Coalition of unlikely partners announces opposition to NATO (02/27/05)

Coalition of unlikely partners announces opposition to NATO

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Several well-known politicians on February 22 announced the formation of a coalition to prevent Ukraine's membership in NATO and urged a national referendum to address the matter.

Natalia Vitrenko, leader of the pro-Russia Progressive Socialist Party, and Dmytro Korchynskyi, founder of the ultra-right Bratstvo movement, said NATO membership would serve the interests of wealthy Westerners and global capitalists at the expense of the Ukrainian people and national sovereignty.

"We are ready to fight against a common enemy: a global government, a common enemy - the United States, which wants to make Ukraine its colony," Ms. Vitrenko said.

The two radicals demonstrated that a successful coalition against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would require political cooperation between very diverse, even conflicting political movements.

Ms. Vitrenko supports the federalization of Ukraine and making Russian an official language of Ukraine. Mr. Korchynskyi did not voice support for these issues, and is opposed to Western-style democracy altogether.

"Democratic elections are the perfect mechanism for bringing into power American marionettes," Mr. Korchynskyi said at the press conference.

According to an Internet poll conducted by Den, a daily Ukrainian newspaper, almost 67 percent of the poll's participants support Ukraine's entry into NATO; 29 percent were opposed.

Den conducted the poll between February 7 and 9, posing the question to visitors to its website; there were 138 respondents.

The issue of NATO membership was settled in December 1990, according to Ms. Vitrenko, when the Ukrainian people voted to uphold the nation's declaration of sovereignty that explicitly stated Ukraine is a neutral nation.

"If you don't like it, then we need to hold a referendum to annul the results of the December 1, 1990 referendum," she said.

Taras Chornovil, campaign manager for former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, joined the two radicals in voicing opposition to Ukrainian membership in NATO and announced that he was resigning from the Verkhovna Rada's Ukraine-NATO group.

In explaining his opposition, Mr. Chornovil recalled attending a NATO seminar overseas as part of a delegation. "We asked when will Ukraine be accepted into NATO, and they replied, 'You're not ready,'" Mr. Chornovil said, "Right then and there I thought, 'Is it necessary for Ukraine to rush into NATO?' "

Mr. Korchynskyi and Ms. Vitrenko called upon Party of Regions leader Mr. Yanukovych and Social Democratic Party leader Viktor Medvedchuk to join their coalition against NATO.

The leaders signed a resolution, titled "No NATO in Ukraine," in which they declare they will not allow NATO soldiers to defile Ukraine's sacred land.

"We turn to the large nations of Russia and China: don't allow Ukraine to be pulled into NATO, thereby ruining Ukraine's guarantee of safety," the resolution stated.

The anti-NATO leaders held their press conference the same day President Viktor Yushchenko was in Brussels meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush and European leaders.

Ms. Vitrenko dismissed the meeting as insignificant. "The meeting between Bush and Yushchenko was seven minutes instead of 15," she said. "And for what? He [Bush] gave out his orders and that's all. He left."

Mr. Korchynskyi was able to rally more than 200 members of his Bratstvo political group in front of the presidential offices in Kyiv. Protesters chanted anti-NATO slogans and burned NATO flags.

Reflecting on the recent presidential election, Mr. Korchynskyi said the Orange Revolution was not a victory for President Yushchenko's supporters, but for what he referred to as the global police.

Former President Leonid Kuchma's regime feared the reaction from abroad if it had acted to suppress the protest, he said. "Why didn't the powers apply force against the Orangists?" Mr. Korchynskyi asked rhetorically. "Because they feared the global police."

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