NEWSBRIEFS (02/04/01)

NEWSBRIEFS

Rada loses two national deputies

KYIV - National Deputy Oleksander Yemets died from injuries suffered in a car accident on January 28, Interfax reported the next day. Mr. Yemets, 42, belonged to the Reform-Center caucus in the Verkhovna Rada. He was a vice prime minister in 1997 and the president's adviser in 1998-1999. On January 22 National Deputy Yurii Kononenko of the National Democratic Party caucus was found dead in his office in Kharkiv with a firearm wound to his chest. Police suspect that he committed suicide. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Holovatyi cites SBU interference

KYIV - Legislator Serhii Holovatyi on January 30 said the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) prevented him from receiving the results of an independent examination of the corpse believed to be that of missing journalist Heorhii Gongadze, the Eastern Economist Daily reported. According to Mr. Holovatyi, he was to receive the results from his compatriot, Ihor Stelmakh, in Germany. Mr. Holovatyi said their meeting could not be arranged due to interference from the SBU, which was trying to find Mr. Stelmakh in order to question him as a witness in the Gongadze case. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Prosecutors arrest captain of sunken ship

KYIV - Ukrainian prosecutors have arrested Leonid Ponomarenko, the captain of the ship Pamiat Merkuria, and charged him with breaking transport safety laws, Reuters reported. The Pamiat Merkuria sank during a storm in the Black Sea on January 26; 14 people died and five are still missing, while rescuers plucked 32 survivors from lifeboats and rafts after several days spent floating in the cold water. Volodymyr Rebrov, Crimea's deputy public procurator, said initial findings suggest the ship was overloaded. If found guilty, the captain will face up to 15 years in prison. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Cabinet's survival hinges on energy

KYIV - "Fundamental reforms in the fuel and energy sector are a question of the survival of the government and the prime minister," the January 30 issue of Eastern Economist Daily quoted Volodymyr Lanovyi as saying. According to Mr. Lanovyi, the presidential representative in Viktor Yuschenko's Cabinet, Ukraine is threatened with an energy consumption crisis. Mr. Lanovyi said he believes government has nearly lost its political initiative in conducting reforms in the country and added that the situation was far more favorable in the beginning of 2000, when Mr. Yuschenko was installed as prime minister. (RFE/RL Newsline)

President tells PM to pay off coal miners

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma has instructed Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko to resolve the problem of wage arrears and payment for coal deliveries in the coal mining sector within one month, Interfax reported on January 29. The presidential service told the agency that as of January 26 the government paid only for 13.2 percent of supplied coal and 52.5 percent of the wages owed to the sector. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv to silence foreign broadcasters?

KYIV - The National Council for Television and Radio has announced an open tender for the 101.9 FM band, on which the Kontinent radio station rebroadcasts Ukrainian-language programs from the BBC World Service, Voice of America and Deutsche Welle, Interfax reported on January 25. Kontinent director Serhii Sholokh accused the government of planning to shut down the last remaining independent mass media in Ukraine or to frighten them into silence. The BBC World Service supported Kontinent, saying that offering Kontinent's frequency for sale "is a clear breach" of the council's 1997 decision to give Kontinent that frequency for 10 years. The BBC added that the tender terms "make it almost impossible for the station to retain its frequency." The council responded that Kontinent's license for broadcasting expired last year. (RFE/RL Newsline)

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