NEWSBRIEFS

Kyiv on joint declaration with U.S.

KYIV - The Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement on April 7 that Ukraine cherishes "friendly cooperation" with Belarus and Cuba, Ukrainian media reported. "However we proceed from the notion that true friends can always frankly speak about existing problems," the statement adds. The ministry was reacting to concerns voiced by both Miensk and Havana in connection with a joint declaration signed by President Viktor Yushchenko and his U.S. counterpart George W. Bush in Washington on April 4. "We also commit to work together ... to support the advance of freedom in countries such as Belarus and Cuba," Presidents Yushchenko and Bush declared. "We are surprised by this [declaration]. We stand for constructive and close relations with Ukraine and the United States, but not at the expense of Belarus," Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ruslan Yesin commented on April 5. A Cuban government delegation that was in Kyiv on April 4 cut short its visit and Havana issued a protest to Kyiv over the Yushchenko-Bush declaration. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Chornovil investigation is renewed

KYIV - The Ukrainian Procurator General's Office (PGO) announced on April 5 that it has begun a new investigation into the 1999 death of the former leader of the Rukh party, Vyacheslav Chornovil, Interfax reported. Mr. Chornovil, a Soviet-era political prisoner known for exposing political arrests in Ukraine in the 1970s via samizdat, was killed in a highway accident when the car he was riding in collided with a Kamaz truck on March 25, 1999. At the time, many of his supporters claimed that he was the victim of an "arranged collision" and blamed the administration of then President Leonid Kuchma for his death. That same year, Yevhen Marchuk, the former head of the Security Service of Ukraine, announced he had been given a video recording of police officers claiming they were ordered to arrange Mr. Chornovil's death. Afterwards Mr. Marchuk said he had lost the video. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Cardinals, president bid pope farewell

VATICAN CITY - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and his wife, Kateryna, attended the funeral of the Pope John Paul II at the Vatican on April 8. Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, and Cardinal Marian Jaworski, head of the Roman Catholic Bishops' Conference of Ukraine, concelebrated the mass. Cardinal Husar also participated in a special prayer service after the mass conducted by heads of the various Eastern Catholic Churches. (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

Memorial services held in Lviv, Kyiv

LVIV - Ukrainian Greek-Catholic and Roman Catholic churches of Ukraine held commemorative religious services on April 8, the day of Pope John Paul II's funeral, in Lviv, Kyiv and other cities throughout the country. Thousands of Lviv residents came to the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady, to the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Cathedral of St. George, and to the Transfiguration Church. Portraits of John Paul II were hung in the churches. A memorial mass was held in the Cathedral of St. Alexander in the capital. Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, apostolic nuncio to Ukraine, presided over the service. The pope said mass on the altar of St. Alexander's during his visit to Kyiv in 2001. National flags of Ukraine and flags of the Vatican with black mourning ribbons were displayed in cities throughout Ukraine. (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

Envoy comments on pope and ROC

MOSCOW - Writing in Argumenty i Fakty, former Russian Ambassador to the Vatican (1995-1996) Vyacheslav Kostikov said that Pope John Paul II told him constantly about his desire to visit Russia, though he understood that despite invitations from Soviet and Russian Presidents Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, he could not go due to objections from the Russian Orthodox Church. The pope also wanted to meet with Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Aleksei II in Moscow if impossible, but if not then on neutral soil, Mr. Kostikov said. "During my term there were attempts to organize such a meeting in Slovakia or in Vienna, but they failed," he said. Meanwhile, the head of the Foreign Relations Department at the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad Kirill, said that relations between his Church and the Vatican are as bad as they were in the worst years of the Cold War, 40 years ago. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Questions asked about Kuchma charity

KYIV - Ihor Surkis, president of the Dynamo joint stock company, spent four hours on April 12 in the office of the Internal Affairs Ministry's Directorate for Fighting Corruption and Organized Crime, the Ukrainska Pravda website (http://www2.pravda.com.ua) reported. Ihor is the younger brother of Hryhorii Surkis, head of Ukraine's football federation and a political and business partner of the former chief of the presidential administration, Viktor Medvedchuk. Ihor Surkis was asked about his transfer of 6 million hrv (more than $1 million) to the foundation of former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. Mr. Surkis told journalists outside of the directorate's office that the foundation has either returned or intends to return the money. According to Channel 5, some 42 million hrv were transferred from offshore accounts to the fund, and the Internal Affairs Ministry is conducting an audit of what happened to this money. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukrainian president visits Poland

