"UKRAINE REPORT"
In-Depth Ukrainian News and Analysis
"The Art of Ukrainian History, Culture, Arts, Business, Religion,
Sports, Government, and Politics, in Ukraine and Around the World"

"These players paid the ultimate price for football - they lost their lives.
Whether it was just random or whether the three players who died in Siretz
were chosen specially no one will ever no but what they did makes them and
the survivors heroes in my eyes because they fought to play the game they
loved and would let no one stop them.

Tuesday made it sixty-one years since these players died and after reading
Dougan's book [Dynamo] it really opened my eyes to what football meant
to the people in such a torrid time in their country. [Nazi occupation 1943]

One day I would like to make the trip to Kiev and perhaps see this statue
of the players who died and pay tribute. This is something football
[soccer] fans everywhere should be proud of. I know I am."[article five]

"UKRAINE REPORT" Year 2004, Number 31
U.S.-UKRAINE FOUNDATION (USUF)
www.ArtUkraine.com Information Service (ARTUIS)
morganw@patriot.net, ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net
Kyiv, Ukraine and Washington, D.C., Wednesday, February 25, 2004

INDEX OF ARTICLES

1. FORMER CZECH PRESIDENT HAVEL SHARPLY CRITICIZES
END OF RFE/RL BROADCASTS IN UKRAINE
CTK news agency, Prague, in English, 19 Feb 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, Feb 24, 2004

2. USA'S BROADCASTING BOARD OF GOVERNORS (BBG) SEEKS
NEW WAYS TO ENHANCE BROADCASTING IN UKRAINE
FOR RFE/RL AND VOA PROGRAMS
Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) web site
Washington, D.C., February 24, 2004

3. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT KUCHMA CRITICIZES "FALSE PATRIOTS"
IN MOTHERLAND DEFENDERS' DAY SPEECH
UT1, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian, 23 Feb 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Feb 23, 2004

4. POLITICAL OPPONENT YUSHCHENKO SAYS UKRAINE
USES TAX POWERS FOR INTIMIDATION
Presidential Candidate Claims Government Wants Votes to Alter Constitution
By Marc Champion, The Wall Street Journal (Europe)
Brussels, Belgium, Monday, February 23, 2004

5. "NO-ONE WOULD STOP THEM"
February 24, 1943: It has now been sixty-one years since
FC Start Ukrainian football [soccer] players were murdered by Nazis
By Rachel Sproule, The Hibernian Football [Soccer] Club Web Site
Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, 24 February 2004

6. HEAVY DEMAND FOR EXECUTIVE MBA COURSE IN KIEV
Linda Anderson and Kester Eddy, Financial Times, London, UK, Feb 23, 2004

7. "HISTORY WRITTEN IN CHECHEN BLOOD"
[60th anniversary of a Soviet crime against the Chechen people.]
OP-ED By Khassan Baiev, The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, February 24, 2004; Page A21

8. UKRAINIAN INTELLIGENCE GENERAL KRAVCHENKO
SAID READY TO GO PUBLIC AGAIN IN GERMANY
Inside Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, February 25, 2004

9. YUSHCHENKO: "OUR UKRAINE" IN FAVOR OF ABOLISHING
TAX ON INCOME FROM SALE OF PRODUCE FROM PRIVATE
GARDENS BY PRIVATE HOUSEHOLDS
"Our Ukraine" Press, www.razom.org.ua, Kyiv, Ukraine, 20-02-04

10. "TRAGEDY IN THE MAKING"
Consider the situation that is shaping up in the Ukrainian countryside.
By Prof. James MACE , Consultant to The Day
The Day Weekly Digest in English, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tues, Feb 24, 2004

11. UKRAINE WILL BRING ITS MINIMUM WAGES UP TO A
MINIMUM LIVING STANDARD BY YEAR 2007
Inside Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, February 25, 2004

12. UKRAINE AT THE CROSSROADS:
An Inside View of the Upcoming Presidential Election
Briefing by five Ukrainian leaders at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Friday, February 27, 2004, 9:00AM-10:30AM
201 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, D.C.
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 31: ARTICLE NUMBER ONE
=========================================================
1. FORMER CZECH PRESIDENT HAVEL SHARPLY CRITICIZES
END OF RFE/RL BROADCASTS IN UKRAINE

CTK news agency, Prague, in English, 19 Feb 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, Feb 24, 2004

Prague, 19 February (CTK) - Former Czech president Vaclav Havel today
sharply criticized the end of cooperation between the Dovira Ukrainian radio
and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

The Ukrainian opposition and many local newspapers say that the end of the
broadcasts, which were very popular, is a political move before the upcoming
presidential elections. RFE/RL was last broadcast to Ukrainian listeners on
the Dovira network on Tuesday [17 Feb].

