NEWSBRIEFS (06/18/00)

NEWSBRIEFS

President submits bill on tax amnesty

Kyiv - President Leonid Kuchma has submitted to the Verkhovna Rada a bill on a tax amnesty for citizens who have concealed their revenues at home and abroad, Interfax reported on June 13. The bill proposes that private businessmen deposit their concealed cash and property in Ukrainian commercial banks, where they would be taxed at a rate of 10 percent. Under the bill, the amnesty offer would be valid for one year, but businessmen would be obliged to declare their revenues during the first six months following the law's passage. The bill includes a promise that those who declare their assets will not be punished for previous violations of tax regulations and bans officials from seeking information on the origins of income. Mr. Kuchma has asked the Parliament to consider the bill urgent and include it on the agenda immediately. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv denies allegations of supplying arms

KYIV - The Foreign Affairs Ministry has rejected allegations in foreign news media that Kyiv supplied weapons to the anti-government United Front in Sierra Leone last year, Interfax reported on June 13. Those who make such allegations "not only attempt to conceal their dirty deeds but also want to remove Ukraine from the international weapons market through unfair competition," the agency quoted a ministry official as saying. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Lazarenko pleads innocent

SAN FRANCISCO - Former Ukrainian Minister Pavlo Lazarenko has pleaded not guilty to charges of laundering some $114 million he allegedly stole while in office, Reuters reported on June 13. Those charges have been brought by the United States, which is holding Mr. Lazarenko in a federal prison in California, pending the resolution of an extradition request by Switzerland. Mr. Lazarenko's lawyers have vowed to fight the U.S. charges, depicting their client as the victim of a political vendetta by his former ally, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Anti-Communist congress convenes

VILNIUS - An international congress on evaluating the crimes of communism opened in Vilnius on June 12, the ELTA and BNS news agencies reported. Participants from 21 countries are attending the three-day congress, which formed a nine-member international tribunal to provide a social, political and legal evaluation of the crimes of communism. Human rights activist Yelena Bonner and former Polish President Lech Walesa are in attendance, as well as Russian State Duma Deputy Sergei Kovalev. Mr. Kovalev told the congress, "It was my nation that tolerated communism, it was my nation that was fascinated with the idea of communism and welcomed it, and occupied the Baltic countries - and not only them. I would like to stress that although the main culprits are the Communists, we [Russians] cannot say either that we had nothing to do with it all. Please accept my apologies." By contrast, the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry last week issued a statement claiming that the USSR sent its troops to Lithuania in 1940 at the request of that country's authorities and under "then existing international law." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma pushes agro-industrial reform

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma on June 12 urged the government and the Parliament to provide a legislative foundation for reforming the country's agro-industrial sector, Interfax reported. "The state should create transparent rules of the game in the agro-industrial sector in order to help farmers stand on their own two feet," he said. Responding to criticism that agricultural reform in Ukraine was launched too late, Mr. Kuchma said that "a year and a half ago it would not have succeeded." He added that "the awareness of land ownership" has begun to return to the countryside only recently. Under a presidential decree issued last December, the government has divided the land of some 11,000 collective farms into plots and distributed them among the farms' workers. The decree obliges the government to supply the plots' owners with ownership certificates by the end of 2002. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine, Moldova agree on shipments

ODESA - Meeting here on June 9, Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko and his Moldovan counterpart, Dumitru Bragis, agreed to facilitate transit shipments through their countries and to pool efforts in combating cross-border smuggling, Interfax reported. Mr. Yuschenko commented that the two sides agreed to modernize customs checkpoints at the Ukrainian-Moldovan border in order to make those facilities "more attractive for businessmen as well as for ordinary people." Belarusian Premier Uladzimir Yarmoshyn was also scheduled to participate in the Odesa meeting but failed to do so. A Belarusian government spokesman told RFE/RL that Mr. Yarmoshyn did not show up in Odesa because Belarus and Ukraine have not yet agreed on regulations regarding the transport corridor through Belarus. The same day, Belarusian Television quoted Mr. Yarmoshyn as saying that "the khokhly [a disparaging term for Ukrainians] are going to fleece us at the border." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Moldova puts border treaty on hold

CHISINAU - The Parliament of Moldova has again voted against debating the 1999 treaty with Ukraine on settling the border dispute between the two countries. Under that treaty, the two states were to exchange small chunks of territory, giving Ukraine sovereignty over a portion of a highway to Odesa that passes through Moldovan territory in exchange for a small strip of land leading to the River Danube, where Moldova wants to build an oil terminal. The Party of Moldovan Communists said it has "other constructive proposals to make," while the Popular Party Christian Democratic called the treaty "a fiasco for Moldovan diplomacy." The Ukrainian Parliament has ratified the treaty, and experts cited by the Infotag news service said Moldova's refusal to do so might result in Ukrainian lawmakers' refusal to ratify an agreement recognizing Moldovan properties on Ukrainian territory. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv may obtain $1.2 B from World Bank

