NEWSBRIEFS

Budget for independence is set aside

KYIV - An August 10 Cabinet of Ministers decree sets aside 866,700 hrv for celebrations of the eighth anniversary of Ukraine's independence. A sum of 356,200 hrv is for a concert at the Ukraina Palace of Culture; 79,490 hrv for a reception; and 430,990 hrv for regional delegations. A total of 435,736 hrv will come from the Ministry of Culture and 430,995 hrv will be from the Cabinet reserve. (Eastern Economist)

Marchuk: president's rivals blocked

KYIV - Yevhen Marchuk, former prime minister and a presidential candidate, has accused the government of blocking his and other candidates' presidential campaigns to ensure President Leonid Kuchma's re-election, the Associated Press reported on August 16. "Persons in the public service, who are paid by the state ... are being used in Kuchma's election campaign," Mr. Marchuk noted. He said police disrupted his meeting with voters in Luhansk on August 14 by citing a bomb threat and ordering all present out of the building. According to Mr. Marchuk, the event was a "provocation" staged by the authorities to prevent him from meeting with voters. (RFE/RL Newsline)

President vetoes bill on immunity

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma has refused to sign a bill amending the law on the status of local council deputies. The changes, approved by the Parliament on July 15, stipulated that local deputies cannot be detained or arrested "without approval by corresponding local councils until a verdict of guilty has been declared by court," the Eastern Economic Daily reported on August 16. Mr. Kuchma argued that the Constitution grants legal immunity only to parliamentary deputies, judges and the president, and does not mention local council deputies. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Last candidate joins presidential race

KYIV - Ukraine's Supreme Court has ordered the Central Election Commission to register Yurii Karmazin, leader of the Party of the Fatherland's Defenders, as a presidential candidate, the Eastern Economic Daily reported on August 16. The commission previously refused registration to Mr. Karmazin, recognizing as valid only about 849,000 signatures out of the 1.7 million he had submitted. Mr. Karmazin will be the 15th and last presidential hopeful to be registered. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine looks for more Western money

KYIV - A government delegation headed by Vice Prime Minister Serhii Tyhypko left for Washington on August 15 for two days of talks with the International Monetary Fund, the Eastern European Daily reported. The main goal of the visit is to discuss the disbursement of an IMF loan tranche to Ukraine. It is thought that Mr. Tyhypko may agree with the World Bank on the date for releasing a $100 million tranche under the so-called Financial Sector Adjustment Loan program. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian hryvnia has stabilized and returned below the government exchange limit of 4.6 to $1. On August 13, the hryvnia was trading at $4.54 to $1. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Miners continue protests over wages

DONETSK - The Independent Miners' Trade Union has threatened to suspend coal supplies to consumers beginning in September and to stage a large-scale protest unless the government reduces its wage debt to coal miners, the Associated Press reported on August 13. More than 2,000 miners are on strike in the Donetsk region, while hundreds of miners' wives and children continue to demonstrate in Luhansk. First Vice Prime Minister Anatolii Kinakh met with the protesters last week. According to the Independent Miners' Trade Union, however, "miners' hopes for a positive resolution of their problems have not been fulfilled." The government owes the miners more than 2 billion hrv ($435 million U.S.) in back wages, including 145 million hrv for 1999, according to trade union leaders. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Turkmenistan may sue Ukraine

ASHGABAT - Turkmenistan's Foreign Affairs Ministry released a statement on August 12 warning that it will take Ukraine to an international arbitration court if it fails to pay its debts for this year's supplies of Turkmen natural gas soon, ITAR-TASS reported. As of that date, Ukraine had paid for only some 10 percent of the 8.76 billion cubic meters of gas supplies between January 1 and May 21, when gas transports were suspended. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Rewards for those who saved lives

LVIV - The Israel's ambassador to Ukraine, Anna Azari, was present at an awards ceremony to honor those who saved Jewish lives during World War II. Ambassadorial advisor Zeev Ben-Ar'e said recipients will also receive humanitarian aid, medicine and a small pension from the International Jewish Committee, and will have the right to freely visit Israel. (RFE/RL Newsline)

