Helsinki Commission examines Ukraine 10 years after independence

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe recently took a long, hard look at how democracy and human rights are developing in Ukraine, 10 years after the country gained independence.

While the subject of the May 2 hearing of the so-called "Helsinki Commission" was broad - covering also the past and future of the U.S.-Ukrainian political, economic and assistance relationships - commission members focused especially on Ukraine's current political problems, including the so-called "tape scandal," which allegedly links President Leonid Kuchma to the murder of a young journalist, Heorhii Gongadze, as well as to some high-level corruption; the ousting of the Western-oriented, reformist Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko; and the perceived recent shift of Ukraine's strategic orientation from the West back to Moscow.

The discussion of these issues by a U.S. government body was seen to be important enough by Ukraine to have its position presented by President Kuchma's top national security advisor, Yevhen Marchuk - a last-minute upgrade from the originally scheduled appearance by Ukraine's ambassador to Washington.

And it was judged to be important enough by Helsinki Commission Chairman Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.), who scheduled the hearing at this time in the legislative calendar, despite the politically intense budget process evolving on Capitol Hill, and by five of his congressional colleagues who took the time from other hearings to participate in at least part of the hearing.

In addition to Mr. Marchuk, the panel heard from Jon Purnell, deputy special advisor to the U.S. secretary of state for the new independent states, Freedom House President Adrian Karatnycky and Ariel Cohen of The Heritage Foundation. It was the first hearing in Congress devoted exclusively to Ukrainian issues in recent memory.

Sen. Campbell set the tone at the outset of the hearing, expressing the commission's concern about developments in Ukraine, including "pervasive high-level corruption," the Gongadze affair and other human rights problems.

"Given the importance of our relationship with Ukraine - and let there be no doubt that it is a very important relationship - the commission has become increasingly concerned about the direction in which Ukraine appears to be heading," he said.

The chairman's concern and assessment of the importance of the U.S.-Ukrainian relationship was echoed by his co-chairman, Rep. Christopher H. Smith.

"Despite the forces hostile to reform, it is clear that the United States must not abandon Ukraine," the New Jersey Republican said. "Whether through political support or through concrete assistance to strengthen democracy, it is incumbent upon us to work with the Ukrainian people so that the promise for a better future for which so many sacrifices were made will, at long last, become a reality."

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), who chaired the Helsinki Commission in the late 1980s, spoke about the high hopes many people had for Ukraine when it became independent. Some of them were realized, he said, as evidenced by the dismantling of its nuclear arsenal, the way it treated its minorities and the constructive relations it built with neighboring states.

But he, too, expressed concern about recent developments, which, he said "were only amplified by last week's dismissal of Prime Minister Yuschenko, a reformer who was not only the most trusted politician in Ukraine, but under whose stewardship Ukraine was enjoying economic growth for the first time in over a decade."

As the lead-off witness, the State Department's Mr. Purnell presented a subdued but diplomatic view of the situation in Ukraine in his testimony: "For now, I can say that the present situation is mixed, but that the potential is unlimited." And judging by headlines over the past few months, he added, "they have not been positive, and some of the news has been downright ugly."

He described the evolving events of the Gongadze-tape scandal, which developed further into a government crisis with opposition calls for the removal of the president. The crisis expanded further after the arrest of Vice Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and the break-up of the reform-minded majority in the Verkhovna Rada and, ultimately, the no-confidence vote on April 26 that brought down the Yuschenko government.

"All of this is very disturbing, and the United States has urged Ukrainian authorities to deal effectively with these issues," Mr. Purnell said.

The State Department official said it was too early to assess the effect of Mr. Yuschenko's ouster. It will depend on the ability of the president, the parliament and the new government to rebuild the political consensus that worked so well last year, he added.

In the area of human rights, Mr. Purnell said, the United States has "pulled no punches" in describing Ukraine's problems in such areas as media freedom and the independence of the judiciary.

"These facts, however, should not blind us to some equally valid general observations such as that Ukraine has made a commitment to democracy and respect for human rights," he added, citing the sensitive treatment of its minorities, the holding of free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections, protection of religious freedom and the existence of a diverse press. "The problems concerning media freedom mar this last statement; they do not negate it," he said.

Mr. Purnell said that Ukraine faces some major challenges and that, as it takes the necessary steps, the United States and its European allies are prepared to assist "in a substantial way."

The appearance as a witness before the Helsinki Commission by such a high-ranking foreign government official as Mr. Marchuk was "unusual but not unprecedented," according to a commission source. The former head of the KGB in Ukraine who served as prime minister for a year in the mid-1990s dropped his opposition to President Kuchma's re-election and was subsequently appointed by him to the National Security and Defense Council.

Over the past nine years, Mr. Marchuk told the commission, "Ukraine has proven to the world community its ability to implement undertaken commitments and shown a consistency in realizing its non-bloc foreign policy course."

He cited as examples the elimination of its nuclear stockpile, its adherence to international arms control and non-proliferation regimes and the closure of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant.

In its foreign policy, Ukraine remains oriented toward Europe, he said, noting that this position was restated by President Kuchma following the Yuschenko no-confidence vote. Ukraine cooperates with NATO and participates in its peacekeeping operations.

