"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"
US CONGRESS GAVE HIM A HERO'S WELCOME
"Congress gave him a hero's welcome. Only a few foreign leaders are accorded the honor of addressing a joint meeting. The assembled senators and representatives greeted Yushchenko by chanting his name as he entered the House chamber and waving orange scarves and hats in recognition of the campaign color that became a symbol of the peaceful street revolt he led last December, overturning a fraudulent election. Vice President Cheney, wearing an orange tie, attended, as did most of President Bush's Cabinet." [Washington Post, article four]
"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" - Number 458 E. Morgan Williams, Publisher and Editor morganw@patriot.net, ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net Washington, D.C. and Kyiv, Ukraine, THURSDAY, April 7, 2005
-----INDEX OF ARTICLES-----
"Major International News Headlines and Articles"
1. VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO DELIVERS REMARKS BEFORE A JOINT
SESSION OF THE U.S. CONGRESS U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C., Wednesday, April 6, 2005
2. US-UKRAINE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP RECEIVES BOOST By Taras Kuzio, Eurasian Daily Monitor Volume 2, Issue 68, The Jamestown Foundation Washington, D.C., Thursday, April 7, 2005
3. UKRAINE'S PRESIDENT APPEALS FOR US SUPPORT
AFX, Washington, D.C., Thursday, April 7, 2005
4. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT APPEALS TO CONGRESS FOR AID,
IMPROVED TIES By Peter Baker, Washington Post Staff Writer The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
Thursday, April 7, 2005; Page A21
5. HE WEARS THE FACE OF UKRAINIAN RESOLVE
By Rachelle G. Cohen, Boston Herald
Boston, Massachusetts, Thursday, April 7, 2005 =============================================================
1. VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO DELIVERS REMARKS BEFORE A JOINT
SESSION OF THE U.S. CONGRESS
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, April 6, 2005
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE TOM DELAY (R-TX), HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER:
Members of Congress, it is my great pleasure, and I deem it a high honor and a personal privilege, to present to you His Excellency Viktor Yuschenko, president of Ukraine.
PRESIDENT YUSHCHENKO: Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, honorable senators and House members, ladies and gentlemen, on the wall of this great building there is a Latin phrase that means "Out of many one." This motto reminds the world about the American Revolution, the starting point of the modern world's history of liberty.
My road here went through the orange-colored Independence Square that became known as Maidan. Millions of people standing there continuously repeated, "Together we are many; we cannot be defeated."
This motto of the Ukrainian revolution is a reminder of the fact that freedom continues to win. Ukraine is opening a new page in the world's chronicle of liberty in the 21st century.
These two mottoes have a lot in common. They speak to the strength of our peoples that comes from unity.
They speak of the victories of our peoples in their struggles for freedom.
For me, the invitation to speak before a joint session of Congress is an expression of respect for my Ukrainian nation.
I'm deeply honored to speak from the rostrum where before me stood so many great leaders: Winston Churchill, Lech Walesa, Nelson Mandela.
I'm grateful for the unique opportunity to address this great forum of the American people.
I perceive your eagerness to hear the new Ukraine as a token of partnership of the two nations, united by shared democratic values.
On behalf of the Ukrainian people, I'd like to thank the United States Congress, U.S. presidents George Walker Bush, Bill Clinton, George Bush and the entire American nation for their invariable respect for Ukraine and their support for Ukraine's democracy.
I would like to pay special tribute to President Ronald Reagan. He is well remembered in Ukraine for his deep commitment to freedom of Ukraine.
It is of special significance for me to express our gratitude right in this room. It is here that the Ukrainian nation enjoyed support at the hardest times of its history. It is here where the rights of enslaved nations were advocated.
It is from this hall where the world came to know about the truth about Holodomor, genocide, famine masterminded to annihilate millions of Ukrainians. It is in this hall that freedom for Ukraine was voiced at the time when the nation was deprived of its own voice.
Your words reached us and gave us hope. We heard them, because at all times Ukrainians felt related to Americans and this place of freedom.
In this place of freedom, no Iron Curtain could divide us.
In your city, there is a monument to the father of the Ukrainian nation, the great poet Taras Shevchenko, whose prophecy of the emergence of Ukraine of its own Washington, with a new and righteous law as enshrined on this pedestal.
These verses have a profound and special meaning for all Ukrainians.
