"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"
"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" Year 04, Number 265
morganw@patriot.net, ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net
Washington, D.C., Kyiv, Ukraine, SUNDAY, December 19, 2004
-----INDEX OF ARTICLES-----
"Major International News Headlines and Articles"
1. YUSHCHENKO CONFIDENT OF VICTORY IN UKRAINE
COMMENTARY: By Irena Chalupa in Kiev
The Independent, London, UK, Sun, 19 December 2004
2 U.S. CONGRESSMAN NO LONGER FEELS HIS BILL, WHICH
STIPULATES SANCTIONS AGAINST UKRAINE, IS NEEDED
Interfax-Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine, Sun, Dec 19, 2004
3. UKRAINIAN SPEAKER MEETS US CONGRESSMEN, CALLS FOR
U.S. TO LIFT JACKSON-VANICK AMENDMENT RESTRICTIONS
AND TO GRANT MARKET ECONOMY STATUS
UNIAN news agency, Kiev, in Ukrainian, 18 Dec 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Sat, December 18, 2004
4. KUCHMA APPROVES PRINTING OF NEW RUN-OFF BALLOTS
AT UKRAINA PRINTING FACTORY
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Sun, December 19, 2004
5. UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER PRAISES REBEL DIPLOMATS
PLAYS DOWN RUSSIAN RIFT
TV 5 Kanal, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1600 gmt 18 Dec 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Sat, December 18, 2004
6. YANUKOVYCH SAYS UKRAINIANS MUST NOT ALLOW
FOREIGN MONEY TO BUY THEIR VOTES
Ukrayina TV, Donetsk, Ukraine, in Russian, Sat, 18 Dec 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Sat, December 18, 2004
7. "U.S. MONEY AND THE ORANGE REVOLUTION"
EDITORIAL: Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, 16 Dec 2004
8.WORLD'S YOUTH MOVEMENT COLORED BY RED, WHITE & BLUE
EDITORIAL: By Melana Zyla Vickers
USA TODAY, Monday, December 13, 2004
9. ESTABLISHMENT CLUB IN FEAR OF UKRAINE'S PROTESTERS
SPORT: By Simon Kuper, Financial Times
London, UK, Friday, December 17 2004
10. KHARKIV: UKRAINIAN PREMIER DEFIED ON OWN TURF
By Peter Finn, Washington Post Foreign Service
The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
Saturday, December 18, 2004; Page A22
11.Q&A: HOW JUDICIAL POWER HAS CHANGED IN THE UKRAINE
By Tim Annett, The Wall Street Journal Online
New York, N.Y., Thursday, December 16, 2004
12. ACCIDENTAL ANTHEM KEEPS KIEV STREETS ROCKING
By Yana Dlugy,Agence France Presse (AFP)
Kiev, Ukraine, Tuesday, December 14 2004
13. "MURDER HE ATE"
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR: By Gail Bell
Forresters Beach, Australia
The New York Times, NY, NY, Sun, December 19, 2004
14. WARSAW RESIDENTS KNITTING SCARF FOR UKRAINE'S
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE VICTOR YUSHCHENKO
Agency France Presse, Warsaw, Poland, Fri, Dec 17, 2004
15. FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY IN UKRAINE
OP-ED By Tod Lindberg, The Washington Times
Washington, D.C., Monday, December 13, 2004
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 265: ARTICLE NUMBER ONE
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1. YUSHCHENKO CONFIDENT OF VICTORY IN UKRAINE
COMMENTARY: By Irena Chalupa in Kiev
The Independent, London, UK, Sun, 19 December 2004
Ukraine's two presidential contenders square off tomorrow in a television
debate which is sure to see accusations that the Western-backed candidate,
Viktor Yushchenko, was poisoned with dioxin by backers of his opponent,
Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich.
The debate opens the final week in a marathon and convoluted presidential
election process. Voting takes place next Sunday after Ukraine's supreme
court ruled that Mr Yanukovich won last month's run-off between the two men
through massive fraud, setting off weeks of demonstrations by hundreds of
thousands of Mr Yushchenko's orange-clad supporters. Their fervour has
been increased by confirmation last week from two Western clinics that a
mysterious complaint which has transformed Mr Yushchenko's appearance
was caused by dioxin poisoning.
Appropriately for an election being held on Boxing Day, Vitali Klitschko,
the Ukrainian who successfully defended his WBC heavyweight title against
Briton Danny Williams in Las Vegas last week, is among celebrities in Mr
Yushchenko's corner. One of the candidate's senior colleagues, Mykola
Tomenko, joked that Klitschko would psychologically prepare Mr Yushchenko
for the debates, and would be in the studio "so we can guarantee calm and
100 minutes of peace and friendship" during the verbal contest.
Mr Yanukovich's appearance will be a rare opportunity for inhabitants of
Kiev to see him. Since the supreme court ruling he has spent little time in
the capital, concentrating on his supposed strongholds of eastern and
south-eastern Ukraine, but he appears to have been summarily abandoned by
his highly placed backers. Even his mentor - the outgoing President, Leonid
Kuchma - has distanced himself from his anointed successor. His campaign
manager, former Ukrainian National Bank chief Serhiy Tyhypko, has also
thrown in the towel.
President Vladimir Putin of Russia, who visited Ukraine to boost Mr
Yanukovich's chances on the eve of both election rounds, and congratulated
him on victory two days before the fraudulent vote result was even declared,
has also muted his support for the government candidate. Mr Putin has been
heavily criticised in the West for his open interference in the presidential
race amid suspicion that the Kremlin may have been involved in the attempt
to poison Mr Yushchenko.
Mr Yanukovich has become angry as his support ebbs, describing his former
friends as liars and cowards. At a poorly attended press conference last
week, where reporters were outnumbered by sinister black-clad men, the
government candidate read from a prepared statement, calling on Europeans
and Americans not to meddle in Ukraine's affairs.
Even though the election is taking place at the height of the West's
Christmas season - most Ukrainians celebrate the festival early in January -
more than 7,000 international observers have registered to monitor the
voting. Mr Yushchenko, confident of victory, is declaring his intention to
prosecute those responsible for poisoning him, deepening the alarm of the
present administration, as well as Moscow.
Mr Putin's plans to rebuild the Kremlin's power, beginning with a political
and economic "common space" consisting of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and
Kazakhstan, were backed by Mr Yanukovich, while his opponent favours
closer links with the EU and America. -30-
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LINK: http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=594498
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.265: ARTICLE NUMBER TWO
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2. U.S. CONGRESSMAN NO LONGER FEELS HIS BILL, WHICH
STIPULATES SANCTIONS AGAINST UKRAINE, IS NEEDED
Interfax-Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine, Sun, Dec 19, 2004
KIEV - The USA congressman Dana Rohrabacher considers to be
obsolete his bill, which stipulates sanctions against Ukraine and a number
of its officials and politicians in case undemocratic presidential elections
take place in 2004. That is Mr Dana’s claim spread on Saturday in Kyiv
after his meeting with the Head of Ukrainian Parliament Volodymyr Lytvyn.
“In the course of the meetings with Ukrainian officials I realized my draft
was no longer needed. All the necessary steps aimed at holding fair and
transparent elections were taken. I hope the results of these elections will
show us the real will of Ukrainian nation.” – he said.
In September Mr Rohrabacher was reported to introduce into the USA
House of Representatives a draft legislation “Constantine Menges Ukraine
Democracy and Fair Elections Act of 2004'”. The bill anticipates sanctions
against Ukraine and a number of its officials and politicians in case
undemocratic presidential elections take place in 2004.