CEC amends media campaign rules

KYIV - At its August 6 session the Central Election Commission approved an additional point to regulations adopted on June 18 on using the media for propaganda during the election campaign. The CEC's press service said that, in the earlier version, television and radio companies, both private and state-owned, which held roundtables, debates or live broadcasts of all kinds with the participation of presidential candidates, were forbidden to use funds from the state budget. From now on, funds from local budgets also cannot be used for these television and radio debates. Campaign material featuring presidential candidates cannot be included in news bulletins alone. In the earlier version, other programs were mentioned as well. Special groups to monitor campaign material will not be created on the oblast level, as this function will be left to a special group formed by the CEC. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Incidents show need for delimitation

KYIV - Recent cases of arrests involving both Ukrainian and Russian fishing boats alleged to have been poaching in the Azov Sea make it necessary to delimit the borders of the Azov Sea. That is the view of Leonid Kotliarevskyi, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Contracts and Legal Department. Speaking on August 10, he said neither territorial waters nor economic zones have been defined between the two countries as negotiations are still in process. Among recent incidents was one in which a Ukrainian fishing boat was seized by Russia on August 5 for using fishing equipment not allowed in the Azov sea. (Eastern Economist)

"Star Wars" arrives in theaters

KYIV - Kyiv moviegoers will be happy to know that Kyiv is the first city in Eastern Europe after Moscow to receive Hollywood's new "Star Wars: Episode 1" movie in theaters. Kyiv cinemas will be showing the blockbuster until at least the beginning of September. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Moroz, Rabinovich countersue

KYIV - Socialistic Party leader Oleksander Moroz intends to sue Vadim Rabinovich, a well-known Israeli businessman, for libel. The presidential candidade announced this on August 12, the day after Mr. Rabinovich sued Tovarysh, the Socialist Party newspaper, for $15 million (U.S.) for an article that he said "caused commercial and moral harm." Mr. Rabinovich is expected to return to Ukraine after August 21, once his medical treatment in Israel ends. (Eastern Economist)

N-power workers warn of bankruptcy

KYIV - The union representing workers employed by the state-run Enerhoatom nuclear power company issued a statement on August 5 warning that the atomic energy industry is in a critical state. "An unbalanced tax policy has brought highly profitable nuclear power plants to the brink of bankruptcy," the Associated Press quoted the statement as saying. The document also noted that the industry lacks money to pay Russia for nuclear fuel supplies in timely manner, thus casting doubt on the "readiness of some reactors to be operational during the fall-winter season." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Chornobyl Fund abuses detected

KYIV - The Cabinet of Ministers has issued a reprimand to Volodymyr Holosha, vice minister for emergency situations and head of the evacuation area around the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, for "unsatisfactory control over the allocation of the Chornobyl Fund resources." Apparently, in 1998-1999, 4.5 million hrv of fund resources was misused through the fault of the ministries of Finance and Emergency Situations, the State Tax Administration and a number of oblast administrations. The results of the investigation have been handed over to the General Procurator's Office. The Ministry for Emergency Situations has been ordered to rectify the violations by October 1; by September 1 the STA is to check, debtor companies to find out the amount of their debt to Chornobyl Fund - a fund that was based on mandatory payroll deductions. (Eastern Economist)

Back-to school season begins

KYIV - The government is to set aside 20 million hrv to purchase high school textbooks, Prime Minister Valerii Pustovoitenko said on August 12. At present 85 percent of schools are ready for the school year. Mr. Pustovoitenko also demanded that debts to teachers and other educational specialists be repaid before August 31. Arrears stand at 233 million hrv. (Eastern Economist)

Poland: restitution not for U.S. courts

WARSAW - Referring to the property restitution claim against Poland filed by 11 Jews in a New York court in late June, government spokesman Krzysztof Luft said on August 6 that the claimants can recover their property via Polish courts, Reuters reported. Witold Danilowicz, a lawyer representing Poland in the U.S., noted that legal suits against Poland filed by Jewish U.S. citizens seeking to recover their property are outside the jurisdiction of U.S. courts. He argued that those suits should be filed in Poland. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Russians investigate NATO "crimes"

