Communist Party of Kyiv says independence declaration was illegal (08/04/96)

Communist Party of Kyiv says independence declaration was illegal

by Marta Kolomayets
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The Kyiv City Branch of the Communist Party on July 31 issued a statement denouncing Ukraine's 1991 declaration of independence as illegal. The move came just one month before celebrations marking the fifth anniversary of that historic event.

In a brief statement released to Interfax-Ukraine, the Communists allege that Ukraine's August 24, 1991, declaration was made "in a state of increasing anti-Communist, nationalist hysteria."

Independence was proclaimed by the Ukrainian Parliament in the wake of the August 19, 1991, putsch by Soviet hard-liners in Moscow who were attempting to prevent the break-up of the Soviet Union. At the special session called on August 24, 348 deputies voted for the declaration (one voted against, three abstained and 12 did not vote). Over the last five years that vote has been analyzed as a vote for personal salvation more than a sign of true convictions.

"Supporting in principle national sovereignty and the right of nations to self-determination, Communists could welcome the expression of the people's will, if indeed it were so," the Kyiv party's statement said.

Ukraine and its people had become "fully dependent on U.S. geopolitics and an ever-growing Western influence," it said.

The party said it supports a return to the decision reached on March 17, 1991, in a Soviet referendum that called for a sovereign Ukrainian state within a renewed union of socialist states.

The fifth anniversary of Ukraine's independence will be celebrated in Kyiv with a special session of the Parliament on August 23, followed by gala events on August 24, including a military parade, a fireworks display, outdoor concerts, a marathon and exhibits highlighting works and handicrafts from the Ukraine's regions.

In 1993, the Communist Party of Ukraine had a registered membership of 120,000; currently, it refuses to give out membership statistics.

The adoption of a new Constitution also has upset the left forces in Ukraine. The Union of Communists of Ukraine issued a statement on July 30 which states that the recently adopted fundamental law "legalizes social injustices and the robbery of the working people by bourgeois mafiosi."

It also notes that "the Communists and Socialists who voted for the new Constitution betrayed the working peoples' interests."

More than 90 lawmakers refused to swear allegiance to the new Constitution on July 12, but their names will not be made public, nor will they be held responsible to do so, because they were elected before the new fundamental law was passed, said Volodymyr Stretovych, a deputy in Parliament who chairs its Legal Committee.

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