Shevchenko was inspired by the invincible power of the words, "that God has bestowed each man on Earth with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
This shared conviction determines the unity of Americans and Ukrainians and no distances can obstruct that.
The American example of freedom has always been luring. Other regimes that have sought to suppress democracy in Ukraine would often endeavor to nurture anti-American phobias. But they would invariably fail.
Efforts of our American friends, who in the past so generously shared their democratic experience with us, enhanced the partnership between our two nations.
For me, gratitude for these efforts has a personal dimension. It was through one of these programs that I met my wife, Kateryna Chumachenko Yuschenko, whose love and commitment gave me the strength to withstand the trials of the last months and years.
I want to use this special opportunity to thank her for being beside me, even through most dangerous -- lethal threat, I would say.
Also, I want to thank the United States for helping my wife, like millions of Ukrainians brought here by waves of immigration, to learn the values of freedom, even still live with Ukraine in her heart.
Many noble men and women on both sides of the Atlantic have always believed in Ukraine's democratic future. Our common belief came true in the days of the Orange Revolution.
We highly appreciate the message sent by your country's leadership before the elections and during the Orange Revolution. It was clear and
unambiguous: The U.S. condemned fraud and upheld Ukraine's right to freely elect their government.
This message enhanced our partnership even stronger in the name of democracy. The Orange Revolution gave evidence that Ukraine is an advanced European nation, sharing the great values of the Euro- Atlantic civilization.
A civil society has matured in Ukraine. Its citizens stand ready to guard their rights and freedoms.
We Ukrainians are a diverse nation. We speak different languages, we practice different religions and we have different political views.
But we all recognize the right of each and every individual to determine his or her fate. This recognition underlines our unity and our strength.
In the days of revolution, millions of people went out to the Maidan and not a single act of violence -- and I repeat: Not a single act of violence was recorded there.
Under orange banners, the people shared bread and warmth, not only with friends but with their opponents as well. Armed with belief and convictions, the people overthrew a corrupt regime.
The dirtiest election campaign in history ended with gracious victory of justice. Citizens of Ukraine bowed down to the authority of justice and have jointly assumed the responsibility for their own fate.
Ladies and gentlemen, today Ukraine is looking into the future with great hope and expectation.
Free and fair elections have brought to state offices a new generation of politicians not encumbered with the mentality of the Soviet past. These are honest and professional patriots. We are working as one team in pursuit of one goal: to lead our nation to success in the shortest time possible.
We are shaping a new model of behavior of our government. It must safeguard the constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens. We want a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
The new power will not permit any administrative pressure upon the next year's parliamentary elections. Their fairness and transparency will be secured. The people themselves will not allow it any other way.
The first indicator of changes is the ever-growing independence of mass media. We have freed the press from pressures. There are no more secret instructions on what may and what may not be covered. The monopoly of media by two or three oligarchy clans will be halted.
We are building a free society committed to freedom of speech and we stand ready to defend it.
For me, each case of journalist death is a challenge to democracy. We wish to discover the truth about all tragedies that have occurred in the past years.
Important evidence in the investigation of Georgy Gongadze's assassination case has been already obtained. Not only their perpetrators, but those who contracted this crime will be held responsible.
Everybody who is killing politicians and journalists will stand to trial.
Everybody who led the country to the split up.
We have a political will to return to Ukrainians the faith and belief in justice. Our top priority task is to secure independence of our judiciary.
Our goal is to instill in Ukraine the rule of law. We're building a society where there will be no room for intolerance.
My father, Andrei Yuschenko, a prisoner of Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Dachau.
As a child, I heard my father's stories about the hell of concentration camps. I'm a son of a nation that survived the most terrible tragedies of the 20th century: the Holodomor famine that took away 20 million lives of Ukrainians and Holocaust.
The 60th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazism once again calls upon us to fulfill our obligation to root out any expressions of anti-Semitism and xenophobia, to secure minority rights and liberties.
I stand ready to fulfill this duty. All citizens of Ukraine, whether they be Ukrainians, Russians, Jewish or anybody else, will live in the society with open opportunities for everyone.
My oath is built on the reminiscences of the common prayer of hundreds of thousands of people in the Maidan. Christians, Jews, Muslims were praying in one prayer, everybody according to their rites, that everybody were requesting of the creator one thing: freedom, fairness and blessing for Ukraine and for each of its citizens.
