NEWSBRIEFS (09/12/04)

NEWSBRIEFS

Verkhovna Rada opens session

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada opened its plenary session in Kyiv on September 7, Ukrainian news agencies reported. Lawmakers approved an agenda for the session, which includes some 1,300 bills and resolutions. The legislature rejected a supplement to the agenda proposing to hear a report by an ad hoc parliamentary commission on its investigation into the murder of Internet journalist Heorhii Gongadze in 2000. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Government raises minimum wage

KYIV - Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's Cabinet of Ministers has increased the minimum monthly wage from 205 hrv to 237 hrv ($46) as of September 1, Ukrainian Television reported. The decision applies to all companies, whether private or government-owned. In January the minimum monthly wage is to increase to 262 hrv. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv hit by another bomb attack

KYIV - An explosion in an elevator of an apartment building in Kyiv on the morning of September 3 seriously injured Serhii Alisimenko, deputy director of the Troyeschyna market in the Ukrainian capital, Ukrainian news agencies reported. Two blasts at the Troyeschyna market on August 20 killed one person and injured around a dozen. Police arrested four suspects and suggested a link between the blasts and the opposition, while the opposition charged that the August 20 bomb attacks may have been organized by special services. On September 2, the Internal Affairs Ministry categorized the Troyeschyna blasts as "terrorism" and passed the case to the Security Service of Ukraine for further investigation. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Romanian Senate seeks to halt canal

BUCHAREST - The Senate of Romania in a September 1 declaration called on the parliaments of Council of Europe member-countries, the European Union and NATO to work to halt Ukraine's construction of a controversial deep-water shipping canal in the Danube Delta, Romanian media reported. Senators expressed their "profound regret" and "firm disapproval" of the August 26 inauguration of the project. Meanwhile, Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana the same day expressed his surprise at an AFP report according to which Russian Ambassador to Ukraine Viktor Chernomyrdin on September 1 said that Russia supports the project. "Ukraine does what it should do and is right [in doing so]," Interfax quoted Mr. Chernomyrdin as saying. He added that the canal will bring economic benefits not only to Ukraine, but also to Russia and other countries. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Over 200,000 travel to Zarvanytsia

ZARVANYTSIA - Love and Forgiveness, an international pilgrimage, took place on August 7-8 in the western Ukrainian village of Zarvanytsia in the Ternopil region. The Marian shrine was visited by 220,000 pilgrims from eastern and western Ukraine, Poland, Denmark, the United States, England, Germany, the Czech Republic, Kazakstan and other countries. A candlelight procession and pontifical liturgy were led by Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC), and Cardinal Jozef Glemp, Roman Catholic primate of Poland, assisted by 15 Roman and Greek Catholic bishops. The pilgrims prayed for the peaceful, Christian co-existence of the Polish and Ukrainian nations and so that historic misunderstandings between the two nations be left in the past. In their address to the pilgrims, the two cardinals emphasized the necessity to forget the wrongs of the past and to progress toward reconciliation, like the nations of Germany, France and Poland have. "We are called to live in peace, because we are God's children," said Cardinal Husar to the pilgrims. The year 2004 has been declared the "Year of Poland in Ukraine." The UGCC and the Roman Catholic bishops of Poland have scheduled a number of events as part of this celebration in order to deepen the good traditions of understanding between the two nations. (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

Armenian catholicos visits Ukraine

KHARKIV - On August 24, Armenian Apostolic Catholicos Karekin II visited the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. He took part in a ceremony laying flowers at the Monument of Assembled Ukraine in honor of Independence Day, as Ukraine was celebrating the 13th anniversary of its independence on that day. The main objective of the catholicos' visit was to consecrate the newly built Church of the Holy Resurrection, which has been under construction for almost four years. The consecration date also coincided with the 350th anniversary of the city of Kharkiv. The local Armenian Apostolic Church was ruined in the 1930s. Its reconstruction united the local Armenian community, which now numbers more than 10,000. The catholicos celebrated the first liturgy at the Church of the Holy Resurrection. Construction work on the church complex, on the Sunday school in particular, will continue. According to Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin Information Services, the Church of the Holy Resurrection is the first Armenian church in all of eastern Ukraine. (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

Frescoes returned to St. Michael's

KYIV - The last seven frescoes from St. Michael's Gold-Domed Cathedral in Kyiv, which were kept in the Hermitage, the greatest museum of the history of art and culture in Russia, were brought from St. Petersburg to the capital of Ukraine, reported Correspondent.net on August 25. "Today the frescoes have passed the customs inspection and are now kept in the special depository," reported Svitlana Shkliar, an official of the National Inspection Agency on Transference of Cultural Property through Ukraine's Border. During World War II, the frescoes were taken to Germany and later they were found in the Hermitage. Last February, the Ministry of Culture of Russia decided to return these frescoes to Ukraine. Four fragments of the 12th century frescoes of St. Michael's Gold-Domed Cathedral kept in the Hermitage were transferred to Ukraine in 2001. (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

Voronin on who rules Transdniester

CHISINAU - Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin told the BBC's Ukrainian Service, as reported by Flux on September 2, that the "Transdniestrian regime is and will stay a puppet, as it is actually ruled by Russia and Ukraine." He said he cannot say if high-ranking officials from these countries are responsible for this manipulation, as several structures are interested in the existence of the region, seen by Mr. Voronin as "a huge black and corrupt ditch." He said that the breakaway region of Transdniester is "an illegal business." (RFE/RL Newsline)

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