NEWSBRIEFS (07/21/96)

NEWSBRIEFS

Ukrainian envoy hints at Romania treaty

BUCHAREST - Ukraine's ambassador to Romania, Oleksander Cheli, told a seminar on mass media at the Black Sea resort of Eforie Nord that Ukraine will agree to denouncing the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact in a Ukrainian-Romanian basic treaty if Romania agrees to denounce the pact between its wartime leader, Marshal Ion Antonescu, and Adolf Hitler, Romanian media reported on July 16. Mr. Cheli noted the latter pact had caused widespread suffering to the Ukrainian population after Germany and Romania invaded Ukraine in 1941. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Support found for Chechnya in Lithuania

VILNIUS - Algirdas Endriukaitis, chairman of the Executive Committee of the International Parliamentary Group on the Problem of Chechnya, announced on July 16 that 46 of the 56 municipalities in Lithuania have adopted resolutions addressed to the Lithuanian Parliament and government calling on them to recognize Chechnya's independence both de facto and de jure, BNS reported that day. Some 3.2 million people, or 86.4 percent of the republic's population, live in these 46 municipalities. The problem of Chechnya has still to be discussed in the other municipalities. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Lukashenka calls for another referendum

MIENSK - Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has proposed that a national referendum be held on November 7, RFE-RL reported on July 16. The ballot would include four issues: prolonging the term of office for the president from five to seven years; transforming the Parliament from a single- to a two-chamber body; granting the president the authority to appoint all members to the Central Election Commission; and creating a 12-member Constitutional Court, half of whose members would be appointed by the president and half by the Parliament. The current court has nine members elected by the Parliament. In related news, Russian Duma Chairman Gennadiy Seleznev, on a visit to Miensk on July 10, said that Mr. Lukashenka was a "locomotive bringing our two countries together." The same day, Mr. Lukashenka said opposition forces in Belarus could not create "a quarrel between me and Boris Yeltsin, our Belarus and Russia." He said the opposition also would not be able to isolate Belarus from the West. A working group has been created to synchronize economic reform between Belarus and Russia, Belarusian Television reported on July 9. The group should complete its work by the end of 1997. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Kyiv gas stations strike over tax

KYIV - Service stations here staged a one-day strike on July 15, refusing to serve customers in protest against a government tax on gasoline sales. Owners denounced the imposition last month of the 15 percent tax backdated to the beginning of the year and said it would force them to raise prices at the pump. Only ambulances were served during the strike. "The tax automatically means a rise in gasoline prices," said Hlib, standing in front of his empty station, the price display a row of zeros. "We simply don't want to do this." At the few stations working despite the strike, huge lines formed in the 91 degree (Fahrenheit) heat. Filling one's tank is no longer the problem it once was, with uninterrupted supplies, reliable quality and generally few lines. A gallon of premium gasoline costs about 200,000 karbovantsi ($1.10), considerably lower than in Western Europe. Parliament last week abandoned the 15 percent tax, imposing instead a new excise tax on gasoline imports. Viktor Suslov, head of Parliament's Finance Committee, told Interfax-Ukraine that the new regulation would take effect in a month and tax inspectors would in the meantime try to collect payments from the repealed sales tax. (Reuters)

Briukhovetsky donates award to NUKMA

KYIV - During the annual award ceremonies of the Tetiana and Omelian Antonovych Foundation, held in June of this year, Dr. Vyacheslav Briukhovetsky, president of the National University of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, became one of three prize recipients. Dr. Briukhovetsky was nominated for his contribution to higher education in organizing NUKMA, the first independent institution of higher education in Ukraine. The award of $5,000 was promptly donated by Dr. Briukhovetsky to the university. (The Mohyla Academy Society)

The state of AIDS in Ukraine today

KYIV - As of July 1, 1996, over 7,000 persons have been registered in Ukraine as HIV-infected, said the Ministry of Health on July 18. At a press conference held at its offices that day, ministry officials summed up the work of the recently concluded 11th International AIDS Congress, held in Vancouver. According to the ministry, the virus which causes AIDS mutates an average of 187 times annually, while treatment costs for a single AIDS patient exceed $18,000 annually. Since 1990, the worldwide number of persons infected with HIV has more than doubled from 10 million to more than 25.5 million this year. (Respublika)

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