Udovenko elected acting chairman of Rukh (04/11/99)

Udovenko elected acting chairman of Rukh
Justice Ministry rules that Chornovil group is legitimate Rukh

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The Central Leadership of the Rukh Party that had remained loyal to Vyacheslav Chornovil, who recently was killed in an auto accident, elected Hennadii Udovenko acting party chairman on March 31.

Mr. Udovenko's election came on the heels of a decision made the same day by Ukraine's Ministry of Justice to accept the statutes and by-laws of the Rukh Party now headed by Mr. Udovenko and to reject those of the splinter party organization of the same name.

The Ministry of Justice stated in its ruling that only the March 7 party congress organized by supporters of Mr. Chornovil was held according to the party's statutes and by-laws.

The Rukh Party split in mid-February after a group of Rukh national deputies removed Mr. Chornovil as parliamentary faction head and as chairman of the party for his alleged authoritarian ways. Two party congresses were convened soon thereafter: an extraordinary congress on February 28, which elected National Deputy Yurii Kostenko its new chairman; and a previously scheduled session on March 7, which retained Mr. Chornovil.

The Justice Ministry ruling supported an appeal from Mr. Chornovil to reject the February 28 congress as illegitimate.

One of Mr. Udovenko's new assistant chairmen, Yurii Klychkovskyi, said the Justice Ministry decision validates his party's assertion that there is only one legitimate Rukh.

"By approving the statutes submitted by the ninth congress's second session, the Ministry of Justice in effect rejected the 10th congress (held by the splinter Rukh group)," said Mr. Klychkovskyi. "The head of our congress was Chornovil and our group is, therefore, the only one that can carry the name Rukh."

Mr. Udovenko, Ukraine's minister of foreign affairs until he resigned after his election to Ukraine's Parliament, had recently become a close political ally of Mr. Chornovil. He had finally taken party membership before his election as party chairman. The Central Leadership's election of Mr. Udovenko must still be ratified by the Rukh Congress scheduled for May.

The new leader of Rukh explained that his first task will be to consolidate the party's forces and to prepare for the upcoming presidential elections. He announced that he remains a presidential candidate and that the political coalition of Rukh, the Reform and Order Party and the Republican Christian Party would continue.

The Rukh group headed by Mr. Kostenko, which had maintained a nine-day period of mourning and silence after the death of Mr. Chornovil, held a press conference on April 6 to criticize what it called the Justice Ministry's political decision that had no legal basis and to answer charges of betrayal leveled by the Rukh Party.

Mr. Kostenko elaborated on a press release that his Rukh had issued on the day of the Justice Ministry decision. The release noted that the government was out to destroy Rukh for its own political benefit.

"The decision of the Justice Ministry puts every obstacle in the way to organizing a third, unifying convention. The decision, in effect, legally splits Rukh," he said.

The Kostenko-led Rukh is maintaining that the Ministry of Justice improperly recognized the validity of the second session of the ninth congress. It says that it has the signatures of 339 elected delegates who say they did not attend the Chornovil-led congress, which is 42 percent of the total delegate count, according to Mr. Kostenko. That is proof that there could not have been a two-thirds quorum needed for the congress to be declared legitimate.

Many in the Kostenko camp have said that a split Rukh would strengthen the re-election hopes of President Leonid Kuchma because a portion of disaffected Rukh sympathizers could decide that, due to the split, the only way to avoid the election of a leftist would be to re-elect the current president.

Mr. Kostenko said that, although the possibility of a Rukh reunion still exists, the government ruling makes the possibility more remote. He explained that because the Central Leadership is required to call a congress in accordance with the by-laws of either Rukh, the question arises: which Rukh Central Leadership will do this?

"If one Rukh Central Leadership calls the congress, then the other one is joining that party if it sends delegates," explained Mr. Kostenko. He said that such details would make reunion talks even more sticky.

However, the other party leaders who were present with Mr. Kostenko at the press conference did not sound as if they were in any mood for reunion or return.

Ivan Zayets, who today is Mr. Kostenko's assistant, said he was offended by the words coming from the camp of the other Rukh. "They call on us to repent and return to the flock, as if we have done a terrible thing," said Mr. Zayets.

Mr. Zayets also emphasized that this is not a matter of lambs having gone astray, but a long-developing and natural process that took place as differing strategies and ideas began to separate Rukh.

Ihor Yukhnovskyi, the well-respected national deputy and academic who also went with the Kostenko group, explained that the new Rukh led by Mr. Kostenko is a much more vibrant organization filled with ideas and energy.

"The faction's morning meetings had become terrible affairs. There was constant bickering and by the beginning of the morning Verkhovna Rada session we already were spent," said Mr. Yukhnovskyi. "Now it is a pleasure to work with bright, young people with definite ideas and goals."

While not rejecting the notion that his Rukh would support Mr. Udovenko in the presidential elections, Mr. Kostenko announced that his party would attempt to organize a political forum of all the "democratic-patriotic political forces," to find consensus on a single presidential candidate. He said the candidate field would not be limited, and that his group would abide by the decision of the forum, "whether it decides upon Mr. Udovenko, Mr. [Yevhen] Marchuk, or President Kuchma."

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