"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT"
An International Newsletter
In-Depth Ukrainian News, Analysis, and Commentary
"The Art of Ukrainian History, Culture, Arts, Business, Religion,
Sports, Government, and Politics, in Ukraine and Around the World"
UKRAINE
The only country in the world where one has to win three
presidential elections in a row before actually becoming president.
What happens to all of those who have been actively
involved in committing massive voter fraud in the first two
elections? So far nothing has happened so there will be
massive voter fraud in Round III.
THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" Year 04, Number 246
The Action Ukraine Coalition (AUC), Washington, D.C.
Ukrainian Federation of America (UFA), Huntingdon Valley, PA
morganw@patriot.net, ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net (ARTUIS)
Washington, D.C., Kyiv, Ukraine, SATURDAY, December 4, 2004
NOTE: This has been a great week for Ukraine on the front pages
of many of the world's outstanding newspapers. It has also been an
amazing week for Ukraine in the Editorial and OP-ED pages. We
have been publishing as many of these feature articles as possible.
You will find below a group of astounding articles, most from just
from the past two days. Do not miss reading these articles.
-----INDEX OF ARTICLES-----
"Major International News Headlines and Articles"
1. "LET MY PEOPLE GO"
OP-ED COLUMNIST: By Nicholas D. Kristof
New York Times, New York, NY, Sat, Nov 4, 2004
2. "SAYING NO TO VLADIMIR PUTIN"
EDITORIAL, The New York Times
New York, New York, Sat, December 4, 2004
3. "SURPRISE IN UKRAINE"
LEAD EDITORIAL: The Washington Post
Washington, D.C., Saturday, December 4, 2004; Page A22
4. "DEMOCRACY THE WINNER"
EDITORIAL, Irish Independent, Ireland, Sat, Dec 04, 2004
5. "UKRAINE: THE RIGHT VERDICT"
EDITORIAL: The Guardian
London, United Kingdom, Saturday, Dec 04, 2004
6. "UKRAINE RULES"
EDITORIAL: International Herald Tribune (IHT)
EUROPE, Saturday, December 4, 2004
7. "POWER OF THE PEOPLE IS ALIVE IN UKRAINE"
OP-ED, by Georgie Ann Geyer
YAHOO!NEWS, USA, Friday, Dec. 3, 2004
8. "DANCING IN THE STREETS AS 'A NATION IS BORN'"
By Stefan Wagstyl and Tom Warner in Kiev
Financial Times, London, UK, December 3 2004
9. "PEOPLE POWER TRIUMPHS AS UKRAINE TO VOTE AGAIN"
Jeremy Page in Kiev, Irish Independent, Ireland, Sat, Dec 04, 2004
10. "MAKING HISTORY IN THE SNOW"
It is 12 days since the first protests, and the opposition in Ukraine is in
victorious mood. Chris Stephen , in Kiev, catches up with some of the
people he spoke to at the start.
Chris Stephen, Irish Times, Ireland, Sat, Dec 04, 2004
11. EUROPEAN UNION HAS TO LEARN NEW SKILLS
AS IT TIRES TO TACKLE UKRAINE CRISIS
WORLDVIEW: by Paul Gillespie, Irish Times, Sat, Dec 04, 2004
12. BRUSSELS ENDORSES UKRAINE THAW PLAN
By Daniel Dombey in Brussels, Financial Times
London, UK, Saturday, December 4 2004
13. "UKRAINE ON THE BRINK"
In wake of tumultuous vote, Prague's Ukrainian community
rallies for "West-leaning" candidate Viktor Yushchenko
Ukrainians now form the Czech Republic's largest ethnic minority
By Katya Zapletnyuk, Staff Writer, The Prague Post
Prague, Czech Republic, Thu, 2nd December, 2004
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 246 ARTICLE NUMBER ONE
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1. "LET MY PEOPLE GO"
OP-ED COLUMNIST: By Nicholas D. Kristof
New York Times, New York, NY, Sat, Nov 4, 2004
KIEV, Ukraine - Here's a suggestion for President Bush from the protesters
behind the democratic "orange revolution" here: Wear an orange tie. "If he
wore an orange tie, people here would be crying," said Yuri Maluta, a
protester from Lviv. "It would show that the American president supports
democracy here."
The request says something about the lighthearted and pro-American spirit on
the streets. Since my father grew up in what is now southwestern Ukraine, I
decided to come here to join my people - and I found that waging revolution
has rarely been such fun.
Young people enveloped in orange scarves, hats and ribbons alternately chant
slogans for freedom, boogie to rock music, eat oranges, warm up and flirt at
McDonald's, and disappear into their downtown "tent city" to make love, not
war. The protest organizers have placed gorgeous young women in the
vanguard of confrontations with troops, so the troops will be too dazzled to
club them.
Most Ukrainians love the U.S., and to be an American here - any American -
is to be a rock star. Protesters overhear me speaking English and line up to
ask me to autograph their orange ribbons with a big "U.S.A."
Yet for all the giddiness among the protesters here, particularly after the
Supreme Court's landmark ruling in their favor yesterday, this is as much
about Russia as it is about Ukraine. And the first thing to say is that
Vladimir Putin has behaved utterly disgracefully.
Mr. Putin seems to regard the Ukrainians as Russia's serfs, bound to obey
the will of their master. Mr. Putin was a co-conspirator with Ukraine's
outgoing president, Leonid Kuchma, to tilt the campaign and fix the election
in favor of the pro-Moscow candidate, Viktor Yanukovich, whose criminal
history (he served almost four years for robbery and assault as a young man)
would make him a fine Putin stooge.
Mr. Putin visited Ukraine twice during the campaign to help Mr. Yanukovich,
used the Russian news media to promote him and then congratulated him
publicly before the results of the stolen election had even been completely
counted. President Bush and other Western leaders need to make it clear to
Mr. Putin that he has no right to extend his quasi dictatorship to other
peoples.
Sure, it's traumatic for the Russians to have seen their country sink from a
superpower to a third-rate economy whose old colonies are now busy joining
NATO. But Mr. Putin has undermined Russian democracy, brutalized Chechnya
and barely helped in curbing weapons of mass destruction. We don't need to
be so solicitous of such a bully.
I was among the crowds in Independence Square when images of Mr. Putin
were shown on the huge screens. The crowd yelled a deafening "boo." We
should be joining in.
Colin Powell strongly denounced the rigged election, and Ukrainians will
remember that American support with gratitude for a long time to come.
But Mr. Bush and the White House haven't been as outspoken as either
Mr. Powell or the Europeans, and that's a mistake.
Mr. Bush is working through the Europeans, and especially the Poles, to
achieve a solution, and he may fear that too public an American role would
anger the Russians and revive the cold war. Those are fair concerns.
