Rada condemns Kosovo air strikes as aggression (03/28/99)

Rada condemns Kosovo air strikes as aggression

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine's Parliament issued a resolution condemning NATO air strikes into rump Yugoslavia and called on its Cabinet of Ministers on March 24 to change Ukraine's non-nuclear status as a response to the military action.

In a strongly worded statement - passed by a vote of 231-46 (with 346 deputies registered as present) - the Verkhovna Rada condemned the bombing raids that began several hours later as "aggression against a sovereign state."

The Verkhovna Rada resolution attacked NATO for not holding true to its own charter, which states that the organization is a defense alliance whose sole goal is to defend member-states from attack.

It said also that NATO has no authority to move on Yugoslavia and its Kosovo region without the approval of the United Nations Security Council.

The measure was strongly supported by leftist forces, while deputies of the center-right voted against condemning NATO's actions.

NATO Secretary General Javier Solana, in a statement announcing NATO's military intentions issued two days before the attack on Yugoslavia began, said the military alliance had adhered to all international agreements on Yugoslavia.

"NATO has fully supported all relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions, the efforts of the OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] and the Contact Group," read Mr. Solana's statement.

The air strikes into Yugoslavia have caused a strong reaction from Ukrainian leaders, particularly the Communist-controlled Verkhovna Rada.

The day after the resolution was passed, and with more attacks by NATO likely, Communist Party member Borys Oliynyk, who heads the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Parliament, took to the main podium to demand that the Ukrainian ambassador to Washington, as well as the chief Ukrainian diplomats in all "the aggressor states," be recalled to Ukraine "for consultation."

He said that NATO's action in itself is sufficient reason to discontinue relations with the defense alliance.

In addition, NATO's aggressive stand requires that Ukraine rearm itself with nuclear weapons, said Mr. Oliynyk, which he termed "an automatic response." Mr. Oliynyk warned that "nobody has the right to forbid Ukrainians from coming to the aid of their Yugoslav brothers."

Ukraine agreed to divest itself of its large nuclear arsenal and declared that it would maintain non-nuclear status in January 1994 in a trilateral pact it signed with the United States and Russia.

Since then there have been intermittent calls by individual national deputies from both the political left and right for nuclear rearmament. However, the latest Verkhovna Rada declaration is by far the strongest and most concerted such effort.

It follows on the footsteps of a similar decision on March 24 in Moscow, where the Russian government said it will cease its cooperation with NATO and was looking at the possibility of rearming Belarus with nuclear weapons.

The Ukrainian government, which has repeatedly stated that it is against military intervention in Kosovo and has called on NATO to act only after U.N. Security Council authorization, issued a statement on March 25 through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs that expressed deep concern over the use of force by NATO.

"The use of military force against a sovereign state without the sanction of the U.N. Security Council, the only body authorized to make decisions for maintaining peace and security, is unacceptable," read the statement, according to Interfax-Ukraine.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry called for "returning as quickly as possible to a peaceful settlement through political means ... and extending wide autonomy to Kosovo."

The day that NATO Secretary General Solana issued his statement, President Leonid Kuchma said Ukraine would support the use of force in Kosovo only after all attempts for a peaceful settlement had been exhausted and then only with U.N. Security Council approval. He commented that "a poor peace is better than any use of force."

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