacekeeping troops has dropped since a new vigilance sys- the bombings that took place in Bastia to the Rapid Reaction Force in Mace- tem and tougher border restrictions on the night of 12th January. One bomb donia at the beginning of 2003, and were introduced in the enclaves of was detonated in a bar, which was possibly also in Bosnia and Herzego- Ceuta and Melilla. The statistics also badly damaged, and the other in a car, 2003 vina at the end of that year. show that the number of immigrants causing the destruction of a dozen

• An agreement between the EU and who try to reach the Canary Islands cars in total. The attacks are seen as a Med. the US, signed on 20th December, has quadrupled since the year 2000. rejection of the ceasefire that was de- regulates the interchange of personal • It is expected that the implementa- clared in December 2002 by the main information about suspects of terror- tion of a new immigration law will insti- separatist faction, the FLNC. ism, such as telephone recordings and gate approximately one million citizen- • On 22nd and 23rd January, France bank account details. Danish Minister ship applications from Latin America. and Germany celebrate the fortieth of Justice Lene Espersen specifies The legislative changes, set for 11th anniversary of the January 1963 sign-

that the information given by the EU January, allow the children and grand- ing of the Franco-German Friendship 254-255 will not support the imposition of the children of people who were exiled Treaty, with its declarations in favour of death penalty by US judges, and that during Franco’s dictatorship to apply strengthening the cooperation between any future extradition agreement be- for citizenship. the two countries on an international tween the US and the EU should allow • On 22nd January, Ismael Bera- scale, and with particular reference to the European states to refuse any ex- sategui Escudero, suspected member such progress in their capacities as tradition that could result in the use of of the terrorist organisation ETA, is re- motors of the EU. President Chirac and capital punishment in the US. arrested in the French Pyrenees, after Chancellor Schroder declare that they he escaped from a Paris prison by are of the same opinion about the need switching places with his brother dur- to prevent the war against Iraq. January 2003 ing a visit in August 2002. • On 29th January, an appeal court • On 24th January, along the north- absolves the former president of the Actions are carried out against inter- eastern coast, sixteen Maghreb citi- French Constitutional Council and for- national terrorism in Spain and Italy, zens are arrested, under suspicion mer Minister of Foreign Affairs, Roland and in both these countries once of participating in terrorist activities Dumas, of accusations that cost him again many immigrants drown at- linked to the al-Qaeda network. Au- thirty months in prison and 152,000 tempting to reach their shores. More thorities report that during the opera- euros. He had supposedly received anti-terrorist operations are executed tion a large amount of chemical and favours and gifts from the oil company in Jordan and Egypt, where a free- explosive material was found. The event Elf Aquitaine through his former lover, floating exchange rate between the is connected to the arrest by British Christine Deviers-Joncour. The same national currency and the dollar is de- police of seven Algerian citizens in court, however, denies the appeals of clared due to the possible economic North London on 5th January. the other four people who were sen- effects that would be caused by an tenced in the trial, although it does see attack on Iraq. Turkey re-establishes France fit to reduce two of their sentences. diplomatic relations with Iraq, and the United States and the United King- • On 6th January, the trial opens Italy dom put pressure on the country, with against nine suspects of their involve- the purpose of securing its coopera- ment in the falsification of bank ac- • During the continuation of the trial tion in the military campaign against counts. One of the accused is the against Marcello dell’Utri, a senator from Forza Italia (FI) and a close polit- laration is adopted in favour of Croa- cabinet of Prime Minister Milo Dju- ical collaborator and business partner tia’s admittance into the EU and into canovic. The administration includes of Prime Minister Berlusconi, who is NATO. The government leaders also members of both the Democratic Party accused of helping the Mafia, more agree to increase cooperation in areas of Socialists (DPS) and the Social Dem- allegations come to light linking Ber- such as the economy, defence, infra- ocratic Party (SDP). lusconi himself to this criminal organi- structure, the protection of minorities, • On 20th January, Milan Milutinovic, sation. At the beginning of January, environmental protection, culture and whose term as President of Serbia ex- Antonio Giufre, the most important science. pired at the end of December, gives Mafia supergrass since Tomaso Bu- himself up to the ICTY, to face accu- scetta makes a declaration – via Bosnia and Herzegovina sations of committing war crimes dur- videoconference – before a Palemo ing the 1999 conflict in Kosovo. Miluti- court concerning the meetings be- • As of 1st January, the EU takes novic claims that he is innocent of all tween Berlusconi and the Mafia boss- over from NATO in the responsibility of charges, arguing that he did not have es during the 1980’s, and affirms that training and supervising the Bosnian any actual power that enabled him to in 1992 the Mafia switched their sup- police. The EU Police Mission (EUPM) influence the events that took place in port from the demolished Christian is three times smaller than the NATO Kosovo. Democracy to Forza Italia. Berlusco- force and is composed of five hundred • On 30th January, Radomir Mar- ni and dell’Utri both deny these accu- agents from EU member states, other kovic, former head of security in Ser- sations. European countries and Canada. Their bia, is sentenced to seven years in • A Greek citizen is arrested for mandate will last until 2005. prison for his role in the assassination bringing illegal immigrants into the • On 13th January, after the general attempt against opposition leader Vuk country, after a boat with thirty-five elections in October 2002, the Bosnian Draksovic. The attempt occurred in Kurdish Turks aboard it is shipwrecked legislative body approves the adminis- October 1999, and resulted in the in the waters off the south-east of Italy tration of Adnan Terzic, of the (Muslim) deaths of four of Draksovic’s clerks. on 20th January. A total of twenty-nine Democratic Action Party (SDA). Lord Two other defendants are each sen- people die in the accident and six sur- Paddy Ashdown, the High Represen- tenced to fifteen years in prison. vivors, including the man arrested, are tative for Bosnia Herzegovina, approves • At the end of January, legislative rescued. the election of all the nominees, with the bodies of the Republics of Serbia • On 28th January, Prime Minister exception of the Democratic Serbian and Montenegro pass a constitution- Berlusconi’s request to relocate his Party candidate for the position of al charter for the new State of Serbia trial, in which he will be accused of the Minister of Justice. and Montenegro, which will replace bribery of judges, from Milan to Bre- • On 16th January, the High Judicial the current Federal Republic of Yu- scia is refused. Under new legislation, and Fiscal Council employs two signif- goslavia (FRY). The constitutional passed by the centre-right coalition icant measures in the reformation of charter will also have to be approved led by Berlusconi, defendants have the judicial system: it appoints eight by the already existent federal legis- the right to request that the trial be judges, who will compose a Bosnian lature. moved when there exists a legitimate supreme court, and establishes a fis- suspicion that they will not receive a cal Ministry. Macedonia fair trial. However, the Supreme Court • On 17th January, the Popular As- foils Berlusconi´s manoeuvre, and sembly of the Srpska Republic, the • At the end of the month, the Euro- rules that there are no indications of Bosnian Serb entity, approves the re- pean Commission announces the end political partiality in the Milan court cent appointment of Dragan Mikerevic, of its humanitarian operations in Mac- where he is to face trial. member of the moderate Party of Dem- edonia. The Humanitarian Aid Office • On 30th January, twenty-eight Pa- ocratic Progress (PDP), as the new of the European Commission (ECHO) kistani nationals are arrested and ac- Prime Minister. Furthermore, the legis- has been working in the Former Yu- cused of terrorism, when explosives, lature approves the constitution of the goslav Republic of Macedonia and has along with maps of NATO bases and multiethnic administration (eight Serbs, made over 110 million euros worth of of the UK and Italian consulates, are five Muslims and three Croats). economic contributions. found in a Naples apartment. Further- • On 27th January, the Chamber of more, five Moroccans are arrested for Representatives of the Federation Cyprus possession of similar maps and ex- of Bosnia and Herzegovina (better plosives in the city of Rovigo, in north- known as the Muslim Croatian Federa- • On 14th January, in Nicosia, the di- ern Italy. tion), elects Niko Lozancic, member of vided capital of Cyprus, between fifty the Croatian Democratic Community and seventy thousand Turkish Cypri- Croatia (HDZ), as its president. ots mount a protest against the con- trary position to negotiation of Rauf • On 17th January, the Prime Minis- Yugoslavia Denktash, the leader of the self-pro- ters of Croatia, Italy, Hungary and Slo- claimed Turkish Republic of Northern venia attend a summit in Zagreb. At • On 8th January, the parliament of Cyprus, in which the people demand the close of the summit, a group dec- Montenegro approves the proposed his resignation. Turkey es constitutional modifications that against foreigners and against govern- permit Recep Tayyip Erdogan to stand ment representatives. According to • Faced with the possibility of a war in legislative elections and to serve as police, the arrests of these men were against Iraq led by the US, various Prime Minister. carried out on 25th November 2002 in high-ranking military officials and dip- five different Egyptian provinces. lomats from the US and the United Syria • On 29th January, the government Kingdom visit Turkey in order to try and anticipates the disastrous economic persuade the government to permit • On 8th January, a Syrian soldier effect of a war in Iraq, allowing for the the deployment of up to eighty thou- dies in conflict between Israeli and free-floating exchange rate of the na- sand US soldiers along the country’s Syrian troops. The event takes place tional currency, the pound, with the strategic border with Iraq. Kuwait is on a line of ceasefire in Golan Heights, dollar. A short time later, the national expected to be used as the principal which is Israeli –occupied territory. currency, exposed to foreign exchange gateway into Iraq for any ground at- Both parties accuse the other of ini- market, depreciates sixteen per cent tack, but even so, the US wishes to tiating the clash. against the dollar. open a northern front that will serves as a stopover for US troops in Turkey. Lebanon Algeria • As the result of a supposed en- Appendices counter of the former Iraqi ambassa- • On 30th January, the UN Securi- • The new year begins in Algeria with dor with Mohammed Atta, one of the ty Council passes Resolution 1461 a resurgence of Islamist violence, participants in the 11th September at- (2003), extending the mandate of the which leaves over a hundred people tacks, diplomatic relations between UN military force in the south of dead within the first nine days of the Turkey and Iraq were broken off. How- Lebanon, the Interim Force in Lebanon month. Included among the dead are ever, on 3rd January normal relations (UNFIL), until July 31 2003. forty-nine paratroopers, who were am- 2003 are re-established when a new Iraqi bushed in the southern Aures Moun- ambassador, Tali al-Dulaymi, is in- Jordan tains by the Salafist Group for Preach- Med. stalled in Ankara. ing and Combat (GSPC), a successor • Prime Minister Abdullah Gul sets • On 5th January, the State Security group of the GIA. A few days later, the off on 4th January on a tour of the Mid- Court confirms its verdict of guilty and Algerian press reports another am- dle East, with the purpose of visiting the resulting death sentence for Ra’ed bush in Kabylia. This time, eight sol- Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Hijazi, for having planned terrorist at- diers die. The first days of January also Syria in the hope of composing a tacks in Jordan during the millennium brings civilian massacres: twenty peo-