WARSAW - President Viktor Yushchenko met with his Polish counterpart, Aleksander Kwasniewski, as well as with Prime Minister Marek Belka and Sejm Speaker Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz in Warsaw on April 11, the PAP news agency reported. The politicians discussed progress in implementing the Polish-Ukrainian Odesa-Brody-Plock pipeline project, the chances of integrating the Polish and Ukrainian power grids, and cooperation in Polish natural-gas storage in Ukraine. President Kwasniewski confirmed to President Yushchenko that Warsaw supports Kyiv's NATO and EU aspirations. "We are decidedly in favor of the closest possible cooperation between Ukraine and NATO. We are absolutely certain that Ukraine's rapprochement with European structures should, in a dozen or so years, bring about Ukraine's European Union membership," Mr. Kwasniewski said. Mr. Yushchenko reportedly assured the Polish side that the controversial issue of the Polish Eaglets' cemetery in Lviv will be settled. The cemetery, with graves of young Polish cadets killed by Ukrainians in the Polish-Soviet war in 1918-1919, was to have been opened several times, but the Lviv City Council refused to give its consent, claiming that the Poles glorified the victims at the expense of Ukrainians. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Head of Donetsk council detained

DONETSK - Borys Kolesnykov, head of the Donetsk Oblast Council, was detained on April 6 by the Ukrainian Procurator General's Office (PGO) and held, a PGO spokesperson told Interfax. Mr. Kolesnykov had been summoned for questioning in conjunction with an investigation on calls for separatism in the region after the presidential elections of November-December 2004. However, according to the spokesperson, Mr. Kolesnykov was being held on criminal charges of extortion. Mr. Kolesnykov was one of former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's most prominent supporters, and his arrest immediately evoked protests from the Donetsk branch of the Party of the Regions and from Mr. Yanukovych himself, who told Interfax that the arrest was "politically motivated." According to Ukrainian law, prosecutors can detain a suspect for 72 hours without filing any formal charges. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Yanukovych threatens protests...

KYIV - Former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, leader of the opposition Party of the Regions, has announced that his party will initiate a "nationwide, general political strike" unless the authorities release Donetsk Oblast Council Chairman Borys Kolesnykov, Ukrainian media reported. "Persecutions, unlawful arrests, pressure on various-level politicians, businessmen and ordinary citizens who supported me during the last presidential elections have became an everyday norm," Mr. Yanukovych wrote to Ukraine's law-enforcement bodies, according to Interfax. Some 7,000 people rallied in Donetsk on April 7 to protest Kolesnykov's detention, which they believe to be politically motivated. (RFE/RL Newsline)

... while authorities say arrest was lawful

KYIV - Internal Affairs Minister Yurii Lutsenko told the Verkhovna Rada on April 7 that there were no political motives behind the arrest of Donetsk Oblast Chairman Borys Kolesnykov, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reported. "This case is purely criminal," Mr. Lutsenko said. "The investigation established that the head of the Donetsk Oblast Council of Deputies, Kolesnykov, threatened certain people with murder unless they transferred company shares they owned to him and some other persons." Mr. Lutsenko reiterated his stance on April 8 in the Parliament, where he and Procurator General Sviatoslav Piskun were summoned by deputies to provide additional explanations in the Kolesnykov case. Some 400 adherents of the opposition Social Democratic Party - United and the Party of the Regions staged a picket in front of the Parliament on April 8 in support of Kolesnykov, Ukrainska Pravda reported. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Protests over Kolesnykov arrest

KYIV - Some 500 people, mainly from Donetsk, held a rally in Kyiv on April 9 to protest the arrest of Donetsk Oblast Council Chairman Borys Kolesnykov, who was detained on April 7 on charges of extortion, Ukrainian media reported. The following day, Mr. Kolesnykov's supporters pitched a tent camp in a Kyiv park. A similar camp was set up last week in Donetsk. A district court in Kyiv ruled on April 8 that Mr. Kolesnykov be kept in custody for investigation for two months. Former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych said that same day that the arrest of Mr. Kolesnykov constitutes a "punishment for dissent" and is politically motivated. "If the witch hunting organized by the authorities is not stopped in proper time, Ukraine may find itself on the brink of another revolution," Mr. Yanukovych said in a statement publicized on April 11. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kolesnykov charged with extortion

