NEWSBRIEFS (12/28/03)

NEWSBRIEFS

Ukraine, Romania sign visa agreement

KYIV - Ukraine's Vice Foreign Minister for Foreign Affairs Ivan Kuleba and Romanian Ambassador to Ukraine Alexandru Cornea signed an agreement on December 18 on a new visa regime between their countries, Interfax reported. The agreement provides for visa-free travel for the holders of service and diplomatic passports, as well as for crews of ships and aircraft. Mr. Kuleba noted that the document does not provide for a deadline for introducing the new procedures, however. "This will happen no earlier than July 1, 2004," he said. Romania is introducing visas for Ukrainians in conjunction with its intention to join the European Union in 2007. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Funding sought for fuel reprocessing

KYIV - Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma has sent a letter to U.S. President George W. Bush urging him to resume funding for a program of reprocessing of solid fuel for SS-24 ballistic missiles, Interfax reported on December 17, quoting the Ukrainian president's press service. Mr. Kuchma said some 5,000 tons of such fuel is being kept at a chemical plant in Pavlohrad. The Ukrainian president recalled that Washington had obliged itself to help Ukraine rid itself of its store of rocket fuel under two 1993 agreements relating to the liquidation of nuclear weapons in Ukraine. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Our Ukraine circulates petition

KYIV - Our Ukraine leader Viktor Yushchenko told journalists on December 17 that his bloc has already collected some 3.5 million of the planned 8 million signatures under a petition asking the Verkhovna Rada not to amend the constitutional provision stipulating that the Ukrainian president should be elected in a nationwide election, Interfax reported. The Verkhovna Rada is expected to consider two drafts of constitutional reform that provide for the election of the president by Parliament. Mr. Yushchenko said he is confident that the Verkhovna Rada will not abolish direct presidential elections in Ukraine. "I'm sure that if the people are deprived of their constitutional right of choice, they will take to the streets. ... But we will defend the Constitution and the people's right to elect [the president]," Mr. Yushchenko said. (RFE/RL Newsline)

No progress in Gongadze case

KYIV - Procurator-General Hennadii Vasilyev told journalists on December 17 that investigators have not solved the homicide of Internet journalist Heorhii Gongadze in 2000 and have no suspects in the case, Interfax reported. Mr. Vasilyev said the announcement by former Procurator-General Sviatoslav Piskun that the Gongadze case would soon be solved was unfounded. Mr. Piskun said in September that prosecutors had concluded an investigation into the Gongadze slaying and placed three suspects on a search list, but he declined to reveal their identities. President Leonid Kuchma replaced Mr. Piskun with Mr. Vasilyev in November. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Freedom House issues annual report

NEW YORK - The New-York-based NGO Freedom House classified Belarus as "not free" and Ukraine as "partly free" in its annual survey of freedom and democracy around the world, released on December 18. Belarus is the only country in Europe ranked in the "not free" category, which comprises 48 countries worldwide. "There are two of the 12 former Soviet countries [in which], despite the difficulties, there is some possibility of forward momentum," Freedom House analyst Adrian Karatnycky told RFE/RL. "One is, of course, Georgia. The second one, paradoxically, is Ukraine. If Ukraine goes through this [coming] year and this election cycle with a relatively clean process, it is possible that the trends toward authoritarianism could be averted and reversed." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Probe ordered into fatal bus accident

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma has decreed the creation of a special commission to investigate a bus accident in Crimea in which 17 people died, Ukrainian news agencies reported on December 18. A bus carrying miners from Pavlovhrad in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast overturned and plummeted 10 meters down an embankment near Alushta in Crimea on December 17, killing 17 passengers and injuring 19 others. Last week, another Ukrainian bus overturned on a highway in Khmelnytskyi Oblast, killing nine people and injuring 43 in an accident police blamed on poor road conditions. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma attends Aliyev's funeral

WASHINGTON - Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma was among the heads of state who attended the funeral of Heydar Aliyev, former president of the Republic of Azerbaijan, on December 15. Mr. Aliyev passed away on December 12 in Cleveland. Others in attendance included the presidents of Russia, Turkey, Georgia and Kazakstan. The U.S. delegation was led by former national security Adviser Brent Scowcroft and included Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) and assistant secretary of States Elizabeth A. Jones and Gen. Charles Wald, deputy commander of the U.S. European Command. (Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the United States)

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