But this is the moment of truth for Ukraine, when Mr. Putin is trying to
thwart the challenger, Viktor Yushchenko, by squelching a democratic
election, and we need to stand foursquare with the democrats.
"Bush has to push more strongly and decisively on Ukraine to be democratic,"
said Bogdan Prysyazhnyuk, a young lawyer who is backing the orange
revolution.
"The Europeans are doing something, much more than Bush is," noted Natalya
Slobodyan, a journalism student who, like many young women, has dyed her
hair orange. That's a common view on the street, where the Europeans are
seen as standing up to Mr. Putin. Mr. Bush's behind-the-scenes role is less
appreciated.
I'm glad that Europe is finally getting its act together, after bungling the
breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990's and studiously ignoring the catastrophe
in Darfur this year. But when a historic tide is running in our favor, our
president should be riding it at least abreast of the Europeans, not
cheering them from the shore.
Or he might at least choose an orange tie. -30-
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FOOTNOTE: Nicholas D. Kristof has an outstanding Interactive
Feature on The New York Times website. He speaks from Kyiv,
Ukraine. To see and listen to the interactive feature go to the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/04/opinion/04kristof.html and
click on the title: "The Orange Revolution: Nicholas D. Kristof joins
the pro-democracy demonstrators in Ukraine.
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.246 ARTICLE NUMBER TWO
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2. "SAYING NO TO VLADIMIR PUTIN"
EDITORIAL, The New York Times
New York, New York, Sat, December 4, 2004
Ukraine's Supreme Court made a courageous decision yesterday in calling
for a second runoff election by Dec. 26. Now all parties should let
Ukrainians make their choice fairly. That is especially incumbent on
President Vladimir Putin of Russia, who, apparently forgetting that he's
no longer in the K.G.B., has been trying to ram last month's fraudulent
election results down the country's throat. The two-week dispute has
raised tensions to a boiling point in the divided country, and any new
provocation could lead to violence and irrevocable division.
The Ukrainian government said it would abide by the decision of the
18-member court. But President Leonid Kuchma had hoped that the court
would order entirely new elections, enabling him to dump his badly tainted
candidate, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, and force the opposition to
run someone other than its popular leader, Viktor Yushchenko. The court
was right to heed the advice of European mediators and schedule a straight
rerun, and quickly, to keep passions from getting out of control.
One of the most heartening aspects of the court's decision was that a
Ukrainian institution was deciding the future of Ukraine. That was
especially notable after a crude attempt by Mr. Putin a day earlier to lean
on the court by summoning Mr. Kuchma to a quick but extensively
publicized meeting at a Moscow airport. Mr. Putin might have thought that
these demeaning theatrics would intimidate or impress the judges. In the
end it made his political failure only more obvious.
Ukraine and Russia share much history: both spring from the same Kievan
Rus state, and eastern and southern Ukraine residents identify closely with
Russia in language and religion. And it would be wrong to romanticize the
widespread protests in the streets of Kiev, which carry a dollop of an
unsavory form of nationalism. But these are issues for Ukrainians to work
out themselves.
But why would Mr. Putin exacerbate a situation in which Russia really did
not have much to lose? Mr. Yushchenko, after all, had already served as
prime minister under Mr. Kuchma, and knows he must maintain close
relations with Russia, the main source of Ukraine's energy.
Mr. Putin could have scored points by acting as a disinterested mediator.
But, because the histories of Russia and Ukraine are so intertwined, Russia
could emerge as the biggest political loser if Ukraine were to descend into
violence or break up.
Mr. Putin has already suffered considerable damage to his standing in the
West through his unnecessary public interference in Ukraine's political
process. Now that the court has ruled, he would do well to accept its
judgment and to abandon the foolish notion that someone is trying to
steal "his" Ukraine. -30- [The Action Ukraine Monitoring Service]
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LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/04/opinion/04sat2.html
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.246 ARTICLE NUMBER THREE
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3. "SURPRISE IN UKRAINE"
LEAD EDITORIAL: The Washington Post
Washington, D.C., Saturday, December 4, 2004; Page A22
WHATEVER HAPPENS next, the decision by the Ukrainian Supreme
Court yesterday to declare last month's presidential election invalid
represents a major victory for the Ukrainian democratic movement. Only
hours earlier, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, mocked the idea of
re-running the election, which was marked by widespread and barely
concealed fraud, asking whether there would then "have to be a third,
a fourth, a 25th round until one of the sides obtains the necessary result."
The current Ukrainian president, Leonid Kuchma, had also objected to
the idea of a re-vote, arguing instead for an entirely new election, with
new candidates, to give the pro-Russian lobby time to come up with a
better candidate than Viktor Yanukovych, an ex-convict who doesn't
speak fluent Ukrainian.
But the Supreme Court defied both the Russian government, which has
made its preferences more than clear in this election, and the current
Ukrainian leadership, which also fears that a victory by the opposition
candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, might break up the business and political
monopolies that control Ukraine. That means that the judges join other
groups that have recently announced they will no longer go along with the
government's soft authoritarianism: Ukrainian journalists who announced
they would not subject themselves to censorship, Ukrainian diplomats who
said they didn't recognize the results of the election, Ukrainian police who
said they would not beat up demonstrators.
Still, while this is a victory, it isn't the end of the battle. To ensure
that the Dec. 26 re-run of the election is conducted fairly, Ukraine may
need to adjust its electoral laws to prevent the multiple voting that proved
such a source of abuse. International election observers from around the
world should be prepared to help (excepting those who choose to monitor
while in the pay of the Ukrainian government). Ukrainians and Westerners
should also avoid falling into the trap set by Mr. Putin, who -- partly in
reaction to events in Ukraine -- lashed out at the United States yesterday,
accusing it of seeking a "dictatorship of international affairs," with
policies packaged "in beautiful pseudo-democratic phraseology." Mr. Putin
would like to frame the contest in Ukraine as a Cold War-style struggle for
influence between the West and Russia; that is how he understands the world.
But that is not what is happening in Ukraine. The struggle there ultimately
is not about the West or Russia but about whether Ukrainians will be allowed
to choose a government and a governmental system for themselves -- whether
democratic and liberal values can triumph over a corrupt, heavily
centralized oligarchic regime.
Finally, the Ukrainians must be permitted to enshrine some of the
achievements of the past few weeks in law, providing protections for a free
press, an unbiased election commission and other institutions of democracy.
