NEWSBRIEFS

Rada wants probe of alleged arms sales

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada on January 15 backed a motion by National Deputies Hryhorii Omelchenko and Anatolii Yermak requesting the Procurator General's Office and the Security Service of Ukraine to check the recent allegations by Germany's Der Spiegel of illegal sales of Ukrainian arms, UNIAN and Interfax reported. Quoting Russian State Duma Deputy Viktor Iliukhin in an article published on its website, Der Spiegel said Israeli citizen Vadym Rabinovych jointly with the former chief of the Security Service of Ukraine, Leonid Derkach, and his son, Andrii Derkach, had sold "military equipment" to the Taliban. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Communists want to oust election official

KYIV - Communist Party Chairman Petro Symonenko appealed to the Parliament on January 15 to dismiss Central Election Commission Chairman Mykhailo Riabets, Interfax and UNIAN reported. Mr. Symonenko said Mr. Riabets and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual recently signed an accord on U.S. assistance to Ukraine's Central Election Commission in organizing the parliamentary election. According to Mr. Symonenko, this accord is "brutal interference" on the part of the United States in Ukraine's internal affairs. Mr. Riabets commented later the same day that the accord does not provide for financing the election campaign but only for technical assistance measures, including training sessions for judges and an international conference to sum up election results. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Deputies' foreign accounts to be probed

KYIV - The Procurator-General's Office has launched an investigation into the opening of foreign bank accounts by six Ukrainian legislators, Interfax reported on January 11, quoting a letter by Deputy Procurator General Oleksii Bahanets to Verkhovna Rada Chairman Ivan Pliusch. The lawmakers suspected of illegally opening bank accounts in Switzerland are: Oleksander Volkov, Ihor Bakai, Pavlo Riabkin, Oleksii Kucherenko, Kostiantyn Zhevaho and Volodymyr Satsiuk. The investigation was opened following a motion by National Deputies Hryhorii Omelchenko and Anatolii Yermak. Last month, Messrs. Omelchenko and Yermak demanded explanations from the Procurator General's Office about an Internet report alleging that Swiss police had blocked some 200 bank accounts belonging to Russian and Ukrainian companies and citizens. The report mentioned the six Ukrainian lawmakers. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv may sell military hardware to UAE

KYIV - Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Anatolii Zlenko said in Abu Dhabi on January 15 that the support provided by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for Ukraine's entrance into the World Trade Organization can become an important tool for improving bilateral cooperation, UNIAN reported. In particular, Mr. Zlenko noted that Ukraine is ready to supply military and transport aviation, armored vehicles, and radar equipment to the UAE. The Ukrainian side also expressed interest in receiving humanitarian aid from the UAE for the resettlement of deported Crimean Tatars, and for cooperation programs to build residential housing and establish the necessary infrastructure in Crimean Tatar settlements. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Macedonian delegation visits Ukraine

KYIV - Ukraine will help Macedonia upgrade its military equipment, Interfax reported on January 15. An agreement to this effect was reached during a meeting of Ukrainian General Staff chief Petro Shuliak with his Macedonian counterpart, Metodi Stamboliski, in Kyiv on January 15. Mr. Stamboliski told journalists that the talks focused on the equipment already delivered by Ukraine to Macedonia and ruled out any new weapons acquisitions. The Skopje daily Dnevnik reported on January 15 that Mr. Stamboliski was scheduled to discuss cooperation with Mr. Shuliak, as well as Defense Minister Volodymyr Shkidchenko and Foreign Affairs Minister Anatolii Zlenko. The visit was not billed as an arms-buying mission. According to DPA news agency, the Ukrainian government said that it has already provided Macedonia with four Mi-8 general-purpose helicopters, four Mi-24 helicopter gunships, four Su-25 ground attack jets, and 31 T-72 tanks. Including two recently acquired Mi-24 helicopters from Ukraine, the Macedonian army now has 12 Mi-24, four Mi-8, and three Mi-17 helicopters, Dnevnik reported. The newspaper added that the Macedonian Interior Ministry has also shown strong interest in buying four Mi-24 helicopter gunships. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Memorial rededicated at Kuropaty

