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Action Ukraine Report

"UKRAINE REPORT 2003"
"The Art of Ukrainian History, Culture, Arts, Business, Religion,
Sports, Government, and Politics, in Ukraine and Around the World"

"[Announcer] Poland declares it will continue its efforts for integrating
Ukraine with the European Union and NATO. Opening an international
conference in Belweder [Poland] dedicated to Ukraine's European aspirations,
the chief editor of Gazeta Wyborcza, Adam Michnik, emphasized that that
country's success was in our interest. He explained that it was above all a
question of having as a neighbour a country which was stable, democratic,
independent and integrated with the European Union." [article four]

"UKRAINE REPORT 2003," Number 115
U.S.-UKRAINE FOUNDATION (USUF)
www.ArtUkraine.com Information Service (ARTUIS)
Washington, D.C., Kyiv, Ukraine, morganw@patriot.net
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2003

INDEX OF ARTICLES:

1. ANOTHER UNSCRUPULOUS POWER GRAB IS UNDERWAY
EDITORIAL, The Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Dec 18, 2003

2. UKRAINIAN OPPOSITION LEADER VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO
PLEDGES MASS RALLIES TO DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION
Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian, 17 Dec 03
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Dec 17, 2003

3. COMMISSION FOR POLITICAL REFORM TO RECOMMEND
ELECTION OF PRESIDENT BY PARLIAMENT FROM 2006
The Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, December 17, 2003

4. POLISH NEWSPAPER CHIEF VIEWS POLISH-UKRAINIAN
COALITION AS IMPORTANT AND POWERFUL
Poland Wants a Neighbor That is Stable, Democratic, Independent
and Integrated with the European Union
Polish Radio 1, Warsaw, in Polish, 18 Dec 03
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Dec 18, 2003

5. KUCHMA VETOES LEGAL STATUS FOR UKRAINIANS ABROAD
www.Glavred.Info, Kyiv, Ukraine, December 15, 2003

6. HISTORICAL AND EDUCATIONAL COMPLEX/MUSEUM TO BE
BUILT BY THE UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH OF THE USA
Will Include A National Memorial For Famine Victims
By E. Morgan Williams, U.S.-Ukraine Foundation (USUF)
www.ArtUkraine.com Information Service (ARTUIS)
Washington, D.C., Friday, December 19, 2003

7. REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS AND THE MASS MEDIA
INSTITUTE (IMI) URGE FULLEST PROBE AFTER JOURNALIST
KARACHEVTSEV FOUND HANGED
Reporters Without Borders, Paris, France, 18 December 2003

8. IMF TO APPROVE $725 MLN LOAN TO UKRAINE AFTER
MAJOR REVERSAL OF POLICY
Associated Press, Kiev, Ukraine, December 17, 2003

9.UKRAINE TO BUY AMERICAN AND CANADIAN MILLING WHEAT
Reuters, Kiev, Ukraine, December 19, 2003

10. US AMBASSADOR HERBST PROMISED TO HELP INCREASE
TRADE AND INVESTMENT IN UKRAINE
Interfax-Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, December 17, 2003

11. EXHIBIT SHEDS LIGHT ON MASS KILLINGS IN UKRAINE
By Kara Ouellet , Special to the Register
New Haven Register.com, New Haven, CT, Dec 18, 2003

12. UKRAINE'S PRESIDENT KUCHMA ASKS US PRESIDENT BUSH
TO RENEW NUCLEAR FUEL DISPOSAL PROJECTS
Associated Press, Kiev, Ukraine, December 17, 2003
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT 2003, No. 115: ARTICLE NUMBER ONE
=========================================================
1. ANOTHER UNSCRUPULOUS POWER GRAB IS UNDERWAY

EDITORIAL, The Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Dec 18, 2003

A quiet but effective campaign that began last summer has finally played
itself out, with the result that Ukraine seems only months and two
parliamentary ballots away from drastic changes in its constitution. The
changes as envisioned would allow the sitting president to remain in power,
and concentrate power in the hands of a small oligarchic clan in the
Presidential Administration and the Parliament.