At the time being Mr Rohrabacher leads the USA congressmen delegation,
which arrived in Kyiv on Saturday. Americans are going to meet high-ranked
Ukrainian officials and outstanding Ukrainian politicians to discuss
American-Ukrainian relations and the current situation in Ukraine.
Mr Rohrabacher stated congressmen would like to reassure, Ukraine was
going to held fair and transparent elections. They also expressed their
solidarity with this process. “We do not support any political forces or
candidates. We back free and transparent elections”, - he emphasized.
Commenting on the claims concerning the USA providing funds for Ukrainian
elections, Mr Rohrabacher marked: “People of the USA are always on the
side of the nations struggling for their right to live in democratic
society.” The USA Government will keep doing its best to facilitate
development of democracy, not the election of a particular candidate.
Mr Rohrabacher informed he had discussed the matter of transparent and
fair elections with Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma on Saturday.
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.265: ARTICLE NUMBER THREE
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3. UKRAINIAN SPEAKER MEETS US CONGRESSMEN, CALLS FOR
U.S. TO LIFT JACKSON-VANICK AMENDMENT RESTRICTIONS
AND TO GRANT MARKET ECONOMY STATUS
UNIAN news agency, Kiev, in Ukrainian, 18 Dec 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Sat, December 18, 2004
KIEV - Chairman of the Supreme Council of Ukraine [parliament] Volodymyr
Lytvyn has assured members of the US Congress that the re-run of the
presidential election in Ukraine will take place in spite of certain
problems. The speaker's press secretary, Ihor Storozhuk, said that during
the meeting Volodymyr Lytvyn said he believes holding fair and free election
on 26 December will decrease the negative aspects of the first and second
rounds of the election.
During the meeting the parties discussed the role of parliament in resolving
the political crisis in Ukraine. Lytvyn said that parliament would continue
to take responsible decisions and if needed would convene yet another
emergency session. Lytvyn also said that the Ukrainian parliament has
practically proved that it is capable of finding a compromise within the
country and within parliament.
The parties also discussed the importance of finding a solution to social
and political issues without the use of force. Asked about the future of
Ukraine, Lytvyn stressed the importance of the reconciliation of Ukrainian
society after the election. He believes this would very much depend on the
stance and steps taken by the president-elect and on the tolerant position
of the candidate who loses the election.
The parties also discussed economic cooperation between the two countries.
Lytvyn stressed the importance of Ukraine's accession to the World Trade
Organization, granting Ukraine the status of a country with a market economy
and the need for US Congress to lift the Jackson-Vanick amendment (in effect
since 1974, it bans effective trade with some countries which limit the
right to migrate - UNIAN). The speaker called these measures tactic steps
for the further development of US-Ukraine and EU-Ukraine relations.
[Delegation head, Republican Representative] Dana Rorahbacher promised
Volodymyr Lytvyn that the congressmen would start working on the relevant
laws as soon as they return to the US, including the abolition of the
Jackson-Vanick amendment.
In addition, the parties discussed the development of interparliamentary
cooperation. They agreed to hold video-conferences between American and
Ukrainian parliamentarians. [Passage omitted: membership of the
congressional delegation.]
[Interfax-Ukraine news agency (Kiev, in Russian 1701 gmt 18 Dec 04) quoted
Rorahbacher as saying that he was confident there is no need to apply the
Ukrainian Democracy and Fair Elections-2004 bill, which he drafted and
submitted to Congress, as the Ukrainian leadership "has taken all the
necessary steps to ensure a fair and transparent election, and I hope that
the results will reflect the real will of the Ukrainian people."] -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 265: ARTICLE NUMBER FOUR
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4. KUCHMA APPROVES PRINTING OF NEW RUN-OFF BALLOTS
AT UKRAINA PRINTING FACTORY
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Sun, December 19, 2004
KYIV - Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma has signed into law the bill on
amendments to the Law on the specific features of using the Presidential
Election Law during the run-off repeat on December 26, 2004, thus permitting
the publication of ballot papers at the Ukraina printing factory. Ukrainian
News learned this from the presidential press service citing Kuchma's
remarks.
Kuchma drew attention to the fact that he had signed the bill without
receiving comments either from the Cabinet of Ministers or the Justice
Ministry, as is stipulated by the procedure. "I am doing so because I do not
wish aggravation of tensions in the state," he said. At the same time,
Kuchma noted that the blocking of government buildings is unlawful.
He reminded that, during round-table meetings with the participation of
international mediators, the opposition promised to lift the blockade.
"Their lawless actions will redound upon themselves," Kuchma said.
As Ukrainian News reported, on December 18 Central Electoral Commission
Chairman Yaroslav Davydovych expressed confidence that the ballot papers
would be published in time. Earlier Kuchma agreed to approve the Verkhovna
Rada decision on the publication of ballot papers for the run-off
presidential election repeat at the Ukraina printing factory in exchange for
unblocking of the Presidential Administration building by opposition
supporters.
The CEC endorsed the preliminary issue of ballot papers in 38,113,075
copies. This number includes one-percent excess over the voters' number,
which was sealed by law. Yet, it does not include the number of the ballot
papers to be published in keeping with the number of absentee ballots.
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 265: ARTICLE NUMBER FIVE
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5. UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER PRAISES REBEL DIPLOMATS
PLAYS DOWN RUSSIAN RIFT
TV 5 Kanal, Kiev, in Ukrainian 1600 gmt 18 Dec 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, December 18, 2004
KYIV - [Presenter] Ukraine's membership in NATO would guarantee that
NATO would never act against Russia's interests, Ukraine's Foreign Minister
Kostyantyn Hryshchenko said today at the meeting with journalists of
national TV channels. Foreign Minister Hryshchenko believes that Ukraine is
not a subject of competition. Ukraine will have its own say and will be the
subject of the expansion of a security zone. The minister suggested that the
format of the meeting [with journalists] should not have been a news
conference but a friendly conversation where irony is welcome.
The minister approved of the well-known statement by Ukrainian diplomats
who opposed vote-rigging in the presidential election [Foreign Ministry
spokesman Markiyan Lyubkivskyy said on 23 November that the entire
diplomatic corps supported Yushchenko - see UNIAN news agency, Kiev, in
Ukrainian 1936 gmt 23 Nov 04]. He said that their action, the diplomats'
action, was in line with the requirements of patriotism and professionalism.
The minister himself had expected such a chain of events in which the nation
would determine the election's fate.
As for unfriendly statements by Russian officials, and Moscow Mayor Mr
[Yuriy] Luzhkov's in particular, the minister said they should be taken
calmly and acted upon accordingly.
[Hryshchenko] If we want to enjoy freedom of expression here, they [Russian
officials] should also be granted it. But there should be people here always
capable of responding to any statements of the kind. And I believe there are
such people in Ukraine, and no less authoritative. I do not think one should
have to wear a flat cap [Luzhkov's trademark] to do this [Luzhkov addressed
a rally of pro-Yanukovych councillors in eastern Ukraine at which separatist
calls were voiced - see Ukrayina TV, Donetsk, in Russian 1900 gmt 28 Nov
04].
[Presenter] The minister was also asked about foreign influence on the
Ukrainian election and both candidates' foreign-policy leanings.
[Hryshchenko] I believe that no one has the right to monopolize the
friendship of their neighbours. No one. Just like with the United States, or
Brussels, or Switzerland. They all can be friends. It only depends on what
such friendship is based on. For any Ukrainian leader, it should be based on
consideration of the interests of Ukraine and the neighbour.
[Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported (Kiev, 1454 gmt 18 Dec 04) that
Hryshchenko is to visit Moscow on 23 December to discuss bilateral and
international relations with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.] [Video
shows news conference, Hryshchenko speaking] -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 265: ARTICLE NUMBER SIX
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6. YANUKOVYCH SAYS UKRAINIANS MUST NOT ALLOW
FOREIGN MONEY TO BUY THEIR VOTES
Ukrayina TV, Donetsk, Ukraine, in Russian, Sat, 18 Dec 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Sat, December 18, 2004
Prime Minister and presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych has said
Ukrainians must not allow foreign money to buy their votes. He was speaking
on the campaign trail in the eastern town of Kramatorsk on 18 December.
Speaking in the southern city of Odessa earlier in the day, he said he was
sure of victory in the 26 December election.
Ukrayina TV, which strongly supports Yanukovych, said he addressed a crowd
of about 20,000 people in Odessa and more than 30,000 in Kramatorsk, which
is in his Donetsk Region heartland. Text of report by Ukrainian regional TV
channel Ukrayina on 18 December:
DONETSK - [Presenter] Viktor Yanukovych has warned against groundless rises
in duties on the export of iron ore, as they could lead to losses on the
internal market. He said this at a news conference today in Odessa. Viktor
Yanukovych visited the 7km Industrial-Goods Market and the legendary Odessa
Load food market in the city, which is famous for its commercial nous. His
meetings with locals ended in a grandiose rally on the biggest square in
Odessa, Kulykove Pole.
[Correspondent] The Avanhard Industrial-Goods Market 7km from the city
provides well-paid jobs for several tens of thousands of Odessans. Viktor
Yanukovych intended initially to wander about the stalls and pavilions and
chat to the workers. But most of them stopped work and organized an
unplanned rally. There was also close-up contact with Odessans at the Load
market, which is not only famous in our country but also abroad. Viktor
Yanukovych visited stalls set up this year, thanked the Odessans for the
warmth of their welcome, and made some more announcements about the
forthcoming election.
[Yanukovych, at a news conference] I came to Odessa and said at the Load
that the election result will go the way Odessa votes. I am sure that Odessa
will make the right choice and we shall win.
[Correspondent] Viktor Yanukovych called on his supporters to avoid black
propaganda and not to lower themselves to the level of their opponents.
[Yanukovych, at a news conference, in Ukrainian] I want us all the same not
to make any black propaganda. And if any of my supporters do so, I call on
them and implore them not to do so. We ought not to insult one another, we
ought to ask God, if we pray, we should ask Him to forgive us this sin if we
have done anything of the sort.
[Correspondent] Nearly 20,000 Odessans gathered at the rally. Viktor
Yanukovych spoke to the crowd from a stage, wearing around his neck a
red-white-and-yellow ribbon that symbolizes the colours of the Odessan flag.
[Yanukovych, from the stage] On the approach to the New Year we ought to
vote so that we shall see in the New Year in a festive spirit of joy for our
country. [Crowd cheers.]
[Correspondent] Serhiy Novykov, Viktoriya Bohomolova, Events news
programme, Odessa.
[Presenter] After visiting Odessa, Viktor Yanukovych headed off to Donetsk
Region. In the evening he attended a rally in the town of Kramatorsk. It is
one of the biggest machine-building centres in the country. Kramatorsk
factories having been working at full capacity in recent years. The average
wage is one the highest in the region - about 800 hryvnyas [a month - about
150 dollars]. More than 30,000 local people attended the meeting. Viktor
Yanukovych called on them to vote in the 26 December election.
[Yanukovych] We in Ukraine, the Ukrainian people, must be masters of our own
fate. We, the multinational Ukrainian people, must build our own future, and
we will not allow anyone to come here and tell us how to live. [Crowd
cheers.] For foreign money. [More cheers.]
[Video shows Yanukovych walking through Odessa markets, greeting supporters,
speaking at news conference and from stages in Odessa and Kramatorsk. Video
was too close up to allow assessment of crowd numbers.] -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.265: ARTICLE NUMBER SEVEN
Your comments about the Report are always welcome
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7. "U.S. MONEY AND THE ORANGE REVOLUTION"
EDITORIAL: Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, 16 Dec 2004
The United States has done its share of nasty things in this world. Support
Ukrainian democracy isn't one of them.
It has become fashionable in the media to examine the so-called "American
sources" of the money behind the "Orange Revolution." This trend was
initiated by left-wingers of the anti-globalist stripe, for whom any U.S.
involvement in anything is "neo-liberalism" or something else demonic. It
was picked up by right-wingers like U.S. troglodyte Pat Buchanan, and by
some in Ukrainian ruling circles.
Finally it was adopted by the mainstream media. For example, The Associated
Press ran a thorough story on Dec. 11 detailing how U.S. government money
helped create the conditions for the Orange Revolution. The American
government did this by funneling money into Ukraine under the auspices of
such organizations as USAID, the Carnegie Foundation and the National
Democratic Institute.
A couple things need to be said about this. FIRST of all, aid from the Great
Satan is the most obvious choice for enemies of Ukrainian democracy to
single out: pro-Yanukovych, pro-authoritarian demagogues will drive no one
into the streets of Donetsk by complaining about Danish meddling in Ukraine.
Yet many other countries have also supported democracy programs here.
Besides Denmark, Great Britain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands,
Canada, Norway and the European Union as a body have done so. It is hardly
a U.S. plot.
SECOND, the money wasn't slated for opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko.
It was spent in non-partisan fashion, mostly on programs meant to promote
democratic culture in Ukraine. We consider some of these programs to be
useless, but anyone opposed to them in principle must justify to us their
opposition to concepts like a free press, an informed citizenry, clean
elections and one-person-one-vote. In doing so, however, they will have to
excuse us if we refuse to take them seriously.
THIRD, these programs were approved by the government of which Viktor
Yanukovych - who's taken the lead in complaining about them - is prime
minister. If they were so harmful, why didn't the government ban them?
The fact is, there's good democracy promotion, and there's bad democracy
promotion. A reasonable person could argue, for instance, that the Iraq war
represents the latter type. But no person worth listening to could argue
that the explosion of Ukrainian democracy has been negative, and no one
should believe that the United States, and the West in general, have to
apologize for what they've done in Ukraine. Let the carping be restricted to
the political extremists in their Western enclaves, the Donetsk strongmen,
the Kremlin siloviki and their like. -30-
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LINK: http://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/editorial/22068/
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 265: ARTICLE NUMBER EIGHT
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8.WORLD'S YOUTH MOVEMENT COLORED BY RED, WHITE AND BLUE
EDITORIAL: By Melana Zyla Vickers
USA TODAY, Monday, December 13, 2004
WASHINGTON - Ukraine, a country of 48 million that neighbors Russia and
Poland, has in recent weeks become familiar to Americans for images of its
young, orange-clad protesters. Camping in tents in the frozen capital of
Kiev, they've blockaded government buildings and led demands that regular
citizens be allowed to choose a president in free and fair elections.
Barring some dark intervention by Russia or by Ukraine's Russian-backed
ruling party, the "orange revolution" appears poised for victory on Dec. 26,
when citizens go to the polls for the third time in 57 days. This time,
Ukrainians expect that their votes for opposition candidate Viktor
Yushchenko will be counted honestly. A clean race, though, isn't a foregone
conclusion: News this weekend confirms Yushchenko was poisoned with
dioxin during this campaign.
COMMON TRAITS
An opposition victory in Ukraine will share a common trait with the "people
power" revolutions that upended the former Communist ruling elites in
countries including Georgia in 2003, Serbia in 2000 and Czechoslovakia and
Poland long before that: All have been backed or heavily supported by
young students who've learned about American-style democracy — and
want it for themselves.