KUROPATY - Several hundred people participated on January 15 in a rededication ceremony of a small granite bench at Kuropaty outside Miensk, the site of mass executions during the Stalin era, RFE/RL's Belarusian Service reported. The memorial, originally unveiled by U.S. President Bill Clinton in January 1994, was destroyed by vandals last summer. According to Belarusian opposition activists, up to 250,000 people were killed and buried at Kuropaty in the 1930s and 1940s by the NKVD, while officials assert that no more than 7,000 people are buried there and question whether they were victims of Stalin or Hitler. "The victims of Kuropaty were killed by the ruling government," U.S. Ambassador to Belarus Michael Kozak said at the rededication ceremony. The Belarusian government was represented by Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Alyaksandr Sychou. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Social Democrats approve election list.

KYIV - At a congress on January 15 the Social Democratic Party (United) (SDPU) approved its election list and manifesto, Interfax reported. The top five on the list are SDPU leader Viktor Medvedchuk; Tamara Proshkuratova, a teacher from Cherkasy Oblast; SDPU Vice-Chairman Oleksander Zinchenko; Volodymyr Riabika, the head of the National Committee of Youth Organizations; and Leonid Kravchuk, the first president of independent Ukraine. Mr. Medvedchuk told the congress that an SDPU caucus in the future Verkhovna Rada will seek to create a centrist majority, including with the For a United Ukraine bloc, the Green Party, the Democratic Union, and the Yabluko Party. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine's GDP grows by 9 percent

KYIV - Ukraine's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2001 increased by 9 percent compared with 2000, UNIAN reported on January 15, quoting a government official. Inflation in 2001 was 6.1 percent. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Socialists' list includes Melnychenko

KYIV - A congress of the Socialist Party on January 12 approved its election list for the March 31 parliamentary election. The list is headed by Socialist Party Chairman Oleksander Moroz and includes former presidential bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko (No. 15), who is currently in the United States. In 2000 Mr. Melnychenko triggered Ukraine's biggest political scandal by releasing what he said were records of conversations in the president's office, which implied President Leonid Kuchma's complicity in the murder of opposition journalist Heorhii Gongadze and a host of other crimes. Referring to a conversation with Mr. Melnychenko, Mr. Moroz told journalists that the former presidential security officer will take part in the election campaign on Ukraine's territory. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Our Ukraine bloc has unwanted ally

KYIV - The Our Ukraine election bloc led by former Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko opened a congress on January 16 to approve its election list, but Mr. Yuschenko's name has already appeared on a list of another election bloc, Ukrainian media reported. On January 15 Mr. Yuschenko was proposed as a candidate on the list of the bloc For Yuschenko, which was organized by lawmaker Oleksander Rzhavskyi, the leader of the One Family All-Ukrainian Union. Mr. Rzhavskyi originally intended to join Our Ukraine but was rejected. "We cannot allow people's trust [in Yuschenko] to be privatized or usurped by a narrow political circle, by the right-wing parties that are now part of the Our Ukraine bloc. But we are willing to cooperate with them and to create a united caucus in the Parliament," 1+1 Television quoted Mr. Rzhavskyi as saying. Mr. Yuschenko said he has not authorized anybody to create blocs in his support, while Our Ukraine called Mr. Rzhavskyi's initiative a "provocation." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Rada adopts bill on police strength

KYIV - The Verkhovna Rada on January 10 passed a bill establishing the total number of employees working at the Interior Ministry at 386,600 people, UNIAN reported. This figure does not include the ministry-subordinated internal troops for which the numerical strength was set at 44,000. The same day parliament considered some 70 draft laws, but voted against reverting to the CD anti-piracy bill that was voted down in December. A totally new bill is to be submitted for consideration on January 11, New Channel Television reported. (RFE/RL Newsline)

