16.10.02. Dommer rejser sigtelse mod præsident Kutjma

16.10.02. Polen vil have sine egen Ukraine-linje i EU

Inden starten på konferencen "Ukraine i Europa" den 15. oktober i Warszawa sagde Viktor Medvedtjuk, at det ukrainske styre har et ønske om og er parat til at forhandle med oppositionen, hvis oppositionen fra sin side vil udtrykke et ønske om en konstruktiv dialog.
    Ifølge stabschefen er et ønske fra begge parter nødvendigt for en sådan dialog, men oppositionen havde kun protestaktioner og et ultimatum om Kutjmas afgang som svar på Ukraines præsidents forslag om at gennenføre en reform af det politiske system i landet.
    Ifølge administrationschefen er der brug for et ønske fra oppositionens side til en konstruktiv dialog, og ligeså snart at de relevante forslag kommer, vil de utvivlsomt blive behandlet. Styret er parat til dialog, hvilket Leonid Kutjma har fremhævet gang på gang.
    Medvedtjuk påpegede, at præsidentens henvendelse til det ukrainske folk (af den 24. august) om den politiske reform i Ukraine var det første skridt mod en konkret dialog om fuldkommengørelsen af styret i Ukraine.
    Medvedtjuk understregede, at alle politiske kræfter bør følge vejen mod en fuldkommengørelse af magtsystemet, hvilket netop vil være "en konkret dialog i statens og borgernes interesse".
    "Vi er parat til hvilke som helst forhandlinger på et hvilket som helst tidspunkt, hvis modparten vil være parat til det", - sagde han. Der er ifølge ham plads i Ukraine til en sådan dialog.
    Omkring den konference, der blev indledt i Warszawa den 15. oktober, sagde Medvedtjuk, at den vil demonstrere Ukraines indstilling på det europæiske valg. Han fremhævede, at han den 15. oktober havde et møde med Polens præsident, Aleksander Kwasniewski, hvorunder han bl.a. drøftede den interne situation i Ukraine og de politiske kræfters stilling i forbindelse med protestaktionerne.
    Efter hans mening er det nuværende møde i Polen endnu et skridt i retning af bekræftelsen af Ukraines europæiske valg.
    Medvedtjuk understregede, at Polens præsident på sin side havde fremhævet, at forhandlinger og dialog er den bedste måde at udvikle samfundet og demokratiet i samfundet på, og at det er der forståelse for i Ukraine. podrobnosti - UNIAN.
 

17.10.02. Presset på Kutjma synes ikke at aftage

17.10.02. PACE skuffet over stilstand i Gongadze-sagen

17.10.02. Ukraine's Security Service and the Catholic Church

Catholic priests are increasingly being monitored by officers of Ukraine's security service (SBU, the former KGB), an official of the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) told Keston News Service from its headquarters in the German town of Konigstein on 16 September. A Greek Catholic priest from eastern Ukraine who visited Germany recently was just the latest to mention regular visits by SBU agents to his home soliciting information, the official reported. "There certainly seems to be increased interest on the part of the SBU in what Catholic priests know and do," declared the official, who preferred not to be named. "This is not the old war against religion, but for the priests involved it is certainly discomforting." However, the chief press officer of the SBU denied absolutely that any Catholic priests were being questioned. "The SBU doesn't interfere in religious questions or the life of churches," Oleksandr Skrupnyk told Keston from Kiev [Kyiv] on 16 September.

The ACN official - who has regular contact with a range of Catholic priests from all over Ukraine - referred to many complaints from Church workers about their phones being tapped. One new area of enquiry recently has been the financial state of individual Catholic parishes and organisations. "Such financial monitoring is being stepped up."

The official said such questioning had dropped off after the fall of communism, but appears to have revived in the past year or so. Apparently, the SBU is interested in Catholic priests as a source of information on the general political mood of the population, but also wants to know how both Greek- and Latin-rite clergy relate to their faithful and what priests have discussed among themselves. "They knock on the door, introduce themselves as being from the secret police and start asking questions," the official quoted the visiting priest as telling ACN about his experience. "I tell them: 'I refuse to tell you anything as I am not working for the government but for the Church, which cares for spiritual life.'" Some priests just laugh about such visits, the official added, but some express concern about what this might lead to given the traditional anti-Catholic sentiment in the East of the country being fanned anew by the Moscow Patriarchate in the wake of the recent erection of new Latin- and Greek- Catholic dioceses in eastern Ukraine.

The ACN official believes the SBU might be trying to use Catholic priests (almost all of whom in Ukraine are local citizens) as a source of social and political information. "The SBU are meant to know everything, so they also ask priests." The official pointed to the tense political atmosphere in Ukraine which might have provoked increased SBU interest.

The official noted that several years ago, Greek Catholic Bishop Yulian Boronovskyi of Sambir-Drohobych publicly told the SBU not to question Catholic priests and not to expect them to cooperate with such enquiries because it is forbidden them under Church law. "However, the SBU has obviously not given up trying."