MOSCOW - Nikolai Ryzhkov, former chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers and chairman of the Duma commission collecting information on alleged NATO war crimes against Yugoslavia, arrived in Belgrade on August 8. Mr. Ryzhkov told ITAR-TASS that his delegation will collect "materials on the harmful effect of the NATO aggression on the [population] of Yugoslavia and draft a plan for our parliamentary commission [on] sending documents to [the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia]." He added that "we do not want to be guided by ... the cooling or warming of bilateral relations with NATO. ... We are an independent commission. ... Our aim is to establish the truth and to submit the collected materials to the State Duma." Mr. Ryzhkov stressed that "we are not all that satisfied by the objectiveness and impartiality of [the tribunal]." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Moscow OKs bombers-for-gas proposal

MOSCOW - Col.- Gen. Anatolii Kornukov, commander of the Russian air force, told Interfax on August 6 that Moscow has agreed to Kyiv's proposal to repay part of its gas debt to Russia through the delivery of eight TU-160 strategic bombers. Russia puts that debt at $1.8 billion, while Kyiv claims that it owes only $1 billion and that commercial structures are responsible for the remainder of the debt. Col.-Gen. Kornukov did not say how much each plane would be considered to be worth. Russia already has six TU-160 planes as well as some 50 TU- 95MS long-range bombers, according to Interfax. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Turkmenistan, Ukraine at odds over gas

KYIV - Prime Minister Valerii Pustovoitenko of Ukraine said on August 6 that an agreement had been reached during talks with Turkmenistan government officials the previous day on resuming supplies of natural gas to Ukraine before the end of this month, Interfax reported. Turkmenistan halted exports to Ukraine in late May. But in Ashgabat, the chairman of Turkmenistan's state gas company, Berdymurat Redjepov, said on the same day that supplies will not be resumed any time soon, because Ukraine has not yet made the required payment in hard currency for 6 billion cubic meters of gas it received between January and late May. Forty percent of that debt was to be paid in hard currency and the remainder in barter goods, not all of which have been supplied. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Russia-Belarus union under way?

MOSCOW - The Belarusian regions of Miensk, Homiel, Vitebsk and Mahileu have been accepted as members of the Central Russia Interregional Association for Economic Cooperation, following a decision taken at a meeting of the association near Moscow, the newspaper Izvestiya reported on July 30. The newspaper comments that from now on Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka can demand that Moscow charge "inter-Russian tariffs" for oil and gas since four regions of his country have become part of "Central Russia." (RFE/RL Newsline)

EBRD pays to improve sarcophagus

KYIV - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has signed an agreement with the Ukrainian state company Enerhoatom on a 111.8 million euro ($115 million U.S.) grant to improve the leaky concrete encasement surrounding the Chornobyl reactor that was destroyed in 1986. The grant is to be spent on purchasing equipment to monitor safety risks while nuclear fuel is removed from the destroyed reactor. It will also be used for a number of other safety projects due to be completed by 2005. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma: no pledge on Russian language

KYIV - Speaking on the status of the Russian language, President Leonid Kuchma argued that he had never promised to legalize two state languages in Ukraine. According to Mr. Kuchma, Russian should not be treated as a foreign language in Ukraine and Ukrainian should not be introduced forcibly. (Eastern Economist)

Odesa has new military academy

ODESA - A military academy with an emphasis on physical training, foreign languages, computer science and compulsory military subjects has been set up at the Odesa Institute of Land Force. Col. Volodymyr Dodul has been appointed chief of the academy. Seventy-five selected boys who have completed a nine-year school background will begin studies at the academy on September 1. The opening is timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the institute, which initially was a cadet corps for 15-year-olds. The initiative to open such a academy came from the Odesa Oblast Administration and the mayor's office. (Eastern Economist)

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, August 22, 1999, No. 34, Vol. LXVII

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