1999 - Political Events

Political Events

Europe takes a step closer toward unification January 1 with the fixing of exchange rates among members of the European Union and adoption of a new European Central Bank and a new common currency, the euro (see European Union, 1993).

Turkey's Democratic Left Party (DSP) leader Bulent Ecevit, 73, gains the support of rival parties January 7 to form a minority government (see 1997). Ecevit failed in a previous effort, but President Suleyman Demirel asked him to try again, and this time former premier Tansu Ciller of the center-right True Path Party has agreed to back the new coalition (see 2002).

The Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization March 12, bringing its membership to 19 and creating anxiety at Moscow that Russia has little more than her nuclear arsenal to defend against encroachment by her NATO neighbors.

Diplomats try to settle Balkan problems during weeks of negotiation at Rambouillet, France. Albanian Kosovars agree in mid-March to a plan finalized at Rombouillet, but Yugoslavia's president Slobodan Milosevic refuses to accept it, he sends more troops into Kosovo, President Clinton and others warn of a human catastrophe as the Serb soldiers burn, rape, and pillage their way through the country, and NATO launches missile attacks and bomber raids on Serbian positions beginning March 24 in the first war ever undertaken for purely humanitarian reasons (see 1998). NATO commander Gen. Wesley K. Clark, 54, of the United States directs the campaign, but Milosevic steps up efforts to "cleanse" Kosovo of non-Serbians, hundreds of thousands flee to neighboring Albania, Bosnia, Macedonia, and Montenegro, Milosevic holds noonday rock concerts at Belgrade, and critics of the NATO bombing say it is actually making Milosevic more popular at home and further destabilizing the region (but see 2000).

NATO observes its 50th anniversary in late April at Washington, D.C., and agrees to step up the pace of its bombing attacks on the Serbs. B-2 Stealth bombers are used for the first time, many of them flown from Missouri's Whiteman Air Force Base by pilots who return home in time for lunch.

The House of Representatives comes close to ending U.S. support of NATO air strikes against the Serbs April 28. Rep. Dennis Hastert, 57, (R. Ill.) has succeeded Newt Gingrich as speaker January 6 and assured Democrats that they can expect easy passage of a symbolic, bipartisan resolution supporting the NATO effort; he himself votes for it, but Majority Whip Tom DeLay rallies votes against the measure, the final roll call ends in a tied vote of 213 to 213 (187 Republicans and 26 Democrats have voted nay), embarrassing Speaker Hastert and delighting right-wing extremist DeLay, a former Houston pest exterminator who makes no secret of his visceral animosity toward President Clinton.

President Clinton's impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate ends in acquittal February 12 (see 1998). Needing 67 votes to convict, the Republicans find no Democratic Party support and can muster only 45 senators to vote guilty on the charge of perjury, 50 on the charge of obstruction of justice, but although the senators do not vote on a proposed resolution of censure they are virtually unanimous in condemning the president's actions in his private life. Independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr tells a Senate committee April 13 that the law under which he has acted should be allowed to expire at the end of June, and it does; efforts to oust Clinton will continue, but Starr's successor will conclude in September of next year that the so-called Whitewater investigation that cost taxpayers close to $60 million yielded insufficient evidence of any wrongdoing to warrant prosecution. The late president Kennedy's onetime mistress Judith Campbell (Exner) dies of lung cancer at a Los Angeles suburb September 25 at age 65.

The New York Times reports March 6 that Chinese agents have obtained nuclear secrets from a U.S. Government laboratory and reports March 7 that a "Chinese-American" computer scientist at Los Alamos, N.M., is the chief suspect. A walk-in source gave the CIA a document 4 years ago claiming that People's Republic weapons designers had obtained specific details of the highly classified W-88 warhead, doubts exist in the scientific community about the authenticity of the document, but Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson dismisses Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee, 58, March 8. The Cox Report released by Congress May 25 alleges illegal transmission of nuclear technology from weapons laboratories to the Chinese for more than 20 years, Lee protests his innocence August 1 in a 60 Minutes television interview, but FBI agents arrest him at his home December 10 and he will be held in solitary confinement for 9 months (see 2000).

The U.S. Senate votes against ratifying a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty October 13. Right-wing Republicans repudiate the treaty, the vote is 51 to 48 (67 votes are needed to ratify), critics compare the defeat to the Senate's repudiation of the League of Nations 80 years ago and warn that America has lost its moral leadership and the ability to discourage underground nuclear testing by other nations, but President Clinton assails what he calls neo-isolationists and vows to continue efforts to have the treaty ratified.

Former Nixon White House aide John Ehrlichman dies of diabetes at his Atlanta home February 15 at age 73; U.S. atom spy (and biology researcher) Ted Hall of cancer at Cambridge, England, November 1 at age 74, having suffered from Parkinson's disease; former attorney general Elliot Richardson dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at Boston December 31 at age 79.

