NEWSBRIEFS (05/25/03)

NEWSBRIEFS

Ukraine, Hungary agree on visa regime

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma and Hungarian Parliament Chairman Katalin Szili agreed in Kyiv on May 20 that the visa regime between Ukraine and Hungary must be the same as those between Ukraine and Poland and between Ukraine and Slovakia, UNIAN reported, quoting presidential spokeswoman Olena Hromnytska. Kyiv has pledged that Poland and Slovakia, in light of their imminent entry into the European Union, will be issuing visas free of charge to Ukrainians, while the citizens of these two countries traveling to Ukraine will need no visas. Hungarian Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs previously said the visa regime with Ukraine will be introduced on November 1, six months before Hungary is expected to join the EU. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Rada seeks president's 'sponsors'

KYIV - Following an initiative by lawmaker Mykola Tomenko from Our Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada on May 20 requested that Procurator General Sviatoslav Piskun investigate who finances some of President Leonid Kuchma's activities, UNIAN reported. Mr. Tomenko told journalists that, under Ukrainian law, the activities of the president should be financed exclusively from the state budget. Mr. Tomenko added that it is unclear who paid for mailings from the president to Ukrainian citizens on holidays or billboards encouraging support for President Kuchma's political-reform proposals. Ukrainian media have reported that "millions of Ukrainians" received postcards early this year from the president with New Year's wishes. Yurii Dahaiev of the presidential administration said unidentified sponsors contributed 1.44 million hrv ($270,000) for that mailing campaign. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv hosts environmental conference

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych opened a conference of European environmental ministers in Kyiv on May 21, UNIAN reported. The three-day conference is also being attended by representatives from the United States, the Caucasus, Central Asia and international environmental groups. President Kuchma said he would like the conference to send "signals that Ukraine cannot deal with the consequences of the Chornobyl [nuclear] disaster on its own." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Rada OKs charter for regional languages

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada with 249 votes on May 15 ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, UNIAN reported. Lawmakers had ratified the charter in December 1999, but that vote was subsequently ruled unconstitutional for procedural reasons. The charter, aimed at protecting historical, regional and minority languages in Europe, will be applicable to the languages of the following national minorities in Ukraine: Belarusians, Bulgarians, Crimean Tatars, Gagauz, Germans, Greeks, Hungarians, Jews, Moldovans, Poles, Romanians, Russians and Slovaks. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ombudswoman not reappointed

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada on May 15 failed to re-elect Nina Karpachova as the country's ombudswoman, Interfax reported. Ms. Karpachova, who was the only candidate for the post, was supported by 208 deputies. Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn said new candidates will be proposed for a future vote. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma: embrace Europe as 'home'

KYIV - Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma said in a televised Europe Day address to the country on May 17 that Ukrainians need to realize that "Europe is our home," Ukrainian Television reported. "The times require all of us to make appropriate changes to our own political habits and likes, and to be ready to give up the authoritarian legacy of the past," Mr. Kuchma said. "An important tool in bringing Ukraine closer to European standards is political reform. Its aim is to plant into Ukrainian soil the parliamentary-presidential republic, the governance model that is predominant in Europe." The president also asserted that Ukraine's drive to integrate with Europe in no way conflicts with the country's strategic partnership with Russia. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Crimean Tatars demand rights

SYMFEROPOL - Some 12,000 people took part in a rally in the Crimean city of Symferopol on May 18 to commemorate the 59th anniversary of the deportation of Crimean Tatars from Crimea by the Stalin regime, Interfax reported. The rally adopted a resolution demanding that the Ukrainian Parliament pass a law on reinstating the rights of the Crimean Tatar people by May 2004, the 60th anniversary of the deportation. "There can be no legal reason to justify seizing the land of Crimean Tatars, refusing their request to open Crimean-Tatar schools and refusing to give the Crimean-Tatar language official status in Crimea," the resolution states. Some 275,000 Tatars currently reside on the Crimean peninsula, with at least that many believed to be in exile. (RFE/RL Newsline)

D.C. wants Ukrainian forces in Iraq

WASHINGTON - The United States has proposed that Ukraine deploy at least one command-center brigade and two troop battalions to Iraq to join the coalition's stabilization effort, Interfax reported on May 7, quoting Anatolii Hrytsenko, head of the Kyiv-based Razumkov Center for Economic and Political Studies. Mr. Hrytsenko was part of a Ukrainian delegation in Washington recently for talks with the U.S. administration. "The U.S. considers it a real step toward America, a chance for later serious political support to Ukraine on the path to NATO," Mr. Hrytsenko said. "The Americans put the questions like this, 'If you are willing, then seek opportunities.' If we do not use this chance, no one knows when the next one will come." (RFE/RL Newsline)

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