NEWSBRIEFS (05/26/96)

NEWSBRIEFS

U.S. warns Russia, Ukraine on nuke sales

WASHINGTON - It would be a "significant mistake" if either Russia or Ukraine were to provide SS-18 strategic missile technology to China, U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry told reporters at the Pentagon on May 21. Mr. Perry had revealed Chinese interest in the SS-18 in a Washington Times interview. The SS-18 is the largest intercontinental ballistic missile in the world. Built at the giant Pivdenmash plant in Ukraine, the SS-18 formed the backbone of the Soviet strategic rocket force. While Russia still deploys 186 of them, they would be eventually banned under the START 1I treaty, which has not been ratified by the Russian State Duma. Mr. Perry said that other than making the missile's booster available for space launches, any transfer of SS-18 technology would violate the START I treaty and the Missile Technology Control Regime. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Second Belarusian hunger striker let go

MIENSK - The Belarusian authorities on May 21 released Belarusian Popular Front leader Yuriy Khadyka, who had staged a hunger strike for the previous 23 days, Reuters reported. Mr. Khadyka had been protesting his detention on charges of organizing a rally here on April 26 that opposed the pro-Russian and authoritarian policies of Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. He went from prison to the Miensk hospital, where his co-hunger striker, Vyachaslau Siuchyk, has been receiving treatment since May 17. The detention of the two BPF leaders prompted numerous appeals and a demonstration by over 5,000 students and workers in Miensk for their release. The charges against the two have not been dropped, and they could face up to three years' imprisonment if convicted. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Ukraine prepares to abolish death penalty

KYIV - Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has created a commission for phasing out the death penalty, international media reported on May 20. The commission, chaired by Minister of Justice Serhiy Holovaty, will draw up a draft document in compliance with Council of Europe guidelines. Parliament, which has expressed support for the death penalty, must still approve the ban. The issue has become controversial in Ukraine following public concern over the recent actions of a serial killer. There have been no executions in more than six months. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Tatars recall deportations, back Chechnya

SEVASTOPIL - Some 15,000 Crimean Tatars massed here on May 18 to recall their mass deportation by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin 52 years ago and voiced support for rebels fighting Russian troops in Chechnya. Small children from the 250,000-strong Tatar community who have returned to the Crimea since the late 1980s carried small portraits of the dead Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev through the dusty streets of Symferopil. Some marchers, sweltering in 95-degree heat, carried huge portraits of Mr. Dudayev, killed by a Russian air strike last month, one inscribed with the epitaph: "Whoever does not fight for his freedom is a slave." One large poster read: "Chechnya, we are with you." The entire Crimean Tatar community of 180,000 was deported en masse with frightening speed and precision in cattle trains on May 18, 1944. Like fellow Muslim Chechens in the Transcaucusus, also deported on baseless accusations of Nazi collaboration, most Crimean Tatars were taken to Uzbekistan and other parts of then-Soviet Central Asia. Tens of thousands perished. At the rally, Tatar leader Refat Chubarov told those assembled that "The genocide against Crimean Tatars is still going on; the effects of Stalinist repression remain. Russian chauvinism is on the rise. So is anti-Tatar sentiment among some Ukrainian figures." Masud Khushbarov, a senior representative of the new Chechen President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, told those gathered to huge applause: "We have no mercenaries in our army. Others who fight alongside us are our brothers." On the eve of the deportation's anniversary, the Ukrainian government appropriated a fresh $20 million to boost resettlement programs, but government figures insist that other ex-Soviet states should share the costs of relocating the Tatars. (Reuters)

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