Communists' action expected to disband Supreme Council (01/17/93)

Communists' action expected to disband Supreme Council

KYYIV - As The Weekly was going to press, our special correspondent Dmytro Filipchenko learned that on Monday, January 18, about 150 deputies of the Supreme Council of Ukraine are scheduled to meet in Kyyiv and then submit their resignations from the Parliament.

This move will, in effect, disband the Supreme Council of Ukraine, with one-third of its members resigning. This will force new elections to the Parliament before the end of its term (May 1995).

The action, initiated by deputies of the Luhanske Oblast, is a reaction to the fact that the current convocation of the Supreme Council has not yet discussed the ban on the Communist Party, imposed after the August 1991 coup. The matter was to be discussed during the Parliament's last session which ended in mid-December.

Stanislav Hurenko, former first secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine, on January 11 became the first to declare his intention to resign from the Parliament. He cited policies of the Parliament that do not allow him to fulfill his responsibilities toward his constituents.

According to Volodymyr Moskovka, head of the parliamentary Committee on Glasnost and the Mass Media, it is possible that mass protest actions will be organized next week in industrial regions of Ukraine to protest the policies of the current Ukrainian government and push for the immediate signing of the CIS Charter. It is possible that a demand to renew the Soviet Union will also be presented by protesters.

Mr. Filipchenko has also learned that other special actions are being prepared by pro-Communist forces, in Ukraine, including a decision to cancel some government decrees on economic reform. This could force the resignation of Prime Minister Leonid Kuchma, or the entire Cabinet. In this case, the deposed head of the Cabinet of Ministers, Vitaliy Masol, may be presented as a candidate for prime minister by the Communist forces.

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