"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 195
The Action Ukraine Coalition (AUC), Washington, D.C.
Ukrainian Federation of America (UFA), Huntingdon Valley, PA
morganw@patriot.net, ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net (ARTUIS)
Washington, D.C.; Kyiv, Ukraine, WEDNESDAY, October 20, 2004

-----INDEX OF ARTICLES-----
"Major International News Headlines and Articles"

1.THE U.S. ANTIMISSILE SHIELD: POSSIBLE PROSPECTS FOR THE
UKRAINIAN MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
Last week's visit by Thomas Pickering, Boeing Senior Vice-President
COMMENTARY: By Mykola Siruk, Defense Express, for The Day
The Day Weekly Digest, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, October 19, 2004

2 UKRAINE: AMERICAN COMPANY "HUGE NETWORK SYSTEM"
TO DELIVER SATELLITE SYSTEM TO DATASAT OPERATION
IntelliNews-Ukraine Today, Kyiv, Ukraine, Wed, October 20, 2004

3. POLAND'S LARGEST INSURER PZU ONE STEP AWAY
FROM ENTERING UKRAINIAN MARKET
Polish News Bulletin, Warsaw, Poland, Tue, Oct 19, 2004

4. EBRD DECIDES TO PROVIDE LOAN OF USD 5 MILLION TO
KREDYTPROMBANK, A MAJOR UKRAINIAN BANK
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tue, October 19, 2004

5. UKRAINE'S PARLIAMENT URGES WEST TO UP FUNDS PLEDGED
TO DECOMMISSION CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR POWER PLANT
Associated Press, Kiev, Ukraine, Wed, October 20, 2004

6. UKRAINE GOVERNMENT WIDENS ITS LIST OF FOOD PRODUCTS
WHICH ARE REGULATED BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES
Local authorities given broad powers to regulate prices and profits
IntelliNews - Ukraine Today, Kyiv, Ukraine, Wed, October 20, 2004

7. BRITISH SV MOTORS LTD TO DEMAND IN COURT THAT UKRAINE
RESUME INVESTMENT PROGRAM AT LUTSK MOTOR WORKS
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Wed, October 20, 2004

8. SAIC AND GM MOTORS SUBMIT OFFER FOR POLISH FSO CAR
PLANT, HOWEVER UKRAINE'S AWTO ZAZ IS FSO'S MAIN PARTNER
AND IS NEGOTIATING A BUY OUT OF ITS LIABILITIES
Polish News Bulletin, Warsaw, Poland, Tue, Oct 19, 2004

9. PM YANUKOVYCH VOWS TO INTRODUCE INTEREST-FREE
LENDING IN UKRAINE IF ELECTED PRESIDENT
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Wed, October 20, 2004

10. WRJ TUBE MILL IN POLAND IS LOOKING FOR AN INVESTOR,
UKRAINIAN DONBAS HAS INDICATED AN INTEREST
Polish News Bulletin, Warsaw, Poland, Wed, Oct 20, 2004

11. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO TO DECREE
PROTECTION OF RUSSIAN LANGUAGE IN UKRAINE
Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian, 18 Oct 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Mon, Oct 18, 2004

12. 200 CRIMEA TATARS BLOCK SIMFEROPOL-KERCH HIGHWAY
DEMANDING ALLOCATION OF LAND TO THEM IN TYKHA BAY
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tue, October 19, 2004

13. ROMANIA PRESSES UKRAINE OVER CONTROVERSIAL
DANUBE CANAL PROJECT
Rompres news agency, Bucharest, Romania, Mon, 18 Oct 04

14. ROMANIA EXPLAINS OBJECTIONS TO UKRAINIAN CANAL
AT DANUBE COUNTRIES' SUMMIT
Rompres news agency, Bucharest, Romania, Mon,18 Oct 04

15. RUSSIA'S CHERNOBYL-TYPE REACTORS TO OPERATE
LONGER THAN PLANNED
AP Worldstream, Moscow, Russia, Tue, Oct 19, 2004

16. CHERNOBYL: "POSTCARD FROM HELL"
Eighteen years ago, it was the site of the world's worst nuclear
reactor disaster. Now Chernobyl is becoming a tourist attraction.
By Imogen Wall, The Guardian, London, UK, Mon, Oct 18, 2004
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.195: ARTICLE NUMBER ONE
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1. THE U.S. ANTIMISSILE SHIELD: POSSIBLE PROSPECTS FOR THE
UKRAINIAN MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
Last week's visit by Thomas Pickering, Boeing Senior Vice-President

COMMENTARY: By Mykola Siruk, Defense Express, for The Day
The Day Weekly Digest, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, October 19, 2004

The view that the West is not interested in the Ukrainian military
industrial complex (VPK) is now a hackneyed clich ? . Yet last week's
visit by Thomas Pickering, Boeing senior vice-president for international
relations, was extraordinary in many respects. The last time an executive
of this level, directly accountable to the company's president, visited this
country was in 1999.