A U.S. bomb hits the Chinese embassy at Belgrade by error May 7, three Chinese journalists are killed, more than 20 other people are injured, and anti-American demonstrations erupt at Beijing and other Chinese cities. Former Russian prime minister Viktor S. Chernomyrdin, Finland's president (and European Union envoy) Martii Ahtisaari, and London investment banker Peter Castenfelt persuade Yugoslavia's President Milosevic to accept peace terms June 3, 200 Russian troops enter Kosovo June 11 and take over the Pristina airport, NATO troops begin entering Kosovo June 12 as Serb forces withdraw, ending a conflict that has not cost a single Allied life but has left at least 20,000 Serbians dead. All but about 90,000 of Kosovo's 900,000-odd emigrés return by the end of July, and demonstrations throughout Serbia demand Milosevic's resignation. Croatia's president Franjo Tudgman dies of cancer in a Zagreb suburb December 10 at age 77, having gained independence for his country while engaging in "ethnic cleansing" that has cost thousands of lives and sent more than 150,000 Serbs across the borders into Serbia and Bosnia (see 2000).

Russia's president Boris Yeltsin dismisses Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov May 12 after 8 months in which the nation's economy has not improved (see 1998); he appoints Interior Minister Sergei V. Stepashin, 47, to succeed Primakov, and some observers note that Stepashin is a Yeltsin loyalist who controls the nation's security forces, who may be required to protect the unpopular Yeltsin from prosecution before or after his term ends next year. Stepashin is replaced in late August by Vladimir V. Putin, 45, another former KGB man, who takes a tough stand against secessionists in Chechnya and wins a majority of the Russian people to support that position (see 1996). Chechen separatists deny responsibility for explosions that destroy Russian apartment houses, causing heavy loss of life (cynics suggest that the government staged the blasts to arouse nationalist support), and Russian troops invade Chechnya September 21, redoubling efforts to bring the region under control in a move that wins popularity for Prime Minister Putin but creates tensions with the United States and other countries. With the economy in deep trouble and charges of high-level corruption swirling about the Kremlin, President Yeltsin resigns December 31, to clear the way for "smart, strong, and energetic people," turning over his duties to Prime Minister Putin, who issues a decree granting Yeltsin immunity from any future prosecution (see 2000).

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Russia's president Boris Yeltsin stepped down and former KGB operative Vladimir Putin replaced him.

Gunmen invade the Armenian Parliament at Yerevan October 27, killing Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkisian plus other top government officials and wounding as many as 50 in an attempted coup d'état.

Former Greek dictator George Papadopoulos dies of a heart attack at Athens June 27 at age 80. He was convicted of treason in 1975 and has been imprisoned ever since.

German chancellor Gerhard Schröder moves from Bonn to Berlin August 23 and the new Reichstag (renovated by British architect Norman Foster) opens soon thereafter as the capital of the unified country relocates from Bonn and the old Prussian capitol resumes its place as the center of government for the first time since World War II.

A Rome jury acquits former Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti September 24 of complicity with Mafia figures in the 1979 murder of muckraking journalist Carmine Pecorelli. Five co-defendants are also acquitted (see 1995). Now 80, Andreotti is revered by many right-wing politicians as the man who transformed Italy from a backward agricultural country into a major industrial power, but critics blame him for not having prevented the murder of former prime minister Aldo Moro in 1978. Five-time prime minister Amintore Fanfani dies at Rome November 20 at age 91.

Britain's Labour government ends hereditary peers in Parliament's House of Lords, 666 of them sit for the last time in early November (92 are allowed to stay after that on a temporary basis), and the upper house is left with some 500 life peers, some of them newly appointed (critics call them "Tony's cronies," a reference to Prime Minister Tony Blair).

Britain ends direct rule of Northern Ireland December 2 as Catholics and Protestants begin sharing power as Parliament votes to give Ulster the right to rule itself (see Good Friday accord, 1998). Queen Elizabeth has given ceremonial royal consent December 1 to the bill transferring powers to Belfast, Ireland's president Mary McAleese has lunch at Buckingham Palace December 2, and authority over local affairs is moved that day from London to Belfast, where Protestant Ulster Union president David Trimble heads the new Northern Ireland Assembly, which unites factions that have battled in a conflict that has persisted for centuries. Hard-line Democratic Unionist Party leaders denounce the new political arrangements (but see 2000).

Canada opens a new 760,000-square-mile territory called Nunavut April 1 to provide a homeland for the Inuit, who represent 80 percent of the territory's 27,200 people. The area has been carved out of what formerly was the Northwest Territories and extends far to the north of the Arctic Circle, embracing Baffin Island, part of Victoria Island, Grise Fjord, and Ellesmere Island. One-third of the population is on welfare, its suicide, substance abuse, and violence rates are among the highest in the country, and Nunavut will depend on the government for 90 percent of its $392.8 million ($600 million Canadian) annual budget.

