Anti-Kuchma protests continue (10/27/02)

Anti-Kuchma protests continue

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The anti-Kuchma protest movement appeared to lose some momentum on October 21 when 5,000 people took part in a candlelight demonstration to call for the resignation of Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma.

The turnout was far smaller than earlier protest rallies. The previous week about 25,000 Ukrainians dissatisfied with the policies and actions of the Kuchma administration had turned out to voice their displeasure.

The demonstration came two days before the Constitutional Court of Ukraine remanded a complaint filed by an appellate judge, which levels criminal charges against the Ukrainian president, back to the appellate court where it originated. It also came four days before the Verkhovna Rada agreed to hear the demands put forth by national deputies of the opposition movement who had sought a parliamentary hearing to voice their grievances.

Members of the opposition, who have called for the ouster of the president by impeachment or his resignation to be followed by pre-term elections, blame Mr. Kuchma for complicity in the disappearance and subsequent death of journalist Heorhii Gongadze and for developing a political climate characterized by extensive political corruption and intimidation of the press, including beatings and killings of dozens of journalists.

The point behind this fourth rally in a series that has proceeded under the slogan "Arise, Ukraine," was to commemorate 10 years since Mr. Kuchma took his first leadership post in the Ukrainian government as prime minister, a move that catapulted him to the presidency less than two years later. This rally, like the previous three, took place before the Presidential Administration Building, this time on a rainy Saturday evening.

National Deputy Oleksander Moroz, head of the Socialist Party and a leading figure in the opposition movement, said that he had not expected a large turnout.

"No one set a goal this time to get as many people as possible to come out," explained Mr. Moroz. "This was more an informational-symbolic action."

Mr. Moroz, along with Yulia Tymoshenko of the eponymous political bloc and Petro Symonenko of the Communist Party - the three lawmakers who have led the demonstrations calling for the ouster of President Kuchma for what they consider autocratic rule and corrupt practices - laid candles before a memorial plaque, which supporters attached to the façade of the Writers' Union Building located across the street from the presidential offices. The plaque stated: "On this spot a memorial will be built to the victims of the Kuchma regime."

Oleksander Turchynov, a leading member of the Tymoshenko Bloc, said the plaque would remind future Ukrainian leaders of their responsibility to the nation. "All subsequent leaders of the country will pass this memorial while traveling to their residency and will be reminded what comes of a one-man dictatorship in Ukraine," said Mr. Turchynov.

Demonstrators had gathered at twilight on European Square, located a few blocks from the presidential offices, and had marched with lit candles to the rally sight. After the plaque was nailed to the wall, opposition supporters made a path of candles from the entryway to the grounds of the government offices to a main Kyiv thoroughfare several hundred yards away.

Yushchenko denies press reports

The Our Ukraine political bloc led by popular lawmaker Viktor Yushchenko took no part in the latest protest action. Our Ukraine has reduced its participation in the opposition movement's actions since it threw its wholehearted support behind the first one on September 16. Mr. Yushchenko continues to maintain that street demonstrations should be the last alternative after all manner of negotiations are exhausted. This was the second time that neither Mr. Yushchenko nor any of his top political lieutenants were present at an opposition rally.

However, Mr. Yushchenko continued to state that he and his political organization remain part of the opposition. He took to the floor during the parliamentary hearing on the current political situation in Ukraine held on October 23 to refute reports in the Ukrainian press that during a visit to Moscow the previous day he had changed his stance and agreed not to support the resignation of President Kuchma.

In a statement to The Ukrainian Weekly, Mr. Yushchenko's press secretary Iryna Heraschenko, called "absolutely untrue" allegations made in the newspaper Den and reprinted in the RFE/RL Newsline that Russian Duma member, Irina Khakamada and Boris Nemtsov had convinced Mr. Yushchenko to change his stance toward the Ukrainian president.

In addition to Mr. Yushchenko, the three opposition leaders had their say before the full parliamentary session, as did Mr. Turchynov and National Deputies Leonid Kravchuk and Stepan Havrysh of the pro-presidential majority.

While Mr. Moroz called on the Ukrainian president to step down, Mr. Kravchuk reminded the lawmakers that they had been elected to legislate and not to play out personal antipathy and even old scores.

In an example of how divided the Parliament remains over the issue of the Kuchma presidency and its future, two draft resolutions were being prepared for discussion the following day. One resolution demanded that the president either resign or face impeachment proceedings and called for reforming the political system, while the other one called for allowing the president to finish his term, and noted "the aggravation of the political situation in Ukraine."

Supreme Court sends case back

Two days earlier, the Supreme Court ruled on a complaint filed by Appellate Judge Yurii Vasylenko, which brings 11 criminal charges against President Kuchma in regards to the Gongadze case, as well as corruption and blackmail.

While Procurator General Sviatoslav Piskun appealed to the court to dismiss the charges as a "mistake," the court remanded the case to the Kyiv District Appellate Court to correct procedural errors. Opposition leaders have said they would like the case heard at the appellate level.

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