The Ukrainian Weekly 2000, No.25
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www.ukrweekly.com INSIDE:• Canadians to recall internment operations — page 8. • Ukrainian dancers prove the show must go on — page 12. • Oksana Krovytska guest-stars at Ukrainian Institute — page 13. Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profit association Vol. LXVIII HE KRAINIANNo. 25 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JUNE 18, 2000 EEKLY$1/$2 in Ukraine ForeignT Affairs MinisterU Tarasyuk Ukrainian delegationW participates begins Canadian visit in Winnipeg in U.N. session on gender equality WINNIPEG – Ukraine’s by Irene Jarosewich de Belem Roseira, representing the Foreign Affairs Minister European Union, also spoke during the UNITED NATIONS – Leading a dele- Borys Tarasyuk began his opening session on June 5 and stated that gation of 10 women that included repre- June 11-13 visit to Canada “gender equality, sustainable develop- sentatives from both government and for meetings with govern- ment and peace are fundamental objec- non-government sectors, Ukraine’s ment officials and the busi- tives, all of them interlinked, to be Minister of Justice Suzanna Stanik deliv- ness community with a achieved in the 21st century ... the objec- ered the Ukrainian government’s summa- two-day stopover in tive of building gender equality ... is not ry statement on the current status of Manitoba in recognition of just a matter of fairness and justice to women in Ukraine at the opening session the province’s diverse eco- women ... but, above all, is a matter of of the 23rd United Nations General nomic ties with Ukraine. democracy and human rights for all.” Assembly special session, “Women Minister Tarasyuk came The U.N. special session, held June 5- 2000: Gender Equality, Development and to Canada on the invitation 9 and known popularly as “Beijing +5,” Peace for the 21st Century.” of Foreign Minister Lloyd is a follow-up to the Fourth World In her comments, delivered the morn- Axworthy. According to Conference on Women that was held in ing of June 5, Ms. Stanik stated: “We are the Eastern Economist, 1995 in Beijing. The 1995 conference entering the new century, the century of meetings with Canadian developed an international agenda for the humanism and rule of law. Military government officials were advancement of women, The Beijing measures for solving human problems to concentrate on the ful- Declaration and the Platform for Action, have been fully exhausted. There is a ris- fillment of obligations a plan that was adopted unanimously by ing need for modernization of the world undertaken by the G-7 representatives from 189 states. by addressing the global social and polit- countries in funding the Attending the Beijing +5 special ses- ical changes on the basis of generally construction of the sar- sion in New York were close to 10,000 recognized morals and ethics, as well as cophagus over the fourth participants, including 2,300 delegates, legal principles: democracy, human reactor of Chornobyl 2,100 NGO representatives, U.N. staff, rights, equality, justice, freedom and nuclear power station and media correspondents, experts, panelists Ian McCausland humanism. problems connected with and speakers. Of the U.N. member-states, “It is not incidental that the first spe- plant’s shutdown. Other Foreign Affairs Minister Borys Tarasyuk of Ukraine 178 sent representatives to deliver five- cial session of the General Assembly in issues on the agenda and Manitoba Premier Gary Doer near Winnipeg’s year status reports on their countries’ included Canadian lobby- Shevchenko Monument. the new 21st century is devoted to the activities in implementing the platform ing of the International elaboration of effective strategies for the for action adopted in Beijing. Also giving Monetary Fund to assist Ukraine in Czolij, president of the Ukrainian advancement of women all over the presentations were 28 heads of interna- restoring the Extended Fund Facility pro- Canadian Congress. “The Ukrainian world, the creation of appropriate condi- tional bodies, U.N. commissions, non- gram. Canadian Congress applauds and sup- tions for their life, the enhancement of member and observer states. Seventy- “During his visit to Canada, Minister ports such reforms.” their role in political and economic activ- seven percent of the speakers delivering Tarasyuk presented a ‘new Ukraine,’ with Minister Tarasyuk was welcomed on ities. ... it is the woman who personifies presentations during the 10 plenary ses- a government committed to real changes June 11 with the traditional Ukrainian civil, moral and human approach to sions were women. in politics and economics in order to greeting of bread and salt at Winnipeg addressing the most complex problems of The status reports reflected progress improve the living conditions for International Airport by a delegation the modern world.” (The full text of Ms. made by countries in the 12 critical areas Ukrainians and to create real