What makes these changes so disturbing is that those opposed, partly because
of their limited access to the electronic media and partly because of their
inability to articulate an effective alarm, have had no real opportunity to
make the case against them. Ukraine stands on the verge of these monumental
transformations with most of the population still unaware of their
consequences, or unaware that the transformations are going to occur in the
first place.

>From the beginning, the constitutional changes required to bring about the
major structural changes in the presidency and the parliament have been
clothed in the rhetoric of constitutional reform. However, analysis of the
situation paints a much different picture. In that picture, it becomes
obvious that those in power saw Viktor Yushchenko as a possible bar to their
continued power, and set out to stop him at all costs.

In August 2002, President Leonid Kuchma began the rhetorical attack with
talk about the changes needed to bring into being a
parliamentary-presidential form of governance that would, at least in
theory, shift wide swathes of power from the Presidential Administration to
the Parliament.

The proposals put forth by presidential partisans in the Parliament,
however, made it increasingly clear that it was not change that was really
desired, but rather stasis: that is, the certainty that nothing would change
in terms of who wielded power.

Responding to the third set of proposals, which were put forth primarily by
Deputy Stepan Havrysh, head of the pro-presidential parliamentary majority,
the Constitutional Court ruled last week that there is no legal prohibition
to a third term for the current president, and that there is no legal
prohibition to the Parliament's voting to assume direct election of the
president in 2004. No authorization would be needed other than a vote of 300
members.

Also, the court ruled not only that the Parliament may immediately and
without reference to a popular vote make these changes, but also that it may
tack an additional year onto its current term, in order to fulfill the
presidential wish that all elections fall in the same year.

The audacity of these moves is breathtaking, and perverse in the extreme.
What the court has approved, and the parliamentary majority has now set
about accomplishing, is nothing less than a parliamentary coup.

The Constitutional Court may be correct in its interpretation of the
constitution. But what we have here are strict legal interpretations coming
into stark conflict with any sense of fair play and honesty.

A public opinion poll obviously has no binding legal force. However, the
Parliament appears set on voting these constitutional changes in the face of
polls that show that no less than 75 to 85 percent of Ukrainian citizens are
strongly opposed to the action the legislators are contemplating.
Parliamentarians are obviously aware of this information.

We would not be so completely opposed to the Parliament's proposed actions
were it possible to put the matter to a popular vote. If a fully informed
populace voted for these changes, it would be difficult to oppose them.
However, neither has the population been adequately informed, nor is there
any plan to seriously involve the voting public in these changes.

We believe the reason for the immense haste is that the public would not now
vote in favor of these changes as currently proposed.
For the Presidential Administration and the Parliament to proceed with this
plan is an abomination. It is an unscrupulous power grab that will
eventually bring public opprobrium to those who have brought it about.

The best thing that could possibly happen is for the final Kuchma/Havrysh
version of the so-called constitutional reform proposals to be repudiated by
every man and woman of conscience in the Parliament.

The opposition promises to organize a referendum to oppose the changes. Good
for them. Given that the population is clearly against such constitutional
changes for now, we support oppositionist tactics to stall or prevent them.
(END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT 2003, No. 115: ARTICLE NUMBER TWO
=========================================================
2. UKRAINIAN OPPOSITION LEADER VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO
PLEDGES MASS RALLIES TO DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION

Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian, 17 Dec 03
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Dec 17, 2003

Kiev....The opposition Our Ukraine bloc expects to produce eight million
signatures backing the current constitution which stipulates electing the
president by universal ballot when parliament hears the issue of amending
the constitution [to elect the president in parliament].

Our Ukraine leader Viktor Yushchenko said this during a meeting with
representatives of the association of publishers of the periodical press.

Some 3m-3.5m signatures have been collected so far, Yushchenko said.
Yushchenko is confident that the president will be elected by universal
ballot. "I am confident that the Ukrainian voter will elect the president of
Ukraine. This is not only my position but yours (journalists' -
Interfax-Ukraine) too, so this position is strong," Yushchenko said.

