Orange Revolution in second week, as presidential rivals negotiate (12/05/04)

Orange Revolution in second week, as presidential rivals negotiate

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - For the second time in a week, European leaders mediated negotiations in Kyiv between the two rival presidential contenders to move Ukraine from the brink of fragmentation. The talks were aimed at resolving the impasse over who actually won the November 21 run-off election.

With millions of Ukrainians continuing to demonstrate in a second week of peaceful civil disobedience across the country - at least 1 million in Kyiv alone - in what has become know as the Orange Revolution, political events kept moving at lightning speed, providing no certainty or specifics on how the country's deepest crisis since it broke from the Soviet Union 13 years ago would end.

On the anniversary date of the national referendum by which the Ukrainian nation confirmed its intention to split from the Soviet Union and elected its first president, Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski, Lithuanian President Valdus Adamkus, European Union External Affairs Commissioner Javier Solana and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Secretary General Jan Kubis, along with Borys Gryzlov, chairman of the Russian State Duma, Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma and the two candidates, Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych, met again to negotiate how Ukraine's third president would be determined.

The sides issued a statement after the three-and-a half-hour meeting at the Mariyinskyi Palace in Kyiv in which they noted that the two presidential contenders had agreed to resume negotiations to determine when and in what manner another national vote would take place to determine the next president. The statement noted that the parties had agreed that steps would be taken in preparation for the election, including changes to the current election law, completion of the political reform process, which would involve amendments to the Constitution, and the appointment of a new government and prime minister.

The statement, read to journalists by President Kuchma, included an agreement by the Yushchenko camp to withdraw blockades by demonstrators that have surrounded both the Presidential Administration and the Cabinet of Ministers buildings for the last five days, in return for assurances that state authorities would not use force to clear the Khreschatyk, where hundreds of thousands of Yushchenko supporters have lived for the last 10 days.

On the following day, however, the two government buildings remained encircled by Yushchenko supporters.

National Deputy Viktor Pynzenyk, a close aide to Mr. Yushchenko and leading member of his Power of the People election coalition, stated on Ukrainian television later in the evening that the coalition would demand that five basic requirements be fulfilled before it would be prepared to move beyond the protest phase of its action. He identified them as agreement on a specific date for the election; passage of a new election law; appointment of a new Central Election Committee; the completion of political reform; and designation of a new government.

Mr. Solana told journalists that Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn had told him he believes that the necessary legislation for a new round of elections would be in place by the end of the month.

EU Commissioner Solana expressed optimism after the meeting that the agreement hammered out by the parties to the negotiations would allow for resolution of the conflict in an equitable manner.

"We have achieved an agreement that complements the one achieved last Friday and have consolidated the steps we had already made," explained Mr. Solana, speaking to reporters at the Dutch Embassy in Kyiv.

He characterized the discussions as "not easy," but noted that they were "moving in the right direction." He also noted that he expected to return for further mediation talks in the next days.

First meeting with negotiators

The European leaders had first met in Kyiv on November 26 to find a way out of the crisis, which began after the campaign team of Mr. Yushchenko alleged that Ukrainian state authorities had stolen a run-off vote on November 21 between their candidate and Mr. Yanukovych. The Yushchenko team cited extensive evidence of widespread fraud, including illegal use of absentee voter certificates, home voting and voter intimidation.

Ukraine's Central Election Commission announced on November 24 that Prime Minister Yanukovych had beaten Mr. Yushchenko by 49.5 percent to 46.6 percent.

International observers subsequently supported the charges made by the opposition candidate.

During the first round of mediation, the international delegation managed to bring the two opposing sides together to recognize the need for another vote. However, negotiations between the opposing parties on how to resolve the particular issues quickly broke down and were ended after the third day of meetings.

Rada votes no confidence

Further deepening the crisis, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada met prior to the arrival of the European leaders and by a slim margin supported a vote of no confidence in the government of Prime Minister Yanukovych. In accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine, the vote should have forced the government and its leader to resign, but Mr. Yanukovych said he did not accept the manner in which the vote took place. Ukraine's Constitution allows Ukraine's president up to 60 days in which to accept Mr. Yanukovych's resignation.