KYIV - Johannes Linn, World Bank deputy chairman for Europe and Central Asia, said in Kyiv on June 9 that Ukraine may receive a $1 billion to $1.2 billion loan package from the bank in 2000- 2002, Interfax reported. "The level of support in terms of financial assistance will depend very much on the government's ability to implement its reform program," Mr. Linn noted. Final approval will also depend on the results of an audit of the bank's previous loans to Ukraine and the government's success in passing laws the bank considers beneficial for economic development. Mr. Linn praised Ukraine's government, saying the bank has "a new sense of optimism" about the country's economic future. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma lambastes Cabinet's energy policy

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma on June 8 criticized Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko's Cabinet for failing to regulate the situation in the fuel and energy sector, Interfax reported. "No use has been made of the 11,000 directives from the government committee on reforming the fuel and energy sector and from the Ministry of Fuel and Energy," Mr. Kuchma noted, commenting on Vice Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's performance in reforming the energy market. President Kuchma said Ukraine's debt for Russian gas supplies for the first five months of this year totals $700 million. He added that Ukraine has illegally siphoned off 13 billion cubic meters of Russian gas from pipelines crossing its territory. Russia has the right to take Ukraine to an international court over the issue, he commented. Ukraine's lucrative energy market is widely believed to provide huge revenues for a few powerful oligarchs who sell Russian gas at inflated prices. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Tymoshenko comments on gas payments

KYIV - Vice Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko also told Interfax that between June and September Ukraine will not be receiving natural gas in payment for the transit of Russian gas via Ukrainian territory. Ms. Tymoshenko said that in payment for transit services Naftohaz Ukrainy in 1999 had siphoned off 5 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to which it had not been entitled. "This is the dreadful situation to which we were driven last year," she added. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Tymoshenko denies complicity

KYIV - Vice Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on June 7 denied she was involved in former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko's money-laundering schemes, as reported in the June 6 issue of the Financial Times. "I have never in my life conducted any operations with money-laundering," she told Interfax. "It seems to me that some corrupt circles in the shadow energy sector in Ukraine ... disseminate various news reports in the world in order to get rid of the government that is putting an end to their shady deals," Ms. Tymoshenko added. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Life imprisonment replaces death penalty

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada on June 8 amended the penal code to substitute life imprisonment for the death penalty, Interfax reported. The Parliament also ruled that life sentences cannot be handed down to people under 18 or over 65, or to women who are pregnant either at time of committing their crime or receiving the court verdict. The move followed last year's ruling by the Constitutional Court that the death penalty is illegal. Under pressure from the Council of Europe, in March 1997 Ukraine imposed a moratorium on executions. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Vilnius seeks redress for Nazi occupation

VILNIUS - The Lithuanian Parliament on June 8 passed a resolution demanding compensation for the German occupation during World War II. The resolution criticizes the current mechanism whereby Lithuanian nationals seeking compensation are forced to proceed via Moscow, and calls instead for a compensation mechanism to be a part of Lithuanian-German relations and to be handled as a bilateral issue. During his meeting between German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Parliament Chairman Vytautas Landsbergis had brought up the issue, equating the mechanism via Moscow as tantamount to recognizing the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Mr. Landsbergis said he expects a foundation to be established soon in Lithuania that will deal with applications to the German compensation fund. (RFE/RL Newsline)

U.S.-Baltic commission meets

TALLINN - The U.S.-Baltic Partnership Commission held its annual meeting here in the Estonian capital on June 7. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott stressed that the year 2002 will be very important, even though no one knows what decisions will be taken at that time. Mr. Talbott added that "the NATO enlargement process will continue, it does not endanger anyone and no democratic European country should be left out of it for geographical or historical reasons, especially not reasons connected to the Cold War," the ETA news service reported. Officials signed a joint communiqué that focused on various defense and economic issues and stated that the United States welcomes "bringing to justice accused war criminals, regardless of ideology." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Odesa writers protect Ukrainian language

ODESA - The Odesa branch of the National Writers Association has initiated the set up of a Committee for Protection of the Ukrainian Language and Culture in the Odesa Oblast. The new organization will oppose the "long-lasting Russification policy in the region," said member of the board of NWA Bohdan Sushynskyi. The organization will assist Ukrainian-language TV and radio stations, newspapers and book publishing. (Eastern Economist)

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