He added that the current authorities understand that "they will not win the
election" if choice as such remains the foundation of political processes.
So the authorities have the only option: "reviewing the constitution or laws
to prevent the elections". The presidential initiatives have "the sole
purpose - to use political reform as a tool to stay in office", Yushchenko
said.

Yushchenko also said that his bloc continued talks on consolidating
parliamentary forces around "key issues in the concept of the political
reform". In his words, "perhaps serious understanding will be reached that
the prolongation of the mandate of the current parliament for another year
is an unacceptable thing which humiliates honest politicians and democratic
forces", and "formal consolidation will be formed" around this.

"I am confident that unless the people have the constitutional right of
choice, they will take to the street. Unless people can express themselves
through the elections, they will do so in the street or through other forms
of protest. But we shall defend the current constitution and the rights of
the people," Yushchenko said. (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT 2003, No. 115: ARTICLE NUMBER THREE
=========================================================
3. COMMISSION FOR POLITICAL REFORM TO RECOMMEND
ELECTION OF PRESIDENT BY PARLIAMENT FROM 2006

The Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, December 17, 2003

The Special Parliamentary Commission on Political Reform intends to
recommend election of the president of Ukraine by the parliament from 2006.

The press service of the Ukrainian Republican party Sobor announced this,
citing a statement made by the party's leader Anatolii Matvienko, who is the
chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Nation-Building and Local
Self-Government and a member of the Special Parliamentary Commission on
Political Reform.

According to the press service, the commission voted 13-7 to adopt the draft
law on political reform proposed by parliamentary deputies Stepan Havrysh,
Raisa Bohatyriova, and Kateryna Vaschuk as the basis for implementation of
political reform.

Matvienko said that the commission's members who are members of the
permanent parliamentary majority voted in favor of adoption of the decision.
According to him, proposals from the opposition were rejected without
consideration.

The draft law also provides for introduction of election of the parliament
from political parties' lists of candidates.

According to Matvienko, adopting this draft law as the basis for
implementation of political reform does not guaranty election of the
president of Ukraine by popular vote in 2004 because the commission will
consider the transition provisions of the draft law on Thursday. He noted
that draft amendments to the draft law include a proposal to elect the
president of Ukraine in the parliament from 2004.

Matvienko expressed the belief that the fate of political reform is
presently in the hands of the Communist Party because the permanent
parliamentary majority will be unable to secure the 300 votes required for
amending the constitution without the support of the Communist Party.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the Constitutional Court has declared
three draft laws on political reform constitutional: one proposed by the
Special Parliamentary Commission on Political Reform, one by Havrysh, and
the one jointly proposed by Havrysh, Bohatyriova, and Vaschuk.

These draft laws provide for introduction of election of the president of
Ukraine by the parliament from 2004 or 2006.

Almost all parliamentary deputies belonging to the permanent parliamentary
majority and the Communist Party support introduction of election of the
president of Ukraine by the parliament, but the Communist Party opposes
election of the president by the current parliament.

Moreover, the Communist Party is demanding introduction of constitutional
provisions on election of the parliament from political parties' lists of
candidates, but parliamentary deputies representing the permanent
parliamentary majority and those elected from constituencies categorically
oppose this. (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT 2003, No. 115: ARTICLE NUMBER FOUR
=========================================================
4. POLISH NEWSPAPER CHIEF VIEWS POLISH-UKRAINIAN
COALITION AS IMPORTANT AND POWERFUL
Poland Wants a Neighbor That is Stable, Democratic, Independent
and Integrated with the European Union

Polish Radio 1, Warsaw, in Polish, 18 Dec 03
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Dec 18, 2003

[Announcer] Poland declares it will continue its efforts for integrating
Ukraine with the European Union and NATO. Opening an international
conference in Belweder dedicated to Ukraine's European aspirations, the
chief editor of Gazeta Wyborcza, Adam Michnik, emphasized that that
country's success was in our interest. He explained that it was above all a
question of having as a neighbour a country which was stable, democratic,
independent and integrated with the European Union.