We're building an open economy that encourages innovation, rewards initiative and ensures high social standards. We are beginning an implacable war on corruption, promoting fair competition and forming transparent government-to-business relations.
My goal is to place Ukraine in the forefront of prosperous democracies. My vision of the future is Ukraine in a united Europe.
We view accession to the European Union as an opportunity to realize the potential of our country.
For us, a European future is a powerful incentive to attain high political, social and economic standards.
We observed the openness of European doors, adding to our neighbors'
confidence. It would be unfair to deprive Ukrainians of these opportunities, Ukrainians who so graciously proved their European identity, of this chance.
Ukraine wishes to guarantee security to its citizens, to live in peace and accord with all of its neighbors, whether in the East or in the West.
It is only logical that we target our efforts toward the integration into NATO, the alliance that plays an essential role in securing peace and stability across the European continent.
I'm convinced that the European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations of Ukraine may not be viewed as an additional hindrance. Ukraine's integration is not a problem, but rather great new opportunities opening before our civilization.
Ukraine's accession to the European Union will put an end to the division of European and provide a new impetus to our civilization.
Ukraine's accession to the alliance means a new level of stability across a strategically vital region, stretching from Warsaw to Tbilisi and to Bacu (ph).
It is quite natural for me to dwell upon new opportunities while standing at this podium. The United States, like no other country, has always built its policies on the promises of freedom instead of merely seeking to retain a balance of power and interests.
Since the times of President Wilson, this great idealist inspired Europeans, lending them strength and courage for historic changes.
President Reagan advocated these ideals of freedom when he, in front of the Berlin wall, challenged President Gorbachev, "Tear down this wall, Mr.
President."
President Bush realized these ideals when he upheld the unification of Germany.
President Clinton reminded of these ideals when he supported the accession to NATO of East European and Baltic countries.
I deeply believe that America is again ready for such historic decisions. I have no doubt that we will receive support to our efforts and our aspirations. We do not want any more walls dividing Europe, and I'm certain that neither do you.
Dear friends, the goal of my visit to the U.S. is to establish a new era in Ukraine-U.S. relations. We do not seek only frost (ph) that alter chillings in our relations. We seek a new atmosphere of trust, frankness and partnership. A new Ukraine offers the U.S. a genuinely strategic partnership.
My discussions with President Bush have made it clear that Ukraine is being understood and supported.
The time has come to make real steps toward each other.
Step one, dear friends, we want to bury the Cold War relics. Senators and House members, I'm calling upon you to waive the Jackson-Vanik amendment.
Make this step. Please make this step toward Ukraine. Please tear down this wall.
Step two, the new Ukrainian government has on an unprecedented scale opened Ukrainian market, dramatically reducing customs restrictions. In return, we expect the United States to cancel their restrictions that apply to Ukrainian goods in the U.S. market. I'm calling upon you, ladies and gentlemen, please make this step.
Step three, the nonrecognition of the market-based economy status for Ukraine is an anachronism. Ukrainian producers are deprived of the rights enjoyed by their competitors. The time has come to restore fairness. Three days ago, Ukraine has officially requested the U.S. government to grant market-based economy to Ukraine, and we are requesting that you make it happen by the fall.
Step four, by November of this year Ukraine must become a WTO member. I would encourage you in the nearest month, please support our WTO accession.
Step five, we invite the United States to, during this year, involve all political, financial and technological resources to erect a new shelter over the destroyed reactor of Chernobyl power plant. I would ask the Congress to support relevant (ph) programs.
Step six, we want to see up to two Ukrainian students learning in the U.S.
universities over the next five years. I would encourage the Congress to finance such educational programs for Ukrainian students.
Step seven, Ukraine has agreed to waive visa regime for the United States citizens. I would request the U.S. government to, in the speediest possible manner, make reciprocal steps to help in relation to Ukrainian students, politicians and business people.
Step eight, on behalf of Ukraine I would ask you to include it in the list of participants of Millennium Challenge program.
Following these priorities, we can make many others happen. For this, we have necessary possibilities in different areas.
We welcome investments into Ukraine's economy and are committed to creating a most favorable climate for the U.S. and all other international investors.
It is in our own mutual interest to achieve as many success stories as possible of American enterprise in Ukraine.