It is also telling that Boeing's fourth-ranking executive had meetings with
President Leonid Kuchma, Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn,
and Yury Alekseyev, general manager of Dnipropetrovsk-based Pivdenmash,
the former rocket-manufacturing plant.

It was to be expected that the meetings between Mr. Pickering and topmost
Ukrainian officials stirred up a wave of comments about Boeing's interest in
cooperating with Ukrainian businesses to deploy the US antimissile shield.

The Boeing senior vice-president said that Ukraine has a great potential for
cooperating in the defense sphere as a participant in the National
Anti-Missile Defense system program. According to Pickering, companies
like Pivdenne Design Bureau and Pivdenmash Plant may form a solid foundation
for this. Boeing knows about the Dnipropetrovsk-based space rocket center's
capabilities from first-hand experience. The company has been successfully
cooperating with these Ukrainian enterprises since 1995, when it became a
partner in the Sea Launch international project.

To date, eleven Dnipropetrovsk-made Zenit-3SL vehicles have been launched.
Boeing is now conducting talks with Ukraine about complementing Sea Launch
with the Land Launch project that involves launching telecommunication
satellites for Ukraine. Mr. Pickering said Sea Launch's tight schedule for
the next few years was expected to bring Ukraine 80 to 100 million dollars.

In addition, the two sides are cooperating on the design of a new Boeing-7E7
super long-range passenger aircraft. The American company has signed a
contract with the Paton Institute to develop technology for welding
composite materials that will be used in the construction of this aircraft.

A source close to the Ukrainian MIC has also reported that the Americans
have made even more serious proposals. It has not yet been ruled out that
sea platforms will be extensively used for launching Ukrainian-made vehicles
as part of the testing of the US-developed kinetic anti-ballistic missile
"killer." It should be remembered that Boeing is not just known as one of
the world's largest producers of passenger airplanes. Out of the company's
2003 total turnover of $50.5 billion, $27 billion were generated by military
business, such as the production of military and cargo aircraft, missiles,
as well as communications and surveillance systems.

Boeing has been chosen as chief integrator for the US National Anti-Missile
Defense (NAMD) system, one of the US's top-priority projects. Next year
the US will appropriate $10 billion for this program. It is expected the
Americans will spend an annual $8-10 billion on NAMD, bringing the total
expenditures for this project to $100 billion-$1 trillion by the year 2030.
This makes it clear why Boeing is interested in this program: the company
needs reliable subcontractors.

The first stage involves building and testing launch vehicles that will
deliver killer missiles into outer space to intercept enemy ballistic
missiles. Boeing has committed itself to manufacturing an interceptor
missile capable of destroying a high-speed IBM by a direct hit.

The American company has suggested that Pivdenne Design Bureau and
Pivdenmash Plant take on the development and production of the killer
missile's first and second stages. The US is only too well aware of
Ukraine's huge ballistic missile production capacity. Attracting Ukrainian
scientists and engineers to this project will also reduce the danger of a
"brain drain" to rogue states, where they might be involved in designing
missiles.

Before Mr. Pickering's visit, the National Space Agency of Ukraine and the
US National Missile Defense Agency had exchanged opinions and suggestions
about Ukraine's likely contribution to the US antimissile shield now under
construction. In addition to accepting the projects to develop the first and
second stages for the American missile, Ukrainian experts have suggested
that the Americans test the NAMD system by launching a number of
Ukrainian-made Tsyklon-2 rockets whose performance resembles North
Korea's intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The Americans are closely studying the idea of building a far cheaper
floating platform in Ukraine than the one used under the Sea Launch program.
This platform could be used as a launching pad for missile test flights and
checking the equipment as part of the NAMD system. This kind of platform
can be installed in almost any place suitable for testing the killer
missile's parameters in all three stages of its flight: the launch, flight
along the ballistic trajectory, and approach toward the target.

Mr. Pickering made it clear at a Kyiv press conference that statements from
the two governments must follow experts' opinions. When the governments
of Ukraine and the US deem it necessary to organize this cooperation and
coordinate its principles, the two sides will be mutually interested in the
project, Boeing's senior vice-president emphasized. -30-
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOOTNOTE: Former Ambassador and Boeing representative Thomas
Pickering also met with Sergiy Tihipko, chair of the Viktor Yanukovych
presidential campaign and Oleksandr Zinchenko, chair of the Viktor
Yushchenko campaign. Discussions centered around the Ukrainian
presidential elections and Ukraine's relations with the United States.

This was the third in a series of Center for Strategic and International
Studies (CSIS) sponsored delegations to Ukraine this year. The first
was with Zbigniew Brzezinski, CSIS trustee and counselor and National
Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter. The second was in early
October with Ambassador Robert Hunter. Celeste A. Wallander,
Director, Russia and Eurasia Program and Trustee Fellow at CSIS, was
a member of each of the three CSIS delegations. [EDITOR]
=======================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.195: ARTICLE NUMBER TWO
=======================================================
2. UKRAINE: AMERICAN COMPANY "HUGE NETWORK SYSTEM"
TO DELIVER SATELLITE SYSTEM TO DATASAT OPERATION

IntelliNews-Ukraine Today, Kyiv, Ukraine, Wed, October 20, 2004

KYIV - American company Huge Network System (HNS) signed a
contract with operator of satellite communication Datasat, which is part
of Inkom corporation. According to the agreement, HNS will deliver
broadband satellite system Direcway, which includes
NetworkOperationCenter and 1,000 satellite terminals DW6000.

