[Ohio UZO News] Ukraine: AP; WP; HRW; EDM; RFE/RL

[Deychak, Orest]

AP

Ukraine parliament holds emergency session to address financial crisis,
elections postponed 

By YURAS KARMANAU 

Associated Press Writer

20 October 2008

 

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukraine's president on Monday called back the
parliament he dissolved earlier this month to push through emergency
legislation aimed at softening the impact of the country's financial
crisis.

President Viktor Yushchenko also issued a decree pushing back
parliamentary elections by a week until Dec. 14 to allow time to first
address the economic situation.

Ukraine's economy has been shaken hard by the global economic crisis.
The government was forced to rescue two top banks while the national
currency -- the hryvna -- has fallen around 12 percent in recent weeks.
The Ukrainian stock market has been in free fall and the country is
seeking a loan of up to $15 billion from the International Monetary Fund
to help stabilize the financial sector.

Yushchenko ordered the creation of a $200 million stabilization fund and
ordered government to use it to help shore up the banking sector, assist
the country's key steel and chemical industries, adopt a balanced budget
and regulate foreign trade. Parliament will have to vote on the package
of measures.

Yushchenko's political rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, warned
earlier Monday that Ukraine is headed for economic stagnation. She said
that Ukrainians are in for tough times as demand falls globally for
steel and chemicals, the country's top export commodities, and banks are
reluctant to extend consumer credit.

"Everybody will feel that," a somber-looking Tymoshenko told reporters
in parliament.

She has called for all political forces to form a broad coalition, but
the main opposition party and Yushchenko's allies refused to meet with
her Monday to discuss her proposal. Yushchenko's office denounced her
idea as a "political confidence game."

The two heroes of the Orange Revolution that put Ukraine on a
pro-Western course and made Yushchenko president have become fierce foes
ahead of the 2010 presidential vote.

The Washington Post

www.washingtonpost.com

 

A NATO Path for Ukraine and Georgia

 

 

 

Tuesday, October 21, 2008; Page A16 

In his Oct. 20 op-ed, "Russia Unromanticized," John R. Bolton called for
NATO to "reverse" its Bucharest summit decision on Ukraine and Georgia.
I agree with Mr. Bolton's conclusion, but NATO doesn't have to "reverse"
anything. 

Here's why: In Bucharest, NATO gave Ukraine and Georgia political
"guarantees" that they would receive NATO membership, an extraordinary
and unique position from NATO. Now is the time for NATO to follow up on
its promise and give the two countries the first step in the process,
membership action plans (MAP). The plans have no time limits. Granting
MAPs to the two countries would be the beginning of the process. The
question is not, as some have said, whether Ukraine and Georgia are
ready for NATO. The question is whether NATO is ready for Ukraine and
Georgia. 

On that point at least Ukraine has been a more active partner in recent
NATO activities than have been a number of NATO members. 

ROBERT MCCONNELL 

McLean 

The writer is co-founder of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation, which
encourages democratic development, free-market reform and human rights
in Ukraine. 

Human Rights Watch

For Immediate Release 

Ukraine: Respect Independent Judiciary
Political Leaders Should Stop Using Court as Political Tool

(Moscow, October 21, 2008) - Ukrainian leaders should respect the
independence of the judiciary, Human Rights Watch said today. Human
Rights Watch said that President Viktor Yushchenko has improperly
interfered with the judiciary as his political rivalry with Prime
Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has grown increasingly acute. Members of
Tymoshenko's political party have also taken steps that seem designed to
intimidate the judiciary.

"Both groups are using the judiciary in a tug-of-war, and an independent
judiciary will be the biggest loser," said Allison Gill, Moscow office
director at Human Rights Watch. "Both sides should stop interfering
immediately."

On October 9, 2008, after his coalition with Tymoshenko's bloc
collapsed, Yushchenko dissolved parliament and issued a decree calling
for early elections, on December 7. Tymoshenko appealed to the District
Administrative Court of Kyiv to block election preparations. On October
10, the court ruled in her favor, and issued an injunction the next day
staying Yushchenko's decree, effectively crippling the government. 

On October 14, Yushchenko annulled his appointment of the administrative
court judge and abolished the court. He then reorganized the court into
two new courts, requiring new judicial appointments. 

But then, on the morning of October 17, Yushchenko reversed his October
14 decree abolishing the court. An hour later, he reversed that decree,
thus creating the two new courts - Central Administrative Court of Kyiv
and Left Shore Court (Livoberezhny Sud). The newly created Central
Administrative Court of Kyiv annulled the October 10 injunction by the
District Administrative Court. 