The ideal outcome would be creation of a political system in which mass
protests are never again needed to ensure an honest transfer of
wer. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33999-2004Dec3.html
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.246 ARTICLE NUMBER FOUR
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4. "DEMOCRACY THE WINNER"
EDITORIAL, Irish Independent, Ireland, Sat, Dec 04, 2004
THERE are few things in human affairs as dramatic as a people taking control
of their own destiny. The recent, and manifestly unjust, election that took
place in Ukraine resulted in stirring scenes of hundreds of thousands of
people gathering in the centre of Kiev, beneath vivid orange banners, to
protest the result.
People power, plus international pressure, prevented the would-be election
'winner', the pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych, from stealing the presidency.
But there was something else, something vital, which blocked Mr Yanukovych,
and that was the political institutions of Ukraine.
It may seem strange to say this. After all, hadn't the political system
perpetrated the fraud in the first place? True, but if the system was
utterly corrupt, the parliament of Ukraine would not have voted against the
result. Much more significantly, neither would the Supreme Court. Yesterday,
Ukraine's Supreme Court annulled the second round of the presidential
election - thereby proving its political independence.
This shows that despite the best attempts of Moscow and its Ukrainian
allies, the body politic of Ukraine has developed some of the habits
essential to a healthy, functioning liberal democracy in which separation of
powers exists. The situation is still highly fraught. The repeat of the
run-off between opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko and Mr Yanukovych,
is to take place by December 26.
That doesn't leave much time in which to redress all the issues that led to
voter fraud in the first place. However, it is right and proper that the
re-run should be undertaken as quickly as possible. No matter what happens
now, difficult days lie ahead for Ukraine. The country is very badly divided
and whoever wins the re-run election - presumably Mr Yushchenko - millions
of people are going to feel profoundly alienated from their government.
The first task of the election winner will be national reconciliation. The
key word here is 'national'. Is Ukraine one nation or two? The months and
years ahead will give us the answer to that question. -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.246 ARTICLE NUMBER FIVE
Please send us names for the free distribution list
======================================================
5. "UKRAINE: THE RIGHT VERDICT"
EDITORIAL: The Guardian, London, UK, Sat, Dec 04, 2004
Ukraine's crisis has not been ended by the supreme court's demand for a
re-run of the country's bitterly contested presidential election. But
yesterday's ruling is a triumph for Viktor Yushchenko, the reformist
candidate and leader of the orange revolutionaries who have been
demonstrating in central Kiev and holding the attention of the world for the
past two weeks. Mr Yushchenko and supporters had insisted on a speedy
re-run to maintain the momentum that brought them their self-declared
victory - snatched, as they and most observers claimed - by large-scale
fraud. Stolen goods, in that sense, have now been returned to their rightful
owner, and by order of the highest court in the land.
This episode has generated strong feelings - even among people who
previously knew little about this country of 48 million. For some western
liberals the scenes in a snowbound Independence Square have been an
inspiring replay of the Velvet Revolution that ended communist rule in
Czechoslovakia, the richly deserved trouncing of corrupt business
"oligarchs" living in a Soviet-style past, by modern, youthful democrats.
Others, including Vladimir Putin, the increasingly authoritarian Russian
president, detect western meddling, an American penchant for selective
encouragement of democracy, an agenda to impose neo- liberal reforms on
the Ukrainian economy and a return to cold-war era confrontation. Both
views contain elements of caricature and ignore differences between the
country's west and north and the wealthier, Russian-speaking industrial east
and south. What is now beyond dispute is that the electoral process was
deeply flawed.
It is also clear that Ukraine must not be allowed to become a new battle-
ground between east and west. Mr Putin campaigned openly for the prime
minister, Viktor Yanukovich, and congratulated him on winning even as his
opponent cried foul. George Bush warned this week that "outsiders" should
not get involved. The European Union has behaved sensibly, working to secure
a peaceful outcome and showing that it has achieved a rare maturity. Faced
with years of complex accession negotiations with Turkey - considered by
many not to be a European country at all - the EU is unlikely to offer
membership to Ukraine. But Brussels should make clear that it will forge a
closer relationship that will benefit the entire country - including those
disgruntled Russian-speakers in the east - if democratic norms are
respected, for Ukraine's sake, and for the sake of its place in a changing
world. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.246 ARTICLE NUMBER SIX
Your comments about the Report are always welcome
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6. "UKRAINE RULES"
EDITORIAL: International Herald Tribune (IHT)
Europe, Saturday, December 4, 2004
The Ukrainian Supreme Court made a courageous and proper decision on
Friday calling for a second run-off election by Dec. 26. The duty of all
parties involved in the crisis now is to let the Ukrainians make their
choice fairly and peacefully. That is especially incumbent upon President
Vladimir Putin of Russia, who has repeatedly and unnecessarily treated the
Ukrainian election as an East-West confrontation. The two-week dispute
has already raised tensions in the divided country to a dangerous level, and
any new provocation could lead to violence and an irrevocable rupture.
.
The Ukrainian government has said in the past that it would abide by the
decision of the 18-member court. But President Leonid Kuchma had hoped
that the judges would order entirely new elections, enabling him to dump
his badly tainted candidate, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, and to
force out the popular opposition leader, Viktor Yushchenko. The
opposition wanted, and on, a straight rerun.
.
One of the most heartening aspects of the court's decision was that the
future of Ukraine was decided by a Ukrainian institution. That was
especially notable after the crude attempt by Putin a day earlier to lean on
the court by summoning Kuchma to a hasty and extensively publicized meeting
at a Moscow airport. Putin may have thought that these demeaning theatrics
would intimidate or impress the Ukrainians. But it served only to make his
political failure all the more obvious and humiliating. The very fact that
Putin met Kuchma at the airport, from which the Russian president was
about to leave for India, only deepened the impression that Putin regards
the Ukrainian leader as an underling. It was all a bit reminiscent of those
sorry scenes in the Soviet era when Politburo members stood on the
tarmac waving goodbye every time their leader flew off.
.
It is time for Putin to abandon the notion that the Kremlin has a special,
paternalistic authority over fellow Slavs in Ukraine, or in Belarus. It is
true that Ukraine and Russia share much history: Both spring from the
same Kievan Rus state, and the eastern and southern provinces of today's
Ukrainian state are predominantly populated by people who identify closely
with Russia in language and religion. And it would be wrong to unduly
romanticize the massive protests in the streets of Kiev, which carry a
dollop of an unsavory form of Ukrainian nationalism. But these are issues
for Ukrainians to work out themselves.
.
They are also beside the main point here, which is that presidential
elections in Ukraine were marked by "systemic and massive violations," in
the words of the court, to ensure a victory by Yanukovich. That's what
brought the crowds out. The West made no secret of its preference for
Yushchenko, just as it was obvious that Putin supported Yanukovich. But
it's ridiculous to presume that any amount of aid from the United States,
the European Union or any Western agency could have manufactured the
popular reaction in Ukraine. Western governments, moreover, have acted
with considerable restraint since the crisis broke out.
