NEWSBRIEFS (04/20/97)

NEWSBRIEFS

Kostenko speaks on Chornobyl's status

KYIV - Minister of the Environment Yurii Kostenko told journalists in London that Ukraine is meeting all its obligations for closing down the Chornobyl nuclear facility, the site of the world's worst nuclear accident in 1986. Referring to a 1995 memorandum between Ukraine and the G-7 states calling for Chornobyl's closure by 2000 and financial help totaling $2.3 billion, he said that if the terms for closing the station were to change, Kyiv might reconsider its plans. Minister Kostenko said Kyiv disagrees with an international panel's findings that plans to complete two other nuclear reactors in Ukraine - Khmelnytsky 2 and Rivne 4 - are not economical. He said it is wrong to think that the current low energy demand in Ukraine means no extra energy sources will be needed after Chornobyl's closure. Western money is earmarked to help build the two new plants. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Primakov on Moldovan memorandum

CHISINAU - Russian Foreign Minister Yevgenii Primakov told journalists here in the Moldovan capital on April 11 that Russia and Ukraine will be "guarantors" of the memorandum on settling the conflict with Moldova's breakaway Transdniester region. He added that Moscow will respect the accord signed with Chisinau on the withdrawal of Russian troops and that it is not considering an increase in the troops stationed in the Transdniester region. Tiraspol's demand to bring Russian "peacekeeping forces" to the region is "not timely," he commented. BASA-press reported an article recently added to the memorandum stipulates that the two sides will develop relations "within the common state, within the borders of January 1990." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine: U.S. overreacts to incident

MIENSK - Ukraine on April 15 accused Washington of overreacting by publicly asking Kyiv to waive diplomatic immunity for the wife of a Ukrainian diplomat charged with causing a car accident after drinking alcohol. "There are stories like that about foreign diplomats in Kyiv every day, but we don't tell the whole world about it,'' Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Hennadii Udovenko said during a visit to neighboring Belarus. In Miensk to initial a border agreement between the two former Soviet republics, Minister Udovenko was responding to an April 14 announcement by U.S. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns. Mr. Burns said Olesia Yarotskii, wife of second secretary Vadym Yarotskii, would appear in court for prosecution if the Ukrainian government waived her immunity - or her driving privileges would be suspended for a year. He said the case was the fourth drunken driving incident involving a diplomat from the former Soviet Union in the Washington area this year. Mrs. Yarotskii, 45, was charged with driving while intoxicated after she failed a breathalyzer test following a collision late on April 12. Her car struck a second car, pushing it into the car ahead of it. No one was injured. (Reuters)

Zlenko named ambassador to France

KYIV - Anatolii Zlenko, Ukraine's ambassador to the United Nations, has been tapped as the country's new ambassador to France. Mr. Zlenko, 58, has served as permanent representative to the U.N. since 1994; prior to that, in 1990-1994, he was Ukraine's minister of foreign affairs. (Respublika)

Franchuk back as Crimean PM

SYMFEROPOL - Anatolii Franchuk has been installed as caretaker prime minister of Crimea, after the peninsula's Parliament voted to oust Arkadii Demydenko as head of the government, Interfax reported on April 9. Parliament Chairman Anatolii Hrytsenko said the move had been discussed beforehand with Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. Previous attempts to remove Mr. Demydenko had been declared invalid by Mr. Kuchma. According to the Constitution of Ukraine, the Ukrainian head of state must approve Cabinet changes in the Crimean Autonomous Republic. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Sharansky returns to Donetsk

DONETSK - Former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky, 49, now Israel's trade minister, returned on April 13 to his native Ukraine, mixing business with a bittersweet trip to his hometown. Mr. Sharansky promoted economic ties during meetings at a refrigerator factory and a metallurgical plant in the southeastern city of Donetsk. He also visited the apartment where he grew up and had an emotional reunion with a group of his classmates from School No. 17. He laid wreaths on the cement plates marking the graves of his own grandparents at the local cemetery and said a prayer. Mr. Sharansky also spoke before a full house in a pre-revolutionary synagogue that reopened after the Soviet collapse. He said when he was growing up nearby, he had not known it was a synagogue - it was used as a storehouse. Mr. Sharansky, who crusaded for human rights and Jewish emigration, was imprisoned on trumped-up treason charges in 1977. He was freed in a Cold War spy swap in 1986. He made his way to Israel, where he has sought to lead the more than 600,000 Jews who have emigrated from the Soviet Union since 1989 - half of them from Ukraine. (Associated Press)

Tabachnyk to run for Parliament

KYIV - Dmytro Tabachnyk, 33, formerly the presidential chief of staff, will run for a seat in the Verkhovna Rada in the parliamentary elections scheduled for 1998. Mr. Tabachnyk, who served as President Leonid Kuchma's campaign manager in 1994, was sacked by Mr. Kuchma on December 10, 1996, amid controversy over his role in the administration; indeed, many had begun referring to him as "the second president." Mr. Tabachnyk commented that today's problems between the president and the government are the result of the fact that the Cabinet of Ministers is systematically undermining the authority and popularity of the president of Ukraine. Mr. Tabachnyk denied reports that he would be named Ukraine's minister for foreign affairs if the current minister, Hennadii Udovenko, is elected president of the United Nations General Assembly. (Respublika)

