"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT - AUR"
An International Newsletter
The Latest, Up-To-Date
In-Depth Ukrainian News, Analysis, and Commentary
"Ukrainian History, Culture, Arts, Business, Religion,
Sports, Government, and Politics, in Ukraine and Around the World"
UKRAINE, ARE YOU LISTENING?
ACTIONS NEEDED, NOT JUST WORDS, SAYS NATO
ACHIEVE CONCRETE RESULTS, NOT JUST TALK, SAYS EU
NATO on Friday urged Ukraine's overhauled government to stop talking
about its hopes of joining the alliance and the European Union and get
on with turning itself into a strong democracy.
"The key message this morning was: 'Actions speak louder than words',"
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters after talks
with new Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuri Yekhanurov, on his maiden visit to
Brussels.
The message was strikingly similar to that delivered by European
Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Thursday, who urged
Kiev "not to talk all the time about (EU) membership but to achieve
concrete results". Show commitments to European values and standards.
[articles one and two]
"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT - AUR" - Number 580
Mr. E. Morgan Williams, Publisher and Editor
Washington, D.C., Kyiv, Ukraine, MONDAY, October 10, 2005
--------INDEX OF ARTICLES--------
"Major International News Headlines and Articles"
1. NATO TO UKRAINE: LET'S SEE ACTION, NOT WORDS
Actions speak louder than words
Stop talking and get on with turning itself into a strong democracy.
By Mark John, Reuters, Brussels, Belgium, Oct 7, 2005
2. "BEST WAY TO GET TO EUROPE IS NOT TO TALK ABOUT EU
MEMBERSHIP ALL THE TIME BUT ACHIEVE CONCRETE RESULTS,
SHOW COMMITMENTS TO EUROPEAN VALUES AND STANDARDS"
By Jan Sliva, AP Worldstream, Brussels, Belgium, Thursday, Oct 06, 2005
3. TURKISH EU TALKS GIVE HOPE TO KIEV
By Daniel Dombey and Chrystia Freeland in Brussels
Financial Times, London, UK, Sunday, October 9 2005
4. EU OFFERS HELP TO UKRAINE, MOLDOVA TO END SMUGGLING
By Olena Horodetska, Reuters, Palanca, Moldova, Fri Oct 7, 2005
5. UKRAINIAN PREMIER TO URGE PM'S TO PASS LAWS NEEDED
FOR WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) ACCESSION
Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian 1642 gmt 7 Oct 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Fri, Oct 07, 2005
6. UKRAINE PRESIDENT SEES WTO MEMBERSHIP IN DECEMBER
Grigori Gerenstein, Dow Jones, Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, October 7, 2005
7. PROFILE OF UKRAINIAN ECONOMICS MINISTER ARSENIY YATSENYUK
BBC Monitoring research in English 4 Oct 05
BBC Monitoring Service, United Kingdom, Fri, Oct 07, 2005
8. UKRAINE'S NEW JUSTICE MINISTER BLAMES CHIEF PROSECUTOR
SVYATOSLAV PISKUN FOR GONGADZE CASE DELAY
Says Piskun occupies his post illegitimately
NTN, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian 1400 gmt 8 Oct 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Sat, Oct 08, 2005
9. PORA URGES YUSHCHENKO TO FIRE PROSECUTOR GENERAL PISKUN
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Wed, October 5, 2005
10. UKRAINE OPENS CASE INTO EX-PRES' OFFICE ON SLAYING PROBE
Associated Press, Kiev, Ukraine, October 9, 2005 9:45 a.m.
11. "BEAUTY AND THE BEAST"
OPINION: Boris Kagarlitsky, Moscow
Director of The Institute for Globalization Studies
Eurasian Home, The Eurasia Heritage Foundation
Moscow, Russia, Friday, October 7, 2005
12. UKRAINE: OUSTED PRIME MINISTER EYES COMEBACK
Isn't the 1st time Yulia Tymoshenko of Ukraine had to fight to regain power
By Alex Rodriguez, Tribune foreign correspondent, Chicago Tribune
Chicago, Illinois, Sunday, October 9, 2005
13. MAYORS: LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN UKRAINE ON "THRESHOLD"
OF DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL REFORM
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)
Washington, D.C., Monday, October 3, 2005
14. ADOPTION OF A PARTY LIST SYSTEM IS DISAPPOINTING
In a true democracy the decision of who is elected should always be
decided by the voters directly and not by the system methodology.
LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR: From Anthony van der Craats
The Action Ukraine Report (AUR), Number 580, Article 14
Washington, D.C., Monday, October 10, 2005
15 NO IMMUNITY!
EDITORIAL: Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct 06 2005
16. HAS UKRAINE'S ORANGE REVOLUTION DELIVERED?
BBC NEWS: World Edition, United Kingdom, Sunday, October 9, 2005
17. EURASIA: THE GREAT (PIPELINE) GAME
Oil from Kazakhstan alone can ensure the viability of Ukraine's Odessa-
Brody pipeline and its linkup through Poland with EU oil markets.
ANALYSIS: By Vladimir Socor, The Wall Street Journal
New York, New York, Friday, October 7, 2005
18. "THE UGLY UZBEK"
EDITORIAL: The Washington Post
Washington, D.C., Saturday, October 8, 2005; Page A20
19. "NEGOTIATING WITH GENOCIDE"
LEAD EDITORIAL: The Washington Post
Washington, D.C., Sunday, October 9, 2005; Page B06
20. UKRAINIAN JEWS HONOR VICTIMS OF BABI YAR MASSACRE
Anna Melnichuk, AP Worldstream, Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, Oct 09, 2005
21. "CLOSED-TYPE DEMOCRACY"
Pragmatic West accepts Russia's "Special Form of Democracy"
COMMENTARY: Gazeta.ru website, Moscow, in Russian 4 Oct 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Sunday, Oct 09, 2005
22. SUSTAINING MOMENTUM
The Inaugural U.S.-Ukrainian Investment Symposium
October 31st, 2005 at the Harvard Club of Boston
Kiril Stefan Alexandrov, Executive Director
International Economic Alliance (IEA)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, Monday, October 10, 2005
23. DON'T TELL THE EASTER BUNNY, BUT WE'RE USING THE EGGS
FOR HALLOWEEN
Ancient Ukrainian craft called "pysanka"
By Martha Stewart, New York Times Special Features
Seattle Times, Seattle, Washington, Saturday, October 8, 2005
=============================================================
1. NATO TO UKRAINE: LET'S SEE ACTION, NOT WORDS
Actions speak louder than words
Stop talking and get on with turning itself into a strong democracy
By Mark John, Reuters, Brussels, Belgium, Oct 7, 2005
BRUSSELS - NATO on Friday urged Ukraine's overhauled government to
stop talking about its hopes of joining the alliance and the European Union
and get on with turning itself into a strong democracy.
While the EU is seen as reticent about any further enlargement, some in NATO
believe Kiev could receive an invitation as early as 2008 to join the North
Atlantic Treaty Organisation -- but provided it sees through political and
defence reforms.
"The key message this morning was: 'Actions speak louder than words'," NATO
Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters after talks with new
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuri Yekhanurov, on his maiden visit to Brussels.
The message was strikingly similar to that delivered by European Commission
President Jose Manuel Barroso on Thursday, who urged Kiev "not to talk all
the time about (EU) membership but to achieve concrete results".
Yekhanurov, appointed last month to succeed sacked reformist Prime Minister
Yulia Tymoshenko, promised to professionalise the Ukrainian army and vowed
to work on public opinion. Polls show as little as one quarter of Ukrainians
want to join NATO.
"We shall build on the achievements of the old government and I hope we
shall achieve more positive results," Yekhanurov said.
After the euphoria of the Orange Revolution last year that overturned a
rigged election and swept pro-western democratic President Viktor
Yushchenko to victory, there is disappointment in the West at the feuding
reformers' slow progress towards reform and establishing the rule of law.
But Ukraine has strong backers within NATO such as Poland and the United
States, which is keen to reward Kiev for sending around 1,000 troops to help
fight the insurgency in Iraq.
"If they get a grip on corruption and if the March elections go well, there
is a strong chance Ukraine will get a membership action plan," Poland's
ambassador to NATO, Jerzy M. Nowak, told Reuters.
A membership action plan (MAP) is one step short of an invitation to join
NATO but does not make membership automatic.
De Hoop Scheffer refused to forecast in public when Kiev might be offered
an invitation. Nobody rules out that happening at a NATO summit tentatively
scheduled for 2008, even though Yushchenko has much work to do before
then.
But there is still concern over how the former Soviet state will manage
relations with Moscow as it strengthens ties with NATO, and how it will
handle the social impact of plans to turn its army into a smaller,
professional force.
An Oct. 23-24 meeting of NATO defence ministers in the Lithuanian capital
of Vilnius will aim to add impetus to Ukraine's military reforms. -30-
=============================================================
2. "BEST WAY TO GET TO EUROPE IS NOT TO TALK ABOUT EU
MEMBERSHIP ALL THE TIME BUT ACHIEVE CONCRETE RESULTS,
SHOW COMMITMENTS TO EUROPEAN VALUES AND STANDARDS"
By Jan Sliva, AP Worldstream, Brussels, Belgium, Thursday, Oct 06, 2005
BRUSSELS - Ukraine has still not fulfilled all the conditions to be
recognized as a market economy and must continue economic reforms to
deepen its relations with the European Union, European Commission
President Jose Manuel Barroso said Thursday.
"Ukraine still has some things to do. Some progress has been recognized on
our side. Let's hope that sooner, rather than later, Ukraine can be granted
this status," Barroso said after meeting Ukraine's new Prime Minister Yuriy
Yekhanurov.
Staying the course on reforms would be welcomed in Brussels, officials said,
and may encourage the EU to grant Ukraine coveted market economy status
ahead of a Dec. 1 EU-Ukraine summit in Kiev.
Recognition as a market economy is largely symbolic. But it would give
Ukraine added protection against possible charges of breaking global trade
law on antidumping. Economic reforms may also qualify Ukraine for more
financial and economic assistance from the EU.
But Barroso hinted that EU membership is not imminent for the ex-Soviet
republic which assumed a pro-European course after the so-called Orange
Revolution that brought current president Viktor Yushchenko into power.
"Our door remains open, the future of Ukraine is in Europe. The best way to
get there is not to talk about EU membership all the time but achieve
concrete results, show commitments to European values and standards," he
said.
Ukraine has been trying to push the EU to institute a visa-free regime - or
at least free visas - for its citizens. Barroso said that the issue would be
on the agenda at the EU-Ukraine Kiev summit in December.
"We hope that by the time of the summit we'll be able to achieve concrete
results on visas," he said.
Making his first visit to European Union headquarters to seek support for
his country's reform agenda, Yekhanurov said Ukraine was preparing to
introduce 14 amendment to its current legislation to fulfill conditions for
joining the World Trade Organization.
Ukraine's membership in the WTO is seen as an important short-term goal for
this country of 47 million. "We hope Ukraine will be able to join by the end
of the year," said Siim Kallas, the European Commission's vice president in
charge of administration. "This will have huge repercussions for its
economy."
Yekhanurov said his new government would make his country's economy
more competitive and transparent, and promised not to re-privatize any
businesses.