"As president of a democratic country, Yushchenko should observe and
respect the independence of the judiciary, and not interfere with courts
when they issue rulings he doesn't like," said Gill. 

Yushchenko also appealed the District Administrative Court ruling to the
Administrative Appeals Court. The chief of the appeals court requested
protection from the Ukrainian security service. But the security service
was present in the judge's chamber during the deliberations on the
appeal, according to a report by a Kyiv-based nongovernmental
organization, the Political and Legal Reforms Center. 

"It's one thing for the security services to provide protection for
judges," said Gill. "But it's quite another when they're actually in
chambers during deliberations. At a minimum, this creates the appearance
of potential intimidation or even interference with a pending decision."


The Political and Legal Reforms Center also reported that members of
parliament from the Tymoshenko Bloc (ByuT) physically blocked the
appeals court judges from leaving their chambers, making it impossible
to hold the hearing.

BYuT said it had dispatched its members to the District Administrative
Court of Kyiv and the Supreme Administrative Court to "protect" judges
from "provocations."

Yushchenko's presidential secretariat said that the Administrative
Appeals Court had to postpone the hearing on his appeal due to
"unprecedented pressure from executive bodies and Ukrainian lawmakers."
On October 13, the press service of the Supreme Administrative Court
complained that BYuT deputies had been "hampering the work of the head
of the court." 

President Yushchenko and his opponents, including Prime Minister
Tymoshenko, have recently engaged in a heated political struggle over
various domestic and foreign policy issues ranging from the war in
Georgia, relations with Russia, the financial crisis and new legislation
limiting the president's powers.  

This is the second time in two years that Yushchenko has interfered with
the judiciary during a struggle with his political rivals. On April 2,
2007, Yushchenko dissolved parliament and called for new elections after
dozens of politicians from pro-presidential parties defected to a
coalition headed by Yushchenko's political rival, then-Prime Minister
Viktor Yanukovich. Yanukovich and his supporters challenged Yushchenko's
decision in the Constitutional Court.

Yushchenko subsequently dismissed three of 18 Constitutional Court
judges, including the chief justice. The political crisis abated when
Yushchenko and Yanukovich agreed on May 27 to hold parliamentary
elections on September 30. 

For more of Human Rights Watch's work on Ukraine, please visit:
http://hrw.org/doc/?t=europe&c=ukrain 

For more information, please contact:
In Moscow, Allison Gill (English, Russian): +7-495-737-8955; or
+7-916-238-5127 (mobile)
In New York, Rachel Denber (English, Russian, French): +1-212-216-1266;
or +1-917-916-1266 (mobile)

Eurasia Daily Monitor

October 21, 2008

UKRAINIAN CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONS COME UNDER STRAIN


Like the political crisis in the spring of 2007, the crisis unfolding
since September has placed great strains on law enforcement agencies
(see EDM, June 1, 2007). On April 2, 2007, and now again on October 8,
the president disbanded parliament.

In the spring of 2007 the Interior Ministry was controlled by the Viktor
Yanukovych government and Anti-Crisis coalition. Interior Minister (MVS)
and Socialist Vasyl Tsushko authorized the intervention of the MVS
special forces (the Berkut) to defend the prosecutor removed by the
president, and they clashed physically with the presidential guard
(Directorate on State Protection [UDO]).

Under the Yulia Tymoshenko government, the MVS is controlled by Yuriy
Lutsenko who, although he headed the pro-presidential Our
Ukraine-Peoples Self Defense (OU-PSD) bloc in the September 2007
pre-term elections, has broken ranks with President Viktor Yushchenko
and aligned himself with Tymoshenko. Lutsenko has called on "democratic
forces" to rally round Tymoshenko in the December 7 pre-term elections.

Conflict between the MVS and the president in the current crisis pits
one wing of the disintegrated orange coalition against the other. MVS
special forces (Berkut, Tytan, and Grifon) have been dispatched to guard
state institutions.

In 2007 and today the president has drawn on two law enforcement units
he directly controls: the Security Service (SBU) and UDO, which guards
senior officials and is analogous to the U.S. Secret Service. UDO was
part of the KGB in the USSR but was separated in 1992 when the SBU was
established.

The SBU's anti-terrorist unit Alpha and UDO were ordered by Yushchenko
to guard the Constitutional Court, other courts, and Central Election
Commission (CVK). The courts and CVK are at the center of a battle of
will between Tymoshenko and Yushchenko on the legitimacy of pre-term
elections. Yulia Tymoshenko bloc (BYuT) deputies have condemned Alpha
and UDO for blocking their entrance into the CVK.