The system enables Datasat to widen its variety of services on the
domestic market. In particular, Datasat will receive additional benefits
such as high-speed Internet and local communication network access,
Direc Multicasting, VolP, and WiFi.

Corporation Incom was founded in 1990. It provides the following services:
Internet access, data transfer, computer sales, software development and
integration. Incom unifies IT and communication companies: Prime Computer,
Elvisty, Datacom (which includes Datasat), Best Power Ukraine, ICS Market,
ICS Techno, ICS Ukraine and ICS Megatrade. In 2003, Incom’s sales
revenues rose 27%, making up USD 83mn. Worth noting, Datasat provides
fixed and mobile satellite communication. -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.195: ARTICLE NUMBER THREE
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3. POLAND'S LARGEST INSURER PZU ONE STEP AWAY
FROM ENTERING UKRAINIAN MARKET

Polish News Bulletin, Warsaw, Poland, Tue, Oct 19, 2004

WARSAW - Poland's largest insurance group, PZU, is only a step away
from entering another market in the former Soviet Union. Four Lithuanian
companies (property and life insurers: Nord/LB and Lindra) have already
given the Polish insurer a 15-percent share in the Baltic region insurance
market.

This time PZU's target is Ukraine, where, according to information obtained
by Puls Biznesu, the company has already found a property insurance firm
that it wants to take over. PZU now only needs the approval of the Ukrainian
insurance watchdog.

"I will neither confirm or deny that. Our expansion plans for this market
will become clear by the end of the year," said Tomasz Fill, spokesperson
for the group. The search for an appropriate takeover target could not have
been easy, as the Ukrainian market is very dispersed: at the end of 2003
there were 350 insurance firms registered in Ukraine. The top 50 jointly
held about 80 percent of the market. Growth potential is still significant,
however. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.195: ARTICLE NUMBER FOUR
Your comments about the Report are always welcome
========================================================
4. EBRD DECIDES TO PROVIDE LOAN OF USD 5 MILLION TO
KREDYTPROMBANK, A MAJOR UKRAINIAN BANK

Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tue, October 19, 2004

KYIV - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
has decided to provide a loan of USD 5 million to Kredytprombank, one of
the major banks in Ukraine. Kredytprombank announced this in a statement.

The EBRD and Kredytprombank plan to sign the agreement on provision of
the loan on Wednesday, October 20. The terms of the loan have not been
disclosed this to Ukrainian News.

The EBRD will provide the loan within the framework of a trade assistance
program (as a rule, the EBRD provides guaranties to banks and provides
loans to banks for pre-export financing of their clients).

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the net assets of Kredytprombank
were valued at UAH 1,470.4 million as of July 1, when its credit portfolio
amounted to UAH 1,187.6 million and its regulatory capital amounted to
UAH 194.7 million. The bank reported profits of UAH 5.2 million for the
operating period January-June, and it finished the financial year 2003 with
net profits of UAH 11.59 million. Russia's Inkombank and two affiliated
companies founded Kredytprombank, which was previously known as
Inkombank Ukraine, in 1997.

Kredytprombank increased its statutory fund in July by UAH 140 million
to UAH 249 million. Before it issued additional shares, information from the
Agency for Development of the Stock Market Infrastructure stated that the
shareholders of Kredytprombank were the Irish company Homertron
Trading limited (49.64%), the Cyprus-based company Fintest Trading Co.
Ltd (9.95%), Indtec Finance B.V. (8.89%), the Yasynivskyi coke and
chemical plant (6.88%), and Russia's Inkombank. After increasing its
statutory capital, Kredytprombank bought back the 7.7% of its shares held
by its founders: Russia's Inkombank and the Inkom Finance financial and
investment company. -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.195: ARTICLE NUMBER FIVE
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5. UKRAINE'S PARLIAMENT URGES WEST TO UP FUNDS PLEDGED
TO DECOMMISSION CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

Associated Press, Kiev, Ukraine, Wed, October 20, 2004
.
KIEV - Ukraine's parliament Wednesday urged the European Union and
the Group of Eight major industrialized nations to make good on earlier
funding pledges for decommissioning the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

The deputies said the international community "has failed to meet its
commitments" envisioned in a 1995 agreement with Ukraine , according to
a statement posted on parliament's Web site.

The Chernobyl plant's reactor No. 4 exploded and caught fire in April
1986, in the world's worst nuclear disaster. The radioactive fallout
affected vast parts of Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and much of northern Europe.

Some 7 million people are estimated to suffer from radiation-related
effects, and Ukraine still faces energy shortages following the shutdown of
Chernobyl's three remaining reactors four years ago.

