NEWSBRIEFS (03/04/01)

NEWSBRIEFS

Deputy accuses NATO of bugging

KYIV - National Deputy Bohdan Boiko, a leader of the Popular Movement for Unity, told journalists on February 27 that President Leonid Kuchma's office was bugged by "special services of one or several NATO countries," Interfax reported. "The famous digital recorder of Maj. [Mykola] Melnychenko has nothing to do [with this case]," Mr. Boiko said. According to Mr. Boiko, Melnychenko is currently hiding in a "NATO military base, most probably in one of the Benelux countries." Mr. Boiko said the "first phase" of the NATO special services' operation against Mr. Kuchma misfired, because the president remains in his post. Mr. Boiko noted that the "second phase" will seek to discredit Mr. Kuchma by pointing to his alleged financial machinations and abuse of power during the 1999 presidential elections. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma: case used as "political weapon"

KYIV - In a letter published in the February 27 issue of the Financial Times, President Leonid Kuchma wrote that some Ukrainian politicians have turned the tragic death of Heorhii Gongadze into a "political weapon designed to destabilize Ukraine." Mr. Kuchma noted: "It is not by chance that my main accusers are precisely the same people who have blocked Ukraine's transformation to a free market economy." The Ukrainian president said there are no grounds to accuse him of Mr. Gongadze's murder, adding that he is committed to protecting the freedom and safety of the press. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma says he will not resign

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma said on February 21 that he will not step down because of the allegations of his complicity in the disappearance of journalist Heorhii Gongadze, Interfax reported. "I won't even speak on this topic," Mr. Kuchma said during a call-in interview with readers of the Kyiv-based Fakty newspaper. "I want to tell people: you need to believe in your country, you need to believe your president. I am looking in your eyes and I am ready to swear on the Bible and the Constitution that I have never, under no circumstances given an order to destroy a man," the president said in the section of the interview that was broadcast the same day by the ICTV television channel. (RFE/RL Newsline)

More on failure to oust Potebenko

KYIV - National Deputy Anatolii Matvienko, leader of the opposition Sobor Party, said he believes the failed attempts on February 22 to pass a vote of no confidence in Procurator General Mykhailo Potebenko testify to the fact that an "oligarchic majority" has been formed in the Verkhovna Rada. Addressing the Parliament on February 22, Mr. Matvienko congratulated Rada Chairman Ivan Pliusch on the formation of that majority. "I warn you against a threat of losing [our] independence. The hundred [lawmakers] who voted [for Potebenko's ouster] is part of the [real] opposition and pro-Ukrainian force," Mr. Matvienko added. The no confidence resolutions were either boycotted or opposed by the pro-presidential caucuses Labor Ukraine, Revival of Regions, Solidarity, the Social Democratic Party (United) and the National Democratic Party, as well as by the Greens and Yabluko. The Communist Party caucus also refused to vote. Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko commented: "We do not intend to defend Potebenko, but we will also not participate in settling scores between clans." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Melnychenko continues transcribing tapes

KYIV - Mykola Melnychenko, who secretly bugged President Leonid Kuchma's office and provoked a political scandal in Ukraine by publicizing some recordings, told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service on February 26 that he needs "a great deal of time" as well as "equipment and professionals" to transcribe all the secret tapes he made. Mr. Melnychenko noted, however, that the material he has already transcribed is sufficient to prove unambiguously that President Kuchma is "a criminal who gave criminal orders and controlled [their fulfillment]." He added that he is waiting for the confirmation of the authenticity of his recordings by the International Press Institute in Vienna. Following this confirmation, he is going to publicize more taped information "which is no less criminal than the Gongadze case." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Melnychenko says Kuchma stole $1 B

KYIV - Mykola Melnychenko, who released secret recordings of conversations in the Ukrainian president's office, was quoted in the February 26 issue of The New York Times as saying that President Leonid Kuchma had pocketed at least $1 billion for personal or political use. Mr. Melnychenko added that the full transcript of recordings made "since at least 1998" in the president's office will establish that "there is no greater criminal in Ukraine than Kuchma." Prior to this disclosure, it was widely believed that Mr. Melnychenko bugged Kuchma only for an unspecified period in 2000. "My goal is to totally expose the level of corruption in Ukraine as an independent Don Quixote and ensure that thieves will never come to power again in Ukraine," Mr. Melnychenko told Patrick Tyler of The Times, who interviewed him in an undisclosed location in a Central European country. (RFE/RL Newsline, The New York Times)