peaceful solution to the crisis. celebrations. The decision arrives two ple die in two separate attacks for 256-257 • On 8th January, seventy-five peo- months after an appeal court ordered which the GIA claims responsibility, ple die when a Turkish Airlines flight a re-trial due to insufficient evidence while the national press reports the from Istanbul crashes, due to the when the case was tried in February killing of ten members of the GSPC. dense fog in the approach to the air- 2002. • On 29th January, Abdelmalek Ben- port in Diyarbakir, in the south-east of • On 21st January, the Appeal Court bara, member of the governing Natio- the country. confirms the fifteen-year prison sen- nal Liberation Front (FLN) in the Na- • On 10th January, Turkey gives US tences given by the State Security tional Assembly (the lower chamber of military officials permission to inspect Court against six people accused the bicameral legislature), is found ports and aviation fields. This is seen of organising terrorist activities and of dead in the trunk of his car in Paris, as the possible first step toward allow- belonging to an Islamist group called France. Benbara, who represented Al- ing the deployment of US troops. Tanzim al-Khalaya. gerians residents in France, was de- • On 15th January, in Strasburg, the • On 22nd January, the State Securi- clared missing at the beginning of the permanent Turkish representative in ty Court acquits ten men who were month. the Council of Europe, Numan Hazar, charged with conspiring to carry out signs the sixth protocol of the Euro- terrorist attacks against US citizens Morocco pean Convention of Human Rights, living in Jordan. The men, led by Pales- which prohibits the death penalty dur- tinian Jordanian Wail al-Shalabi, were • On 21st January, negotiations with ing peacetime. arrested between April and June 2002 the US begin with the purpose of • On 22nd January the Constitution- in various operations around the capi- reaching an agreement on free trade in al Tribunal refuses to acknowledge tal Amman. less than a year, if at all possible. De- Recep Tayyip Erdogan as leader of the spite the fact that trade between the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Egypt countries is quite limited, it is hoped However, the Justice and Develop- that an agreement will help establish ment Party responds by unanimously • On 5th January, Egyptian police an- Morocco as an axis in the business re-electing Erdogan as leader for a nounce the arrests of forty-three mem- world that will connect the region with second term on 23rd January. Further- bers of the fundamentalist Islamic Europe, the Middle East and the Unit- more, at the beginning of the month group Islamic Jihad, which allegedly ed States. During his mid-January President Ahmet Necdet Sezer pass- attempted to carry out terrorist attacks visit, French delegate Minister of For- eign Trade, François Loos, comments • On 21st January, the EU Finance was already serving a five-year prison on this deal and warns that a free- ministers meet in Brussels and ap- sentence, is sentenced to ten more trade agreement between Morocco prove the implantation of steps against years for his responsibility in an assas- and the United States would be in- Germany’s excessive budget deficit, sination attempt against the King of compatible with the strengthening of giving them until 11th May to guaran- Spain, Juan Carlos I. economic relations between Morocco tee that the 2003 budget will not gen- • On 15th February, there are huge de- and the EU. erate more than the three percent monstrations in Spanish cities against • On 30th January, after a meeting deficit set by the Stability and Growth the prospect of a US-led war in Iraq; with the Spanish Minister of Foreign Pact. France is also warned about crowds of over a million people are es- Affairs, Ana Palacio, King Mohammed their budget deficit and ministers de- timated in Barcelona and Madrid. The VI announces that the Moroccan am- cide to implement new measures, protests are also aimed at the Spanish bassador to Spain will return to his starting in January 2004, based on the President, José María Aznar, for his post. Morocco withdrew their highest exchange of banking information in or- support of US President George W. official from Madrid in October 2002 der to avoid tax evasion across inter- Bush’s military initiative. when tensions were brewing over the national borders. • The Basque newspaper Egunkaria, control of a tiny island (Perejil/Leila), the only paper published entirely in located in the Strait of Gibraltar, only Euskera, the Basque language, is two hundred metres off the coast of February 2003 closed down on 20th February, due to Morocco. its alleged links with the terrorist group In the Balkans, the international trials ETA. Ten of the directors and editors European Union for the punishment of war crimes con- are arrested and five are later freed on tinue. Furthermore, the Federal Re- bail. Police affirms that the board of di- • On 1st January, Denmark transfers public of Yugoslavia is converted to rectors had informed ETA about po- the EU presidency over to Greece the union of Serbia and Montenegro, lice’s operations and that the paper in the six-month rotation of the position. where the elections that began in De- was, partially, financed by the terrorist The priorities of this new presidency cember have to yet to finish. Albania group. Various members of the gov- include the signing of the accession undertakes negotiations with the Eu- erning party in the Basque country, the treaties for the ten countries invited to ropean Commission in order to reach Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), de- join the EU, the drafting of an EU Con- an association agreement with the scribe the arrests as an attack against stitution, advancement toward the EU, who receives Croatia’s applica- the Basque language and culture. goals proposed in the ten-year plan tion for membership and presents a set in Lisbon in 2000, the strengthen- draft of the first sixteen articles of the France ing of EU foreign policy, and security proposed constitution. Elections are and the promotion of a shared, and held in Cyprus, where peace negotia- • On 4th February, President Chirac balanced, asylum policy. tions remain at a standstill despite in- and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair meet • On 14th January, President Chirac ternational efforts. In Morocco, judi- in Le Touquet, in the north of France, and Chancellor Schroder meet in cial sentences are given out to for the traditional annual summit be- Paris and draft a constitutional bill for terrorists from the band al-Qaeda, tween the two countries. This year, the the elections of the President of the while in Italy the courts reverse the summit was postponed by Chirac, af- European Council by the heads of latest charges against international ter a conflict with Blair at the EU sum- state and for the President of the Eu- terrorism. Spain experiences a huge mit in October 2002. There is strong ropean Commission by the European popular mobilisation against the war disagreement between the two admin- Parliament. On 20th January, the Fran- in Iraq, that threatens with causing im- istrations about the dilemma over co-German plan is presented to the portant divisions at the EU, and in whether to support the hypothetical convention responsible for mapping Lebanon the withdrawal of Syrian sol- US-led military action against Iraq. out a constitution for the EU, but draws diers is initiated. Both countries agree in the objective harsh criticism from the representa- of disarming Iraq; but France wants to tives of the smaller countries. The pre- Spain give UN inspectors further opportunity liminary plan, which is closer to the to find the necessary proof, before statist French position than to Ger- • On 8th February, a police sergeant they will support a new resolution of many’s federalist intentions, also pro- linked to the anti-ETA movement «Bas- the UN Security Council that authoris- poses the appointment of a Minister of ta Ya» is assassinated in a café in An- es military action against Iraq. On the Foreign Affairs for the EU. doain by the terrorist organisation other hand, Spain and the United • On 15th January, in Brussels, an ETA. Approximately five thousand citi- Kingdom support the proposal for im- EU database of the fingerprints of po- zens gather outside the offices of Her- mediate military invention. litical asylum seekers (Eurodac) is ini- ri Batasuna (HB), which the govern- • On 11th February, in what is seen tiated, in order to counteract the rising ment considers the political wing of as a move toward the creation of a two- practice of «political asylum market- ETA, to protest against the killing. party system in France, the govern- ing», which entails applying for asylum • On 13th February, Ignacio García ment presents a proposal for an elec- in more than one EU country. Arregui, former leader of ETA, who toral reform law in order to raise the barrier, with which representation is Slovenia admission of guilt and her expression conceded to the parties. The reform of remorse. project, which could materialise before • Anton Rop, Prime Minister since the regional and European elections, December 2002, is elected President Serbia and Montenegro is attacked by the smaller parties as of the governing party, the Liberal well as by the main opposition, the So- Democracy of Slovenia (LDS), in the • On 4th February, the Federal As- cialist Party (PS). fifth congress of the party, which is sembly (the bicameral legislature) • On 17th February, a Paris court or- held in mid-February in Celje. Rop re- agrees to replace the Federal Repub- ders the liquidation of Air Lib, the sec- places Janez Drnovsek, who was lic of Serbia with a weaker union of ond most important airline in France elected President in the elections held its two constituent republics: Serbia after Air France, for their inability to between November and December, and Montenegro. Almost a year earlier, pay debts of over 100 million euros. 2002. in March 2002, the leaders of Serbia, Some 3,200 Air Lib workers will lose Montenegro and the Federal Repub- their jobs. Croatia lic of Yugoslavia had signed the Bel- grade Accords with support form the Italy • On 3rd February, the IMF agrees to EU in order to establish a new com- provide Croatia a loan of almost 145 bined state under the name of Serbia Appendices • During the month of February, rail- million dollars, destined for the sup- and Montenegro. way lines used by US military convoys port of its economic and financial pro- • The creation of Serbia and Mon- are blocked in protests against the im- gramme until April 2004. tenegro angers many Albanian Koso- minent war against Iraq, and against • On 21st February, the government vars, who oppose the inclusion of the storage of US military equipment formally applies for entrance into the Kosovo in the new union. On 7th Feb- on Italian territory. EU. During her visit to Greece, Ivica ruary, a group of forty-two members of 2003 • On 12th February a judge orders Racan, the Prime Minister of Croatia, the Legislative Assembly (consisting the liberation of twenty-eight Pakista- submits the application to the Prime of a total of 120 seats) demand an emer- Med. nis, who were arrested in Naples on Minister of Greece, Costas Simitis, gency session of the Assembly «for the 30th January, accused of terrorism. during his visit to Greece, that holds purpose of approving a declaration of The judge considers the evidence the rotating presidency of the EU. Kosovo as an independent and sover- against them insufficient for the in- Croatia hopes to be admitted into the eign state». The UN Interim Administra- crimination of the defendants: explo- EU in 2007, along with Romania and tion Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) con- sives, detonators and maps found in Bulgaria. The initiation of the negotia- siders that «this is not the time for the

the rented apartment where the ar- tions for the country’s entrance de- conclusive resolution of the status of 258-259 restees lived. At the beginning of the pends a great deal on their improved Kosovo». The Serb Prime Minister, Zo- month, the Pakistani Minister of For- cooperation with the ICTY. ran Djindjic, calls for a conference to eign Affairs officially intervenes in de- be held concerning the status of the fence of the accused, and in protest Bosnia and Herzegovina province, after warning that a declara- of the treatment they have received tion of independence on the part of the from the police. • In February, a cantonal court in Albanian Kosovars would mean a viola- • An official investigation into the Sarajevo sentences former Bosnian tion of the 1995 Dayton agreements death of Italian businessman Roberto Minister of Internal Affairs, Alija De- for peace in Bosnia. Calvi, who was found hanged in Lon- limustafic, to four years in prison, after • On 9th February, Montenegro fails don in 1982, reveals that he was killed being found guilty of organising and for the second time to elect a presi- before being hanged. The conclusion carrying out the kidnapping of a Bos- dent, due to the fact that voting partic- of the investigation, presented at a nian citizen in the German city of Mu- ipation is less than the fifty percent hearing on 25th February, allows the nich in 1996. minimum required by law. As in the suspects in the case to be processed • On 13th February, Niko Lozancic, first election, the former Prime Minister after rescinding suicide as the cause of President of the Federation of Bosnia Filip Vujanovic and Prime Ministerial death. Calvi, known as «God’s banker», and Herzegovina (better known as the candidate for Milo Djukanovic’s Dem- fled Italy while his financial empire was Croatian Muslim Federation), appoints ocratic List for a European Montene- being investigated, which could have Ahmet Hadzipasic as the new Prime gro, obtains more than eighty percent had close links with the Vatican Bank Minister of the Federation. The follow- of the vote, a similar outcome to the and the Mafia. ing day, the legislature approves first elections. Before the re-initiation • On 27th February, after various Hadzipasic and his cabinet. of the electoral process, the authori- high-level executives have resigned, • On 27th February, the ICTY sen- ties plan a modification of the law with the two remaining members of the ad- tences Biljana Plavsic, former Pres- the purpose of repealing the minimum ministrative council of RAI, the state ident of the Srpska Republic, to eleven participation requirement. television service, resign, explaining years imprisonment. The prosecu- • On 14th February, the ICTY con- that it is impossible for them to carry tors had requested fifteen to twenty firms the accusation against Vojislav out their duties due to interference on years, but the judges reduced the sen- Seselj, leader of the ultranationalist behalf of Prime Minister Berlusconi. tence as a consequence of Plavsic’s Serbian Radical Party (SRS). Seselij turns