U.S. and British report on Ukraine's alleged sale of Kolchuha is inconclusive (11/10/02)

U.S. and British report on Ukraine's alleged sale of Kolchuha is inconclusive

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The Ukrainian government received an anxiously awaited report from U.S. and British Embassy officials in Kyiv on November 5 on Ukraine's involvement in the sale of illegal arms to Iraq. While the report does not prove that Ukraine sold Baghdad a Kolchuha air defense system in contravention of United Nations sanctions, it also does not conclusively prove that such a technology transfer did not take place.

Neither Ukrainian nor Western authorities made the document available to the public. Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn was the first high-ranking Ukrainian official to shed some light on the details of the report after meeting with British Ambassador to Ukraine Robert Brinkley.

"The U.S.-British report states that Ukraine has not presented any convincing proof that it did not sell Kolchuha radar systems to Iraq," explained Mr. Lytvyn in a brief statement to journalists after the meeting on November 5.

He noted that the report criticizes Ukraine's export control system, but pointed out that the country had implemented a system the West had proposed.

Earlier in the day, the head of the presidential press service, Olena Hromnytska confirmed to journalists that the report had been received and would be "thoroughly considered, and a decision on further cooperation with British and American parties will be made in the nearest time."

Meanwhile President Leonid Kuchma, who is at the center of allegations that Ukraine's officials illegally sold the arms, said that he is still considering going to Prague on November 21 for the NATO Summit, although not to sit at the Ukraine-NATO Commission table.

NATO downgraded the status of the meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Commission, scheduled for the second day of the NATO gathering, from its original designation as a "summit," which would have brought state leaders to the affair, to a meeting of foreign ministers. The move came as a result of the accusations, which were leveled by Washington on September 25 after it had determined that digital recordings of a conversation between Mr. Kuchma and his top arms export control official were authentic. The discussion, heard on a recording produced by former presidential security officer Maj. Mykola Melnychenko, allegedly includes President Kuchma's authorization for the sale of a Kolchuha system to Baghdad through a Jordanian intermediary.

Mr. Kuchma has vehemently and repeatedly denied the charges, and called for full and transparent cooperation with the West to resolve the matter.

The president said he has not ruled out taking part in the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council meeting. That affair is a gathering of the heads of state of all 46 members of the Partnership for Peace program, to which Ukraine belongs. Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, also has said he might attend. There are political experts who have said that if both state leaders showed up, the seats of many Western countries could remain empty during the session.

Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs also has yet to decide whether it will attend the reduced-in-stature Ukraine-NATO Commission meeting. Minister of Foreign Affairs Anatolii Zlenko had noted on October 30, the day NATO pulled the invitation to President Kuchma, that Kyiv was now concerned whether a real effort to produce a concrete plan for further cooperation could take place in what would likely be a strained atmosphere.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry has since stated that it would like assurances that NATO is still intent on producing a political document in which close NATO-Ukraine relations were underscored and that NATO'S previously expressed commitment to eventually see Ukraine as a member-state remained and would be clearly voiced. There is also concern within the Foreign Ministry that the meeting could become a Ukraine-bashing encounter.

Many top Ukrainian government and legislative officials, including Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Yevhen Marchuk, said they consider the U.S.-British report on the Kolchuha affair inconclusive, inasmuch as it requests Ukraine to address seven additional issues. Others are irked that it continues to put the onus on Ukraine to prove its non-complicity in the affair, while not producing any substantial proof of it own.

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on November 6 in Washington that Ukraine indeed needs to present additional information. A news report from the London-based Financial Times said an unidentified U.S. official had indicated that U.S. and British experts who had conducted the investigation in Ukraine had received "mixed cooperation," from Ukrainian authorities in Kyiv who "failed to provide convincing evidence a sale did not take place."

Nonetheless, the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security and Defense, Heorhii Kriuchkov, said he is troubled that U.S.-British demands violate the principle of presumed innocence.

"The findings simply shock by their impudence: the term presumption of innocence is recognized worldwide," explained Mr. Kriuchkov, who belongs to the Communist parliamentary faction. "It is not for Ukraine to prove it did not sell weapons to Iraq, but for those [who blame it] to prove that it did."

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Steven Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, arrived in Kyiv on November 6 to smooth some very ruffled Ukrainian political and diplomatic feathers. He explained during a meeting with parliamentary leaders that the accent now must be on rebuilding U.S.-Ukraine and NATO-Ukraine relations, reported Interfax-Ukraine. He told Ukrainian lawmakers that Ukraine's foreign minister needed to attend the Prague summit so that the two sides could agree on the next chapter in Ukraine-NATO relations.

Meanwhile, President Kuchma, who was on state travel to Austria the day Mr. Pifer arrived, said he is ready for independent international experts to undertake an additional investigation. He cited Austria and Russia as two countries that might be considered. Parliament Chairman Lytvyn, who is Mr. Kuchma's former chief of staff, said he supported the call for an international commission to investigate the affair.

"We must, in the end, get to the truth," said Mr. Lytvyn.

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