Newspaper attacks U.S. ambassador (01/05/03)

Newspaper attacks U.S. ambassador

KYIV - The Kyiv-based Russian-language newspaper 2000 published an article attacking the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Carlos Pascual, for interfering in Ukraine's internal affairs. The BBC Monitoring Service reported that the article, written in reaction to the ambassador's December 12 address to university students in Kyiv (see page 3 for Part I of the speech's text), cited Ambassador Pascual's "insensitive" remarks on Ukrainian politics and his attempt to capitalize on "unsubstantiated" accusations of illegal arms trade against Ukraine.

In the December 20 article in the pro-Kuchma weekly newspaper, Oleksander Holychev wrote: "His inspired Latino eyes resembled ripe olives. He was not just speaking, he was preaching like the best Protestant missionaries do. He was persuading the audience by emotions rather than logic. The speaker did not doubt that the audience should accept his every word as if it were a message from heaven. As usual, there could be no denying what he said. He was speaking as not just 'a participant of the domestic political process,' but as if he were one of its key elements determining the whole future development of the Ukrainian state."

Noting that the U.S. envoy touched upon such issues as political and economic reform, the writer went on to state:

"According to every diplomatic regulation, starting from the Vienna convention of 1815, he should not have said this. The change of cabinet or tax issues are beyond his competence. His remit is to represent the interests of his and only his own country in a foreign state, not to preach on us about ways of development of our economy.

"But one can look at this also from a different angle. Maybe by doing so he defended the interests of his country, which is drowning in excess manufacture and capital and which, according to Karl Marx (the bearded classic of Communism was a rather smart economist), needs to expand its markets through diplomatic pressure or even through direct aggression."

Referring to the ambassador's mention "for an umpteenth time" of the Kolchuha issue, Mr. Holychev wrote: "Unfortunately, in his speech Pascual failed to substantiate the U.S. accusations against Ukraine (not for the first time!). The only argument was the notorious major's [Mykola Melnychenko's] recordings ..."

The article went on to criticize Ambassador Pascual's references to civil society and freedom of the press, and to mock America's purported superiority in those realms.

Finally, the author of the article suggested that "it is time for the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry to consider at least a protest note."

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