"Ukraine warns that the (Chernobyl) atomic time bomb is still ticking ...its
problems are complex and require coordinated assistance," the statement
said. The destroyed reactor was entombed in a hastily assembled concrete-
and-steel shelter, which Ukrainian experts say is in need of urgent repairs.

"Ukraine is solving these problems on its own, and annually spends 5% of
the national budget on the Chernobyl cleanup," the statement said.

Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly warned that the previously estimated
figure of $758 million was far from enough for completion of the new
Chernobyl shelter by the end of 2008 and demanded an additional $332
million. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
=======================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.195: ARTICLE NUMBER SIX
Additional names for the distribution list are always welcome
========================================================
6. UKRAINE GOVERNMENT WIDENS ITS LIST OF FOOD PRODUCTS
WHICH ARE REGULATED BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES
Local authorities given broad range of powers to regulate prices and profits

IntelliNews - Ukraine Today, Kyiv, Ukraine, Wed, October 20, 2004

KYIV - Government widened the list of food products, prices of which
are regulated by local authorities. According to government’s order,
Ministry Council of Autonomous Republic of Crimea, regional, Kyiv and
Sevastopol state authorities can regulate (set) maximum wholesale and
retailing price level of beef, pork and poultry meet, as well as ultimate
profitability for production of these kinds of meat.

The new order empowers local authorities to set maximum increases for
wholesale prices of flour, bread and bakery products, boiled sausage,
milk, cheese, sugar, pasta products, oil and butter. Besides, government
allowed Sevastopol city government to set tariffs for passenger
transportation via the city’s sea transport. -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.195: ARTICLE NUMBER SEVEN
Suggested articles for publication in the Report are always welcome
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7. BRITISH SV MOTORS LTD TO DEMAND IN COURT THAT UKRAINE
RESUME INVESTMENT PROGRAM AT LUTSK MOTOR WORKS

Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine,Wed, October 20, 2004

KYIV - SV Motors Ltd (Great Britain), a shareholder of the Lutsk motor
works or LuAZ (Volyn region), is preparing a lawsuit to be lodged with the
international arbitrage court against Ukraine's decision to stop the
investment program at LuAZ. Ukrainian News learned this from the press
service of LuAZ.

Over the 2003-2004 period, the Ukrainian government approved investment
programs for the Lviv automobile plant, LuAZ and the Kremenchuk car
assembly works, but President Leonid Kuchma cancelled the one for LuAZ
on October 1. SV Motors Ltd is the major investor of LuAZ under the program.

The conditions for investment sums and production volumes are much similar
in all three programs, which made the British company believe that is was
offered unfavorable conditions deliberately and describes such attitude as a
violation of the Ukrainian-British agreement on support and mutual
protection of investments. According to this agreement, the parties must
settle their disputes in intentional arbitrage instances.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the LuZA top managers said the October
8 decision of the Cabinet to adopt investment program of the Kremenchuk car
assembly works (Poltava region) was discriminatory.

According to its investment program, LuZA intends to invest UAH 495.994
million in production by 2007. The Ukrainian Industrial Investment Concern
is going to invest UAH 41 million in LuAZ, SV Motors Ltd UAH 119 million
and Skhid Motors UAH 5 million.

In 2003, LuAZ reduced production by 1,391 or 10.8% compared with 2002,
to 11,435 automobiles, and reequipped 943 IZH cars and 108 UAZ cars.
LuAZ finished 2003 with profits of UAH 6.796 million on revenues of UAH
288.16 million, a 22.88-fold increase over its 2002 revenues.

According to the Agency for the Development of Stock Market Infrastructure,
64.7% of LuAZ's shares belong to the plant itself, 16% belong to the
Ukrainian Automobile Holding, while 14.5% belong to the Ukrainian Industrial
Investment Concern. -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 195: ARTICLE NUMBER EIGHT
Letters to the editor are always welcome
========================================================
8. SAIC AND GM MOTORS SUBMIT OFFER FOR POLISH FSO CAR
PLANT, HOWEVER UKRAINE'S AWTO ZAZ IS FSO'S MAIN PARTNER
AND IS NEGOTIATING A BUY OUT OF ITS LIABILITIES

Polish News Bulletin, Warsaw, Poland, Tue, Oct 19, 2004

WARSAW - According to the Puls Biznesu daily, a car manufacturing
consortium made up of the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation
(SAIC) and the British MG Rover (MG), has submitted a preliminary offer
regarding a take over of the Warsaw-based FSO car plant (former
Daewoo-FSO).

Apparently the British-Chinese consortium has proposed to buy the FSO
shares which remain in the hands of the Treasury and the Korean concern,
and plans a capitalisation of the company. According to the preliminary
schedule, the transaction should be concluded by the end of the year. As
for FSO's debts, SAIC and MG suggest buying out the liabilities or post-
poning their payment.