Venezuela's president Hugo Chávez takes office in February, saying that he needs a new constitution to carry out a peaceful social revolution and end rampant corruption (see 1998). He issues a decree calling for three referenda aimed at deciding the logistics of rewriting and ratifying the constitution. The opposition-controlled Congress pledges in late August to establish a constitutional assembly (see 2002).

Panama elects her first woman president in May as Mireya Moscoso, 53, defeats President Ernesto Pérez Balladares; the widow of former Panamanian president Arnulfo Arias Madrid, she takes office September 1 amidst allegations that high-ranking officials have sold Panamanian visas to Chinese immigrants using the country as a way to sneak into the United States.

Some Cuban refugees drown while en route to Florida in late November but 5-year-old Elián González is rescued after the death of his mother. Premier Castro demands that the boy be returned to his father in Cuba, thousands of people stage demonstrations in the streets of Havana, the boy turns 6, his relatives at Miami insist that he remain in America, and the situation creates new strains in U.S.-Cuban relations (see 2000).

Argentine voters elect Radical Party stalwart Fernando de la Rua, 62, president October 24. The first mayor of Buenos Aires to be elected by the city's own citizens rather than being named by the president, he has drawn up plans for refinancing a collective provincial debt of $17 billion and wins 48 percent of the popular vote.

Jordan's Hussein ibn Talal dies of cancer at Amman February 7 at age 63 after a 45-year reign in which he has worked to keep peace in the Middle East; he is succeeded by his son Abdullah, 36.

Turkish commando forces arrest fugitive Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, 49, at Nairobi, Kenya, February 15 and return him to Turkey, where he is indicted for treason as Ankara tries to end a 14-year conflict between Ocalan's Kurdistant Workers' Party (PKK) and security forces in southeastern Turkey. Ocalan has used terrorist tactics in an effort to gain autonomy or even a separate state for Turkey's 15 million Kurds; more than 30,000 Turks have been killed and hundreds of thousands left homeless in the struggle, which has involved atrocities by both sides and has had a dire impact on the Turkish economy. An estimated 3,000 Turkish troops cross into Iraq to attack Kurdish guerrilla sanctuaries, demonstrations erupt worldwide, Kurds seize Greek missions throughout Europe, taking diplomats and their families hostage, and Israeli guards at Berlin open fire when more than 50 Kurds try to enter their consulate February 17, killing three protesters and wounding 16. Ocalan is sentenced to death June 29 but will be confined instead to an island in the Sea of Marmara and pro-Kurdish protests continue to delay his hanging.

Israeli voters oust Prime Minister Netanyahu May 17 after 3 years in which he has failed to advance the peace process (see 1998); they elect Labor Party leader Ehud Barak, 57, a protégé of the late Yitzhak Rabin and the nation's most highly decorated war hero. But although Barak wins more than 56 percent of the vote in what is clearly a call for reviving peace efforts with Palestinians, and although Netanyahu gives up his leadership of the Likud Party, the Ultra-Orthodox parties gain more seats in the parliament (Knesset). Barak and Yasir Arafat of the PLO sign a new agreement September 4 that implements last year's Wye River accord but with the release of fewer PLO prisoners; Israeli troops forcibly remove Jewish settlers from West Bank locations in November (see 2000).

Iranian students riot at Teheran and other cities in July to protest a new law curbing freedom of the press and the closing of a popular leftist newspaper (see 1998). Others join the demonstrations against strict control by the nation's fundamentalist Islamic government, police use tear gas to dispel the armed mobs, and although President Mohammad Khatami has for the past 2 years been urging tolerance and the rule of law, he meets with religious leaders July 13 and shifts his remarks to condemn the demonstrations. Half the Iranian population is too young to remember the revolution of 1979 (nearly two-thirds are under age 30) and there is growing impatience with the lack of progress by President Khatami to relieve what many people consider oppressive Shiite restrictions, which some Iranians vow not ever to abandon, calling their opponents "traitors," assembling teams of baton-wielding vigilantes to beat the students gathered in Teheran's Engelhab Square, and mounting a huge counter-demonstration (see 2000).

U.S. Customs officers at Port Angeles, Wash., find the trunk of a car loaded with 130 pounds of bomb-making material December 14 and arrest a 32-year-old Algerian-born terrorist arriving from British Columbia at a remote ferry terminal on the Olympic Peninsula. Ahmed Rassam will turn out to be an operative trained last year in an Afghanistan camp operated by the Saudi-born religious fanatic Osama bin Laden, whose al Qaeda network has developed underground cells in many countries; he will help the FBI find other members of the network (but see 2001).