To a United States that is short on international friends, the advantage of
this youthful, pro-U.S. sentiment can't be underestimated. The Bush
administration's foreign-policy team is being revamped ahead of the
president's second term. What better time for U.S. policymakers to explore
new ways of building beneficial friendships where there has been great
animosity, especially in still-Communist and Islamic-authoritarian
countries?
The "New Europe" countries are becoming our most reliable allies:
• Poland now supports U.S. foreign policy, including the intervention in
Iraq.
• The Czechs, unlike most Europeans, support U.S. policies critical of the
human-rights records of Communist China and Cuba.
• Serbia's student protests drove the ouster of U.S. foe Slobodan Milosevic
and delivered him to The Hague for a war-crimes trial.
What's more, the friendliness toward the U.S. appears to be long-lasting.
More than 20 years have passed since Poland's successful Solidarity
revolution and 15 since Czechoslovakia's. The younger generations in these
countries, while distinctly European in their tastes and culture, often
reserve a special political fondness for the U.S. that is rarely, if ever,
evident in the streets of Paris or Berlin.
That's because the young East Europeans have firsthand knowledge of U.S.
support during these people-power revolutions and during their childhoods.
During the Cold War, the U.S. government beamed radio programming to
them, taught them and their parents about the freedoms they could aspire to,
supported the dissident movements that produced their current national
heroes and called their government in Moscow "evil." And since the Cold
War's waning days, the U.S. government has spent millions of dollars
supporting pro-democracy efforts.
The strategic calculus is straightforward: If the United States continues to
support such efforts, both in the region and more widely, it can help usher
in governments and politicians that share its values, and that may also
support its policies and aid its long-term security. Amid a global war on
terrorism, such allies have perhaps never been more important.
Potentially, the "sow pro-Western democracy, reap long-term friendship" quid
pro quo is as applicable to Ukraine, Poland and Czechoslovakia as it is to
other countries where authoritarians still have a chokehold on power:
neighboring Belarus, Russia, China, Cuba, North Korea and, of course, much
of the Islamic world.
Unfortunately, setbacks are more common than successes. Ruling parties crack
down on people-power movements before they get too big to stop: China's
Communists clamped down on the Tiananmen Square students in 1989, decimating
their movement. And just days ago, Iran's government cracked down on student
pro-democracy protesters who were calling for a referendum on whether Iran
should still be an Islamic state.
But the situation isn't hopeless. The seeds of democracy, in many cases,
have been planted by locals. What is needed is nurturing.
MONEY WELL SPENT
The bipartisan, congressionally funded U.S. National Endowment for Democracy
(NED) helps feed the grass roots that grow into people-power revolutions. It
funds political-education projects and an independent media in countries
where progress toward democracy has stagnated or has never begun.
The NED helped fund change in Czechoslovakia, Poland and Serbia. And this
year it gave more than $230,000 to student groups that supported the
pro-democracy protests in Ukraine.
To Nadia Diuk, the NED's Central Europe and Eurasia director, supporting
students reaps results because they're more optimistic and energetic than
their elders. She also says that supporting pro-democracy activism in
Islamic countries offers students an alternative to the fundamentalist
groups that are breeding grounds for terrorism.
Of course, people power can't always succeed. But for a tiny investment of
$1 million here, $1 million there, the payoff to the U.S. is potentially
enormous. Today, there's a democratic revolution in Kiev. Tomorrow, Tehran,
Havana, Pyongyang and Minsk. -30-
----------------------------------------------------------------
Melana Zyla Vickers is a columnist for Tech CentralStation.com. She
campaigned for Ukraine's independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2004-12-13-world-youth-movem
ent_x.htm
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.265: ARTICLE NUMBER NINE
Suggested articles for publication in the Report are always welcome
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9. ESTABLISHMENT CLUB IN FEAR OF UKRAINE'S PROTESTERS
SPORT: By Simon Kuper, Financial Times
London, UK, Friday, December 17 2004
When I visited Ukraine in 1992, I ate every day in the canteen of Dynamo
Kiev football club. It was one of the only restaurants in Kiev. Admittedly
it was lacking in Michelin stars: when the club president's secretary passed
through one day carrying an electric kettle, it felt like the difference
between Them and Us. But at no other football club have I felt closer to a
nation's centre of power. The stadium's forecourt, scene of a famous recent
murder, was always full of Mercedes and skinheads wearing tracksuits.
One day a club official told me over a beer at Hotel Intourist: "Dynamo have
licences to export nuclear missile parts, two tons of gold per annum, and
metals including platinum." How did it get the licences? Friends in high
places, the official explained. He showed me the list of guests accompanying
Dynamo to a game in Vienna two weeks later. It read like a Ukrainian Who's
Who: a leading banker, the son of a leading government official etc. This
was the establishment that the orange-clad protesters in Independence Square
now want to oust.
The clan running Dynamo was replaced soon after my visit but the club
remained just as close to power. It is now the fief of Hryhoriy Surkis, an
oligarch and politician who was recently denied an American visa because the
US suspects him of corruption and electoral fraud. Dynamo's main rivals,
Shakhtar Donetsk, belong to Ukraine's richest oligarch, Rinat Akhmetov.
In short, the people who run Ukrainian sport also run Ukraine but that may
soon change. Akhmetov and Surkis have been backing Viktor Yanukovych, the
pro-Russian candidate for president and beneficiary of last month's rigged
election. But now Yanukovych is in trouble, Ukraine's supreme court having
annulled the vote. On December 26, he will probably lose the re-run to his
pro-western rival, Viktor Yushchenko.
This is partly thanks to Ukraine's sportsmen, who are at last peeling away
from the sitting power. The boxing Klitschko brothers deserve credit, though
the footballer Andriy Shevchenko doesn't.
In Soviet tradition, athletes are part of the state apparatus. Like the
army, they fight for the Motherland, which essentially means the government.
Hence Serhii Bubka, Ukraine's legendary pole vaulter, said recently: "Thanks
to [Yanukovych], Ukrainian athletes received a 100 per cent increase in
financing for the first time since Ukraine's independence." Ukrainian
athletes have always said things like that.
A statement in this genre came last month from Oleh Blokhin, Ukraine's
football manager, who sits in parliament for Surkis's party. After Ukraine
won in Turkey, Blokhin dedicated the victory to Yanukovych, who enjoyed,
the coach assured Ukrainians, the entire team's support.
Blokhin is an incorrigible apparatchik. However, other sportsmen are
switching sides. Serhii Rebrov has played for West Ham United wearing an
orange wristband to support Yushchenko. Also in London, his former team-
mate Oleh Luzhny addressed Yushchenko supporters.
Vitali Klitschko, preparing for the world heavyweight title fight in Las
Vegas, addressed the world. "I'm really proud of the people in Ukraine," he
said. "This game they are playing is very dangerous." Klitschko nearly
abandoned his fight to fly home to campaign but Yushchenko asked him to
use the boxing ring as a bully pulpit. So Klitschko thrashed Danny Williams
wearing an orange ribbon on his shorts, and then posed before a flag reading
"Tak! [Yes] Yushchenko."
The point is not that the Klitschkos will sway many votes. Rather, by
showing it is possible to campaign for Yushchenko and live, they encourage
other public figures and journalists to do likewise. Several journalists and
politicians critical of the regime have been murdered in recent years,
while Yushchenko was poisoned so severely that he was found to have
the second highest concentration of dioxin ever recorded in a human being.
