NEWSBRIEFS

SBU probes Yushchenko poisoning

KYIV - Procurator General Hennadii Vasyliev told journalists on September 22 that the recently opened criminal investigation into the alleged attempt on opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko's life has been transferred to the Security Service of Ukraine (known by its Ukrainian acronym as SBU), Interfax reported. "The SBU is conducting an investigation," Mr. Vasyliev said. "It is necessary to be patient and wait." He added that investigators have established contacts with Austrian doctors who examined Mr. Yushchenko and are trying to gain the doctors' cooperation in the investigation. Last week Mr. Yushchenko's campaign manager, Oleksander Zinchenko, suggested the candidate's recent health crisis might have been caused by deliberate poisoning. The same day Yurii Kostenko, leader of the Ukrainian National Party in the Our Ukraine bloc, told Channel 5 television that Mr. Yushchenko was poisoned with ricin. "We know when and how this [poisoning] happened and who is behind it," Mr. Kostenko said. "All this operation to poison presidential candidate Yushchenko was carried out not by foreign spies, but by our [compatriots] from the Ukrainian corridors of powers." (RFE/RL Newsline)

New defense minister named

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma on September 24 appointed Oleksander Kuzmuk as defense minister following the dismissal of Yevhen Marchuk two days before. Mr. Kuzmuk, 50, was Ukraine's defense minister in 1996-2001. He was elected to the Verkhovna Rada in 2002 and has since belonged to the pro-government Labor Ukraine caucus. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Moscow issues warrant for Tymoshenko

MOSCOW - A military court in Moscow, following a request by Russia's Main Military Prosecutor's Office, issued an international arrest warrant on September 23 for Yulia Tymoshenko, head of the opposition Fatherland Party and the eponymous opposition bloc in Ukraine, Ukrainian and Russian media reported. Russian military prosecutors, who have recently summoned Ms. Tymoshenko for an inquiry in Moscow, suspect her of bribing Russian Defense Ministry officials when she headed Ukraine's Unified Energy Systems in 1995-1997. The Fatherland Party said in a statement on September 24 that Moscow's move is "yet another dirty episode in the continued hounding of leaders of the Ukrainian opposition." Ms. Tymoshenko works on the election campaign staff of opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko. The Fatherland Party said the real instigators of the arrest warrant for Ms. Tymoshenko were President Leonid Kuchma, presidential administration chief Viktor Medvedchuk, and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. The party accused them of "betrayal of national interests" in order to "block the participation of Tymoshenko in organizing the opposition victory" in the October 31 presidential elections. (RFE/RL Newsline)

GUUAM creates Parliamentary Assembly

KYIV - Leaders of the parliaments of Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova (GUUAM) set up a GUUAM Parliamentary Assembly in Kyiv on September 23, Ukrainian news agencies reported. Uzbekistan, which temporarily has suspended its membership in GUUAM, was not represented at the Kyiv meeting. The declaration of the GUUAM Parliamentary Assembly states that parliamentarians will work toward strengthening democracy and the rule of law, ensuring the observance of human rights, and developing market economies in their countries. The GUUAM Parliamentary Assembly headquarters will be located in Kyiv, according to UNIAN. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Prosecutor: Melnychenko tapes doctored

KYIV - Procurator General Vasyliev told journalists on September 22 that his office has opened an investigation into the fabrication of evidence - the so-called "Melnychenko tapes" - in the case of slain journalist Heorhii Gongadze, Interfax reported. Mr. Vasyliev referred to a recent government-sponsored examination of Mykola Melnychenko's recordings, which implicate President Leonid Kuchma and other top officials in Gongadze's killing. That examination established that the tapes had been altered and the voices recorded on them cannot be identified. Mr. Vasyliev said investigators do not know who manipulated the Melnychenko tapes - which were given to the Procurator General's Office by Socialist Party leader Oleksander Moroz - and he confirmed the official position that they cannot be accepted as evidence in the Gongadze case. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Romanian president rejects canal claims

BUCHAREST - President Ion Iliescu on September 14 dismissed claims by the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry that Romania has built three canals that have harmed the Danube Delta's ecosystem, characterizing the accusations as "aberrations" and "fiction," Mediafax reported on September 15. Mr. Iliescu said on Romania 1 public television that the country has only built one shipping canal, the Danube-Black Sea canal, and that has nothing to do with the delta. Earlier the same day, Natalia Zarudna, a high-ranking official in the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry, had accused Romania of seriously harming the delta, warning that Romanian actions could cause by 2010 "an Aral Sea in Central Europe." Ms. Zarudna said Romania has built a network of three canals in the delta and is working on a fourth, adding that the canals affect the Ukrainian part of the delta. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Romania-Ukraine tensions raised

BUCHAREST - Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana said on September 17 that Romania has asked Ukraine to remove buoys in the Danube River allegedly placed illegally on Romanian territory, Romanian media reported. Romania filed a complaint on September 16 against Ukraine at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague in order to settle a dispute on delimiting the continental shelf and exclusive economic zones in the Black Sea. A September 19 statement by the Romanian Foreign Ministry characterized the opening of a Ukrainian bank office on Serpents Island as "a desperate attempt at changing the actual situation" ahead of the ICJ proceedings. The release says Ukraine attempted to change "artificially the natural characteristics of this rock ...t hat according to international law does not qualify for having a continental plateau and exclusive economic zone." The private Ukrainian Aval bank opened an office on the island on September 15, saying there are prospects for infrastructure-development projects. According to RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, Ukraine's Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Oleksander Motsyk said on September 17 that the two countries haven't used all possible methods to solve the conflict by direct negotiations. He added that Ukraine is nevertheless looking forward to the court's decision, which could disappoint Romania. Romania has also recalled its ambassador in Ukraine for consultations in Bucharest. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Romania continues to pressure Ukraine