[Michnik] Let's for a minute close our eyes and look at the map [sic].
Ukraine and Poland. Together that's 90 million people. That's a power in
Europe. If we can agree with each other, everyone in the world will have to
speak to us completely differently. They will have to treat us in a
completely different way. We'll stop being a fringe. We become an
irremovable political factor both in Europe and in the world. A
Ukrainian-Polish coalition - modelled, let's say, on the Benelux - is a
power which could secure peace, economic development and democracy in this
part of Europe.

[Announcer] Bohdan Havrylyshyn, Ukrainian political migrant and advisor to
former prime ministers, appealed to the European Union for more interest in
his country. He also expressed the hope that much would change in Ukraine
once a new generation, not tainted by the Soviet burden, came to power.

[Havrylyshyn, in Ukrainian, fading to translation] Ukraine needs a
single-vector policy. We can often hear statements that integrating with the
union is our strategic choice. But at the same time strange games and ideas
come to light. We indeed are going to Europe but for us a closer route is
through Asia.

[Announcer] Bohdan Havrylyshyn, emphasised that Ukraine was strongly
counting on Poland, in front of whom, as he vividly put it, the red carpet
to the union has already been spread.

The conference was attended, among others, by the former Polish and
Ukrainian prime ministers, Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Viktor Yushchenko, as
well as diplomats from European countries. (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
WELCOME TO UKRAINE MAGAZINE IN ENGLISH
Issue Number Four for Year 2003 Just Issued. Best Magazine in English
http://www.artukraine.com/travel/wumagazine.htm
========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT 2003, No. 115: ARTICLE NUMBER FIVE
=========================================================
5. KUCHMA VETOES LEGAL STATUS FOR UKRAINIANS ABROAD

www.Glavred.Info, Kyiv, Ukraine, December 15, 2003

KYIV..President Leonid Kuchma has used his right of veto against the law
on the legal status of Ukrainians abroad, according to presidential press
service.

According to earlier reports, in late November the Verkhovna Rada defined
the status of foreign Ukrainians as Ukrainians living abroad and the
procedure for receiving this status.

According to the legislation, a foreign Ukrainian is an individual, which
considers himself a Ukrainian and is a citizen of another state or does not
have citizenship at all, but is of Ukrainian ethnic origin. The law also
determines the agencies, which are to decide upon issues concerning
Ukrainians abroad. In particular, these are the National Council for
Ukrainians Living Abroad and other organs of state authority and local
self-governance. (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT 2003, No. 115: ARTICLE NUMBER SIX
=========================================================
6. HISTORICAL AND EDUCATIONAL COMPLEX/MUSEUM TO BE
BUILT BY THE UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH OF THE USA
Will Include A National Memorial For Famine Victims

By E. Morgan Williams, U.S.-Ukraine Foundation (USUF)
www.ArtUkraine.com Information Service (ARTUIS)
Washington, D.C., Friday, December 19, 2003

South Bound Brook, New Jersey....The Metropolitan Council of the
Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA has approved the construction
of an Historical and Educational Complex/Museum beginning in the spring
of 2004.

The major addition to the current Consistory/Library building at St.
Andrew Metropolia Center will include state of the art museum display
areas, according to Archbishop Antony, Consistory President.

The Archbishop stated during a tour of the present facilities on Wednesday,
December 17, that prominence will be given to a permanent Famine
Memorial commemorating the victims of one of history's worst cases of
ethnic genocide--the deliberate starvation of 7 million innocent Ukrainian
people in 1932-33. The famine memorial will feature a tree of life, a pool
of water and an eternal flame.

"The monument will be erected in loving memory of their precious souls
and as a pledge that never again will silence and indifference veil horrors
inflicted on the people of God," Archbishop Antony explained.

One of the featured areas in the new complex will be devoted to the
genocidal famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine. The site will serve as a national
Famine Museum and display an extensive archive of documentation,
including oral histories and visual exhibits.