However, Ukraine's Awto ZAZ, FSO's main partner, is already negotiating
a buy out of its liabilities. Nevertheless, the source quoted by Puls
Biznesu hinted that SAIC and MG might as well co-operate with Awto ZAZ.
SAIC is the biggest car manufacturer in China and has a 10-percent stake in
GM Daewoo. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.195: ARTICLE NUMBER NINE
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9. PM YANUKOVYCH VOWS TO INTRODUCE INTEREST-FREE
LENDING IN UKRAINE IF ELECTED PRESIDENT

Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Wed, October 20, 2004

KYIV - Prime minister and presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych
promises to introduce interest-free consumer lending for purchase of
housing, cars and home appliances if he is elected the president. He
announced this at a meeting with local residents in Poltava.

Yanukovych said that his Cabinet is developing a relevant program.
Interest-free lending could become possible if to divide Pension Fund
revenues (currently, 32% of the payroll) in two parts: 16% for the Pension
Fund as before and 16% for interest-free loans to employees.

"From the second part, 16%, we create conditions for giving interest-free
loans for purchase of the so-called luxury items," the premier said. With
implementation of this program, 22 million Ukrainian employees will be
able to buy expensive goods with interest-free loans, he added.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Yanukovych left for a one-day
working trip to Poltava region. On July 3, Ukraine launched the election
campaign that must end the day before the voting day of October 31.
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.195: ARTICLE NUMBER TEN
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10. WRJ TUBE MILL IN POLAND IS LOOKING FOR AN INVESTOR,
UKRAINIAN DONBAS HAS INDICATED AN INTEREST

Polish News Bulletin, Warsaw, Poland, Wed, Oct 20, 2004

WARSAW - This Thursday, the creditors of Walcownia Rur Jednosc (WRJ)
tube rolling mill are to vote on a possible settlement, the date having been
set by the Katowice District Court. The settlement concerns ZL135m.

The biggest creditors are the National Fund for Environmental Protection and
Water Management (NFOSiGW - ZL65m) and the contractors involved in
the investment, which has been going on for 25 years.

Some ZL200-250m is still needed for its completion. "Our proposal for the
creditors is not to reduce the debt, but to spread its payback over several
years," said WRJ's president Wladyslaw Presak. In his opinion, the most
important issue for WRJ is obtaining an investor, who will pay the debts and
complete the construction work.

"We had sent offers to 30 companies that could be interested in taking
over WRJ, of which four have responded. The Ukrainian Donbas is
already checking the technical condition of the equipment," Presak added.
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.195: ARTICLE NUMBER ELEVEN
Additional names for the distribution list are always welcome
========================================================
11.PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO TO DECREE
PROTECTION OF RUSSIAN LANGUAGE IN UKRAINE

Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian, 18 Oct 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Mon, Oct 18, 2004

KIEV - Presidential candidate [from the opposition] Viktor Yushchenko
will make it mandatory for officials to use the language spoken by citizens
who approach them.

This is envisaged in a draft decree "On the protection of citizens' right to
use Russian and other ethnic languages in Ukraine" that Yushchenko signed
on Monday [18 October], Yushchenko's press service has said.

The draft decree envisages that officials should be fluent in both the state
Ukrainian language and Russian or in other ethnic languages, and should
speak those languages while talking to citizens in the areas which are
mostly populated by Ukrainians from the Russian or other ethnic groups.

This will be a professional qualification requirement for public servants.
Commenting on the decree, Yushchenko said that "according to the
constitution, all citizens have the right to unimpededly speak their native
language, Russian in particular." "And this decree aims at helping them to
use this right in practice by all means possible, while at the same time
bringing local authorities closer to the people," Yushchenko said.
[Yushchenko's main rival from the authorities, Prime Minister Viktor
Yanukovych, has pledges to give Russian the status of an official language
in Ukraine, see Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian 1547
gmt 04 Oct 04.] -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.195: ARTICLE NUMBER TWELVE
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12. 200 CRIMEA TATARS BLOCK SIMFEROPOL-KERCH HIGHWAY
DEMANDING ALLOCATION OF LAND TO THEM IN TYKHA BAY

Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Tue, October 19, 2004

KYIV - Nearly 200 Crimean Tatars blocked the Simferopol-Kerch highway
on Tuesday, which leads to the city of Staryi Krym, demanding the allocation
of land to them in Tykha Bay around Koktebel (Sudak, Crimea).

Andrii Chernov, the deputy head of the PR Center of the Main Department
of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Crimea, disclosed this to
Ukrainian News. In his words, the protest action ended by 14:00.

As Ukrainian News reported previously, Crimean Tatars protested in
Koktebel in June, demanding the allocation of land plots to them in Tykha
Bay. In January, Crimea's Prime Minister Sergei Kunitsyn said that it was
necessary to introduce criminal punishment for unauthorized seizure of land
after Crimean Tartars who had been demanding land since July 2003
unilaterally seized land several times in Yalta, Symeiz, and Partenit.