10 parties pledge to form single caucus

KYIV - Ten parties constituting the Our Ukraine election bloc led by former Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko on January 9 signed a formal agreement on the creation of their election coalition and pledged to set up a joint caucus in the future Parliament, Interfax reported. Our Ukraine is formed by the National Rukh of Ukraine, the Ukrainian National Rukh, the Reforms and Order Party, the Christian-Popular Union, the Solidarity Party, the Forward Ukraine Party, the Republican Christian Party, the Youth Party, the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Liberal Party. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kyiv reports record industrial output

KYIV - Vice Prime Minister Vasyl Rohovyi told journalists in Kyiv on January 9 that Ukraine's industrial output grew by 14.2 percent in 2001 compared with 2000, UNIAN reported. This is the highest growth rate since Ukraine declared independence in 1991. In 2000 Ukraine posted industrial growth of 12.4 percent over 1999. Also on January 9, the State Statistics Committee reported that Ukrainian farmers harvested 39.7 million tons of grain last year, significantly surpassing the 2000 harvest of 24.8 million tons. (RFE/RL Newsline)

U.S. slams brutality in Chechnya

WASHINGTON - Speaking at a press briefing in Washington on January 10, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher expressed concern that Russian troops resorted to "overwhelming force against civilian targets" and committed human rights violations during recent fighting in the village of Tsotan-Yurt and the town of Argun, Reuters reported. Die Welt on January 11 quoted Chechen human rights activists as saying that drunken Russian soldiers massacred at least 80 Chechen civilians during the fighting in Tsotan-Yurt in early January, which was the fiercest in several months. Mr. Boucher also expressed concern that Moscow has not followed up on initial talks last November between presidential envoy to the Southern federal district Viktor Kazantsev and Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov's representative Akhmed Zakaev. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kutno recalls destroyed Soviet monument

KUTNO, Poland - The municipal government of the city of Kutno in central Poland has decided to place a commemorative plaque at the site of the monument to the brotherhood of the Polish People's Army and the Red Army that was dismantled in 1990, Polish Radio reported on January 10. This is the first decision of this kind in Poland concerning the commemoration of a dismantled monument glorifying the Soviet army. The Kutno Municipal Council decided in 1990 to erect a monument to Marshal Jozef Pilsudski at the site, but has failed to collect appropriate funding. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Armenians mark 1,700th anniversary

LVIV - On December 26-27, 2001, the Armenians of the Ukrainian eparchy of the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC) in Lviv celebrated the 1,700th anniversary of the proclamation of Christianity as a state religion in Armenia. Armenian King Tiridates III, who was baptized by St. Gregory the Illuminator in 301 AD, proclaimed Christianity as the state religion. With that, Armenia became the first state in the world to give official status to Christianity. In Lviv, the celebration began with a liturgy in the church of the Dormition of the Mother of God, cathedral church of the AAC. The liturgy was celebrated by Archbishop Gregory Buniatian, head of the Ukrainian eparchy of the AAC; the Rev. Thaddeus Heorhian, pastor of the Armenian community in Lviv; the Rev. Masis Galstian (Albany, N.Y.); and the Rev. Abgar Glchian (Odesa). Archbishop Buniatian's homily focused on the urgent necessity of bringing Armenians back to their faith, since among the few thousand Armenians in Lviv only a few dozen regularly attend church services. Lviv's National Opera and Ballet Theater hosted an event held in honor of the anniversary. Volodymyr Herych, vice-chairman of Lviv's Regional Administration, and Volodymyr Haiuk, curator of the Museum of the History of Religion, took the occasion to share some good news: the museum will hand over to the Armenian community a 17th century organ made by a Lithuanian master organ-maker. "This gift is a sign of the respect and love the Ukrainian state has for all Armenians who live in this land. Our Church teaches all Armenians who live here to be true Christians and good and useful citizens of the Ukrainian state," Archbishop Buniatian commented at the ceremony. (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

Kinakh supports single Orthodox Church

KYIV - At a press-conference on January 12, Prime Minister Anatolii Kinakh supported the idea of creating one National Orthodox Church in Ukraine. "We need a united Church in Ukraine," which could work together with the government for the good of the state explained Mr. Kinakh. According to the prime minister, the process of unity must not depend on the decision of the government but on the wishes of the Church and its faithful. (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 20, 2002, No. 3, Vol. LXX

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