The Vatican nuncio in Kiev [Kyiv], Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, declared that he was not aware of any stepping-up of SBU questioning of Catholic priests. "I have not especially noticed that it has increased," he told Keston from the Ukrainian capital on 16 September. He seemed unworried by any surveillance. "We have no secrets. Anyone can come to our services and hear what our Church is doing." He applauded what he said was the "good" situation in Ukraine. "Religious freedom for all Churches is OK here."

While maintaining that no Catholic priests were ever approached by the SBU, Skrupnyk said that unless Catholic priests who claimed they had been approached by the SBU were prepared to come forward his department could not look into any concrete cases. Despite its denials, the SBU also watches foreigners involved in religion in Ukraine. Foreign Protestant missionaries who have been expelled from the country in recent years have told Keston that the SBU openly read their emails, listened in to telephone calls and at times even followed them.

One foreign pastor who currently leads a Protestant church in Ukraine, who is not at present in the country, told Keston on 16 September that he has been openly followed by the SBU since the beginning of this year. "They were outside my gate always in the same vehicle and followed me when I went to the church," declared the pastor, who preferred not to be identified. He said he began to be obviously followed when issues arose over registration of the church. He recounted that in conversation with him, one SBU officer had revealed that he knew information about the pastor's background that he had mentioned to only a small number of people. "They just want to show that they know more about you than you think." He recounted the experience of another foreign Protestant working elsewhere in Ukraine. When the Protestant went to renew his residence permit at the visa and registration office (OVIR), officials brought out a large file with print-outs of all his emails and questioned him on statements he had made in them. "Where did the OVIR get these? They have no capacity or ability to monitor emails. It could only have come from the SBU," the pastor told Keston.

The pastor was not too concerned about being watched, as he said he had nothing to hide. "There is nothing covert about our work with the church." But he questioned whether the SBU was not intruding into the internal affairs of religious groups. "They're right to watch foreigners, but this was beyond the call of duty." Orthodox sources claimed to Keston in 2000 that the SBU lobbied successfully among bishops, priests and laypeople of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church to prevent United States citizen Metropolitan Constantine Buggan, a Ukrainian bishop in North America under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, from becoming head of the Church at a Local Council held that year to elect the successor to the late Patriarch Dimitri (Yarema). The SBU reportedly came up with a plan - which the Local Council approved - to separate the roles of spiritual leader of the Church and its chairman. Elected as the Church's spiritual leader was Metropolitan Mefodi Kudryakov, whose father had reportedly been an officer of the NKVD (the Stalin-era KGB) in western Ukraine. Sources named the SBU officer who led the operation as Oleg Anatolievich Faremy, who they said was a security official working for the central SBU directorate.
 

17.10.02. Polen ønskede at forsone Jusjtjenko og Medvedtjuk

17.10.02. Dagens citat af Viktor Jusjtjenko

17.10.02. Våbeneksperter tvivler på Ukraines ledelses åbenhed

18.10.02. Medvedtjuk sætter Jusjtjenkos nervesystem på prøve

18.10.02. Våbeneksperter klar med en konklusion om en uge

21.10.02. Jusjtjenko går i rette med Medvedtjuks bror

21.10.02. Medvedtjuk bekræfter de national-liberales bange anelser

21.10.02. Medvedtjuk parat til forhandlinger med "Vores Ukraine"

21.10.02. Verdensbank-delegation ankommer til Kyiv

22.10.02. "Koltjuga"-rapport klar inden udgangen af oktober

22.10.02. Modsat Vesten har Rusland kun ét ønske i forhold til Ukraine

22.10.02. "Vores Ukraine" kræver Medvedtjuks afgang

23.10.02. Ukrainian politician gets political asylum in US

Olexander Yelyashkevych, who was unable to run for reelection to parliament in March because his constituency was scrapped, won political asylum Sept. 12, according to a copy of a letter from the Department of Justice (news - web sites).

"I was granted political asylum because of a serious threat to my life that existed and still exists from Kuchma and his entourage," Yelyashkevych said in a telephone interview.

Yelyashkevych has said he believes hundreds of hours of recordings secretly made in Kuchma's office by a former Kuchma bodyguard, who was also granted asylum by the United States, are genuine.

The U.S. government said last month it had authenticated one section of the recordings and it suspected Kuchma had authorized a transfer to Iraq of a sophisticated aircraft detection system, in violation of U.N. sanctions.

The Bush administration immediately launched a review of relations with Kuchma and his government and suspended about $50 million in aid to Ukraine, which has received billions of dollars from Washington since it won independence a decade ago.

The recordings also contain a conversation in which a voice like Kuchma's tells an aide to "deal with" a reporter whose headless corpse was later found in the Ukrainian countryside.

Kuchma strongly denies any connection to the disappearance of the journalist and has invited experts to probe the alleged Iraqi deal, which he also denies. He has cast doubt on the source of the allegations -- the recordings made by a device that the former bodyguard, Mykola Melnychenko, says he hid under a sofa in Kuchma's office.

Yelyashkevych was involved in a commission that investigated the reporter's death but has not published any conclusions about its work.

Local media accused Ukraine's electoral authorities of trying to block a Kuchma opponent from office by eliminating his district close to this year's parliamentary election.

Yelyashkevych, who has said that he recognizes his voice on Melnychenko's recordings, told a news conference in Washington last August that he was physically attacked after an unofficial commission he headed found Kuchma "had not been elected by democratic means."

