Turning the pages back... February 16, 2003 (02/08/04)

Turning the pages back...

February 16, 2003

One year ago, in our issue dated February 16, 2003, we reported on the Washington visit of the former prime minister of Ukraine who now leads the Our Ukraine forces in the Verkhovna Rada, Viktor Yushchenko. Mr. Yushchenko, who is considered a strong candidate for president of Ukraine, spent three days in Washington seeking U.S. support for strengthening democracy in Ukraine and keeping Washington engaged in his country.

Mr. Yushchenko arrived in Washington one day after the Bush administration announced major cutbacks in U.S. assistance for Ukraine and in its international broadcasting operations through the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The 2004 budget proposal would reduce VOA's daily Ukrainian programming schedule from two hours to one and would eliminate three staff positions. Mr. Yushchenko characterized the broadcasting cutbacks as premature. "Cutting back programming of these radio stations at this time is a mistake," he said, explaining that they provide equal media access to all political players in the country, be they pro-government or in opposition to it."

"Only democracy can save Ukraine from the current crisis," he told a gathering at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on February 7, 2003, the last day of his visit. Without a true democracy and open and fair elections, Mr. Yushchenko said, the "regime of the clans," whose policies he blames for the current crisis, will remain in power, using its control of the mass media and repressive measures, as well as intimidation of political opponents to achieve that end.

Mr. Yushchenko, who was accompanied by three fellow national deputies from the Our Ukraine bloc, met with two senior administration officials, Vice-President Richard Cheney and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. His tight schedule also included meetings with members of the U.S. Congress - Sens. John McCain, Charles Hagel and Carl Levin, and members of the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus - with former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright; two former U.S. ambassadors to Ukraine, Steven Pifer, who now serves as deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, and his predecessor, William Green Miller; as well as with Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter.

Mr. Yushchenko told The Ukrainian Weekly's Washington correspondent, Yaro Bihun, that he found a great interest on the part of official Washington in helping get Ukraine back on track to building a viable democratic state.

Source: "Yushchenko urges Washington to keep engaged in Ukraine," by Yaro Bihun, The Ukrainian Weekly, February 16, 2003, Vol. LXXI, No. 7.

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