"I am disgusted by this. The main goal of this move, however draped in
commercial interests, is the limitation of plurality in sources of
information," Havel told CTK.

He added that he is even more saddened that because of health reasons he
will not be able to support the democratic forces and attend an
international conference dubbed Ukraine in Europe and in the world, which
will take place at the weekend in Kiev.

RFE/RL President Thomas A. Dine in a statement posted on RFE/RL's web
site called the Dovira move, "a deeply disturbing political development and
serious setback to freedom of expression in Ukraine".

Dine said that silencing RFE/RL's unique and popular brand of balanced and
comprehensive local news in this presidential election year robs Ukrainians
of an invaluable source of information.

"This isn't just about RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service -- this is about denying
Ukrainians the information they need to make sound decisions about the
future of their country," Dine said in the statement on the internet, adding
"this is already having a chilling impact on the media and public debate in
Ukraine".

Dovira sent a letter announcing that it was dropping the RFE/RL programmes
only one week before the termination of broadcasts, saying that the
programmes did not fit the network's format.

The decision was made by the new owners of Dovira, led by businessman and
journalist Serhiy Kychygin, who is allegedly close to current Ukrainian
President, Leonid Kuchma.

Dovira had broadcast five hours a day of RFE/RL programmes since 1998.
According to information form the Inter Media Survey Institute, the
preferences of the RFE/RL broadcasts grew by 30 per cent in the last year.
Most of the listeners of the network were between the ages of 15 and 24.

RFE/RL, headquartered in Prague, is currently broadcasting to Ukraine on
short-wave and ultra-short waves. It is currently searching for a new
partner in Kiev or elsewhere in the country. Many opposition leaders have
joined the protest against the cancellation of the broadcasts. (END)
========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 31: ARTICLE NUMBER TWO
Daily News Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/newsgallery.htm
========================================================
2. USA'S BROADCASTING BOARD OF GOVERNORS (BBG) SEEKS
NEW WAYS TO ENHANCE BROADCASTING IN UKRAINE
FOR RFE/RL AND VOA PROGRAMS

Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) web site
Washington, D.C., February 24, 2004

Washington, DC, US international broadcasting officials are exploring new
ways to reach listeners in the Ukraine in the wake of a crackdown on media.

"We are committed to seeing that millions of Ukrainians continue to receive
trusted news and information that is vital to helping them make decisions
about their lives and their country", said Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, chairman of
the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the federal agency that oversees
all US international broadcasting, including the Voice of America (VOA) and
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

On 17 February 2004, the privately-owned Ukrainian FM Radio Dovira network
dropped all RFE/RL programs, a move that RFE/RL President Thomas Dine
called a "deeply disturbing political development and serious setback to
freedom of expression in Ukraine".

RFE/RL immediately began working with other RFE/RL affiliate partners in
Ukraine, who have expressed a willingness to take more programmes since the
Dovira decision was announced. RFE/RL, which is still available through a
half-dozen affiliates, is also working with a number of potential new
partners located throughout Ukraine. Ukrainians can also access RFE/RL
programmes by short-wave and digital audio satellite.

"We want to and will be part of the Ukrainian mass media", Dine said.

VOA, meantime, will continue to produce two hours of Ukrainian programming
daily. The programmes are carried on Ukrainian state radio, on 12 FM
affiliates across the country and on short-wave. VOA-TV also produces
"Window on America", a popular, weekly, 25-minute newsmagazine that
is aired nationwide on the state-owned television network.

"VOA's news broadcasts will be available to the Ukrainian people on every
medium: radio, television and the Internet", said VOA Director David S.
Jackson. (END) (ARTUIS)
=======================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 31: ARTICLE NUMBER THREE
Build Ukraine Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/buildukraine/index.htm
================================ ========================
3. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT KUCHMA CRITICIZES "FALSE PATRIOTS"
IN MOTHERLAND DEFENDERS' DAY SPEECH

UT1, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian, 23 Feb 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Feb 23, 2004

President Leonid Kuchma has accused his opponents of slurring Ukraine abroad
and pushing the country into turmoil. The comments come shortly after a
Ukrainian security service general told Deutsche Welle that the Ukrainian
authorities had ordered him to spy on politicians abroad, and after
Ukrainian opposition asked the Council of Europe to prevent controversial
constitutional reform from being implemented by pro-presidential forces.

In his speech, Kuchma also praised Ukraine's peacekeeping efforts in Iraq
and elsewhere, saying he was confident that the Ukrainian armed forces could
defend the country's independence.

The following is an excerpt from Kuchma's speech broadcast live by Ukrainian
state-owned television UT1 before a holiday concert on Motherland Defenders'
Day on 23 February; subheading inserted editorially:

Esteemed members of the Ukrainian armed forces! Esteemed veterans, dear
friends! [Passage omitted: Kuchma thanks the veterans for defending Ukraine
in World War II]

Today you [veterans] have members of the armed forces of the independent
Ukraine next to you. The sovereignty of our country, the security of our
sacred borders is in their courageous and skilful hands.

