NEWSBRIEFS (03/24/96)

NEWSBRIEFS

Civic Congress calls for renewed union

KYIV - "To struggle for a renewal of the union on the territory stretching from the White to the Black seas, from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean," that is the strategic task announced at the sixth conference of the Civic Congress of Ukraine, as reported on March 17. Over 100 delegates gathered to listen to CCU chairman Oleksander Bazyliuk, who announced that in the past year alone, the party's membership had doubled. The CCU is now active in 20 oblasts of Ukraine, but, according to Mr. Bazyliuk, the organization "does not strive for quantity, rather we need active and professional people." Mr. Bazyliuk said the party supported the Russian State Duma's denunciation of the 1991 Belaya Vezha accords, which created the Commonwealth of Independent States. Among other things, the CCU supports the transformation of Ukraine from a unitary to a federal state, and a nationwide referendum on state symbols and language prior to the adoption of a new constitution. In related news, Mr. Bazyliuk was elected head of the Congress of Russian Organizations of Ukraine, a just-created umbrella organization of 35 ethnic Russian groups scattered throughout 19 oblasts. Among the member groups of the KROU are the Movement for the Rebirth of the Donbas, the Luhanshchyna Community of Don Cossacks and the Republican Party of the Crimea, all groups known for their pro-Moscow orientation.(Respublika)

Lukashenka favors Duma vote...

MIENSK - Belarusian officials met at President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's residence on March 18 to discuss work on a confederation agreement between Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan that is expected to be signed at the end of the month or in early April, ITAR-TASS reported. According to Mr. Lukashenka, who recently visited Moscow and signed a number of political and economic documents with Russian President Boris Yeltsin, union between the countries, and especially Russia and Belarus, is dictated by the times and cannot be rejected. He said all reasonable political forces in Russia and Belarus must work with the presidents to correct past mistakes. Mr. Lukashenka recommended that the Belarusian Parliament look into ways of speeding up the integration process at its next session, and said he would be willing to attend the session if Parliament would support his proposals. On March 15, the former collective farm director commented on the Russian Duma decision denouncing the 1991 Belaya Vezha accords abolishing the USSR. "Regrettably," he told Russian Television, "the former union cannot exist now." Mr. Lukashenka asserted that he would cooperate with everyone favoring a new union and that the shape of this union would depend on the positions of the parliaments and presidents of the participating states. He noted that the union could be even closer than before. (OMRI Daily Digest)

...while protesters denounce his policies

MIENSK - About 3,000 protestors marked Belarus' Constitution Day on March 15 by denouncing President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's drive for reunification with Russia. Many carried the white-red-white national flag introduced soon after the collapse of Soviet rule but since replaced at Mr. Lukashenka's urging. Three days earlier, in a televised debate on Belarusian Television, Syarhei Kalyakin, general secretary of the Party of Communists of Belarus, and Mikalai Statkevich, head of the Social Democratic Hramada, debated the merits of Mr. Lukashenka's policies of tight integration with Russia. Mr. Kalyakin said he did not feel that agreements recently reached between the presidents of Belarus and Russia did not infringe on Belarus' sovereignty. Mr. Statkevich cautioned, however, that the creation of supranational structures and the presence of foreign troops on Belarusian territory, which are ignored by the state-controlled media, do present a threat to the country's sovereignty. (Reuters)

Gas leak kills six in southern Ukraine

ODESSA - A gas leak in a tower block killed six people on March 20 and left three others in the hospital in this southern port city, officials said the same day. A civil defense spokesman said the six victims died in their sleep. Emergency services had treated the others and taken them to the hospital. The cause of the accident is under investigation. Accidents with gas pipes and other public utilities are common throughout the territory of the former USSR as maintenance has declined sharply. (Reuters)

UT blaze ascribed to negligence

KYIV - The March 9 fire that caused major damage to Ukrainian Television and Radio's main studios here was apparently caused by employee negligence, a special investigative team announced on March 10. A Ministry of Internal Affairs spokesman said that a UT employee had not followed fire prevention guidelines, which may well have led to the fire. The suspect's name has not been released. (Respublika)

It's lights out for 7,000 enterprises...

KYIV - Energy Minister Oleksiy Shcheberstov on March 12 said power has been cut to 7,000 factories that have failed to pay their electricity bills, Reuters reported. Mr. Shcheberstov said more than 40,000 enterprises have outstanding bills amounting to $980 million, meaning that 30 percent of electricity and 50 percent of heating has been supplied for nothing. He stressed that the Energy Ministry could not "carry such a burden for very long." The country's energy suppliers have been under great strain because of unusually cold temperatures, a coal miners' strike, and Russia's decoupling Ukraine from their joint power grid after Ukraine began using more than its normal share of electricity. (OMRI Daily Digest)

...as rent, utility subsidies face the axe

KYIV - Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Pynzenyk said Ukraine will cut subsidies for consumer rents and utilities by 20 percent, Ukrainian agencies reported on March 12. He added that the government is planning to eliminate these subsidies altogether in 1997. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Sarcophagus to last 10-15 years

KYIV - Ukrainian Minister of the Environment Yuriy Kostenko said the steel-and-concrete tomb encasing the Chornobyl nuclear reactor will last only another 10-15 years, reported UNIAN on March 16. That is half the time originally estimated, Mr. Kostenko said, and hastens the need to extract the damaged reactor's remaining 200 tons of nuclear fuel and 3,000 tons of water. The process of removing the waste could cause some radioactive leakage and threaten the Dnipro River. Mr. Kostenko also said there was no sense in continuing the resettlement of people still living in contaminated areas to other regions because the radioactivity had decreased and government funds would be better spent on clean-up, improved medical care and applying alternative farming methods. (OMRI Daily Digest)

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