NEWSBRIEFS (01/14/01)

NEWSBRIEFS

Anti-presidential protests resume

KYIV - Following the holiday break, several hundred people gathered in front of the Verkhovna Rada building in Kyiv on January 10 to demand the resignation of President Leonid Kuchma and Procurator General Mykhailo Potebenko, Interfax reported. The picketers accuse Mr. Kuchma of ordering the kidnapping of journalist Heorhii Gongadze and Mr. Potebenko of impeding the investigation of Mr. Gongadze's disappearance. Some 100 people staged a pro-Kuchma picket at the same time. Meanwhile, Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko told the Parliament that the authorities organized demonstrations "of support to the regime" throughout the country on January 10. According to Mr. Symonenko, the authorities resorted to compelling "children, students and budget sector employees" to attend those demonstrations. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Tatars seek greater representation

SYMFEROPOL - Mustafa Dzhemilev, the chairman of the Mejlis (Council) of the Crimean Tatar people, told the fourth Kurultai meeting in Symferopol this week that Crimean Tatars must achieve better representation in state offices either by changing the way elections are conducted or via the adoption of a new Ukrainian law "which would defend the rights of the Crimean Tatar people," Interfax-Ukraine reported on January 6. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Former bodyguard faces charges

KYIV - Ukrainian officials said on January 6 that they have begun criminal proceedings against Mykola Melnychenko, a former presidential bodyguard who has accused President Leonid Kuchma of involvement in the disappearance of journalist Heorhii Gongadze. Mr. Melnychenko has produced tapes which he says show that the Ukrainian president and his aides discussed how to silence the independent journalist. The former security officer is charged with libel, distribution of false information that defames other citizens and forging of documents, in accordance with Articles 125 and 194 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code. Mr. Melnychenko has been put on a wanted list and a resolution has been made about his detention. (RFE/RL Newsline, Ukrainian Television)

Kuchma rejects bodyguard's claims

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma on January 4 said that the former bodyguard who had accused him of various crimes is "mentally ill" and that he would not comment on those allegations, Interfax-Ukraine reported. Mr. Kuchma's comments came in response to a December 2000 RFE/RL Ukrainian Service broadcast in which the bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko said that Mr. Kuchma had ordered law enforcement agencies to undermine the reputation of Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko, DPA reported. President Kuchma also reiterated that he has "no final information" concerning the fate of journalist Heorhii Gongadze. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Case said to be 'political Chornobyl"

MOSCOW - Writing in the Moscow publication Argumenty I Fakty on January 3, Aleksandr Kondrashov said that the case of Heorhii Gongadze is rapidly becoming a "political Chornobyl" for President Leonid Kuchma. He added that this explosion is likely to extend to Russian political figures as well. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Health check ordered for peacekeepers

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma on January 6 told Defense Minister Oleksander Kuzmuk to check on the health of Ukrainian peacekeepers in Kosovo following reports that some KFOR troops had become ill, Interfax-Ukraine reported. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv rejects Moscow criticism on language

KYIV - The Ukrainian Committee for Information Policy, Television and Radio Broadcasting on January 5 rejected complaints by the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry about Kyiv's language policy, ITAR- TASS reported. The Russian statement said that Kyiv is trying to drive the Russian language out of the Ukrainian media. It said that the Russian statement is erroneous and unfounded. Moreover, the committee said that it proceeds "from the assumption that current problems in Ukrainian-Russian relations" in this and other spheres can be resolved by talks "without unnecessary emotions." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Slav Party criticizes language policy

KYIV - The Slav Party of Ukraine has criticized efforts by the national Orthography Commission to revise existing Ukrainian language rules, ITAR-TASS reported on January 4. It issued a statement saying that "the Ukrainian language is being tailored to suit the taste of a foreign diaspora. Most emigrants who have left their homeland are natives of western Ukraine, know as Halychyna, whose local dialect is infected with foreign borrowings." According to the party's leader, "the melodious Ukrainian language is being broken exclusively for its closeness to Russian." He added that he does not rule out the possibility that Kyiv's next step will be to replace the Cyrillic script with a Latin one. (RFE/RL Newsline)

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