The Ukrainian army is going through a difficult process of reform. It is
finding its place in democratic society, learning the hard task of being an
armed outpost of a young country which is fighting for its place in this
globalized and pragmatic world. No-one should have any doubt that Ukraine
has an army which is capable of defending its independence. [Applause]

Ukraine is becoming a leading peacekeeper on the planet. This is not only a
tribute to our armed forces, but also to our foreign policy. Let me say
thank you to those sons of Ukraine who are now on duty not only at home but
also on other continents far from their native land. Ukraine remembers you
and is looking forward to your return.

Dear compatriots, having gathered today in such a well-represented company,
we must take a new look at the seemingly familiar concept of public
responsibility, national dignity, honouring one's native land and the great
calling to be a patriot of one's country.

"FALSE PATRIOTS"

I would like to recite a thought by [Russian poet] Aleksandr Pushkin to some
of our compatriots. He expressed his patriotism this way: "I can grumble at
my country as much as I want, but I feel very sad when a foreigner shares my
feelings." [Applause]

How can I describe these so-called patriots who have turned slurring their
country in all corners of the globe into a full-time job, and quite a
lucrative one. Some of these false patriots love their home country so much
that they are ready to choke it in their pathological embrace. They see
their heroism in ethnic conflicts and try to win people's hearts by
spreading turmoil, distrust and hatred.

I am convinced that the people of Ukraine should steer well clear of these
cosmopolitans in patriotic gowns. The people who paid for their freedom with
thousands of lives will not let anyone lead them astray. The real patriotism
of our times is in safeguarding the public order established by our
independence and by the historical wisdom of Ukrainians. That is what it
really means to be a modern patriot.

In this noble cause, everyone must consider himself a defender of the
motherland. On this peaceful front, we will not give up a single yard of our
native land to those who want to see dissent, turmoil and conspiracy.

Dear friends. Over the centuries, the people of Ukraine often had to beat
ploughs into swords. Peasants became warriors. It is not coincidental that
the words army [Ukrainian transliteration: Rat] and grain-grower [Ukrainian
transliteration: Ratay] sound so similar. I would like to wish you all that
we never have to beat our ploughs into swords again.

For this, we need, first of all, defenders of the motherland who can hold
firmly both a sword and a shield. We need strong and prosperous Ukraine.
Glory to Ukraine! Glory to its heroic defenders! [Applause, audience
standing as Kuchma takes his seat] (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 31: ARTICLE NUMBER FOUR
Travel and Tourism Gallery: http://www.ArtUkraine.com/tourgallery.htm
=========================================================
4. POLITICAL OPPONENT YUSHCHENKO SAYS UKRAINE
USES TAX POWERS FOR INTIMIDATION
Presidential Candidate Claims Government Wants Votes to Alter Constitution

By Marc Champion, The Wall Street Journal (Europe)
Brussels, Belgium, Monday, February 23, 2004

KIEV, Ukraine -- Just weeks after Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma
gave up an attempt to change the constitution to block coming direct
presidential elections, his government has been accused of using tax
inspections to intimidate his political opponents.

"The state tax administration is being used as an instrument of
political persecution," Viktor Yuschenko, the main opposition candidate
for president said in an interview Saturday, during an international
conference in Kiev on Ukraine's place in Europe and the world.

The accusations, supported by the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, John
Herbst, come amid international concern that Ukraine -- a country of 48
million people squeezed between Russia and Poland -- may be following
Russia in a slide away from democracy, even as the European Union
enlarges to Ukraine's border.

In a nation where political power and money are closely tied, the
prospect of transferring the president's sweeping authority to an
opposition party and its financial backers during the October election,
when Mr. Kuchma isn't expected to run, has sparked a fierce struggle.

At the conference, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, a potential
presidential candidate, highlighted success on the economy -- industrial
production is rising at an annual rate of 16%, he said -- while
repeatedly committing himself to integration with the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization and the EU, and to democracy. He accused the
"so-called defenders of democracy" of using "all possible means to grab
power."

The vote is seen as decisive in determining whether Ukraine can develop
the kind of Western-style democracy that would make feasible the
country's ultimate integration with NATO and the EU. That integration is
something U.S. policy makers are pushing higher on the agenda as they
take a harsher view of Ukraine's historically dominant neighbor, Russia.

Mr. Yuschenko, a former prime minister, said that within the past three
weeks, more than 30 companies tied to his supporters have been subject
to criminal investigations launched by tax authorities.