"We will offer clear, responsible and equal rules of play to the businesses
in Ukraine's market, based upon securing the principles of market
competition and private property rights," he told a conference on Ukraine
before meeting Barroso. "We have put an end to all speculation about
re-privatization in the Ukraine."
Last month, President Viktor Yushchenko fired the previous premier, Yulia
Tymoshenko, who had been a Yushchenko ally during his presidential
campaign.
Yekhanurov, an economist, has challenged his new Cabinet to make boosting
Ukraine's economic performance a priority. "The Ukrainian economy seems to
be losing pace," Yekhanurov told the conference, appealing to investors to
bring in more money to Ukraine.
"The economic imbalances resulting from excessive desire to resolve social
problems are becoming more apparent." He added that the competitiveness of
Ukraine's economy has decreased by 16 percent since the beginning of the
year and that is "a disturbing signal."
Yekhanurov's Cabinet, however, must first tackle corruption to lure
investments, said Kallas. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring]
=============================================================
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=============================================================
3. TURKISH EU TALKS GIVE HOPE TO KIEV
By Daniel Dombey and Chrystia Freeland in Brussels
Financial Times, London, UK, Sunday, October 9 2005
BRUSSELS - Ukraine believes the start of Turkey's membership talks with
the European Union has kept alive its own hopes of joining the bloc, the
country's new prime minister has told the FT.
"We are watching the negotiation process with Turkey," Yuri Yekhanurov said
in an interview. "The most important thing for us is that the enlargement
process has not stopped."
Mr Yekhanurov added that Ukraine wanted to move towards the EU by
speeding market reforms and establishing a clear system of laws. In
particular, he is intent on concluding the "re-privatisation" of companies
whose original sales to the private sector were corrupt or illegal, as well
as stepping up the country's deregulation drive.
Speaking after a series of meeting with the European Commission last week,
he took comfort from a declaration by José Manuel Barroso, Commission
president, that offered support for Kiev but fell far short of promising
full EU membership.
"Our door remains open," Mr Barroso said. "The future of Ukraine is in
Europe. The best way is not to talk all the time about membership but to
achieve concrete results." Mr Yekhanurov said such comments were
particularly important in winning an internal debate in Ukraine about moving
closer to the EU and assuming the associated costs.
However, many EU officials privately say the likelihood of Ukraine entering
the EU has plummeted after No votes this year in French and Dutch
referendums on the European constitution and rising hostility to
enlargement.
As part of the deal behind the beginning of talks with Turkey, the EU agreed
to give greater emphasis in future to limits on its ability to admit new
members a particular worry for a big state such as Ukraine. -30-
==============================================================
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==============================================================
4. EU OFFERS HELP TO UKRAINE, MOLDOVA TO END SMUGGLING
By Olena Horodetska, Reuters, Palanca, Moldova, Fri Oct 7, 2005
PALANCA, Moldova - The European Union signed a deal on Friday with
Ukraine and Moldova, extending help to the ex-Soviet states in patrolling
their border to wipe out smuggling through a separatist region.
The two countries' foreign ministers and EU External Affairs Commissioner
Benita Ferrero-Waldner, seated at a table in a courtyard at a border
crossing, signed the deal they hope will help resolve the Dnestr region's
15-year revolt against Moldova.
The EU mission, to start on Dec. 1, will deploy about 50 border guards and
customs officials from member states equipped to make swoops along the
border.
"The mission should be an important signal of the European Union's support
for Moldova and Ukraine and for prosperity, stability and security in this
region," Ferrero-Waldner said after the ceremony.
"We want to help you manage your border in a more modern and efficient way.
This will also make an important contribution to reaching a solution to the
Dnestr conflict."
Dnestr, which enjoys no international recognition, is a sliver of land run
by Slav hardliners accused by both Ukrainian and Moldovan leaders of
running lucrative smuggling rings.
The region broke away in 1990 on fears that the Romanian-speaking majority
in Moldova, a Soviet republic at the time, might unite with their kin to the
west in Romania.
Dnestr and Moldova fought a brief war two years later after communism
collapsed, with Russian troops separating the sides.
The Russians remain to this day as "peacekeepers", standing guard over
20,000 tonnes of ammunition despite promises to leave. Moldova now
accuses Moscow of impeding a settlement.
WOODS, POOR VILLAGES
Reporters toured the region by helicopter, observing woods hugging the
border and the clearly poorer villages on the Dnestr side, with houses and
buildings all in need of a coat of paint.
Major-General Mykola Babachuk, first deputy to the head of the southern
division of Ukraine's border guards, said smuggling across Dnestr's border
included food, drugs and weaponry. EU officials also speak of human
trafficking.
"Mostly, it's meat, sugar and alcohol," he said. "But we also confiscate
grenades, ammunition and weapons." In the first nine months of 2005, border
guards confiscated weapons, 46,000 rounds of ammunition and 143 tonnes of
drugs.
In Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odessa, the main gateway for smuggling a
two-hour drive away, senior border guard Vadim Veliksar hoped the deal would
improve technology and data flow.
"I hope the mission works," he said. "It would help to see the real picture
of what is going on at the Dnestr segment of the border."
Moldovan Foreign Minister Andrei Stratan and his Ukrainian opposite number
Borys Tarasyuk said the deal was a cornerstone in rejuvenated efforts to
solve the Dnestr rebellion.
Deadlocked for two years since the collapse of a Kremlin plan proposing a
long-term Russian presence, the addition of the United States and European
Union has given diplomacy a boost.
Talks had previously been confined to Moldova, Dnestr, Russia and Ukraine.
All sides are to meet at the end of October.
"The deal is half done. The political and legal bases are set down,"
Tarasyuk told reporters. "Now we should proceed with practical action. Today
law abiding people and businesses have the right to rejoice. It is the
smugglers who should despair." -30- [Action Ukraine Report]
==============================================================
5. UKRAINIAN PREMIER TO URGE PM'S TO PASS LAWS NEEDED
FOR WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (WTO) ACCESSION
Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian 1642 gmt 7 Oct 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Fri, Oct 07, 2005
BRUSSELS - Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov and the chairman of
the Supreme Council [parliament], Volodymyr Lytvyn, have agreed to meet
leaders of parliamentary factions and groups next week to convince them to
support 14 amendments to legislation, which are required for Ukraine's
accession to the World Trade Organization.
"I will ask them to understand that this is what this country needs,"
Yekhanurov said in an interview to journalists in Brussels today.
He added that a compromise is possible in the negotiation with MPs. "We
will begin the talks as soon as I get a signal from our parliament," he
said.
Yekhanurov stressed that Ukraine's WTO accession would not be possible
without amending legislation. "I would not like to be in the shoes of those
political forces who would kill this process now.
Believe me, their contribution will be made known to each Ukrainian voter,
and they should realize that they are going to bear this cross during the
[March 2006 parliamentary] election," he said.
Yekhanurov said that Ukraine realizes that any agreements relating to the
WTO accession should be clearly understood in Russia. In his view, Ukraine
and Russia have a long stretch of common border, as well as many bilateral
and multilateral agreements.
He said that Russia's accession to the WTO is also "a matter of months".
"We would like Russia to join the WTO too, thus, resolving the problems
that are topical now," he said.
Yekhanurov said that at present Ukraine has to sign agreements on WTO
accession with three countries - the USA, Australia and China. He said he
hopes to reach an accord with the United States because Ukraine has taken
"serious steps to resolve all the issues related to intellectual property".
"I hope we will agree with Australia on the issue of sugar. I believe that
the talks with China, which are under way now, will also produce normal
results," he said. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
==============================================================
6. UKRAINE PRESIDENT SEES WTO MEMBERSHIP IN DECEMBER
Grigori Gerenstein, Dow Jones, Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, October 7, 2005
KIEV - President Viktor Yushchenko said he expected Ukraine to join the
World Trade Organization in December and then to begin talks with the
European Union on creating a free trade zone in the country, the government
press service said Friday.
Yushchenko told an economic congress in Lviv Friday that all that remained
for Ukraine to do in order to meet the requirements for joining the WTO was
to introduce 14 amendments into five laws. He added he would work with the
government and parliament to effect the changes within the next week.
He also said that after Ukraine becomes a member of the WTO, talks would
begin with the E.U. on creating a free trade zone in the country. He said he
had already spoken with officials in Finland - which will hold the rotating
presidency of the E.U. in the second half of 2006 - adding completion of the
process was feasible within the next year.
Yushchenko also said Ukraine was aiming to receive the status of an
associated member of the E.U. -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grigori Gerenstein, Dow Jones Newswires; gerenstein@hotmail.com
=============================================================
7. PROFILE OF UKRAINIAN ECONOMICS MINISTER ARSENIY YATSENYUK
BBC Monitoring research in English 4 Oct 05
BBC Monitoring Service, United Kingdom, Fri, Oct 07, 2005
In a four-year career in state service, newly-appointed Economics Minister
Arseniy Yatsenyuk has worked as economics minister of Crimea, deputy
chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), and deputy head of the
Odessa regional administration.
Yatsenyuk impressed many with his performance as acting chairman of the
NBU during the presidential election campaign and subsequent political
turmoil last year, when he managed to prevent a collapse of the country's
banking system.
Born in Chernivtsi in 1974, Yatsenyuk graduated from the law department of
Chernivtsi University and the economics department of Kiev Trade and
Economics University. He reportedly ran a legal firm while still a student.
In 1998, Yatsenyuk moved to Kiev to work for Aval Bank - first as a
consultant with the lending department and then as deputy board chairman.
In late 2001, Yatsenyuk left Aval to join the government of Crimean Prime
Minister Valeriy Horbatov as economics minister. Yatsenyuk was reportedly
viewed as the star of the government, winning plaudits for his clarity of
expression and organizational skills.
When Serhiy Tyhypko was appointed head of the NBU in late 2002, Yatsenyuk
was recalled to Kiev to work as his first deputy. When Tyhypko took leave to
run the presidential campaign of then Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych in
July 2004, Yatsenyuk became acting NBU head.
During the crisis that followed the disputed second round of the election,
Yatsenyuk insisted that the NBU would remain politically neutral and boasted
that the bank was working like a "Swiss clock".
After Tyhypko quit as NBU head and withdrew from public life, Yatsenyuk was
seen as one of the leading candidates to replace him. However, a former NBU
head close to President Viktor Yushchenko, Volodymyr Stelmakh, got the post.
In February, Yatsenyuk together with deputy board chairman, Oleksandr
Shlapak, and the director of the general department, Vadym Pushkaryov,
submitted their resignations citing differences with Stelmakh over the
future development of the domestic banking system.
In March, Yatsenyuk was appointed deputy to Odessa regional governor,
Vasyl Tsushko (a member of the Socialist Party).
In an interview a couple of days after his appointment on as Economics
Minister on 27 September, Yatsenyuk said that the economy was in a poor
state and promised to do everything possible to restore stability.
Yatsenyuk has promised to not interfere in the work of the National Bank.
"The National Bank does not sell sunflower seeds, and the Economics
Ministry does not issue loans," he said.
Yatsenyuk's rapid career development has given rise to rumours that he has
powerful patrons. In particular, it was once rumoured that during his early
career, he worked with the former Minister of Social Policy and Labour
Mykhaylo Papiyev, a member of the United Social Democratic Party.