himself in to the tribunal on 24th Cyprus, is subjected to pressure from Turkey February, having emphasised his in- the UN to come to a peace agreement tention to «destroy this evil court». The before 28th February, and maintains • Intense negotiations between Tur- accusation, of the suspect’s alleged negotiations with the President of the key and the United States continue participation in a joint criminal enter- Greek part of the island, Glafkos during February. The US tries to per- prise, includes eight counts of crimes Clerides. Denktash calls for a second suade Turkey to permit the deploy- against humanity and six of violation of review of the UN’s reunification plan, ment of US and British troops, as the the laws and customs of war. to which the UN agrees. In a change in prospect of a war against Iraq be- • On 18th February, three former policy regarding Cyprus, the Turkish comes more imminent. members of the Kosovo Liberation government criticises Denktash for • On 5th February, the Great National Army (UCK), who were captured by blocking the negotiations for the is- Assembly (the unicameral legislature) International Force in Kosovo (KFOR), land’s reunification. decides against definitively approving are taken to the ICTY in The Hague, in • On 16th February, the presidential any deployment until negotiations con- the Netherlands. They are accused of elections are held in the Greek part of cerning compensation for the costs of committing crimes against humanity Cyprus. Tassos Papadopoulos, leader the war and various aspects of political and of violations of the laws and cus- of the opposition centre-right Demo- and military control become more spe- toms of war, in 1998 in a UCK prison cratic Party (DIKO), obtains an ab- cific. However, the negotiations reach camp. It is the first time that members solute majority in excess of fifty per- a stalemate when Turkey demands a of the UCK have been arrested. A cent of the vote, having being assured substantial increase in the aid pack- fourth defendant who escaped is re- of the backing of Progressive Party of age offered by the US, and insists on arrested by Slovenian authorities and the Working People (AKEL) and the the participation of its own troops in at the end of the month is also sent to Social Democratic Movement (KISOS). control operations in the Kurdish re- The Hague. Glafkos Clerides, in possession of the gion of northern Iraq, in addition to the presidency since 1993, obtains just complete control of oilfields close Albania 38.3 percent of the vote, and is obliged to Mosul and Kirkuk. The Turkish gov- to step down from his post without be- ernment fears that a tide of Kurdish re- • On 12th February, Albania begins ing able to complete the process for fugees into the country will increase negotiations with the European Com- reunification of the island that was ini- the demands for independence from the mission in order to reach an agreement tiated under the auspices of the UN. ethnic group. of association and stability, the first Papadopoulos declares his intention • On 6th February, the Great Nation- step toward integration into the EU. to continue with negotiations and to al Assembly approves an increased maintain friendly relations with the Turk- presence of US and British military Greece ish Cypriots, in spite of his anti-Turkish personnel in some of the country’s nationalism. ports and airfields. • On 5th February, in Psychiko, on the • On 24th February, the United King- • On 21st February, the Turkish elec- outskirts of Athens, anti-terrorist police dom proposes the abandonment of al- tion board approves the candidacy of arrest Christos Tsigaridas, suspected most half the territory occupied by its Recep Tayyip Erdogan, leader of the leader of the far-left Popular Revolu- military bases in Cyprus, in an attempt Justice and Development Party (AKP), tionary Struggle (ELA), who is accused to break the deadlock in the peace for the elections scheduled for 9th of the responsibility for two assassina- negotiations, with regard to territorial March. tions and over a hundred bombings issues. With the execution of this pro- over the past three decades. posal, the Greek and Turkish authori- Lebanon • On 13th February Prime Minister ties would obtain one hundred and fif- Costas Simitis suffers his first political teen square kilometres of additional • On 19th February, Syrian troops setback in six years when a bill that territory, ninety percent of which would based in northern Libya began to pull would prohibit members of parliament go to the Greek side. out of the area in what could denote from holding other jobs is rejected. • The general secretary of the UN, the first step in the predicted with- This means that eleven deputies from Kofi Annan, arrives in Cyprus on 26th drawal of some four thousand Syrian Simitis’ governing party have either ab- February as part of an attempt to finalise soldiers from the country. stained from the vote, or have voted the peace agreement with the revision • On 28th February, the National against the bill. The party, the Panhel- of the plan proposed by the UN. How- Assembly, the unicameral legislature, lenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) ever, no compromise is reached, and approves the budget for 2003, which could therefore be facing a loss of po- Annan therefore extends the deadline includes dramatic cutbacks aimed at litical support. from 28th February to 10th March. Any reducing the high deficit faced by the agreement will have to be approved country. Cyprus through referendum by both communi- ties before the signing of the EU ac- Jordan • During the month of February, Rauf cession treaty in April. If no agreement Denktash, leader of the self-pro- can be reached, only the Greek part of • On 9th February, King Abdullah II claimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus will be permitted admission. approves modifications to the coun- try’s laws, which will make it possible favour of and those against a federal language newspaper. Algeria re- to set aside six of the 110 seats in the model for the EU. ceives its first visit by a French Head lower chamber specifically for female • On 17th February, an emergency of State since obtaining independ- representation. It is an initiative with- meeting of the European Council is ence in 1962. Elections take place in out precedent in this country. held in Brussels. The meeting is di- Syria, and in Malta a referendum • On 16th February, Jordanian au- rected at reconciling the deep divi- is held that approves entrance into thorities close the weekly newspaper sions regarding the crisis in Iraq. A the EU by only a narrow margin. The al-Hilal indefinitely and arrest three resolution of compromise is accept- EU launches its first military opera- journalists for the publication of an ar- ed, which does not resolve the differ- tion, of the peacekeeping mission in ticle about the sex life of the prophet ences between the member states in Macedonia. Mahommed and his six wives. All the the issue of support for the US in its defendants are found guilty and on intention to take military action against Spain 17th February are sentenced to be- Iraq. The United Kingdom and Spain tween two and six months in prison. lead those in favour of military action • On 6th March Martxelo Otamendi, • The Minister of Finance, Michel and the proposal is also defended by director of the Basque newspaper Marto, presents the budget for 2003 Denmark, Ireland, Holland and Portu- Egunkaria that has been recently and predicts «an exceptional and diffi- gal. France and Germany advocate closed down, claims to have been tor- Appendices cult year», due in large part to the po- exploration of the diplomatic route, tured by the Spanish police. Otamen- tential consequences of the impend- and are supported by Austria, Bel- di was retained in isolation, under ing war in Iraq, which would mean a gium, Finland, Greece and Sweden. antiterrorist legislation, for five days sure loss in tourism influx and access Furthermore, the division extends to after the closing of Egunkaria. His to subsidised Iraqi oil. the future member states, the majority declarations receive the support of

of whom support the US. These states the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) 2003 Egypt are cautioned by President Chirac and of Pasqual Maragall, leader of the

about their position. Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSC) and Med. • On 23rd February, the Popular As- • On 28th February, despite the ob- former Mayor of Barcelona. The Min- sembly, the unicameral legislature, vious advances made during the year, istry of the Interior denies Otamendi´s passes a presidential decree that ex- an agreement with the US concerning allegations, and maintains that such tends the state of emergency legisla- extradition and other criminal issues declarations are habitual tactics adopt- tion for three more years. The law was remains in deadlock. The standstill ed by ETA. first introduced after the assassination stems from objections raised by the • With the application of the re-

of Anwar al-Sadat in 1981 and has French, who demand more solid guar- cently approved Political Parties Law, 260-261 served to broaden the coercive au- antees that people extradited to the on 17th March the Supreme Court thority of the state, often clashing with US will receive a fair trial and will not agrees unanimously on the forced the most fundamental standards of hu- face the death penalty. dissolution of Batasuna, as well as of man rights. its predecessors Euskal Herritarrok and Herri Batasuna for being in «col- Morocco March 2003 lusion» with the terrorist group ETA. • On 21st February, an appeal The Abertzale coalition of left-wing court in Casablanca sentences ten In Serbia and Montenegro, the Ser- parties is the first political party to be Saudi nationals, and members of al- bian Prime Minister is assassinated. outlawed in Spain since the death of Qaeda, to ten years in prison, after The public television crisis continues the dictator Francisco Franco. The dis- finding them guilty of planning at- in Italy, and Prime Minister Berlus- solution of the party implies the end tacks against Western ships sta- coni is accused of having connec- of all political activity and the liquida- tioned in the Strait of Gibraltar. Five tions with the Mafia. In Turkey, Re- tion of all of the organisation’s as- Moroccan accomplices are sentenced cep Tayyip Erdogan finally becomes sets, a measure that had already to between three and twelve months President and the Kurdish party been taken as a precaution in August in prison. DEHAP is illegalized. The US finally by National Court magistrate Bal- achieves partial cooperation from tasar Garzón. European Union the Turkish government concerning the • Spanish President, José María Az- military operations already underway nar, continues to back the US-led mili- • On 6th February 105 members of in Iraq, after exerting heavy pressure tary operations in Iraq, despite the pop- the EU, responsible for writing the on it and despite rejection from the ular demonstrations against the country’s proposal for a European Constitution, Turkish legislature. In Egypt, the case support. An official poll taken at the publicly present a draft of the first six- against the human rights activist, the end of March reveals that ninety-one teen articles of a document that is cause of tension between the US percent of Spanish people oppose the expected to include about fifty. The and Egypt, is settled. In Spain, the war. Spanish troops are not sent into proposals of over a thousand amend- process of illegalising Batasuna is combat in Iraq, but nine hundred sol- ments to the first sixteen articles high- concluded and the tension heightens diers are sent to take part in «humani- light the division between those in with the closing down of a Basque tarian tasks». France • On 7th March Paolo Mieli, former are sentenced to between ten and fif- editor-in-chief of the newspaper Cor- teen years in prison, and a fourth per- • On 6th March, a Paris court sen- riere della Sera, is chosen by the pres- son is absolved. tences Algerian Islamist Adel Mechat idents of the legislative chambers to to six years in prison for conspiring to head the administrative council of the Bosnia and Herzegovina commit acts of terrorism during the RAI, the state television agency. How- European football championships in ever, on 12th March, he declines the • On 31st March, in the ICTY, two 2000. post, citing «technical and political dif- former Bosnian Croat paramilitary • On 7th March a state prosecutor ficulties», which might be related to members are found guilty of commit- rejects the lawsuit brought by the obstacles planted by the government. ting war crimes during the ethnic Mayor of Paris, Betrand Delanoë, for • On 7th March, the Mafia baron Sal- cleansing campaign in Bosnia be- expenses incurred by Jacques Chirac vatore Rinella is arrested in Palermo, tween 1993 and 1994. while he was serving as Mayor of Paris Sicily. • Also on 31st March, thousands of between 1977 and 1995. relatives of the seven thousand Mus- • On 10th March, a Paris court sen- Malta lim victims of the massacre of Sre- tences Olivier Orsini in absentia to brenica in 1995 gather in Potocari to twenty years in prison for attempted • On 8th March, a non-binding refer- attend a funeral ceremony for six hun- murder during an armed attack on a endum is held on the country’s entry dred of the victims. police station in Corsica in 1996. into the EU, in which 53.6 percent of • The 17th March sees the start of the electorate vote in favour of enter- Serbia and Montenegro the largest corruption trial in the histo- ing the EU. With a participation of ry of France. Thirty-seven former exe- ninety-one percent, the referendum • On 7th March, the legislative body cutives of the oil company Elf Aqui- reflects the extraordinarily high citizen of the State of recently created Serbia taine are indicted for diverting over