The government's aim, Mr. Yuschenko alleged, is to strong-arm
legislators into giving Mr. Kuchma the 300 votes he needs in Ukraine's
Parliament to pass revised constitutional changes, already tabled, that
would allow direct elections to go ahead but shift powers from the
president to the prime minister. The government says the changes are
necessary because the balance of powers in Ukraine has become too
skewed to the president.

Mr. Kuchma has said he won't run for re-election, but he hasn't ruled
out becoming prime minister. Potential presidential candidates allied to
Mr. Kuchma lag far behind Mr. Yuschenko in opinion polls.

Justice Minister Olexander Lavrynovych said at the conference, sponsored
by 10 think tanks and other organizations from Europe and the U.S., that
the tax authorities were operating according to the law. "Businessmen
sympathetic to the opposition have to pay tax too, just as businessmen
sympathetic to the government have to pay tax," he added.

The rash of tax probes appears to follow a pattern in the western city
of Lvov, an opposition stronghold. There, recent tax inspections into
companies owned by legislators in the regional parliament were followed
by a series of defections from the opposition to the Social Democratic
Party (United), which supports Mr. Kuchma.

During the past six weeks, the SDP(U) has increased its share in the
81-seat Lvov Parliament to 28 seats from 16, mainly through defections
from the Business Lvov party, said Mikhailo Sendak, head of the regional
legislature.

Until a few weeks ago, the chief of the Lvov regional tax inspectorate
was Serhy Medvedchuk -- brother of Mr. Kuchma's powerful chief of staff
and SDP(U) party chairman, Viktor Medvedchuk. Serhy Medvedchuk now
has moved to Kiev to take over as first deputy chief of the national tax
inspectorate.

On Feb. 13, the head of the national tax authority announced criminal
investigations into four companies connected to Petro Poroschenko, a
wealthy member of Parliament from Mr. Yuschenko's Our Ukraine party. A
12-page opinion by accountants KPMG commissioned by one of the
companies -- candy producer SC Roshen -- called some of the tax-authority
accusations "groundless" and others unconstitutional.

"I am deeply concerned that the dirty tactics employed will now be
spread to the nationwide level in connection with personnel changes in
the state tax administration," U.S. Ambassador Herbst said in comments
during a Feb. 14 visit to Lvov. He also said the Lvov administration,
run by the opposition, should allow Mr. Kuchma's supporters to campaign
more freely. Serhy Medvedchuk couldn't be reached for comment.

At this past weekend's Kiev conference, international figures ranging
from former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to former Swedish
Prime Minister Carl Bildt urged Mr. Kuchma not to manipulate the
constitution. (END) (ARTUIS)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Write to Marc Champion at marc.champion@wsj.com.
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 31: ARTICLE NUMBER FIVE
Ukrainian Culture Gallery: http://www.ArtUkraine.com/cultgallery.htm
=========================================================
5. "NO-ONE WOULD STOP THEM"
February 24, 1943: It has now been sixty-one years since
FC Start Ukrainian football [soccer] players were murdered by Nazis

By Rachel Sproule, The Hibernian Football Club [HIBS] Web Site
Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, Tuesday 24 February 2004

Rachel looks away from Hibs this week and to team who paid dearly for
playing the game they loved........

THIS WEEK I WANT TO MOVE AWAY FROM HIBS JUST FOR A
BRIEF MOMENT and have a bit of a history lesson and to tell you about
my football heroes.

Nowadays people see their football heroes as someone who plays for their
country or scores many goals week in week out. But my footballing hero is
not one person it is a team. Picture the scene - Occupied Ukraine during
the Second World War. The city is Kiev. The team - FC Start which includes
many former Dynamo Kiev players. This is where their story begins.

When the Ukraine was occupied by the Nazis during the Second World War
Ukrainian sports teams were a thing of the past. But in a bakery in Kiev a
former football star, Nikolai Trusevich was bringing together former team
mates to bring a Ukrainian football team alive once again helped by the
owner of the bakery, Iosif Kordik to bring together a team that could take
on the teams of the occupying forces which included Germans, Romanians and
Hungarians. Football in the Ukraine began again on 7 June 1942 when FC
Start as this team was to take on Rukh, a team of Fascist sympathisers.

Start were beating teams left right and centre. But their biggest test was
to be against a team from the Luftwaffe. Start beat these Germans not once
but twice with 5-1 and 5-3 score lines. These victories were to have
serious repercussions. After a quiet period following the games one by one
the Start players were arrested at the bakery by members of the Gestapo and
taken for interrogation.

These players were taken to a camp called Siretz, near Babi Yar where many
Jews were massacred in 1941. Random killings were normality. The Start
players found survival easier than others because they were much fitter.

But on the morning of 24 February 1943 the day after an arson attack on a
plant in Kiev nothing was going to save three of the players. Ivan Kuzmenko
was the first to die, clubbed in the head and shot.