Yatsenyuk is reportedly fond of classic Ukrainian literature and debates on
macroeconomic topics. Although he is reported to have once described
himself as a young conservative, he has recently been reported to be close
to the Socialist Party. -30- [Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
==============================================================
8. UKRAINE'S NEW JUSTICE MINISTER BLAMES CHIEF PROSECUTOR
SVYATOSLAV PISKUN FOR GONGADZE CASE DELAY
Says Piskun occupies his post illegitimately
NTN, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian 1400 gmt 8 Oct 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Sat, Oct 08, 2005
KIEV - [Presenter] The newly-appointed justice minister, Serhiy Holovatyy,
has come to Ukraine. He was visiting Strasbourg and attended the session of
the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. There he learnt about
his appointment as head of the Justice Ministry. Upon arrival, he made
several statements about the Gongadze case.
Holovatyy most likely will not represent the interests of Lesya Gongadze
[the journalist's mother] because he cannot combine the two posts. But he
will do everything necessary to finally use a legal approach to the Gongadze
case.
However, until Svyatoslav Piskun remains the Ukrainian prosecutor-general,
the case will not move forward, Holovatyy said. He repeated once more that
Piskun is occupying his post illegitimately.
[Holovatyy] I will help Ukraine as a state, its president and its government
to stop what is called "beyond the limits of cynicism" in the Gongadze case,
and to finally use an elementary legal approach to this case.
[Holovatyy is going to check the judge who reinstated Piskun as
prosecutor-general, Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported at 1409 gmt
today.] -30- [The Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]
==============================================================
9. PORA URGES YUSHCHENKO TO FIRE PROSECUTOR GENERAL PISKUN
Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Wed, October 5, 2005
KYIV - The Pora party is calling on President Viktor Yuschenko to dismiss
Prosecutor General Sviatoslav Piskun. The party press service reported this
to Ukrainian News. Pora demands dismissal of Piskun, the prosecutor
general of multi-use," the statement reads.
According to it, the party is not satisfied with the fact that Piskun
instituted no criminal action for corruption against authority
representatives and started prosecuting former head of the state affairs
department Ihor Bakai only after he left for Russia.
According to the party, Piskun uses cases of investigation into murders of
journalists Georgy Gongadze and Ihor Aleksandrov as the means of political
manipulation and interior political bargaining, and drags out the
investigation into the criminal case on the work of parallel server of vote
count at the presidential election in 2004.
"Piskun made the Prosecutor's General Office the unlimited business
irresponsibility company," the statement reads.
As Ukrainian News reported earlier, in December 2004, former President
Leonid Kuchma reinstated Piskun on the position of the prosecutor general
upon the ruling of the Kyiv Pecherskyi District Court.
Under the Constitution, the president appoints and dismisses the prosecutor
general upon the approval by the Verkhovna Rada. The parliament can
express no confidence in the prosecutor general, which leads to his
dismissal. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]
==============================================================
10. UKRAINE OPENS CASE INTO EX-PRES' OFFICE ON SLAYING PROBE
Associated Press, Kiev, Ukraine, October 9, 2005 9:45 a.m.
KIEV - Ukrainian prosecutors have opened a criminal case against
unidentified officials in ex-president Leonid Kuchma's administration,
accusing them of hampering the investigation into the killing of a
journalist, the prosecutor general's office said Sunday.
The 2003 dismissal of chief prosecutor Svyatoslav Piskun hindered the probe
into the 2000 killing of Heorhiy Gongadze, a journalist who crusaded against
high-level corruption, the office said in a statement.
Piskun, now chief prosecutor under President Viktor Yushchenko, has said he
was forced out because of progress in the probe into the killing, which
sparked months of protests that led up to the Orange Revolution.
Kuchma, who has denied accusations of involvement in Gongadze's slaying,
dismissed Piskun upon the recommendation of a presidential anti-corruption
committee, his office said. He was reinstated in 2004 following a court
ruling.
A month after Yushchenko's inauguration in January, prosecutors indicted
three former policemen for Gongadze's death. A fourth suspect is at large
and being sought on an international warrant.
Gongadze got into what he thought was a taxi, and then was joined by three
others and driven outside Kiev, according to evidence given by the suspects.
The 31-year-old journalist was beaten and strangled, and his body was
doused with gasoline and burned. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report]
==============================================================
11. "BEAUTY AND THE BEAST"
OPINION: Boris Kagarlitsky, Moscow
Director of The Institute for Globalization Studies
Eurasian Home, The Eurasia Heritage Foundation
Moscow, Russia, Friday, October 7, 2005
Evgenia Tymoshenko's wedding was the major event of the past week in
Ukraine, at the same time it was undoubtedly having a strong political
flavor. Pictures of the newly-wed couple accompanied by their happy
mother-in-law, Yuliya Tymoshenko, were posted in the Internet.
She was as delicate as ever this time, however, trying a new image without
the plait so familiar to the Ukrainian and Russian audience. The press
meticulously described the bride's outfits, music, and food guests were
treated to.
There was no open discussion of the event, but in many reports one could
read a silent question: What does all this luxury have to do with Yuliya
Tymoshenko's "defender of the deprived" political image? And the answer
is: Nothing. Moreover, it will have no impact on the ratings of our heroine.
If Yuliya Tymoshenko belonged to the left party, the event would provoke a
large political scandal. The Kyiv Beauty however never intended to relate to
the proletarians. She is a populist!
In other words, she doesn't mobilize people, she doesn't aggregate their
political views, she doesn't articulate their interests, and she doesn't
belong to their world. She is just taking care of them.
But, to really take care of someone, the person doesn't need to look like
him or her. Little by little, the public opinion forms a solid stereotype:
Tymoshenko is kind, Yushchenko is evil. Yuliya, in addition, is beautiful.
And President Viktor. well, not yet a monster, but since not long ago, is
far from being handsome.
It won't be surprising to find out that all of that high life events had
initially been made up to fix these images. People are going to like it!
Populism is quite a typical phenomenon for a poor country with unsettled
democratic traditions and weak civic institutions. It appears in the
society, where the contradictions between classes are obvious enough, but
the formation of the latter have not yet been completed, their culture and
ideology have not yet shaped, and the majority of the population plays the
role of the so-called "Betwixt-and-Between".
This can equally be referred both to the marginals and the petty
bourgeoisie. The situation is typical either for the peripheral type of
capitalism or for the bourgeois society, stuck in its long-term structural
crisis.
Shortly speaking, people are extremely vulnerable to all injustice, while
the favorable conditions for the self-organization are not created so far.
Many of the left ideas are powerful enough to spread out, with their
political methods, however, being completely unproductive.
It is worth saying that populism is of democratic origin. It happens quiet
often that the populist leaders become dictators, but their popularity and
people's love is won by using decent democratic methods, i.e. uniting
masses around for the sake of justice.
On gaining people's trust and love, populist leader manages to keep them,
no matter what he or she does. We all know that love is blind. The populist
way of social mobilization is not tightly connected with the strict
observance of the political procedures, formal regulations, and ideological
standards (which is of paramount importance for the left movement).
As a result, the leader thus obtains the freedom of maneuver. He or she
may perform tactic zigzags either to the right or to the left, pick out
extremely multicolored allies and make controversial statements.
Obviously, people's affection has certain limits. After constant cheating,
it may turn into hatred strong enough (we got a chance to analyze on the
example of Boris Yeltsin, the only successful post-Soviet populist). What's
really important is to be finally ready to choose whether to take the right
course or the left one.
The personalities of Juan Peron, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Delano
Roosevelt are the ideal populist leaders. Young Fidel Castro was definitely
not a communist, but the representative of the educated elite, who was
concerned about disasters their people were going through.
Today's excellent example of what we call the left populist is Venezuelan
president Hugo Chaves. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini had built their
careers on the populist methods of the kind.
Yuliya Tymoshenko is already beginning to be associated with Eva Peron
(even her looks somehow remind us of the legendary Argentinean first lady).
Evita, however, never, aimed at gaining formal leadership.
She was ruling Argentina from behind her irresolute and inconsistent
husband Juan Domingo Peron, never making efforts to take over the country.
People knew perfectly well, who is the leader in the couple, not only giving
their love to the official president and to her, his dazzling wife. No
wonder, all Peron's political career went wrong after Evita's death.
Looks like Yuliya Tymoshenko was about to repeat the same story,
instinctively offering Viktor Yushchenko the part of Peron while she was
being Evita. It didn't work that way. Not only did it fail because
Yushchenko refused to accept the fact that his authority became more formal.
The major contradiction lies in the social orientation, chosen by these two
politicians. Yushchenko is a consistent West-oriented liberal. Tymoshenko,
though not having made any particular choice, is forced to drift to the
left - right after her social target audience.
After 15 years since the capitalist restoration period began, the problems
and contradictions of the new order are too obvious, while the demand for
revising results of the neoliberal reforms is formulated, or at least is
felt by the great part of population, the ones in opposition to the left
ideology included.
It means that Tymoshenko just doesn't have the other way out: she is
expected to fight for power with the President and, as the conflict unwraps,
go to the left.
For the Ukrainian left this doesn't necessarily have to be good news. Lucky
populist leader might steal a significant part of their electorate (the
thing which happened to the peronist movement in Argentina).
But, in the situation to the harsh political environment the organizational
and ideological potential of the left might fulfill its purpose and to
outbalance the scale on the either side.
The previous experience shows, that, forming a coalition with populists,
the leftists are sometimes capable of imposing their program on the latter,
while other time they themselves become the populists' hostages.
The major choice both for Ukraine and Tymoshenko is still ahead. The
questions are left unanswered. Our heroine has already won the love of
millions of people.
History, however, gives us a caution warning. In the fairy tales beasts
turn into beauties. Life might prove it to be just the other way round.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Boris Kagarlitsky is a Director of The Institute for Globalization Studies.
The article is written specially for "Eurasian Home".
LINK: http://www.eurasianhome.org/en/?/en/comments/index
[Edits by The Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]
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12. UKRAINE: OUSTED PRIME MINISTER EYES COMEBACK
Isn't the 1st time Yulia Tymoshenko of Ukraine had to fight to regain power
By Alex Rodriguez, Tribune foreign correspondent, Chicago Tribune
Chicago, Illinois, Sunday, October 9, 2005
KIEV, Ukraine -- Yulia Tymoshenko has made a career out of parlaying
ordeals into opportunities.
When the Soviet Union's collapse saddled Ukraine with crippling fuel
shortages, Tymoshenko plugged her energy distribution enterprise into the
right political connections and became a millionaire.
Corruption allegations got her arrested and fired from a top government job
in 2001, but she clawed her way back, rousing revolution out of a country
yearning for change.
Now, a month after Ukrainian president and Orange Revolution confederate
Viktor Yushchenko fired her from her coveted prime minister post, Tymoshenko
is plotting another comeback.
"They think they can destroy my authority and credibility with the people,
their trust in me," Tymoshenko said, curling a half-smile and narrowing her
gaze. "The opposite will happen. In the March elections, the people will be
on our side. "I think I will become prime minister."
