NEWSBRIEFS (09/26/04)

NEWSBRIEFS

Parliament continues to regroup...

KYIV - Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn announced on September 22 that 17 lawmakers in the Democratic Initiatives-People's Power party have dissolved their group and formed a new caucus called United Ukraine (Yedyna Ukraina), Interfax reported. The current division of deputies in the Ukrainian legislature is: Our Ukraine, 100; Ukraine's Regions, 63; the Communist Party, 59; the Social Democratic Party-United, 40; Labor Ukraine, 30; the Popular Agrarian Party, 21; the Socialist Party, 20; the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, 19; the Soyuz group, 18; the National Democratic Party - Party of Entrepreneurs and Industrialists, 17; and the Center group, 16. Also on September 22, three lawmakers from the National Democratic Party - Party of Entrepreneurs and Industrialists announced their withdrawal from the pro-government parliamentary coalition. "The political fata morgana of the [pro-government] parliamentary majority elicits irony," Serhii Shevchuk said. "We are not a component of the non-existent structure [parliamentary majority] any longer." It is not clear whether Viktor Yanukovych's Cabinet can currently count on support from a majority of deputies (226 votes) in the Verkhovna Rada. (RFE/RL Newsline)

...as PM accuses it of sowing instability

KYIV - Prime Minister and presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych said on September 22 that the Verkhovna Rada is destabilizing the situation in Ukraine, UNIAN reported. "The developments taking place in Parliament do not give us hope that we will have normal cooperation until the end of the election campaign," Mr. Yanukovych said. "Unfortunately, Parliament has recently become a constant factor contributing to the destabilization of the situation." Three major pro-government groups - Ukraine's Regions, the Social Democratic Party-United and Labor Ukraine - refused on September 21 to vote on any bills on the session agenda, including some sponsored by the government. Opposition lawmaker Mykola Tomenko alleged that deputies from these factions had been deprived of their magnetic voting cards. According to National Deputy Tomenko, Prime Minister Yanukovych and presidential-administration head Viktor Medvedchuk are implementing a "scenario" to render the Verkhovna Rada inoperative and discredit it during the presidential election campaign. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Group rejoins pro-government coalition

KYIV - National Deputy Dmytro Sviatash announced in the Verkhovna Rada on September 21 that 15 lawmakers from the Democratic Initiatives - People's Power caucus have restored their membership in the pro-government coalition, Interfax reported. The 15 lawmakers reportedly suspended their participation in the pro-government alliance in protest against the government's decision two weeks ago to pool state stakes in the Halychyna and Ukrtatnafta oil refineries with the basic capital of state-controlled oil company Ukrnafta. Last week, President Leonid Kuchma revoked the decision, ordering that those stakes be pooled with the basic capital of the state-run gas company Naftohaz Ukrainy. Apart from the Democratic Initiatives - People's Power caucus, the pro-government parliamentary coalition has been abandoned by some 30 lawmakers from the Center and Popular Agrarian Party groups. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Probes launched into poisoning

KYIV - The Procurator General's Office has begun an inquiry into the public allegations that opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko's recent bout of poisoning may have been caused by a deliberate attempt on his life, Interfax reported on September 20, quoting a spokesman for the Procurator General's Office, Serhii Rudenko. Last week, Yushchenko campaign manager Oleksander Zinchenko cited Austrian doctors as saying that Mr. Yushchenko's ailment was caused by "a viral infection and chemical substances that usually do not appear in foodstuffs." The Verkhovna Rada voted by 425-17 on September 21 to set up an ad hoc commission to look into reasons behind Mr. Yushchenko's poisoning. "What happened to me is not linked to a food problem," Mr. Yushchenko told lawmakers before the vote. "What happened to me is a problem linked to the political regime in Ukraine." Mr. Yushchenko also commented sarcastically on the official investigation into his poisoning. "You are posing questions that you do not intend to answer," he said, referring personally to President Leonid Kuchma. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukrainians from Transdniester march

KYIV - Some 70 ethnic Ukrainians from Moldova's breakaway Transdniester region on September 20 crossed the Moldovan-Ukrainian border and are marching to Kyiv to request that the Ukrainian authorities defend them from the economic sanctions imposed on Transdniester by Moldova, Interfax reported. "We are forced to take this action, because the economic situation in Transdniester is becoming more and more acute," said Volodymyr Bodnar, deputy of the Supreme Council of the unrecognized Transdniestrian Republic and head of the Union of Ukrainians of Transdniester. "Foreign Minister" Valerii Litskai told RFE/RL last week that some 20,000 people in Transdniester have Ukrainian passports. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Government raises pensions for millions

