NEWSBRIEFS (02/09/97)

NEWSBRIEFS

British defense secretary visits Ukraine

KYIV - In his first official trip to Ukraine on February 2-3, British Defense Secretary Michael Portillo urged Ukraine to seek a special relationship with NATO, Western agencies reported. In talks with Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Volodymyr Horbulin and Defense Minister Oleksander Kuzmuk on the first day of his visit, Mr. Portillo said a special partnership agreement could be worked out before the next NATO summit in July, during which the first candidates for NATO membership are likely to be announced. The partnership entails cooperation, but is not full NATO membership. The next day he met with Foreign Minister Hennadii Udovenko and gave a speech at the Defense Ministry in which he said that the partnership agreement would guarantee Ukraine's "sovereignty and integrity." (OMRI Daily Digest)

Ukraine's Gradobank declared insolvent

KYIV - Gradobank, one of the banks in charge of disbursing German money to compensate victims of the Nazis, is insolvent, although it still owes 119 million marks ($72.5 million), Western agencies reported on February 4. The Ukrainian Cabinet is scheduled to meet on February 7 to decide how to handle the payment problems. Since 1993, Germany has paid 400 million marks in compensation ranging from DM 400 to DM 1,900 to about 541,000 Nazi victims. But some 20 percent of those eligible have not yet received any compensation. The original February 1 deadline for filing claims has been extended to February 7. Claims from people living in remote regions are still coming in. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Controversy over treaty with Ukraine?

BUDAPEST- Responding to Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma's opposition to Romania joining NATO without previously recognizing the existing borders, Foreign Minister Adrian Severin said Mr. Kuchma's attitude was "unsuitable" and amounts to "blackmail," the daily Jurnalul reported. He emphasized that his country has no territorial claims on Ukraine. Adrian Nastase, deputy chairman of the opposition Party of Social Democracy in Romania, said the present leaders' change of policy toward a Romania-Ukraine treaty was "worrying." Mr. Nastase added that the treaty should not be concluded "at any price." The leader of the extreme nationalist Greater Romania Party, Corneliu Vadim Tudor, said his party's very name indicated its position and "we would rather forego the conclusion of the treaty than abandon those ancient Romanian lands." At that price, he added, "we do not understand why we should join NATO at all." (OMRI Daily Digest)

Crime hinders abolition of death penalty

KYIV - Borys Oliinyk, vice-president of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, has said "it is impossible to fully abolish capital punishment" in Ukraine at present, ITAR-TASS reported on January 30. His statement came in the wake of harsh criticism of Ukraine by the Council of Europe for failing to honor its commitment to put a stop to the death penalty. Ukrainian authorities registered 4,896 premeditated murders in 1996, most of which were in the economically developed regions of Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk, Odesa, Crimea and Kyiv. The number of contract killings grew from eight in 1993 to 210 in 1995, while 400 per 100,000 of the Ukrainian population received prison sentences last year. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Ukrainian president visits France

PARIS - President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine has been assured by President Jacques Chirac that France will support G-7 financing of the Chornobyl nuclear plant's closure, international agencies reported on January 30. Mr. Kuchma, who was on a two-day official visit to France, said Chornobyl will be shut down in 2000, revoking earlier threats that Ukraine might backslide on its promise to shut the plant owing to economic problems. The G-7 has pledged $3.1 billion to assist the closure, but Ukraine has demanded the money sooner than planned. France will finance building nuclear plants at Rivne and Khmelnytskyi to replace Chornobyl. The same day, an agreement was signed to establish a joint economic commission to boost bilateral trade. France is the last of the G-7 countries to host a visit by President Kuchma. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Women form new political party

KYIV - A new party, the Women's Party of Ukraine, held its founding congress here on January 18. Though women constitute 54 percent of the population of Ukraine, they hold only 4 percent of the seats in the Verkhovna Rada. Among the 415 national deputies, there are only 18 women. In oblast, regional and city councils women hold no more than 10 percent of the seats. The principal goal of the new political party is to increase women's participation in the development of democratic Ukraine and to get them involved in seeking political office. The party's program focuses on social justice, restructuring of the economy and development of a democratic state. (Respublika)

Romania seeks closer ties with neighbors

STRASBOURG, France - Romania's Foreign Affairs Minister Adrian Severin told a press conference in Strasbourg that his country is actively seeking closer relations with its neighbors, RFE/RL reported on January 29. Mr. Severin said his country is considering forming a "triangular association" encompassing Poland, Ukraine and Romania, and that Hungary might eventually join the group. According to Radio Bucharest, he also discussed the pending basic treaty with Ukraine, saying it was imperative to avoid the "Pandora's box" in which the talks had been stranded so far - an apparent allusion to Romania's former insistence that the treaty mention the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939. Foreign Affairs Minister Severin added that Romania now wants a reference to Council of Europe Recommendation 1201 to be included in the treaty to ensure the protection of the rights of the Romanian minority in Ukraine. That recommendation is referred to in Romania's basic treaty with Hungary. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Ukraine sixth in World Bank aid