Alexei Klimenko, the baby of the squad and Nikolai Trusevich, the man who
brought them back together also died in this horrific way. Nikolai
Korotkykh was already dead before reaching Siretz for being a serving NKVD
officer in the country at the time. Goncharenko, who was the final survivor
died in 1996 but still the story of the bravery of these players lives on in
the book "Dynamo" by Andy Dougan and in the hearts of Kiev fans where a
statue of the four players stands proud in front of the Dynamo Stadium.

These players paid the ultimate price for football - they lost their lives.
Whether it was just random or whether the three players who died in Siretz
were chosen specially no one will ever no but what they did makes them and
the survivors heroes in my eyes because they fought to play the game they
loved and would let no one stop them.

Tuesday made it sixty-one years since these players died and after reading
Dougan's book it really opened my eyes to what football meant to the people
in such a torrid time in their country.

One day I would like to make the trip to Kiev and perhaps see this statue
of the players who died and pay tribute. This is something football fans
everywhere should be proud of. I know I am. (END) (ARTUIS)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.hibsforum.co.uk/NewsItems/February2004/news_Feb_24_1_RS.htm
=======================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2005, No. 31: ARTICLE NUMBER SIX
Genocide Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/famineart/index.htm
=========================================================
6. HEAVY DEMAND FOR EXECUTIVE MBA COURSE IN KIEV

By Linda Anderson and Kester Eddy
Financial Times, London, UK, Feb 23, 2004

Good economic growth of 8 per cent in Ukraine last year appears to be
helping increase demand for management education, writes Kester Eddy.

The International Management Institute [IMI] in Kiev, widely considered to
be Ukraine's leading management school, has responded with the launch
of an EMBA [Executive MBA] programme.

"There are now three other MBA schools in Kiev, so we have pretty
stiff competition," says Oksana Kukuruza, public relations manager at
IMI Kiev. "However, our total intake [on the MBA programme] is 111
students this year, similar to the last three years, in spite of a 20
per cent increase in course prices to $7,900 [£4,175]."

Despite costing the same - a fortune for most Ukrainians - the EMBA
course had 120 applicants, of whom 16 were accepted, all
entrepreneurs or chief executives of domestic companies.

With 15 years' experience in running MBAs, the demand is no surprise
to Bohdan Budzan, IMI-Kiev director-general. "We approached a lot of
business owners and top managers with our proposals for management
training needs for their employees. We have often felt many people do
not know what managerial knowledge they lack. So we designed a
product to meet their requirements," says Prof Budzan.

Ukrainian businessmen are beginning to understand that managerial
practices based upon the Soviet style administrative methods are
ineffective, and that their operations must compete in an
international business environment. To have any hope of success, they
need to take on the best western practices, adds Prof Budzan.

"Companies such as Obolon Brewery, Aval Bank and AVK Confectionery
asked us for management development and allocated a budget for these
programmes. Even in the late 1990s this would not have happened," he
says.

Taught in Ukrainian, Russian and English, the course comprises 16
three-day modules over two years. For some students, even the first
module has been a revelation in how to teach business skills.

"From previous experience economics has been very academic and
dull. . . but the professor asked us to share our real experience in
the model of how we evaluate company performance," says Slava
Avramenko, managing director and owner of BravoTex, a wholesale
company supplying furniture manufacturers. Students work out criteria
for optimum performance and see how to make decisions for a real
company.

IMI-Kiev is a member of EFMD and has applied for accreditation from
Ceeman, the Central and East European Management Development
Association. www.mim.kiev.ua
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 31: ARTICLE NUMBER SEVEN
Historical Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/histgallery.htm
=========================================================
7. "A HISTORY WRITTEN IN CHECHEN BLOOD"
[60th anniversary of a Soviet crime against the Chechen people.]

OP-ED By Khassan Baiev
The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
Tuesday, February 24, 2004; Page A21

Yesterday was Armed Services Day in Russia, so, of course, there were
observances in Moscow. But yesterday also was the 60th anniversary of a
Soviet crime perpetrated against the Chechen people -- and, of course, there
was no official observance in Moscow. In fact, a proposed ceremony was
banned, and the small number of people who nevertheless gathered to
solemnize the event were dispersed by the police. But the past will not be
so easily dispersed -- it must be dealt with if there is to be a political
settlement of the cruel Chechen conflict.

The crime was Joseph Stalin's deportation of the Chechens on Feb. 23, 1944.
This event is to Chechens what the Holocaust is to the Jews or the genocide
is to the Armenians. That day, when Stalin packed the Chechen population of
1 million into cattle cars and shipped them to the wastes of Siberia and
Central Asia, lies in our collective memory. One-third of the population
died on the journey. Many others perished under the harsh conditions of
exile.

