Balkan crisis in forefront on eve of NATO summit (04/25/99)

Balkan crisis in forefront on eve of NATO summit

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Viktor Chernomyrdin, Russia's newly appointed special envoy on the Balkan crisis, met with Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma on April 20, part of a flurry of political activity in Kyiv regarding the Balkan crisis on the eve of the NATO's 50th anniversary summit to be held in Washington.

Unlike Russia, which did not plan to attend the Washington summit as a protest against the bombing of rump Yugoslavia by NATO (at the last minute it was reported that Russia would attend), Ukraine will attend and has indicated it is taking steps to build consensus on a peace initiative.

Mr. Chernomyrdin was appointed by Russian President Boris Yeltsin last week to work toward a resolution to the escalating situation in Yugoslavia. After meeting with President Kuchma, he said the two sides had agreed on all substantive matters.

"I believe and insist that we should be well-informed about the positions of our partners, and I am glad to say that these positions are absolutely identical regarding what we should do," said Mr. Chernomyrdin the day after his meeting with Mr. Kuchma, which lasted until 2 a.m.

President Kuchma was slightly less exuberant about the outcome of his discussions with Mr. Chernomyrdin, although he did call them "highly fruitful."

"I fully understand the position of the Russian side," said Mr. Kuchma, explaining that he agreed any peace proposal must guarantee the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia, as well as grant broad autonomy to the Kosovo region and provide for the withdrawal of Serbian forces from the region.

President Kuchma was to have left for the NATO summit in Washington on April 22 along with an extensive official contingent, including Foreign Affairs Minister Borys Tarasyuk, Defense Minister Oleksander Kuzmuk and National Bank of Ukraine Chairman Viktor Yuschenko.

At a press conference a day before his departure, President Kuchma made it clear that he was not going to celebrate NATO's accomplishments of the last 50 years.

"I am going to work on serious matters that concern Ukraine," said President Kuchma. In addition to attending several official ceremonies in conjunction with the NATO anniversary, the president is scheduled to meet with International Monetary Fund and World Bank officials, as well as with U.S. President Bill Clinton.

President Kuchma indicated that Ukraine's mediation efforts and its peace proposal would be part of the NATO agenda.

The Ukrainian leader also said that, although Ukraine condemns the use of force in the Balkans, he felt compelled to attend to ensure that Ukraine remains part of the international debate.

"I wish Ukraine's voice to be heard worldwide at just such a summit. It will be attended by leaders of the countries that decide the destiny of the world," he noted.

Ukraine continues peace initiative

Ukraine has presented Yugoslavia, NATO and the United Nations Security Council a peace initiative and offered its mediation services and the city of Kyiv as the site of a peace conference.

Thus far, neither side in the Balkan conflict has responded decisively to the initiative. Foreign Affairs Minister Tarasyuk said on April 20 that the country's efforts are continuing.

He explained that the peace plan offered by Ukraine puts emphasis on the neutral and non-aligned aspect of an international peacekeeping force for the Kosovo region and the need to put it into place as soon as possible. He emphasized that any peace effort must be directed either by the U.N. or the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe

"President Kuchma's plan concentrates its focus on a special representative of the secretary-general of the United Nations, who should have broad powers in developing the composition of the peacekeeping force," said Mr. Tarasyuk.

The Ukrainian proposal is similar to one that has been proposed by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, which includes the removal of Serb forces from Kosovo, followed by a halt in NATO bombing and the use of an international peacekeeping force while Kosovar Albanians return to their homes and an autonomous region is set up within the Yugoslav state.

Ukraine's proposal calls for Serbian withdrawal and NATO bombing to occur simultaneously.

Ukraine's mediation efforts continued on April 19 with phone conversations among Foreign Affairs Minister Tarasyuk and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, Foreign Ministers Joscha Fischer of Germany and Ihor Ivanov of Russia, and British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook.

Although Mr. Tarasyuk would not disclose the subject of the conversations, except to say that they involved Ukraine's mediation proposal, he did state that Ukraine was also ready to host Ibrahim Rugova, the Kosovar leader now under house arrest in Yugoslavia, who has made controversial statements about the need for a halt to NATO bombing, which some believe have been made under duress.

"We have invited Rugova to appear in Kyiv before the mass media to dispel doubts that what he has said was done without threats or pressure," said Mr. Tarasyuk.

Mr. Tarasyuk also proposed that the three American soldiers captured by Yugoslavia could be transferred to Ukraine, where they would be held until the conflict is resolved.

Attempt to sever ties with NATO

Even as Ukrainian and Russian government officials were searching for ways to find a peaceful resolution to the Balkan crisis, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada Chairman Oleksander Tkachenko and the leftist members of the Communist-dominated Parliament doggedly continued their effort to cancel Ukraine's formal relations with NATO.

After having earlier rebuffed a Communist proposal that Ukraine break its ties with NATO and close the NATO office in Kyiv, the national deputies were asked to address a new version of the same resolution on April 20. Six unsuccessful attempts by the Verkhovna Rada chairman to push the vote through did not close the matter.

The next day the parliamentarians returned to find the issue at the top of the daily agenda again, which they again rejected with votes to spare. Mr. Tkachenko said that a reworked version of the proposal would be presented again before the end of the week.

Russia, Ukraine hold separate exercises

As political and diplomatic maneuvering on the Balkan crisis continued in Kyiv, the naval fleets of Ukraine and Russia took part in annual training exercises off Ukraine's Black Sea coast. Although Russian television and some Ukrainian newspapers indicated they were joint maneuvers, Ukraine's Ministry of Defense described the sea exercises as separate.

"Though some members of both the Ukrainian and Russian mass media have stated that they are taking place jointly, they are in fact being held separately. It is merely a coincidence that the timing is the same," said the press spokesman for Ukraine's Ministry of Defense, Dmytro Shkurko.

He explained that only one joint action is planned, a humanitarian emergency rescue of a ship in distress, and that the exercises were never planned as a joint undertaking.

Russia had stated several days after the Balkan crisis began that it was ready to send ships from its Black Sea Fleet into the Adriatic and Mediterranean to monitor the NATO bombing. Only one ship, a reconnaissance cruiser, has left its Sevastopol home port and Russian President Yeltsin said on April 19 that no other Russian military ships would follow it.

Meanwhile, a poll released by the newspaper Den showed that Ukrainian citizens are strongly opposed to the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. The survey released on April 17 showed that 62 percent are against the NATO action as "open aggression against a sovereign state," while 10 percent support the air strikes "to protect the Kosovar Albanians from genocide."

Twenty-one percent stated that they hadn't formed an opinion and 7 percent said they didn't care.

| Home Page |