NEWSBRIEFS (11/03/02)

NEWSBRIEFS

Kuchma might skip NATO summit

KYIV - Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma on October 29 said he will not attend the NATO summit in Prague next month unless suggestions that his country has breached United Nations sanctions by selling radar equipment to Iraq are retracted, Reuters reported. "If there remain any doubts, then I don't think it would make sense to hold the Ukraine-NATO summit [during the NATO meeting in Prague]," Mr. Kuchma told journalists during his two-day visit to Lithuania. A team of U.S. and British experts last week completed a fact-finding trip to Ukraine to assess whether Kyiv sold a Kolchuha early-warning system to Iraq but has yet to announce its findings. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Lithuania vows to be Ukraine's advocate

VILNIUS - After talks with visiting Ukrainian President Kuchma, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus told a press conference on 29 October 29, "Today we can tell our dear friends in Ukraine that we are poised to be their best advocate in their bid for EU." The ELTA news service reported that he said Lithuania will follow the example of the assistance that Poland has been giving Vilnius in its efforts to join NATO. The two presidents signed a document establishing a joint presidential council to ensure regular top-level political dialogue on bilateral and regional cooperation. Mr. Kuchma then attended a business lunch hosted by Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas and held talks with Parliament Chairman Arturas Paulauskas. The Ukrainian president was scheduled to return home on October 30 after meeting with Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis and participating in the official opening of the Ukrainian Institute, founded by the International Relations and Political Science Institute of Vilnius University, the Taras Shevchenko Foundation and the European Integration Studies Center. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Majority suggests four candidates for PM

KYIV - Ukraine's fragile parliamentary majority has proposed four candidates for the post of prime minister and submitted their names to President Leonid Kuchma to select one for parliamentary approval, UNIAN reported on October 25. According to the news agency, the European Choice caucus proposed State Tax Administration chief Mykola Azarov, the Ukraine's Regions caucus proffered Donetsk Oblast Chairman Viktor Yanukovych, the People's Choice caucus put forward First Vice Prime Minister Oleh Dubyna, and the Labor Ukraine-Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs caucus jointly with the Social Democratic Party-United caucus advanced current Prime Minister Anatolii Kinakh. Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn told journalists on October 28 that "the fate of the government is to be decided" by November 19, when the Parliament resumes its session. (RFE/RL Newsline)

News agency head reported missing

KYIV - The news agency Ukrainski Novyny (Ukrainian News) on October 28 said its director, Mykhailo Kolomiyets, has been missing since October 21, Ukrainian news media reported. "Reporters of the agency are very concerned over the fate of Kolomiyets. They fear that the incident could be the result of the agency's policy of providing independent information," Ukrainski Novyny said in a statement. The agency reportedly notified the police on October 25 of Mr. Kolomiyets's disappearance. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Parliament discusses political crisis...

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada on October 23 discussed the current political situation in the country, as demanded by the caucuses of Our Ukraine and the opposition Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, Socialist Party and Communist Party, UNIAN reported. Our Ukraine leader Viktor Yushchenko said Ukraine is closer to a "dictatorship and a clannish political-system model" than it has ever been, adding that lawmakers contribute to strengthening this model with their "helplessness and passivity" in the parliament. Socialist Party leader Oleksander Moroz said the opposition's main goal is to change the current political system into a parliamentary-presidential republic. Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko announced that his party will continue organizing street protests against what he called the "social genocide" perpetrated by the current authorities. Lawmakers from the pro-presidential caucuses that form a fragile parliamentary majority appealed to the opposition to stop leveling accusations against the authorities and return to normal legislative work. (RFE/RL Newsline)

... prepares two draft resolutions

KYIV - The parliamentary hearing on the political situation in Ukraine resulted in two draft resolutions on which the Verkhovna Rada was expected to vote on October 24, UNIAN reported. The resolution proposed by the opposition urges President Leonid Kuchma to step down and, in the event he refuses to do so, calls on lawmakers to launch an impeachment procedure against him and amend the constitution to make Ukraine a parliamentary-presidential republic. The resolution proposed by the nine caucuses that form the pro-Kuchma majority stresses that the subsequent elections of the president and the Verkhovna Rada should be held "according to democratic principles and within the terms determined by the Ukrainian Constitution," according to UNIAN. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Rada leaders mull political reform

