U.S. secretary of state defends democracy in Ukraine (12/12/04)

U.S. secretary of state defends democracy in Ukraine

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - With Russian leaders repeatedly criticizing the United States and Europe for "interfering" in the electoral process in Ukraine in order to expand their sphere of influence deeper into former Soviet territory, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was called on to remind them about the true meaning of the "Orange Revolution" that has been driving political events there for the past few weeks.

It came during a news conference on December 7 in Sofia, Bulgaria, where he was attending a ministerial meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

That same day in Washington, the U.S. Congress was looking into developments in Ukraine and how it could help at a hearing of the House International Relations Committee. Asked to comment on Russian President Vladimir Putin's statement earlier in the day that the United States was playing "sphere of interest politics" in that region in the name of democracy, Secretary Powell said, "The people of Ukraine are playing democracy in the name of freedom."

"What I have been seeing on my television screen for the last several weeks are people going out into the streets in Kiev and other cities in the Ukraine saying, 'We want to have a free, fair, open election.' "And the Ukrainians have worked out a way to do that," he added, "with the help of the international community."

"Spheres of influence," Secretary Powell said, "is a term that really isn't relevant to the circumstances that we are facing today," be it in Ukraine, the Central Asian Republics and the Caucasus.

The United States is not asking Ukrainians "to choose between the East and the West," he said. "It is a different world we are living in, where people want freedom, they want democracy, they want to be able to select their own leaders, they want to able to select their own partners and friends."

"Today I join my colleagues in voicing support for Ukraine's independence, its territorial integrity and its sovereignty. We all back the democratic process that is under way and we are looking for an outcome that reflects the true will of the Ukrainian people," Mr. Powell said.

Earlier that day at the OSCE meeting in Sofia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned about "new lines of division" being created in Europe and about not allowing OSCE monitoring to be turned into "an instrument of political manipulation and a factor for destabilization in a whole range of issues."

During an interview with EuroNews TV on December 8, Mr. Powell was asked if he thought the rhetoric over Ukraine was increasing tensions with Moscow. "I wouldn't call it increasing tension," he replied. "I would say that we have some differences of opinion."

"But with respect to the Ukraine, the Ukrainian people have spoken. They have made it clear than they want a rerun of the election. And their Supreme Court has said that the election should be rerun. The run-off should be held again. And now today the Rada has put in place the legislation to do this. So this is a victory for the Ukrainian people," he said.

On Saturday, December 4, after he heard about the Ukrainian Supreme Court's ruling to hold a new presidential run-off election, Secretary of State Powell welcomed the decision and said, "It shows how the Ukrainians are able to solve their problems."

"And we hope that the upcoming election will be free, fair, open, well-supervised, so that there'd be no question about the validity of the results," he added. To help in this effort the Bush administration on December 7 notified Congress that it is making available $3 million to provide funding for election-related activities for the December 26 run-off in Ukraine.

Testifying before the House International Relations Committee, Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs John Tefft said the sum includes $500,000 for OSCE election observers and up to $2.5 million to support non-governmental organization monitoring and other election-related efforts.

Also testifying that day before the committee on developments in Ukraine were President George W. Bush's special envoy to Ukraine for the run-off election, Sen. Richard Lugar, and U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who co-chairs the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus.

In his testimony, Sen. Lugar [for full text, see page 9] laid the responsibility for the previous fraudulent elections in Ukraine on the government of President Kuchma, which, he said, "allowed, or aided and abetted, wholesale fraud and abuse that changed the results of the election."

"It is clear that Prime Minister Yanukovych did not win this election despite erroneous election announcements and calls of congratulations from Moscow."

Since then, he said, a lot of extraordinary events have occurred in Ukraine: "A free press has revolted against government intimidation and reasserted itself. An emerging middle class has found its political footing. A new generation has found its hope for the future. A society has rebelled against the illegal activities of its government."

"It is in our interests to recognize and protect these advances," he said. "With democratic forces in retreat in neighboring Russia and Belarus, a free and fair election will be a turning point in Ukraine's history that could have widespread constructive effects beyond its borders and the region," Sen. Lugar said.

Rep. Kaptur underscored the moral aspect of the need to help Ukraine at this juncture of its history.

"When I first traveled to Ukraine with our mother, Anastasia, in 1973, long before I was serving as a member of Congress," she recalled, "I held little hope that what we are witnessing today would, or could, happen in our lifetime."

"America simply has a moral responsibility and, indeed, a duty, to help plant democracy where it seeks to root," she said. "No economic interest or strategic paradigm should divert our nation from standing firmly beside those who are risking all."

Opening the hearing, Committee Chairman Henry Hyde [see page 9 for the text of his statement] noted how on June 6, 1944, American and Allied forces began the liberation of Europe on the beaches of Normandy. That process did not end in 1945, and has continued to this day, he said, adding: "With Ukraine's democratization and its integration into NATO, we will have achieved the last great piece remaining in our effort to liberate and secure Europe that began on those beaches so long ago."

The ranking minority member of the committee, Rep. Tom Lantos, stressed in his opening remarks that the "central goal of United States policy towards Ukraine must be to encourage its integration into Europe through the promotion of democracy, transparency, sound economic policies and human rights."

But he added that the United States "must remain vigilant so that the ugly remnants of the Ukrainian and Soviet past do not overwhelm what may be a promising future of democracy in the eastern part of Europe."

Rep. Lantos described the situation in Ukraine as "both volatile and complex" and "far from a case of the good guys versus the bad guys, or east versus west, as a reading of most of the media would suggest."

Rep. Lantos said he was troubled by the "misleading, exuberant portrayal in the Western media of Victor Yushchenko as a pro-Western hero with Western liberal values." Both presidential candidates are products of the Soviet system, he said, "and it remains to be seen whether Yushchenko will live up to the high expectations we in the West, myself included, have for his candidacy."

The California congressman said he was pleased with Mr. Yushchenko's "clean and non-corrupt political record," but at the same time he was "deeply distressed by instances of anti-Semitism among some of his supporters and his reluctance to condemn anti-Semitism in the press and in the public arena."

"We all know that Ukraine has a horrible past in this respect, and it is colored with the blood shed in the Cossack pogroms of the 17th century," Rep. Lantos said. He noted that the situation for Jews in Ukraine "improved tremendously, and there has been a renaissance of Jewish life in Ukraine" since independence, but he cautioned that political leaders, on all sides, "must be vigilant on this issue and not let any anti-Semitic events go unchallenged in a new Ukraine."

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