Lesia Gongadze asks to meet with Kuchma

KYIV - After Deputy Procurator-General Oleksii Bahanets on February 26 ruled that the headless corpse found at Tarascha near Kyiv in November is that of missing journalist Heorhii Gongadze, Lesia Gongadze, mother of the missing journalist, asked President Leonid Kuchma for a meeting, saying it may become a "positive step to finding the truth that will help us put an end to this complex and important case." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Communists plan protests in March

KYIV - The Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU) is going to hold a nationwide protest action on March 12-17 under the slogans "Down with the Regime of Kuchma and Yuschenko" and "All the Power to the Working People," Interfax reported on February 26, quoting the CPU website. The goal of the action is "to tell people the truth about what is going on in Ukraine, and to rouse them for an organized, conscious struggle for their human rights." The CPU declared its intention of correcting the "main mistake" of the Ukraine Without Kuchma rallies by expanding anti-regime protests to include wider social strata. CPU leader Petro Symonenko told the agency that the "ultra-rightist nationalists," who actively participate in ongoing anti-Kuchma protests, "are destroying the idea of social justice and diverting the people from the understanding that [Ukraine's] economic reform has no prospects in essence." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Medvedchuk: coalition Cabinet is needed

KYIV - Verkhovna Rada Vice-Chairman Viktor Medvedchuk told journalists on February 26 that Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko will survive in his post only if the president, the Parliament and the government agree on forming a "coalition Cabinet," Interfax reported. Mr. Medvedchuk noted that unless a coalition Cabinet is formed under Mr. Yuschenko, "the reformist parliamentary majority will create a new coalition government with a new prime minister." Kyiv-based political analyst Mykola Tomenko said the same day that the Parliament will "most likely" dismiss Prime Minister Yuschenko in April because of his "failure to fulfill the government program" that was approved by lawmakers a year ago. According to Mr. Tomenko, the prime minister may be voted out jointly by the Communists - whose representative will subsequently head the legislature - and some currently pro-Kuchma caucuses that want Mr. Medvedchuk to head the government. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Communists want Yuschenko's ouster

KYIV - The Communist Party parliamentary caucus will vote to dismiss Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko if the issue is raised in the Verkhovna Rada, the Eastern Economist Daily reported on February 28. "This government openly states that it executes all IMF recommendations ... It is carrying out an anti-social, anti-national policy," Communist lawmaker Heorhii Kriuchkov noted, referring to recent rumors that the Communists may side with some pro-Kuchma legislators to oust Mr. Yuschenko. Progressive Socialist Party leader Natalia Vitrenko told Interfax on February 27 that she does not rule out the possibility of cooperation between the Communists and some "oligarchic" parliamentary caucuses in order to change the top leadership alignment in Ukraine. Meanwhile, National Deputy Serhii Tyhypko, leader of the pro-presidential Labor Ukraine Party, said the parliamentary opposition should obtain the right to appoint one deputy chairman of the Parliament and several chairpersons of parliamentary committees. (RFE/RL Newsline)

U.S. cites rights problems in Russia

WASHINGTON - In its annual Human Rights Report released on February 26 the U.S. State Department said that "serious problems remain" in Russia's observance of human rights, Western agencies reported. Among the most pressing, the report said, are problems involving "the independence and freedom of the media and the conditions of pretrial detention and torture of prisoners." It added that Moscow's record is poor in Chechnya, where Russian security forces demonstrate little respect for basic human rights. It also suggested that government institutions "remain largely unreformed" and that government leaders remain "mostly silent about violations of human rights and democratic practices." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Russian media minister cites U.S. lies

MOSCOW - Russia's Media Minister Mikhail Lesin said on February 27 that Moscow is considering the launch of an advertising campaign in the United States aimed at creating a positive image of Russia in American society, Interfax reported. He said that the U.S. administration is spending "a large amount of money on making Russia's image worse," and he asked rhetorically: "When will they stop telling Americans lies about the processes that are taking place in our country?" He said that Moscow will publish within two weeks a report "On the Situation of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Action in the United States." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Pliusch sees no crisis in Rada

KYIV - Verkhovna Rada Chairman Ivan Pliusch said on February 22 that there is no crisis in the Parliament, Interfax reported. According to Mr. Pliusch, even if the Fatherland Party caucus (32 deputies) quits the pro-government majority as it has suggested it may do, the majority will still have 253 deputies who are sufficient to pass "effective decisions." Commenting on the current anti-Kuchma protests, Mr. Pliusch said they are weak. "There is no need to think about violent methods [to deal with those protests]," he added. (RFE/RL Newsline)

| Home Page |