Ukraine continues efforts to mediate in Kosovo crisis (04/18/99)

Ukraine continues efforts to mediate in Kosovo crisis

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - With backing from a delegation of European foreign ministers in Kyiv for consultations on April 13, Ukrainian leaders said they were ready to continue to work behind the scenes to mediate the Kosovo crisis.

Ukraine has spent considerable effort attempting to work as a go-between in the conflict between NATO and the Yugoslav Federation over the Kosovo region of rump Yugoslavia, an initiative that has found support with NATO but not in the Serbian capital of Belgrade.

On April 13, leading foreign ministry officials from Germany, Austria and Finland and the acting chairman of the European Commission flew to Kyiv to meet with President Leonid Kuchma. Although the previously scheduled talks were originally to deal with the European Union's position on Ukraine, the delegation spent much of its time discussing the situation in the Balkans and NATO's stand.

The foreign affairs ministers, Joschka Fischer of Germany, Tarja Halonen of Finland and Benita Ferrero-Waldnep of Austria, as well as the acting chairman of the European Commission, Hans Van den Broek, had little to say about what the short, four-hour talks had produced in the way of Kosovo. But Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Minister Borys Tarasyuk said his country would continue to work as a go-between and that Ukraine is ready to take the lead in the mediation process should separate plans proposed by the United Nations and Germany fail.

Germany's Foreign Minister Fischer hailed the Ukrainian effort thus far. "Its mission in the first stages of the Kosovo crisis was important," said Mr. Fischer at a press conference at Boryspil International Airport.

At the start of the Kosovo crisis, a Ukrainian delegation led by Minister Tarasyuk and Minister of Defense Oleksander Kuzmuk had flown to Belgrade to meet with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. They left with no response to their proposals for mediation. Mr. Tarasyuk then flew to Bonn, Paris and London in a whirlwind tour of the major European capitals to lay out Ukraine's peace plan, after which the mediation effort seemed to die.

But Mr. Tarasyuk's work had continued in meetings with foreign ambassadors in Kyiv and via telephone with European leaders. He announced during the visit by the foreign affairs ministers that a renewed initiative was imminent.

Mr. Tarasyuk also announced that Ukraine is ready to send a peacekeeping force to Kosovo, but only under the aegis of the United Nations.

The next day, President Kuchma stated in an interview published in the government newspaper Uriadovyi Kurier that Ukraine is ready to present its new plan, which would call for a simultaneous ceasefire by both sides, followed by the removal of Serbian troops from Kosovo and the return of ethnic Albanian refugees under the direction of either the U.N. or the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The president said he had received backing for his plan from the three visiting European foreign ministers. "The E.U. troika that just left Ukraine not only expressed the worthiness of the plan but called for its activization," said Mr. Kuchma.

Although the Ukrainian plan has been criticized for its similarity in design to one proposed by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on April 9 in Geneva, Mr. Kuchma said Ukraine's proposal is not intended to replicate the U.N. plan and that results are all that matter in the end.

"Our intention is not to make the initiatives a source of competition," said Mr. Kuchma. "The overriding goal is peace in the Balkans."

The Ukrainian initiative also has been welcomed by U.S. President Bill Clinton, who notified President Kuchma via a letter that he believes Ukraine's latest proposals "are an important step towards restoration of peace in the Balkans," according to Interfax-Ukraine.

President Clinton invited Mr. Kuchma to meet with him in Washington, where the Ukrainian president is scheduled to travel on April 23 to attend NATO's 50th anniversary summit. Mr. Kuchma recently said he still expects to make the trip, regardless of the situation in the Balkans.

Ukraine, to a certain extent, has become obsessed with the Kosovo crisis and for very good reason: the country is situated between the Balkan region and a Russia that seems ready to come to the aid of Yugoslav President Milosevic at any moment.

The Ukrainian government has attempted to play a neutral role in the Balkan crisis, but it must deal with the fact that many Ukrainians, like Russians, look at Serbians as ethnic cousins, fellow Slavs and Orthodox Christians.