"We have demonstrated to the world that Ukraine is a predictable, consistent and responsible partner," he said. "We speak the same language with Moscow, Brussels and Washington. It is the language of our national interest."

He said the recent "activization" of Ukraine's high-level dialogue with Russia was the result of the necessity to solve some past and present "complex problems."

As for the recent tape-scandal and the Gongadze affair, Mr. Marchuk said that they "complicated the political process" and "were used to instigate the political crisis in Ukraine." But he pointed to a silver lining in the crisis: the existence of conflicts in a society, he said, is a "natural component of a complex process of the maturing of the young Ukrainian democracy."

The Ukrainian official stressed the continued importance of the U.S.-Ukrainian relationship and called on the U.S. Congress to abandon the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which is holding back the development of full bilateral trade ties.

The commission's newest member, Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), pressed Mr. Marchuk on why President Kuchma apparently would not support Prime Minister Yuschenko in his battle with the Verkhovna Rada.

Mr. Marchuk admitted that Mr. Yuschenko's ouster was a "bad event," but not necessarily a "tragedy." He said that the president did speak up for Mr. Yuschenko, albeit without success, and suggested that the prime minister's demise resulted more from his political inexperience, overconfidence and an inability to work together with the Parliament rather than a lack of presidential support.

Rep. Hastings said that he has always backed U.S. assistance to Ukraine, but he, too, is deeply troubled by the prevalent corruption and obstacles to foreign investment in Ukraine.

While corruption is known to exist at various levels in the United States, he said, it is not universally ignored here by the government, as it seems to be in Ukraine, where "certain things cannot happen ... but for certain officials knowing about them and failing to do anything about it, or knowing about it and participating, or knowing about it and not caring."

"You say that Ukraine has met certain standards for normal trade relations," he went on. "I say to you that if I had a million dollars to invest today - and I don't - I'm not so sure I would invest it in Ukraine, any more than I know doggone well I wouldn't invest it in the Congo, and I wouldn't invest it in Indonesia."

Also participating in the hearing were U.S. representatives Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) and Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.).

Freedom House President Adrian Karatnycky, who in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs magazine flatly stated that Ukraine has the worst reputation in the world today, added before the commission that "even the most neutral and objective observers would have to say that in its first decade of independence, the state of freedom in Ukraine and Ukraine's record of progress toward a competitive market economy and an open, democratic society has been disappointing."

It is now widely believed that President Kuchma "sits at the top of a corrupt, perhaps criminal structure of power," which he either directs or is unable to reform, Mr. Karatnycky said. And it was corruption that was behind the recent removal of the reformist prime minister, he said.

Mr. Yuschenko's re-assertion of control over the corruption-riddled energy sector resulted in an estimated annual loss of up to $2 billion of ill-gotten gains for a small group of "economic magnates." He explained that these magnates, who control political parties with more than a quarter of the seats in the Verkhovna Rada, broke away from the reform bloc in Parliament and sided with the Communist Party to topple Mr. Yuschenko.

Mr. Karatnycky pointed out that the Ukrainian system of government is full of contradictions, citing the example of the head of the government tax authority being allowed to continue as the head of a political party. This, he said, is not considered a conflict of interest under Ukrainian law.

Despite Mr. Kuchma's many well-deserved criticisms, Mr. Karatnycky said, the West should not mistake him for a tyrant, "a Mr. [Alyaksandr] Lukashenka." He stressed that there is a systemic problem in the government that places an "excessive concentration of power in the presidency."

Mr. Karatnycky also recommended that some way be found to bring back into the legal economy those who made large amounts of money in the early years of the gray market. Many of Ukraine's so-called oligarchs, who once were wedded to corruption, now thrive in the open market and could "be reconfigured," he said.

In conclusion, the Freedom House president stated that the billions of dollars of U.S. and other foreign aid to Ukraine "have not all been in vain."

Dr. Ariel Cohen, a research fellow with The Heritage Foundation, devoted some of his remarks to the mystery of the secret tapes, which were reportedly made by a presidential bodyguard, Maj. Mykola Melnychenko, who has subsequently received asylum in the United States.

It is still not clear who was behind this extensive taping, he said. What is clear is that the Ukrainian presidency suffered a serious blow to its legitimacy, he explained.

"Ukraine as a nation has been weakened by all that," Mr. Cohen said. And, as the West has distanced itself from Ukraine, Kyiv "seems to be drifting into Russia's orbit," he added, noting that under Moscow's pressure, President Kuchma fired pro-Western Foreign Affairs Minister Borys Tarasyuk, slowed down its cooperation within the regional organization of non-Russian former Soviet republics called GUUAM, and signed a number of bilateral military cooperation agreements.

Dr. Cohen suggested that the 1,000 hours of the secret Melnychenko tape recordings may contain "important information that goes beyond the Gongadze affair."

Sitting in the audience throughout the hearing was Myroslava Gongadze, Heorhii Gongadze's widow, and their two young daughters. Commenting on the hearing afterwards, she said it was important for Ukraine to have the world realize "how difficult the situation is in Ukraine."

"I hope that such things as this hearing will help bring about a change," she said.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, May 20, 2001, No. 20, Vol. LXIX

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