NEWSBRIEFS (01/16/00)

NEWSBRIEFS

Pascual may be new U.S. ambassador

KYIV - Several sources in Washington indicated in mid-December that U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer, a career diplomat who has built a good reputation for being pro-business and pro-active since his first days in Ukraine, is likely to be recalled early, sometime in the summer of 2000. His replacement is said to be Carlos Pascual of the National Security Council, who has been in Ukraine a number of times with the Kuchma-Gore Commission, is seen as a political appointee by U.S. President Clinton. Mr. Pifer, the United States' third ambassador to Ukraine, arrived in Kyiv in January 1998. His predecessors were Roman Popadiuk and William Green Miller. (Eastern Economist)

Kuchma, Putin agree on CIS summit

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma and Russia's acting President Vladimir Putin, during a telephone conversation supported the idea of holding the next summit of heads of state of the Commonwealth of Independent States on January 25-26 in Moscow. (Eastern Economist)

Kuchma in Israel for Christmas

KYIV -President Leonid Kuchma left for Israel on January 5 on an official visit to take part in the celebration of Christmas 2000. Mr. Kuchma was scheduled to meet representatives of the Israeli government, and ex-President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin. During his meeting with Israel's Interior Minister Nathan Sharansky, President Kuchma supported the Israeli proposal to establish strict control over illegal migration of Ukrainians to Israel. (Eastern Economist)

Flu epidemic plagues Zaporizhia

ZAPORIZHIA - An influenza epidemic has stricken Zaporizhia. The type of virus is yet undetermined, but it is known that it can very quickly lead to complications of bronchitis and inflammation of the lungs. (Eastern Economist)

Nearly 50 Luhansk farms transformed

LUHANSK - Nearly 50 collective agricultural enterprises (CAEs) in the Luhansk region changed their form of ownership in accordance with the presidential decree on accelerating reform of the agrarian sector. The head of the Administration of Land Resources within the oblast administration, Petro Milekhin, said the most active CAEs are being reformed in the Stanychno-Luhansk, Kreminsk, Starobilsk, Svativsk and Atratsytiv regions. CAE members in the Luhansk region have previously leased their shares to farmers. Experts in land administration believe that plots of 300-400 hectares are profitable. Of the 3,380 CAEs in the region, 304 are subject to the distribution of shares. (Eastern Economist)

Search for AN-28 off Turkey continues

KYIV - A Ukrainian plane is to search for the AN-28 that disappeared near the coast of Turkey on December 28, 1999. The plane, owned by Guinea Equatorial Airlines, was piloted by Ukrainian pilots. It is possible that Ukraine will appeal for aid to representatives of NATO, which manage the Partnership for Peace Program. The Equatorial Guinea Airlines' AN-28, which was piloted by a Ukrainian crew, disappeared near the town of Inebolu, Turkey. Due to bad weather, the airplane, which was flying from Zhuliany airport to the Turkish capital city of Ankara, landed in the city of Mykolaiv. It took off again and flew to Yalta, Crimea, then on to Inebolu. There were no passengers on board the plane besides the six crew members. (Eastern Economist)

Cabinet submits zero-deficit draft budget

KYIV - The government on January 6 submitted a draft budget for 2000 with a zero deficit to the Verkhovna Rada, the Associated Press reported, quoting unidentified government officials. The draft budget sets revenue and spending at 31.46 billion hrv ($5.76 billion). The Parliament's Budget Committee examined the draft over the Christmas holidays (celebrated according to the Julian calendar) and the Verkhovna Rada was scheduled to vote on it soon thereafter. The Parliament already approved a zero-deficit draft budget in November 1999, but that draft set revenue and spending at 40.75 billion hrv. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Tkachenko urges adoption of budget

KYIV - Verkhovna Rada Chairman Oleksander Tkachenko has called on all parliamentary caucuses to make every effort to pass the 2000 budget this week, Interfax reported on January 10. Meanwhile, the Parliament's Budget Committee has concluded that the submitted bill is in fact a surplus budget since it includes a spending item denoted as "payments to cover the basic debt sum," which amounts to 405.4 million hrv ($78 million U.S.). The committee argued that, according to the international practice of drafting budgets, debt repayment is categorized as an item to be financed from a budgetary surplus. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Natural gas deposits are discovered

SYMFEROPOL - A new site of natural gas deposits was discovered in the Azov Sea. It has been projected that 300,000 cubic meters per day can be extracted from this 460-meter-deep site. (Eastern Economist)

Ukraine not affected by Y2K bug

KYIV - As of January 4, no emergency situations connected to the Y2K bug were recorded in Ukraine, stated the Emergency Ministry. The situation in organizations and institutions is stable. In addition, no malfunctions were reported at the Chornobyl plant or other nuclear power plants in Ukraine. According to the final report of the group's operations, no emergency events associated with the Y2K problem occurred in Ukraine, including in the banking sector, tax, customs and pension services. The National Bank of Ukraine reported that all banking institutions in the country established communication on January 4 with the NBU. No Y2K malfunctions were recorded. Banking system clients will be able to conduct transactions in normal fashion starting January 5. (Eastern Economist)