.
Putin's high-handed behavior, by contrast, often appeared intended to fan
the flames and to raise the East-West stakes in the crisis. The question
here is what Putin thinks he is gaining. Even in Moscow, where many people
have close ties to Ukraine and Ukrainians, cooler heads have questioned
why the president would exacerbate a situation in which Russia really did
not have much to lose. Yushchenko, after all, had already served as prime
minister under Kuchma, and is keenly aware of the need to maintain close
relations not only with Russia, the main source of Ukraine's energy and its
main trading partner, but with eastern Ukrainians.
.
The Russian president could have scored major political points by acting as
an honest broker. Conversely, precisely because the histories of Ukraine and
Russia are so intertwined, Russia would emerge as the biggest foreign loser
if Ukraine descended into violence. Putin has already done considerable
damage to his standing in the West through his crude interference in the
Ukrainian political process. Now that the court has ruled, he would do well
to accept its judgment and to abandon the foolish notion that someone is
trying to steal "his" Ukraine. -30- [Action Ukraine Monitoring Service]
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http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/12/03/opinion/edukraine.html
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.246 ARTICLE NUMBER SEVEN
Your comments about the Report are always welcome
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7. "POWER OF THE PEOPLE IS ALIVE IN UKRAINE"
OP-ED, by Georgie Ann Geyer, YAHOO!NEWS, USA, Fri, Dec. 3, 2004
WASHINGTON -- Only a month after Ukraine's first indefinitive presidential
elections and barely two weeks after runoff elections, the chaos we are
seeing on the streets of Kiev is difficult to believe.
Yesterday, Ukraine, with its nearly 50 million people and its crucially
geostrategic position between Europe and Russia, was considered one of the
most implacably hard-line post-communist states, ruled by the iron-fisted
Leonid Kuchma.
Today, the country's supreme court has ruled for new elections within weeks,
something unheard of in the former Soviet bloc until now. It would be nigh
impossible for the old-line politicians to rig another campaign with all the
world now watching.
Yesterday, Viktor Yanukovich, the hand-picked candidate of Moscow and
Kuchma, looked as though he might be able to pull off the fraud, supported
by the pro-Russian east of the country and the rich caste of "robber barons"
who took over the country's industrial wealth and enterprises after 1991.
Today, there is every indication that the more pro-Western and progressive
candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, will win, with the support of the students,
the intelligentsia, the Catholics and Orthodox of the western "breadbasket,"
the new small-businesspeople and many parliamentarians.
Yesterday, Ukraine was a strange, silent, sinister place, and Kiev a city of
court intrigues so ugly they rivaled the Borgias'. When I was there before
the first elections, Yushchenko had just returned from a month-long
emergency trip to a Viennese clinic, where he was treated for poisoning --
not chemical, but bacteriological or biological. (One of Kuchma's top
associates said, with the cruel cynicism that infused the place, "He should
get a food-taster.")
Today, the capital city has been taken over by the most idealistic and
hopeful spirits of the nation. A youth movement named Pora, or "It's time,"
which had been organizing in the bad days in small cells across the country,
has set up field kitchens and medical aid stations, handed out sheets
outlining their form of nonviolent civil disobedience, and given out so many
orange accoutrements of dress that the crowd in Independence Square looks
like one glowing display of the color that has been adopted by the movement.
Meanwhile, in the western and central parts of the country, Yushchenko's
supporters were following an obviously well-thought-out plan, as they took
control of municipal and regional councils and administrations. In the
eastern areas, around coal-rich Donetz, Yanukovich supporters talked for
several days of seceding from Ukraine, but such talk soon receded.
These last two weeks have been historically mind-blowing and spirit-raising.
Ukraine in the fall of 2004 is the natural child of Lech Walesa jumping atop
the Gdansk shipyard fence 24 years ago, the "velvet revolution" in Prague 15
years ago and the "rose revolution" in Georgia only last year.
It is the end result of careful planning for civil disobedience practices,
of the work of NGOs from the European Union (news - web sites) and the
United States, of the rise of an impatient budding middle class in Ukraine
itself, of the incapacity and cruelty of the Kuchma era, and of the now
apparently failed intentions of President Putin.
Russian commentator Pavel Felgenhauer wrote this week in the Moscow
Times: "Putin seems never to have intended to build alliances with the West
Putin sought Western technology and investment in order to modernize the
economy. He wanted Russia to be included in the G7 and the World Trade
Organization. The Kremlin wanted the West to recognize the Commonwealth
of Independent States as Russia's sphere of influence. In return, Putin was
prepared to say the right things about democracy and related issues."
It was after the United States got bogged down in Iraq, he wrote, that the
Kremlin's hands were freed "to conclude Russia's experiment with
representative democracy. Steps were taken to establish control over
Georgia and Ukraine."
Surely, President Putin is not going to let Ukraine -- and all it represents
in wealth, in oil and gas pipelines and in strategic importance -- go
easily. That is too heavy a price to pay, and Putin and Kuchma agreed last
week there should be no new elections. But there is actually little he can
do.
Ironically, what has so far defeated them both in Ukraine is not military
might nor economic power, but transparency. The whole world now knows
everything they have done, and it would be nearly impossible to keep their
doings secret again. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.246 ARTICLE NUMBER EIGHT
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8. "DANCING IN THE STREETS AS 'A NATION IS BORN'"
By Stefan Wagstyl and Tom Warner in Kiev
Financial Times, London, UK, December 3 2004
It was the moment for which the crowds filling central Kiev had been
waiting. After nearly two weeks in the cold, the demonstrators supporting
opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko finally had a big victory to cheer in
the Supreme Court's decision to cancel last month's disputed presidential
election and order an early re-run.
"I never danced before but I'm dancing now. I even learned to like rap. This
spirit will never die. Our nation is born," said Ludmila Volska, a piano
teacher in her 40s from the western Ukrainian city of Kamenets-Podolsky.
"But it's not finished yet. We will stand here to the end." Her words were
barely audible above the shouts of other protesters calling "Yushchenko,
Yushchenko,Yushchenko".
The judges have given Mr Yushchenko everything he wanted when he filed
his complaint alleging fraud in the election in which prime minister Viktor
Yanukovich, president Leonid Kuchma's candidate, was declared the
official winner.
Mr Yushchenko wanted the vote cancelled and a re-run to be held as soon
as possible. The court could have limited itself to cancelling the poll and
leaving it to the politicians to set a new election timetable. But it went
the whole way in Mr Yushchenko's favour in ordering a re-run within three
weeks, that is by December 26.