He charged that Kuchma ordered the attack and that the recordings made in Kuchma's office showed this to be true.

Election observers said there were some flaws in Kuchma's reelection process but the outcome was correct.
 

23.10.02. "Kuchmagate" and Iraq: Jane's Intelligence Digest

At the centre of the Iraqi arms scandal stand the hundreds of hours of tapes made illicitly in the office of Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma by security guard Mykola Melnychenko. The portion of the tapes dealing with Iraq was only released in March on the eve of the Ukrainian elections. The existence of the tape of the Iraqi radar sale was reported earlier in the year but at that stage the US still did not publicly back up the accusations. In March, shortly before the Iraq allegations surfaced, Valeriy Malyev, head of the arms export company Ukrspetseksport, died in a mysterious car accident.

The US has been careful to indicate that the re-examination of its policy towards Ukraine is primarily directed against Kuchma, not the country as a whole, which has received $2 billion in aid since 1994 and is the fourth largest recipient of US aid. Support for non-governmental organisations and the private business sector is set to continue although direct governmental aid will be suspended.

The tape, which has been authenticated by the FBI, is of a conversation between Kuchma, Malyev, and then Security Service chief Leonid Derkach (who is accused of other illegal arms sales) which took place in July 2000. In April 1999, US intelligence sources discovered that Ukraine had signed a secret agreement for military cooperation with Iraq in November 1998. The agreement was signed by Iraqi diplomats and arms companies with the representatives of two Ukrainian arms exporters. In January 1999, a Ukrainian delegation led by a deputy minister visited Iraq. During the first stage of the agreement equipment identified for customs as 'agricultural' was sent to Iraq.

On the Melnychenko tape of the July 2000 meeting, Kuchma is heard giving the go ahead to sell four Kolchuga units to Iraq for $100 million. Melnychenko claims to know the name of a "high-ranking Russian official" who was also alleged to be present. If this turns out to be true, the US-Russian alliance against international terrorism could come under serious strain.

The scenario of events after the meeting follows a clear pattern that seems to confirm the Kolchuga units were indeed dispatched to Iraq. Only four days after the conversation, the government released the Kolchuga system from any export restrictions. On 9 October 2000, an agreement on trade and scientific and technical cooperation was signed with Iraq. This was ratified by the Ukrainian parliament on 15 November 2001.

After recent US pressure, Ukraine's Security Service chief Volodymyr Radchenko conceded that the conversation had occurred but denied that the sale had actually gone ahead. Confirming that the meeting had taken place, Radchenko also admitted that Malyev had lobbied for the sale of the radar equipment to Iraq. While acknowledging that Kuchma had given personal authorisation for the sale, Ukrainian officials have nonetheless made two claims. First, they have denied that the Kolchuga system was ever sent to Iraq and that only three units have been exported. These, they say, went to Ethiopia.

The US has itself provided contradictory information over whether the Kolchuga units did indeed reach Iraq. When the allegations surfaced in March, Jim Brooks, a Defense Intelligence Agency spokesman, stated: "Iraq has them." Deputy US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch claims that the US has other evidence to prove the Kolchuga units are in Iraq. However, Richard Boucher of the State Department and the US Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual have said the US was not certain the Kolchuga units were in Iraqi hands.

The second argument advanced by Ukrainian officials claims such an illegal sale would have been impossible to undertake. This is contradicted by ample domestic and international evidence of the illegal export of Ukrainian weapons throughout the 1990s to various hot spots. Because of the way in which Ukrainian arms have been exported in such a non-transparent manner, Borys Tarasiuk, the country's Foreign Minister from 1997 to 2000, does not rule out the possibility of such a sale to Iraq. A parliamentary inquiry has now been agreed by the pro-Kuchma parliamentary leadership, a course of action it rejected during the previous parliamentary session.

The international ramifications of the latest crisis will serve to box Kuchma further into a corner. Melnychenko claims he has evidence that Kuchma also authorised the sale of sophisticated military and nuclear technology to Iraq and Iran. In addition, the US has hinted that the authenticity of this section of the tapes (which Foreign Minister Anatoliy Zlenko recently admitted could have been made in Kuchma's office) will influence US attitudes towards other portions of the recordings where further serious allegations against Kuchma can be found. Will NATO, the one Western organisation with which Ukraine has developed good relations, still invite Kuchma to the November summit in Prague? As NATO General Secretary Lord Robertson observed: "It's a serious, serious moment in NATO-Ukraine relations." Meanwhile, as in the early phase of the 'Kuchmagate' crisis, Russian President Vladimir Putin is on hand to offer comfort. Generously, Putin has proposed that Kuchma be elected to lead the Council of Heads of CIS states which is set to meet later this month in Kishinev.
 