The U.S and Ukraine have common strategic interests, and we have unity in one thing: everywhere where possible, we want to uphold freedom and democracy. We are prepared for such a responsibility because we know if somebody is deprived of freedom, this freedom has been taken away from us.
Eleven years ago, my country voluntarily gave up the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal. Ukraine made the world a safer place to live. Time has shown that this decision has not always met the kind of appreciation it deserved. Nonetheless, we remain committed to jointly counter the threats posed by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, missile and nuclear technologies.
Ukraine will be a reliable partner to the U.S. in fighting terrorism. I'm sure we will be able to overcome it, and not only by power of force; it is our obligation to eradicate the sources of terrorism. We can defeat the ideology that nourishes it, the ideology of hatred. I'm fully convinced that the time will come when in the dictionary of world languages, the term "terrorism" will be followed by the footnote: "archaic term."
The same footnote, I'm sure, will also accompany other shameful phenomena like racism, discrimination and slavery.
We are witnessing the first successes of freedom in Iraq, where Ukrainian soldiers are risking their lives shoulder to shoulder with the American counterparts.
Ukraine is eager to continue its support to a democratically elected Iraqi government in addressing its economic and security challenges.
The array of subjects for our dialogue is endless, but I would prefer to see the leading role played not by governmental but by public diplomacy.
Before my departure for the U.S., I received a letter from a group of respectable Ukrainian and American civic organizations proposing concrete and relevant subjects for expanding our dialogue. These initiatives, I'm sure, are worthy of being supported.
Ladies and gentlemen, John Fitzgerald Kennedy took an oath before the whole world by saying we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty. I am subscribing to these words on behalf of Ukraine.
This authority was given to me by my fellow countrymen, who endured days and nights in bitter cold and snow of the Maidan. Ukraine is free and will always remain free.
Citizens of Ukraine gained their freedom due to their courage and support of friends and proponents of democracy throughout the world. In these days I want to recall one of them, Pope John Paul II, who said, "Following the path of truth is sometimes difficult, but never impossible."
We have embarked upon this road and will never step away from it.
Together, we are many. Together, we are not defeated.
God bless America. God protect Ukraine.
(Applause, cheers, chants of "Yushchenko.")
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOOTNOTE: There are a considerable number of editorial and text differences between the English text above found on the website of the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington and the English text of Yushchenko's speech I received from the press gallery at the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday morning. Most of the changes in the text reflect the same ideas and concepts but in a little different use of
words. EDITOR
=============================================================
2. US-UKRAINE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP RECEIVES BOOST
By Taras Kuzio, Eurasian Daily Monitor
Volume 2, Issue 68, The Jamestown Foundation Washington, D.C., Thursday, April 7, 2005
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko’s three day official visit to the USA has cemented a strategic partnership that is set to become more productive than that of the Bill Clinton era when the “strategic partnership” was more rhetoric than substance. Yushchenko attended meetings on April 4 with President George Bush and two days later gave a well received speech to both houses of Congress.
His last evening in Washington was crowned by a reception jointly sponsored by the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute followed by a banquet in his honor. Between both days in Washington, Yushchenko also visited Chicago and Boston.
During the Bush-Yushchenko summit, President Bush praised Yushchenko as a “friend to our country” and “an inspiration to all who love liberty”
(whitehouse.gov). During speech at Georgetown University, where his American-born wife Katia Chumachenko obtained a BA in 1982, he was bestowed with the University’s Presidents medal.
In Boston he was awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award because “he took a strong and courageous stand for what he knew was right”, Senator Edward M. Kennedy stated (AP, April 5). Both UPI (April 4) and the Boston Globe (April 5) described him in glowing terms as respectively “Democracy’s Hero in Ukraine” and a “Man With a Mission”.
For Bush, Ukraine’s Orange Revolution was confirmation that his program in support of spreading democracy around the world was working because “freedom is spreading”. The Orange Revolution, Bush believed, is “an example of democracy for people around the world”. Bush repeatedly stated his view that the US and Ukraine “share a goal to spread freedom to other nations”.
The difficult question is where should the revolution be spread? Bush singled out cases where the Orange Revolution had already led to contagion in Lebanon and Kyrgyzstan while Bush pointed to Iraq and Afghanistan as countries where democracy was also being built. Three countries in Bush’s spotlight for the spread of democratic revolution are Moldova, Belarus and Cuba, but not curiously Russia.
