President Bush and his administration continue to support the will of the people (12/05/04)

President Bush and his administration continue to support the will of the people

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - As the mass protest demonstrations and judicial and political efforts to resolve Ukraine's election crisis continued into the second week in Kyiv, the U.S. government's effort to try and help bring the impasse to a just and peaceful resolution continued as well.

President George W. Bush discussed the crisis in Ukraine with Prime Minister Paul Martin during a two-day visit to Canada, while Secretary of State Colin Powell and his deputy conducted telephone diplomacy with the major players in Ukraine, Europe and Russia.

Visiting Canada, President Bush said during a news conference on November 30 that he had spoken by phone that morning with Polish President Aleksander Kwasnieswski, who was about to lead another European delegation to Kyiv to encourage the Ukrainian government and opposition leaders to work for a "political and legal solution" to the crisis.

"Our common goal is to see the will of the Ukrainian people prevail," he said.

The president declined to comment on whether Russian President Vladimir Putin's remark earlier in the day that Ukraine's political crisis had to be solved without foreign pressure was a warning aimed at the United States; nor would he say whether he thought President Putin had followed his own advice in this matter.

"I haven't seen his comments. I'm hesitant to talk about something that I haven't seen," he said, repeating his statement of appreciation to the Polish president for his efforts in Ukraine and noting that "it's very important that violence not break out there, and it's important that the will of the people be heard."

In his response to the same question, Prime Minister Martin was less hesitant in calling Russia to account when talking about foreign interference in Ukraine's affairs.

Reiterating his statement of the previous day that "the essence of democracy is that elections be free and open and transparent, and that they be elections in which people can have confidence," the Canadian prime minister added: "I absolutely agree that elections within Ukraine have got to be free from outside influence, and that includes Russia."

When he returned to the White House on December 2, President Bush echoed the Canadian prime minister's words, telling reporters in the Oval Office that events in Ukraine "ought to be free from any foreign influence." He did not explicitly mention Russia, however. While the U.S. and Canadian leaders were fielding journalists' questions about their meetings in Ottawa, State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher reported that Secretary of State Powell was on the phone in Washington, discussing the crisis with Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and the European Union's High Representative Javier Solana, who that same day was returning to Kyiv for more talks.

And on November 29, Mr. Boucher said, Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage had phone conversations with the two presidential candidates, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and Viktor Yushchenko.

Commenting on President Kuchma's suggestion that another round of presidential elections be held in Ukraine, Mr. Boucher said that Washington feels his proposal merits consideration. "We welcome the fact that he is discussing and entertaining different ideas about how the situation can be resolved peacefully," he said.

Reporting on the deputy secretary's conversations, Mr. Boucher said that he conveyed to Prime Minister Yanukovych "our strong objections to any separatist initiatives and (urged) the government and his supporters to refrain from any use of force."

According to the State Department spokesman, Mr. Armitage spoke with Mr. Yushchenko about the importance of continuing the "peaceful and orderly nature of the protests and to support the deliberations under way to resolve the crisis."

Mr. Boucher described the U.S. efforts in Ukraine this way: "So the United States is trying to work with the parties in Ukraine, trying to work with the Europeans as they make their efforts, and we're making our own efforts to work with people on the ground to try to encourage a peaceful outcome that respects the legal and political process under way in Ukraine and that comes to results that reflect the will of the Ukrainian people, unlike the flawed election that was held."

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