Turning the pages back... December 12, 2004 (12/11/05)

Turning the pages back...

December 12, 2004

Just one year ago at this time, Yaro Bihun filed a story from Washington headlined "U.S. secretary of state defends democracy in Ukraine." He reported that "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."

While attending a ministerial meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Sofia, Bulgaria, Mr. Powell said: "The people of Ukraine are playing democracy in the name of freedom." He added, "What I have been seeing on my television screen for the last several weeks are people going out into the streets in Kyiv and other cities in the Ukraine saying, 'We want to have a free, fair, open election.' "

"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."

Source: "U.S. secretary of state defends democracy in Ukraine," by Yaro Bihun, The Ukrainian Weekly, December 12, 2004, Vol. LXXII, No. 50.

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