The fiery, telegenic Ukrainian has a knack for getting what she wants and
doing whatever it takes to get it. She was 30 when she set up her first
moneymaker--making and selling pirated videos. By the time she was 36, her
energy company, United Energy Systems of Ukraine, or UESU, had become
an $11 billion enterprise.
Now 44, she has reached the top tier of Ukrainian politics and is a media
darling on both sides of the Atlantic. Forbes magazine recently ranked her
the third most powerful woman in the world, behind U.S. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi.
Her public appearances draw wild shouts of "Yulia!" from adoring Ukrainians.
Her role as the inspirational force behind last year's Orange Revolution had
made many Ukrainians forget her previous life as one of the country's
oligarchs.
Recently, however, her popularity has taken a body blow with her firing from
the prime minister post after just eight months and the swirl of corruption
allegations that accompanied Yushchenko's government house-cleaning
Sept. 8.
Tymoshenko is confident that she can win back Ukrainians' trust. But as she
prepares for parliamentary elections in March that will shape Ukraine's
future government, a larger question looms:
Can Tymoshenko, Yushchenko and what remains of the splintered Orange
Revolution camp resurrect public confidence in a movement that has lost so
much credibility since the Independence Square demonstrations last winter?
"The damage was huge," Tymoshenko said, "especially the damage to
people's souls--the people who stood on Independence Square for the
sake of the revolution. . . . This is a big tragedy."
An endless stream of politicians and power brokers heading into her party
headquarters on Kiev's Lesya Ukrainka Boulevard on a recent afternoon
suggests her campaign to climb back into power is in full swing.
Her sense of image-building is as strong as ever -- she still wears her long
hair in a braided ring that crowns her head, the same Ukrainian peasant girl
look she strove for during last year's demonstrations.
Visitors ushered into an anteroom to await appointments are greeted by a
large poster showing Tymoshenko handing out roses to a police cordon
during the Orange Revolution. The poster's caption reads: "Beauty will save
the world."
"Our team will fight for the possibility to form the government. We perceive
these positions not as a goal, but as an instrument to realize the ideals of
the Orange Revolution," Tymoshenko said during a recent interview at her
office. "I don't want people's trust in government to die."
Tymoshenko grew up in Dnipropetrovsk, an industrial city of 1.1 million and
the hometown of several other political heavyweights, including former
Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and Leonid Kuchma, the authoritarian ruler
Yushchenko replaced.
The daughter of Lyudmyla, a dispatcher, Tymoshenko was raised by her mother
in a khrushchovka, the nondescript tenement housing Nikita Khrushchev built
across the Soviet Union during the 1950s.
STARTED AS ECONOMIST
After graduating from a city university, she began work as an economist.
Then in 1990 she received from her father-in-law two videocassette recorders
that she set up in her living room to produce pirated videos, according to
Matthew Brzezinski's 2001 book, "Casino Moscow," which devotes a chapter
to Tymoshenko.
Later, Tymoshenko, her father-in-law and her husband, Oleksandr, discovered
a far more lucrative niche.
In the early and mid-1990s, Ukraine's economy was mired in an energy crisis,
largely because the Soviet-era fuel distribution network it had with Russian
suppliers disappeared with the country's independence in 1991.
When longtime Tymoshenko family ally Pavlo Lazarenko became deputy prime
minister--and later prime minister--in the mid-1990s, he ensured that
Tymoshenko's UESU cornered nearly a third of Ukraine's gas imports market.
As a result, UESU eventually assumed control of 20 percent of Ukraine's
gross domestic product, Brzezinski wrote. The company is now defunct.
"She was Lazarenko's protege, and she benefited from this," said Oleg
Ivantsov, deputy chief editor of Kiev's Dyen newspaper.
Kuchma forced Lazarenko out of office in 1997. Three years later, Lazarenko
was charged in the U.S. with money laundering and transportation of stolen
property--an indictment that named Tymoshenko and UESU as being involved
with Lazarenko in allegedly laundering millions of dollars in the mid-1990s.
U.S. authorities never charged Tymoshenko. In June 2004, a federal jury in
California convicted Lazarenko of money laundering and extortion charges.
He is to be sentenced later this year.
Before Lazarenko's departure, Tymoshenko had turned her attention to
politics. She won election to parliament in 1996 and in 1999 teamed with
Yushchenko for the first time, becoming his deputy prime minister for fuel
and energy while he was Ukraine's prime minister.
Neither Tymoshenko nor Yushchenko lasted long in their jobs. Tymoshenko
angered her energy sector rivals, introducing reforms that forced them to
collectively pay $2 billion in taxes. Kuchma, who was president at the time,
fired Tymoshenko in January 2001.
A month later police arrested her on charges of fraud and money laundering.
She spent 42 days in jail awaiting trial; later that year the charges were
dropped.
Yushchenko's 16-month stint as prime minister ended when parliament fired
him in April 2001. He went on to form Our Ukraine, a party that garnered the
largest share of the vote in the 2002 parliamentary elections.
Tymoshenko took her politics to the streets, organizing rallies that called
for Kuchma to step down. A Sept. 16, 2002, demonstration drew tens of
thousands of Ukrainians to the capital; tens of thousands more rallied in
other Ukraine cities that day.
UNEASY POLITICAL ALLIES
Although never entirely at ease with each other, Tymoshenko and Yushchenko
decided to band together for Yushchenko's presidential bid last year.
And when it became clear that authorities within Kuchma's regime had rigged
the election to ensure that Kuchma's handpicked successor, Viktor
Yanukovych, won, Yushchenko and Tymoshenko rallied Ukrainians to Kiev's
Independence Square in protest.
Onstage in front of tens of thousands of demonstrators, Yushchenko was the
authoritative voice of reason--Tymoshenko was the impassioned general
revving up the troops for battle. When she ordered Ukrainians to form human
blockades around key government buildings, thousands complied.
"She has natural charisma that makes it possible for people to believe her
easily," said Mikhail Pogrebinsky, director of the Kiev Center for Political
Research and Conflict Studies.
Five weeks of protests in frigid weather culminated in Yushchenko's victory
in a repeat runoff election Dec. 26. Yushchenko selected Tymoshenko as his
prime minister Jan. 24, repaying her for her role in the revolution. Within
weeks, fissures in the Yushchenko-Tymoshenko team appeared.
Tymoshenko wanted wholesale revisions of privatizations of state-owned
enterprises during the Kuchma era. Yushchenko urged a measured approach,
calming Ukraine's investment community with assurances that only about a
dozen privatizations would be scrutinized.
The trigger for Tymoshenko's firing appeared to revolve around her push to
return to the state a metals plant Kuchma's son-in-law, oligarch Viktor
Pinchuk, had obtained in a 2003 privatization widely regarded as rigged.
Pinchuk accused Tymoshenko of targeting his plant solely to ensure it was
eventually controlled by his rivals, a charge Yushchenko believed had merit.
Tymoshenko denied the allegation and accused Yushchenko's circle of
advisers of trying to resurrect an image of Tymoshenko the
oligarch--cunning, ruthless, power-hungry.
"I haven't been doing business for years, and all of Ukraine knows this,"
Tymoshenko said. "The campaign against me is based on the notion that 10
years ago I was very powerful. In a span of five years, I created the most
powerful company in post-Soviet space. The memory of that exists, of
course."
The scandal has scarred the image of the Orange Revolution and its
principals. A poll last month by the Kiev-based think tank Razumkov Center
found that less than a quarter of Ukrainians support either Yushchenko or
Tymoshenko.
Nevertheless, some analysts say Tymoshenko has the political wherewithal to
win enough votes in the parliament elections. A constitutional change that
becomes effective in January makes those elections crucial; the amendment
shifts key authority from the president to parliament, including the power
to select a prime minister.
Tymoshenko is confident she can muster the votes to become prime minister
again. Yushchenko would still be president, though, raising the prospect of
further stalemate and chaos as the post-revolution government totters into
its second year.
"The question is about compromise, and her ability to put up with being in
the role of Person No. 2," said Pogrebinsky of the Center for Political
Research and Conflict Studies. "She has always been Person No. 1--she
has always looked at herself this way." -30- (ajrodriguez@tribune.com)
[Edits by The Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0510090425oct09,1,5591211.story
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13. MAYORS: LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN UKRAINE ON "THRESHHOLD"
OF DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL REFORM
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)
Washington, D.C., Monday, October 3, 2005
WASHINGTON - Ukraine is on the "threshold of democratic political reform,"
resulting in the establishment of viable local governments, two Ukrainian
city mayors said. Volodymyr Udovychenko, Mayor of Slavutych and Oleksandr
Popov, Mayor of Komsomolsk, told a recent RFE/RL audience in Washington
that local government provides a unique means for democracy to develop and
strengthen in Ukraine.
However, according to the mayors, it is important to strengthen its legal
and fiscal foundations as local governments currently have little ability to
raise tax revenues on their own and largely depend on the national
government for funding.
Udovychenko said that, having already enacted several reforms, Ukraine has
advanced toward democracy through the observance of human rights. He
said that all of the quantitative reforms in Ukraine are becoming
qualitative.
Udovychenko credits the members of the National Delegation of the Council of
European Municipalities and Regions for helping to set local governments in
Ukraine in the right direction and providing them technical assistance.
Ukraine also has taken advantage of opportunities through the United
States/Ukraine Exchange Program, which has helped modernize local
government. The program established regional training centers in five
Ukrainian cities available to any local official. He said that local
governments in Ukraine function democratically, because citizens can now
have an impact on local decisions.
Popov said the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has
also helped local self-government in Ukraine by providing PACE monitors in
Ukraine to work with civic and neighborhood organizations as well as
government institutions.
Popov thanked the United States government and the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) for helping Ukraine establish successful
local government structures.
He said that Komsomolsk officials are sharing their experiences with other
Ukrainian cities. Popov said he is proud of Ukraine's recent development and
economic growth and he believes the U.S. could also benefit from Ukraine's
innovations at the local level.
He predicted that reformers will strengthen their numbers in the March 2006
parliamentary elections and that Ukraine will be a model for former Soviet
countries.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a private, international communications
service to Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central and Southwestern
Asia funded by the U.S. Congress through the Broadcasting Board of
overnors. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTACT: Martins Zvaners (202) 457-6948, Melody Jones (202)
457-6949 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave
NW, Washington, DC 20036; tel: 202-457-6900,
fax: 202-457-6992; http://www.rferl.org
To hear archived audio for this and other RFE/RL briefings and events,
please visit our website at http://www.regionalanalysis.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOOTNOTE: The program the mayors, mentioned in the above news
release, participate in is the Community Connections Project (CCP)
designed and implemented by the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation (USUF).
USUF has been active in programs to improve local governments in
Ukraine for several years. EDITOR
==============================================================
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==============================================================
14. ADOPTION OF A PARTY LIST SYSTEM IS DISAPPOINTING
In a true democracy the decision of who is elected should always be
decided by the voters directly and not by the system methodology.
LETTER-TO-THE-EDITOR: From Anthony van der Craats
The Action Ukraine Report (AUR), Number 580, Article 14
Washington, D.C., Monday, October 10, 2005
Dear Editor:
Following on from the report published in Ukraine Report #579 - Item 13
“President signs new electoral law” comment by Bohdan A. Futey, Judge,
U.S. Court of Federal Claim.
