Clinton's Kyiv Visit Capped by Announcement of Chornobyl Closure
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INSIDE:• Speeches, fact sheets on Clinton’s visit to Kyiv — pages 4-5. • New Fulbright-Margolin Prize established — page 8. • Plast youths celebrate spring with “Sviato Vesny” — centerfold. Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profit association Vol. LXVIII HE KRAINIANNo. 24 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JUNE 11, 2000 EEKLY$1/$2 in Ukraine Clinton’sT Kyiv visitU capped by announcementW of Chornobyl closure by Roman Woronowycz tion of Chornobyl workers and the comple- Kyiv Press Bureau tion of two nuclear reactors at the Khmelnytskyi and Rivne nuclear power KYIV – With U.S. President Bill complexes to offset energy losses due to Clinton standing at his side, Ukraine’s Chornobyl’s shutdown. President Leonid Kuchma announced on These costs are in addition to the $760 June 5 that the Chornobyl nuclear facility, million required to finance the reconstruc- in 1986 the site of the world’s largest tion of the sarcophagus over the damaged nuclear accident, would be permanently reactor which is slowly crumbling and closed on December 15. beginning to leak. A recent report by the Mr. Clinton was on a short, six-hour stop European Bank for Reconstruction and in Kyiv during the last leg of the final Development estimated that all costs relat- European tour of his presidency, to express ed to the Chornobyl shutdown could run wholehearted U.S. support for recent well over $2 billion. Ukrainian economic reform initiatives and The substantial $78 million U.S. grant is to provide additional U.S. financial incen- the first pledge in a new round of interna- tives for those efforts and the Chornobyl tional fund-raising that the Ukrainian gov- closure. ernment has initiated in conjunction with “I am very proud and moved to be here the G-7 to raise the financing needed to today – this is World Environment Day – rebuild the sarcophagus. More pledges are for this historic announcement by President expected during an international donors’ Kuchma that the final reactor at the conference slated for Berlin on July 5. The Chornobyl nuclear power plant will be shut goal is to raise an additional $282 million to down and the entire plant closed forever on December 15,” said Mr. Clinton during a (Continued on page 3) brief press conference at the Mariinsky Palace, the official presidential residence. Minutes before Mr. Kuchma had made the long-awaited pronouncement on Chornobyl’s fate, which fulfills a 1995 Ukraine charges Lazarenko promise made by Ukraine before the Group of Seven most industrialized nations to with contract killings close the nuclear energy complex, with PARSIPPANY, N.J. – Ukraine’s their financial support. Deputy Procurator General Mykola Mr. Clinton promised $78 million Obykhod announced on June 2 that towards the construction of a new sarcoph- the Procurator General’s Office has agus over the destroyed No. 4 nuclear reac- opened a criminal case against for- tor at Chornobyl and an additional $52 mil- mer Prime Minister Pavlo lion in new programs to aid Ukraine, much Lazarenko on charges of arranging of it in nuclear energy-related initiatives: three contract killings, reported $30 million for development of alternate RFE/RL Newsline. nuclear fuel sources; $2 million for expan- The charges in Ukraine came on sion of the U.S. nuclear safety assistance the heels of Mr. Lazarenko’s indict- program; as well as $25 million for the ment on June 1 in the United States development of a small and medium-sized on one count of conspiracy to com- private businesses. mit money laundering, seven counts Presidents Kuchma and Clinton also of money laundering and 23 counts signed a document that eliminates previous of transportation of stolen property. quotas on commercial space launches by Mr. Obykhod said Mr. Lazarenko Ukraine, while the United States received ordered the killing of prominent assurances from Ukraine that it had begun lawmaker Yevhen Scherban, who AP to shut down illegal video and audio boot- was gunned down along with his Before his address to the people of Ukraine at St. Michael’s Square, President legging operations and would abide by wife in Donetsk in 1996. Mr. Bill Clinton pauses after laying a wreath in front of a monument dedicated to the international intellectual property rights Obykhod added that the former millions of victims of Famine-Genocide who died in 1932-1933. treaties. prime minister had wanted to get While the two presidents discussed vari- rid of a competitor and that people ous problems in trade relations, corruption, close to him allegedly transferred the International Monetary Fund and money to the killers. According to Ukraine’s reforms, the central thrust and the Procurator General’s Office, Mr. Clinton to Ukrainians: “Boritesia – poborete!” achievement of the talks was the Chornobyl by Roman Woronowycz After the presidential