Sierra Leone rebels launch a new offensive January 3 in an effort to regain control (see 1998). The United Nations pulls most of its staff out of Freetown as the rebels approach, the United States evacuates her diplomats, the rebels fight their way into the capital January 6 and take the State House, patrolling the streets with assault rifles; rebel leaders announce January 16 that they will not observe a scheduled truce unless former junta head Foday Sankoh is released from prison. A peace accord signed July 7 at the Togo capital, Lomé, brings a temporary halt to the 8-year-old civil war, and rebel leader Foday Sankoh is made a government minister as part of the deal, but about 10 percent of the country's 4.5 million people have fled the country, and the war has left tens of thousands of amputees whose extremities were hacked off by enemy axes and machetes (see 2000).

Ethiopia and Eritrea resume hostilities in February, confronting each other in trenches along their 600-mile border with Ethiopia having an estimated 250,000 men, Eritrea perhaps 200,000, all well armed (see 1998). Ethiopian forces break through at Badame February 26, concentrating aircraft, armor, and artillery on a rocky, 120-square-mile triangle of disputed territory, but Eritreans take a heavy toll at Tsorona in March.

Nigeria returns to civilian governance, electing its first president in 16 years February 28. Former military ruler Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, now 61, has triumphed over former finance minister Olu Falae, who has said that Obasanjo would merely continue military rule. Obasanjo has presented himself as the only man with enough control of the army to prevent another military takeover; he surprises cynics by cracking down on graft.

South African voters give overwhelming approval to Thabo Mbeki, 56, as successor to President Nelson Mandela, now 80, whose 5-year term has seen the construction of more than 500,000 new houses and provision of water, electricity, and telephone lines to millions of homes. An English-educated economist who has had charge of day-to-day administration in the Mandela administration, Mbeki faces severe problems of crime, joblessness, poor schools, and a rising rate of AIDS infection.

Congo's president Laurent Kabila and leaders of two rebellions in that country agree July 7 to the framework of a cease-fire after a year of hostilities, but tribal conflicts continue to kill thousands, mostly with arrows and machetes.

Morocco's Hassan II dies of a heart attack at Rabat July 23 at age 70 after an autocratic and repressive 38-year reign in which he has acted as intermediary in mid-East disputes and survived half a dozen assassination attempts and uprisings; he is succeeded by his eldest son, Sidi Mohammed, 35, who will reign as Mohammed VI. The new king will address what he calls "the thorny issue" of the past but Islamic terrorists will use violence to challenge his enlightened efforts to make the country more open and democratic.

Zimbabwe's vice president Joshua Nkomo dies of prostate cancer at Harare July 1 at age 82; Tanzania's founding father Julius K. Nyerere of leukemia following a stroke at London October 14 at age 77 (approximate).

East Timorese give overwhelming approval to independence from Indonesia August 30 in a referendum held under UN auspices (see human rights, 1991). Indonesia's president B. J. Habibie urges peaceful compliance with the result, but military-backed militiamen commit acts of violence, threatening to plunge the former Portuguese colony into civil war. Indonesian troops are unable (or unwilling) to control the militia. They burn villages and kill more than 1,000 Timorese, President Clinton announces that he will no longer support the Indonesian occupation force, Habibie yields to international pressure in September, he allows a United Nations peacekeeping force to help restore order, and Australian-led force begins arriving September 19. Criminal charges against former president Suharto are dropped in October, and an electoral assembly at Jakarta votes 373 to 313 October 20 to make Muslim leader Aburrahman Wahid, 59, president in the nation's first democratic transfer of power. Weakened by a stroke, nearly blind, but renowned for his intelligence and inclusiveness, Wahid defeats opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri, a daughter of former president Sukarno who is elected vice president October 21 (see 2001).

India's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party vows not to pursue policies that have angered Muslims and gains a resounding victory over the Congress Party in election results announced October 7.

Pakistan's prime minister Nawaz Sharif dismisses army chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf, 56, and is ousted in a military coup October 12 (see 1997). Gen. Musharraf and Sharif have clashed over incursions into the Indian part of Kashmir; the general takes power and makes a nationally televised speech in which he announces that he will soon lay out plans that may include martial law, new elections, or the installation of a civilian government controlled by the military. Most Pakistanis welcome the ouster of the corrupt, albeit democratically elected, Sharif government. Grenade-carrying Pakistani hijackers commandeer an Indian Airlines Airbus en route from Katmandu to New Delhi December 24, land at Amritsar, force the pilot to take off for Kandahar, Afghanistan, and refuse to allow the plane's 184 passengers to deplane until their demands are met. The hostages are finally released December 31 after Indian authorities release a few Pakistani political prisoners; New Delhi accuses Karachi of being involved in the incident, further straining relations between the two nuclear powers.

Portugal hands over the island of Macao to China December 19 after 442 years of colonial occupation.