KYIV - The Procurator General's Office (PGO) on April 11 charged Donetsk Oblast Council Chairman Borys Kolesnykov with extortion accompanied by a threat of murder, Interfax reported. A conviction is punishable by imprisonment of seven to 12 years and confiscation of property. The previous week's arrest of Mr. Kolesnykov - a close political ally and business partner of former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and Rynat Akhmetov, Ukraine's wealthiest industrialist - has sparked protests by opponents of President Viktor Yushchenko in Kyiv and Donetsk. (RFE/RL Newsline)

President promises hands off case

WARSAW - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko on April 12 told reporters in Warsaw, while on a visit to Poland, that he will not intervene in the legal case against Donetsk Oblast Council Chairman Borys Kolesnykov, UNIAN and Interfax reported. Mr. Yushchenko said that he will never tell the court, prosecution or other legal bodies how to do their work. Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said the government is not taking much interest in the case, adding that all those who are guilty of "robbing the country must be punished." UNIAN reported that organizers of the tent city established in Kyiv to show support for Mr. Kolesnykov said that 100 more people arrived in Kyiv from Kharkiv, Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk. On the same day, Ukraina Moloda reported that the tent city had no more than 100 participants. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Case connected to murder is reopened

KYIV - Deputy Procurator General Viktor Shokhin has confirmed the reopening of the investigation of the death of a homeless man, Yurii Verediuk, who had been convicted and then later acquitted for lack of evidence of murdering opposition journalist Ihor Aleksandrov in July 2001, Segodnya reported on April 12. Mr. Verediuk died on July 19, 2002, a month after he was acquitted, from what was then deemed a heart attack, but some sources have later suspected was poisoning. According to glavred.info of April 11, President Viktor Yushchenko held a news conference in Donetsk in which he promised to take personal control over the investigation of the Aleksandrov murder. In an interview with glavred.info, Mr. Aleksandrov's wife, Liudmila, said that President Yushchenko sent her an attorney to represent her family's legal interests at the beginning of March. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Husar comments on Patriarchate

ROME - Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC), said he has "no intention to force the situation and declare himself patriarch." The cardinal said this in an interview published in 30 Days, an influential Italian magazine. Cardinal Husar said he thinks that Ukraine's new president, Viktor Yushchenko, "would only benefit" from the establishment of a Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Patriarchate. However, the cardinal has no intention to act unilaterally and complicate the situation. "The creation of a patriarchate is a solemn event in the life of the Church, and it should proceed within the framework of legality," he stressed. (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

Rada chair complains of surveillance

KYIV - Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn told journalists in Kyiv on April 8 that he possesses evidence that he is being shadowed and his telephones are being bugged, Ukrainian media reported. "What country are we living in if such things are allowed with regard to the Verkhovna Rada chairman?" Mr. Lytvyn said. "What's happening, I mean the bugging, is a political outrage, because some want to prove their innocence and avoid responsibility for what they have done," he added without elaborating. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Socialists to run independently in 2006

KYIV - The Socialist Party of Ukraine (SPU) on April 9 decided that it will take part in the parliamentary elections in 2006 on its own without seeking political coalitions, Interfax reported. "We need 70-75 mandates in the [450-seat] Verkhovna Rada as a minimum," SPU Chairman Oleksander Moroz commented. "This translates approximately into 12-15 percent support [that our party needs to obtain] in the elections," he added. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Orthodox hierarchs send condolences

KYIV - Patriarch Filaret (Denysenko), head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate, Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan), head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), and Archbishop Ihor (Isichenko) of Kharkiv and Poltava of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) sent condolences on the death of Pope John Paul II. The letters of condolence were sent on April 3 and 4. Patriarch Filaret sent letters of condolences to Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, and Cardinal Marian Jaworski, head of the Conference of Roman Catholic Bishops in Ukraine, on April 3. Patriarch Filaret wrote: "The Orthodox Church highly values the great contribution of the late pontiff to the cause of peace, the establishment of mutual contacts and cooperation between Orthodox and Catholic faithful, and his activities to protect Christian spirituality and morals." The official site of the UOC-MP on April 4 posted a telegram that Metropolitan Volodymyr sent to Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, papal nuncio to Ukraine. "From the whole Ukrainian Orthodox Church, please accept our sincere expressions of sympathy on the death of the head of the Roman Catholic Church, His Holiness Pope John Paul II. May the merciful God, king of heaven and earth, give repose to his soul in his heavenly abode," the message reads. UAOC Archbishop Ihor wrote: "The clergy and faithful of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church eparchy of Kharkiv and Poltava are praying for the eternal repose of the deceased and his glorification in the kingdom of heaven, and send their fraternal Christian sympathies to the faithful of the Catholic Church, orphaned by the death of their prime hierarch, a great worker in Christ's vineyard and an apostle of forgiveness and love." (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