Y2K problem in Ukraine exaggerated

KYIV - American special services acknowledged that they overestimated Y2K problems for Ukraine and Russia, stated Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamr. He added that both countries, which were among those considered to be most affected by the Y2K bug, actually possessed more non-automatic systems than expected. (Eastern Economist)

First Kharkiv baby wins apartment

KHARKIV - The first baby born on January 1 in Kharkiv at 12:05 a.m. will receive an apartment and a gold bar from the city's administration. All other babies born January 1 will receive gold bars. Twenty-eight babies were born that day in Kharkiv, which is a higher than average number. (Eastern Economist)

Washers for new year mothers

CHERNIVTSI -The mothers of the first babies born in the new year will be receive washing machines from the city mayor's office. (Eastern Economist)

3.3 million support referendum proposal

KYIV - Citing the Democratic Union Party, Interfax reported on January 10 that Ukraine's 218 initiative groups have collected nearly 3.3 million signatures in support of a nationwide referendum on changes to the Constitution. The groups are proposing to ask questions on giving the president the right to disband the Parliament, creating a bicameral legislature, lifting national deputies' immunity and adopting the Constitution by a nationwide referendum. At least 3 million signatures are needed to launch a referendum in Ukraine as a popular initiative. (RFE/RL Newsline)

U.S. congressman discusses war crimes

VILNIUS - U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) arrived in Vilnius on January 3 for meetings with various Lithuanian officials to discuss the country's policies on prosecuting suspected war criminals. While Rep. Lantos praised the creation of a commission in Lithuania to assess crimes committed during the Soviet and Nazi occupations and applauded a proposed legal amendment to allow trials in absentia, he also urged Lithuanians to be persistent and vigilant in prosecuting war crimes. He said that if Lithuania does not deal with the issue, he can see "a dark cloud" on the horizon which "Lithuania will have to remove if it wants to find its niche among democracies of this world." After a stormy discussion with Prosecutor General Kazys Pednycia, Rep. Lantos said, "I am very disappointed with the meeting." Mr. Pednycia said he complained to Rep. Lantos about a lack of assistance from the U.S. Justice Department in gathering admissible evidence against war criminals. In September 1999 Mr. Pednycia had expressed similar frustrations about the U.S. Justice Department's special investigator Eli Rosenbaum during the trial of war crimes suspect Aleksandras Lileikis. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Lukashenka accused of anti-Semitism

MIENSK - The head of the World Association of Belarusian Jewry, Yakov Goodman, and the head of the Human Rights Center Vyasna, Ales Byalatski, said in Miensk on January 4 that Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka is anti-Semitic, the Associated Press reported. They also appealed to the Israeli government to avoid official contacts with him during his current trip to Bethlehem. Mr. Goodman said the Belarusian government has refused to set up Jewish schools, help maintain Jewish cemeteries and historic monuments, or create memorials to Belarusian Holocaust victims. He also expressed "bewilderment" over President Lukashenka's planned meetings with Israeli President Ezer Weizman and parliamentary deputies. Mr. Goodman noted that only 28,000 Jews live in Belarus today, compared with 112,000 in 1989. "Jews are voting with their feet against the policy pursued by Alyaksandr Lukashenka," RFE/RL's Belarusian Service quoted him as saying. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Yuschenko kills previous draft laws

KYIV - Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko has withdrawn 161 draft laws submitted to the Verkhovna Rada by the Cabinet of former Prime Minister Valerii Pustovoitenko, Interfax reported on January 5. Cabinet Secretary Viktor Lysytskyi said the "lion's share" of the bills will not be changed in any essential way since the new prime minister will follow "the strategy of reforms" that was defined by President Leonid Kuchma in October 1994. "The point is to accelerate, deepen and strengthen some reform parameters, to implement in a more consistent way what was determined several years ago," Mr. Lysytskyi noted. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Another Rukh party is registered

KYIV - The Ministry of Justice has registered the Ukrainian Popular Rukh (Ukrainskyi Narodnyi Rukh), a party consisting of Yurii Kostenko's faction in the original Rukh, Interfax reported on January 5. It is the 90th political party registered in Ukraine. According to its activists, the party has 20,300 members in all regions of the country. The other Rukh faction, led by Hennadii Udovenko, is registered under the name Popular Rukh of Ukraine (Narodnyi Rukh Ukrainy). (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine's Eurobonds gain, then fall

KYIV - In the two weeks following the approval of reform-oriented Viktor Yuschenko as prime minister, Ukraine's Eurobonds gained some 18 percent in value. However, Moody's has lowered Ukraine's rating for long-term foreign currency commitments from B3 to Caa1. According to Moody's, the lower rating was caused by the Ukrainian government's plans to renegotiate the terms of foreign debt repayments due this year. As a result of this move, Ukrainian Eurobonds lost some 15 percent in value. Ukraine's Finance Ministry said the government has taken no decision on restructuring Eurobond payments. (RFE/RL Newsline)

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