opportuni- Stanik’s statement appears on page 3.) ties for foreign investors,” said Eugene (Continued on page 6) Portugal’s Minister for Equality Maria (Continued on page 3) Ukraine’s Minister of Energy resigns citing policy differences by Roman Woronowycz inability to institute measures recom- Kyiv Press Bureau mended by his ministry to resolve chaos in the oil, gas and coal segments of the KYIV – Ukraine’s energy sector was economy, which are badly in debt and thrown into further turmoil on June 15 controlled by a few wealthy business- when Minister of Energy Serhii Tulub men. resigned over fundamental disagree- But chiefly he blamed his boss, Vice ments with the government of Prime Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Minister Viktor Yuschenko over restruc- whose determination to regulate the turing of the country’s fuel and energy Ukrainian gas commodity market he sector. could not accept. He said that too often “In this aggressive atmosphere in Ms. Tymoshenko was long on rhetoric which I have found myself and which and short on action. surrounds the ministry, I cannot fulfill the “More than once we discussed the directives that the president has placed biggest problems of the energy sector, before me, and therefore I offer my resig- but our proposals were either ignored for nation,” said Mr. Tulub through his press months, and if accepted only too late,” secretary. said Mr. Tulub, according to Interfax- During a press conference held earlier Ukraine. in the day, he said the specific reason for UNDPI his resignation was the government’s (Continued on page 8) Ukraine’s Minister of Justice Suzanna Stanik speaks at the opening session of the U.N. General Assembly special session “Beijing+5,” June 5, in New York. 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JUNE 18, 2000 No. 25 ANALYSIS NEWSBRIEFSNEWSBRIEFS Chornobyl’s closure means search President submits bill on tax amnesty Human rights activist Yelena Bonner and former Polish President Lech Walesa are Kyiv – President Leonid Kuchma has in attendance, as well as Russian State for storage sites, new energy sources submitted to the Verkhovna Rada a bill on Duma Deputy Sergei Kovalev. Mr. by Tuck Wesolowsky reactor contains [not only] spent nuclear a tax amnesty for citizens who have con- Kovalev told the congress, “It was my RFE/RL Newsline fuel,” he notes, “but also tons of light-, cealed their revenues at home and abroad, nation that tolerated communism, it was medium-, and high-radiated nuclear Interfax reported on June 13. The bill pro- my nation that was fascinated with the PRAGUE – As expected, Ukrainian waste, and this has to be decommissioned poses that private businessmen deposit President Leonid Kuchma announced on idea of communism and welcomed it, and to be stored somewhere .... The financing their concealed cash and property in occupied the Baltic countries – and not June 5 that the last nuclear reactor at for this decommissioning work has been Ukrainian commercial banks, where they Chornobyl will be shut down on only them. I would like to stress that given by the G-7 countries.” would be taxed at a rate of 10 percent. although the main culprits are the December 15. During his visit to Ukraine on June 5 Under the bill, the amnesty offer would be Mr. Kuchma made that statement in Communists, we [Russians] cannot say Mr. Clinton pledged $78 million to valid for one year, but businessmen would either that we had nothing to do with it all. Kyiv during a six-hour visit to the rebuild the sarcophagus entombing the be obliged to declare their revenues dur- Ukrainian capital by U.S. President Bill Please accept my apologies.” By contrast, crippled fourth reactor. Next month in ing the first six months following the Clinton. The United States has been one the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry last Berlin, donors from 40 countries are law’s passage. The bill includes a promise of several countries appealing to Ukraine week issued a statement claiming that the expected to announce they have secured that those who declare their assets will not for years to decommission Chornobyl. USSR sent its troops to Lithuania in 1940 the necessary $700 million to rebuild the be punished for previous violations of tax The nuclear plant was the site of the at the request of that country’s authorities concrete encasement, which was con- regulations and bans officials from seek- world’s worst civilian nuclear disaster, and under “then existing international structed in haste following the 1986 disas- ing information on the origins of income. when the root of the fourth reactor unit law.” (RFE/RL Newsline) ter and now has several large cracks. Mr. Kuchma has asked the Parliament to exploded on April 26, 1986, spewing During Mr. Clinton’s visit no mention Kuchma pushes agro-industrial reform radioactive fallout across Europe. consider the bill urgent and include it on was made of a project that has drawn criti- Although much of the fallout fell on the agenda immediately.