23.10.02. Background information on Ukraine-Iraq

Below are excerpts of a couple of articles (US News and Commentary) about the allegations that weapons from Ukraine ended up in Iraq. The Commentary article by Gary Milhollin and Kelly Motz is followed by a letter by Scott Ritter to Commentary refuting their allegations. Ritter was a chief weapons inspector for UNSCOM in Iraq who, in cooperation with Israeli intelligence, travelled to Kyiv.
Despite all the spins and speculations, the bottom line is that there are serious doubts about any hard proof that Ukraine provided Iraq with weapons of mass destruction. During Blair's meeting with Putin last week, Putin declared that neither Britain nor the USA have provided any evidence to him that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. This was mentioned earlier by Western governments who are resisting to agree to USA's new UN resolution. Putin even described Blair's recent "Iraq Dossier" as just "propaganda." (Russia has a veto vote in the UN).

Ritter's version of events is that the USA has had a policy of demonizing Saddam Hussein to justify the economic warfare program of sanctions against Iraq. As UNSCOM's work was being completed, and there were no remaining weapons, the USA created an incident by violating a term of the weapons inspections, to which Iraq objected, followed by the USA ordering the inspectors out. Iraq never "kicked out" the UNSCOM inspectors out of Iraq. The USA's withdrawal allowed the sanctions to remain. Ritter, who was in Military Intelligence--as a "simple Marine,"as he likes to say--is a card-carrying Republican who is opposed to Bush's war against Iraq. He is going public with his views and recently spoke at the anti-war rally in London, which turned out a shocking 450,000 anti-war protesters from a wide variety of social groups, much to the chagrin of Tony Blair.

23.10.02. Shopping spree Iraq's pursuit of weaponry, including nuclear technology, knows no bounds or boundaries

[ . . . ] As Western countries have cracked down, Iraq has shifted its buying spree to the former Soviet Union, officials say. Needing spare parts for their aging Soviet weapons systems, as well as missile and nuclear technology, the Iraqis have turned to Ukraine in particular. So wide open is that nation that Iraqis are smuggling parts from other nations for assembly there before shipment to Baghdad, U.S. News has learned. Another worry: evidence that Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma personally approved the sale of an advanced radar system that can detect Stealth aircraft without their pilots' knowledge.

The Ukrainian city of Kharkov [Kharkiv], home to a complex of military and aerospace factories, is described by one ex-CIA official as a watering hole for arms traffickers from across the globe. "It's the barroom scene from Star Wars," he says. "Every animal in the galaxy was there." Kharkov is also host to a nuclear research center with 75 kilos of uranium so highly enriched that Washington is quietly trying to buy the load and spirit it out of the country. Worried U.S. officials think it no coincidence that Iraq opened a diplomatic office there in late 2000. Its "honorary consul" in Kharkov until recently was Yuri Orshansky, a politically connected Ukrainian businessman who has reportedly visited Iraq 40 times since the Persian Gulf War. Under U.S. pressure, the Ukrainian government last month stripped Orshansky of his status. [ . . . ]

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www.iraqwatch.org/suppliers/commentary.htm

Shopping with Saddam Hussein
By Gary Milhollin & Kelly Motz
Commentary Magazine
July-August 2001, pp. 23-7

[ . . . ] The core of Iraq's present supply network dates from the early 1990's. As the result of a decision to concentrate its shopping expeditions in Eastern Europe, Iraqi delegations fanned out to Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, and Russia, waving petrodollars in front of these countries' once proud but now starving missile and military plants. They returned with suitcases full of illicit contracts for virtually every kind of equipment a missile-maker might need.

[ . . . ] In Ukraine, the Iraqi focus was more specific: missile components. In September 1993, a Ukrainian trader with a Ph.D. in electronics named Yuri Orshansky arrived in Baghdad. He was accompanied by Dr. Yuri Ayzenberg from a Ukrainian firm, Khartron, well known for its ability to design missile-guidance systems. Within two months, an Iraqi delegation would travel to Ukraine to follow up.

The Iraqi delegation was led by Brigadier General Naim Bakr Ali, head of Iraq's Scud missile-guidance program.With him were two officials from Iraq's Missile Research and Development Center, and rounding out the team were Brigadier General Safa from Ibn Al-Haytham, Iraq's largest missile-manufacturing site, and Major Raad from Al-Karama State Establishment, another such site. Their mission was clear: to negotiate agreements for as much help as they could get. As General Naim would himself tell the UN inspectors, his instructions were simple: "If you find something good, sign; if you do not find something good, then don't sign."

He signed. In Ukraine, Orshansky, Ayzenberg, and Naim executed a "protocol" -- amounting to an outline of future cooperation -- that promised Iraq the keys to a trove of missile technology. Ukraine would sell guidance components for surface-to-surface missiles, help Iraq develop batteries of the latest anti-aircraft missiles, provide equipment for missile research, and even establish a college to train missile experts. To get things started, Iraq asked for price quotes on a test stand for rocket motors, a series of gyroscopes and accelerometers for missile-guidance systems, and high-precision machine tools for making missile parts. [ . . . ]

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www.iraqwatch.org/suppliers/Commentary-debate.htm

Letter to Commentary by Scott Ritter

[ . . . ] >From 1995 through 1998, as a weapons inspector for UNSCOM, I ran a series of counterproliferation operations known collectively as Operation Tea Cup. The interception of Gharbiah's shipment in Jordan was the first, and most public, manifestation of this operation, and only UNSCOM, with its strong intelligence relationship with friendly governments, could have pulled it off. For nearly three years, Operation Tea Cup yielded similarly impressive gains, terminating a contract for a glass-lined reactor suitable for both civilian and military activity and tracking down other equipment useful in chemical production processes.