The Supreme Council of the Crimea has constantly been postponing
discussion of a draft resolution on the granting of the status of a natural
landmark of local significance to Tykha Bay. According to the Ukrainian
population census of 2001, 243,500 Crimean Tartars live in the Crimea.
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.195: ARTICLE NUMBER THIRTEEN
Checks to support The Action Ukraine Report are always welcome
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13. ROMANIA PRESSES UKRAINE OVER CONTROVERSIAL
DANUBE CANAL PROJECT

Rompres news agency, Bucharest, Romania, Mon, 18 Oct 04

BUCHAREST ---The Interministerial Committee on Bystre Canal held a
special meeting at the Romanian Foreign Ministry last weekend. An analysis
was made of the situation created at the Romanian-Ukrainian border on the
Danube Delta's Chilia arm, as a result of the Ukrainian authorities' latest
unilateral moves in the context of continuing works aimed at the
finalization of the Danube-Black Sea Canal project on the Danube Delta's
Bystre and Chilia arms.

Attending were officials of the Romanian Ministry for Foreign Affairs,
Ministry of Administration and the Interior, General Inspectorate of Border
Police, Ministry of National Defence, Ministry of Environment and Water
Management, Ministry of Transport, Civil Engineering and Tourism, Romanian
Intelligence Service and Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service.

The participants decided that the relevant Romanian authorities actively
continue the demarches aimed at preventing the Ukrainian side to breach the
state border rules on the Chilia arm. A decision was made to reiterate a
clear message to the Ukrainian authorities regarding the inadmissibility of
their continuing to violate the border regime, as well as to resume the
proposal to urgently set up a bilateral committee and analyse together the
border infringements and make sure that such activities will be avoided in
the future.

As for the Ukrainian project's cross-border consequences, it has been
decided to speed up the activity of the Interministerial Group coordinated
by the Ministry of the Environment and Water Management, so that a full
assessment of the Ukrainian project's ecological and hydrological
consequences, including proposals to take compensation measures on the
Romanian side of the Danube Delta, be finalized soon. -30-
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.195: ARTICLE NUMBER FOURTEEN
Checks to support The Action Ukraine Report are always welcome
========================================================
14. ROMANIA EXPLAINS OBJECTIONS TO UKRAINIAN CANAL
AT DANUBE COUNTRIES' SUMMIT

Rompres news agency, Bucharest, Romania, Mon, 18 Oct 04

BUCHAREST - Romania was represented at the Danube summit that was
recently held in Belgrade by the Administration of Seaports in Constanta
(southeastern Romania), the Ministry of Economy and Trade, the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs as well as by a number of private companies working in the
field of sea and river transports.

During the conference the participants coming from 17 countries, among which
there was Romania too, emphasized the importance of the multimode transport
for the future development of Europe and the potential the Danube offers in
this respect. All along the three days representatives of the public sector
(ministries, port administrations) as well as of some companies working in
transports analysed the advantages and disadvantages of developing the
network of river transport on the Danube, the difficulties operators in this
field have to face, possible solutions, means of financing various projects
and development prospects.

In this framework they revealed the key role played by the port of
Constanta, the special importance and potential it can offer both to the
development of pan-European shipping lanes and from the point of view of
creating an opening to Asian regions.

The Romanian delegation to the conference directed attention to the negative
consequences of Ukraine's building a shipping canal in the middle of the
Danube Delta, which is a protected area of international importance and was
declared a biosphere reserve, with an eco-system that is quite unique the
world over, whose fragile balance can seriously and irremediably be affected
by promoting a development policy that does not consider the principle of
the sustainable development that implies preventing the deterioration of the
environment. They also asked the participants in the conference not to
encourage such projects that might have particularly serious long-term
consequences on the future evolution of the Danube.

Following the steps taken by the Romanian side, which were also supported
by other representatives, both of the governmental and private circles, the
Ukrainian proposal for including a reference to the Bystre Canal project in
the conclusions of the conference was not accepted.

The problem referring to the building of the Bystre Canal has long been
focusing the attention of international circles thanks to the steps taken by
the Romanian side as well as by the numerous international organizations
asking Ukraine to comply with the international obligations assumed and to
stop working on the canal till an objective and independent environment
impact study is conducted.

The East-West Partnership with the support of the Serbian Ministry of
Capital Investments organized the Belgrade Summit, under the auspices of
the Danube Cooperation Programme. It concentrated on the relation between
transport corridor VII (the Danube) and the road and railway networks that
make up the other transport corridors in Europe, Central Asia and the
Caucasus. -30- [The Action Ukraine Monitoring Service]
========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.195: ARTICLE NUMBER FIFTEEN
Checks to support The Action Ukraine Report are always welcome
========================================================
15. RUSSIA'S CHERNOBYL-TYPE REACTORS TO OPERATE
LONGER THAN PLANNED

AP Worldstream, Moscow, Russia, Tue, Oct 19, 2004

MOSCOW - Russia's 11 Chernobyl-type nuclear reactors have been
upgraded and will be kept in service longer than originally planned,
officials said Tuesday, pledging that a disaster like the 1986 explosion
at Chernobyl won't happen again.

