Kaptur discusses humanitarian aid with Kuchma

WASHINGTON - Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) met on December 8, 1999, with President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine to discuss the prospects for U.S. food assistance and ways of reforming Ukraine's charitable donation laws.

The discussion followed Rep. Kaptur's meeting a day earlier with the president and vice-president of the Ukrainian Federation of Food Banks to discuss how the United States could assist Ukraine in reforming its laws dealing with humanitarian food aid and charitable activities. Rep. Kaptur is the ranking member of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, which oversees foreign food assistance.

Many organizations currently have trouble soliciting charitable donations in Ukraine. According to Rep. Kaptur's office, this is partly due to that government's policies, including one that taxes businesses for contributing to a charity.

"We are trying to help those in Ukraine who desperately need food, clothing and other basic essentials. As the saying goes, charity begins at home. We encourage those who can to help their fellow countrymen," said Rep. Kaptur. "However, one should not be punished for helping those in need. Ukraine desperately needs to reform its laws governing charitable giving."

The Ohio congresswoman added: "I'm troubled that in the Donetsk region over 400,000 miners are disabled, and their monthly pension averages $15. The need for charitable food banks and feeding kitchens is enormous. In this season of hope and giving, it would be wrong to turn our backs on such need."

A major hindrance to U.S. efforts to assist the hungry in Ukraine, Rep. Kaptur explained, has been the unresponsiveness by the Ukrainian government to reimburse the United States government $3 million for aid that was misused. In 1995 the United States provided 20,000 tons of soybeans to Land O'Lakes, which in turn sold the commodity in the Ukraine. The local currency was supposed to have been used to assist Ukrainian agriculture, but that did not occur. Efforts to resolve this issue have been under way ever since.

Rep. Kaptur told the Ukrainian food bank representatives that she will examine whether a food aid initiative could be formulated that would direct food donations to private, charitable groups in Ukraine, such as the Ukrainian Federation of Food Banks, the Catholic charity Caritas or the Red Cross.

"The tragedy of this entire situation is that millions of dollars of U.S. assistance are being held back because of Ukraine's inability to deal fairly with the U.S. businesses that made genuine overtures after independence to begin normal business relations with Ukraine," said Rep. Kaptur. "Unless these outstanding issues are resolved, it will remain extremely difficult for Ukraine to benefit from the programs the U.S. funds to assist transitional economies. Particularly in the field of agriculture, which represents so much of Ukraine's future, it is a double tragedy. I hope these outstanding issues between our governments can be resolved early in the new year."

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 2, 2000, No. 1, Vol. LXVIII

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