In September 1997, in cooperation with Israeli intelligence, I traveled to Kiev [Kyiv] to meet with the head of the Joint Intelligence Center/National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine for the express purpose of investigating the activities of Yuri Orshansky, a figure mentioned by the authors. Although they contend, without any supporting evidence, that Orshansky delivered goods to Iraq subsequent to a series of protocols signed in 1995-1996, my investigation showed the exact opposite: no material brokered by Orshansky or anybody else was delivered to Iraq from Ukraine. I put more faith in my factually supported findings than in the speculative musings of Gary Milhollin and Kelly Motz. [ . . . ]
 

23.10.02. Interview with Oleksandr Moroz: Ukraina Moloda

FBIS-SOV-2002-1008 Daily Report, Ukraine
[FBIS Translated Excerpt]
[Moroz on the demonstrations]: We clearly see that the prosecutor's office, security service and police are totally dependent on the authorities because the power in the country has been usurped. When the interior minister says on TV before MPs and the entire nation two hours before the [protesters'] tent camp was demolished that no force would be applied by the police, and then allegedly he finds some motive in order to use about 10,000 men equipped for combat - these are just manifestations of this usurpation.

[Correspondent] Do you mean to say that 10,000 policemen raised the tent camp where there were several hundred people at 4 o'clock in the morning?

[Moroz] Yes, in the square area around the presidential administration alone there were just as many of them. Moreover, they were doing a very specific job: they occupied all the crossings and sealed off all the exits from this zone so that nobody would break through the cordons. So, not only pickets but also those who were supposed to clear the passages from them, blocked the roadway. In addition, the road traffic police, who knew about the demonstrations and traffic jams, intentionally directed drivers towards the rallies so as to make them write a note later that they "experienced inconveniences" due to the opposition protest. [..] ...It is necessary to look deeply into this process: why is it necessary at all to resort to protests? Why has such a situation developed that society actually voted against the current authorities in that part, which was elected on a proportional basis, giving about 70 per cent of votes to the force, opposed to it? And how did it come about that a revision of the results of the people's will took place, what methods and mechanisms were used to carry this out and can people continue to watch calmly what is happening? The meetings that we had in all Regions of Ukraine, showed that people have a unanimous opinion. These rallies gathered such a number of people as never before in any protests. And everywhere we asked specific questions about the need to change the system of power and the president's early resignation. The unanimity with which people supported us was not put on because it was not members of a specific party that came, but ordinary citizens, who respond to the situation objectively and are aware of the cause of the state in which they and the whole of society find themselves. Let us analyse from the viewpoint of political science what happened in Ukraine on 16 and on the night before 17 September. First of all it was a striking illustration of the trend towards consolidation of Ukrainian society. It had never happened before that those on the left, on the right and in the centre united. Despite ideological differences in their convictions, people gathered on the same square, because they are united by the sense of danger looming over Ukraine. It is a danger of losing people's last rights and freedoms and even statehood. I believe that this alone was worth working for. And I feel greatly satisfied that it became possible to bring together, for example, Petro Symonenko [Communist Party leader] and Levko Lukyanenko [political prisoner during the Soviet era], who now speak on Radio Liberty together and say virtually the same things. It was unheard of in 1990, but today this is a reality. Colossal changes have taken place in society, they have their inner logic of development and I am convinced that this is Ukraine's future. [...] The process of transforming Kuchma's regime into a junta was completed. After all, a junta is a regime which relies entirely on force and protects only its own interests. I do not think it is necessary to prove again that the authorities are now only concerned with their own interests. It is enough to look at privatisation processes and everything connected with them, and on the other hand - at the social sphere, salary, subsidies, freedom of speech and so on. The authorities are working solely for themselves, using such instruments of state as the prosecutor's office, police, tax administration and others. And when these authorities resort to provocations, far-fetched reasons for the use of force, acting against the will of society - this is a great danger. Thus, there are only two ways: either society overcomes this barrier bydeveloping democratic principles or the junta, having influence and by intimidating people, will preserve such a state system which was characteristic of some Latin American states and which took a long time for most of them to recover from. Today, we are in the centre of this confrontation, and from an onlooker's point of view, Ukraine is now going through an extremely interesting period. It is a period of an unstable balance, when what is going to take the upper hand is being determined. Together with my colleagues I am going to do my best for the development of the democratic process.

