RFE/RL NEWSLINE
Vol. 1, No. 35, 21 May1997

U.S. OFFICIAL SAYS SLOVAKIA, BULGARIA NOT READY
FOR NATO. Congressman Christopher Smith, co-chairman
of the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in
Europe, says Slovakia's treatment of ethnic minorities and
the growing violence and intolerance against the political
opposition and media there "work against" the country's
being included in the first round of NATO expansion,
RFE/RL's Washington correspondent reported yesterday.
Smith said Bulgaria has made impressive strides but still
has to address issues such as civilian control of the
military and religious freedom. The commission yesterday
held another Congressional hearing on the human rights
aspects of NATO enlargement. The Slovak, Bulgarian, and
Hungarian ambassadors were invited to present their
country's views on why they should be included in NATO.

HUNGARY, ITALY, SLOVENIA TO ESTABLISH JOINT
BRIGADE. Hungary, Italy, and Slovenia have agreed to
create a joint military brigade by 1998 and to hold joint
military maneuvers, Hungarian media report. The decision
was taken in Budapest yesterday at the first meeting of
Premiers Gyula Horn, Romano Prodi, and Janez Drnovsek.
Prodi said his country unconditionally supports Hungary's
and Slovenia's accession to NATO and the EU and would
prefer to see both countries included in the first wave of
expansion. The three premiers said preparations have
begun for the construction of an international traffic
corridor to be built from Trieste through Ljubljana and
Budapest to Kiev. They also agreed to step up cooperation
in a number of areas, including the environment, education,
and judicial affairs.

HUNGARIAN OPPOSITION LEADER CALLS COALITION
"LIBERAL-BOLSHEVIK". Independent Smallholder Party
leader Jozsef Torgyan repeatedly said in the parliament
yesterday that the ruling coalition is "liberal-bolshevik",
Budapest dailies report. Zoltan Szabo, state secretary at
the Ministry of Culture, responded by recalling that Nazi
Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and wartime
Hungarian fascist leader Ferenc Szalasi both drew parallels
between bolshevism and liberalism as symptoms of a
"Jewish plague". He said Torgyan, hiding behind his
immunity as a parliamentary deputy, has used the same
terms to refer to Jews. Former Prime Minister Peter
Boross of the Hungarian Democratic Forum described
Szabo's remarks as "unworthy" of the parliament.


The Internet in Central Asia

by Julie Moffett

The five Central Asian states are only just getting onto the
information superhighway, but progress is being made with
the help of Western nations and organizations. Currently,
Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and
Uzbekistan have limited computer networking capabilities.
However, three of those five countries have established
permanent Internet access and all have e-mail capability.

Kazakstan and Uzbekistan were the first of the Central
Asian states to establish a permanent Internet connection
in 1994. Kyrgyzstan followed in 1995. Tajikistan and
Turkmenistan have not yet established permanent Internet
access. However, the two nations, like all the countries of
the former USSR since the early 1990s, have dial-up, non-
permanent access to the Internet.

Like most other countries in the region, the Central Asian
states are hindered by an antiquated and technically
deficient telecommunications infrastructure. There are
currently no digital lines (designed to quickly exchange
data) in Central Asia; all of the telephone lines are analog
(designed to support voice).

One Western organization actively involved in the process
is the Eurasia Foundation, a U.S.-based, privately managed
grant-making organization. Established in 1993 with a grant
from the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID), the foundation has since awarded
more than 70 grants totaling $1.7 million to help establish
or improve Internet capability across the former Soviet
Union.

In 1994, the Foundation provided a substantial grant of
$85,000 to the Project for Economic Reform and
Development in Central Asia (PERDCA). PERDCA used the
money to help establish the Silknet network, which has
since provided e-mail service to subscribers in
Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan.

The region has also received substantial support from,
among others, the Open Society Institute (OSI)--a private
grant-making foundation funded by Hungarian-U.S. multi-
millionaire George Soros, the International Research and
Exchange Board (IREX), ISAR (formerly known as the
Institute on Soviet-American Relations), Chemonics
International, and the Sacred Earth Network, a U.S.-based
international non-profit environmental organization.

However, there are still several major obstacles to
improved Internet connectivity in Central Asia: poor
telecommunications infrastructure; civil and political
unrest in many areas, which impedes infrastructure reform
and intimidates potential donors; the high cost of
telephone lines; the inability of Central Asian governments
to match funds with Western donors; and a dependence on
international funding that makes it difficult for long-range
planning.

In 1995 in Kazakstan, a Soros program called the Open
Society Institute -- Regional Internet Program (OSI-RIP),
provided 30 secondary schools with the means to use e-
mail and the Internet, purchased additional computer
equipment, and supplemented the wages of local teachers
participating in the project. IREX has set up four public
access sites in Almaty, developed a strong user base, and
trained local staff. Experts estimate Internet users in
Kazakstan to total some 500, and e-mail users some
25,000.

In Kyrgyzstan in 1995 and 1996, OSI-RIP provided 50
schools, one university, three medical institutions and
several other organizations with computer equipment and
access to e-mail. Also in 1996, the Eurasia Foundation
awarded grants, intended mostly for information
networking purposes and totaling nearly $61,000, to a
variety of organizations. Experts estimate Internet users
in Kyrgyzstan to total some 500 and e-mail users some
5,000.

In 1995, OSI-RIP, in coordination with PERDCA and the
Eurasia Foundation, installed the first e-mail system in
Tajikistan. By July 1995, the system was fully operational
with about 60 users. The following year, OSI-RIP expanded
the project to about 700 users. Experts estimate the
number of e-mail users at between 800 and 1,000.

In Turkmenistan the Ashgabad-based Catena Ecological
Club, in cooperation with Sacred Earth Network,
established a network called CAT-Net. The network
currently serves several environmental groups,
individuals, scientists, and journalists in Turkmenistan--all
of whom use the network free of charge. Experts estimate
the number of e-mail users at between 200 and 500.

In Uzbekistan, the government has allowed the state-
owned telecommunications company Uztelekom to enter
into a number of foreign joint-ventures to work toward the
completion of the ambitious "Program for the
Modernization and Development of the Telecommunications
Networks by the Year 2010." The goal of that program is to
increase the number of installed telephone lines and reach
complete digitalization by the year 2010. Last November,
the Uzbek Ministry of Communications named Daewoo
Telecom, a South Korean firm, and Korea Telecom as
partners in a project to replace 350,000 analog telephone
lines in the country and add approximately 100,000 digital
lines within three years. Experts estimate the number of
Internet users in Uzbekistan to be between 250 and 1,000
and e-mail users at some 5,000.

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