A number of television channels have stopped making propaganda for
the government.
Shevchenko has been less brave. On November 18 he appeared on the
pro-Yanukovych channel 1+1 to endorse him. Barely lifting his eyes from a
prepared text, he looked like a hostage reading his own ransom note. It
looks as though Shevchenko was leaned on to do this. Few viewers took
"Sheva"'s endorsement seriously: he has always been a strictly sporting
hero, not a leader like Luzhny. Nonetheless, it did seem spineless.
Shevchenko lives in Milan, has an American wife and is rich. What did he
have to lose? "Your choice made the nation weep," said a banner at the
recent Milan-Shakhtar Donetsk match in the Champions League.
On Monday Shevchenko was named European footballer of the year. Told
the news, he said he had "barely slept" for three days for worry that the
Ukrainian conflict would turn bloody. He has since tried edging away from
his broadcast. "People in Ukraine deserve democracy," he said on receiving
his award. He spoke to Yushchenko and reported that "it was very pleasant
to hear warm words from the presidential candidate".
If Yushchenko wins next week, Ukrainian sport may change. Surkis could
lose his protected status. Already his former business partner Konstantin
Grigorishyn is preparing lawsuits to regain control of Dynamo. Uefa, the
European football authority, should consider following the US's lead and
drop Surkis from its executive committee.
Generally, if Ukraine becomes less oligarch-ridden, its football clubs will
decline. Today a disproportionate share of national wealth goes to sport.
Thanks to the oligarchs, who spend their riches on Brazilian stars, Ukraine
had two clubs in this season's Champions League: as many as all other
eastern European countries put together.
Yushchenko, asked once whether he liked football, said he used to. "Now
football, in its worst manifestation, has become a political game in
Ukraine. It pains me to see what it has brought to my people." The game
is a symptom of Ukraine's sickness, as is Shevchenko.
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 265: ARTICLE NUMBER TEN
Names for the distribution list always welcome
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10. KHARKIV: UKRAINIAN PREMIER DEFIED ON OWN TURF
By Peter Finn, Washington Post Foreign Service
The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
Saturday, December 18, 2004; Page A22
KHARKIV, Ukraine, Dec. 17 -- Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych faced
opposition in his stronghold of eastern Ukraine on Friday as he campaigned
in the rerun of a presidential election pitting him against his rival Viktor
Yushchenko.
As the two candidates crossed paths in this industrial city, the presence of
Yushchenko's supporters and the signature color of his "Orange Revolution"
were evidence of the changed political landscape. Mass demonstrations in the
capital of Kiev have cascaded into areas once considered to be solidly in
Yanukovych's camp.
Several hundred people chanted Yushchenko's name as Yanukovych spoke
at one rally, drawing the ire of his supporters and forcing police to form a
line to separate the two groups. There was no violence, but Yanukovych's
supporters hurled insults at their foes.
At a series of rallies in Kharkiv and neighboring towns Friday, Yanukovych
battled the riptide against him. In short speeches, none longer than 10
minutes, he tried to galvanize his supporters with the message that Ukraine
is on the verge of occupation by unnamed foreigners. "They want us to be
penniless," he said at one rally. "They want people who can be manipulated."
At one point, he told his supporters there was no Orange Revolution -- only
"orange rats." But elsewhere he sounded a more conciliatory note, saying
during an interview on local television, for example, that "I sympathize
with the so-called protest electorate." "They felt they were cheated," he
said.
Kharkiv is mostly Russian-speaking and lies just 30 miles from the Russian
border. In the election on Nov. 21, which was declared fraudulent by local
and international election monitors, Yanukovych won 71 percent of the vote
to Yushchenko's 24 percent, according to official returns.
Some people interviewed Friday said they had been intimidated during the
previous voting and were now willing to demonstrate in favor of Yushchenko.
"I'm 57 years of age and I feel free," said Yekaterina Kotolodnaya, a
retired accountant who wore an orange scarf as she walked down the city's
main shopping street after listening to Yushchenko speak. "Isn't that
wonderful?"
Just four weeks ago, Kotolodnaya said, she wouldn't have dared to wear
such a color, fearing retribution against her family for her political
choice. On Nov. 23, a day after Yushchenko's supporters filled Independence
Square in Kiev, tens of thousands of Kharkiv residents also packed this
city's giant Liberty Square beneath an imposing sculpture of Lenin. Kharkiv
was the first capital of Ukraine when it was part of the former Soviet
Union.
After the demonstration, the mayor of the city, whose administration had
previously banned Yushchenko from holding a rally on Liberty Square,
declared his political neutrality. His action defied not only Yanukovych but
also the local governor, Yevgeny Kushnariov, who was among the first
regional leaders to raise the specter of eastern regions seceding from
Ukraine if Yushchenko won.
A local university president, previously in Yanukovych's camp, said his
students were now free to publicly back Yushchenko and wear orange clothes.
Local television stations and newspapers that had trumpeted Yanukovych and
bashed his opponent said they were adopting a new ethic of objectivity.
"I was persona non grata on local television, and in the last two weeks I've
been on live shows five times," said Olga Miroshnik, director of the Center
for Local Democracy in Kharkiv, advocating fair elections.
On Friday, Yushchenko visited a tank factory and then addressed his
supporters at a park just several hundred yards from where Yanukovych
spoke. He urged supporters to exercise their right to vote on Dec. 26, a
message that some of his campaign team say is becoming increasingly
important as they fear some of their followers think the election is
guaranteed.
Yushchenko campaign officials said they wanted their vote in this region to
climb to 50 percent or more and believed that new regional and local
election boards should ensure fair elections. The officials and other
observers cautioned, however, that there have already been reports of local
state workers, including teachers, being summoned to meetings where they
were warned they had to vote for Yanukovych. "We still have to be very
vigilant," Miroshnik said.
Many Yanukovych supporters said in interviews here and in neighboring towns
Friday that they would reluctantly accept a win by Yushchenko, saying they
had no interest in launching a post-election campaign of civil disobedience.
Yanukovych said in an interview Thursday that his supporters would not
accept his defeat and that he would not be able to control their reaction if
he lost in what he said was a process already stacked against him.
"I'm sick and tired of all these elections," said Sergei Stepanov, who said
he would be voting for Yanukovych because he believes he is a strong
leader. "But if Yushchenko wins, I want peace."
And some people wearing Yanukovych's campaign color blue at his rallies
said they wouldn't even vote for him. "I was brought here from work,"
whispered a woman in her thirties at a rally in the town of Balakliya, about
an hour from Kharkiv. "I had no choice. This is not democracy. This is
not Europe. We don't live in Europe yet."
About 10,000 people showed up at the main Yanukovych rally Friday in
Kharkiv, a city of 1.1 million people. There were dozens of buses with
Luhansk license plates, suggesting that local leaders could not mobilize
enough people among the local population. Luhansk is an area east of
Kharkiv where Yanukovych's support is still solid.
"We should not be divided," said Roman Markov, a 25-year-old machine
worker, wearing both orange and blue ribbons as he stood between the
two shouting camps. "Ukraine should never be divided." -30-
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11. Q&A: HOW JUDICIAL POWER HAS CHANGED IN THE UKRAINE
By Tim Annett, The Wall Street Journal Online
New York, N.Y., Thursday, December 16, 2004
Two weeks ago, Ukrainians felt the earth move beneath their feet.
By invalidating the disputed presidential runoff election and scheduling a
new vote for Dec. 26, Ukraine's Supreme Court handed the opposition
candidacy of Victor Yushchenko a major victory and displayed the kind of
independence that many demonstrating on the streets of Kiev doubted the
judiciary possessed.