Archbishop Antony said that documenting and remembering what happened
in Ukraine in 1932-1933 and the millions of victims of the tragedy is very
important. "The famine of 1932-33 was not a natural phenomenon; it was
purposely created by Stalin's direct orders to dispossess the lands of the
Ukrainian peasant farmer in an attempt to collectivize Soviet agriculture
and raise capital to build Soviet industry.

"And if this confiscation of land was not enough, there was also a planned
attempt to eliminate all vestiges of Ukrainian nationalism, to silence the
strongest and most vocal supporters of some semblance of Ukrainian
cultural independence and to disseminate the Ukrainian population, thereby
sapping its ability to resist Communist rule."

A large number of artifacts donated to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in
1961 by Konstantin and Olena Moschenko, natives of Poltava, Ukraine,
became the foundation of the present historical archival collection.

Included in the collection were such artifacts as kilims, embroidered
towels, icons, manuscripts, drawings of thousands of pysanky completed
over 100 years ago, photo albums depicting hundreds of churches destroyed
by the Soviets and wooden scale models of famous churches.

The new complex will house the Courtyard Famine Memorial; Patriarch
Mstyslav Rotunda Gallery; 1932-33 Famine Exhibit Hall; Michael Werbiany
Exhibit Hall; Konstantyn and Olena Moschenko Exhibit Hall; Founders
Gallery; Museum Library, Lounge, Reading Area and Pysanka Exhibit;
Icon, Cross and Liturgical Vessel Exhibit; Ecclesiastical Vestment and
Antimins Exhibit; Rare Book and Document Exhibit; Cultural Treasures
Exhibit, and the Visiting Exhibit Hall featuring the Kilim and Fine Art
Collections.

The first Memorial Church Museum was located beneath St. Andrew
Memorial Church, at the Metropolia Center in South Bound Brook,
NJ and was dedicated on September 25, 1966. St. Andrew Memorial
Church, consecrated in 1965, is dedicated to the memory of the millions
of victims of the 1932-33 genocidal famine.

Archbishop Antony concluded the tour and discussion about the new
complex by saying "the dream of His Holiness Patriarch Mstyslav and
thousands of the faithful of our Holy Ukrainian Orthodox Church will
be finally realized with the completion of the Historical and Educational
Complex/Museum.

"The many treasures that are located here serve as proud testimony
of the history and resilience of the Ukrainian nation. Despite the efforts
of the Soviet regime to eliminate all vestiges of Ukrainian national
identity and Western misunderstanding of the role of Kyivan-Rus and
Ukraine in European history, the fall of the Soviet empire has reawakened
interest in Ukrainian history and culture." (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT 2003, No. 115: ARTICLE NUMBER SEVEN
=========================================================
7. REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS AND THE MASS MEDIA
INSTITUTE (IMI) URGE FULLEST PROBE AFTER JOURNALIST
KARACHEVTSEV FOUND HANGED

Reporters Without Borders, Paris, France, 18 December 2003

Reporters Without Borders and the Institute for Mass Media (IMI) have called
for the fullest investigation into the death of Volodymyr Karachevtsev,
deputy editor of the weekly Kurier, who was found hanged from the handle of
the refrigerator in his apartment.

Karachevtsev, who was also a correspondent for the online newspaper
Vlasti.net and chaired the regional independent journalists' union in
Zaporojie (south-eastern Ukraine) was found dead on 14 December at his
home in Melitopol.

"The circumstances of the death of this journalist, who was critical of the
local authorities, are particularly disturbing and the information we have
obtained is contradictory," said Reporters Without Borders and the IMI in a
letter to the Ukrainian prosecutor-general, Gennadi Vassiliev.

"Given the fragile state of press freedom in your country and of the history
which we all remember, we call on you to personally ensure that the police
investigation is carried out with the utmost rigour, speed and openness. To
rule out the motive of his professional work at this stage of the
investigation, would seem to be a serious mistake in our eyes," the letter
concluded.

Karachevtsev, 47, father of two children and a former Naval officer, was
found by his ex-wife, Zinaida, hanging by the collar of his pullover from
the handle of the refrigerator just 70 cms from the ground.