motorcade arrived Lazarenko had also plotted the issue. assassinations of two high-ranking Kyiv Press Bureau at St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Cathedral Ukraine consistently has voiced its dis- from Mariinsky Palace, where he had bid government officials, but both plots KYIV – More than 50,000 Ukrainians appointment with the amount of funding it failed. farewell to Mr. Kuchma after several hours stood for hours on the magnificent St. has received from the international commu- Citing the Procurator General’s of meetings, Mr. Clinton first placed a nity for the solution of its Chornobyl Michael’s Square in Kyiv on June 5 to hear Office, Interfax-Ukraine noted that wreath at the Great Famine Monument, headache, which it has stated is a global U.S. President Bill Clinton give a straight- 10 persons are alleged to have been which lies at the foot of the cathedral’s vast problem. forward and uplifting speech on the need to involved in the assassination of Mr. bell tower. He then stood in silence for an Ukraine has determined that it will need proceed with political and economic Scherban and that the Lazarenko unexpectedly lengthy moment before mov- $500 million for the decommissioning of reforms and to assure the nation that the case now encompasses eight ing to a stage cloaked in blue and yellow the Chornobyl facility and $400 million for United States would remain a close and reli- safety-related ecological maintenance, as (Continued on page 3) able strategic friend. (Continued on page 8) well as funds for the retraining and reloca- 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JUNE 11, 2000 No. 24 ANALYSIS NEWSBRIEFSNEWSBRIEFS Crimea facing another political crisis? Chornobyl to close regardless of funding a Russian-European missile defense sys- by Jan Maksymiuk ditionally. tem that would use Russian defense tech- KYIV – President Leonid Kuchma said nology. The S-300 and S-400 air defense RFE/RL Poland, Belarus and Ukraine Report Mr. Lytvyn argued that the Constitution on June 6 that the Chornobyl nuclear of Ukraine – which in his opinion is superi- systems are of “better quality” than their PRAGUE – The 100-seat legislature of power plant will be shut down on U.S. analogues, he commented, adding or to all Crimean laws – does not include December 15 even if the G-7 fails to allo- the Crimean Autonomous Republic on May any provision on the unconditional dis- that “Europe admits and understands that.” 24 voted 68 to 20 to dismiss the peninsula’s cate promised funds to reinforce the cover (RFE/RL Newsline) missal of the Crimean prime minister. Mr. of the Chornobyl reactor that was government led by Prime Minister Serhii Lytvyn, however, had to admit that Kunitsyn. An adopted resolution says the destroyed in 1986. “I am the president of a Putin meets with Pope John Paul II Ukrainian legislation is “contradictory and performance of the Crimean cabinet and its great country and I bear responsibility for imperfect” in this particular case, adding ROME – President Vladimir Putin met head has been unsatisfactory this year. my words. Everything will be done as I that President Kuchma’s possible cancella- with Pope John Paul II on June 5 during a Ukraine’s First Vice Prime Minister Yurii have said,” Mr. Kuchma added. Prime tion of Mr. Kunitsyn’s ouster should be sub- 30-minute private conversation that Yekhanurov commented the next day that Minister Viktor Yuschenko noted the same mitted to the Constitutional Court for focused on disarmament questions and the the ouster of the Crimean Cabinet will day that the country will need an addition- expertise. international situation, the Vatican told the destabilize the situation on the peninsula. al $100 million to pay for conventional Mr. Kunitsyn commented that the legis- DPA news service. Mr. Putin did not invite “The economy is improving and positive fuel to generate one year’s worth of elec- the pope to Moscow, as some Italian trends are increasing, so the tension that lature dismissed him to protect patrons in tricity to make up for lost capacity when took place [in Crimea] is quite absurd,” the peninsula’s energy sector from an anti- Chornobyl shuts. Experts say closing media had speculated he would. Adding Interfax quoted Mr. Yekhanurov as saying. corruption drive he had launched. However, Chornobyl, making it safe, and compensat- fuel to those rumors were comments made More harsh were comments by the chief he mentioned no names. He also noted that ing for lost capacity may cost more than by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia of the presidential administration staff, there “were no economic arguments” $2 billion. (RFE/RL Newsline) Aleksei II to reporters the previous day when he noted that he does not rule out a Volodymyr Lytvyn, who said that President (Continued on page 17) Minister gives more info on army cuts Leonid Kuchma has every reason “to can- meeting with the pope “in the foreseeable cel” the ouster of Mr.