NEWSBRIEFS (04/19/98)

NEWSBRIEFS

Kuchma threatens to fire managers

DNIPROPETROVSK - President Leonid Kuchma has warned enterprise managers that the "democracy game is over" for them, ITAR-TASS reported on April 11. Speaking at a meeting with executives and directors of major industrial enterprises in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, President Kuchma said that if managers do not resolve the crises at their enterprises by year's end, "they will have to look for new jobs." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Law to combat trafficking in women

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma on April 13 signed a law establishing criminal responsibility for trade in human beings and for forcing women into prostitution, ITAR-TASS and Agence France Presse reported. The bill provides for prison terms of up to 15 years for those guilty of sexually exploiting women. According to Nina Karpachova, a national deputy who introduced the bill, many Ukrainian women seeking jobs abroad "are raped, beaten and drugged" while being coerced into becoming prostitutes. Ukrainian diplomatic sources report that some 3,000 Ukrainian women are involved in prostitution in Greece and some 6,000 in Turkey. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Chornobyl's third reactor to be restarted

KYIV - Serhii Parashyn, director of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, told journalists on April 14 that the plant's third reactor will resume operation on May 5, following a presidential directive to that effect, ITAR-TASS reported. The reactor has been undergoing repairs for the past nine months, and further repairs are planned for later this year. The first and second reactors remain shut down under pressure from the West, while the fourth, which exploded in late April 1986, is encased in a concrete sarcophagus in need of reconstruction. According to Mr. Parashyn, the G-7 intends to pay Ukraine only $400 million out of the $750 million originally pledged to reinforce the cracking sarcophagus. (RFE/RL Newsline)