NEWSBRIEFS (05/04/97)

NEWSBRIEFS

Chornobyl disaster remembered

KYIV - On April 26, Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian Federation marked the 11th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster with both official and unofficial ceremonies. In Ukraine, ceremonies remembering those who died in the explosion and its aftermath were held at the Chornobyl site and in Kyiv, local media reported. In Miensk, more than 20,000 people took part in a march to mark the anniversary and to protest President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's efforts to form a closer union between Belarus and Russia. An official commemoration ceremony in Miensk reportedly drew only 500 people. Russian President Boris Yeltsin praised the courage of those who battled to contain the Chornobyl nuclear disaster but said more needs to be done to help its victims, Reuters reported. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Parliament deputies played hooky

KYIV - During the sixth convocation of the Verkhovna Rada (September 3, 1996 - January 24, 1997), some 80 percent of people's deputies missed one or more session. Only 83 deputies in the 450-seat legislature had perfect attendance records, according to a report recently released by the Parliament's Committee on Rules, Ethics and Logistical Support of Deputies. Among those with especially poor attendance records were Kharkiv Oblast Administration Chairman Oleh Diomin (69 absences out of 86 registrations), Roman Shpek, chairman of the National Agency for Reconstruction and Development (52 absences), Vitalii Shybko, Ukraine's temporary emissary to Libya (47), as well as the chairmen of the Chernivtsi, Kherson and Kyiv oblast administrations, Heorhii Filipchuk (38), Yurii Karasyk (31) and Anatolii Zasukha (22). In publishing the list of truant deputies, the committee reminded the servants of the people that they are required by parliamentary rules to provide written notification and excuse for any absences from parliamentary sessions. (Respublika)

"Euro-Regions" to be established

BUCHAREST - Romanian President Emil Constantinescu says he has agreed with the Ukrainian and Moldovan counterparts, Leonid Kuchma and Petru Luchinsi, to set up two "Euro-Regions" in areas where their borders converge. Mr. Constantinescu told Radio Bucharest that the agreement was reached on April 28 in Istanbul within the framework of the Black Sea Economic Council conference. The construction of new road links in the specially designated areas will allow for intensified economic cooperation and cultural contacts. The regions are to be mentioned in the pending Bilateral Treaty on Friendship and Cooperation Between Ukraine and Romania. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Moscow stands firm on NATO expansion...

BRUSSELS - NATO diplomats say "very little progress" has been made on the military points of a charter between Russia and NATO, Agence France Presse reported on April 25. The latest proposals submitted by Russian negotiators still insist that NATO pledge not to deploy nuclear weapons or build military infrastructures on the territory of new member-states. NATO officials have refused to give such a guarantee. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright are to hold talks this week with Russian Foreign Affaris Minister Yevgenii Primakov in Moscow. (RFE/RL Newsline)

...While Lithuania knocks on the door

VILNIUS - Lithuania's Parliament sent an appeal on April 24 to NATO urging the alliance to include at least one Baltic state in the first wave of enlargement, BNS and Reuters reported. The appeal said Lithuania is convinced the Baltic state's progress toward democracy and stability would be threatened if they were left out of NATO. Eighty-six of the 87 deputies present in the 138-seat house approved the appeal. The United States has repeatedly reassured Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia that they will not be left in an ambiguous security zone and that NATO entry remains open for those not included in the first wave of expansion. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma: Crimea to stay part of Ukraine

SYMFEROPOL - Ukrainian Presi-dent Leonid Kuchma says that Ukraine's ownership of the Crimean peninsula and the port city of Sevastopol is not open for debate. He was speaking to journalists during his trip here on April 25. Mr. Kuchma's comments were aimed at the Russian Federation Council (the upper house of the Russian Parliament), which recently urged President Boris Yeltsin to raise the issue of Crimea's status with Mr. Kuchma when he makes a scheduled visit to Kyiv in June. Mr. Kuchma stresses that he and Mr. Yeltsin have already agreed that the Russian portion of the divided Black Sea Fleet will continue to be based in Sevastopol and that the port will remain Ukrainian territory. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Romanian minister on talks with Ukraine

CHISINAU - Romanian Defense Minister Victor Babiuc said talks with Ukraine on the pending basic treaty are deadlocked over the demarcation of the countries' common border in the Danube delta, ownership of the continental shelf around Serpents Island in the Black Sea, and the situation of the Romanian minority in the Ukraine. In an April 16 interview with RFE/RL's Romanian service, Mr. Babiuc said that contrary to international practice, Ukraine wants the common border traced on the Romanian side of the Danube's Chilia branch instead of in the middle of the waterway. Kyiv is also demanding ownership of the continental shelf around Serpents Island, while Bucharest wants the Hague International Tribunal to rule on the matter if negotiations are still stalled after two years. Finally, Bucharest is demanding that the Romanian minority in Ukraine be granted rights recognized by the Council of Europe. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Lukashenka on relations with Ukraine

MIENSK - Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka said there are almost no problems in Belarusian-Ukrainian relations. Mr. Lukashenka was speaking in Miensk on April 15 at talks with Ukraine's foreign affairs minister, Hennadii Udovenko. Minister Udovenko told President Lukashenka that relations with Belarus are a high priority for Kyiv, noting that a recent meeting between Mr. Lukashenka and President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine has boosted bilateral ties. Mr. Udovenko reiterated the Ukrainian government's position that a Russian- Belarusian union will destroy the Commonwealth of Independent States. On April 16 Mr. Udovenko and his Belarusian counterpart, Ivan Antanovich, initialed a treaty defining the countries' common border. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine comments on Moldova memo

CHISINAU - Ukraine's ambassador to Moldova, Yevhen Levytskyi, said Kyiv welcomes the readiness of Chisinau and Tiraspol to sign the memorandum on ways to settle the conflict in Moldova but cannot agree with all its provisions. Mr. Levytskyi told Infotag that Ukraine objects in particular to the memorandum's inclusion of a provision saying the Commonwealth of Independent States "has experience" in settling such conflicts. Ukraine believes that the Organi-zation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, rather than the CIS, can provide the best mechanisms for such tasks. Ukraine is a guarantor of the memorandum, which is to be signed in Moscow on May 8. Ambassador Levytskyi said Kyiv considers the text of the memorandum "still open" because it has not been consulted on all the provisions. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Smirnov: on Transdniester and Ukraine

TIRASPOL - Igor Smirnov, the leader of Moldova's breakaway region, says he would have "no objection" to the Transdniester's joining Ukraine. "If Ukraine shifts its border to the Dnister [River], I will not intervene," Mr. Smirnov said in an interview with the Ukrainian newspaper Kievskiye Viedomosti in mid-April. He emphasized that 250,000 of the Transdniester's inhabitants are Ukrainian, which, he said, "cannot be simply overlooked." (RFE/RL Newsline)

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