Ukraine has the chance of becoming a world leader in electoral practices
as it develops and moves towards a modern democracy by adopting best
practises and maintaining an open and transparent electoral process.
Certified correct electoral roles, disclosure of campaign funding and
expenses and the right to a secret ballot all need to be implemented.
The new election laws recently introduced in Ukraine are a step in the right
direction. Whilst the introduction of single house elected by proportional
representation is good the adoption of a party-list system is disappointing.
The party-list system is similar to that used in other European Parliaments.
To this extent it is a tried and recognised system but it does have a number
of undesirable and unnecessary limitations. The need to adopt an
artificial minimum quota is one example.
Under the party-list system that will be used next year many voters will go
unrepresented or the full extent of their vote truncated with the surplus of
votes evaporating or being artificially distributed as the number of seats
each party is entitled to appoint is determined.
In a true democracy the decision of who is elected should always be
decided by the voters directly and not by the system methodology.
Ukraine should give further consideration to the adoption of a
“preferential-proportional-ballot” system, similar to that used to elect the
Australian Senate with some modification of the rules associated with the
calculation and distribution of preferences to bring them up todate with the
use of computer based technology.
Under a preferential-ballot system voters have the right to vote for the
individual candidate as opposed to just indicating support for nominated
group/party. More importantly votes for minor parties candidates and surplus
votes from larger parties are able to be distributed according to the voters
choice and their indicated preference.
In a preferential-ballot system voters mark their ballot papers 1,2,3 along
side the candidates of their choice. If a candidate does not receive the
required quota for election then the candidate with the smallest number of
votes is excluded from the count and the allocated votes are redistributed
according to the voters indicated subsequent preference. This process is
repeated in the counting of the ballot until the quota of votes is obtained
and the number of candidates required elected.
In multi-member election, as would be the case with next years Parliament
election, any candidate or party that receives more votes then the quota
required the number and value of the excess is again distributed according
to voters indicated preference. This system removes the distortions and
inequity that exists under a party list system whilst providing for a true
democratic one vote one value electoral system.
The adoption of a single-preferential-ballot system for the election of
Ukraine’s President as opposed to the current dual multiple-ballot single
choice system would have saved Ukraine millions of dollars in direct costs
and significantly more that was lost as a result of the economic and
political uncertainty that occurred between the first round and the final
election results.
Hopefully as Ukraine adopts world best practices in the conduct of public
elections we will see the United States also consider review and reform of
its out-dated and undemocratic electoral system.
Anthony van der Craats, Australia
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOOTNOTE: Your editor also agrees that in a true democracy the
decision of who is elected should always be decided by the voters
directly and not by the system methodology. The system that has been
adopted by Ukraine is very un-democratic, subject to gross fraud,
manipulation and control by a few political bosses. The system takes
control away from the people to elect directly who will serve them in the
Parliament. Rada seats are for sale now more than ever before to the
highest bidder. Democracy has suffered a great setback in Ukraine.
EDITOR
==============================================================
15. NO IMMUNITY!
EDITORIAL: Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Oct 06 2005
It should go without saying that in a decent society, no one should be above
the law. Ukraine has made progress in becoming that sort of society, but
every once in a while it offers up an incident that reminds us that, after
all, the Soviet era with its savage injustices wasn't so long ago.
Take the business this week concerning parliament's granting of blanket
immunity from prosecution to members of Ukraine's regional and city
legislatures. The Rada in its collective wisdom apparently wanted to make
sure that provincial lawmakers should be able to break the law in this
country, and get away with it.
It's as crudely simple as that. As the bill envisions it, the guy who sits
on the regional council in, say, Dnipropetrovsk or Lviv will now be able to
steal, cheat, and even murder in complete freedom from the threat of
prosecution, for as long as he occupies office.
Yes, his fellow deputies could vote to lift his immunity, but it will be a
cold day in hell before they vote against their own interests like that.
Shamefully, President Viktor Yushchenko signed the bill late on Oct. 5.
Rumor has it that this reprehensible bill is the Yushchenko team's sop to
Viktor Yanukovych and his Regions of Ukraine party, who favor an extension
of immunity.
Yanukovych, of course, was Yushchenko's partner in getting Prime Minister
Yuriy Yekhanurov approved by the Rada recently, and now Yanukovych is said
to be calling in the markers on behalf of his cronies in the provinces.
It's bad enough that Rada deputies themselves are immune from prosecution.
It creates a culture of cynicism, in which a mandarin caste of unaccountable
rulers lords it over an inferior populace. It also turns the Rada into more
of a sewer of corruption than it has to be, since some members acquire seats
only to avoid going to jail.
Immunity actually offers crooks an incentive to join parliament. Now the
Ukrainian people are supposed to accept it as this system is expanded to
the local level?
We're aware of the arguments in favor of immunity. Chief among them is that,
without it, nothing would get done, as the country's political forces would
do little else but try to destroy each other with politically-motivated
prosecutions.
There's some superficial sense to that argument, since Ukraine still lacks
the strong civil culture that prevents such abuses in countries that don't
offer their ruling classes immunity.
But even if you grant that Rada immunity is a good idea - which we're not
inclined to - there's still no reason to extend the privileges to every old
boy on every council in the Ukrainian hinterlands.
It's an interesting counterpoint to this business that in the United States
right now, powerful Republican congressman Tom Delay is being indicted
on money-laundering charges that could put him in jail.
The U.S. need not be an example to Ukraine in all things, but this country
should learn from that older democracy in this instance: even an old ally of
President George W. Bush isn't above the due process of the law.
This is a bad bill, and Yushchenko deserves censure for signing it. It will
leave even more of a bad taste in our mouths if it turns out that his
support for it represented a quid pro quo for political favors received from
Viktor Yanukovych.
The whole affair is depressing, and nothing less than an outrage. -30-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINK: http://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/editorial/23304/
==============================================================
16. HAS UKRAINE'S ORANGE REVOLUTION DELIVERED?
BBC NEWS: World Edition, United Kingdom, Sunday, October 9, 2005
Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko has pledged to implement a political
reform that will devolve much of his powers to the prime minister and MPs.
Ukraine has seen a sharp decline in economic growth since Mr Yushchenko
took power in January.
Viktor Yushchenko was sworn in as president in early 2005 after huge numbers
of protesters forced a rerun of the troubled 2004 election, in what came to
be known as the Orange Revolution.
But last month he sacked prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko and her cabinet in
a move that appeared to mark the end of the coalition that won the Orange
Revolution.
What did the Orange Revolution achieve? Have much needed reforms been
implemented? Should the Ukraine seek closer ties with Europe or a greater
relationship with Russia? Send us your views and experiences.
President Viktor Yushchenko will be our guest on a special edition of
Talking Point, to be broadcast in October. Use the form above to send your
question for the president NOW.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/4321138.stm
COMMENTS
The following comments reflect the balance of opinion we have received.
The very fact that: much of this political turmoil has happened in the
public eye, largely transparent to Ukraine's citizens and internationally,
readily and openly analysed from various points of view in the media, and
the fact that Yulia now has a real opportunity to win power back in the
parliamentary shows that Ukraine has taken one huge step towards a true,
transparent democracy, regardless of who the individual victors may be.
The Orange Revolution should be seen an evolution and not simply a point in
time. [Roman, Toronto]
True reform and change takes time! 9 months is not long enough to tell
whether Mr. Yushchenko has been effective. Ukraine is in a unique position,
and as far as foreign ties, it should try to have good relations with both
Europe and Russia [Paul, New Jersey, USA]
The fragmentation of the coalition is a major setback, undoubtedly. Ukraine
has no experience in self-rule; it has had no possibility to develop a
political tradition of its own, other than one of resistance and struggle
for survival and independence, since the 17th century. We may here be seeing
only the inevitable growing pains of a country in the beginning stages of
self-government, delayed by fifteen years of corrupt rule after the
dissolution of the USSR. The programme of seeking closer ties with Europe
remains the correct path; of course it has its own perils, and of course
good relations with Moscow should be maintained. But a return to the Russian
sphere of influence would be disastrous. The West should do all it can to
facilitate the success of the Orange Revolution and the emergence of a
stable and free Ukraine. [Stephen Reynolds, Hillsboro, OR, USA]
YES - The Orange Revolution has delivered! The Orange Revolution was
about democracy, freedom of speech, and an end to tyranny. Now, one can
walk the streets of many of Ukraine's cities and villages and witness people
demonstrating and voicing their opinions without the fear that once existed.
Talk shows, editorials, and other forms of mass media often feature
criticism of the government. The people feel free to express their
disillusionment and frustrations. They also celebrate their successes. Is
this not a true expression of 'the will of the people'? A democratic society
is not formed in a day, a month, or even a year. Instead of watching and
critiquing from afar, we should all extend an open hand and offer our
support and encouragement, and help this wonderful nation develop to its
full potential! [Marta Chyczij, Canadian currently in Kyiv]
From the streets of Kyiv the euphoria of Orange Mania has given way to a
sickening disappointment and complete distrust of the "new" authority in
Kyiv. After standing toe to toe with Ukraine's most powerful thugs in a
rigged election, the Orange revolutionaries have seen their President sign a
"sweetheart" deal with Putin-backed Yanukovich and the nearly wholesale
sacking of the "dreamteam" Orange government, to be replaced by people
that the Kremlin and former President Kuchma lovingly endorse.
Frankly, the people feel betrayed. The tough talk of rooting out corruption
in the highest places of government have gone unrealized. The voices from
December continue to echo throughout Ukraine for real justice.
[Ken, Kyiv, Ukraine]
The Ukrainians got the leader they wanted and deserved
[M Da Silva, Toronto, Canada]
The Orange revolution has delivered less and confused more. It was funny to
notice how international media can make heroes out of any seeming
revolutionaries in the East. The Orange revolution enthralled Western media
and the mighty Time magazine only to be proven later as a hoax of a
revolution as per Western expectations and presumptions!
[Rajiv Thind , Christchurch, New Zealand]
What, you haven't noticed?! Seems to me that after the Orange Revolution
Ukraine is doing as well, if not better, than Germany or Poland on the
political front. And economic? Give it SOME time.
[R L Chomiak, Washington, US, and Kyiv, Ukraine\
So far Orange Revolution hasn't delivered much. Unfortunately most of the
politicians it brought to power aren't much different from those that
represented old regime of Kuchma.
Economical policy had failed as Yulia Tymoshenko had done nothing except
repeatedly saying that her government is best Ukraine ever had. And despite
all the words about fighting corruption in reality many of the new officials
are very corrupt.
One of the leaders of the revolution Mr. Porshenko well used his new
position to become one of the richest man in Eastern Europe. So one year
after revolution situation doesn't look very good. We all Want to believe
but it becomes more and more difficult. [Ihor, Lviv]
It showed the Ukrainian people that they can overcome the past. The reforms
have not been implemented because of the high corruption in the government.
The Parliament is what is in the way of reforms actually being accomplished.
There are too many people in the government who were supporters of
Yanakovich and they are blocking the way for reforms to happen. Ukraine is
still run by the mafia and until the mafia is broken the country will not be
totally free. Ukraine should focus first on getting themselves together as a
nation. Relations should be made with both Russia and Europe, but first they
need to focus their attention on the issues that are plaguing their own
country. It shouldn't be the EU or Russia before the Ukrainian people.
