NEWSBRIEFS (05/13/01)

NEWSBRIEFS

Kuchma predicts new Cabinet this month

KYIV - Leonid Kuchma on May 8 told journalists in Novgorod, Russia, that he believes Ukraine's new Cabinet of Ministers will be formed by the end of May, Interfax reported. Mr. Kuchma went to Novgorod Oblast to visit the grave of his father, a Red Army soldier who died of injuries in 1942. Earlier the same day in Kyiv, Mr. Kuchma said he has four candidates to lead the government: State Tax Administration head Mykola Azarov, Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs leader Anatolii Kinakh, State Commission for the Military-Industrial Complex Chairman Volodymyr Horbulin, and Kyiv Mayor Oleksander Omelchenko. "Today the post [of prime minister] should be assumed by a horse that is able to draw a plow," the president commented, adding that "I will try to hold the handles of that plow." Mr. Kuchma noted that he will appoint an acting prime minister if the Verkhovna Rada fails to accept the candidacy proposed by him. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Negotiations on PM have not begun

KYIV - There are still no negotiations in the Verkhovna Rada on a candidate for the post of prime minister, said Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko. Mr. Symonenko noted that, according to the Constitution of Ukraine, it is the president who must act first by submitting names for consideration and that President Leonid Kuchma has not relayed any suggestions on holding consultations. Mr. Symonenko confirmed his party's willingness to introduce the nominations for the prime minister's post from the Communist Party, once negotiations are begun. "That is what we insist on. Today there is no other political force in society [apart from the Communist Party of Ukraine] that can nominate any real candidate or any real program for consolidating society," he said. Mr. Symonenko said the party is ready to nominate four candidates, some of whom are members of the Communist faction in the Parliament. (Eastern Economist)

Rukh re-elects Udovenko as leader

KYIV - Rukh held a congress in Kyiv on May 5-6, at which delegates re-elected Hennadii Udovenko as the party's leader, adopted the party's new statute and program, and decided to form an electoral bloc with the Reforms and Order Party and the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists, Interfax reported. Tensions within the party appeared after the re-election of Mr. Udovenko, who defeated Mykhailo Kosiv. Mr. Kosiv refused to join Rukh's leadership, while Taras Chornovil, son of Rukh's former leader, Vyacheslav Chornovil, announced that he may quit the National Rukh of Ukraine and join the Reforms and Order Party. Rukh, an influential, moderately nationalist movement in Ukraine in the early 1990s, has since split into the Udovenko and (Yurii) Kostenko factions and given rise to a third group, the Popular Rukh of Ukraine for Unity, led by Bohdan Boiko. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv requires foreign passports from CIS

KYIV - The Ukrainian government on May 6 decided that citizens of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) will be able to travel to Ukraine only with their foreign travel passports, instead of the domestic passports that had been accepted until now, Interfax reported. CIS citizens still will not need visas to enter Ukraine. Foreign Affairs Minister Anatolii Zlenko elaborated on the new regulations later the same day by saying that it does not apply to Russians and Belarusians, since Kyiv has accords with Moscow and Miensk allowing their citizens to travel with any documents that confirm their identity and citizenship. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Methane blast kills eight miners

DONETSK - A methane explosion on May 5 killed eight miners at the Kirov coal mine in Makiivka, Donetsk Oblast, Interfax reported. Of the 151 miners working underground at the time, 141 were brought safely to surface, while two are missing. Ukraine's mines are among the world's most dangerous; 306 people died in mining accidents last year in the country. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma notes Press Freedom Day

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma sent greetings to Ukrainian journalists on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, Interfax reported on May 3, quoting the presidential press service. Mr. Kuchma said in his message that "for Ukraine, where the building of democratic society values is under way, press freedom is of special importance." Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a U.S.-based human rights group, included the Ukrainian president on its annual list of top "Enemies of the Press." The CPJ accused Mr. Kuchma of increasing the "habitual censorship of opposition newspapers," as well as attacks and threats against independent journalists. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma criticizes situation in Crimea ...

SYMFEROPOL - Speaking in Symferopol on May 3, President Leonid Kuchma criticized the socio-economic situation in Crimea. In particular, Mr. Kuchma noted that only 90 "agricultural enterprises" were created in Crimea under Ukraine's agricultural transformation program, while Zhytomyr Oblast has 500 such enterprises. He said the rate of privatization in Crimea is slower by half than in other Ukrainian regions. He also said Crimea's wage arrears have increased to 7 million hrv ($1.3 million), adding to the problem of poverty and homeless children on the peninsula. President Kuchma was also unhappy about the fact that Crimea, where Ukrainians constitute 26 percent of the approximately 2.5 million population, has only four Ukrainian-language schools. Touching upon the continuing standoff between the legislative and executive branches of the autonomous republic, Mr. Kuchma said the conflict is a "detonator that may blow up the socio-economic situation in the region." (RFE/RL Newsline)