mobilisation with regard to this issue, and Montenegro, selects Svetovar 400 million euros, during the late which is highly significant for the fu- Marovic to replace Vojislav Kostunica 1980’s, for personal use and for pay- ture of the island. Furthermore, the re- as President of the union. Marovic, for- ment of bribes. sult of the voting reveals the division mer president of the regional assem- • Also on 17th March, anti-terrorist of the island regarding the question of bly of Montenegro, was the only candi- police find indications of Ricin, a fatal its admission. The main opposition date to run. On 18th March he is also poison, in capsules stored in a locker party, the Labour Party of Malta (PLM), chosen to head the new Council of in the railway station in Lyon. Despite is against the adhesion, and effect- Ministers. the fact that days later the capsules ed an intense campaign prior to the • On 12th March, Zoran Djindjic, are deemed harmless, French Minis- referendum. Prime Minister of Serbia since the be- ter of Internal Affairs Nicolas Sarozy • On 11th March, Prime Minister Ed- ginning of 2001, is shot and killed in links the poison to the «Chechen ward Fenech Adami, a member of the the capital city of Belgrade. The acting cell», integrated by alleged members Nationalist Party (PN), which is in president, Natasa Micic, immediately of al-Qaeda, which was forced out of favour of the integration into the EU, declares a state of emergency, and the action in December 2002. On the sets general elections for 12th April. Deputy Prime Minister Nebojsa Covic same day, two suspected members of is designated as the provisional sub- the cell are arrested on the outskirts Slovenia stitute. Djindjic had previously survived of Paris. an apparent assassination attempt in • On 26th March, Minister Sarkozy • On 23rd March a groundbreaking February when a lorry was on the point confirms that the government is organ- referendum is held, with a participation of charging at him in the airport of Bel- ising weekly flights in order to trans- above sixty percent, and in which al- grade. Djindjic, who had participated port illegal immigrants back to their most ninety percent of voters approve decisively in the fall of Slobodan Milo- country of origin. People who have the entrance into the EU and more sevic in October 2000 and in his ex- been resident in the country for sever- than sixty-six percent approve en- tradition to ICTY in June 2001, played al years are excluded from this contro- trance into NATO. a fundamental role in Serbia’s return to versial measure, provided they have the democratic community of Europe. not been convicted of any crime. Croatia However, Djindjic’s actions had gained him powerful enemies in mafia, para- Italy • On 23rd March, retired General military and extremist circles. Mirko Norac is sentenced to twelve • On 16th March, the Democratic • On 2nd March, two suspected years imprisonment by a Rijeka trial for Party of the assassinated Djindjic members of a branch of the extreme having committed war crimes against chooses Zoran Zivkovic as the new left group the Red Brigades are arrest- Serbians in Gospic in 1991. Norac is Prime Minister, and the appointment ed in a train after fire was exchanged, the highest-ranking official to be pros- is approved by the Serbian legislature in which a police agent is killed at the ecuted for war crimes committed on 18th March. Zivcovic, a close col- scene. One of the detainees also dies during the Serb-Croat war, between league of Djindjic and former Minister later in hospital. 1991 and 1995. Two other defendants of Internal Affairs of the Federal Re- public of Yugoslavia recently dissolved, nification agreement for the island. tegrity of the country by «helping and commits to the continuation of the However, the twenty hours of negotia- inciting the terrorist PKK». advancement of reforms as well as to tions end without any agreement be- • On 17th March, the legislature fighting the criminal underworld and ing reached, which means that only adopts the budget presented by the bringing suspected war criminals to the Greek part of Cyprus will be per- government for the year 2003. The new justice. mitted to enter the EU in May 2004. budget, which is implanted after the • The government points to Milorad Once again, the failure of the reunifi- country has renounced a multimillion «Legija» Lukovik (the former head of cation plan can be attributed to Denk- dollar package in aid and loans from the special operations unit, the Red tash’s continued opposition. Denktash the US, is characterised by its auster- Berets) and the mafia gang Zemun lacks significant levels of popular ity. The proffered package would have Clan as those responsible for the as- backing due to his hard line position in been in exchange for allowing the sassination of Djindjic. Several arrests the peace negotiations. deployment of American troops on are made before the announcement of Turkish soil. the Serbian government on 25th Turkey • On 20th March, the day that hostil- March of the detention of the principal ities are launched against Iraq, Abdul- suspect believed to have carried out • On 1st March the Great National lah Gul, recently named Minister of the killing. This man, Zvezdan Jovano- Assembly, the unicameral legislature Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Min- Appendices vic, is linked to the Special Operations of the country, rejects by just three ister, announces that the US has with- Unit, the «Red Berets», a force loyal to votes the motion that would permit drawn its offer of six billion dollars in Milosevic. One of his accomplices, the deployment of sixty-two thousand aid and twenty-four billion in loans of- Sasa Pejakovic, is also arrested. US soldiers in Turkey against the fered to Turkey as compensation for • On 28th March, police announce prospect of a military operation against the derivative costs of the war. that they have discovered the corpse Iraq. The government continues to be • On 20th March, the Great National 2003 of Ivan Stambolic, the communist subjected to intense pressure by the Assembly passes a motion that opens president of Serbia during the 1980’s, US, in order for the issue to be re- Turkish airspace to US aviation for six Med. who was kidnapped in August 2000 turned to the Assembly. However, months. The US is grateful for this in Belgrade. On 30th March the Ser- owing to the fact that a second re- measure and offers 9.4 billion dollars bian government, who accuses the jection in the legislature could be in subsidies and loans. The motion al- «Red Berets» of the kidnapping and disastrous for the government, which so authorises the controversial send- assassination, calls for the arrest of is facing a popular outcry against the ing of Turkish troops to the northern Mirjana Markovic, the wife of former war, the Turkish executive refuses to Iraq, according to the government in President Milosevic, as there are sus- back down. order to prevent the entrance of 262-263 picions that she participated in the as- • On 9th March, Recep Tayyip Erdo- refugees in Turkey. This decision rais- sassination plot. gan, the leader of the ruling Justice es fear in the US and the UK of a «war and Development (AKP), is elected for within a war», and is interpreted by Macedonia admittance into the Great National As- many analysts as Turkey’s attempt to sembly, after he wins his seat with assure its influence in northern Iraq • On 31st March, the EU launches eighty-five percent of the vote in the and to avoid agitating the twelve mil- its first military operation, in the taking partial elections in the eastern prov- lion Kurds who live in south-eastern over of peacekeeping tasks that NATO ince of Siirt, in accordance with the Turkey. has been carrying out in Macedonia. constitutional modifications that al- • On 24th March, Turkey attends a The mission, called Operation Con- lowed him to run. This electoral victo- meeting of the Arab League held in cordia, has a six-month mandate and ry means that Erdogan replaces Gul Cairo, Egypt. The country acts as an forms part of the European Security as Prime Minister, and on 11th March observer for the first time. and Defence Policy. This EU force is the President, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, • On 28th March, in an effort to meet composed of 320 soldiers and eighty therefore requests that he form an EU human rights criteria, Turkey per- civilian workers, and is led by two administration, which is approved on mits the re-trial of former Kurdish commanders, of French and German 14th March members of the great National As- nationality. • On 12th March the European Court sembly, who were imprisoned in 1994 of Human Rights (ECHR) rules that after taking the oath in the Kurdish Cyprus Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the out- language. lawed Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), • On 10th March, the recently elect- did not receive a fair trial in October Syria ed Greek Cypriot President, Tassos 1999, and that the process should Papadopoulos, and the leader of the therefore be repeated. The court’s de- • On 2nd and 3rd March elections self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of cision is not binding. are held to decide the members of the Northern Cyprus, Rauf Denktash, meet • On 13th March, the constitutional Peoples’ Assembly, the unicameral with the General Secretary of the UN, tribunal of Turkey outlaws the Popular legislature. The ruling Baath Party’s Kofi Annan in The Hague, the Nether- Democratic Party (HADEP) on the Progressive National Front and its six lands, in a final effort to reach a reu- grounds that it has undermined the in- allies obtain 167 seats, while eighty- three of the remaining seats are taken at the US President, George W. Bush’s, is tarnished by a guilty verdict against by independent candidates. Voter par- backing of the Road Map, which aims four intelligence agents, including two ticipation is 63.5 percent. In a speech to end the conflict between Israel and former heads of the intelligence serv- before the Assembly, President Bashar Palestine. They express regret over ice, who are convicted of having lead- al-Assad defends Palestinian suicide the failure of the UN’s latest efforts to ers of Herri Batasuna, the political bombings and compares them with Is- find a solution to the continued prob- wing of ETA, under surveillance with- raeli military operations. lems in Cyprus, and the Union firmly out a court order, according to the condemns the recent assassination government. Egypt of Zoran Djindjic, Prime Minister of • On 24th April, Batasuna appeals Serbia. its illegalisation, a ruling handed down • On 18th March, the High Court of by the Supreme Court in the Constitu- Appeal absolves human rights leader tional Tribune. At the beginning of the activist Saadeddin Ibrahim of a series April 2003 month, Minister of Justice José María of charges including embezzlement, Michavila requested that the EU add falsification and receiving foreign funds In Bosnia and Herzegovina one of the Batasuna to their list of terrorist organi- without authorisation. This case has members of the collective presidency sations. ETA has been on the list since been the cause of strained relations is forced to resign after he is linked to 2002. between Egypt and the US, due in the violation of the arms embargo on • On 30th April, eight people are ar- large part to Ibrahim’s dual Egyptian- Iraq. In Serbia and Montenegro, there rested on suspicion of being linked to US citizenship. is a mass round up and arrests after the terrorist organisation ETA. the assassination of the Serbian Prime Algeria Minister, and in Croatia the death of France the former army chief of staff who was • French President, Jacques Chirac, wanted for trial by international courts • On 2nd April, Algerian citizen Mah- makes an official visit to Algeria from relaxes international pressure on the moud Slimani is arrested in Modane, 2nd to 4th March. It is the first formal country. Turkey increases its support of on the border with Italy. He is sus- visit by a French Head of State to Al- the US in the military campaign against pected of being part of the al-Qaeda geria since the country achieved inde- Iraq. In Cyprus, despite the deadlock «Chechen cell», which is active in pendence in 1962. Chirac is received in negotiations, the Turkish zone unex- France. In December 2002 nine sus- cordially, having increased his popu- pectedly opens the Green Line, and pected members of the cell were larity among Arab peoples as a result the Greek zone responds by lifting its arrested. of his opposition to the plans instigat- embargo. In France, the Regional Coun- • On 6th and 13th April, elections ed by the US to declare war on Iraq. It cil of Corsica agrees to submit the gov- are held for the recently created is decided that the heads of state will ernment’s decentralisation plan to a French Council of the Muslim Faith meet annually from now on, and the referendum; while in Italy, where anti- (CFCM), a government initiative aimed Ministers of Foreign Affairs will hold terrorist operations are underway, Prime at channelling relations between Mus- talks twice a year. Minister Berlusconi is on trial. In Syria, lim citizens and the state. Radical Is- • On 6th March, an Air Algérie Boeing fears spread that the country will be- lamist groups obtain significant repre- 737 crashes during takeoff at Taman- come the next military target of the US. sentation. However, by virtue of an rasset airport in the Sahara desert. Libya takes civil responsibility for the agreement among the various groups, Ninety-seven passengers and the six 1988 Lockerbie bombing in exchange the moderate rector of the Paris crewmembers are killed. Only one for the UN lifting sanctions against the mosque is appointed President of the passenger survives. country and its removal from the US Council. Minister of Internal Affairs, list of countries that promote terrorism. Nicolas Sarkozy, affirms that