Turning the pages back... January 4, 1993 (01/05/03)

Turning the pages back...

January 4, 1993

Ten years ago, President Leonid Kravchuk outlined his position regarding Ukraine's participation in the Commonwealth of Independent States during a consultative meeting with 26 leaders of the country's political parties and public organizations on January 4, 1993.

President Kravchuk emphasized his opposition to the proposed new Charter of the CIS, characterizing the document as a means of recasting the commonwealth as a new union on territory once belonging to the USSR. His stand was supported by the overwhelming majority of leaders present at the meeting.

Opening the discussion, President Kravchuk noted that the Ukrainian people had expressed their opinions regarding the fate of the USSR by voting in the December 1, 1991, referendum on Ukraine's independence. Today, he continued, Ukraine is faced with the question of how to react to various processes of integration taking place within the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States. This question is particularly pressing when one examines the various suprastructures delineated in the proposed CIS Charter.

The heads of leading national-democratic parties and organizations - among them Mykhailo Horyn of the Ukrainian Republican Party, Ivan Drach of the Ukraina Society, Pavlo Movchan of the Prosvita Ukrainian Language Society, Dmytro Pavlychko and Volodymyr Yavorivsky of the Democratic Party of Ukraine, Vyacheslav Chornovil of Rukh and Stepan Khmara of the Ukrainian Conservative Republican Party - pointed out during the consultative meeting that the proposed charter is yet another attempt to preserve the USSR, albeit in a new form.

Many of the speakers described the new charter as a time bomb in attractive packaging that would, ultimately, lead to the demise of an independent Ukraine. It was pointed out that the document violates fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter, the Helsinki Final Act, and various agreements of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, and that it undermines the status quo in Europe.

At the same time, however, many of the speakers acknowledged it was necessary to take into account existing socio-economic, national and political realities, including the fact that 52 percent of the people of Ukraine were sorry to see the break-up of the USSR (as reported by the Sociological Association of Ukraine). It was pointed out that various economic difficulties and the lack of a well-founded concept of foreign policy also cause many in Ukraine to question the idea of independent statehood, and thus are fertile ground for the chauvinistic and imperialistic ideas of certain political circles in the Russian Federation.

The leader of the Ukrainian Socialist (formerly Communist) Party, Oleksander Moroz observed that "Ukrainian statehood is hampered not by external, but by internal factors" and proceeded to harshly criticize the activity of Parliament and the government. Mr. Moroz continued by emphasizing that Ukraine could sign the CIS Charter only if it were accompanied by a package of documents that would outline the division of the debts and assets of the former USSR, and would safeguard human rights and the interests of ethnic minorities, refugees from hot spots in various CIS states, as well as invalids, pensioners and others. "But our advice is of little use to Leonid Makarovych [Kravchuk], as the charter will not be signed; there is no sense in wasting time discussing it," he said.

During his remarks, President Kravchuk underlined that Western countries fear both a "Yugoslavian scenario" on former Soviet territory and proliferation of nuclear arms, and that is why they support the creation of a centralized supranational structure. Russia supports the idea, he continued, because it always wished to be a superpower and the leading force in the CIS. He added that Ukraine could accede to the CIS Charter only if it is accompanied by numerous documents that clarify the CIS relationship.

"Kravchuk and political leaders agree on danger of CIS Charter for Ukraine," by Dmytro Filipchenko, The Ukrainian Weekly, January 10, 1993, Vol., LXI, No. 2.

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