But those familiar with the efforts of the American Bar Association's
Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (or "Ceeli") might have seen it
coming. Active in Ukraine on and off since 1992, the year after the Ukraine
officially broke away from the Soviet Union and became an independent
country, Ceeli has assisted the movement toward judicial reform. Prior to
the recent election, which most observers fully expected to be troubled, the
group traveled across Ukraine training judges on the complexities of the
country's election laws and worked with judges to assemble a "benchbook" --
a sort of legal handbook that judges more accustomed to hearing criminal
complaints could refer to when adjudicating election-related disputes.
The Wall Street Journal Online spoke with Ceeli Deputy Director Michael
Maya, based in Washington, D.C., about his group's activities in the
Ukraine, the history of the country's judiciary, and what the implications
of the Supreme Court's decision might be beyond the ballot box.
(Q) What does this decision, along with the expansion of parliamentary
powers in the decision's wake, mean for the power of the judiciary in the
Ukraine?
(A) I don't think that anything that has happened in the last few weeks
expands the power of the judiciary in the formal sense. On paper, judicial
power is essentially unchanged. But psychically, that's an entirely
different story.
The fact that the Supreme Court issued this landmark decision may change the
opinion that average citizens have of judges throughout the country and the
Supreme Court in particular. But perhaps more importantly, politicians and
the elite who observed the bold and independent behavior of Ukrainian
judges . . . may begin to properly fear the courts as a true and independent
arbiter of justice, and not just another institution that can be bought,
corrupted or intimidated.
That's all important, because in all or certainly most of the countries in
the former Soviet Union, the political and business elite that are running
things are basically fearless. They know that, in most cases, they can
manipulate and subvert the judicial process, either through bribes or
intimidation. These developments must send fear through the hearts of
a lot of politicians and oligarchs in Ukraine.
(Q) Can you tell us a little about how the judiciary is structured in
Ukraine?
(A) In broad strokes, it's not unlike what you see in the United States,
where you have trial courts, appellate courts, and a Supreme Court.
However, in Ukraine you also have a constitutional court, which we
don't have here, which has exclusive jurisdiction over constitutional
cases and matters. Here in the United States, trial and appellate courts
-- and of course the Supreme Court -- can render decisions on
constitutional matters. That's not the case in Ukraine.
(Q) Are the foundations of law drawn from a combination of old Soviet
laws and the current Ukrainian system?
(A) Yes, it is certainly a combination of old Soviet-style traditions and
laws on the one hand, and new laws that are uniquely Ukrainian on the other,
some of which have a distinct Western influence, particularly commercial
legislation. To their credit, the Ukrainians have revised many of their key
laws, which, predictably, are far more progressive and in keeping with
international standards than they were during Soviet times. When it comes
to the current Ukrainian court system, it is not a radical departure from
the basic setup that existed during Soviet times. But the basic setup was
largely sensible. The real problem with the legal system in Ukraine today
is more a function of lack of true judicial independence, fairly serious and
widespread corruption and lack of enforcement of laws and judicial
decisions. Structurally, the court system is largely sound.
(Q) Leading up to the election, was there a sense of urgency? Were some
of the legal difficulties of the election anticipated?
(A) They most certainly were, although I have to say that the level of fraud
in this election exceeded most people's worst fears. You could frame [the
training of judges] as a prophylactic -- why not get out ahead of the
troubles and make sure that the judges were properly trained to adjudicate
election-related disputes in case something ugly and nefarious happened?
And as it turns out, there was a lot of ugliness. I think that, as a result
of that training, we had 700 judges throughout Ukraine who felt a lot more
confident in dealing with election-related disputes ., particularly the five
Supreme Court Judges with whom Ceeli worked very closely in conducting
the trainings.
Also, the fact that these judges had a judicial benchbook and a separate
commentary on the presidential-election law that CEELI helped prepare
certainly aided the cause and provided them with reference materials that
could be relied upon in handling election-related cases thoroughly and
professionally. These judges had essentially been prepped for all the
various problems that eventually arose.
It is worth singling out the leadership of the Deputy Chairman of the
Supreme Court, Justice [Anatoly] Yarema, who was involved in our training
and was also very supportive of Ceeli's work in the run up to the election.
At his request, we sent copies of the benchbook to courts throughout
Ukraine. In the end, virtually every courthouse in Ukraine had at least one
copy of the benchbook. Judge Yarema was the senior judge involved in the
Supreme Court decision and he was the one who went before the Ukrainian
public to announce the decision invalidating the election.
(Q) How did Ceeli's judicial training work?
(A) With USAID support, Ceeli assembled a team of judges, including
at least one Supreme Court judge, to more fully master the election laws
and then train other judges in cities throughout Ukraine. The team conducted
workshops for 50-70 judges at a time, usually for one to two days. In
addition to the Supreme Court trainers, Ceeli staff attorney Yevhen
Radchenko served as a trainer. Yevhen is highly respected, and is one
of the premier election lawyers in Ukraine.
The trainers would go through any number of exercises, and by the end of
the training, the judges had a solid understanding of the presidential
election law. If you haven't been trained on a particular law, you, as a
judge, often don't have a lot of confidence in handling cases involving that
law. It's not like we were training them on the criminal law, which many
judges deal with every day and can handle with confidence. With the
election law, by definition, this is not something that they are asked to
deal with very often. This training was therefore a source of confidence
for these judges.
(Q) Is there any sort of vestigial influence over the courts from the
Kremlin?
(A) It's hard to say. My inclination is to say that the Kremlin is
influential on a political level, but not on a judicial level. Of course,
political influence can ultimately trickle down to the judges through
Ukrainian politicians who are in contact with the Kremlin. In this
particular case, it obviously didn't work if it was tried, as the Supreme
Court stood firm. But I wouldn't think that the Kremlin has direct
contact with Ukrainian judges.
(Q) Do you think that the involvement of your group and some of the other
nongovernmental organizations provided a check against electoral tampering?
(A) There's no question that Western observers and NGOs had a positive and
protective effect. We know that Ukrainians were well trained to identify and
report violations on account of assistance provided by Ceeli and other
Western organizations -- and that they did in fact report countless
violations. But on the other hand, look at all the mischief and mayhem that
nevertheless took place. It's extraordinary how brazen some of the
violations were. It was either maladroit fraud or pure hubris on the part of
the mischief makers. We have the Ukrainian Supreme Court to thank for
invalidating a hijacked election. And let us also give credit to Ukraine's
leadership for respecting the court's decision even though they might not
have liked the result. That is also a triumph.
(Q) What's on Ceeli's agenda going forward?
( A) In the last year or so [Ceeli] has opened offices in Morocco, Jordan
and Bahrain, all staffed with at least one American lawyer. Also, we are
starting to run a large Iraq legal-reform initiative out of our Amman,
Jordan, office because it is simply too dicey having expats in Iraq right
now. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 265: ARTICLE NUMBER TWELVE
Letters to the editor are always welcome
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12. ACCIDENTAL ANTHEM KEEPS KIEV STREETS ROCKING
By Yana Dlugy,Agence France Presse (AFP)
Kiev, Ukraine, Tuesday, December 14 2004
Kiev - Ukraine's "orange revolutionaries" nowadays all march to the
beat of a single drummer - a catchy hip-hop tune written on the fly by
a duo who hope it will finally lift them to stardom.
In Kiev, the accidental anthem of Ukraine's opposition movement is
everywhere - speakers blare it on street corners, commuters hum it on
the subway, even foreigners mouth its chorus:
"Razom nas bagato, nas ne podolati!"