"All the reasons that led to the catastrophe at the Chernobyl nuclear
power plant have been eliminated," Nikolai Sorokin, deputy head of
Rosenergoatom, the federal agency that operates nuclear power plants,
told a news conference.

Yevgeny Adamov of the Dollezhal Institute, which designed the reactors,
said the drawbacks of the ill-fated reactor at Chernobyl _ including faulty
scientific calculations _ have been fully corrected at the Kursk nuclear
power plant in western Russia and are being corrected at others. Foreign
experts who have reviewed modernization efforts at the Kursk plant
said safety was significantly increased.

"This modernization program that has been implemented has contributed
to a significant enhancement of the safety level of the unit," said Michel
Chouha of France's Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety institute.

He urged Russia to conduct similar modernization programs at other
reactors. "Despite all these improvements we still (pay) specific attention
to further safety improvements," he said.

Adamov, a former nuclear energy minister, said Russia's Chernobyl-type
reactors _ which use graphite to cool its fuel rods instead of pressurized
water used at more modern reactors _ were designed to serve 30 years,
but that their service life will be extended to 45-50 years.

One of four reactors at Chernobyl, in northern Ukraine, exploded and
caught fire in April 1986. Some 4,400 deaths in Ukraine alone are
considered to have been caused by the accident. The plant was closed
in 2000. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.195: ARTICLE NUMBER SIXTEEN
Checks to support The Action Ukraine Report are always welcome
========================================================
16. CHERNOBYL: "POSTCARD FROM HELL"
Eighteen years ago, it was the site of the world's worst nuclear reactor
disaster. Now Chernobyl is becoming a tourist attraction.
Imogen Wall takes a trip

By Imogen Wall, The Guardian, London, UK, Mon, Oct 18, 2004

Mariana Kushnir was just a little girl when reactor four exploded. As with
everyone else in Ukraine, it was days before her family had any idea what
had happened. She remembers coming home after playing outside with her
brother and being caught in the rain, and her mother insisting that they
strip and wash all their clothes immediately. She also remembers that for
weeks afterwards, not allowed to go outside, they looked longingly through
the window at the spring sunshine.

Eighteen years later, Kushnir is PR manager for the Ukrainian tourist board.
She has criss-crossed the country as part of her job, but until now has
never made the trip to what is almost certainly Ukraine's most famous spot,
and is becoming one of its hottest tourist destinations. For $250 (pounds
139) per person, Kiev-based tour agencies have begun to offer all-inclusive
day trips to the scene of the world's biggest nuclear power station
disaster, Chernobyl. "Observe object sarcophagus - concrete-and-steel
shelter covering radioactive masses and debris left after the explosion,"
enthuses one travel agent's website. The price includes transport inside the
zone, the military permit required to enter, and they promise to return you
safely to your hotel by 6pm, in plenty of time for dinner.

It was late into a spring night, April 26, 1986, when an explosion ripped
the roof off Chernobyl's fourth reactor, causing the building's walls to
bend like rubber and hurling tons of radioactive waste into the air. The red
light could be seen from miles away: some said afterwards it looked like it
was coming straight from hell. No one, though, knew what it was they were
looking at, as the authorities did not tell them: the only thing on the
government's mind was how to cover up the fact that the whole of Europe
would shortly be sitting under a radioactive cloud. So effective was the
political strategy that even today the death toll is not known: casualty
figures range from 40 (official Soviet figure) to over 15,000 (the UN
estimate).

Kushnir is taking this trip out of a mix of duty and curiosity. As we turn
on to the main road out of the city and its outskirts of identikit slab-grey
housing blocks, Chris Rea's Road to Hell comes on the radio. She leans
forward and turns it up. "Good song, no?" she grins, nervously.

The road to Chernobyl, which lies around 70km north of Kiev, winds
through a set of country scenes as pretty as they are unexpected. There
are wide fields of ripening crops, dotted trees heavy with fruit, postcard
perfect little farmer's houses and horses clopping home in the summer sun.
But the nearer we get to the 30km exclusion zone that surrounds the site,
the fewer the people and houses, until even the sunlit forests start seeming
a little sinister in their emptiness.

At the entrance to the zone, there is a roadblock. It used to be easy to get
in here: visitors a few years back reported that a $20 bill, a packet of
cigarettes and a bit of chat would do the trick. These days, soldiers man
the gate 24 hours a day, checking our government passes against our
passports.

The first sign of human habitation is a set of houses; once the homes of
villagers, they are now occupied by the hundreds of scientists and plant
workers who still operate here, studying and monitoring the site. Our guide,
a portly Ukrainian gentleman called Mykola Dmitruk, climbs into our van -
travel within the zone is only allowed in closed vehicles, because there is
still a lot of radioactivity in the site's dust. Some tours make you change
into protective clothing but Dmitruk waves such suggestions away: the site
isn't dangerous, he insists. "The dose of radiation you receive here is the
same as the exposure on the flight over." All we take is a battered old
Geiger counter. "Now," he says pleasantly. "We go to the reactor."