the European Union Elections are held in Malta. CFCM will not be permitted to propa- gate points of view that are contrary to • On 21st and 22nd March, the regu- Portugal the values of the French Republic, and lar spring session of the European warns that any religious leaders who Council is held, and the US-led military • In April, after serving a year in of- advocate extremism will be expelled. operation against Iraq, an issue over fice, the first resignations are submit- • On 10th April, the EU Court of First which the member states are deeply ted by politicians of the coalition gov- Instance confirms the decision made divided, dominates the gathering. Eco- ernment, composed of the Socialist by the European Parliament in Oc- nomic, social and environmental issues Party of Portugal (PS) and the Social tober 2000 to expel the leader of the are also on the agenda. In particular, and Democratic Centre - Popular Party far-right National Front (FN), Jean Marie the members emphasise their desire to (CDS-PP). Le Pen, for aggressions committed in continue endorsing the Lisbon Strate- France. gy, with which the EU intends to be- Spain • On 17th April, in Bastia, Corsica, a come the most competitive economic sixteen-year-old boy dies and another area in the world by 2010. At the sum- • On 6th April, the government’s fight is seriously injured when a device they mit, the members express satisfaction against the terrorist organisation ETA were trying to make by following in- structions found on the internet ex- islation passes through the Senate, crimes, but many Croats considered plodes. A few days later, on 24th April, the higher chamber of the Italian bi- him a war hero and the country had a bomb explodes in Ajaccio in the As- cameral legislature. Forza Italia an- been subjected to international pres- sociation of Moroccans of Corsica, in nounces that they are also drafting sure after the government refused to which no one is injured. legislation to restore immunity for extradite him to The Hague. • On 18th April the Regional Council members of the legislature. of Corsica approves the submission of • On 29th April, Cesare Previti is Bosnia and Herzegovina the government plan of regional de- sentenced to eleven years in prison centralisation to a popular referendum, after being found guilty of bribing • On 2nd April, Mirko Sarovic re- that will be held on 6th July. They also judges in order to influence two com- signs as the Serbian member of the draw up recommendations for modify- pany takeovers in the 1990’s. Previti, Bosnian collective presidency, to ing the plan. According to the plan, the who is one of Berlusconi’s close col- which office he was elected in Octo- current Regional Council and the two leagues in the political sphere as well ber 2002. He was implicated in the departmental councils of the island as in business, declares that his sen- scandal involving the aviation compa- would be replaced by an assembly tence is part of a campaign of political ny Orao, which violated the UN em- that will possess the power to raise lo- persecution. bargo on Iraq by supplying the country cal taxes and take charge of transport, with military equipment. Appendices housing, health and education, despite Malta • On 9th April Borislav Paravac is the fact that Corsica would continue chosen as the new Serbian member of to be divided in two departmental ad- • In the general elections, held on the collective presidency. ministrative units that correspond to 12th April, the ruling Nationalist Party • On 10th April, on orders from the the existing departments. (PN), headed by Prime Minister Ed- NATO, the SFOR arrests Nacer Oric,

• On 29th April, the government pre- ward Fenech Adami, is assured a vic- former commander of the Muslim Bos- 2003 sents a programme allocating 1.2 bil- tory of absolute majority in the Cham- nian forces (Bosnia and Herzegovina’s lion euros in order to increase the ber of Representatives, the country’s military corps) in Srebrenica. On the Med. country’s birth rate and facilitate moth- unicameral legislature. The campaign following day he is sent to the Deten- ers’ re-entry into the labour market. was focused on the debate over Mal- tion Unit of the International Penal Tri- ta’s accesion into the EU, in which the bunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Italy current prime minister considers ad- Hague, where he is accused of violat- mittance to be vital for the island’s ing the laws and customs of war. • At the beginning of the month four economy, while the opposition leader, men suspected of having connections Alfred Sant of the Labour Party (MLP), Serbia and Montenegro 264-265 with international terrorism and pos- is against signing the EU accession sessing illegal identification are arrest- treaty. The election results once again • During the month of April, there is ed in Milan and Parma. Police affirm confirm the favourable position toward still evidence of apprehension as a that the men are linked to the extrem- entrance into the EU manifested by consequence of the recent assassi- ist groups al-Qaeda and Ansar al-Is- the non-binding referendum held in nation of Serbian Prime Minister, Zo- lam. The suspects were apparently re- March. However, the elections would ran Djindjic. Many arrests are made cruiting volunteers to fight against the have been compulsory if the option over the course of the month, as the US and the United Kingdom in the war backed by the government had not re- continuation of the drastic measures in Iraq. ceived the sufficient absolute majority, imposed after the killing against or- • On 18th April Prime Minister Ber- as is stipulated in the Constitution. ganised crime. Over seven thousand lusconi’s trial begins in Milan. He is people, the majority of whom are de- accused of bribing judges during a Croatia scribed by the government as «known company takeover in the 1980’s. Ber- criminals», are arrested and interro- lusconi denies the accusations and • On 2nd April, the bicameral legisla- gated. Charges are brought against denounces the political bias of the Mi- ture (Sabor) approves an electoral over a thousand of them, including lan judges. legislation reforms package for the up- important current and former mem- • On 28th April the Chamber of Dep- coming general elections, which are to bers of the state authorities and other uties passes a new legislation, which be held before April 2004. The most spheres of power. is interpreted by many as an attempt to notable change is the increase in the • On 3rd April, Serbia and Monte- delay the sentencing in the trial of Ce- number of seats reserved for ethnic negro becomes the forty-fifth member sare Previti, former Minister of De- minorities: from five to eight. of the Council of Europe. The coun- fence and Senator from Forza Italia. • On 5th April, police arrest Bosnian try’s Minister of Foreign Affairs signs The new law allows defendants to ob- Croat military leader Ivica Rajic, on the European Convention on Human tain a forty-five day suspension of trial suspicion of committing war crimes. Rights. while negotiations to reach a final • On 29th April, former Croatian army • The 9th April edition of the news- agreement are continuing. However, chief of staff, Janko Bobetko, dies in paper The Independent reports that the sentence given to Cesare Previti Zagreb, aged eighty-four. The ICTY Zvezdan Jovanovic, the man who sup- will be announced before the new leg- had accused him of committing war posedly assassinated Djindjic, told po- lice that the assassination of the Prime Greece Turkey Minister was the first in a series of planned attacks to topple the govern- • On 14th April, twenty-one children • On 1st and 2nd April, US Secre- ment and return power to the allies of die and twenty-four more are injured tary of State Colin Powell visits the former Yugoslav President, Slobo- when a lorry loaded with construction Ankara, the Turkish capital. Resulting dan Milosevic. Furthermore, Jovanovic supplies collides with a school bus from conversations with Abdullah had assured police that he was acting full of children. The police arrest the Gul, the Turkish Minister of Foreign under orders of Milorad «Legija» Luko- lorry driver as well as the two owners Affairs, Powell obtains more support vic, leader of the mafia gang, Zemun of the vehicle, and charge them with from Turkey, who permits the use of Clan, who is on the run, and like Jova- manslaughter. its territory for storage of US troops’ novic, is a principal figure in the Special • On 16th April, while the EU is cele- fuel and food in northern Iraq. A dam- Operations Unit the «Red Berets», brating the highly important enlarge- aged US airship and wounded Amer- which served Milosevic. ment ceremony, thousands of demon- ican soldiers are also allowed to en- • On 22nd April, after forty-two days strators take to the streets to protest ter. The agreement does not require in force, Serbia lifts the state of emer- against the US-led war against Iraq. the approval of the Great National gency that it declared as a result of the Riot police are forced to use tear gas Assembly, the governmental body assassination of Djindjic. Prime Minis- when several hundred people break who recently impeded the deploy- ter Zivkovic confirms that he will contin- off from the peaceful march and hurl ment of US troops. Powell promises ue to combat organised crime by allow- incendiary devices and missiles at the that northern Iraq will remain under ing the press to analyze and criticise US and British embassy buildings. control of the coalition, not under Kur- government policy. The police make 106 arrests. dish control, and that Turkey will have • On 29th April, the Serbian police a say in the future reconstruction of present criminal charges against forty- Cyprus the country. five people in connection with the • On 6th April Iranian Minister of For- assassination of Djindjic. According to • On 2nd April, after the failure of the eign Affairs, Kamal Kharrazi, visits the accusation, the suspects are re- peace plan endorsed by the UN with Ankara and speaks with Prime Minis- sponsible for «encouraging terrorist po- the objective of reuniting the island, ter Erdogan and Minister of Foreign litical activities» and were involved in a Rauf Denktash, the leader of the self- Affairs Abdullah Gul. Gul visits Syria «conspiracy to endanger constitutional proclaimed Turkish Republic of the on 9th April, where he meets with his order and security». The defendants in- Northern Cyprus, who is seen by a Syrian counterpart, Farouq al-Shar’a. clude Vojislav Seselj, who obtained the great deal of Turkish Cypriots as an Iran and Syria also oppose the forma- second largest number of votes in obstacle in the way peace for the is- tion of an independent Kurdish state in the previous failed Serbian elections, land, offers to return the locality of northern Iraq. and who has now been extradited to Varosha to the Greek Cypriots, which • On 10th April, the Kurdish Iraqi the ICTY. The former president, Slobo- has been a deserted area since the militia takes Kirkuk, an oil-rich city in dan Milosevic, is also accused of or- Turkish invasion that divided the island northern Iraq. This event, along with ganising a criminal group that attempt- in 1974. The Greek Cypriot President, the possible proclamation of an au- ed to assassinate opposing politician, Tassos Papadopoulos, rejects the of- tonomous Kurdish Iraqi state, provoke Vuk Draksovic, in June 2000, and of fer, declaring that the UN plan, with its fears of the intensification of demands being implicated in the assassination more complex territorial layout, is the for autonomy from the Kurdish minority of Ivan Stambolic, the communist Pres- model that should serve as the basis living in Turkey. The Turkish Minister of ident of Serbia in the 1980’s. for any negotiation. Foreign Affairs describes the situation • Unexpectedly, on 22nd April, Denk- as «unacceptable», and US Secretary Macedonia tash announces that travel between of State Colin Powell responds by as- the two zones of the island will be fa- suring that the Kurdish troops will • On 24th April, the former Prime cilitated with the opening of the Green soon be replaced by the US military, a Minister, Ljubco Georgievski, announ- Line that separates the two communi- process that will begin on 11th April. ces his resignation as leader of the ties, with crossings limited to visits of Powell agrees to the motion of send- opposition group Internal Macedonian one day only. On 23rd April, the first ing fifteen Turkish military observers to Revolutionary Organisation – Demo- day of unrestricted travel, hundreds of the region. cratic Party of Macedonian National Cypriots from both sides cross the old Unity (VMRO-DPMNE). Georgievski ceasefire line. For many Greek Cyp- Syria says the motive for his decision is the riots it is the first time they have re- party’s defeat in the September 2002 turned to the other side of the bor- • After three weeks of the US-led elections. der, to see the homes they were military campaign, Saddam Hussein’s • On 30th April the IMF approves a forced to abandon thirty years before. regime falls in Iraq. Worries spread motion to grant the economic pro- In response, on 30th April, the Greek throughout the Middle East that Syria gramme of the country with an aid Cypriot government lifts the economic might become the next target of the package of over 27 million dollars until blockade on the Turkish Republic of US military. The hypothesis comes 15th June 2004. Northern Cyprus. from a inundation of harsh warnings launched by high US officials at Syri- Algeria public of Montenegro. ETA’s terrorism an President Bashar al-Assad and his campaign continues in Spain, while administration. In April, the United • In late April there are reports that the US agrees to include the outlawed States accuse Syria of developing since February a total thirty-one Euro- political formation Batasuna on their chemical weapons, of giving shelter pean tourists have been kidnapped in list of organisations that give support to fugitives from the Iraqi regime and the Algerian Sahara. These people to terrorist activities. The depleted of protecting terrorism. However, the could be being held by Islamist rebels public opinion of the Aznar adminis- Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the Illizi region. tration is accentuated further when and US ally, Tony Blair, denies the ex- sixty-two Spanish soldiers die in a istence of plans to attack Syria before European Union aeroplane crash in Turkey, where over the House of Commons, the lower a hundred victims also lose their lives chamber of the legislative body, and • On 16th and 17th April, at an infor- in an earthquake. A second earth- assures that he will pursue dialogue mal session of the European Council quake shakes Algeria, causing more and beneficial understanding with held in Athens, accession treaties are than two thousand deaths and bring- Syria. On 20th April, the President of signed for the admittance of Cyprus, ing great hardship to the population. the United States, George W. Bush, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Hungry, Also in Algeria, President Bouteflika appears to be more conciliatory and Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland and removes the Prime Minister from of- Appendices affirms that he has confidence that the Czech Republic into the EU on 1st fice, and seventeen tourists who have Syria will cooperate. May 2004. Despite the enthusiasm been held for more than two months surrounding the enlargement process, by Islamic activists are freed. In neigh- Lebanon deep divisions over the Iraq conflict bouring Morocco, a wave of terrorist are still evident. The EU leaders adopt attacks leaves forty-three dead, and