... expresses confidence in stability

SYMFEROPOL - President Leonid Kuchma said in the Crimean capital that the situation in the country remains stable despite the recent dismissal of Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko's Cabinet of Ministers. "Nothing happened. This is a general formula - the Parliament passes a no-confidence vote in a Cabinet, the Cabinet steps down," he commented. Mr. Kuchma said he believes that Ukraine has recently witnessed a "powerful anti-Ukrainian action staged for sums that had been diverted from Ukraine abroad." Earlier the same day President Kuchma promised to propose a candidate for the post of prime minister by no later than May 15. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Attacks on free press intensifying

MOSCOW - On the occasion of International Journalists Solidarity Day, the Russian Journalists' Union issued a statement saying that "attacks against freedom of speech are becoming more and more persistent and well-prepared." According to Ekho Moskvy, the statement also noted: "We are being persuaded that certain things are more important than freedom. We are being urged to perceive the press as an enemy." Meanwhile, the Glasnost Defense Fund noted that 117 journalists have been killed in Russia since 1991, Interfax reported on May 3. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Anger over enemy of the press list

MOSCOW - Pro-Kremlin media officials and politicians ranging from the Communists to the People's Deputy Faction to Unity expressed outrage that the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists included Russian President Vladimir Putin on its annual list of enemies of the free press, Interfax reported on May 3. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Soldiers went from Nazi prisons to gulag

MOSCOW - Aleksandr Yakovlev, the chairman of the presidential commission for the rehabilitation of victims of political repressions, told Interfax on May 8 that 1.5 million Soviet soldiers captured by the Germans during World War II were sent directly to the Stalinist Gulag camps upon their release at the end of that conflict. Mr. Yakovlev said that fears by soldiers and officers that this would happen had prompted 180,000 Soviet POWs to choose to remain in the West rather than return to their homeland. Mr. Yakovlev also called for the erection in Moscow's Lubianka Square of a memorial to the victims of Stalinist repressions in the former USSR, Interfax reported. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Moscow wants its troops in Transdniester

CHISINAU - Pavel Petrovskii, Russia's ambassador to Moldova, said on April 25 that Moscow wants to keep its troops in the Transdniester region indefinitely in order to protect munitions there, Russian and Western agencies reported. Moscow had pledged to remove its personnel and equipment by 2002, but Ambassador Petrovskii indicated that it will not meet that deadline. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Zlenko reassures Brussels on Kyiv's path

KYIV - Speaking before the Foreign Affairs Commission of the European Parliament in Brussels on April 24, Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Minister Anatolii Zlenko appealed to the European Union to continue offering support to Ukraine despite "the difficult political situation" in his country, the PAP news agency reported. Mr. Zlenko noted that Kyiv wants to be treated by Brussels as a "potential EU candidate at some time in the future." He warned against separating Ukrainians from the EU via a strict visa regime and appealed for more "flexible" visa regulations between Ukraine and EU candidate countries - particularly Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. Mr. Zlenko pledged that Ukrainian authorities will conduct a "transparent and open investigation" into the disappearance of journalist Heorhii Gongadze, adding that the Procurator General's Office has so far procrastinated and "made mistakes" in this case. (RFE/RL Newsline)

PACE warns Ukraine to act quickly

KYIV - The April 26 session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has supported the proposal of its Monitoring Committee to start the procedure to expel Ukraine from the Council of Europe. The proposal was supported by 111 deputies at the session, with 19 against. However, this decision does not mean that Ukraine is already out of the Council of Europe, said a representative of the council's press service, Dmytro Marchenkov. PACE proposed that Ukraine "urgently reach significant progress in preserving human rights and freedom of speech in the country" by the June session of PACE. This means approving criminal and civil codes and reforming the court system. If these demands are not be met by June, Ukraine will be subjected to sanctions in accordance with PACE regulations. Ukraine's representatives at PACE have said that it is almost impossible to meet these demands in such a short period. (Eastern Economist)

Moldova expects to join union

MOSCOW - President Vladimir Voronin of Moldova declared that his current visit to Moscow "is the first step" on the path leading to Moldova's accession to the Russia-Belarus Union. He stressed that it will not be an easy path to tread "just as it was [not easy] for Russia and Belarus." Mr. Voronin said he felt the task would be even more complicated and longer for Moldova. The president added that Moldova's first steps would be focused on economic integration not only with the Russia-Belarus Union but with the Eurasian community of CIS member-states. He added that Moldova would work on giving the status of a second state language to Russian. He stressed that the Moldovan Communists who have come to power have preserved "ideas of social justice, fraternity and internationalism, and of friendship and many other useful and important ideas which existed in our Communist past under Soviet power." He added, however, "We shall not fight wealth or wealthy people, but we intend to fight poverty in a very serious manner." (Eastern Economist)

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