[Colleen, Berrien Springs Michigan USA]
In the USA, it seems that following the Orange Revolution there is a
new-found pride amongst Ukrainian-Americans. From pictures I have seen
of concurrent protests all over the world, it seems that the revolution was
more of an international awakening of Ukrainian identity in addition to a
desire for self-determination, a better standard of living, and the
establishment of a true democracy in the Republic of Ukraine.
[Joe Collins, Chicopee, MA, USA]
Ukraine may still have severe problems, however the people have learned
that they have the capability to determine their own destiny. I believe that
the centre of continental Europe is in Ukraine, therefore, geographically
and I believe in reality Ukraine should be an integral part of Europe.
Maybe Ukraine will finally cast off its derogatory name - " Little Russia"
[Eugene Moroz, Concord MA USA]
Corruption from former soviet politicians and oligarchs in Ukraine is
unfortunately still rife: The recent government reshuffle was a simple
rearranging of the pigs at the trough, whilst those who stood on the maidan
still look for real change. Amnesties for former corrupt, and in some cases
murderous, politicians at whatever level was a signal for many that little
had in fact changed at the top. Gongadze's murderers still sit in office or
relax in their dachas. Meanwhile former embarrassed Russian commentators
and government officials gleefully see the demise of the Orange revolution.
It is time to bring out the guillotine and deal with this Ukrainian
aristocracy the French way. [Ivan, England]
In Canada there is a continued perception that Yushchenko is on the right
track. He radiates an aura of sincerity and of objectivity. Yes, stick with
a closer relationship with Europe, by all means. Russia's historic contempt
for Ukrainianism will not diminish until it is forced to respect Ukraine's
desire for independence. Until then Russia will continue to expect Ukraine
to be a colony of sorts. This is the opportune time to make a permanent
statement, to Ukrainians, to Russia, and to the world. Sieze it.
[Michael Zrymiak, Surrey BC Canada]
The Ukraine has only recently returned from the nightmare that was the
Soviet Union. Old habits die hard. Ukrainians are intelligent, know how to
work hard and all they have to do is learn to work together. That is our
biggest challenge and the breakdown in the last government shows we're
not quite there yet. [Leo Hura, Honolulu Hawaii]
I took part in the Orange Revolution and wrote about it for Political
Affairs Magazine. If there is one thing that the movement accomplished, it
was to prove to the old Soviet regimes that elections are no longer to be
bought, bullied, or stolen. The people, if willing, will have their say.
Everything else is icing on the cake. Look for the same in Belarus in the
near future. Power to the people. [Thomas Lohr, Denver CO, USA]
The Orange Revolution did nothing except to see that Ukraine has become
more democratic yet politically divided. The problems of all this is greed
of power and refusal of Mr Yushchenko's allies to co-operate together to
build a Ukraine that is united, prosperous and democratic.
[Firdaus, Singapore]
During the past year, the global community perceived that Ukraine sought
closer relations with the West, especially the European Union, while at the
same time keeping Russia close at hand. What is the next step? Will Ukraine
evolve into some kind of foreign policy bridge among the EU, the US and
Russia, or will Ukraine find its own way by growing close to Europe and the
West? [Fernando Zambrana, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico]
Mr. President, time and time again we in the West have hoped for meaningful
reforms in Ukraine, and yet each time these hopes are dashed. What are you
prepared to do to ensure the fulfilment of the promises of the Orange
Revolution? Thank you, and Dyakuyu!
[Walter Salmaniw, MD, Victoria, Canada]
Ukraine's Orange Revolution galvanized what had previously been a
politically apathetic and cynical population into action in defence of their
electoral rights. It was about a flawed process, rather than flawed
outcomes. In fact, many of the demonstrators in the square were not there to
defend Viktor Yushchenko or Yulia Tymoshenko, but rather their own right to
have their voices heard. As such, whether or not it "delivered" will be
unclear until another election is held.
[Kristin Cavoukian, Vancouver, Canada]
Unfortunately Orange revolution did not bring anything. Ukrainian people
were deceived once again. Ukraine will never achieve anything until they
introduced legal and economic reforms. Until this happens power will move
from one clan to another. [Ostap , Kiev]
It is not the politicians who will bring change. The Ukrainian people
themselves must change. Corruption, cheating, criminalization; this way of
life can only be eliminated by the people directly, not by a man waving an
orange scarf. That is a fantasy that many outsiders would like you to
believe. [Milic, US]
Victor Yushchenko has been going through a very rocky period and he has
had to contend with accusations of sleaze which could lead to impeachment
proceedings. So the future does not look so rosy.
Pancha Chandra, Brussels, Belgium -30- [Action Ukraine Report]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINK: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/4321138.stm
==============================================================
17. EURASIA: THE GREAT (PIPELINE) GAME
Oil from Kazakhstan alone can ensure the viability of Ukraine's Odessa-
Brody pipeline and its linkup through Poland with EU oil markets.
ANALYSIS: By Vladimir Socor, The Wall Street Journal
New York, New York, Friday, October 7, 2005
ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- The rapidly changing nation of Kazakhstan, and its
despotic neighbor Turkmenistan, can help the West -- in particular Europe --
reduce its dependence on Middle Eastern and Russian oil and gas.
To achieve that goal, these two eastern Caspian countries must be linked by
pipelines to Europe, via the South Caucasus and Turkey.
Yet, at a conference of the West's leading oil and gas companies here this
week, that strategic issue is hardly a topic of discussion. These firms have
found and are extracting the oil and gas from these countries, while Russia
holds an as yet unchallenged monopoly on the transit routes to consumer
countries.
This has no precedent and no parallel in the world of energy and
geopolitics. Russia, the world's second-largest producer and exporter of oil
(behind only Saudi Arabia), and global No. 1 for gas, absorbs the oil and
gas produced in the eastern Caspian basin.
As a result, Europe -- the main potential consumer of Caspian energy -- is
sliding into a dual dependence on Russian supplies as well as
Russian-mediated supplies from this region.
Such dependence on a single, powerful transit country is dangerous to the
producer countries as well. Three of the world's richest hydrocarbon fields
are in Kazakhstan. After the onshore Tengiz and Karachaganak supergiant
fields came on stream, the Kashagan field became the biggest offshore oil
discovery anywhere in the world in the last 30 years, and is due on stream
before the end of this decade.
Even without taking into account possible new discoveries on Kazakhstan's
continental shelf, oil output is projected to increase from some 50 million
tons annually at present to at least 150 million tons per year by 2015, on
the strength of Western technology and capital investment.
The export routes out of Kashagan will be chosen soon. That choice can
either reinforce or break Russia's monopoly on the transit of Kazakhstan's
oil and gas to international markets.
Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Vladimir Shkolnik, a nuclear physicist
by profession, has overseen oil and gas development in Kazakhstan in recent
years. He is well received in Washington and Houston.
As Mr. Shkolnik explained to me here, some 20 million tons of oil annually
from the anticipated output of Kashagan can be exported by tankers across
the Caspian Sea to Baku and then pumped into the pipeline that carries
Azerbaijani oil through Georgia to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan,
from where it goes to the world market.
Apart from these 20 million tons, however, international oil companies and
Kazakhstan expect to continue using Russian pipelines to export the lion's
share of oil from the country between now and 2015 and even beyond.
The line from Tengiz to Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiisk is projected
to increase its capacity from 28-30 million tons annually at present to 60
million tons, as soon as differences with the Russian government over
tariffs and taxes are resolved.
Karachaganak's gas condensate output is scheduled to be exported partly to
Russia's Orenburg refinery and partly through the pipeline to Novorossiisk.
And the line from Atyrau on Kazakhstan's Caspian coast to Russia's
oil-refining center in Samara, on the Volga, is due for a capacity increase
from 15 million tons annually at present to 25 million tons annually before
the end of this decade.
Whether these intentions are fulfilled or not, Kashagan can make the
difference in terms of opening alternative export routes out of Kazakhstan.
The optimal solution would be a trans-Caspian pipeline to carry the bulk of
Kashagan's projected annual output of 50 million tons to Baku.
While part of that volume could be pumped into the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
pipeline, another part could be routed to Georgia's Black Sea coast for
shipment to Europe.
For example, oil from Kazakhstan alone can ensure the viability of Ukraine's
Odessa-Brody pipeline and its linkup through Poland with EU oil markets.
Uzakbay Karabalin, chairman of Kazakhstan's state oil and gas company
Kazmunaigaz, told me that Presidents Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan and
Ilham Aliev of Azerbaijan plan to sign a framework agreement on
trans-Caspian shipments of oil from Kazakhstan to Baku before the end of
this year.
At this point, the project envisages a tanker line -- five tankers of the
60,000-tons class are to be built -- to shuttle across the Caspian Sea,
carrying up to 20 million tons of oil annually westward. That, however, is
less than half of Kashagan's anticipated output.
For annual volumes above 20 million tons, a trans-Caspian pipeline becomes
the most cost-effective mode of transport, according to projections in both
Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
However, Russia and Iran have teamed up to oppose the construction of such a
pipeline, just as they've opposed the American-initiated project of a
trans-Caspian gas pipeline from Turkmenistan, whose gas export potential may
almost equal Russia's current export volume. In opposition to both of those
projects, Moscow and Tehran invoke ecological arguments for public
consumption.
Behind that screen, Moscow resorts to political arm-twisting in order to
retain a monopoly on energy transit from the eastern Caspian basin or at
least the lion's share of that transit.
It is high time, before it becomes past time, for the EU to develop a policy
for direct access to eastern Caspian oil and gas. Such access is also a
shared economic and strategic interest of the Euro-Atlantic community, as
Washington realized long ago.
The U.S.-backed East-West Caspian Energy Corridor has taken shape thus
far only as a rump based in Azerbaijan.
The producer, transit and consumer countries, from the Caspian Sea to the
South Caucasus to Ukraine, Poland and other EU member countries aware of
the stakes involved, might together focus the collective mind of Brussels on
the eastern Caspian basin. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: Mr. Socor is senior fellow of the Washington-based
Jamestown Foundation, publishers of the Eurasia Daily Monitor.
==============================================================
18. "THE UGLY UZBEK"
EDITORIAL: The Washington Post
Washington, D.C., Saturday, October 8, 2005; Page A20
ALMOST FIVE months after Uzbekistan's president, Islam Karimov, ordered his
security forces to massacre hundreds of mostly unarmed demonstrators in the
city of Andijan, European governments are finally taking steps to punish his
regime.
On Monday in Brussels, foreign ministers of the European Union agreed on an
arms embargo against Uzbekistan as well as visa restrictions for government
officials complicit with the slaughter. That was an important and necessary
step, especially given Mr. Karimov's defiance of Western calls for an
international investigation and the campaign of repression he now wages
against survivors of the massacre.
It raises the question of why the Western government that claims to be at
the forefront of promoting freedom in the Muslim world -- the Bush
administration -- has not taken similar action.
After Sept. 11, 2001, the United States cultivated Mr. Karimov despite
mounting evidence that he was one of Asia's most brutal rulers. The reason
was simple: The Pentagon coveted the Karshi-Khanabad airbase, which Mr.