• On 15th April, Rafiq al-Hariri pre- a declaration affirming that the UN the sentencing of editor Ali Lmrabet 2003 sents his resignation as Prime Minister, should play a central role in the state sparks wide controversy about the lack the office he has held since October of affairs of post-war Iraq and that the of human rights and freedom. The US Med. 2000. The next day the country’s Pres- EU should participate in the recon- Secretary of State visits Lebanon and ident, Emile Lahoud, requests Hariri struction of the country. Syria, where the possibility of being to continue provisionally as Prime • On 24th April, the Convention of targeted by the US is beginning to dis- Minister with the purpose of forming the Future of Europe presents new sipate. The EU declares that the Rapid a new government. The new govern- articles of the draft of the European Reaction Force is ready to undertake ment is approved on 30th April by the constitution. The articles include the peacekeeping missions. National Assembly, the unicameral controversial Franco-German proposal, 266-267 legislature. which calls for the heads of the mem- Spain ber states to choose an EU president Jordan who would serve up to a five-year term. • On 7th May, George W. Bush, af- • On 29th April, the heads of state of ter speaking with President Aznar, ac- • On 2nd April, the arrest of four Belgium, France, Germany and Luxem- cepts the inclusion of Batasuna (con- Iraqis is reported, who are allegedly bourg meet in Brussels to urge EU de- sidered by the central administration linked to a plan to bomb an area in the fence cooperation in an international as the political wing of ETA) to the US capital city frequented by journalists context that is marked by the US-led list of organisations that give support and foreign diplomats. It is also re- military operations in Iraq, to which the to terrorist activities. The decision ported that security forces have pre- countries are opposed. The eleven re- means that Batasuna, which was ille- vented a scheme to poison the water maining EU countries do not support the galised in Spain in March, will not be supplied to a base used by US sol- initiative. The leaders gathered in Brus- able to receive political or material diers in Jordan. sels declare that they do not have any support from American citizens, and intention of undermining NATO, howev- that its members will not be able to en- Libya er their decision to establish differentiat- ter the United States or own com- ed centres of operation in order to plan modities there. The decision is inter- • On 29th April, Abd al-Rahman Mo- military operations together is seen as a preted as compensation to Aznar on hammed Shalgam, the Secretary of direct challenge to the position led by the part of Bush for his support in the Foreign Relations and International the United Kingdom, and in accordance war against Iraq. Cooperation, announces Libya’s in- with which the new defence structure • On 25th May, in the municipal and tention to pay compensation to the of the EU should not compete with autonomous (in thirteen of the seven- families of the 1988 Lockerbie bomb- NATO or replicate its capacities. teen autonomous regions) elections, ing, for which Libya assumes civil re- the ruling Popular Party (PP) obtains the sponsibility. In turn, Shalgam requests majority of seats, but is surpassed by that the UN lifts sanctions placed on May 2003 the Socialist Party (PSOE) in actual Libya and that the United States re- number of votes received. The Supreme move the country from its list of coun- Filip Vujanovic wins the presidency in Court had impeded a more than thou- tries that promote terrorism. the third round of elections in the Re- sand candidates from standing in local elections on 9th May, when it estab- • On 17th May, the main faction of Serbia and Montenegro lished a connection between ETA and the FLNC, the FLNC-Union of Com- 241 political groups, and the illegality batants, claims responsibility for • On 1st May, the ICTY confirms its of the formation Autodeterminaziorako three recent attacks in their fight indictment against former Minister of Bilgunea (AuB), declaring that this is against «economic colonization». Re- State Security, Jovica Stanisic, and his another name for the recently outlawed sistenza Corsa takes responsibility assistant Franko Simatovic. Both were Batasuna. for the 26th May bombing of a bar in arrested in Serbia for their involvement • On 30th May, a car bomb explodes Bastia frequented by North Africans, in the assassination of the former in Sangüesa, near Pamplona, killing as well as three other similar incidents, Prime Minister, Zoran Djindjic. two police officers and seriously injur- offering these as evidence of their ac- • On 7th May, the US President, ing two other men. The attack is attrib- tions against «drug traffic and illegal George W. Bush, gives his authorisa- uted to the terrorist organisation ETA, immigration». tion for the US to provide military as- which over the course of the month sistance to Serbia and Montenegro. has to deal with its own internal con- Italy Bush considers the steps taken by the flicts and the arrest of six suspected new administration after the Djindjic members in France on 10th May. • On 5th May, Prime Minister Ber- assassination to be «significant». lusconi appears in court on charges of • On 11th May the third round of France bribing judges during the takeover of a presidential elections takes place in state-owned company in 1985. Berlus- Montenegro. The candidate who re- • On 4th May Prime Minister Jean- coni denies the charges, declaring that ceives the most votes is the former Pierre Raffarin calls teachers to hold he acted in the best interests of the Prime Minister, Filip Vujanovic, who al- firm in the conservation of the secular nation, and accuses former Prime so won the two previous rounds (in tradition in French education and an- Minister and current President of the December 2002 and February 2003). nounces that schools could be given European Commission, Romano Pro- The previous elections were ruled in- the authority to expel students who di, who in 1985 was director of the valid because voter turnout did not wear a veil. IRI, the entity that owned the compa- reach the fifty percent required by • On 6th May, after being extradit- ny in question, of trying to sell the electoral law, however after two an- ed from the United Kingdom, Iraqi- company at an artificially low price to nulled elections, the law was modified born multimillionaire Nadhmi Auchi a favoured bidder. for the holding of the new vote. With a stands trial for corruption in the Elf • On 24th and 25th May, citizens go voter participation that reaches 48.5 Aquitaine oil company scandal. The to the polls to elect twelve provincial percent in the third round, Vujanovic, trial is held in Paris and Auchi testifies governments and new municipal gov- of the governing the Democratic List about the alleged false commissions ernments in almost five hundred for a European Montenegro, is there- that were charged when he brought localities. The opposition, the centre- fore proclaimed President. the Spanish company Ertoil in order to left Olive Tree Coalition, is signifi- • On 21st May, former Slovenian sell it shortly afterward to the French cantly successful in Rome, where President Milan Kucan testifies in the firm Elf. their candidate obtains fifty-three trial of former Yugoslav President Slo- • On 12th May, the expulsion of Jean- percent of the vote. The centre-left bodan Milosevic, which began in the Marie Le Pen, the leader of the far- wins in five provinces while the cen- ICTY in February 2002. Kucan states right National Front (FN) from the Eu- tre-right wins four. The three that re- that he had no knowledge of the Ser- ropean Parliament is announced. main are to be decided at the begin- bian participation in the Slovenian war • On 13th May, the country is practi- ning of June. of liberation against the Yugoslav mili- cally paralysed by the national strike tary forces. called by the public workers, who op- Bosnia and Herzegovina pose government plans to reform the Cyprus state pension system. The protests • On 14th May, in the ICTY, the trial continue with work stoppages in cer- begins of four Bosnian Serb officials • Tens of thousands of people con- tain sectors and culminate in a demon- accused of being involved in the 1995 tinue to cross the border between the stration in Paris on 25th May and by Srebrenica massacre: Vidoje Blagoje- two parts of the island, which has the decision of union leaders on 27th vic, Dragan Jokic, Dragan Obrenovic been open since April, with economic May to intensify the action in June. and Momir Nikolic. The prosecution activity derived from the open border • On 16th May, the former Prime negotiates a plea bargain with the lat- situation, and taking advantage of new Minister and current President of the ter two, who plead guilty. legislation passed on 10th May by the governing Union for a Popular Move- • On 29th May, the commander of Chamber of Representatives (the uni- ment (UMP), Alain Juppé, is called to the Bosnian Serb army dies in Bel- cameral legislature in Greek Cyprus), trial in order to respond to charges of grade. He had been indicted by the which permits Turkish Cypriots to wrongful use of public funds, in the pe- ICTY but was allowed to return to Bel- cross the border by car. It is estimated riod when he was assistant to the then grade in September 2002 as a conse- that by mid May a total of forty percent Mayor of Paris, Jacques Chirac, be- quence of being ill, of the lung cancer of the population, made up of 250,000 tween 1988 and 1995. that eventually killed him. Greek Cypriots and seventy thousand Turkish Cypriots, have taken advan- ia in order to speak with President firm that the boat was en route from tage of the open border to cross from Bashar al-Assad. Powell’s visit comes Lebanon to Egypt, where the Hezbol- one side to another. after three weeks of harsh warnings lah member would have been able to • On 22nd May, the ban against from the US administration against As- attempt entry into the Gaza Strip. Greek Cypriot citizens visiting Turkey, sad’s regime, which could the next tar- which has been hanging over them get of the US military. The outcome of Algeria since 1963, is lifted. the meeting is positive and the Syrian government changes its position on • On 5th May, President Abdelaziz Turkey radical Palestinian factions, having de- Bouteflika dismisses Ali Benflis from clared that they will try to limit their ac- his office of Prime Minister and ap- • On 1st May, an earthquake meas- tivities and television appearances. points Ahmed Ouyahia. Ouyahia served uring 6.4 on the Richter scale rocks a as Prime Minister from 1995 to 1998, mountainous region in eastern Turkey, Lebanon and as a Minister of the outgoing ad- causing 167 deaths and over a thou- ministration since 2002. Reports indi- sand injuries. In the city of Bingol, lo- • On 3rd May US Secretary of State cate that Benflis’ dismissal, who was cal police use violence to crush Colin Powell travels to Lebanon to appointed Prime Minister in August protests against the government in re- meet with officials, including President 2000, is due to differences encoun- Appendices sponse to its insufficient reactions to Emile Lahoud, Prime Minister Rafiq al- tered between him and Bouteflika the disaster. As a result, Prime Minis- Hariri, the President of the Lebanese concerning the 2004 presidential ter Recep Tayyip Erdogan forces the legislature Nabih Berri, and Minister of elections. local police chief to resign. Foreign Affairs Jean Obeid. Powell ex- • On 9th May, the National Demo- • On 26th May, seventy-five pas- presses the United States’ concern cratic Union (RND), presents its gov- sengers and the crew of a Ukrainian about the continuation of Hezbollah ernment, which is fundamentally com- 2003 Yakovlev-42D die when the aero- terrorist activity, and with this in mind posed of figures from the National plane crashes into a mountain near calls for an end to armed resistance on Liberation Front (FLN), the party who Med. Trabzon, in north-eastern Turkey. The the Israeli border and for the deploy- obtained the most votes in the May