Throughout Yushchenko’s US visit he repeatedly stated what he has repeatedly said during his two earlier visits to western Europe. Namely, that Ukraine is part of “Europe” and, in order to stress that Ukraine has similar values to the USA, a part of “Western civilization”. Yushchenko does not see Ukraine in any shape or form as part of Eurasia. During his address to Congress he said, “The Orange Revolution provided evidence that Ukraine is an advanced European nation sharing the great values of Euro-Atlantic civilization”.
The most far reaching ramifications of the visit are the move by the US and NATO to embrace Yushchenko’s Ukraine as a potential member. Bush said for the first time that he is a “supporter of the idea of Ukraine becoming a member of NATO”, and that this step should not contradict Ukraine’s integration into the EU. In other words, Bush was advising Yushchenko to promote Ukrainian membership in both NATO and the EU. “And so we want to help your government make the difficult decisions and difficult choices necessary to become available for membership in NATO”, Bush said (whitehouse.gov).
The Bush-Yushchenko meeting was rounded off with the signing of “A New Century Agenda for The Ukrainian-American Strategic Partnership” that focused on economic, trade, energy and social challenges. On the eve of Yushchenko’s US visit, Ukraine dropped visa requirements for Americans, a step it had already undertaken for EU member-states citizens.
The Agenda outlines US support for “Ukraine’s NATO aspirations” Towards this end, the US backs an “Intensified Dialogue on Questions Related to NATO Membership” at NATO Foreign Ministers in Vilnius later this month. Jennifer Moroney, RAND Corporation European security specialist, says that, “The Intensified Dialogue is intended to build mutual understanding and facilitate dialogue, as well as to provide a mechanism to demonstrate tangible results”. An Intensified Dialogue is the precursor to the creation of an individually tailored Membership Action Plan (MAP) which Ukraine is seeking to upgrade to from its yearly Action Plans instituted in 2003.
Yushchenko’s speech to both houses of Congress was received with many standing ovations (see c-span.org for video footage). Yushchenko praised the US for supporting Ukraine’s drive to democracy and its condemnation of election fraud. He also linked both countries struggles for freedom “who today are linked by a shared community of democratic values”.
The issue of Yushchenko following through on pulling out Ukrainian troops from Iraq has not dampened Washington’s support for Yushchenko. During the Bush-Yushchenko meeting, Yushchenko reiterated his pledge to withdraw “some troops”, as some will continue to remain to train Iraqi National Guardsmen.
Four factors may complicate tangible progress in US-Ukraine relations.
First, as The Washington Post (April 5) pointed out, actions speak louder than words. Although Bush said during his meeting with Yushchenko that he has requested $60 million to support Ukraine’s reforms (which the US says is needed for Euro-Atlantic integration) the House has cut this to $37 million.
The Bush Administration has cut funding for democracy in the CIS by 46%.
Second, NATO’s door is now fully open to Ukraine, NATO General Secretary Jaap de Hoop Scheffer stated at a press conference in Japan set to coincide with Bush’s summit with Yushchenko (Ukrayinska Pravda, April 4). The EU may also open it slightly after the three year Action Plan and the ten year Partnership and Cooperation Agreement are completed in 2008.
But, the onus is now on Yushchenko to follow through with domestic reforms which require determined political will. As regards the investigation into the murder of opposition journalist Heorhiy Gongadze, The Guardian (April 6) is already echoing Ukrainian opposition politicians that there may not be the political will to fully resolve the case. During Yushchenko’s speech to Congress he promised to bring to justice not only the perpetrators, who have already confessed, but also “those who contracted this crime”.
Third, Yushchenko told President Bush that “The majority of my fellow Ukrainians want to see America as a strategic partner…” (Financial Times, April 5). Anti-US stereotypes were fanned by the Viktor Yanukovych camp during the 2004 elections which has added to inherited Soviet stereotypes.
Ukrainian support for NATO membership is also far lower than that for the EU, a reason why the Yushchenko camp is reluctant to publicize this aim until after the 2006 elections. Based on current polls, the Yushchenko-Yulia Tymoshenko-speaker Volodymnyr Lytvyn alliance could control two thirds of parliament after next years elections.
Fourth, during Yushchenko’s speech to Congress he outlined key issues which the US needs to act upon to follow through on the revived strategic partnership. These include repealing the Soviet era Jackson-Vanik Amendment, granting Ukraine market economic status and supporting its WTO membership.