'The slogans just begged for a hip-hop rhythm'
("Together we are many, we will not be defeated.")
The song, which helped energise hundreds of thousands of people in
their protests over a disputed election, was the brainchild of a
struggling band called Grinjolly in western Ukraine, an opposition
bastion.
"It was on November 23, the second day after the demonstrations
started," said Roman Kostyuk, one of Grinjolly's two members. "We
came out to play for the protesters in the square of our hometown,
Ivano-Frankovsk."
The demonstrators came out to support their standard bearer,
opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, who charged the ruling regime
was trying to steal a November 21 presidential vote from him and
hand it to its man, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich.
"There were lots of people and they were shouting different slogans
and the next day, we decided to try and set the people's slogans to
music and make a song," he said.
He and his partner Roma Kolyn went into the studio at their local
radio station, playing around with different ways to combine the
slogans echoing through the streets.
"We tried different things, but the slogans just begged for a hip-hop
rhythm. We decided to try it even though we'd never done hip-hop
before," he said.
Three hours later, the future beat of Ukraine's "orange revolution"
was received to enthusiastic cheers by the crowd at Ivano-Frankovsk's
main square.
"Falsification? No!"
"Manipulation? No!"
"Yushchenko Yes!"
"Yushchenko Yes!"
"He's our president!"
"Yes! Yes!"
The instant hit spread like wildfire through the revolutionary crowds
streaming to Kiev to join a massive round-the-clock rally in its
central Independence Square, where performances by Ukraine's best
rock bands kept up the spirits, and warmed the freezing masses.
When Grinjolly took their turn at the stage days later, they found
tens of thousands of orange-clad people singing along to their newest
song.
"We aren't cattle!
"We aren't stupid swine!
"We are Ukraine's daughters and sons!
"It's now or never!"
"Enough with the wait!"
"Together we are many! We will not be defeated!"
"It was incredible, there was such energy out there," Kostyuk said.
Most of the opposition supporters have since left Kiev ahead of a
court-ordered December 26 rerun vote.
But Grinjolly's creation remains - bootleg compact discs with it are
selling like hotcakes for about three dollars in stands around
Independence Square.
"We never expected that it would become so popular," Kostyuk said.
"We made it for the people of our home town and apparently we put
something in there, because it appeals to everybody, not just people
who speak Ukrainian, but also Russian speakers and Poles. Even
Japanese."
Life has suddenly turned around for 32-year-old Kostyuk and his
36-year-old partner who have struggled for eight years to break into
Ukraine's music scene - revolutionaries ask them for autographs once
they learn who they are and journalists are lining up for interviews.
"We don't have any albums of our own yet but soon release one and
it'll include this song with some others," Kostyuk said shyly. "We
hope that through this song, people will start to like our other
music," Kostyuk said. -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 265: ARTICLE NUMBER THIRTEEN
Letters to the editor are always welcome
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13. "MURDER HE ATE"
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR: By Gail Bell
Forresters Beach, Australia
The New York Times, NY, NY, Sun, December 19, 2004
WHEN Viktor Yushchenko sat down on Sept. 5 to his bowl of soup
at the summer house of the deputy chief of the Ukrainian government's
intelligence unit (the successor to the old Soviet K.G.B.), he may well
have been supping with the devil.
For weeks afterward he suffered a bizarre cascade of symptoms -
prostration, crippling abdominal pains, a swollen liver and disfiguring
lesions on his upper body and face-all indicative of a violent internal
process that was variously described as an infection (possibly viral,
and probably herpes) and gluttony (overindulgence in exotic foods).
Mr. Yushchenko gradually recovered enough health to return to his
campaign for the presidency of Ukraine, but the man who donned the
orange scarf and stepped back up to the microphone had taken on
the appearance of a scarred and bloated roué.
And there the matter stayed, until Mr. Yushchenko's protestations that he'd
been poisoned were finally investigated outside his own country, by a team
in a Vienna clinic headed by Dr. Michael Zimpfer. When Dr. Zimpfer's
findings were made public on Dec. 11, the world sat up and took notice.
The headlines gave us two vital pieces of information: poison, which we all
understood, and dioxin. Dioxin? It sounded like some sort of chemical; it
even sounded vaguely familiar, like something you'd buy at the plant
nursery. As the days passed we read everything we would ever need to
know about the properties of dioxin, without discovering the answers to
the deeper, more troubling questions of who administered it, and why.
Not, why try to hurt Mr. Yushchenko, but why use dioxin to do it?
It is curious and unsettling in 2004 to be reading about the attempted
assassination by poison of a prominent political figure. Murder by poison
has largely been relegated to the history pages, principally because science
has overtaken the great advantage that the poisoner of old had over his
pursuers: the ability to hide his work beneath the normal calamities that
afflict human life.
Death by degrees of pain and wasting could (particularly in the 19th
century) be laid at the door of organic disease, and there were few if any
tests for the suspicion of poison. In the 21st century the game is
desperately hard to play, unless, as in Mr. Yushchenko's case, you apply the
first rule of the old poisoners' handbook. Choose a substance that nobody
can identify. Find an obscure environmental pollutant that infects the air
around smelting and recycling plants and concentrate it into a small vial.
Poisoning is not an amateur's game. There is art and a good deal of cunning
to perfect before one can claim admission to the guild. Graduates of the old
poisoning schools grappled with the same compounding problems as modern
chemists and apprentice chefs in five-star hotels. Will the powder mix with
the liquid? Will the oil separate into a greasy film? Have I cloaked the
telltale smell under enough aromatic spices? And what about the taste?
Our senses are not trained to discriminate what is hidden under camouflage.
Studying the contents of your plate looking for odd colors has never been
a reliable gauge of what is normal. Arsenic, for instance, is red, yellow,
green or white depending on its chemical bedfellow. And what of poison's
smell? Prussic acid smells like almonds, hemlock smells like a family of
mice, oleander like chocolate, and arsenic in cocoa like supper on a cold
night: there are no reliable pocket guides to assist the novice. To his
wife, dioxin smelled like "some kind of medicine" on Mr. Yushchenko's lips.
Poisoning is an up close and personal crime. The victim is deceived into
swallowing a toxic dose concealed in a benign carrier like food or drink,
thereby betraying one of the foundations of all social dealings between
fellow humans, the assumption of benign intent. In Ukraine, the rules of
hospitality demand that the guest eat and drink heartily at the host's
table, even when he suspects the host of ill intent.
As a matter of course in an earlier century, Mr. Yushchenko might have
taken his own poison-taster to the dinner party at the dacha. Poison-tasters
trained their wizard eyes on every stage of meal preparation, following each
dish from kitchen to table to mouth - sometimes adding a little theater to
their performance by the application of crystals and feathers, but, in
essence, using the highest acuity of their native senses.
I have in my own collection a poisoner's ring, which is hinged on one side
and has a hollow compartment concealed under a large amethyst. With
practice I have perfected a party trick of dropping a small piece of fizzing
vitamin tablet into my dining partner's wine glass. It is surprisingly easy
to distract someone long enough to flip the hinge, let the sliver fall and
watch until the bubbles subside. How simple was it, one wonders, to slip
dioxin, which is easily absorbed in fat, into the jug of cream destined for
Mr. Yushchenko's soup, or, stealing from a later chapter of the poisoner's
handbook, to coat his spoon, or plate, with an invisible layer of chemical?
A chemist at University College, London, wondered why a peculiar substance
like dioxin was chosen in the first place. "If you really want to kill
someone you use cyanide or ricin or strychnine," wrote Dr. Andrea Sella in
The New Scientist.com, "If you use something weird I guess it's just that
much harder to find."