The day before, his former wife had visited the journalist, who was upset by
the death of his father a week earlier. The journalist was buried two days
after his death, on 16 December.

The Melitopol prosecutor, Leonid Vasylenko, has announced the opening of an
investigation. He said that Karachevtsev died from a 'mechanical asphyxia',
that local medical experts had already carried out some tests and that other
samples taken were yet to be examined.

According to the prosecutor and the deputy head of the local police, Oleg
Bukach, suicide has been ruled out. Police say that for the moment they
consider it most likely to have been an accidental death.

Bukach said on 16 December that the journalist, who was in a drunken state,
had fallen and the collar of his pullover had caught on the refrigerator
handle, strangling him. He said the police had not found his apartment in
any state of disorder. He told Reporters Without Borders that some expert
results, which had to be kept confidential, had already reached him and that
the body of the victim showed no signs of violence.

The journalist's colleagues and in particular the editor in chief of Kurier,
Igor Yenin, rejected the accident theory and were convinced that he had been
murdered to stop him revealing information that would have been embarrassing
for the local authorities.

The editorial team, which is carrying out is own investigation, said that
the apartment was in fact in a disordered state and that the police, who did
not yet have the alcohol test results, should be wary of jumping to any
hasty conclusions.

Karachevtsev had recently been working on investigations into corruption
involving various local political officials, in connection with the sale by
the mayor of a state-owned property at a low price and on the bankruptcy of
the Start plant.

In an interview with IMI, Igor Yenin said that Karachevtsev had gone
reporting not far from the town a week earlier and his equipment, in
particular a dictaphone and a camera should have been in the apartment. He
had reported receiving death threats and being the victim of a physical
attack at the start of the year.

Several elements, that appeared in the press, give rise to the suspicion
that it could be a murder linked to his work as a journalist. On 16 December
in the afternoon, the editorial office of Vlasti.net took an anonymous call
from a man who said in a cheerful voice, "That's one idiot less. Wait and
see what happens next. I will call you back."

The journalists, who managed to get the telephone number, gave the
information to the prosecutor's office, which quickly identified the caller.
According to the prosecutor, Vasylenko, it was the director of the Melitopol
city business service.

Kurier often publishes articles that are extremely critical of the town
mayor, Vasyl Yefymenko, and his deputy, Oleksander Ilchuk. As for the site
Vlasti.net, set up by the union of local independent journalists, it had set
itself the task of exposing and condemning every dubious practice carried
out by the local authorities and local politicians.

Reporters Without Borders and IMI point out that Géorgiy Gongadze, editor in
chief of the online newspaper Pravda.com.ua, and Igor Alexandrov,
director-general of TOR television, both highly critical of the government,
were murdered respectively in 2000 and 2001. (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT 2003, No. 115: ARTICLE NUMBER EIGHT
=========================================================
8. IMF TO APPROVE $725 MLN LOAN TO UKRAINE AFTER MAJOR
REVERSAL OF POLICY

Associated Press, Kiev, Ukraine, December 17, 2003

KIEV (AP)--In a major policy reversal, a top International Monetary Fund
official Wednesday said Ukraine would receive a hard-fought multi-million
dollar loan just two months after the IMF denied the ex-Soviet republic the
credits.

Michael Deppler, IMF European director, said he "saw no obstacles" to
signing the standby loan agreement "in the nearest days," the IMF office in
Kiev said.

In October, the IMF mission refused to approve $725 million in new credits
to Ukraine's cash-strapped government until it eliminated tax distortions
and strengthened structural reforms.

During his meeting with President Leonid Kuchma, Deppler praised Ukraine's
recent progress in stabilizing monetary policy as cause for boosting
IMF-Ukraine ties, Kuchma's office said.

Citing Ukraine's First Deputy Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, Interfax news
agency reported that Ukraine's 2004 budget provides for value-added tax
refunds to investors, paving the way for renewal of IMF funding.

Ukraine wanted the IMF to approve a standby loan before the end of the year
to support revenue shortfalls and encourage foreign investment after a
two-year suspension.