Three states set to block arms pact

VIENNA - Ukraine, Moldova and Azerbaijan intend to block ratification of the May 1996 agreement allowing Russia to temporarily exceed limitations on the armaments it can deploy on its northwestern and southwestern borders under the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, Agence France Presse reported on April 14, quoting unnamed diplomats in Vienna. The three countries argue that the 1996 agreement gives Russia carte blanche to deploy troops on their territories as well as in Kazakstan, Armenia and Georgia. Georgia has expressed its support for this argument. One Armenian commentator recently wrote in Nezavisimaya Gazeta that Azerbaijan has violated the so-called CFE "flank limitations" by deploying more than 500 East German tanks supplied by Turkey in Nakhichevan. (RFE/RL Newsline)

New agriculture minister speaks

KYIV - In his first new conference since being appointed agriculture minister, Mykhailo Zubets said Ukraine would push ahead with reforms until it takes its place on the world stage of grain producers. Crop yield has fallen steadily in Ukraine since 1991; this has been blamed on shortages of seeds, fertilizers, machinery and money. Mr. Zubets forecast a grain harvest of 35 million tons this year compared to 25.4 million tons in 1996, and said Ukraine would export 10 million tons compared to exports of just over 5 million tons from last year's harvest. Last year's low crop yield - the worst in decades - was blamed on a drought at the start of the growing season. Mr. Zubets said the government had allocated 1.5 billion hryvni to purchase materials and technical resources for this year's spring sowing campaign - triple last year's level. In addition to his new duties, Mr. Zubets holds the post of vice prime minister in charge of agriculture, is president of the National Academy of Sciences and leader of the recently established Agrarian Party. His many positions have resulted in a cool reception from Western analysts, who said the agriculture sector requires one person to concentrate all energies on reforming it. Mr. Zubets said he would have time to fulfill all his tasks. "It's not a tragedy because these are parallel positions," he said, but added, "I wish there were 26 hours in a day." (Reuters)

World Forum to be held in August

KYIV - The second World Forum of Ukrainians will be held here on August 21-24 in accordance with a decree signed by President Leonid Kuchma. The announcement was made on the proposal of the State Committee on Nationality Affairs and Migration, the Ukrainian World Coordinating Council and the Ukraina Society for Contacts with Ukrainians Abroad. First Vice Prime Minister Vasyl Durdynets was named to head the organizing committee for the World Forum of Ukrainians. (Respublika)

Stowaways on Slovak-Ukrainian border

UZHHOROD - A spokesman for the Ukrainian State Border Protection Committee has told journalists that Ukrainian border guards on April 7 detained 55 Chinese citizens who allegedly planned to cross into neighboring Slovakia on the back of a truck. The spokesman said the group was found hiding in a canvas-covered truck on a road outside the city of Uzhhorod, near the Slovak border. Four people were hospitalized with signs of carbon dioxide poisoning. The rest have been taken into custody by the border service. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Estonia assured on NATO by Albright

WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told Toomas Ilves in Washington on March 27 that even after its Madrid summit meeting in July, NATO will remain open to all European democracies that are able to contribute to its goals, Reuters reported. The Washington Post noted that the Clinton administration is offering to negotiate a security agreement with the three Baltic states to ease their security concerns. Mr. Ilves said Russia's objections should not prevent Estonia from ever joining NATO since a country should not "give up its aspirations to freely join an organization simply because its neighbor objects." Ms. Albright added that the first countries accepted to NATO will not be the last. (OMRI Daily Digest)

Ukraine ranks eighth among scofflaws

NEW YORK - Ukraine is in eighth place in New York City among the diplomatic missions receiving the most parking tickets in 1996. Russia took first place with 31,388 tickets, while Ukraine had 2,065. Others in the top 10 were: 2. Indonesia (5,706), 3. Bulgaria (5,527), 4. Egypt (5,074), 5. Nigeria (3,551), 6. Brazil (3,351), 7. North Korea (2,297), 9. Iran (1,859) and 10. Belarus (1,762). Under a new agreement between the New York City administration and the U.S. State Department, consulates and missions that fail to pay tickets within a year would have their registrations and diplomatic license plates denied. The new provisions apply only to tickets received after April 1. However, one of the new provisions allows the city to pursue more than 500 diplomats who have ignored past safety violations, mostly for parking in front of fire hydrants. If these diplomats get another ticket for the same offense, they would be asked to surrender their diplomatic plates until all past tickets are paid. (The New York Times)

Crimea switches to Kyiv time

SYMFEROPOL - The Crimean Autonomous Republic of Ukraine switched to Kyiv time at the end of March. The move comes three years after the peninsula, which is part of Ukraine, introduced Moscow time as a sign of opposition to Kyiv. (Reuters)

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