KYIV - Verkhovna Rada speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn on October 29 held a meeting with parliamentary group leaders to discuss how to proceed with the political reform announced earlier this year by President Leonid Kuchma, the UNIAN news service reported. Mr. Lytvyn told journalists the Parliament will set up a special commission by November 12 to draft constitutional amendments aimed at making Ukraine a parliamentary-presidential republic. Earlier this month, the Constitutional Court ruled that a draft bill on introducing constitutional amendments drawn up by seven lawmakers (including Petro Symonenko and Oleksander Moroz) and signed by more than 170 deputies is largely in line with the Constitution of Ukraine and may be put on the parliamentary docket. In particular, the draft bill proposes reducing the number of votes required to override a presidential veto from 300 to 250 and granting the Verkhovna Rada the right not only to approve but also to dismiss the prime minister. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Lawmakers to discuss freedom of speech

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada on October 24 decided to hold a hearing on December 4 on freedom of speech and charges of censorship in Ukraine, UNIAN reported. The motion was supported by 294 of the 428 deputies registered for the session. The parliamentary caucuses of Our Ukraine and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc did not participate in the voting, having announced that they will resume voting only after the Parliament passes a resolution prohibiting deputies from voting for absent colleagues. The opposition has formerly charged that majority deputies resort to such tricks to ensure the minimum 226 votes needed to pass bills and most resolutions in the Verkhovna Rada. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Rada rejects resolutions on crisis

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada on October 24 failed to pass any resolution to sum up a debate the same day devoted to the current political situation, UNIAN reported. The opposition's draft resolution, proposed by Socialist Party Chairman Oleksander Moroz, was supported by 200 lawmakers, while the pro-presidential majority's draft received 222 votes. Two hundred and twenty-six votes were required for passage. Later the same day, lawmakers managed to pass several other bills, including one on the introduction of a 30 percent tax on exports of scrap ferrous metals from Ukraine. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Polish institute seeks access to UPA files

KYIV - The National Remembrance Institute has requested that Ukrainian authorities grant access to documents of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) that may shed light on atrocities allegedly perpetrated by the UPA against Poles during World War II, primarily in the Volyn region of northwestern Ukraine in 1943-1944, the PAP news agency reported on October 24. IPN Chairman Leon Kieres said the request concerns "the UPA's own documents" and the journals of UPA commanders that were seized by the KGB, as well as protocols of interrogations by the KGB of UPA commanders who were responsible, as Mr. Kieres put it, for "the atrocities in Volyn." Mr. Kieres noted that the IPN would like to publish these documents. "Please do not take these activities by the IPN in political categories; the point is just getting to know the whole truth," he commented. According to Polish historians, as many as 80,000 Poles may have been killed by the UPA during the war. The IPN has launched an investigation into what it called "the crimes of genocide perpetrated by Ukrainian nationalists on the territory of the Volyn Province of the Second [Polish] Republic in the years 1939-1945." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Envoy denies Georgian missile purchase

KYIV - Georgia's ambassador to Ukraine, Grigol Katamadze, and an unnamed spokesman for Ukraine's arms-export company Ukrspetseksport told Interfax in separate conversations on September 30 that Georgian Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Djoni Pirtskhalaishvili's September 28 statement that Tbilisi will soon acquire Ukrainian anti-aircraft missiles is "premature." Ambassador Katamadze said no contract to purchase such missiles has been signed but that the possibility might be discussed during an upcoming visit to Tbilisi by Ukrainian Defense Minister Volodymyr Shkidchenko. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Journalists speak of official censorship

WASHINGTON - Four well-known Ukrainian journalists said during a briefing at RFE/RL's office in Washington on October 16 that the recently launched independent trade union of journalists in Ukraine was a response to the government-imposed censorship on journalistic work in the country. The four - Yulia Mostov, Yevhen Hlibovytskyi, Andrii Shevchenko, and Roman Skrypin - said that 300 reporters from throughout Ukraine have joined this new trade union because they believe they can no longer freely practice their profession. According to Mr. Hlibovytskyi, major media outlets are merely sideline businesses for a few oligarchs who are economically and politically dependent on President Leonid Kuchma, and thus subject to government interference on content issues. Mr. Skrypin observed that "censorship is a strangling snake," adding that managers simply order reporters not to run news items if they have received telephone calls from President Kuchma's office. Ms. Mostova described a basic government censorship technique, known as "temnyk," whereby reporters are issued written orders on how to treat, or ignore, political and business topics of the day. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Lukashenka congratulates Saddam

MIENSK - Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka congratulated Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on the 100 percent support he officially received in an October 15 referendum on his rule, Belapan reported on October 24, quoting the presidential press service. Mr. Lukashenka reportedly said in his congratulatory message that the referendum "graphically demonstrated the desire of the Iraqi people to decide their fate on their own and to repel any attempts at interfering in their country's internal affairs." Mr. Lukashenka also reaffirmed Belarus's interest in strengthening political and economic ties with Iraq to the benefit of both countries. (RFE/RL Newsline)

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