aeroplane, which needed to refuel ment of troops to this area. 2002 legislative elections, and whose and had twice been unable to land • On 5th May, a military tribune in general secretary was the past Prime due to dense fog, was flying from Beirut sentences eight people linked Minister. Kabul in Afghanistan on its way to to the terrorist network al-Qaeda to • On 13th May, the Algerian Special Zaragoza, Spain. The aircraft was between three and fifteen years Forces storm an Islamist activist camp carrying sixty-two Spanish soldiers imprisonment. in the Sahara, and free seventeen 268-269 who had been on a peacekeeping • On 7th May, in eastern Tripoli, a Western tourists who had been held mission in Afghanistan. In Spain, the bomb explodes next to the home of there for about two months. According families of the victims harshly criticise a European missionary couple. The blast to the newspaper Al Watan, at least the government for renting an aircraft kills a neighbour and injures the cou- nine members of the Salafist Group that failed to meet minimum security ple’s son. for Preaching and Combat died during requirements. • Between 12th and 14th May the the military operation. Fifteen tourists • On 30th May, the IMF announces Iranian President, Seyyed Mohammed remain missing at the end of May. that the 500 million dollars that was Khatami, pays his first official visit to • On 21st May, an earthquake meas- foreseen to be disbursed in mid-June Lebanon. It is the first visit by an Iran- uring 6.7 on the Richter scale shakes will not be paid out until Turkey meets ian Head of State since the 1979 Is- the region of the capital, Algiers, killing the conditions set by the IMF. The IMF lamic Revolution. In a speech given in 2,200 people, injuring over ten thou- does not deem the improvement in front of fifty thousand Shiite Muslims, sand more, and reducing many build- the Turkish economy, which is due Khatami implicitly praises Hezbollah ings along the northern coast to rub- in large part to the country’s coopera- and the continual resistance symbol- ble. On the following day there is tion with the US in the war against ised by Lebanon. another earthquake fifty kilometres Iraq, to be sufficient. More specifical- • The 19th May edition of The Times from the capital, which results in the ly, the IMF considers that Turkey has reports that Lebanese security servi- deaths of three people and injures not been able to remove the obsta- ces have arrested up to forty-five Islam- around two hundred. Over the follow- cles in the way of foreign investments, ic activists, and accused them of the ing few days, the people demonstrate nor to simplify the social security sys- recent series of attacks on Western their anger toward the government for tem or develop a privatisation strategy targets and of planning the assassina- its insufficient response to the disaster for the state-owned telecommunica- tion of the US ambassador to Beirut, and for allowing the construction of tions company. Vincent Battle. unsafe buildings. • On 22nd May, the Israeli army an- Syria nounces the detention of a member of Morocco Hezbollah, who was discovered with • On 3rd May, US Secretary of State military supplies in fishing boat on the • On 16th May, a group of twelve Colin Powell makes a brief visit to Syr- coast of Haifa. Israeli authorities con- people blow themselves up simultane- ously in five targets in the commercial roots, in spite of the intense pressure clared illegal in March. The Spanish capital of Morocco, Casablanca. Up to from the Vatican. The new text con- government threatens the party’s re- forty-three people die and a hundred serves the name European Union, fusal to dissolve with the possibility of are injured as a result of these attacks, omits the concept of federalism, and resorting to the suspension of Basque which according to the government emphasises the subsidiarity principle, autonomy. were carried out by a local fundamen- thus calming the most reluctant views • On 3rd June, two members of the talist Islamist group, al-Assirat al- on federalism imposed on a European terrorist organisation ETA are sen- Moustaquim (the Righteous Path). The scale. However, the abolition of the tenced to 2,354 years in prison for a attacks took place in a Spanish restau- power of national veto is foreseen re- 1987 car bombing in Zaragoza that rant, a Jewish centre and cemetery, a garding some twenty policies, includ- killed eleven people. hotel, and the Belgian Consulate. The ing procedures in social, environmen- • On 5th June, the European Minis- similarities with the triple attack com- tal and asylum issues, which would ters of Justice and Internal Affairs ap- mitted on 12th May in Riad lead the therefore be decided by a qualified prove the inclusion of Batasuna on the US government to believe that the at- majority. The new Charter of Funda- EU’s list of terrorist organisations. tack is attributed to the latest actions mental Rights, approved in Nice in De- • On 14th June, a man is arrested in of al-Qaeda, in collaboration with a lo- cember 2002, is also incorporated, the southern port of Algeciras for his cal Islamist group who actually carried along with a prevision to integrate a suspected connection with the May out the killings. general European department of pub- bombings in Casablanca, in Morocco. • On 21st May, Ali Lmrabet, editor of lic prosecution, with the aim of track- • On 17th June, in a joint operation the weekly newspapers, Demain (the ing crime across national borders. between Spain and France, ten peo- French version) and Doumane (the Arab ple are arrested for their connections edition), is found guilty of insulting with Segi, a radical Basque youth or- King Mohammed VI in his publication June 2003 ganisation group linked to ETA. of satirical articles and cartoons, and • On 23rd June, the terrorist organi- sentenced to four years in prison. This In France, the governor of the Bank of sation ETA sets off a bomb in a hotel is first such ruling to be implemented France is absolved, and a criminal in- close to Bilbao, but no one is injured. in Morocco in the last thirty years. vestigation is opened surrounding President Chirac. In the country there France European Union are also new strikes, the government makes it more difficult for asylum • On 1st and 2nd June, at Charles de • On 7th May, the European Com- seekers to obtain political refuge, and Gaulle airport in Paris, police arrest two mission urges France to bring its several suspected members of al- suspected members of the terrorist net- deficit to an end as soon as possible, Qaeda are arrested. There are further work al-Qaeda. The detainees are Karim and orders the French government to arrests of suspected terrorists in Mehdi, a Moroccan national who could present deficit reduction plans by Spain, Morocco and Italy. The Italian be linked to the «Hamburg cell» that October. prime minister’s trial comes to a organised the 11th September 2001 • On 19th May, the Ministers of the standstill, and the government there is attacks, and Christian Ganczarski, a Defence of the EU declare that the Rapid also involved in negotiations with German national born in Poland and Reaction Force is ready to take on Libya in order to stop illegal immigra- a Muslim convert, who according to any type of peacekeeping operations, tion. A boat loaded with explosives the French Minister of Internal Affairs, despite the admitted existence of and detonators is intercepted off the is «one of the leaders of al-Qaeda». insufficiencies that could compromise coast of Greece. In Cyprus, there are • On 2nd June, the trials begin of the corps’ in their swiftness of actions, mobilisations against the Turkish Cyp- eigth Corsicans accused of being ac- in their defence capability itself if a riot leader. In Turkey, new measures complices in the February 1998 mur- conflict were to intensify, or in the are approved to bring the country der of prefect Claude Erignac, and of case of facing more than one mission closer to the EU, which reaches an three other islanders accused of car- at a time. On the other hand, on 27th agreement concerning the reform of rying out acts of terrorism in continen- May, with the signing of a contract the Common Agricultural Policy. Elec- tal France. During June, new attacks with Airbus for the manufacture of 180 tions are held in Jordan. are carried out against foreign and airships, European plans are clarified continental French property owners, with regard to the purchase of a new Spain on a police station, and against hy- generation of equipment for air force pothetical traffickers of both drugs transport. • In June, legal action is taken against and Maghrebi immigrants. • On 28th May, the Convention on the leaders of the Basque legislature • On 2nd, 3rd, 9th and 10th June the Future of Europe, presided over by for their refusal to comply with the more strikes are held within the public Valéry Giscard d´Estaing, presents a Supreme Court decree that imposes sector, in protest of government plans controversial outline of the preamble the dissolution of Sozialista Abertza- to reform the pension system. The of the future constitution. In the outline leak (SA), the name adopted by Bata- strikes have a considerable effect on proffered, the preamble does not suna, ruled ETA’s political wing by the public transport and other public serv- make reference to Europe’s Christian government, after the party was de- ices. Some private sector workers al- so add their support to protest against cy toward the centre-left opposition, keep certain military officials, regarded the high unemployment rate. On 19th and produce fractures in the Pole of as war heroes in Croatia, from being June, there is new day of striking, which Liberties, the centre-right coalition in indicted, and the international pres- this time achieves only low levels of power. sure aimed at ensuring that no criminal participation, this leads Prime Minister • On 18th June, Berlusconi’s trial escapes trial. Jean-Pierre Raffarin to declare that the comes to a standstill, after the lower • Various measures are passed so government plans have achieved pub- legislative chamber approves a bill that, for the first time since 1995, lic acceptance. awarding immunity to the five highest thousands of Serbs can return to the • On 5th June Minister of Foreign Af- national offices, of President, Prime region of Krajina, on the Serbian bor- fairs Dominique de Villepin presents a Minister, head of the Constitutional der. According the government, such draft law to tighten restrictions on the Court, and the heads of the two leg- measures mean that more than two process of the application for asylum, islative chambers. Berlusconi was ac- hundred thousand Serbs could return which according the Minister, is vul- cused of bribing judges in the 1980’s. to their homes. nerable and open to abuse by eco- However, the law prevents certain ju- nomic immigrants who represent «an dicial investigations, such as the one Bosnia and Herzegovina increasingly high cost». carried out in the middle of the month • On 11th June, a Paris magistrate that explores possible tax evasion and • On 22nd June, Pope John Paul II Appendices opens a criminal investigation into the falsification of accounts in a transac- visits Banja Luka, capital of the Re- accounts approved by the Paris may- tion carried out between 1994 and public of Srpkska (the Bosnian Serb or’s office between 1977 and 1995, 1996 by Mediaset, Berlusconi’s me- entity). During mass, he asks for for- while Jacques Chirac, currently in of- dia group. giveness for the crimes committed by fice as President of the Republic, was • On 24th June in Milan, six people «sons of the Bosnian Roman Catholic serving as its head. Chirac is accused of Maghrebi origin are arrested on Church». This gesture was a precon- 2003 of having used public funds illicitly for suspicion of participating in the fi- dition for the first meeting between the the personal benefit of himself and his nancing of terrorist activities and pro- Pope and the Patriarch Pavle of the Ser- Med. family. However, according to French viding logistical support to the Alge- bian Orthodox Church. law, the President enjoys immunity for rian Salafist Group for Preaching and • On 26th June, Biljana Plavsic, for- as long as he is in office, and not even Combat, which is believed to have mer president of the Srpkska Republic be called on to testify. His wife, Ber- possible connections with the al-Qae- who was sentenced to eleven years in nadette Chirac, on the other hand, can da network. prison after pleading guilty before the be interrogated. • The massive wave of illegal immi- ICTY, is sent to a Swedish prison to