It wasn't immediately known whether Ukraine would get the full amount of the
loan immediately after the deal is signed. Since 1994, Ukraine has received
IMF credits worth more than $3 billion, according to Interfax.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: Why is the World Bank and the IMF suddenly approving
hundreds of millions in loan funds for Ukraine? Is this what is really
needed? Why does Ukraine need all of these loan funds? Funds like
these normally just go in the budget and can be used for whatever
Ukraine wants to use them for. Does Ukraine's financial and political
structure need to be propped up this much by the international banks?
How exactly will Ukraine end up using these funds?
=========================================================
FOLK ART MAGAZINE: NARODNE MYSTETSTVO
http://www.artukraine.com/primitive/artmagazine.htm
A Great Magazine in Ukrainian....Excellent Ukrainian Magazine
========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT 2003, No. 115: ARTICLE NUMBER NINE
========================================================
9. UKRAINE TO BUY AMERICAN AND CANADIAN MILLING WHEAT

Reuters, Kiev, Ukraine, December 19, 2003

KIEV -- Ukraine's state-run Hlib Ukrainy [Bread of Ukraine] grain company
said on Thursday that it would buy up to 200,000 tons of foreign milling
wheat in January-June [2004] to cover a national food grain deficit caused
by this year's disastrous crop.

The ex-Soviet state, which in 2003 had its worst wheat harvest in 50 years,
will import 4.2 million tons of food to ensure its 48 million people have
enough bread.

Commercial director Oleksander Kovylin said the company planned to buy
about 100,000 tons of U.S.-origin wheat and from 50,000 to 100,000 tons of
Canadian wheat or foreign wheat already supplied to Ukraine by international
grain traders.

"Wheat from North America is the most attractive for us," he said, pointing
to possible future export restriction in Russia and Kazakhstan.

In the first months of the current season Ukraine imported grain mostly from
Kazakhstan and Russia.

Ukraine, facing a deficit of food grain after 2003's crop, increased wheat
imports from Canada in Dec. 1-15 to 122,590 tons from 65,000 tons in all of
November. (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT 2003, No. 115: ARTICLE NUMBER TEN
=========================================================
10. US AMBASSADOR HERBST PROMISED TO HELP INCREASE
TRADE AND INVESTMENT IN UKRAINE

Interfax-Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, December 17, 2003

KYIV........US ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst promised to assist the
development of trade between Ukraine and the USA and to help increase
investment.

He said this during the opening ceremony of a family commercial
entertainment complex Ukrainian Department Store in Kyiv today. "Such
buildings give Kyiv the look of a modern European capital," he said, calling
on the city's authorities to create favorable conditions for foreign
investors.

According to Herbst, the US company New Century Holdings (NCH) has
invested around $100 million in projects in Ukraine, including the
construction of the business center Millennium, the reconstruction of the
Podil supermarket and the construction of three department stores.

Herbst thanked Kyiv mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko for assistance in the project
and noted that the high quality of construction work carried out by the
general contractor Kyivgorstroy. The president of NCH, George Rohr, said
that the reconstruction of Ukrainian Department Store has demonstrated the
advantages of privatization and free movement of capital.

Mayor Omelchenko hailed the the fact that the new department store will
create 2,500 new jobs. The head of the parliament committee for issues of
international cooperation, Stanislav Stashevsky, noted that the project is
evidence that investment can bring good dividends. In his words, the Kyiv
mayor's office is responsible for creating favorable conditions for
investment. (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT 2003, No. 115: ARTICLE NUMBER ELEVEN
=========================================================
11. EXHIBIT SHEDS LIGHT ON MASS KILLINGS IN UKRAINE

By Kara Ouellet , Special to the Register
New Haven Register.com, New Haven, CT, Dec 18, 2003

NEW HAVEN, CT.....Call it the holocaust few knew about.

Until Ukraine separated from the Soviet Union in 1991 and its secret
archives were opened, the genocide that occurred there in 1932-33 was
concealed.