Mr Yushchenko's headquarters welcomed the ruling as a victory for
democracy. But the verdict is a bitter defeat for Mr Yanukovich, who
faces a probable electoral thrashing if the new poll is carried out fairly.
The ruling is also a humiliation for the authoritarian Mr Kuchma, who saw a
Yanukovich presidency as the best way of retaining influence when he
steps down after a decade in office.
Even before Friday's ruling, Mr Kuchma was preparing to ditch Mr Yanukovich.
Seeing a Yushchenko presidency as increasingly likely, Mr Kuchma has in
recent days advocated wholesale political reforms which would transfer power
from the president to parliament. Only then would new elections take place.
Mr Kuchma wanted to make sure that the presidency would be neutered before
Mr Yushchenko took office.
Trying to retain power through parliament would be much harder for Mr
Kuchma than running the country through the powerful presidential machine
but it would be preferable to giving the keys to Mr Yushchenko.
That strategy now looks in tatters. But Mr Kuchma has enjoyed power for
too long to give up easily. He still has a few cards to play. In theory, he
could raise the political stakes by declaring a state of emergency and
trying to delay the polls. But he would be obliged to secure parliamentary
backing within three days - and the divided current parliament would be
most unlikely to give such support.
Mr Kuchma could play tough over the conditions for the election re-run. Mr
Yushchenko wants to make sure a new poll is free and fair - and has demanded
that the government step down to make sure it cannot interfere and that the
Central Election Commission, which supervised the disputed poll and declared
Mr Yanukovich the winner, is reconstituted. Parliament has passed
no-confidence votes in both the government and the election commission,
but it is the president who decides. There could still be some tough
bargaining ahead.
The international implications of the judges' ruling are also significant.
Russian president Vladimir Putin, who publicly supported Mr Kuchma's
opposition to an early election re-run only this week, has been made to look
foolish. European Union leaders who backed a rapid re-run, especially Polish
president Aleksander Kwasniewski, will be more than satisfied.
However, EU officials will be careful not to crow too loudly. They will not
want to add to Mr Putin's discomfort. And they will not want to take too
much for granted until the polls are safely out of the way. International
mediators headed by Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, are due to
visit Kiev in the next few days for another round of talks.
The election timing could be a problem. The court set December 26 as the
latest date for the new poll. Using the full three weeks would allow the
maximum time for election preparations. December 26 is an ordinary Sunday
in mainly Christian Orthodox Ukraine, which celebrates Christmas later than
the west. But it would probably be the worst possible date for recruiting
the thousands of international observers. -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.246 ARTICLE NUMBER NINE
Suggested articles for publication in the Report are always welcome
=========================================================
9. "PEOPLE POWER TRIUMPHS AS UKRAINE TO VOTE AGAIN"
Jeremy Page in Kiev, Irish Independent, Ireland, Sat, Dec 04, 2004
UKRAINE'S Supreme Court handed a historic victory to the opposition
leader Viktor Yushchenko last night, ruling that the country's presidential
election was rigged by the pro-Moscow government and ordering a new
run-off on St Stephen's Day. The ruling annulled the victory handed to
Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych last week, sparking massive opposition
protests that brought the nation to the brink of disintegration.
Fireworks burst over Kiev's Independence Square and tens of thousands
of opposition protesters swathed in orange danced, cheered and chanted
"Yushchenko! Yushchenko!" after the ruling was announced. Car horns
blared. Addressing tens of thousands of ecstatic supporters, Mr Yushchenko
declared after the court decision: "Henceforth Ukraine is a true democratic
state.
"We have proved that we are a nation that could defend our choice. Justice
and freedom are coming back to Ukraine, thanks to you, real heroes."
The decision was a humiliation for Leonid Kuchma, the outgoing President,
and for Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, who had backed Mr
Yanukovych and insisted on a completely fresh election. Mr Putin now
faces the loss of Russia's centuries-old dominance over its Slavic neighbour
with Mr Yushchenko firm favourite to win the new run-off election.
Mr Kuchma and Mr Putin were believed to be planning to replace the
discredited Mr Yanukovych, who has been taken ill, with a more moderate
candidate capable of beating the pro-Western Mr Yushchenko.
The Supreme Court's chief presiding justice, Anatoly Yarema, left Mr
Kuchma and Mr Putin little room for manoeuvre. "The actions and
decisions of the central election commission concerning the results of
the run-off presidential vote were unlawful," he said, adding that the
court would accept no appeal.
Mr Kuchma may now attempt to push through constitutional reforms that
would dilute the president's powers and make the prime minister the more
powerful figure. He has agreed to dismiss Mr Yanukovych's government,
after losing a vote of confidence in parliament this week, but only if the
opposition agrees to the reforms.
But with the Supreme Court now behind him, Mr Yushchenko may press
home his advantage. His more radical allies, including Yuliya Tymoshenko,
are ruling out any compromise.
The risk is that the Russian-speaking south and east of the country, which
backed Mr Yanukovych, will move to secede from Ukrainian-speaking
western Ukraine or to cripple the economy by not paying taxes or blocking
gas and coal supplies.
Mr Yushchenko, a Western-leaning liberal who advocates joining the EU
and Nato, is also wary of antagonising Russia, which considers Ukraine its
strategic backyard and keeps its southern fleet in the Black Sea port of
Sevastopol.
The election sparked a Cold-War style stand-off between Russia and the West,
with the Kremlin sending spin-doctors to work on Mr Yanukovych's campaign
and Western governments funding pro-democracy NGOs and youth groups.
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 246 ARTICLE NUMBER TEN
Names for the distribution list always welcome
=========================================================
10. "MAKING HISTORY IN THE SNOW"
It is 12 days since the first protests, and the opposition in Ukraine is in
victorious mood. Chris Stephen , in Kiev, catches up with some of the
people he spoke to at the start.
Chris Stephen, Irish Times, Ireland, Sat, Dec 04, 2004
The day Ukraine announced that prime minister Victor Yanukovich had
won the November 21st presidential election, despite exit polls giving the
lead to the opposition's Victor Yushchenko, barricades went up in Kiev's
Independence Square. A few thousand opposition supporters, clad in their
orange banners and with no clear plan, gathered together. A few tents were
erected by hammering iron tent-pegs into the tarmac. Among the protesters
were Valery Simenova (21) and her mother, Svetlana (50). They were angry
about reports of a stolen election, fearing that if they did not do
something, democracy would be finished.
Twelve days on, the few have grown to a quarter of a million, the protest
has forced the government to hold new elections, and the tents have become
Tent City, complete with guards, heaters and army field-kitchens. "This has
been an extraordinary time," says Valery. "Since I met you I have been here
every single day, and some of the nights too. I stand on the barricades some
of the time and some of the time I help in the kitchens." Her mother has not
fared so well. The day after I met her, she stayed out all night and caught
a cold, and is now at home recovering.