During Soviet times, the deportation was a taboo subject, talked about
behind closed doors. As a small boy, most of what I learned was from old
women gathered in our kitchen. Once, when they thought I wasn't listening, I
heard my mother tell my sisters how women were so ashamed to relieve
themselves in the railroad cars in front of men that they held on until
their bladders burst. Only when I was 14 years old did I understand the true
horror of what had happened. That summer my father showed my twin brother
and me the cliff near our ancestral village of Makazhoi, over which troops
of the NKVD (the secret police of the time) pushed resisters, including some
of our relatives.

Stalin claimed that the Chechens were Nazi sympathizers. This was an insult
to most Chechens, including my father, who fought on the northeastern front
and was wounded during World War II. In spite of his wounds, my father was
ordered deported. He returned to Chechnya from Kazakhstan in 1959 after
Nikita Khrushchev allowed the Chechens to go home. Only after Mikhail
Gorbachev came to power were my father and other Chechens who fought in
the war recognized as veterans and given pensions. He wore his medals with
pride.

Chechnya has been struggling for independence for 400 years. The 1944
deportation is not the only one we have suffered. Chechens were pressured
to leave for Turkey, Jordan and Syria in the 19th century. In view of our
history and what is going on in Chechnya today, it is not surprising that we
believe Russia wants to liquidate us.

About one-quarter of our population has been killed since 1994. Fifty
percent of the Chechen nation now lives outside Chechnya. Ethnographers
say that when this happens, a nation ceases to exist. Estimates claim that
75 percent of the Chechen environment is contaminated. I recall a physician
from Doctors Without Borders telling me, "The Russians don't need to bomb
you, the environment will kill you." I didn't believe it at the time. But
now as a doctor I can testify that Chechnya is a medical disaster area.
Pediatricians report that one-third of children are born with birth defects.
Drug-resistant tuberculosis is rampant. The population is suffering from
post-traumatic stress. Depression and insomnia are widespread. Young men
are having heart attacks.

As in all modern wars, including Iraq, the main victims are civilians. In
Chechnya, the human rights violations, documented by Human Rights Watch,
Amnesty International, Physicians for Human Rights and Russia's Memorial,
are horrendous. Chechnya has become a lucrative business operated by the
Russian military and its Chechen criminal collaborators. Their trade is
kidnapping young men, selling corpses back to relatives, looting property,
stealing oil and selling guns.

In August 2000, Russian soldiers burst into my sister's house and removed my
20-year-old nephew Ali. He was tortured and held in a pit for 39 days until
his release was negotiated. It cost our family $10,000 and eight rifles to
get his freedom.

The Kremlin has done a brilliant job of convincing the world that Chechens
are bandits and terrorists. Yes, horrible acts of violence are committed in
Chechnya, not only by Russians but by some criminal Chechens. But Chechen
killings, including the suicide bombings, are largely motivated by a desire
to take revenge for a family member killed by the Russians. People who have
lost everything think they have nothing more to live for. They are
desperate. Blood revenge, rather than religious extremism imported from the
Middle East, governs the violence. And I believe it will continue as long as
100,000 Russian troops remain in Chechnya.

Acts of terrorism are also being committed outside Chechnya, such as the
recent subway bombing in Moscow. The Chechens are immediately blamed
for these barbaric acts before any investigation takes place. Repression
follows. Meanwhile, Russian newspaper articles and two recent books suggest
that the Russian secret police played a role in earlier bombings.

Unlike my generation, which lived in comparative peace with Russia, today's
young Chechens are growing up full of hatred for Russians. The younger
generation is ignoring our traditions. They no longer obey their elders. If
world nations do nothing to support a peace settlement in Chechnya, there is
no guarantee that these young people won't be radicalized or forced into the
arms of religious fanatics. Then Russia will have a far more serious problem
with history and terrorism than it has today. (END) (ARTUIS)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The writer, a Chechen physician, received political asylum in the United
States in 2000. He is the author of "The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A802-2004Feb23.html
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 31: ARTICLE NUMBER EIGHT
Arts Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/artgallery.htm
=========================================================
8. UKRAINIAN INTELLIGENCE GENERAL KRAVCHENKO
SAID READY TO GO PUBLIC AGAIN IN GERMANY

Inside Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, February 25, 2004

KYIV......Valeriy Kravchenko, until last week a major general of Ukraine's
external intelligence force, serving as a counselor at Ukraine's embassy in
Berlin, now appears to be ready to surface again after his defection and
disappearance.

On Tuesday, Mykola Tomenko, chair of the parliament's committee on
freedom of speech and information, said he would go to Germany to hold
a public joint news conference with Kravchenko and receive from him
proof of his charges of illegal orders.