[Correspondent] What concrete steps in this direction are envisaged? [Moroz] I have prepared a draft parliamentary resolution in this connection, which may not be properly received by the entire corps of MPs, but this is that very road which we will have to take, because it is possible to solve all the problems only in this way. The resolution suggests: 1. To put forward a suggestion to the president of Ukraine that he use his constitutional right to step down. He must resign from his office because, as Petro Symonenko rightly remarked, Kuchma can escape responsibility for what he had done during his "rule" only by doing away with Ukraine's statehood. And so far all his steps on the international arena have come exactly to this. 2. To begin the impeachment procedure if he refuses to step down voluntarily. 3. Special parliamentary committees are to consider the judicial issues, pertaining to the procedures for an early presidential election, so as to have legal arguments for everything and prepare relevant laws and documents. 4. To put forward a suggestion to the Supreme Court that the issue of releasing political prisoners arrested on 9 March last year be immediately solved; no investigation into this case is being conducted. These young men are being kept under arrest solely for the sake of intimidating people. 5. To demand the immediate dismissal of the minister of internal affairs, Yuriy Smyrnov, who did not tell the truth on TV to the entire population when he said that the police would not resort to force on 16 September. It is true that they were hiding, like rats, in the doorways of houses and yards, not daring to go against the people, when there were over a hundred thousand on the streets in the centre. [...]

[Correspondent] One gets the impression that Bankova [Street] is now stronger than ever before, especially with the arrival of Viktor Medvedchuk [head of presidential administration]...

[Moroz] This is the wrong impression. In reality, the authorities are cowardly and not strong at all. Strong authorities would have acted in an entirely different way. If the president felt confident, he would have definitely come out to face the crowd of many thousand... [...] As to Medvedchuk, it not even worth talking about him. Who is he in terms of status? He is the head of the president's office. Another thing is that this office has absolutely unsubstantiated, virtually unlimited power in Ukraine. The presidential administration is not mentioned in the constitution even once, such a word combination does not even exist, and here it is written with a capital letter! So, Medvedchuk is making use of his influence, placing his people everywhere. Certainly, he is already preparing for his presidential election, and this is so obvious that only the president fails to see it. But today such a situation is advantageous for the president because he is hiding behind clerks.

[Correspondent] Mr Moroz, will opposition MP's impede the work of parliament if the questions which we discussed are not submitted for consideration by parliament?

[Moroz] ...the law on the budget for 2003 prepared by the government is not at all a good one. It is a disgrace that the head of a school obtains half the sum of the subsistence level and we want teachers to sow what is good, intelligent and lasting! But there is money - according to our information for apartments on Bankova Street with a sauna and swimming pool, which was modestly called a "renovation". Some 40m hryvnyas from the Chernobyl fund were stolen! Some 350m dollars from the sale of aircraft to Russia was stolen - this is free medical aid, and student grants for all students in Ukraine! And what budget are we talking about anyway! The money is there, it's an issue of not stealing!

[Correspondent] What is the attitude of the socialists towards the majority formed without Medvedchuk's party but with the participation of, let's say, Working Ukraine, the Agrarian Party, the Democratic Initiatives bloc, etc?

[Moroz] In my view, a majority in this form has few prospects. The idea of having a coalition government on the basis of a stable majority in parliament is pure fiction and the president, who defends this idea, understands this very well. Because a majority organized through "trapping fingers in doors", the State Tax Administration and the Directorate for Fighting Organized Crime, etc, is not a majority, but a frightened formation which will dutifully carry out the will of the guarantor [the president]. A real majority should be formed on the basis of the elections. [...]

[Correspondent] However, perhaps the creation of a majority, on which Our Ukraine is holding talks, will help the opposition four to implement their plans by using some "resources" of certain pro-presidential factions?

[Moroz] Perhaps. But even if we take Medvedchuk out of the equation, I find it very hard to imagine [Viktor] Pinchuk and [Serhiy] Tyhypko at the same table with Yushchenko and working for the good of the opposition.

[Correspondent] Is there a majority scenario which the Socialist faction would join?

[Moroz] Absolutely. Such a majority is possible if it includes four opposition factions plus a few MPs who do not belong to any factions. Personally, today I am more interested in that majority which is capable of voting for a change in the system of power: a law on elections on the basis of proportional representation and changes to the constitution, etc. [...] You know, the main thing is not to give in. A lot of people say: what is the point of banging one's head against a brick wall, all the same neither the constitution nor legislation are implemented in Ukraine. But they will not be implemented if you and I allow this! There is a need to fight. You cannot even imagine what the Ukrainian authorities are like from within - a real cesspool. But in reality the system of rule should be absolutely transparent and clean. [...] In reality, once the relevant changes have been made these people will do everything in the necessary manner: in accordance with legislation. The main thing is to create the conditions. If everyone knows that having put his hands into the state coffers his hands will receive such a blow that he will not want to do it again, then there will be no stealing or abuse. And that is why I personally am not interested in who will be president or who will be prime minister. I am interested in changing the system or rule as a guarantee of the country's economic development, a guarantee of human rights and freedoms, and of strengthening the state's sovereignty. There is no other way.

[Correspondent] In the last few days reports appeared in a host of pro-presidential media hinting directly that allegedly Moroz is connected to the murder of [journalist] Heorhiy Gongadze. Such a conclusion is drawn from conversations between Roman Kupchynsky, the editor of the Radio Liberty Ukrainian Service and the editor of the Ukrayinska Pravda [opposition web site]. What can you say to these accusations?