"I will never agree to a decision made under pressure, and this decision was made under direct pressure," explained Mr. Yanukovych. "I continue to be the prime minister and will be until a new president is recognized," explained Mr. Yanukovych.

Mr. Yanukovych said that the tens of thousands of people who had encircled the Parliament building, chanting "Yushchenko" as the vote took place, had intimidated many lawmakers. Some who supported Mr. Yanukovych said the crowds blocked their colleagues from entering the building for the session.

The decision by Ukraine's Parliament came with barely more than a quorum of lawmakers present in the chamber. The parliamentary factions aligned with Mr. Yanukovych - Regions of Ukraine, Social Democratic Party-United and Labor-Ukraine - boycotted the vote, as did the Communist faction. The final vote obtained the needed majority with two votes to spare. Lawmakers earlier had agreed to allow for secret balloting, done to assure that members could vote free of pressure and concern for retribution - a tool rarely used in the legislative chamber.

After the resolution was passed, National Deputy Volodymyr Filenko of Our Ukraine walked out to the demonstrators who had gathered before the Verkhovna Rada building, most of them wearing at least a bit of orange - the official color of the Yushchenko campaign, which has become the symbol of support for the protest - to explain to them that they were witnesses to a historic transformation taking place in Ukraine.

"This vote assures that Ukraine today is no longer even what it was yesterday," explained Mr. Filenko. "Today we had the unique chance to witness as the Verkhovna Rada directly expressed the will of the people. And it is historic and unparalleled that it occurred on December 1, on the anniversary of the referendum in which the Ukrainian nation in 1991 expressed its desire for independence."

Nonetheless, the vote of no confidence was passed only after a second effort. The previous day the Our Ukraine faction headed by Mr. Yushchenko watched as the motion it believed would receive a majority was defeated after the Communists, who had held out earlier that they would consider supporting the matter, voted unanimously against it. The Communists then joined the three pro-Yanukovych factions in passing an opposing motion canceling a resolution from November 27 that had expressed no confidence in the Central Election Committee and called on Ukraine's president to dismiss the body and submit a list of new candidates for parliamentary confirmation.

Passage of the motion rescinding demands for a new CEC led crowds of Yushchenko supporters to break through restraining barriers on the square before the Parliament building and force their way through the doors of the front entrance in an effort to take the building. They were restrained by special forces and then convinced to withdraw by Mr. Yushchenko, who quickly appeared to calm the situation.

Supreme Court review

As the European leaders met and the Verkhovna Rada sat in session, Ukraine's Supreme Court continued to consider complaints of voting improprieties filed by officials of the Yushchenko campaign team - more than 10,000 in all. The Yushchenko team argued that vote fraud and falsification of the count was so extensive as to force a cancellation of the results in some voting districts, primarily in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, regions that overwhelmingly supported Mr. Yanukovych. The Yushchenko team believes that if the vote count were adjusted accordingly, their man would claim victory. The court was expected to announce its decision no earlier than December 3.

Mr. Yushchenko, who expressed restrained optimism over the results of the second round of negotiations with the European mediators on December 1, told the throngs on Independence Square that evening that he believes a Supreme Court decision fully in his favor would turn the tide of support toward him and force Mr. Yanukovych to surrender the prime minister's chair.

EU External Affairs Commissioner Solana told reporters during his press conference that he thought a Supreme Court decision supporting Mr. Yushchenko's claims was plausible.

"I think it possible; I don't think it unlikely," explained Mr. Solana.

Eastern separatism

Mr. Solana's words could not have comforted supporters of Mr. Yanukovych in the eastern oblasts of Ukraine. Officials in Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv had threatened to split from Ukraine and form a separate southeastern republic if the presidency should go to Mr. Yushchenko. A special congress of concerned government officials from the eastern regions of Ukraine met in Siverodonetsk on November 27 and resolved to hold a referendum on the matter of separation from Ukraine on December 5.

