U.S. first lady meets with Shcherbak to follow up on recent visit to Lviv (02/01/98)

U.S. first lady meets with Shcherbak to follow up on recent visit to Lviv

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - Ukraine's Ambassador to the U.S. Yuri Shcherbak met with First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton on January 23 to follow up a number of issues that came up during her recent visit to Lviv.

They discussed Ukraine's proposal to hold an international conference to combat the trafficking in women, increased hospital-to-hospital cooperation, the establishment of a joint university program for managers, and the problem of visa denials to Ukrainians by the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, according to the Embassy's press counselor, Natalia Zarudna.

During her visit to Lviv in November 1997, Mrs. Clinton spoke about the need to combat the international trafficking in women, which had become a growing problem, especially with respect to women from the countries of the former Soviet Union, including Ukraine. Ambassador Shcherbak suggested that the United States help organize an international conference to address the problem, which is not covered by international law.

Ms. Zarudna noted that, according to Ukraine's Internal Affairs Ministry, over the past 10 years some 400,000 Ukrainian women under age 30 traveled to work in Poland, Germany, Turkey and other neighboring countries, and the fate of many is unknown. There have been press reports about many of these women being forced into prostitution.

[This problem was the subject of a news story filed by Roman Woronowycz of the Kyiv Press Bureau and published in The Ukrainian Weekly on August 3,1997. More recently, The New York Times carried a lengthy article on the topic in its January 11 issue.]

The hospital-to-hospital cooperation program between American and Ukrainian hospitals, which has been going on since 1992, was highlighted during the first lady's last trip to Ukraine with a visit to a Lviv hospital. Both sides would like to see this cooperation expand, especially in the area of children's hospitals, the Embassy official said.

Ambassador Shcherbak also talked about the possibility of forming a Ukrainian-American center to train Ukraine's future managers and of expanding people-to-people exchanges. The latter suggestion, Ms. Zarudna said, led to a discussion of the problems encountered by many Ukrainians seeking visas to visit the United States. In the last few years, visas were denied to an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Ukrainians seeking them for private visits, business travel and even exchange programs.

The process has become commonly known as "$20 and 20 seconds," whereby an applicant pays a $20 visa fee and 20 or so seconds later is informed that the application is denied, Ms. Zarudna said.

These refusals may be in violation of the charter on U.S.-Ukrainian relations and will be addressed during the next meeting of the foreign policy committee of the Kuchma-Gore Commission in February, she said.

The Ukrainian ambassador asked that the White House consider becoming a patron of the annual Horowitz International Competition for Young Pianists held in Kyiv and inquired about the possibility of having the finalists perform at the White House.

Also discussed was a planned large-scale U.S. exhibit of Scythian gold objects. Mrs. Clinton, who saw the famous Scythian gold pectoral during the first family's state visit to Kyiv in 1995, said she would like to see the collection in the United States. The exhibit is being organized for 1999-2000 by two Texas museums. The collection was last seen here as a Soviet exhibit in the 1970s.

Ambassador Shcherbak gave Mrs. Clinton a letter from Ukraine's first lady, Liudmyla Kuchma, as well as a few presents: a scarf, a lacquered box and a candlestick.

Mrs. Clinton gave the ambassador a letter for Mrs. Kuchma.

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