Karimov provided as a staging point for U.S. air and rescue operations in
Afghanistan.
Under pressure from Congress, the State Department finally suspended
several aid programs to Uzbekistan last year. But the action was publicly
disavowed by the Defense Department, which quickly supplied Mr. Karimov
with alternative funding.
After Andijan, the State Department joined in denouncing the violence and
helped to organize the evacuation of several hundred refugees from
neighboring Kyrgyzstan to asylum in Europe. The security relationship,
however, remained intact until the aggrieved dictator himself ended the base
deal in July.
Mr. Karimov didn't stop there. His thugs have beaten some of Andijan's
survivors into confessing that the prison break and anti-government
demonstration that preceded the massacre were funded by the U.S. embassy,
which supposedly gave its support to an Islamic terrorist group linked to al
Qaeda.
This allegation would be merely ludicrous if not for the fact that American
soldiers have fought and died in neighboring Afghanistan while combating
that very extremist movement. As it is, it is a gross insult by a ruler who
has benefited extraordinarily from the U.S. intervention.
Far smaller offenses have caused the Bush administration to downgrade
cooperation with democratic countries in Europe and Latin America. Yet there
seems to be abundant patience for Mr. Karimov. Last week he was visited by a
delegation of senior officials, who offered him another chance to rescue
relations with Washington.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon is insisting on paying $23 million for what it says
are services rendered by Uzbekistan at Karshi-Khanabad. It's hard to believe
the payment would be made if the Pentagon did not hope to mend its
relationship with the tyrant.
A better approach would be that adopted by the Senate this week, in an
amendment to the defense authorization bill: suspend the payment for a year,
while waiting to see whether Uzbekistan will demonstrate a willingness to
cooperate with the United States. A renewed partnership, the official
delegation told Mr. Karimov, must include political liberalization and an
end to the malicious propaganda.
In the very likely event that neither of those conditions are met, the Bush
administration should join European states in siding against a dictator who
deserves no more chances. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report]
==============================================================
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==============================================================
19. "NEGOTIATING WITH GENOCIDE"
LEAD EDITORIAL: The Washington Post
Washington, D.C., Sunday, October 9, 2005; Page B06
MOST ARGUMENTS about the Darfur genocide boil down to a question of
urgency. The Post and other critics have called for immediate pressure on
the sponsors of genocide in Sudan's government and a quicker deployment of
outside troops to defend civilians. Meanwhile the Bush administration has
worked toward these goals, but slowly.
Rather than changing Sudan's behavior by, say, imposing a no-fly zone, the
administration has sought a durable political solution to the tension
between Sudan's government and its regions. Instead of pressing for a quick
NATO deployment, the administration has ceded the job of protecting
civilians to the slow-moving African Union.
To be charitable, the administration's argument is not only that the direct
application of U.S. or Western power would be costly and risky. It's that,
in the long term, there won't be peace in Darfur without a political
solution and that Africa will remain miserable unless it builds up the
African Union to address its problems. Recent news has revealed some
strength and much weakness in this approach.
The positive news is that the search for a political solution is inching
ahead. Last year the administration pressed successfully for a north-south
peace deal, under which southerners would be invited into Sudan's central
government and given a share of the nation's oil wealth.
To secure this deal, the Bush team had to forgo aggressive options such
as a no-fly zone; when criticized for this choice of priorities, the
administration argued that the north-south settlement would help Darfur
because the power-sharing model could be extended to the territory, ending
the root cause of its violence. Slowly, the administration is pursuing this
vision.
Despite the destabilizing death of John Garang, the southern leader,
southerners have taken up positions in the central government. The next step
is to include them in the government team that is negotiating with Darfur's
rebels. If that can be achieved, it would boost peace prospects in Darfur.
The problem is that, in the meantime, horrific suffering continues. The slow
response to the genocide last year cost the lives of probably tens of
thousands of civilians. This year the case for urgency has sometimes dimmed:
Government-backed death squads have been less active, and a huge
humanitarian effort has forestalled large-scale starvation.
But a recent series of attacks has shown how quickly violence can flare up
again. In the last days of September, a Janjaweed death squad crossed into
neighboring Chad and killed 36 civilians, and another squad supported by
government helicopters attacked a camp for displaced civilians in Darfur,
killing 34.
These and other attacks drove thousands from their homes and brought
relief efforts to a standstill. The United Nations' disaster chief, Jan
Egeland, warned that, unless security improved, the Western humanitarian
effort "could all end tomorrow." Yesterday, the first killings of African
Union peacekeepers in Darfur underscored his point.
The problem the Bush administration now confronts is the same one it's faced
since the beginning of the genocide. It has chosen to work with Sudan's
government in seeking a durable political solution, but there's no telling
how long that quest will take or whether it will succeed at all.
The administration's main interlocutor in the government, Vice President Ali
Uthman Muhammad Taha, sometimes appears able to lead Sudan in a
moderate direction, as he did in agreeing to the north-south peace deal.
But sometimes Mr. Taha appears to have been sidelined, as when his
government harasses western relief workers in Darfur and resumes
massacres of civilians.
On other occasions Mr. Taha seems deluded. A Sudanese paper recently
reported him as saying that Darfur's trouble "was closely linked to the
American election fever."
With interlocutors such as these, the administration should not base its
entire Darfur strategy on the potentially endless search for a political
solution. Nor should it pretend that a small African Union force can keep
the peace in a region the size of France.
The administration's long-term desire for a negotiated peace and for African
self-reliance in peacekeeping is laudable. But it needs a more muscular
short-term strategy.
What about punishing the government for its recent massacres by destroying
the participating helicopters? What about supplementing African Union troops
with NATO ones?
To be sure, NATO resources are stretched thin by Iraq and Afghanistan, and
Western leaders are tempted to regard Sudan as marginal to their interests.
But NATO was born -- indeed, the idea of "the West" was born -- out of the
ashes of Hitler's genocide. If it refuses to fight the modern echoes of that
barbarism, what does the West stand for? -30-
==============================================================
20. UKRAINIAN JEWS HONOR VICTIMS OF BABI YAR MASSACRE
Anna Melnichuk, AP Worldstream, Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, Oct 09, 2005
KIEV - Hundreds of Jews lit candles and prayed Sunday near the Babi Yar
ravine where the Nazis killed tens of thousands of Ukrainian Jews during
World War II, and Jewish leaders expressed concern over recent anti-Semitic
acts in the former Soviet republic.
The commemoration at the edge of the ravine followed 10 days after an
official ceremony marking 64 years since the massacre, which began on Sept.
29, 1941, when Nazi forces occupying Kiev marched local Jews to the brink of
the ravine and shot them.
"The official commemoration looks like a political rally, so we Jews alone
gather here separately for years," said Ukraine's chief rabbi, Yakov Blaikh,
standing near a modest sculpture of a menorah near the edge of the ravine -
a mile from the huge Soviet-era monument to Babi Yar victims that is the
site of annual official ceremonies.
Leaning against a crutch on the brink of the ravine, Leya Osadcha, 79, lit
candles in memory of 16 relatives who died here. She said she watched from
behind some trees as the Nazis gunned their victims down.
"My mother sent me, then a 15-year old girl, to a nearby village to trade
clothes for some food. When I came back, our neighbors told me Nazi forces
occupying Kiev ordered people to gather and bring their warm clothes and
valuables - as if they were to be deported," Osadcha said. "I ran to catch
up with my family but I was too late. So I survived."
Debora Averbukh, 85, said she had been a student at the time and had been
evacuated to Tashkent, far to the east in Soviet Central Asia. She received
a letter from a Kiev neighbor saying that her parents and aunt had been
killed. It was the most dreadful, painful day in my life," Averbukh said.
More than 33,700 Jews were killed over just a few days at Babi Yar, and
within months the toll is believed to have reached more than 100,000,
including thousands of Red Army prisoners of war and resistance fighters.
Decades later, Blaikh criticized today's Ukrainian authorities for doing too
little to combat anti-Semitism. "I won't keep silence, I won't let people
forget, as rabbi, Jew and a man who believes in democracy, freedom of
speech and religion," Blaikh said.
Last month, a rabbi and his son were beaten in Kiev in an attack police
called hooliganism, meaning that they do not consider it to have motivated
by anti-Semitism.
During the summer, skinheads in Kiev severely beat a Jewish student who was
taken, in a coma, to a Tel Aviv hospital for brain surgery. Police said that
attack was also hooliganism.
Vandalism at Jewish sites occurs often in Ukraine, now home to some 100,000
Jews. Hundreds of thousands have been killed in pogroms over the centuries,
and millions died during the Holocaust. -30-
==============================================================
21. "CLOSED-TYPE DEMOCRACY"
Pragmatic West accepts Russia's "Special Form of Democracy"
COMMENTARY: Gazeta.ru website, Moscow, in Russian 4 Oct 05
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Sunday, Oct 09, 2005
Western leaders continue to be guilty of double standards towards Russia,
but these days the bias consists in turning a blind eye to uncomfortable
facts about Russia's "special" character, according to the Russian Gazeta.ru
website.
Neither Chechnya nor Yukos are the bones of contention they once were
because of a mixture of politeness and pragmatism and a sense that more
cannot be demanded of Russia's immature democracy.
Recent attempts by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to
put pressure on Russia over capital punishment demonstrate that assembly
members are out of step with the leaders of the countries they represent,
the commentary said.
The following is the text of the commentary, headlined "Closed-type
democracy" and monitored from the website on 4 October; subheadings have
been added editorially:
The Kremlin is not apprehensive about pressure from the West because it
appears that the West has accepted the establishment of a "special form of
democracy" in Russia.
Kremlin propagandists often mention the so-called double standard applied by
the West in relation to Russia. It assumes a deliberately biased attitude
towards certain problems and circumstances of Russian domestic policy.
The double standard certainly does exist, but its import has long since
become something quite different. Kremlin diplomacy has been able to get
subjects that are uncomfortable for the Russian leadership excluded de facto
from the list of subjects under discussion with Western partners.
"Friend Vladimir" no longer needs to worry that he will be asked unpleasant
questions.
And then when certain unaware European citizens still try to ask
representatives of the Russian authorities questions, someone always turns
up to give them a deserved rebuff.
DEATH PENALTY
On Tuesday [4 October] Oleg Morozov, first deputy chairman of the State Duma
and a One Russia faction member, was forced to deliver a reprimand to
European parliamentarians.
He called on members of PACE, whose second session opened in Strasbourg
on Monday 3 October, not to put pressure on Russia for the immediate
ratification of Protocol No 6 concerning the abolition of the death penalty.
"Our partners in Europe can raise this subject as loudly and persistently as
they want, but it seems to me that actual practices are far more important.
They give Europeans every reason to see that this problem is in fact
resolved in Russia," the prominent One Russian said.
Mr Morozov's rebuke was elicited by the statement of PACE President Rene van
der Linden before the opening of the session. He in effect demanded that the
Russian deputies ratify this protocol promptly, before the January session
of the European Parliament.
"I have great doubts that this ratification process should be conducted
under pressure from someone," Oleg Morozov commented, adding that this
could have the most negative consequences.
