NEWSBRIEFS (08/16/98)

NEWSBRIEFS

World bank to consider aid to Ukraine

KYIV - The World Bank will consider financing two projects in Ukraine worth $300 million each as soon as the International Monetary Fund gives final approval to its $2.2 billion loan to Kyiv, Reuters reported on August 10. The World Bank's Kyiv mission chief said the projects will support Ukraine's financial sector and business development. The World Bank suspended its financial assistance to Ukraine earlier this year, following a similar decision by the IMF. (RFE/RL Newsline)

PM threatens to send tax debtors to camp

KYIV - In order to force tax debtors to pay, Ukrainian Prime Minister Valerii Pustovoitenko has threatened to bring managers and top regional executives to a camp for civil defense training, Ukrainian News reported on August 8. Mr. Pustovoitenko, who is head of Ukraine's Civil Defense, told an August 7 Cabinet of Ministers session that 3,000 tents have been prepared at Pereiaslav Khmelnytskyi near Kyiv. "We will train by manuring gardens," the agency quoted him as saying. Mr. Pustovoitenko's threat follows his August 5 attempt to obtain unpaid taxes from some 2,000 managers by locking them up in the Ukraina Palace of Culture in Kyiv. The managers were taking part in an extended Cabinet session, which was being held in the auditorium of the cultural center, that addressed the problem of tax collection. "Only those who pay 30 percent of their debts to the pension fund and 5 percent to the budget" will be allowed out of the hall, Ukrainian Television quoted Mr. Pustovoitenko as saying. The managers have paid only 81 million hrv ($40 million U.S.), leaving Prime Minister Pustovoitenko "dissatisfied," according to Ukrainian News. The total tax and pension fund arrears in Ukraine in July reached 8.9 billion hrv. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma reduces 1998 budget deficit

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma has signed a decree reducing the 1998 budget deficit from 3.3 to 2.5 percent of the gross domestic product, Ukrainian Television reported on August 7. The decision meets the International Monetary Fund's main requirement for providing Ukraine with a $2.2 billion loan. Budget spending in 1998 will be reduced by 4.7 billion hrv ($2.2 billion U.S.). With another decree President Kuchma has abolished obligatory payments to the state-run Chornobyl Fund, which amounted to 5 percent of the wages paid by each enterprise. The president also reduced mandatory payments to the Social Security Fund from 4 to 3 percent of the wage fund. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine denies shipping arms to Taliban

KYIV - Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Yurii Yermylko has rejected claims by the Afghan ambassadors to the United Nations and Russia that the Ukrainian mafia is shipping aircraft, tanks and machine guns to the Taliban militia through Pakistan, Ukrainian Television reported on August 11. He stressed that the sources of information in both statements have not been identified. Mr. Yermylko added that the Foreign Affairs Ministry is trying to obtain official information about the statements through its Embassy in Moscow and Mission at the U.N. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma greeted by CIS leaders

KYIV - Leonid Kuchma on August 9 welcomed high-ranking officials from the former Soviet republics who came to his 60th birthday party at his summer residence in Crimea. Azerbaijani President Heidar Aliev, Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Ivan Rybkin, CIS Executive Secretary Boris Berezovskii and former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin paid their respects in person. Russian President Boris Yeltsin sent a congratulatory telegram to President Kuchma. President Shevardnadze termed bilateral relations with Ukraine "verging on the ideal," while President Aliev assured Mr. Kuchma that Ukraine "is assuredly part of the program" for the export of Azerbaijan's Caspian oil. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Exhibit, album mark Kuchma's birthday

KYIV - On the occasion of President Leonid Kuchma's 60th birthday, a special exhibit opened at the Ukrainian Home, a center for the arts in Kyiv. Titled "Leonid Kuchma: Man and President," the exhibit featured portraits and reports by photojournalists of the state information agency in an effort to present the wide-ranging activity of the president, including his meetings with the workers of Ukraine and with international leaders. At the exhibit opening the director of the Mystetstvo publishing house presented a newly released jubilee album, also titled "Leonid Kuchma: Man and President." (Respublika)

Miners reschedule protest for September

KYIV - A protest action over unpaid wages planned by the Trade Union of Coal Industry Workers has been postponed until September. The union had intended to begin the action on August 2 in Kyiv, but decided to postpone the protest due to the "unbelievable heat" in Ukraine and to the summer recess, ITAR-TASS reported. Despite recent payments made by the government, total wage arrears in the coal industry exceed $2 billion hrv ($1 billion U.S.). The government paid only 75 percent of last month's wages in the coal mining sector. (RFE/RL Newsline)

New journalism center opens in Kyiv

KYIV - A state-of-the-art center for training journalists was opened on July 29 in Kyiv. The center aims to teach local journalists how to" provide objective information for the Ukrainian public," said David Black of USAID at the opening ceremony. The project was initiated by Internews-Ukraine with funding from USAID, the Know-How Fund, the Thompson Foundation, the International Renaissance Foundation and the Open Society Institute. The $300,000 (U.S.) center will provide TV and radio journalists with training by British experts. Since 1993 Internews has invested $12 million and trained roughly 1,100 journalists in its seminars. (Eastern Economist)

President sacks chief aviation official

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma has fired State Aviation Administration chief Volodymyr Maksymov for failing to improve the safety of Ukrainian air flights, the Associated Press reported on August 4. The formal reason for the dismissal was Mr. Maksimov's failure to implement President Kuchma's January decree on measures to tighten air transport regulations. The decree was issued shortly after a Ukrainian Yak-42 crashed in Greece, killing 70 people. Last month, a Ukrainian IL-76 aircraft fell into the sea near the United Arab Emirates, killing all eight people on board, and a Ukrainian IL-78 military plane crashed in Eritrea, killing 10 people. (RFE/RL Newsline)

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