Joining the international humanitarian aid effort, Ukraine sent a truck caravan to Macedonia on April 8, which delivered clothing, tents, blankets and basic foodstuffs, but not armored military vehicles and gas supplies as a Russian humanitarian truck convoy attempted to do a day later.

The Russian convoy, which was given free movement through Ukraine, was stopped at the Hungarian-Ukrainian border town of Chop by Hungarian officials who refused to allow the trucks to proceed. After a day of political maneuvering between Budapest and Moscow, the convoy was allowed to proceed, minus the armored vehicles and most of the gas.

The incident followed by a week Russia's decision to dispatch a reconnaissance ship from its Black Sea Fleet, harbored in the Ukrainian port city of Sevastopol, to the Mediterranean. Some experts believe the ship has electronic eavesdropping capabilities.

Although NATO and the West looked critically on both incidents, Ukrainian officials have downplayed them. On April 15, Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry press spokesperson Serhii Borodinkov said, "At this time the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Ukraine has not taken an official position on either of the two incidents."

Even as Ukraine has attempted to stay above the fray that Russia has produced as it attempts to assert some authority over the situation in the Balkans, some Ukrainian leaders have tried to push Ukraine into the epicenter.

Oleksander Tkachenko, chairman of Ukraine's Parliament, said soon after NATO bombing of Yugoslavia commenced that Ukraine should support Serbia with military hardware - which his press service later explained actually meant non-military, technological support and which Mr. Tkachenko still later explained meant military aid for reconstruction of Yugoslavia after the bombing ceased.

Nonetheless, the Verkhovna Rada has refused to take him up on any of the three variations, and even rebuffed an initiative in the parliament chamber proposed by leftist deputies on April 6 that Ukraine cancel its special charter with NATO and leave all NATO-affiliated structures, including the Partnership for Peace program.

Ukrainian officials have also looked pessimistically, if not critically, at Yugoslavia's offer to join in a union with Russia and Belarus.

President Kuchma said on April 10, during a trip to Odesa that he views the Yugoslav proposal as a "political measure to settle the Kosovo crisis" and that he "does not see any particular logic" to it, according to Interfax-Ukraine.

Ihor Hrushko, a Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson called it "bringing psychological pressure to bear on NATO."

That does not mean that Ukrainians are for the NATO bombing either. On the contrary, in the halls of the Verkhovna Rada, where the representatives of the Ukrainian electorate roam, and on the streets of Kyiv, few had anything good to say about the NATO bombing of the rump Yugoslavia.

National Deputy Hennadii Udovenko, leader of one of the Rukh factions in the Verkhovna Rada, said that although he understands the NATO bombing will continue indefinitely, "it would be far better that the alliance pass a decision on putting an end to the air strikes."

Ukraine's former president and current National Deputy Leonid Kravchuk, a member of the Social-Democratic (United) faction, also said he understood the NATO objective and the need to continue to bomb, but "advocates the settlement of all issues at the negotiating table." He blamed President Milosevic for the continuation of the crisis. "His philosophy is different. It is to draw in Russia in order to broaden the conflict," said Mr. Kravchuk.

Hryhorii Kriuchkov of the Communist faction, who heads the parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defense, said that although he is against NATO bombing, he sees the NATO position softening. As for Yugoslavia's desire to join the Russian-Belarus union, he called it understandable.

"It makes sense, yet it is far too early to know whether it can be practically implemented," said Mr. Kriuchkov.

Kyivan Marianna Oryshak, 24, a cosmetic store manager, said she doesn't support what Yugoslavia is doing, but is even more critical of NATO's actions. "I believe that NATO should not be interfering in the internal affairs of Yugoslavia. It is for them to decide on their own," said Ms. Oryshak.

And, finally, came a lone voice that supports NATO involvement in the Balkans. Volodymyr Opanasenko, 62, a director at the Ivan Franko Theater, said he categorically opposes the actions by Yugoslavia. "This is overt robbery. What they are doing is a provocation to the world," he explained. But he also said he doesn't support NATO bombing.

"I am decidedly for NATO sending in ground troops. The conflict would be over within a month," added Mr. Opanasenko.

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