Mr Morozov did not specify what kind of "most negative consequences" these
might be - resumption of executions or something less threatening. However,
neither did Mr van der Linden clarify how PACE intends to put pressure on
Russia and its deputies.
At this point the European parliamentarians, who dutifully pick at their
colleagues from Russia during every session, do not have political subtlety
and tact in dealing with the enigmatic Russians.
Why did they suddenly remember Protocol No 6 instead of being content with a
discussion of the state of affairs in Moldova or in Ukraine where, in the
opinion of the Russian deputies, there are plenty of shortcomings unworthy
of member-countries of the European parliament?
With regard to Ukraine the Russian delegation, headed by another well-known
One Russian, Konstantin Kosachev, even offered its own draft decree on the
status of the Russian language in the Crimea.
"SPECIAL CHARACTER"
At present, however, it is Russia that gives the European deputies no peace,
even though, unlike the parliamentary officials, the leaders of most of the
Western states have grasped the meaning of [19th century poet Fedor]
Tyutchev's words about Russia's special character and the impossibility of
using a common measure for it.
A country that has considerable reserves of oil, gas, and decrepit nuclear
weapons and that manages to keep its basically impoverished population
relatively in line has earned the right to a special measure and to a
special attitude towards itself. And accordingly, to the "special form" of
democracy that the Kremlin is proclaiming.
Involved in the common fight against world terrorism, the Western leaders
have even stopped pestering their Russian colleagues with the unpleasant
issue of Chechnya.
And, observing politesse and out of pragmatic considerations, they pretend
that they believe that people in Chechnya really have begun to live better,
happier lives. But they probably have not heard about the Chechen propaganda
train of friendship, song and dance that rolled across the vast spaces of
Russia for two months.
Another ticklish subject of Russian domestic policy, the Yukos case, has
also really been written off.
In the end, if its indirect consequence was an opportunity for foreign
investors to buy Gazprom stock, is it worth interfering in the domestic
flogging that the Russian government is inflicting on its own people?
FORMALITIES OBSERVED
"The problem of actual ratification is secondary. In fact, we are meeting
all the conditions," parliamentarian Oleg Morozov patiently explains about
the death penalty, which has not been abolished, but "frozen". And in these
words lies the key to a correct, non-dogmatic understanding of Russian
reality.
All the formalities are observed; all the attributes of a normal European
state are present. Should more be demanded of the hypothetically premature
Russian democracy?
Especially if this specific variety of political order in a country rich in
natural resources and population fully suits the majority of the leaders of
those countries represented by the European parliament deputies who are
unhappy with Russia. And, most important, this special Russian order and
special character also suit a majority of the citizens of Russia itself at
this point. -30- [The Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]
==============================================================
22. SUSTAINING MOMENTUM
Sustaining the Orange Revolution
The Inaugural U.S.-Ukrainian Investment Symposium
October 31st, 2005 at the Harvard Club of Boston
Kiril Stefan Alexandrov, Executive Director
International Economic Alliance (IEA)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, Monday, October 10, 2005
CAMBRIDGE - On behalf of our Chairman, Secretary Mosbacher, and the
members of our Board of Advisors, we extend to you an invitation to
participate in the U.S.-Ukrainian Investment Symposium on October 31st,
2005 at the Harvard Club of Boston, one day in advance of the 9th Annual
U.S.-Russian Investment Symposium.
This Symposium features the most comprehensive representation of business
interests in Ukraine ever convened in the U.S. that matches support from the
U.S. and Ukrainian Governments, along with partners such as the European
Bank for Reconstruction and Development [EBRD], and the International
Finance Corporation [IFC] of the World Bank, and the American Chamber of
Commerce Ukraine [AMCHAM].
As political changes bring new hope for Ukraine's transition, the U.S. and
Ukrainian governments are working to sustain momentum with a discerning
policy towards foreign investment-- highlighting Ukraine's core competencies
as a trading nation and delivering finance to the next generation of
'strategic industries.'
This Symposium is an opportunity for regional stakeholders to advance this
agenda, undertake a critical examination of Ukraine's investment climate,
and cast spotlights on business opportunities.
Through a framework of moderated Panel discussions designed by Harvard
Business School professors, this event anchors investors' questions and
provides a platform for business leaders to meet new partners. It is an
indispensable opportunity for decision-makers to take charge of the economic
and political evolution of the region.
SPEAKERS-GOVERNMENT, BUSINESS, EBRD, AND IFC WORLD BANK
Our institutional partners, the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (EBRD), the World Bank, and the International Finance
Corporation (IFC), are each sending delegations of top executives to frame
and help guide the proceedings.
We are working closely with central figures in Ukraine's economy: Sheila
Gwaltney, Charge' d'Affairs,, U.S. Embassy in Ukraine; Alex Shnaider,
Midland Resource Holding, Serhij Korsunskiy, Acting Ambassador of Ukraine
to the United States; Natalie Jaresko, CEO, Horizon Capital (WNIS Fund);
Jorge Zukoski, President, American Chamber of Commerce Ukraine; Edward
Nassim, IFC Director Central and Eastern Europe; Peter Koelle, Managing
Director, HVB Bank and Chairman of the Board, International Moscow Bank;
Uwe Laszig, Manager, Strategic Planning, Antonov Aviation; Vladimir
Sivkovich, Chairman, Anti-Corruption Commission, Verkhovna Rada; Pavlo
Riabkin, Deputy Minister for Transportation and Communication; Carl Sturen,
Chairman, Chumak Company; Jaroslawa Johnson, Managing Partner,
Chadboune & Parke Ukraine; Dorian Foyil, President, Foyil Securities; and
other select representatives of domestic and foreign business interests in
Ukraine.
U.S., RUSSIAN, UKRAINIAN BUSINESS LEADERS IN BOSTON
The 9th Annual U.S.-Russian Investment Symposium is being held November
1-2 at the nearby World Trade Center, Boston. The geographic and timely
proximity of these two events is arranged to facilitate interaction of
business and government leaders from Ukraine's largest foreign investor
countries, the United States and Russia.
This year's highlights include special addresses by Russian Ministers German
Gref and Leonid Reiman, and the Chairmen of MDM and Vneshtorg Bank,
along with EBRD President Jean Lemierre.
Please visit our website regularly for more information and speaker updates:
www.IEAlliance.org -30- [The Action Ukraine Report Monitoring Service]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact: Kiril Stefan Alexandrov, Executive Director, IEA, 12 Francis
Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02138, 617.461.4155, Fax 617 812 0499
or Kiril@post.harvard.edu, www.IEAlliance.org.
================================================================
23. DON'T TELL THE EASTER BUNNY, BUT WE'RE USING THE EGGS
FOR HALLOWEEN
Ancient Ukrainian craft called "pysanka"
By Martha Stewart, New York Times Special Features
Seattle Times, Seattle, Washington, Saturday, October 8, 2005
This Halloween, cast a spell on everyday eggs using an ancient Ukrainian
craft called "pysanka" (which loosely translates as "written upon").
Adorn eggs with wax drawings, dip them in dye and then hold them close to
flickering flames. As the wax melts away, a spooky design will be revealed.
Give the knickknacks to family and friends. In Ukraine, where the technique
is used at Easter, the decorative eggs are thought to bring health and
happiness.
TOOLS AND MATERIALS
You can find these items at some crafts stores or online. (To find Web sites
that sell them, type "Ukrainian Easter eggs" into a search engine.)
. Ear syringe: Use this item (available at drugstores) to expel an egg's
white and yolk; Utility knife; Pure or black beeswax: Choose either kind
to create your designs: Pure beeswax is softer and more pliable; black is
easier to see.; Kistkas: These writing tools are plastic sticks with brass
barrels. They come in three colors: White makes the thinnest lines; blue,
medium-size lines; and red, the thickest lines.
Powder dyes: Add hot water to these powders to create an intensely
colored dye that will stay vivid for years; Vinegar; Candles;
Cotton swabs; Tongs; Craft glue; Green pipe cleaners (to create
pumpkin stems); Floral tape (for pumpkin stems); Eye screws: Use these if
you want to make egg ornaments. Glue an eye screw in the top hole of an
egg, then thread ribbon through it to create a loop.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Cover your work surface with newspaper. Following instructions on the dye,
make a batch in a clean glass jar. Don't close the jar until the liquid has
cooled to room temperature. Make an egg-drying board by inserting
toothpicks into a piece of foam board in a grid pattern, spacing them
1 inch apart.
Blow out eggs: Lightly pierce ends of an egg with a utility knife; turn it
to enlarge holes a bit. Poke a wire through to pierce yolk. Hold egg, narrow
end down, over a bowl. Blow out contents with syringe. Repeat with
remaining eggs.
CREATE THE EGGS
1. Plug holes in a blown-out egg with beeswax: Heat barrel of a blue kistka
in a flame for about 20 seconds, then scoop wax into barrel until almost
full. (If wax doesn't melt, heat barrel again.) Touch the tip of the kistka
to a hole; a bead of wax will run out and seal it. Repeat with other end.
2. Before creating a wax design, do a practice sketch on paper.
Use tongs to dip egg into a mixture of 1/4 cup vinegar and 1 cup water.
Remove egg when bubbles form on shell, about 1 minute. If your design will
be the same color as the eggshell (a white ghost on a white egg, for
example), skip to step 3.
For a jack-o'-lantern (which won't have any eggshell-colored areas), use
tongs to dip egg in yellow dye for about 1 minute. Rest dyed egg on drying
board; let dry about 5 minutes.
3. Draw outlines of image and features with wax, touching tip of kistka to
shell and heating and refilling as necessary. (For a jack-o'-lantern,
outline eyes, nose and mouth before you draw pumpkin ribs.) Next, fill in
outlines with wax, leaving details (such as ghost eyes) uncovered so they
can be dyed. With tongs, dip egg into dye (orange, for a jack-o'-lantern)
for about 1 minute. Rest dyed egg on drying board; let dry, about 5 minutes.
Repeat as necessary to achieve desired shade.
4. If this is the only color you're using, skip to step 5. If you'll be
using another (to add black features to a jack-o'-lantern, for example), use
more wax to outline the spaces you want to dye (such as the eyes, nose and
mouth). Spread wax far beyond the outlines, so dye won't spread to the other
areas of the egg. Dip cotton-swab into dye; use it to fill in outlined
shapes. Let egg dry on rack.
5. Melt wax off shell: Hold shell next to candle flame (not in it); turn egg
and blot with paper towel as wax melts off. Continue, using fresh paper
towels as needed.
6. To make a pumpkin stem, snip a piece of green pipe cleaner about 1/2
inch long. Wrap half with floral tape; push other end into hole at top of
the egg. If pipe cleaner is too thick for the hole, trim fuzz with scissors.
Add a dab of glue to hole, and insert pipe cleaner; let dry.
Questions may be sent to mslletters@marthastewart.com or Ask Martha,
care of Letters Department, Martha Stewart Living, 11 W. 42nd Street,
New York, N.Y. 10036. Sorry, no personal replies.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PHOTO: VICTOR SCHRAGER: Turn ordinary eggs into spooky delights
using an ancient Ukrainian craft called "pysanka." You can use them as
decorations in your home or as gifts for friends.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/homegarden/2002546823_marthahalloween08.html
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