BUCHAREST - A September 16-17 meeting in Vienna of the International Commission on the Protection of the Danube River's permanent working group asked Ukraine to halt the construction of the Bystraya canal in the Danube Delta, Mediafax reported on September 17, citing a Romanian Foreign Ministry release. On September 17 Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana also announced that Romania plans to organize an international conference in Geneva on the issue of the controversial deep-water shipping canal in the delta. The group asked Ukraine to postpone continuing the canal until a comprehensive environmental-impact assessment can be completed. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Romania toughens discourse on canal

NEW YORK - Speaking to Romanian journalists in New York on September 21, where he was attending the United Nations General Assembly meeting, Romanian President Ion Iliescu accused Ukraine of breaching international law and rules of good neighborliness by allegedly illegally placing buoys in the Danube River on Romanian territory, Mediafax reported. "Of course, we won't enter into a military conflict, but we will appeal to Ukraine and international bodies to [prevent] conflict situations," he said. Ukraine recently placed buoys marking the entry to the Bystraya deep-water shipping canal. Meeting in New York with his Ukrainian counterpart, Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana warned that Romania will remove the buoys if Ukraine does not do so itself. Mr. Geoana also said an international committee is to start an environmental-impact assessment of the Bystraya canal in October. He further said that Romania does not want relations with Ukraine to continue to deteriorate, in spite of the fact that Ukraine is practicing a policy of fait accompli. Mr. Gryshchenko reportedly told Mr. Geoana the current campaign against the canal and Ukraine in the Romanian press is being orchestrated by the government, to which Mr. Geoana replied that the press is free in Romania. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Romania sets up watch group

BUCHAREST - According to a Romanian government press release, Prime Minister Adrian Nastase decided on September 22 to set up a watch group made up of representatives of the Interior, Foreign and Environment ministries to constantly monitor events in the Danube Delta area where Ukraine is building the controversial Bystraya deep-water shipping canal, Rompres and Mediafax reported. Mr. Nastase also called on government officials to urgently begin setting up the Romanian-Ukrainian joint border commission, in line with the bilateral treaty on state borders. He also asked for a thorough report on the situation in the Danube area, in order to decide on measures to "restore legality." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Ukraine's Embassy targeted

BEIRUT - Terror suspects arrested for allegedly planning to bomb the Italian and Ukrainian embassies and assassinate Western embassy staff in Beirut were affiliated with al-Qaeda, Lebanese security officials said on September 22. The Associated Press reported that Lebanon's Interior Minister Elias Murr identified the leaders of the plot as Ahmed Salim Mikati and Ismail Mohammed al-Khatib, both Lebanese, and said eight Lebanese and Palestinian accomplices were arrested. He said the group was also planning to assassinate employees working in Western embassies in Lebanon. The ministry earlier said the group's leader had confessed to preparing to send a car packed with 660 pounds of TNT to blow up the Italian Embassy in downtown Beirut. According to the ministry, most members of the terrorist network, "which had links and received funding from some extremist cells in Europe," were arrested on September 21. Italy has about 3,000 troops in Iraq and Ukraine has about 1,600. (Associated Press)

Company suspected of smuggling arms

KYIV - Prosecutors have launched criminal proceedings against a Ukrainian company suspected of smuggling surface-to-air missiles and other weapons abroad for a possible sale to insurgents fighting the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, reported the Associated Press. Serhii Rudenko, a spokesman for the Procurator General's Office said criminal proceedings were launched against four foreign citizens from Greece, Iraq and Pakistan on charges of attempting to purchase weapons and hire mercenaries to fight in Iraq. Mr. Rudenko said missiles and related equipment were "taken from the Ukrainian military" and smuggled out of the country, possibly to Iraq. The Associated Press reported that he refused to identify the company, specify how many missiles and other equipment were taken and didn't provide details about what type of missiles they were. "It is the matter of our defense security," he said. The prosecutor's office has handed over all documents related to the case "to an appropriate court," Mr. Rudenko said. Meanwhile, Defense Ministry spokesman Viacheslav Bolotniuk dismissed the prosecutor's claims, saying he had "no knowledge about it." (Associated Press)

Opposition TV channel switched off

KHARKIV - The Alpha-Communications operator of cable television network in Kharkiv has suspended the transmission of the Channel 5 television, Ukrainian news agencies reported on September 15. Channel 5, which is owned by lawmaker and businessman Petro Poroshenko, supports the presidential bid of opposition Our Ukraine leader Yushchenko. An Alpha-Communications official told Interfax on September 15 that Channel 5 was excluded from the network "temporarily" and due to "technical reasons," but did not elaborate. Channel 5 was repeatedly removed from cable-television networks in different Ukrainian cities over the past two months. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Roman Catholics seek monastery's return

VINNYTSIA - The parishioners of the Roman Catholic Parish of St. Mary of the Angels in central Ukrainian Vinnytsia addressed a letter to Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine's prime minister, requesting the return of the building of the Capuchin monastery to the parish community. The Catholic Media Center reported the news on September 13. The letter says that 2004 saw a rise in the numbers of children and teenagers who attend catechism classes, which brought about a shortage of study space. The existing rooms are situated in a cellar and are not suited to the demands of work with children and teenagers. The parishioners stressed that they had already addressed Mayor Oleksander Dombrovskyi with this request in October 2002, but still have received no response. (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, October 3, 2004, No. 40, Vol. LXXII

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