• On 18th June, Jean-Claude Trichet, grants that arrive on Italian shores begin her sentence. On the same day, 270-271 governor of the Bank of France, is ab- (over 3,500 in the month of June and the tribunal in The Hague agrees to solved by the Paris courts of the some 23,000 over the last year, not in- drop five charges against Bosnian charges of complicity in fraudulent ac- cluding the unknown hundreds who Serb Pedrag Banovic, in exchange for counting at the bank Crédit Lyonais in have died in the attempt) compels the his confession of crimes against human- the early 1990’s, when he was a civil government to enact a decree giving ity. His sentence will be pronounced in servant in the Ministry of Finance. In the Navy power to board boats carry- September. view of his absolution, President Chirac ing illegal immigrants, and to return upholds Trichets’s candidacy for the them to their country of origin. Serbia and Montenegro presidency of the Central European Bank to EU leaders. Trichet would re- Croatia • On 11th June, former Serbian Se- place Dutch official Wim Duisenberg curity Secretary, Jovica Stanisic, is in the post. • On 5th June, Pope John Paul II be- extradited to the ICTY, in The Hague, • On 21st June, the Prime Minister, gins the hundredth trip of his papacy the Netherlands. Jean-Pierre Raffarin, and the Minister with a five-day visit to Croatia. During • On 13th June, Serbian police ar- of Internal Affairs, Nicolas Sarkozy, his visit, the pope expresses his sup- rest Colonel Veselin Sljivacanin, ac- arrive on the island of Corsica in an port for Croatia’s tentative entrance in- cused of war crimes, in Belgrade. The attempt to gain more support for the to the EU, and urges the Croats to police are finally able to enter Sljiva- governmental decentralisation plan. overcome their past. canin’s apartment after ten hours of Opinion polls indicate that tenden- • In an interview granted to The Times, siege and serious confrontations with cies to the «No» vote are increasing published on 14th June, President nationalists and relatives of the de- as the day of the referendum, 6th July, Stipe Mesic promises that the govern- tainee who wanted to prevent police approaches. ment will give its complete coopera- action. The US had warned Serbian tion in the trials against Croat citizens authorities that their failure to arrest Italy accused of war crimes. The judicial Sljivacanin could put 110 million dol- process taken up by the ICTY main- lars of aid money at risk. • The results of the second round of tains a situation of constant tension • In mid-June Zoran Lilic, Yugoslav voting in the local elections held on within the administration, between President between 1993 and 1997, 10th June reveal a favourable tenden- Croat nationalists who are trying to testifies before the ICTY at his suc- cessor Slobodan Milosevic’s trial. Lilic Turkey gating the possibility that Libya is try- assures that Milosevic had nothing to ing to attain the services of scientists do with the massacre of thousands of • On 19th June, the Great National who collaborated in the fallen regime Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995. Assembly unanimously adopts the of Saddam Hussein. • On 19th June Serbia and Montene- sixth reform package on human rights. • On 24th June, the Italian govern- gro requests entrance into the peace This step is required in order to begin ment requests help from Libya in the association programme of NATO, a negotiations for the country’s admit- fight against the wave of illegal immi- preface to the country’s admittance in- tance into the EU. The new legislation gration facing Italy, which has been to the Atlantic organisation. includes legal modifications aimed at the cause of rising tension at the facilitating education and the distribu- centre of the governing coalition. It is Greece tion of forms of media in Kurdish and believed that most of the immigrants in other minority languages, the execu- entering Italy illegally come from oth- • On 22nd June special forces inter- tion of re-trials in accordance with the er parts of Africa but set sail from cept a boat off the Greek coast carry- European Court of Human Rights, and Libya. The Italian Minister of Foreign ing 680 tonnes of explosives and det- the amendment of the legal definitions Affairs affirms his intention, aimed at onators. The vessel was found to have of terrorism that are currently in force. achieving higher collaboration from been loaded in Tunisia and bound for Libya, to persuade the EU to modify Sudan; from where Osama bin Laden Lebanon the embargo that prevents Libya from and the terrorist network al-Qaeda op- possessing military and strategic erate. The Tunisian authorities assure • The studios of Rawsha de Mus- equipment. that the explosives were for civilian use taqbal TV, flagship of the local media • On 27th June, Libya flatly rejects in mining, and the Sudanese assure interests of Prime Minister Rafiq al- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlus- that the explosives were being trans- Hariri, are attacked with missiles on coni’s proposal, aimed at putting a ported to a legitimate company, as al- the morning of 15th June by a group stop to the influx of immigrants by leged by Greece. called Ansar Allah, who announce sending Italian troops and ships to pa- that they will not permit the shooting trol the Libyan coast. Cyprus of «poison arrows at the heart of the resistance». Morocco • On 3rd June, the European Com- mission offers the Turkish Republic of Jordan • On 3rd June, in Tangiers, Moroc- Northern Cyprus twelve million euros can police arrest a French national in order to relax their commercial re- • On 17th June, elections are held with possible connections with the strictions, and to facilitate both the in- for Majlis al-Nuwaab, the lower cham- suicide bombings carried out on 16th tegration of Turkish Cypriots into the ber of the legislature. The legislature May in Casablanca, which killed forty- EU and the reunification of the island. had been dissolved by King Abdullah three people. After the recently granted freedom of II in June 2001, and in August 2002 he • On 17th June, the court of appeal movement between both parts of the announced that the elections sched- upholds the conviction that editor Ali island, the EU has regained hope that uled for the end of that year would be Lmrabet received in May for insulting a united Cyprus will be able to enter postponed until the spring of 2003 King Mohammed VI, although the the Union in May 2004. due to the «difficult circumstances in prison sentence is reduced from four • On 11th June, the UN Security the region». Approximately two-thirds to three years. Lmrabet maintained a Council adopts Resolution 1486 of the seats are won by tribal and in- hunger strike in protest of his incarcer- (2003), which extends the mandate dependent candidates who are not far ation from 6th May to 23rd June, and of the UN Peacekeeping Force in removed from the government, leaving the case has sparked strong criticism Cyprus (UNFICYP) until 15th Decem- little room for partisan opponents. The both in Morocco and abroad among ber, 2003. Islamic Action Front, the political wing defenders of human rights and of the • On 28th and 29th June sixteen of the Muslim Brotherhood which boy- freedom of the press. non-governmental Turkish Cypriot cotted the polls in 1997, emerges as groups and three opposition parties the main partisan force with seventeen European Union unite in a challenge against the leader seats. of the Turkish Republic of Northern • On 5th June, the Central European Cyprus, Rauf Denktash, in the upcom- Libya Bank announces a half-point reduction ing December elections. The groups in interest rates, which are at a historic affirm that Denktash is incapable of • On 20th June the US, represented low of two percent. representing the general vision of the by Deputy Secretary of State for • The European Council meets on Turkish Cypriot people, and announce Weapons Control John Bolton, accus- 19th and 20th June in Thessaloniki, the formation of the Peace and es Libya of carrying out an «aggressive Greece. At the meeting, which in- Democracy Movement, with the aim of search» for weapons of mass destruc- cludes representatives from the ten replacing Denktash as leading nego- tion. The 21st June issue of The Inde- member states who will enter in May tiator in the reunification talks. pendent reports that the US is investi- 2004, the draft of the future EU Con- stitution is presented and leaders vent this phenomenon. Finally, the lead- agriculture ministers come to an agree- adopt conclusions about the post-war ers of the EU reiterate their determina- ment about the Common Agricultural situation in Iraq, weapons of mass de- tion to establish a common policy on Policy (CAP). France, Spain, Portugal struction and a political asylum policy. political asylum. and Ireland succeed in ensuring that With regard to Iraq, the EU calls on • On 25th June, at a bilateral summit the reforms are not as drastic as those the UN for significant contributions in Washington DC, Costas Simitis, wanted by the UK and other members. in the forming of a representative gov- serving as President of the European The agreement preserves, in large ernment. It also expresses its support Council, and US President George W. part, European Commissioner of Agri- of the declaration against the prolifer- Bush, make an attempt at smoothing culture, Rural Development and Fish- ation of weapons of mass destruction over the cracks in transatlantic rela- eries Franz Fischler’s goal of separat- that the Ministers of Foreign Affairs tions that have surfaced mainly due to ing production and subsidies from the adopted on 16th June. In the declara- the US-led war in Iraq. CAP and offering farmers incentives tion, the EU contemplates, for the first • On 25th and 26th June, at a that contribute to rural development time, the use of military force to pre- marathon meeting in Luxembourg, EU and protecting the environment. Appendices 2003 Med. 272-273 Gibraltar and western sahara ment of the United Kingdom and the curity Council unanimously adopts citizens of Gibraltar with the purpose Resolution 1463 (2003), extending the The following is an annex to the gen- of deciding the future status of the mandate of the United Nations Mission eral chronology of the Mediterranean, territory. for the Referendum in Western Sahara an informative selection of what has (MINURSO) until 31st March. happened between July 2002 and Western Sahara • On 11th February 2003, the pro- June 2003 in Gibraltar and the West- independence Polisario Front an- ern Sahara, as these territories and • At the beginning of July 2002, the nounces the liberation of a hundred their specificities lend themselves to a Polisario Front liberates 101 prisoners Moroccan prisoners as a show of separate explanation. With regard to from the Moroccan military forces, «good will»; the gesture comes soon Gibraltar, the United Kingdom cur- who were captured between 1975 after its request by the Spanish gov- rently has total rule over the island, but and 1991. This is the second group of ernment. According to calculations, negotiations are underway concerning prisoners freed in 2002. It is calculat- some 1,100 prisoners are still held by the possibility of a shared rule with ed that some 1,200 remain captive in the Polisario Front. Spain. Western Sahara is seeing open Polisario Front camps. • On 25th March 2003, the UN Se- conflict over decisions related to its • On 30st July, 2002, the UN Secu- curity Council adopts UN Security future status; for which the UN is look- rity Council unanimously adopts Res- Resolution 1469 (2003), extending the ing for solutions, and in which Algeria, olution 1429 (2002), extending the mandate of the United Nations Mission Morocco, Mauritania and the Polisario mandate of the United Nations Mis- for the Referendum in Western Sahara Front are all involved. sion for the Referendum in Western (MINURSO) until 31st May. Sahara (MINURSO) until 31st January • On 23rd May, a new version of the Gibraltar 2003. Baker Plan is made public with com- • On 6th November 2002, King Mo- ments from the parties to whom it was • On 12th July 2002, the UK Secre- hammed VI of Morocco makes an ap- presented in January. The new project, tary of the Foreign Office Jack Straw pearance on public television and de- which maintains the call for a referen- announces the suspension of talks scribes the UN plans for a referendum dum to determine the future status of with Spain relating to shared sover- to determine the future of the disputed the territory, establishes a transition eignty until the autumn. territory of the Western Sahara as period of four to five years, during • On 25th July 2002, Prime Minister «null». In a speech commemorating which the territory will have a statute Tony Blair says he is willing to share the Green March of 1975, when thou- of autonomy within Morocco and will access to an important NATO base in sands of Moroccans marched to the be governed by a provisional executive Gibraltar with the Spanish troops. Western Sahara in an effort to legit- branch and legislative assembly. The • At the end of 2002, the Chief Minis- imise Morocco’s pretensions con- proposal establishes two elections ter of Gibraltar Peter Caruana announ- cerning the territory, the king affirms with two different electorates. In the ces that a referendum will be held on that the referendum has «expired» first poll, in wich the interim authority the shared sovereignty of the island. and assures that there is «growing shall be elected, those people includ- • On 10th September 2002, thou- support from the international commu- ed in the UN census are taken into ac- sands of Gibraltarians celebrate their nity» for an alternative plan for Moroc- count. The electorate that would be National Day by demonstrating against co that will guarantee the autonomy of authorised to vote in the referendum the government’s plan to share the a Western Sahara under Moroccan on self-determination includes this first sovereignty of Gibraltar with Spain. sovereignty. group with the added participation of Peter Caruana is also against the plan • In January 2003, after consecutive people who have lived «continuously in and sets the date of 7th November to meetings with leaders from Morocco, the Western Sahara since 1999». Al- hold a referendum on the issue. Algeria, Mauritania and the Polisario geria favours the plan and the Polisario • On 7th November, citizens reject Front, the UN envoy for Western Sa- Front accepts it, but it is opposed by the shared sovereignty plan with Spain hara, former US secretary of state Morocco. proposed by the British government James Baker, invites the different par- • On 30th May, 2003, the UN Secu- en masse, with results of a decisive ties involved to make their observa- rity Council unanimously adopts Res- 98.97 percent against. Peter Caruana tions known concerning a new peace olution 1485 (2003), extending the is congratulated on the result of the plan proposed by the UN, of which de- mandate of the United Nations Mis- referendum, and he predicts a new era tails have not been released. sion for the Referendum in Western of cooperation between the govern- • On 30th January 2003, the UN Se- Sahara (MINURSO) until 31st July.