"Being here, I have made a lot of new friends. People are meeting from all
over Ukraine, there has never been anything like it," says Valery. "I am
much more optimistic now than I was then. Yushchenko and his team
understand the situation, they make all the right moves, so we kept our
confidence in them."
For Valery, this is history in the making: "I read a lot of history, and I
found that we had the same situation, nearly identical, at the start of the
last century when Lenin and his army came here. The Ukrainians protested
and a lot of people were killed. But this time it is different, this time we
can win - this is the 21st century."
When, 10 days ago, I first talked to Irina Yermolenko (24), a student clad
in a black fur coat, she was sheltering in a black SUV. The Orange
Revolution was in trouble. The protesters were deluged by snow and freezing
temperatures, and several thousand pro-government miners had arrived from
the east by train and were massing at the nearby Dinamo Kiev football
stadium for what many feared was an imminent attack. When I told her I
worked for The Irish Times, Irina got out of the jeep, property of her rich
boyfriend, and insisted I take down a statement. She wanted the people of
Ireland to know that the protesters wanted only to join Europe and that they
hoped for Europe's support.
Now, like the other protesters, she is much more confident. Each day she is
chauffeured to the protests, sometimes by her boyfriend, sometimes by her
huge bodyguard. She buys food from supermarkets, then drops it at the
various municipal buildings that house tens of thousands of out-of-town
protesters. "This time has been the most amazing experience for me," she
says. "In front of my eyes, my nation has been born. This was definitely a
surprise to me, because before people kept their opinions to themselves
because they were afraid. Also, Ukrainians are by nature docile."
"I stopped my studies last week. None of my friends study any more, nobody
can think of anything else except the revolution. We will keep it going, for
weeks or for months, because we cannot fail. This protest won't build
democracy, we know that. If we win, it is one step forward, but if we fail,
it's 10 steps back."
Last weekend, the Orange Revolution produced a new surprise: crowds of
pro- and anti- government demonstrators met head-on outside Kiev's Central
Election Commission. Instead of fights, there were earnest arguments.
Dr Tatiana Lavrenchuck stood with her daughter, Tonya, wearing an orange
headband, arguing with a tall youth from Donetsk draped in the blue flag of
government supporters. The argument was heated, but there was no violence.
"We do not fight - that is the character of the Orange Revolution," said
Tatiana at the time. She was worried about who would win a battle of the
streets, but now she is confident of victory.
"I was out there that day because I was angry," she says. "Ukrainian people
had been patient a long time, but the stolen election was the last drop.
They could not tolerate the government any more. My mood now is very
optimistic. I am absolutely sure democracy would win. The people in Donetsk
were lied to, and in time they will understand." Like most citizens, she
goes to the square for several hours each day, until the cold is too much.
"In the evenings I watch the news," she says. "Nobody in my family watches
films or entertainment, we just sit watching news the whole time. Since the
revolution began people have become much more polite with each other. If
someone steps on your foot in the square, they apologise.That never happened
before."
Not everyone is happy. This week, with the Supreme Court reviewing the
elections, the government falling and prime minister Victor Yanukovich
admitting new elections were inevitable, the miners packed up and went
home. One of the few people in the city still admitting he is blue is
Nicolae Zhovner (25), a lawyer from Don Bas, the government's eastern
heartland. He works at a bank in Kiev and has endured two weeks of
misery from his "orange" colleagues.
"It is like everyone has gone mad," he says. "Anything to do with the colour
orange is good, anything to do with the colour blue is bad. I was in a car
and we passed a beer advertisement and it was blue and everyone was joking
that the beer company supports the government. Two weeks ago it was worse,
it was like 'war is coming' and everyone was very tense. Now it has eased
up, it is only teasing now, they keep giving me orange things - ribbons,
hats - trying to get me to wear them." He says the nation is now split down
the middle between opposition west and government east, and new elections
will deepen this split.
"People talk about separation between east and west - well, it has already
been made," he says. "It is made in people's heads. I voted for Yanukovich
because what matters to me about him is that he is from Donbas. Any result
next time around will leave 15 million people feeling abused. There is no
one who can unite this country. My feeling now is to try and stay out of
politics. I am not orange or blue, I try only to be Zen."
Anastasia Martynenko (18) told me at the start of the week that nothing
would drag her away from the protest. That was before her boyfriend gave
her an ultimatum: choose him or the revolution. So yesterday, the day the
Supreme Court decided on the Christmas elections, she quit Tent City to
go skiing on the city outskirts.
"These events changed some things in a bad way," she says. "Lots of
relationships broke up. Two boys came from the city of Zhitomir to Tent
City. They phoned their girlfriends but the girls refused to come, so the
boys broke with them. I had to make a choice, so I am here with my
boyfriend. I made many friends in Tent City. Also there were some
marriages. But a lot of couples broke up. This protest is only for
friendship. It is not for relationships."
Vitaly Kabanchuk (27) got back from Ireland, where he had been translating
for a business delegation, to find his city in uproar. He quickly found work
with foreign journalists pouring into the city, and has lived night and day
in a single square mile, following the crowds marching up the hill from
Independence Square to the parliament, then back down again for nightly
rallies. Yesterday he was in Independence Square to hear the news that the
Supreme Court had called for a re-run only of the second round of election
voting, a process that makes opposition victory virtually certain.
"My view changed about the whole Ukrainian nation," he says. "I thought
there was no Ukrainian nation. I thought there were 48 million individuals.
Now I can see we really do have a nation. It is extraordinary. The work has
never been so hard, but I have never been so happy. This is the only chance
for the Ukraine to go in the right direction. In the whole of history the
Ukraine has been under someone else's control, under Poland, under Russia,
under the Austro-Hungarian empire. Now we have this chance to build our
future." -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 246 ARTICLE NUMBER ELEVEN
Letters to the editor are always welcome
=========================================================
11. EUROPEAN UNION HAS TO LEARN NEW SKILLS
AS IT TIRES TO TACKLE UKRAINE CRISIS
WORLDVIEW: by Paul Gillespie, Irish Times, Ireland, Sat, Dec 04, 2004
The common European cultural space cannot be firmly defined and delimited;
its borders are necessarily open, not because of our ignorance, but in
principle - because European culture, indeed Europe itself, is not a 'fact'.
It is a task and a process... Europe and its cultural identity thus depend
on a constant confrontation with the new, the different, the foreign .
These are among the principal findings by a distinguished reflection group
of intellectuals and political figures asked by Romano Prodi to report on
the spiritual and cultural dimension of Europe. They resonate strongly in a
week when three developments have underlined the issues with which their
work has been concerned over the last two years: the European Union's active
mediation in Ukraine's political crisis; the transfer from NATO to the EU of
responsibility for Bosnian peacekeeping; and the French Socialist party vote
in favour of the EU's constitutional treaty.
