Ukrainian delegation attends conference on fighting corruption (03/07/99)

Ukrainian delegation attends conference on fighting corruption

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - Ukrainian National Bureau of Investigation Director Vasyl Durdynets and Deputy Procurator General Olha Kolinko spent February 23-26 in the U.S. capital as part of the Ukrainian delegation to an international conference on fighting corruption and organized crime hosted by Vice-President Al Gore.

By coincidence, they also got involved in a practical case that began unfolding a few days earlier in New York City, where the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service on February 19 detained and was holding Ukraine's former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko for trying to enter the country at John F. Kennedy International Airport without a proper visa.

During a meeting at the Justice Department, they forwarded Ukraine's request to have Mr. Lazarenko extradited to Ukraine, where a few days earlier he was officially charged with, among other things, embezzling millions of dollars in government funds, and had his Verkhovna Rada deputy's immunity lifted by his legislative colleagues.

Mr. Durdynets, who also heads the president's Coordinating Committee on Fighting Corruption and Organized Crime, stressed the importance of having the former prime minister returned to Ukraine during the Justice Department meeting and the international conference, as well as during a roundtable discussion at the Embassy of Ukraine at the conclusion of the delegation's stay here.

Addressing the conference, Mr. Durdynets said his government views the extradition of Mr. Lazarenko to Ukraine "as a practical test of the effectiveness of the current system of international and interstate cooperation in combating corruption and organized crime."

Swiss authorities also have an interest in the case as they are awaiting Mr. Lazarenko's return to Switzerland, where he was arrested in December, charged with money laundering and released after posting $3 million bail.

Following reports that Mr. Lazarenko had asked for political asylum in the United States because he feared political persecution at home, Mr. Durdynets and Mrs. Kolinko fielded some sharp questions at an Embassy roundtable about the possibility of political motivations in the Lazarenko case. Mr. Lazarenko has been an outspoken critic and political opponent of his former mentor, President Leonid Kuchma, after he was sacked as prime minister two years ago.

"This case is purely criminal in nature and has no political motives whatsoever," Mrs. Kolinko said. "Politics is politics. But what of the money involved in this criminal case, which was stolen from the government?"

In his public appearances in Washington, Mr. Durdynets highlighted his government's efforts in combating organized crime and corruption, which he admitted is not easy because "the process of social transformations has not been completed in Ukraine."

Nevertheless, he said, Ukraine has developed a "practical organizational system" and programs to combat white-collar crime, moved to eliminate its underlying causes, created special corruption-fighting agencies and units, realized the need to create a "climate of integrity based on clear moral principles" and the necessity of international cooperation in this field.

As an indication that the country is moving in the right direction, he cited figures showing large increases in the number of corruption cases filed during the past few years, and an astonishing figure of 20,000 firings of Ministry of Internal Affairs officers in 1996-1998 for "violating ethical norms." Mr. Durdynets said that more than 50,000 cases were filed last year in the struggle against economic crimes in Ukraine.

Ukraine is also trying to retrieve some of the estimated $30 billion that illegally found their way into foreign "off-shore" bank accounts, he said. Ukraine had asked the U.S. Department of Justice to help it obtain certain Caribbean bank account information needed for ongoing investigations.

Mr. Durdynets said that Ukraine and the United States are close to signing a long-term agreement of cooperation and assistance in fighting organized crime and corruption.

The government of Ukraine, he said, is both optimistic and realistic in assessing crime-fighting efforts. "We realize that only the first steps have been made in the right direction," he said, but added that he is certain "Ukraine will overcome this evil."

Among the other members of the Ukrainian delegation visiting Washington were Supreme Court Deputy Chief Justice Vasyl Maliarenko and First Vice Minister of Justice Bronyslav Stychynsky.

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