Yushchenko promised in return to support two key issues in Bush’s foreign policy agenda: battling international terrorism and promoting democracy.
=============================================================
3. UKRAINE'S PRESIDENT APPEALS FOR US SUPPORT
AFX, Washington, D.C., Thursday, April 7, 2005
WASHINGTON - Ukraine's president, Viktor Yushchenko, yesterday appealed for US support for his country's political and economic overhaul, following the "Orange Revolution" that swept him to power earlier this year.
Yushchenko presented US lawmakers with a wish-list of economic and trade support, calling on Washington to discard Soviet-era trade and customs restrictions and to assist Ukraine in its bid for World Trade Organization membership.
He asked Congress to scrap 1974 trade legislation, which bans extending normal trade privileges to "non-market economy" countries.
"Dear friends, we want to bury the Cold War relics. Senators and House members, I'm calling upon you to waive the Jackson-Vanik amendment,"
Yushchenko said.
"Please make this step toward Ukraine. Please tear down this wall," he added, invoking language once used by President Ronald Reagan in a famous address at the Berlin War.
In addition, Yushchenko asked for "political, financial and technological resources to erect a new shelter over the destroyed reactor of the Chernobyl power plant," the site of a massive nuclear meltdown more than two decades ago.
Ukraine hopes to join the WTO by the end of the year, but Washington is insisting that Kiev provide additional guarantees for intellectual property rights protection before it gives its backing.
Wearing an orange tie and sporting an orange handkerchief in his suit breast pocket, Yushchenko told Congress: "We are beginning an implacable war on corruption, promoting fair competition and forming transparent government-to-business relations.
"We're building an open economy that encourages innovation, rewards initiative and ensures high social standards," he said, to a rousing ovation.
In this landmark speech to a joint session of Congress, the Ukraine president portrayed his country as a future beacon of democratic and free- market principles.
He said the democracies of the US and Europe provide a template from which the new Ukraine will be modeled.
"My goal is to place Ukraine in the forefront of prosperous democracies.
My vision of the future is Ukraine in a united Europe," Yushchenko said.
The president also hailed the "genuinely strategic partnership" between Washington and Kiev, despite plans to complete the withdrawal of Ukraine's 1,600-strong force in Iraq by mid-October.
Instead he noted that, for the time being, at least, "Ukrainian soldiers are risking their lives shoulder to shoulder with their American counterparts."
"Ukraine will be a reliable partner to the US in fighting terrorism. I'm sure we will be able to overcome it, and not only by power of force,"
Yushchenko said.
In addition, he expressed gratitude for US support during the turbulent weeks in December and January, before the rigged presidential election in his country was thrown out.
"It is here that the Ukrainian nation enjoyed support at the hardest times of its history. It is in this hall that freedom for Ukraine was voiced, at the time when the nation was deprived of its own voice.
"Your words reached us and gave us hope," he said.
"In this place of freedom, no Iron Curtain could divide us," he said.
Viktor Yushchenko was sworn in as Ukraine's president in January, after massive street protests prompted authorities to throw out initial results that gave the election to the pro-Moscow Viktor Yanukovych.
He hailed the historic election as a new beginning for Ukraine and "a new era in US-Ukrainian relations."
The address to Congress, during which many lawmakers wore flourishes of orange in their clothing, followed a meeting this week with President George Bush, and a visit with members of the large US-Ukrainian community in Chicago, where his wife, Kateryna Chumachenko Yushchenko, grew up.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
newsdesk@afxnews.com
=============================================================
4. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT APPEALS TO CONGRESS FOR AID,
IMPROVED TIES
By Peter Baker, Washington Post Staff Writer The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.
Thursday, April 7, 2005; Page A21
WASHINGTON, - With a triumphant flourish, as American lawmakers waved orange scarves in support, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko capped his first U.S. tour since taking office by beseeching a joint meeting of Congress yesterday to help anchor his troubled nation firmly in the West.
Summoning the spirits of Woodrow Wilson, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, the leader of the "Orange Revolution" that toppled a discredited government in Kiev called for "a new era in U.S.-Ukrainian relations" that would make his country a model democracy fully integrated in such Euro- Atlantic institutions as NATO.