KYIV - Prime Minister and presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych's Cabinet on September 18 decided to double the minimum monthly pension from the current 137 hrv to 284.6 hrv ($54), which is the country's subsistence minimum for disabled persons, as of September, Ukrainian media reported. According to First Vice Prime Minister and Finance Minister Mykola Azarov, nearly 11.4 million pensioners in Ukraine will start receiving higher pensions this week as a result of the Cabinet's decision. Mr. Azarov said the pension surge became possible, among other reasons, due to a surplus in the budget's revenues from privatization. Ukrainian Pension Fund Chairman Borys Zaichuk said the pension jump will increase the fund's monthly expenses by 1.1 billion hrv ($207 million) to 4.1 billion hrv. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Journalist's disappearance is recalled

KYIV - Some 5,000 people took part in a rally in Kyiv on September 16 to mark the death of Internet journalist Heorhii Gongadze, whose headless corpse was discovered on November 2, 2000, following his disappearance on September 16, 2000, Ukrainian news agencies reported. Speakers at the rally accused the current Ukrainian authorities, including President Leonid Kuchma, of involvement in Gongadze's slaying. Socialist Party activist Yurii Lutsenko said at the rally that Gongadze's disappearance gave rise to a number of anti-Kuchma protests in the following years. "The main result of those protests was that Ukraine has ceased to be afraid of Kuchma any longer," Interfax quoted Mr. Lutsenko as saying. Participants in the rally subsequently marched to Bankova Street, where the building housing the presidential-administration offices is located, and placed a plaque reading "Heorhii Gongadze Street" on a building on that street. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Media watchdog calls for public trial

PARIS - The Paris-based media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in a September 15 press release called on the Ukrainian authorities to hold a public trial on the case of Heorhii Gongadze. "Now, with the Gongadze case a major political issue in the run-up to the presidential election, new facts have been revealed by both the press and the prosecutor's office," RSF wrote in a letter to Ukrainian Procurator General Hennadii Vasiliev. "This new information is of capital importance, and if you think it is credible, it is time for the judicial process to move on to the next stage - a public and fair trial." RSF was referring to new information published in The Independent in June based on documents that said Gongadze was being shadowed by police at the time of his disappearance, and to the announcement that same month that Ukrainian investigators were holding in custody a "Mr. K," who reportedly confessed to murdering Gongadze and described the circumstances of his death in detail. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Prosecutors to summon Yulia to Moscow

KYIV - The Ukrainian Procurator General's Office has so far not succeeded in delivering a notice from the Russian Military Prosecutor's Office to Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko requesting that she appear in Moscow by September 16 for a criminal investigation, Interfax reported on September 15, quoting Ukrainian Procurator General's Office spokesman Serhii Rudenko. Russian prosecutors reportedly suspect Ms. Tymoshenko of bribing Russian Defense Ministry officials when she headed Ukraine's Unified Energy Systems in 1995-1997. Ms. Tymoshenko's Batkivschyna Party said in a statement on September 16 that the Russian prosecutors' move is "yet another provocation," organized with encouragement from Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and Russian President Vladimir Putin, against Ms. Tymoshenko for her support of the presidential bid of opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko instead of that of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Yulia won't go to Moscow for questioning

KYIV - Opposition Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko said on Channel 5 on September 16 that she is not planning to go to Moscow for an inquiry by Russian military prosecutors. "There is no sense whatsoever for me to fulfill plans of [President Leonid] Kuchma and [presidential-administration chief Viktor] Medvedchuk and go to Russia in order to give Russia a possibility to stage some provocations [against me]," Ms. Tymoshenko said. "Therefore I have proposed ... that Russian prosecutors come to Ukraine, and I will gladly give them any explanations they need." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Gongadze's shadowing not confirmed

KYIV - Vice Minister of Internal Affairs Mykhailo Kornienko told journalists on September 14 that his ministry has not confirmed the Procurator General's Office claim that Internet journalist Heorhii Gongadze was being shadowed by police officers at the time of his disappearance on September 16, 2000, Ukrainian news agencies reported. Mr. Kornienko said all officers who worked in the ministry in 2000 and could be involved in the alleged shadowing denied that such surveillance took place. "What is more, the documents that could give evidence to that [shadowing] were destroyed in 2001," Mr. Kornienko said, adding that some of the documents relating to the Gongadze case were destroyed per procedure and some due to "official negligence." In June The Independent published an article by Askold Krushelnycky based on leaks of information from an official inquiry into the slaying of Gongadze. The leaks suggested that Gongadze was shadowed by police officers before his disappearance. (RFE/RL Newsline)

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