U.N. secretary-general visits Kyiv

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan paid his first visit to Kyiv on June 3-4, where he insisted that international agreements made in return for the closing of the Chornobyl nuclear energy complex must be upheld. The U.N. leader also praised Ukraine's peacekeeping role around the world and voiced concern over a growing AIDS problem in the country.

Mr. Annan called on the global community to fulfill obligations made in return for Ukraine's agreement to shut down the Chornobyl facility in December 2000, the site of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986.

"Promises were made that have to be honored," said the U.N. secretary-general.

Mr. Annan made his remarks at a joint press conference at Mariinskyi Palace with President Leonid Kuchma, during which the Ukrainian state leader said that discussions on compensation for the closing of Chornobyl have gone on for far too long.

"It is a problem that we have been dragging out for too long in discussions," said Mr. Kuchma, who suggested that it is time for the European Union, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Group of Seven most industrialized countries to finally cough up the promised financing to put a new shelter over the damaged No. 4 reactor at Chornobyl and to complete two compensatory reactors at complexes near the cities of Khmelnytskyi and Rivne.

After a visit to the Chornobyl Museum in Kyiv, Mr. Annan emphasized that the world has a responsibility to deal with the aftermath of Chornobyl and to ensure that a similar accident is not repeated.

During his two-day stay in Ukraine's capital, Mr. Annan also turned the spotlight on a growing AIDS problem in Ukraine. At a government seminar on the topic, he called the battle against HIV/AIDS "one of the great challenges of our time."

Mr. Annan, who has dedicated himself to taking the lead in that fight and to work to halt the spread of AIDS by 2015 as agreed to in the Millennium Goals set out by the U.N. membership, underscored that the key to overcoming the endemic disease is awareness education, predominantly among young people.

"Research has shown that fewer than one in 10 girls in Ukraine knows how to avoid becoming infected. That is an alarming statistic," explained Mr. Annan, who also noted, more optimistically, that schools are well placed to provide the needed education.

During the press conference at Mariinskyi Palace he also expressed appreciation for President Kuchma's executive order declaring 2002 the Year of the Fight Against HIV/AIDS. He said the fight against the disease must be wide-ranging. "It is an effort that requires the mobilization of everybody," said Mr. Annan.

The secretary-general noted that the U.N. had pledged $9 million to Odesa and Kyiv for medicines for AIDS treatment from a worldwide U.N. fund of $1.9 billion dedicated to the effort.

Ukraine officially has about 46,000 registered cases of HIV/AIDS, but some non-governmental organizations, as well as the United Nations put the actual figure at closer to half a million people, or 1 percent of the population. The worldbody has warned the figure could rise to 6 percent by 2010.

During meetings with Ukrainian leaders and in an address to the Verkhovna Rada, Mr. Annan acknowledged Ukraine's extensive contribution to U.N. peacekeeping efforts in various hotspots around the globe. He praised the professionalism and dedication of Ukrainian soldiers and explained that should U.N. peacekeeping forces ever be called in to stabilize the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Ukrainian troops would no doubt play a key role.

In his 15-minute presentation to the Ukrainian legislature on June 4, Mr. Annan hailed Ukraine's reforms, but called on the lawmakers to become fully aware of their important role in developing democracy, pluralism and European integration in Ukraine. He also noted that democracy is more than just a principle, which requires diligence. He called on established democracies to guide the newly emerging ones "so that democracy cannot be subverted in insidious ways through the slow accretion of abuses such as flawed elections and majority rule that takes little account of minority concerns."

On June 4, Mr. Annan flew to Moscow, where he was to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, June 9, 2002, No. 23, Vol. LXX

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