"We do not want any more walls dividing Europe, and I'm certain that neither do you," said Yushchenko, evoking the moment when Reagan challenged the Soviet Union to tear down the Berlin Wall. "The time has come to make real steps toward each other." And the first, he added, should be the end of U.S.
trade restrictions against Ukraine. "Please make this step toward Ukraine,"
Yushchenko implored. "Please tear down this wall."
Congress gave him a hero's welcome. Only a few foreign leaders are accorded the honor of addressing a joint meeting. The assembled senators and representatives greeted Yushchenko by chanting his name as he entered the House chamber and waving orange scarves and hats in recognition of the campaign color that became a symbol of the peaceful street revolt he led last December, overturning a fraudulent election. Vice President Cheney, wearing an orange tie, attended, as did most of President Bush's Cabinet.
The address was a powerful climax to a three-day trip in which Yushchenko also lunched with the president at the White House, received the John F.
Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in Boston and visited his wife's home town of Chicago. His wife, Kateryna Chumachenko Yushchenko, an American-born Ukrainian, also appealed for U.S. help at a luncheon yesterday in Washington.
"I invite you all to Kiev," she told about 150 people gathered at the event organized by Melanne Verveer, chairman of the board of the Vital Voices Global Partnership, a group that promotes women in leadership roles. "Let us all work together. A prosperous and stable Ukraine is definitely in the interest of the United States."
During his address to Congress, Yushchenko ran down a wish list of help he wants from the United States, starting with the lifting of the Cold War-era Jackson-Vanik trade limits that still affect Ukraine. The Senate is considering a measure to do that.
He also asked the United States to formally certify Ukraine a market economy by the fall, to include Ukraine in the Millennium Challenge program to fight AIDS and to support Ukrainian accession to the World Trade Organization by November.
Some Ukrainians had hoped for movement on some of those issues in time for Yushchenko's visit, but the U.S. government had made no progress on any of them. In an interview, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk expressed no disappointment. "One could not have expected immediate results," he said,
adding: "At the same time, we do feel a cardinal change on the part of the attitudes of U.S. officials on Ukraine." -30- =============================================================
5. HE WEARS THE FACE OF UKRAINIAN RESOLVE
By Rachelle G. Cohen, Boston Herald
Boston, Massachusetts, Thursday, April 7, 2005
Handsome counts in politics, and so his movie-star good looks not so long ago gave Viktor Yushchenko an edge. It didn't hurt that he was smart, especially about economics, and articulate. He had it all, and an attractive American-born wife to boot.
But rising stars attract attention and for this one-time Ukrainian prime minister it was almost fatal.
This was the way Sen. Ted Kennedy told it Tuesday in presenting Yushchenko with the 2005 Profile in Courage Award:
"At a critical moment in his nation's history, he took a strong and courageous stand for what he knew was right. He risked his life and nearly lost it in the ongoing struggle for democracy in Ukraine. His story is the story of honor, decency and the will of the people triumphing over fraud, deceit and intimidation. And because of his great courage, the rule of law prevailed against the oppressive rule of the powerful over the powerless.''
Today he still bears the scars of the dioxin poisoning that nearly ended his life (and took him off the presidential campaign trail for weeks). And yet today it seems to matter not at all. Today he is an international hero who got a rock star greeting from Ukrainian Americans and just plain fans of democracy at the Kennedy Library.
Handsome is as handsome does, our mothers used to tell us. Mine, the granddaughter of a Kiev tailor, must have had the likes of Viktor Yushchenko in mind.
"I was angered by the poverty, by the repression of freedom of speech.
. . I could not calmly watch as the hopes of her citizens were replaced by disillusion, as millions were forced to look for work abroad, as oligarchical clans stole the national wealth,'' he said through a translator.
"I made the decision [to seek the presidency] and I didn't look back,'' he added.
Yes, he took personal risks to make sure his nation would be a genuine democracy, but it was the way he did it, the path he took. The ``soldiers''
in his Orange Revolution carried banners and handkerchiefs, not guns. It was the power of their passion and their resolve that moved the world to their side.
Yesterday in the U.S. House chamber, hundreds of lawmakers, nine members of the Cabinet and Vice President Dick Cheney wore orange ties or ribbons or scarves in tribute to the man who has come to embody his nation's quest for democracy.