[Moroz] It seems that an original scenario of events is being prepared "by the powers that be" in order to close the Gongadze case. [...] Let's assume that the Prosecutor-General's Office now lays into [former prosecutor-general Mykhaylo] Potebenko or other important figures, or perhaps stands on [former interior minister Yuriy] Kravchenko's bunions in order to demonstrate how "objectively" it is looking into this question. But the detectives from [US detective agency] Kroll and investigators from St Petersburg are all from the same pack. We know whose money is behind this - Pinchuk, and we know who is behind Pinchuk. And that is how they want to sully everyone and then convince Reporters Without Borders, its head [Robert Menard] and Lesya Gongadze how objectively the Prosecutor-General's Office is supposedly working. .

[Correspondent] Will you be running part in the next presidential election?

[Moroz] This does not interest me. I am interested in changing the system of power. That is my aim. We shall change the system of power so no "new Kuchmas" appear - and then we shall what the result is.

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[Source: Kiev Ukrayina Moloda in Ukrainian, the Ukrainian-language daily supporting former Prime Minister Yushchenko]
 

24.10.02. Vasyljev benægter, at der findes censur i Ukraine

(Det er ikke nævnt i meddelelsen, om der har været så meget som ét kritisk materiale om præsidenten eller hans administration i det centrale TV, som er hovedmodtager af de såkaldte "temniky" - ugens temaer).
    Ifølge hovedafdelingen havde 4 aviser med et samlet oplag på 863.000, 7 Tv-stationer og 1 internetavis bragt negative materialer om regeringen.
    13 aviser med et samlet oplag på 2,623 mill, 9 Tv-stationer, 17 radiostationer og 11 internetaviser havde skrevet kritisk om indenrigsministeriet.
    10 aviser med et samlet oplag på 1,670 mill., 3 radiostationer og 7 internetaviser havde bragt negativ omtale af skattevæsnet.
    4 aviser med et samlet oplag på 582.000 og en internetavis havde bragt negativ omtale af rigsadvokaturens virke.
    "Hvordan kan man herefter overhovedet tale om politisk censur?", - opsummerede Vasyljev.
    Lederen af hovedafdelingen for informationspolitik under præsidentens administration understregede, at "en analyse af kritikken mod lederne af den udøvende magt og guvernørerne bliver hver uge sendt til hver eneste kritiserede subjekt sammen med et brev underskrevet af lederen af præsidentens administration, Viktor Medvedtjuk, med anmodning om at være opmærksom på [kritikken] og drage de fornødne konklusioner".
    Vasyljev præciserede ikke, hvilken ret lederen af præsidentens administration har til at blande sig i de centrale udøvende organers arbejde. UP.
 

24.10.02. Har Ukraine udleveret alle oplysninger om "Koltjuga"?

24.10.02. Ukraines forsvarsminister på besøg i USA

25.10.02. 23 ukrainere blandt gidslerne i Moskva

25.10.02. Parlamentet kunne ikke samle flertal mod Kutjma

25.10.02. Svært at få øje på flertallet i parlamentet

26.10.02. "We want Poland and Ukraine to share a common vision of

The two-day international conference "Ukraine in Europe" was attended by representatives of the Ukrainian authorities and opposition as well as Polish and European politicians. It was held under the patronage of President Kwasniewski and EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana.

We wish Ukraine to be a politically-stable and economically-efficient country as soon as possible, a country in which people with different political views can work together in the interest of their country and in the interest of the entire nation, Miller stressed.

The conference on the future of Ukraine was not a "round-table" meeting but one should be glad if it provided an occasion to exchange views between the Ukrainian authorities and opposition, President Aleksander Kwasniewski said Wednesday during a press conference summing up the conference.

Javier Solana stressed that the European Union was caring about Ukraine. "Ukraine is a very significant country for us," he said and added that Ukraine must start respecting all European principles. "First you have to start speaking about standards and then you can think of your position in the EU," he said.

Earlier Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz said that Poland was fully respecting Ukraine's sovereignty and was neither willing to interfere in its internal disputes nor give it a lesson. We hope that such meetings will continue, in Kiev [Kyiv], Warsaw or Brussels. This is a significant and purposeful step on the road of bringing Ukraine closer to the EU, Cimoszewicz added.

Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma spoke in favour of a permanent dialogue with all political forces in Ukraine, including the opposition, during his several-hour visit to Warsaw on Wednesday afternoon. Holding a press conference after talks with President Aleksander Kwasniewski and EU's Javier Solana, Kuchma said he was for "dialogue but not ultimatum, I reject an ultimatum" stressed the president adding that his deeds confirm he was an advocate of dialogue.

President Kuchma thanked Kwasniewski for the holding of the two-day conference on Ukraine's future. "It has a very important meaning for us. Ukraine's integration with the EU and transatlantic structures should unite a majority of political forces," stressed the president.

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Compiled from the Polish Press Agency (PAP) news service.
www.pap.com.pl

26.10.02. Concern over Kiev [Kyiv]- Financial Times

Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine's president, is in a trap of his own making. In building his considerable power, he has tried to satisfy the competing interests of different lobbies at home and abroad. In the west, he plays the role of a moderniser trying to pull his country away from Russia and create a truly independent state. He claims to seek membership of Nato and the European Union. In Moscow, however, he is the old friend, happy to see Russian companies burrow deep into the Ukrainian economy, often in very opaque deals.