Each of these involves an encounter with novelty and difference,
contributing to the development of an EU foreign policy, which is one of the
major tasks it has set itself in dealing with a rapidly changing world
order. Ukraine and Bosnia-Herzegovina are certainly part of Europe, although
not (yet) of the EU. What has happened over the last 15 years, since the
fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, is that the EU has increasingly hegemonised
the continental sense of Europe through the enlargement that took central
and eastern European states into membership.
Their desire to "return to Europe" enabled them to undertake a fundamental
transformation in their political, economic and social structures in
preparation for EU accession, without reverting to the aggressive
nationalism which created the Balkan tragedy in the 1990s. It is all too
easy to overlook the absence of conflict between Hungary and Romania or
Slovakia, Bulgaria and Macedonia, Poland and Ukraine during that time,
as if it were simply contingent and happenstance.
As the American writer Elizabeth Pond puts it: "The new paradigm is not,
after all, the atrocities of the former Yugoslavia, or even the old
balance-of-power jostling. It is an unaccustomed reconciliation in the heart
of Europe." That dynamic has now spread to the Balkans.
Ukraine had a peaceful separation from the Soviet Union in 1991, without
resolving the fundamental tension between its western and eastern
orientations which have exploded in the last fortnight. They can best be
resolved or at least channelled constructively by a willingness to learn the
lessons of power-sharing internally; and a readiness by Russia, the EU and
the United States to agree on an external equilibrium of power capable of
protecting Ukraine's autonomy and respecting its democratic rights. There is
some cautious room to hope that has been realised as desirable and possible
this week without a disastrous outbreak of violence.
The 12 members of this reflection group were brought together by the
Institute of Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna. Chaired by Krzysztof Michalski,
the IWM's rector and professor of philosophy in Boston University and the
University of Warsaw, its other members are: Kurt Biedenkopf, Silvio
Ferrari, Bronislaw Geremek, Arpad Göncz, John Gray, Will Hutton, Jutta
Limbach, Ioannis Petrou, Alberto Quadrio Curzio, Michel Rocard, and Simone
Veil. As lawyers, philosophers, economists, historians and current or former
politicians they bring authority and wisdom to the subject.
I learned during a fellowship at the IWM in 1998 that it played a crucial
role in bringing together intellectuals, journalists, social science
researchers and political figures from central, eastern and western Europe
from the early 1980s when it was founded, through the dramatic changes after
1989. It continues the work through the period of formal enlargement. This
process is a central feature of their report and the intense consultations,
public debates and commentaries which went into it (accessible at
http://www.iwm.at/r-reflec.htm ). It makes an illuminating contrast to the
pessimism about Europe's identity expressed in these pages by Desmond
Fennell (November 23rd).
They ask how enlargement to include the countries of the former Soviet
empire will alter the conditions of European solidarity, what role Europe's
religions, including Islam, will play in the European public sphere, and
what tasks will emerge from Europe's growing role in the world. "Faced with
growing diversity and the rigours of establishing a more demanding kind of
unity, what forces can hold the expanded, redefined European Union
together?"
They argue that the political and strategic elements which originally
inspired European integration from the 1940s and 1950s - the shock of
the second World War, the mounting threat from the Soviet Union and the
economic dynamism of post-war development - gradually gave way to
economic goals, which came ever more to the fore. But economic
integration does not in itself lead to political integration because
"markets cannot produce a politically resilient solidarity".
In recognition of this, the constitutional process culminating in the treaty
agreed last June was entered into, posing the question of how much
integration it requires and what will be the forces of cohesion producing
them. A mere list of common European values will not suffice, precisely
because they are subject to a diversity of interpretation.
That is why they define Europe's cultural space as open in principle, not
firmly defined and delimited. Cohesion will arise from its achievements in
tackling the kinds of problems on its agenda this week effectively, rather
than from creating a cultural identity counterposed to national ones. It is
a future-oriented project, drawing on diverse pasts and cultures that must
be constantly renewed, not relying on some fixed essence or list of values
as nations do.
The same applies to its religions, which can bring people together, instead
of separating them. Islam must be understood in its European context, not
in a frontal confrontation with an abstracted "Christian Europe".
The report insists that the countries of central and eastern Europe bring to
the common table their political experience of revolutionary change, which
"were proof of the strength of the solidarity of a civil society". That
enriched Europe and this is why the new members, despite their economic
weakness, "should be taken in as equal members in the Union". -30-
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 246 ARTICLE NUMBER TWELVE
Letters to the editor are always welcome
=========================================================
12. BRUSSELS ENDORSES UKRAINE THAW PLAN
By Daniel Dombey in Brussels, Financial Times
London, UK, Saturday, December 4 2004
BRUSSELS - The European Commission has decided to endorse an
agreement with Ukraine to show its commitment to the country - even
though the commissioner behind the plan had initially wanted the project
delayed. Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the new external relations commissioner,
had wanted the "action plan" with Ukraine to be taken off the agenda for
next week's commission meeting because of the turmoil in the country
after its flawed presidential poll.
But Jos Manuel Barroso, commission president, and Peter Mandelson, trade
commissioner, pushed the commission to adopt the plan - even before
yesterday's supreme court decision to annul the November 21 presidential
vote. Mr Barroso and Mr Mandelson see the plan as a "positive signal" of the
EU's commitment to Ukraine's future, and won the backing of a large majority
of commissioners.
The three-year "action plan" is intended to deepen the ties between Ukraine
and the European Union as part of the EU's Neighbourhood Policy towards
countries with no short-term prospect of membership. Although the commission
will adopt the plan, it will tell EU member states not to take further steps
towards implementation until the country has held further, free elections.
At a summit this month EU leaders are likely to consider whether they need
closer ties with Kiev. Poland wants the EU to view Ukraine as a potential
candidate for membership, but other EU states have resisted, believing such
a move could damage their relations with Russia. Also, Ukraine has never
made a formal application. -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 246 ARTICLE NUMBER THIRTEEN
Names for the distribution list are always welcome
=========================================================
13. "UKRAINE ON THE BRINK"
In wake of tumultuous vote, Prague's Ukrainian community
rallies for "West-leaning" candidate Viktor Yushchenko
Ukrainians now form the Czech Republic's largest ethnic minority
By Katya Zapletnyuk, Staff Writer, The Prague Post
Prague, Czech Republic, Thu, 2nd December, 2004
PRAGUE - Hundreds of Ukrainians have taken to Prague's streets since
the second round of their country's presidential elections resulted in the
official victory of pro-Russian candidate Viktor Yanukovich over
opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko.