Our tour bus bumps through a post-apocalyptic landscape of rusting, skeletal
pylons. "On your right," says Dmitruk, in the sing-song tone of tour guides
the world over, "we see the remains of reactors five and six." These were
being built at the time of the disaster, and haven't been touched since. The
first three reactors are fairly intact - they actually carried on operating
until 2000 when they were closed down under intense pressure from the EU.
But it is reactor four that we have come to see.

It does not look like a power station now. All that can be seen, beyond a
wire mesh fence, is the vast, concrete block that covers the devastated
reactor. It is painted white but stained with rust. Birds swirl around it:
they nest, says Dmitruk, in holes in the brickwork. Terrifyingly, underneath
this crumbling hulk is around 90 tons of radioactive waste. Our Geiger
counter is clicking, registering levels around 10 times those at the edge of
the zone. We pose in front of the reactor, feeling for the first time a
little uncomfortable about being here.

There are plans for a new concrete cover, but the money is coming not
from the penniless Ukrainian government, which still resents that it is
stuck with this deadly, expensive mess, but from the EU. At present, it
is all mired in paperwork, and while the bureaucrats bicker, the sarcophagus




decays. This, says Dmitruk, is the real reason the Ukrainian government is
letting visitors in: they want visitors to maintain pressure on Europe to
help protect and monitor the site. "If we let people in, tell them the
truth, they and their governments will not be able to forget."

Yet for all this waste, one of the oddest things about Chernobyl is that it
is not entirely a wasteland. Most of it looks more like a nature sanctuary,
with abundant forests, lush grass and herds of a rare species of wild horse.
The lack of human activity has allowed wolves, foxes, wild boar and myriad
other species to flourish. That does not mean, says Dmitruk, that they have
not been affected: he cites a study involving fruit flies exposed to the
blast in which problems of genetic mutation did not emerge until the 26th
generation. But in the meantime, the flourishing ecosystems have prompted
the UN to suggest that Chernobyl should be developed as, of all things, a
nature reserve and ecotourism destination.

Our next stop is the abandoned town of Pripyat. Built in the 1970s for the
workers at the site, Pripyat was home to 48,000 people and with its
communal living blocks, cultural centre and sports stadium, was a model
Soviet town. It wasn't evacuated until 36 hours after the disaster: for two
days all 48,000 men, women and children went to school, did the washing
and relaxed in the town square. Then 1,200 buses were brought up from
Kiev and the army forced people to board them. No one was ever allowed
back.

Today, the schoolrooms are a damp, rotting tangle of rusting children's
chairs and desks. Outside some flats, tattered washing still flutters on the
line; in the silent town square poplar trees have sprouted through the
concrete. At the sports stadium, the track is barely discernable and the
football pitch has become a small forest. Everywhere is broken glass, and
inside the buildings feet crunch on fallen masonry and rotten ceiling
insulation. The first tour groups here were so unnerved by the total silence
that they asked to leave. It is a modern Pompeii, messy as the disaster that
created it.

We wander down deserted streets and into the old cultural centre on the
town square. On the second floor we find what must have been the town
library: a room now open to the elements stacked high with rotting books,
their pages flapping in the wind coming in through the broken wall. Trying
to find our way out, we creak open a door leading to the back of the
building and walk gingerly into what we soon realise is an old theatre.

Faded scenery is stacked at the back of the stage, and out in the
auditorium, stripped of its chairs, there are glimpses of gold on the
ornate curls adorning the dress circle. There is no museum exhibit, no
tour guide that could explain as eloquently as this the awfulness of
such abandonment.

For foreigners, Chernobyl is easily added to a long list of tourist
attractions whose fame turns on tragedy or disaster. Millions a year visit
Auschwitz, and no trip to Cape Town is complete without a day on Robben
Island. But for those in Kiev, who live daily with the knowledge that their
surroundings and probably their bodies are poisoned, such a perspective is
hard to explain. "This is not a right place for tourism," says Dmitruk. "It
was a place of tragedy, and is a place of tragedy still." As we drive back
to Kiev, Kushnir is silent. It has, she says, been a long day. She is glad
she came, but is exhausted and can't see herself returning.

Back in Kiev, the Ukrainian tourist board's executive director Iryna
Gagarina smiles wearily when asked about Chernobyl. Her frustration is
understandable: Kiev, with its leafy streets, hills, curling river and
cobbled streets is one of the prettiest cities in Eastern Europe, a place
where golden onion domes mix with untouched Soviet architecture and
the beer is ridiculously cheap.

It could and probably will become Europe's new hot weekend-break
destination before long, and yet all people seem to want to talk about is
the site of a national disaster. "The name Chernobyl is better known than
Kiev, or Ukraine itself," she says. For her, as for most in Kiev, the
memories are too raw for exploitation. "Chernobyl is not a historical
place," she says. "It is a sleeping lion. And when the lion is sleeping, you
don't open the cage." -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
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