MVS Minister Lutsenko protested that Ukrainian legislation only
permitted the MVS to guard courts, not the UDO. The UDO's stationing at
the administrative court is an infringement of the law and "in actual
fact a provocation," Lutsenko stated (www.pravda.com.ua, October 15).

"The MVS, responsible for security and order on territories belonging to
courts, today finds itself in a difficult situation, when the head of
state using other force structures attempts to apply pressure on courts
reviewing the legality of presidential decrees on the dissolution of
parliament," Lutsenko publicly complained. The situation is
"unprecedented and shameful for Ukraine," he added (www.pravda.com.ua,
October 14). Alpha and UDO units were stationed at the courts and the
CVK illegally and without any coordination with the MVS, Lutsenko said.

Other security forces could be dragged in, as they were in the spring of
2007, when the president unilaterally issued a decree placing MVS
Internal Troops under his command and bringing its commander into the
National Security and Defense Council.

The president's misuse of law enforcement agencies, especially the MVS
Internal Troops, has turned a majority of parliamentarians away from his
proposals for security reform. His proposed Draft law 1317 outlining a
reestablishment of a National Guard based on MVS Internal Troops was
overwhelmingly rejected by parliament (www.rada.gov.ua, January 11).

Anatoliy Hrytsenko, head of the parliamentary committee on national
security and defense, led the way in opposing the creation of a National
Guard. Hrytsenko had been a loyal pro-Yushchenko Defense Minister and
committed to military reforms and cleaning out the armed forces until
his replacement in December 2007.

Hrytsenko, a member of the pro-presidential OU-PSD, was backed by the
BYuT and the opposition in his opposition to the creation of a National
Guard under the sole control of the president. Ukraine had a National
Guard from 1991 to 1999 that was established on the basis of Soviet
Internal Troops, and during its nine year history it was under dual
presidential-parliamentary control.

President Leonid Kuchma abolished the National Guard because he did not
fully control it, as Yushchenko hoped to do in bill 1317. Abolishing the
National Guard in 1999 meant that its units returned to the MVS.

Under the 1996 presidential constitution the MVS came under the control
of the president who controlled the government. Under the 2006
parliamentary constitution the MVS comes under the control of parliament
through its control of the government.

Yushchenko argued logically that all militarized groups (as opposed to
police units) should be under the Commander-in-Chief, but it is ironic
that not even orange political forces trusted Yushchenko enough to
support the draft National Guard bill that would have put MVS Internal
Troops in a National Guard under the presidents control.

MVS Internal Troops have twice moved on Kyiv but were turned back on
both occasions. On November 28, 2004, they were sent to suppress the
Orange Revolution; and in June 2007 MVS Internal Troop units moved to
support the president. MVS Internal Troops have been brought into Kyiv
during the current crisis to support UDO units, MVS Minister Lutsenko
complained.

Discontent with Yushchenko's misuse of law enforcement agencies also
explains support within parliament for the transfer of the SBU from
presidential (as in the 1996 and 2006 constitutions) to joint
parliamentary-government control. This was the substance of bill 3086 on
the SBU adopted on September 2 with the support of all factions of
parliament except the pro-presidential wing of the OU-PSD.

The SBU has been described by the Tymoshenko bloc as an instrument used
for political purposes by the president to deal with his opponents
(www.byut.com.ua, October 15). This view gained ground in August when
the SBU requested the prosecutor's office to open a criminal
investigation into Tymoshenko's alleged "treason," which it refused to
do, arguing that there was insufficient evidence in the 350-page
document compiled by the presidential secretariat. The SBU was also
tasked with investigating her involvement in a bizarre assassination
plot against presidential secretariat head Viktor Baloga. The SBU opened
an investigation into corruption among BYuT deputies in late 2007 and
this month accused them of laundering money through, and conspiring to
bring down, Prominvestbank.

Dragging law enforcement forces into political battles, be it by
Yanukovych in 2007 or Tymoshenko today, does not bode well for improved
civil-military relations in Ukraine.

-Taras Kuzio

    

 

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

www.rferl.org

 

October 20, 2008 

Ukrainian Mud-Slinging In Bikinis 

Over the weekend, activists from a Ukrainian women's movement protested
their country's dirty politics by throwing mud at each other. 

With the campaign beginning for the third election in as many years --a
campaign already full of invective and childishness -- it's not hard to
see the ladies' point. And hats off to them for a novel way of making
it.

On Ukraine's political culture, Yevgeny Kiselyov had an interesting
piece in last week's "Moscow Times" arguing that, despite the turbulence
in Ukraine's political life, the discourse is healthy and vital. 

Compare that, he says, to Russia's political scene, which is "thick,
swampy, and lifeless" and "could have fatal consequences."

-- Luke Allnutt

 

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