Ukrainians began gathering in front of the Ukrainian Embassy and on
Wenceslas Square on Nov. 24, three days after the second round of voting.
They -- like the thousands of Ukrainians in Kyiv and other Ukrainian
cities -- are protesting the election results amid widespread reports of
ballot-rigging and other irregularities.
Vasyl Ryukhtin, one of the organizers of the protests, says that the
demonstrations will continue in front of the Ukrainian Embassy here for as
long as the rallies continue in Kyiv.
On Nov. 27, Ukraine's parliament annulled the results of the balloting that
gave Yanukovich 49 percent of the votes to Yushchenko's 46 percent.
Independent exit polls projected that Yushchenko won up to 58 percent and
Yanukovich 36 percent. International organizations monitoring the elections
reported numerous irregularities during the vote.
During the pre-election campaign, the opposition had no access to the media,
according to Ondrej Soukup, a People in Need employee who traveled from
Prague to Ukraine to work as an OSCE/ ODIHR election monitor. "The only
opposition channel ... can only be aired in about 30 percent of the
country," Soukup said. "Everything else that reaches the audience is pure
propaganda."
OSCE has reported numerous cases of irregularities including absentee
ballots and mobile voting. Soukup said he had seen three buses brought to
one village that were apparently touring the region, voting in one village
after another. "A local man told me that this was already the second village
where these buses were voting," Soukup said.
A key umbrella group of Ukrainian unions, the International Confederation
of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), reported complaints of employees in
the education and transport sectors being asked to vote for Yanukovich
under threat of dismissal.
"Some of these employees were 'requested' to vote for incumbent Prime
Minister Yanukovich under the threat of losing their jobs if they were not
to follow this 'request,'" said Barbara Kwateng, the ICFTU's press officer.
NO STANCE
The United States and the European Union have refused to recognize the
results of the Ukrainian election. Meanwhile, Czech Foreign Minister Cyril
Svoboda said he was very concerned about the situation in Ukraine. "Like
the rest of the EU, I don't believe the results [of the election] reflect
the real will of the Ukrainian people," he said. Czech President Vaclav
Klaus told Lidove noviny that he supports Yushchenko but would
restrain from any predictions concerning the election's validity.
Thus far, however, Parliament has declined to include the Ukrainian crisis
on its agenda. Experts on Eastern Europe and Russia have criticized the
government's lax approach to the issue. "The Czech government and
Parliament should have taken a more pro-active approach toward the
crisis in Ukraine," said Senator Jaromir Stetina, who spent nearly a decade
working as a journalist in Russia and Ukraine. "It seems to me that our
politicians are waiting to see who wins and then will support the winner.
This is a dangerous approach. "Ukraine needs to be a democratic country,
and there is a huge danger that it will become part of an authoritarian
regime."
THE LARGEST MINORITY
Ukrainians now form the Czech Republic's largest ethnic minority. According
to various estimates, up to 200,000 Ukrainians currently live here, the
majority of them illegally. Polina Binoni, center, a member of the
Prague-based Ukrainian Women's Association who spent 10 years in Stalin's
gulag, says her heart aches for the results of the Ukrainian election. "If
Yanukovich comes to power and political repression follows, the number
of emigrants from Ukraine will increase several times," Soukup said.
Boris Chykulay heads the Forum Ukrajincu CR, a nongovernmental organization
that works to ensure the rights of Ukrainians living in the Czech Republic
and to raise awareness of their problems. He said the deplorable economic
situation in Ukraine and high unemployment are driving numerous Ukrainians
to neighboring countries, including Poland and the Czech Republic, in search
of a better life. "People want to leave and they see the easiest way as
getting a tourist visa and becoming an illegal migrant," Chykulay said.
Andrei, who would not give his last name, is a 34-year-old Ukrainian man
who has lived in the Czech Republic for seven years. He said the current
situation offers his fellow countrymen a chance to voice their will
concerning their country's future.
"We want to support Yushchenko. If Yanukovich comes to power it will be
a disaster," Andrei said. "Look how many years Ukraine has been with 'Big
Brother' Russia. During this time it was going from bad to worse. Why can
we not follow the West and develop?"
SPLIT SOCIETY
At the same time, thousands in pro-Russian east Ukraine, including the
Donetsk, Lugansk and Dnepropetrovsk regions, are demonstrating in
support of Yanukovich who, despite having a criminal past, has strong
Russian backing.
Authorities in Donetsk have scheduled a regional referendum on seceding
from Ukraine for the first half of December. The country's constitution does
not allow for regional referendums but experts say that even if Yushchenko
wins, he will have to face a strong pro-Russian opposition.
Libor Dvorak, a Czech television journalist covering Russia and post-Soviet
countries, said, "no matter who ends up winning, a new strong, pro-Soviet
opposition will emerge."
He said Ukraine will never completely break its ties with Russia.
"Connections between the two countries' strategic companies are too close.
This includes production of oil, brown coal, iron and aircraft," Dvorak
said. He added, however, that if Yushchenko, a former National Bank
governor, came to power, Ukraine's relations with the West could be more
balanced.
Former Czech President Vaclav Havel voiced support for demonstrators in
Prague. On Nov. 29, Stetina read out a part of a telephone message from
Havel where he asked to convey his support to the democratic forces of
Ukraine and to pass along a request to all parties in the conflict to do
their best to prevent bloodshed.
"Because mainly Western regions support Yushchenko, he has to rely on
the support of Ukrainian nationalists as well. And this category of
constituencies is very unpredictable." Libor Dvorak, Czech TV journalist
covering post-Soviet countries
"If the election does not end in a democratic way, it may lead to widespread
chaos in Ukraine. Secession of [the east of] Ukraine could destabilize all
of Eastern Europe." Jaromir Stetina, senator and former journalist who
worked in Russia and Ukraine for 10 years.
"Moscow is interfering with the internal affairs of our country, which has a
right to its national identity, language and policy." Andrei, 34,
entrepreneur from the Lviv region of Ukraine who has lived in the Czech
Republic for seven years.
"If Yanukovich wins, he will bring to Ukraine what it has experienced during
the past 70 years. Nothing good. If Ukraine goes to Europe it will be much
better off." Nadya, 29, Ukrainian entrepreneur who has lived in the Czech
Republic for eight years. -30- [Action Ukraine Monitoring Service]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Katya Zapletnyuk can be reached at kzapletnyuk@praguepost.com
http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2004/Art/1202/news1.php
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Advisor, Ukraine-U.S. Business Council, Washington, D.C.;
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P.O. Box 2607, Washington, D.C. 20013,
Tel: 202 437 4707, E-mail: morganw@patriot.net
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