"We do not seek only a thaw in the frosty relations of the past. We seek a new atmosphere of trust, frankness and partnership,'' Yushchenko told a joint session of Congress.
And echoing the words of President Reagan, he pleaded with Congress to lift some of the old trade restrictions aimed at the former Soviet Union.
"We do not want any more walls in Europe, and I am certain that neither do you,'' he said. ``The time has come to make real steps toward each other.
"Please make this step toward Ukraine. Please tear down this wall.''
Some of that ought to be easy. The Jackson-Vanik amendment, aimed at punishing the Soviet Union for its mistreatment of Jews, is simply a relic of the Cold War that has long since outlived its usefulness.
NATO membership is somewhat more problematic. NATO's own rules require a stable democracy and one committed to the rule of law. Proving that takes time and effort.
As the Ukrainian president said Tuesday, quoting President Kennedy, "All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.''
Viktor Yushchenko has made a good beginning. -30- ============================================================
"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT"
ARTICLES ARE FOR PERSONAL AND ACADEMIC USE ONLY
Articles are Distributed For Information, Research, Education
Discussion and Personal Purposes Only =============================================================
UKRAINE INFORMATION WEBSITE: http://www.ArtUkraine.com =============================================================
UKRAINIAN MAGAZINES: For information on how to subscribe to the "Welcome to Ukraine" magazine in English, published four times a year and/or to the Ukrainian Folk Art magazine "Narodne Mystetstvo" in Ukrainian, published two times a year, please send an e-mail to:
ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net.
=============================================================
"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" - SPONSORS
"Working to Secure Ukraine's Future"
1. THE BLEYZER FOUNDATION, Dr. Edilberto Segura, Chairman; Victor Gekker, Executive Director, Kyiv, Ukraine; Washington, D.C., http://www.bleyzerfoundation.com.
2. BAHRIANY FOUNDATION, INC., Dr. Anatol Lysyj, Chairman, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 3. KIEV-ATLANTIC GROUP, David and Tamara Sweere, Daniel Sweere, Kyiv and Myronivka, Ukraine, 380 44 295 7275 in Kyiv.
4. ODUM- Association of American Youth of Ukrainian Descent, Minnesota Chapter, Natalia Yarr, Chairperson.
5. ACTION UKRAINE COALITION: Washington, D.C.,
A. UKRAINIAN FEDERATION OF AMERICA (UFA), Zenia Chernyk, Chairperson; Vera M. Andryczyk, President; Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania.
B. UKRAINIAN AMERICAN COORDINATING COUNCIL, (UACC), Ihor Gawdiak, President, Washington, D.C., New York, NY
C. U.S.-UKRAINE FOUNDATION (USUF), Nadia Komarnyckyj McConnell, President; John Kun, Vice President/COO, Washington, D.C.; Markian Bilynskyj, VP/Director of Field Operations; Kyiv, Ukraine. Web: http://www.USUkraine.org 6. UKRAINE-U.S. BUSINESS COUNCIL, Washington, D.C., Van Yeutter, Cargill Inc., Interim President; Jack Reed, ADM, Interim Vice President; Morgan Williams, SigmaBleyzer, Interim Secretary- Treasurer 7. ESTRON CORPORATION, Grain Export Terminal Facility & Oilseed Crushing Plant, Ilvichevsk, Ukraine ============================================================
"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" is an in-depth news and analysis international newsletter, produced as a free public service by the www.ArtUkraine.com Information Service and The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service The report is distributed around the world FREE of charge using the e-mail address: ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net.
If you would like to read "THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" please send your name, country of residence, and e-mail contact information to morganw@patriot.net. Additional names are welcome. If you do not wish to read "THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" around five times per week, let us know by e-mail to morganw@patriot.net.
============================================================
PUBLISHER AND EDITOR Mr. E. Morgan Williams, Director, Government Affairs Washington Office, SigmaBleyzer Investment Banking Group P.O. Box 2607, Washington, D.C. 20013, Tel: 202 437 4707 mwilliams@SigmaBleyzer.com; www.SigmaBleyzer.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Senior Advisor; Ukrainian Federation of America (UFA) Coordinator, Action Ukraine Coalition (AUC) Senior Advisor, U.S.-Ukraine Foundation (USUF) Interim Secretary-Treasurer, Ukraine-U.S. Business Council Publisher, Ukraine Information Website, www.ArtUkraine.com =============================================================