Why indeed? Cyanide, strychnine, arsenic, and the extensive pharmacopeia
of the plant and serpent kingdoms have provided the staples for poisonous
intent for centuries. Cleopatra was an adept at empirical studies into the
effects of snakebite on slaves. She is said to have found the mineral
poisons too slow and too liable to cause grimacing and color changes in the
corpse.
Other prominent poisoners, like Madeleine d'Aubray (the Marquise de
Brinvilliers), and the unknown visitor to Napoleon's exile on Elba, have
found arsenic perfectly suited to their plans. The marquise took quite a
shine to the poisoning art and, after practicing on charity patients at the
poor hospital, endowed arsenic with its cynical alias "inheritance powder"
(poudre de succession) when she fed her father and brothers her special
soup.
And here we circle back to the question, why use dioxin? There are many
ways to classify poison. Arsenic and hemlock, for instance, are slow
killers; they take their own terrible time. Cyanide and strychnine are quick
though not merciful. Dioxin, we discover, is a slow accumulative poison,
expressing its mauling effect on human physiology over months, years,
perhaps a lifetime.
What if the intention was not to kill Mr. Yushchenko but to injure him in
ways that mimic a fall from grace, like superimposing the ruined face of an
alcoholic onto a once handsome man? This is a glimpse, I suspect, into the
secret world of chemical warfare, the successor to the old poisoners' guild,
and even, perhaps, a peep behind the shreds of the Iron Curtain. Steady
doses of dioxin cause cancer and premature aging.
Dioxin, then, seems tailor-made to topple an Adonis from his plinth, which,
for someone in the public eye is a kind of death. The sweet twist of this
unhappy business is that the plot has been exposed. Mr. Yushchenko's face
will heal with time. The same cannot be said for the disfigured mind that
brought poison to the table. -30-
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Gail Bell, a pharmacist, is the author of "Poison: A History and a Family
Memoir."
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 265: ARTICLE NUMBER FOURTEEN
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14. WARSAW RESIDENTS KNITTING SCARF FOR UKRAINE'S
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE VICTOR YUSHCHENKO
Agency France Presse, Warsaw, Poland, Fri, Dec 17, 2004
WARSAW (AFP) - A woolen orange scarf is being knitted in various
parts of Warsaw for Ukraine opposition leader Victor Yushchenko, the
organizers of the project said.
"The idea just came about one night," said Krzysztof Swiernalis, who
has been parked in a tent in front of the Ukrainian embassy in Warsaw
for several days said Friday. "Since then several people have joined
the project throughout Warsaw.
"We have already distributed 30 kilograms of orange wool," he added,
referring to the colour of the opposition in Ukraine. Swiernalis said the
first part of the scarf was knitted by Ukrainian singer Ruslana, who
won the 2004 Eurovision contest.
"The various parts of the scarf knitted in different places will all be
joined together on Sunday in front of the Ukrainian embassy," he said.
He added that the scarf would then be presented to Yushchenko on
December 28, following the rerun presidential vote in Ukraine on
December 26.
The vote is widely expected to be won by Yushchenko, a pro-Western
candidate. His supporters took to the streets in their tens of thousands
after claims that the November poll -- officially won by pro-Russian Prime
Minister Viktor Yanukovich -- was massively flawed. The supreme court
eventually ordered a second runoff ballot. -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 265: ARTICLE NUMBER FIFTEEN
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15. FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY IN UKRAINE
OP-ED By Tod Lindberg, The Washington Times
Washington, D.C., Monday, December 13, 2004
The Orange Revolution in Ukraine is first and foremost the property of
the people who are conducting it. They turned out in the streets of
Kiev by the hundreds of thousands to protest fraudulent election
results, and their persistence and numbers opened up enough cracks in
the system to pave the way for a new vote on Dec. 26. Let's not
mistake this for anything but what it is: raw courage in support of
freedom.
The peaceful course of the revolution was by no means a certainty.
When, just after the election as crowds were gathering in the cold,
opposition candidate and unjustly declared loser Victor Yushchenko
showed up in the parliament for a highly unofficial swearing-in as
president, things were getting pretty sporty, as a friend of mine put
it. Would the government of President Leonid Kuchma, who had sought to
deliver the office to his prime minister, Viktor Yanukovych, allow the
protests to continue or try a violent crackdown? Where would the
security services' loyalties lie? What was the game plan of Russian
President Vladimir Putin, who had strongly supported Mr. Yanukovych?
As it happened, the authoritarian facade of the Ukraine government
cracked wide open at the first fissure. With the demonstrations, a
political space opened up for those who had been afraid to say or do
anything in opposition to Mr. Kuchma's wishes, including a number of
government officials. The fraudulent result was overturned by means
whose own legitimacy could not fairly be challenged.
But if this was "people power" on the streets of Kiev, let us not
shrink from another set of relevant facts: that the Orange Revolution
is something proponents of democracy, liberalization and political
reform in the United States and Europe sought and worked for in
Ukraine and supported morally and materially. The opposition was the
only hope for securing political freedom in Ukraine, and this fact was
well understood by Ukrainian as well as Western non-governmental
organizations and party-building enterprises active there. And at an
official level, when the time came, the European Union and its member
governments as well as the United States stepped up as one to demand a
fair and peaceful resolution.
Some have sought to use the fact of this Western and particularly
American support to discredit the revolution as made-in-Washington. In
the first place, it wasn't. The support the opposition received was
nothing next to the array of assets the Kuchma government had at its
disposal in rigging the outcome, from Mr. Yanukovych's monopoly of
media coverage to outright ballot-box stuffing.
Second, while getting your supporters to turn out in the streets in
massive numbers requires organization, organization alone doesn't
bring people out: They have to believe in the cause, as the
demonstrators clearly did.
Finally, what's striking about this charge is its rather complacent
indifference to the freedom of Ukrainians and their wish to select
their political leaders democratically. Apparently, if an anti-U.S.
posture requires an anti-democratic stance (at least with regard to
the freedom of others), that's not too high a price for some people to
pay.
Very well, but let's not take their bait by downplaying our support
for the freedom-fighters in Ukraine and elsewhere. Freedom and
democracy have made enormous strides over the past decades in no
small part because of the unambiguous moral support of friends in places
where they already flourish - and not just moral support but material
support as well.
The next test for the Western governments that have spoken out so
effectively in behalf of democracy in Ukraine will come when a
democratically elected government committed to political reform and
liberalization there seeks to bind itself more closely to Western
institutions, most notably NATO and the European Union. Some in Europe
and the United States worry that Ukraine is a bridge too far for
integration into the West. They cite the concerns of Moscow about its
"near abroad" and Ukraine's large ethnic Russian population, as well
as the long and difficult road of modernization Ukraine has to travel
to bring itself fully into alignment with the West.
These worries will sound familiar to anyone who has followed the
debate over the integration of Central and Eastern European countries
into the West. But who can deny that access to Western institutions,
especially NATO and the EU, has been an enormous catalyst for
political reform and the consolidation of democracy in these
countries? The EU rightly prides itself on its ability to "export"
democracy to its neighbors through the power of attraction - its
accession process. And NATO has typically been the first door though
which these new democracies have walked, an indication of the
importance of security.
It would be a tragedy if the courageous Orange Revolutionaries, so
strongly and rightly supported by friends of freedom in the West,
subsequently knocked on the doors of Western institutions only to find
them barred. Freedom is perishable. We who enjoy it need to maintain
our commitment to it. -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring]
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http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20041213-084741-4200r.htm
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