At home, the president seems content that economic and political liberalisation go ahead only with stupefying slowness, mindful perhaps that it would undermine the corrupt clique that surrounds him. He stops at nothing to maintain power. He has been accused even of involvement in murder - in the case of the late Georgy Gongadze, a campaigning journalist. Mr Kuchma denies all wrongdoing but the suspicions of misbehaviour are so strong that last week a (very brave) Ukrainian judge ordered a criminal investigation into his affairs.

Mr Kuchma is now paying the price for all this manoeuvring. He is running out of friends, except perhaps in Baghdad. But it is easier to wish him away than to achieve his removal. With the domestic opposition fragmented, Mr Kuchma seems likely to stay in office at least until the end of his term in 2004. Ukrainians must decide whether they will tolerate this prospect, or embark on the dangerous course of trying to force the president from power.

The west must first of all maintain the pressure over the radars. They are important in themselves and as a symbol of a serious loss of political common sense in Kiev. While Ukraine is desperate for the hard currency earned from arms exports, it must realise that weapons systems cannot be sold indiscriminately. While there might be arguments about the merits of supplying Iran or other states unilaterally blacklisted by the US, there can be none about Iraq, which is subject to United Nations sanctions.

Next, there can be no question of strengthening ties with Nato or the EU, while there is even a hint that it is selling arms to a likely enemy.

Even if this controversy is resolved, Nato and the EU must make clear that membership comes at a price of accepting western values, including the rule of law. The west should not dictate a change of leadership in Kiev - that is for Ukrainians to decide - but there is no harm in signalling that Mr Kuchma is a serious obstacle on the road to further integration with Europe.

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Kuchma under more pressure to step down
http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/
FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1033849148959&p=1012571727102
 

28.10.02. USA fastholder, at båndoptagelserne er autentiske

28.10.02. Kutjma takker for redningen af ukrainerne

28.10.02. Deltagere i kongres beskyldes for at være tgerrorbagmænd

28.10.02. Danmark i focus efter tjetjensk gidseltagning

28.10.02. Samtlige ukrainske gidsler ser ud til at overleve

30.10.02. Ukrainian reformist bloc says authorities 'crossed the line'

"In the past few days, the authorities have crossed the line," this is how the statement by the [opposition] Our Ukraine faction in parliament begins, in connection with the developments in Lviv Region where an innocent person died yesterday "as a result of brutal actions by the law-enforcement agencies against an MP, a member of the Our Ukraine faction". The tragedy happened to a 45-year old driver of the Lviv open joint-stock company, Orlan Trans. The poor fellow died in hospital of a heart failure "after employees of the State Tax Administration in Lviv Region threw him out of the lorry cabin during the latest attack on the Orlan Trans company".

Expressing deep condolences to the relatives and colleagues of the deceased, Our Ukraine stresses that soon not only this worker's family will be left without the breadwinner, but also the families of thousands of Orlan staff, on whom "certain government officials have declared war". The Orlan workers' only fault is that "their honorary president Yevhen Chervonenko is a member of an opposition faction and openly criticizes the authorities. Under different pretexts, the Lviv tax authorities led by Serhiy Medvedchuk - the head of the State Tax Administration [branch] in Lviv Region - are trying to paralyse the work of the enterprise which has been the leading investor in the Region in the past three years," the Our Ukraine statement signed by [its leader, former Prime Minister] Viktor Yushchenko, continues. "Forty-five lorries have been arrested, contract work has been disrupted, and Orlan is suffering great losses."

The MPs emphasize that "the company, which is one of the biggest taxpayers in the Region" has found itself "on the verge of bankruptcy". Since Orlan has a very good reputation abroad as well, through their groundless "raids" on the concern "the Ukrainian government is catastrophically losing its credibility with respectable foreign firms which are its investors and partners". A point has been reached where "they are about to take action against Ukraine at international legal institutions".

If this arbitrary rule does not stop, the managers of the concern are ready to resort to extreme methods of protest: a hunger strike. [...]

This is why as many as "140 Ukrainian MPs have signed an appeal to the president of Ukraine, speaker of parliament and the head of State Tax Administration of Ukraine demanding that Serhiy Medvedchuk be dismissed from the post of head of the State Tax Administration [branch] in Lviv Region", and the same decision has been also approved by the Lviv Regional Council. [...]
 

30.10.02. Russian as second state language?

In the opinion of the head of the Crimean organization UNR Oleh Fomushkin, "a political provocation is being prepared in the Crimea, where the civic situation has somewhat stabilized after the elections. It appears that Russian political technologists, who are hanging around the occupant of the highest position within the apparatus of the President of Ukraine, are thus aiming to split the Ukrainian parliament and Ukrainian society," he noted.

"We demand [that people] not engage in politicking, but apply real measures for the development of the Crimean Tatar, Russian, Ukrainian, and other national languages in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea," stressed Oleh Fomushkin."
 

30.10.02. Kutjma ønsker dialog med NATO

31.10.02. Kutjma bliver ikke inviteret til NATO-topmøde

31.10.02. "Koltjuga-rapport" er på trapperne

31.10.02. Støtten til NATO-medlemsskab er vokset siden 1999