WASHINGTON - As of December 1996, Ukraine is in sixth place among the 30 recipients of assistance provided to Europe and Central Asia by the World Bank. The total amount of credits extended by the World Bank to Ukraine is $1.016 million (U.S.), according to The World Bank News. Russia is the largest recipient of WB assistance with $6.447 million received. Next in line are Poland, $4.043 million; Turkey, $2.781 million; Romania, $1.916 million; and Hungary $1.696 million. (Ukrainian Information Center, The Netherlands)

Lebed leads presidential polls

MOSCOW - Former Security Council Secretary Aleksandr Lebed would defeat any opponent in the second round of Russian presidential elections if they were held now, according to a mid-January Public Opinion Foundation poll, Agence France Presse reported on January 29. He would beat Moscow Mayor Yurii Luzhkov by 42 percent to 31 percent; Communist Party leader Gennadii Zyuganov, 46 percent to 30 percent; and Prime Minster Viktor Chernomyrdin, 44 percent to 19 percent. Meanwhile, according to Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Mr. Lebed's press secretary, Aleksandr Barkhatov, claimed that "high-level bureaucrats" are engaged in "provocative activities designed to discredit" the retired general. The authorities' investigation into an October 17, 1996, incident in which Mr. Lebed's guards arrested a team from the Ministry of Internal Affairs that was trailing him provoked Mr. Barkhatov's statement. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Kuchma meets with papal nuncio

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma received the Vatican's nuncio in Ukraine, Archbishop Antonio Franco, on January 22. The nuncio brought greetings from Pope John Paul II, and noted that the head of the Catholic Church constantly prays for Ukraine and spends much time reflecting on the hard times the country is now living through as it establishes its political and economic stability and works toward harmony among Ukraine's Churches. Archbishop Franco said the pontiff has a desire to visit Ukraine, a land that suffered for many centuries. President Kuchma thanked the nuncio for conveying the pope's greeting, expressed his deep respect for the pope, and wished him a speedy return to heath. As regards a papal visit to Ukraine, President Kuchma spoke of the necessity to create appropriate preconditions for a dignified visit by the head of the Catholic Church. (Respublika)

URP leaders protest Lavra transfers

KYIV - The leaders of the Ukrainian Republican Party have appealed to President Leonid Kuchma regarding the transfer of several buildings located in the 11th century Kyivan Monastery of the Caves (Pecherska Lavra) to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate. In an appeal released to the press, the URP expressed its concern that "without any announcement, Lavra properties are quietly being transferred to the Moscow Patriarchate: the building housing the artifacts from the book museum; the building housing the museum of cults, which focuses on the role of religion in the development of culture; and two buildings that "already have become the walls of this Moscow citadel." The URP appeal underlines: "You, Mr. President, understand full well that the UOC-Moscow Patriarchate is a structure inimical to our state, a structure that functions on the basis of foreign laws and defends the interests of Russia. There is no doubt that this game involving Ukrainian national shrines and their transfer to Moscow's jurisdiction is a phenomenon caused by the same source as problems regarding the Black Sea Fleet, our incautious disarmament, the 'zero option' and ... many other hard-headed bows before our insatiable neighbor." (Respublika)

Antonov tests new aircraft

KYIV - Two years after an earlier model had crashed, the Antonov Design Bureau on the outskirts of Kyiv is testing the AN-70, the first aircraft designed in Ukraine since the country declared independence in 1991. The earlier model of the Antonov-70 crashed into an accompanying AN-72 during a test flight in 1994. Ukraine hopes the new plan will break into the world aircraft market, and designers expect that the four-engine turbojet will replace the American S-130 Hercules and the European S-160 Transol. (Reuters)

Environmentalists object to oil terminal

KYIV - A group of Ukrainian environmentalists has panned a project to construct an oil terminal in Kherson Bay, at the mouth of the Dnipro River on the Black Sea, calling it economically absurd and dangerous to nature, ITAR-TASS reported on January 21. The environmentalists said reconstructing existing oil pipelines would cost $300 million less and allow the existing terminal and refinery in Kherson Bay to work at full capacity. Another terminal is located in Odesa, several hundred kilometers to the west. The planned new terminal, with a projected annual capacity of 6 million to 8 million tons of oil, has already attracted some $26 million of investment, 20 percent of that from the national budget. (OMRI Daily Digest)

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