Now, that the magnitude of a man-made famine that killed between seven
and 10 million people has been uncovered, Greater New Haven's
Ukrainian-American community is doing its part to shed light on this dark
patch in world history.

The Ukrainian National Women's League, Branch 108, New Haven, in
collaboration with the Connecticut Ukrainian-American Historical Society,
a branch of the Ethnic Heritage Center, is sponsoring an exhibit at the
center.

The display of 26 panels of text and photographs commemorates the 70th
anniversary of the man-made Great Famine of Ukraine of 1932-33, also
known as "Holodomor," said Christine Melnyk, president of Branch 108.

The exhibit was originally organized at The Ukrainian Museum in New York
City, where Melnyk and several League members saw it and wanted to bring
it to New Haven, said Melnyk [exhibit was on display at the United
Nations not at The Ukrainian Museum].

The National Board of the Ukrainian National Women's League wanted
people to commemorate the tragedy in every city that has a branch, and
setting up the exhibit in New Haven was a good way to do that, she said.

The famine was brought on by Stalin's communist regime, which sought to
punish farmers supporting the independence of Ukraine from the Soviet
Union.

"They didn't want to be collective farmers," said Melnyk. "So they were
forced out of their homes and sent to labor camps in the north where they
were starved."

According to an article written by Rutgers University professor Tara [Taras]
Hunczak, Stalin imposed unattainable grain production quotas and the
farmers starved while Stalin and his government exported millions of tons of
grain.

Ukraine's borders were closed to outsiders to prevent any foreign relief
services or migration.

The genocide was covered up until 1991 when records were finally opened.
Walter Duranty, a famous New York Times reporter, was implicated in the
cover-up and now many Ukrainian Americans are demanding the revocation
of his Pulitzer Prize.

Members of Branch 108 are hoping to raise public awareness about the famine.
They are concerned about the absence of the event from students' curriculums
and the lack of general public knowledge.

"This was a hidden famine that we need to bring to life," said Melnyk. "It's
important for educators to come in and try to incorporate it into their
curriculum."

The Holodomor exhibit will be on display at the Ethnic Heritage Center at
270 Fitch St. [New Haven] until Sunday, said Melnyk.

The exhibit is free and open to the public, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. today, 10
a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Any educators who are interested in bringing their students to the display
and anyone who is interested in more information should call the Heritage
Center at 392-6126, or Gloria Horbaty at 269-5909.
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT 2003, No. 115: ARTICLE NUMBER TWELVE
=========================================================
12. UKRAINE'S PRESIDENT KUCHMA ASKS US PRESIDENT BUSH
TO RENEW NUCLEAR FUEL DISPOSAL PROJECTS

Associated Press, Kiev, Ukraine, December 17, 2003

KIEV (AP)--Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma Wednesday asked U.S.
President George W. Bush to renew projects to help the former Soviet
republic dispose of nuclear fuel from missiles disarmed after the end of the
Cold War.

Some 5,000 metric tons of nuclear fuel in Ukraine's southeastern city of
Pavlohrad, visited by a team from the U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction
Program last year, pose the risk of an environmental catastrophe, Kuchma
wrote in a letter to Bush, according to his office.

Earlier this year, Ukrainian lawmakers accused the U.S. of breaching a 1993
agreement by suspending funding for the program after Ukraine held up its
part of the bargain, dismantling all its missile silos and SS-24
intercontinental ballistic missiles and scrapping its warheads.

The Bush administration announced in May it was suspending funds for the
project to explore lower cost disposal methods.

U.S. Ambassador John Herbst, one week after he took up his post in
September, had assured Ukraine that Washington intended to help to
dispose of nuclear fuel from disarmed missiles.

Ukraine inherited the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal after the 1991
Soviet collapse, including hundreds of missiles and dozens of strategic
bombers.

The country later renounced nuclear weapons and transferred its 1,300
nuclear warheads to Russia for destruction. Disposing of the nuclear fuel is
the final stage of its missile elimination program. (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
. "UKRAINE REPORT 2003," No. 115: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2003
TWELVE ARTICLES
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