Mr. Yanukovych, while present at the meeting to provide moral support, stated during his presentation to the delegates that he could not allow for a split within the country. He did, however, tell the congress that it should do whatever it could to assure that the opposition didn't win the presidency.

Within days the eastern oblasts had stepped back from the precipice.

After President Kuchma angrily warned the chairman of those regions against separation during a hastily called meeting in Kyiv and attended by Mr. Yanukovych, the regional leaders alternately explained that separatism had never been seriously discussed. The issue before them had been the possibility of an autonomous republic within a federative Ukrainian state.

"No motion for a move toward separation was ever considered and never will be," explained Donetsk Oblast Chairman Anatolii Blyzniak after the meeting with Mr. Kuchma.

Although the Donetsk Oblast chairman noted at the time that a referendum would no longer occur on December 5, a few days later his office confirmed that plans were under way for another referendum, to be held on January 9, to determine whether Donetsk should become an autonomous region within Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Kharkiv Oblast Chairman Yevhen Kushnariov, who had initiated the call for separatism with a fiery speech on November 26 to the Kharkiv Oblast Council, which then gave him extraordinary powers, began a pacification movement on December 1 to bring the two sides in the conflict together. He visited the two opposing camps of demonstrators on Kharkiv's Freedom Square - one of the largest plazas in the world - and met with representatives of the tens of thousands of protesters on both sides to ask them to work toward reconciliation.

While President Kuchma chastised the chairmen he had appointed for their careless, reflective actions, he told journalists after the meeting that he did not believe that large-scale falsification had occurred in the election run-off. He also stated that he could not envision a third round of voting as the Yushchenko camp would like. He called such a scenario "a farce."

Mr. Kuchma did not comment a few days later when two garbage trucks, which protesters had allowed to pass through their blockade and enter the presidential administration compound - ostensibly to remove snow that had piled up in the last days - were discovered to be carrying mounds of shredded and ripped documents beneath a thin outer layer of snow. The documents, uncovered as the trucks were leaving, were receipts of monetary payouts to local and territorial election commissioners. It could not be determined whether the receipts were records of legal or illegal transfers of money.

The incident occurred several days after Mr. Kuchma had asserted that the Presidential Administration had no relationship to either the elections or the vote count. The documents were handed over to the Supreme Court.

Psychological victories

The latest events were one of several psychological victories felt by Yushchenko supporters in the last days. The first indication that events may be turning in favor of Mr. Yushchenko occurred on November 29 when Mr. Yanukovych's campaign manager Serhii Tyhypko announced his resignation as the head of the Yanukovych election team, as well as his post as chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine. He cited a desire to return to his position as leader of the Labor Ukraine Party and prepare for parliamentary elections in 2006.

Western leaders continued to call for peaceful resolution of the stand-off between the two presidential wannabes. Russian President Vladimir Putin changed his stance once more on November 30, expressing a desire to see a new round of elections. Earlier he had been the first world leader to recognize the official results announced by the CEC on November 24. He had first congratulated Mr. Yanukovych on a victory the day after the vote - even before an official tally had been announced - a move that had brought a round of criticism from the international community. Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakstan, Armenia and China have also recognized the official results.

Rumor, innuendo and disinformation were rampant in the last week, especially in Donetsk and Luhansk, where scare-mongering had taken on extraordinary proportions.

Mr. Yanukovych's wife, Liudmyla, told a crowd of some 30,000 supporters of her husband, who had gathered in Donetsk, that demonstration organizers in Kyiv were feeding the crowds on Independence Square oranges filled with narcotics to keep them on the streets. She also told them that a meningitis epidemic was raging in Kyiv, and that many demonstrators were hospitalized from dehydration, lack of food and alcohol poisoning.

The only two media broadcast outlets still functioning in the eastern regions were warning residents of the imminent attack of fascist UNSO [Ukrainian National Self-Defense] paramilitary forces from Lviv.

In Kyiv, meanwhile, the editorial staffs of the four major national television networks announced separately that they would no longer execute the directives of the central government authorities, widely know as "temnyky," and would now offer balanced and objective reporting. Many journalists in Kyiv heralded the events as a revolution all its own.

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