Condolence book opened at nunciature

KYIV - An open book for condolences on the death of Pope John Paul II was available on the premises of the Apostolic Nunciature in Kyiv. In addition, a memorial mass was offered at St. Alexander Church in Kyiv on April 7. (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

Ukraine's Muslims express sympathy

SYMFEROPOL - The Mejlis (governing council) of the Crimean Tatars and the Spiritual Administration of Crimea's Muslims have expressed their sincere condolences to all the faithful of the Catholic Church on the death of Pope John Paul II, calling the pontiff "a great person," according to Ukraine.radiosvoboda.org. In a special statement, the Mejlis and the Spiritual Administration of Crimea's Muslims stressed that John Paul II was the first pope to take clear steps towards an equal dialogue between the faithful of various denominations, giving special attention to the establishment of respectful relations with the Muslim world, visiting the famous Omayyad Mosque in Syria and leading a common prayer service for peace among all nations with Muslim and Catholic clergy. The pontiff had also been aware of the tragedy of the Tatars of Crimea, and the Vatican, through the Apostolic Nunciature in Ukraine, participated in the United Nations development program for helping the Crimean Tatars. (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

Ukrainians unable to travel to Rome

KYIV - Ukrainians will not be able to travel to Rome to bid farewell to Pope John Paul II, as there will not be enough time for them to receive visas, it was reported here on the eve of the papal funeral. The Consular Division of the Ukrainian Embassy in Italy reported that it had not received any statements that the process for receiving visas to Italy would be shortened. Generally, a Ukrainian has to wait five weeks to schedule an appointment at the Consular Division and then 10 to 14 days to receive a visa. Even travel agencies cannot help speed up the process. (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

Lviv in mourning on day of funeral

LVIV - Lviv paid its last respects to the city's honorary citizen, Pope John Paul II. Mourning was announced by Zynovii Siryk, secretary of the Lviv City Council, and an appropriate disposition was being prepared by Mayor Lubomyr Buniak. All entertainment events in Lviv were canceled and national flags were lowered with black ribbons attached to them. A common liturgy for the pontiff also was planned, with the participation of the clergy and the faithful of the Roman Catholic and Ukrainian Greek Catholic Churches. John Paul II visited Ukraine in June 2001, coming to Kyiv and Lviv. (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

Tree planting to memorialize pope

LVIV - On the territory of the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God in the Sykhiv neighborhood of Lviv, 500 maple trees were to be planted on April 9. The late Pope John Paul II led a rally gathering hundreds of thousands of youth in that location in June 2001. A street in Lviv will also be named after the late pope. Andrii Rozhniatovskyi, coordinator of the Season 90 organization, which is the initiator of the planting, said that this will be the first part of the Freedom Spring event. Season 90 plans to plant a total of 2004 maple trees in all of Lviv. This number symbolizes the previous year, when the Orange Revolution took place in Ukraine. The maple was the tree of choice precisely because its leaves turn orange in the fall. (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

Lviv youth walk in memory of pope

LVIV - Approximately 5,000 faithful of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic and Roman Catholic Churches made a prayer walk through the streets of Lviv on April 7, stopping at the places the late Pope John Paul II visited in June 2001. The event was organized by students of the Ukrainian Catholic University. The walk began on the Hill of St. George, at the residence of the head of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC). Pope John Paul II stayed there during his time in Lviv, looking at the UGCC archives, including the original of the decree of Brest, at which the Ukrainian Church officially re-united with Rome in 1596. The youth of Lviv also prayed at the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Assumption of Our Lady and the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral, which the pope visited. The walk ended with a solemn religious service for the repose of the pontiff's soul that took place near the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God, where the pope met with youth in 2001, and where a statue of John Paul II now stands. Thousands of Lviv residents came there in the days of mourning to pay their last respects to the holy father. (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, April 17, 2005, No. 16, Vol. LXXIII

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