In the meantime, Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has applied to
its German counterpart to fix the whereabouts of Kravchenko after he went
public in Berlin last week with charges that he had been illegally ordered
to spy on opposition Ukraine politicians visiting German. The Kravchenko
case gained immediate notoriety when he made a voluntary statement to be
broadcast over Deutsche Welle's Russian Service in regard to his
allegations.

The MFA today said that Kravchenko has been dismissed from the external
intelligence service because of ".violations of the internal order in the
embassy." Also, MFA spokesman Markiyan Lubkivskiy said in his regular
daily briefing Tuesday, "There are some financial obligations Kravchenko has
left with the state."

The MFA's statements today appear to imply that the ministry will attempt to
discredit Kravchenko, a long-serving officer with extensive intelligence
experience in Afghanistan and Germany, and will charge him as a criminal who
violated his duties and impaired the financial status of the embassy. (END)
========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 31: ARTICLE NUMBER NINE
Support Ukraine Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/uasupport/index.htm
=========================================================
9. YUSHCHENKO: "OUR UKRAINE" IN FAVOR OF ABOLISHING
TAX ON INCOME FROM SALE OF PRODUCE FROM PRIVATE
GARDENS BY PRIVATE HOUSEHOLDS

"Our Ukraine" Press, www.razom.org.ua, Kyiv, Ukraine, 20-02-04

KYIV - "It hurts me to se the decline of Ukrainian villages. Rural citizens
have been brought down to their knees by the government's unprofessional
policies," stated the leader of "Our Ukraine" Victor Yushchenko. "For an
inept government, no crop and a good crop present a problem it cannot solve.
At first, agrarians were pleased with an unheard-of crop; then, they were
disappointed and humiliated with paltry revenues from their hard labor.

The current government is trying to pass this situation off as a crisis in
the agricultural sector but it is really a crisis in the agricultural
policy," Yushchenko is convinced.

According to the leader of "Our Ukraine," however, the situation may turn to
worse if no measures are taken in the near future: "This year can be
devastating for agriculture. Preparations for the spring season have to be
carried out under tough conditions: additional money needs to be found for
re-seeding some of the fields since close to 30 percent of winter wheat and
80 percent of winter barley have been damaged by unfavorable weather
conditions.

However, financing for the agricultural sector today stands only at 10-15
percent of the requirement. It also needs to be taken into consideration
that agricultural equipment also needs to be repaired or renewed."

"A draconian law that taxes income from the sale of produce from private
gardens or orchards has already been implemented. But 60% of agricultural
products are produced in private households. Through such brutal and
unthinkable policy the government is destroying small agricultural
businesses, which, by the way, employ 2.5 million of Ukrainians.

If the alarm is not sounded immediately, we will have to deal with the
consequences as early as the spring when a sharp decline of agricultural
production will occur because people will have stopped producing for the
open market. That, in turn, will lead to increase of food prices, which also
means a decline of socio-economic situation in rural areas," warned
Yushchenko.

"Our Ukraine" stands for abolishing this inconsiderate and devastating law
for the agrarians. A bill has been already registered that suggests
abolishing taxation on income from private households," reported Victor
Yushchenko. (END) (ARTUIS)
=========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 31: ARTICLE NUMBER TEN
Current Events Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/events/index.htm
=========================================================
10. "TRAGEDY IN THE MAKING"
Consider the situation that is shaping up in the Ukrainian countryside.

By Prof. James Mace, Consultant to The Day
The Day Weekly Digest in English
Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Consider the situation that is shaping up in the Ukrainian countryside,
where about a quarter of the country's population still live. Soon the
people who are working some of the best farmland on earth, a population with
neither money nor power, will get the dubious privilege of selling that soil
to those who have both.

The buyers, not the sellers, are protected from any foreign buyers, who
might threaten to bid the price up to a level where the sellers might
receive something resembling adequate compensation, while the state in an
election year has announced that bread prices will not be allowed to rise,
thus increasing the pressure on those with nothing to live on but something
to sell, the land that produces the wheat that will be sold at cheap prices.
What happens then? One not need to have a Ph.D. to predict what could
happen next.

The more attractive young ladies of twelve to fifteen years or so might
always find a place in the market for white slaves in Turkey or some such
place to be sold over and over. Their male cousins, without any urban skills
and precious little cash, might in turn try to sell their services as guards
or policemen against those not so fortunate as they and thus forced into
thieving for a living, so that half of the male villagers might be employed
to chase the other half.

Meanwhile their elders will go around searching for cardboard, newspapers,
and empty beer bottles that they can exchange for a crust of bread the way
urban pensioners now do. Is this social justice?

This writer's late lamented father-in-law was able to turn collective farms
into millionaires in Galicia, where the soil is not as good as in much of
Ukraine, without much schooling to his credit. Of course, he never figured
out that being the head of a collective farm was for most in that position a
synonym for stealing, and somebody else always came after him and
squandered the money he had accumulated within the next few months.

They once even offered to make him a hero of socialist labor in exchange
for two breeding sows. He refused and was put on pension literally the
next day.

The villagers, essentially turned back into serfs according to Stalin's
version of social justice, were left with nothing. And now, it seems, they
are being prepared for eviction from the land that fed them and their
forefathers. Is the writer of these lines the only person in Ukraine who is
ready to scream bloody blue murder? It has already been written here that
some things are just plain wrong. The deliberate impoverishment of the
family farm is one of those things.

Without the broadest possible help to those attempting to try their hand at
private farming away from the former kolhosp chairman kleptocrat, still the
cock of the walk in most villages, giving those without money or power the
dubious right to sell their land to those who have both is just plain wrong.

One of Ukraine's comparative advantages in this world is good soil. Let
those who learned how from their forefathers farm it, and this country will
feed much of the world to the benefit of all who live here. Let those who
have made their careers exploiting those who grow the grain go to Turkey or
some such place where their nether parts can be sold for whatever they might
be worth. I think it will not be much. (END) (ARTUIS)
========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 31: ARTICLE NUMBER ELEVEN
========================================================
11. UKRAINE WILL BRING ITS MINIMUM WAGES UP TO A
MINIMUM LIVING STANDARD BY YEAR 2007

Inside Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, February 25, 2004

KYIV - Meeting with labor officials including union federation head
Oleksandr Stoyan, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, Deputy PM Dmytro
Tabachnyk and Labor Minister Mykhaylo Papiyev said on Monday that
Ukraine would bring its minimum wages up to the minimum standard of
living by 2007.

Political observers believe the government's minimum wage announcement
may be a tip-off that the parliamentary elections set by law for 2006 may
now be pushed back to 2007.

The government's announcement was almost totally ignored by Kyiv news
media but some parliament [Rada] members who follow labor matters are
asking how Ukraine's poorly paid workers will survive until 2007 with the
current minimum wage set at Hr 205 per month [around $40] while cost of
living statistics indicate that the minimum living standard now is Hr 343
[around $65] per month.

The matter is further complicated by figures from labor experts who say that
the government minimum living standard number is unrealistically low. They
claimed that the living minimum per capita is at least Hr 550 per month
[a little over US$100], instead of the Hr 343 figure compiled by the
government. (END) (ARTUIS)
========================================================
UKRAINE REPORT-2004, No. 31: ARTICLE NUMBER TWELVE
========================================================
12. UKRAINE AT THE CROSSROADS:
An Inside View of the Upcoming Presidential Election

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)
invites you to a briefing by

HRYHORIY NEMYRIA, Chairman of the Board of the International
Renaissance Foundation (Soros), Director of the Center
for European and International Studies
OLEKSANDR CHERNENKO, Deputy Director of the Committee
of Voters of Ukraine
IGOR KOHUT, Secretary of the New Choice 2004 Coalition
VALERIY IVANOV, President of the Academy of Ukrainian Press
YEVHEN BYSTRYTSKY, Executive Director of the International
Renaissance Foundation (Soros)

Friday, February 27, 2004, 9:00AM-10:30AM
in Conference Room A (4th Floor) at
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
1201 Connecticut Ave NW, [entrance on Rhode Island Ave
NW, next to St. Matthew's Cathedral]

Ukraine's status as a developing democracy will be determined by its high
stakes presidential election scheduled for October 2004. Already there have
been new moves against the independent media, including RFE/RL which
recently lost its access to the Dovira media network in Ukraine due to
government pressure.

The discussants include leaders of the New Choice 2004 Coalition mobilizing
for a fair election. They will discuss the media climate, the role of civic
organizations and options for US policy toward the Kuchma government.

Please RSVP by Thursday, February 26 by email to dc-response@rferl.org,
by telephone to Melody Jones at (202) 457-6949, or by fax to (202) 457-6992.
http://www.rferl.org (END) (ARTUIS)
========================================================
ARTICLES ARE FOR PERSONAL AND ACADEMIC USE ONLY
========================================================
NEW BOOK: Three Hundred Eleven Personal Interviews, Famine 32-33.
"UKRAINIANS ABOUT FAMINE 1932-1933," Prof. Sokil, Lviv, Ukraine
http://www.artukraine.com/famineart/sokil.htm
========================================================
WEBSITE FOR NEWS AND INFORMATION ABOUT UKRAINE
LINK: http://www.ArtUkraine.com
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New Issue Just Published...Year 2003, Issue 3-4
FOLK ART MAGAZINE: NARODNE MYSTETSTVO
LINK: http://www.artukraine.com/primitive/artmagazine.htm
========================================================
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