The Ukrainian Weekly 1999, No.36
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www.ukrweekly.com INSIDE:• Forced/slave labor compensation negotiations — page 2. •A look at student life in the capital of Ukraine — page 4. • Canada’s professionals/businesspersons convene — pages 10-13. Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profit association Vol. LXVII HE No.KRAINIAN 36 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1999 EEKLY$1.25/$2 in Ukraine U.S.T continues aidU to Kharkiv region W Pustovoitenko meets in Moscow with $16.5 million medical shipment by Roman Woronowycz the region and improve the life of Kharkiv’s withby RomanRussia’s Woronowycz new increasingprime Ukrainian minister debt for Russian oil Kyiv Press Bureau residents, which until now had produced Kyiv Press Bureau and gas. The disagreements have cen- few tangible results. tered on the method of payment and the KYIV – The United States government “This is the first real investment in terms KYIV – Ukraine’s Prime Minister amount. continued to expand its involvement in the of money,” said Olha Myrtsal, an informa- Valerii Pustovoitenko flew to Moscow on Ukraine has stated that it owes $1 bil- Kharkiv region of Ukraine on August 25 tion officer at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv. August 27 to meet with the latest Russian lion, while Russia claims that the costs when it delivered $16.5 million in medical Sponsored by the Department of State, the prime minister, Vladimir Putin, and to should include money owed by private equipment and medicines to the area’s hos- humanitarian assistance program called discuss current relations and, more Ukrainian enterprises, which raises the pitals and clinics. “Project Hope” delivered 130 containers specifically, how to liquidate Ukraine’s figure to $1.8 billion. The two sides also The humanitarian assistance project, the totaling $8 million in medical equipment billion dollar oil and gas debt to its north- have had difficulties agreeing on a ern neighbor. first and largest U.S. government effort in and supplies, and two airlifts of some $8.5 method of payment. Although consensus After two days of talks the two sides one of Ukraine’s most heavily populated million in pharmaceuticals, medicines and was reached during a visit to Kyiv in July medical supplies. The materials include x- agreed only that more discussions are by Sergei Stepashin, Mr. Putin’s prede- regions, is part of the Kharkiv Initiative, a needed. However, both prime ministers program to stimulate economic activity in ray machines, operating room equipment, cessor, that Ukraine would pay in com- medical instruments and hospital beds, and inferred that the next meeting, slated for modities, the parties could not agree on a consumable items such as bandages, surgi- late September, may produce concrete pricing structure. After Mr. Stepashin cal gloves, syringes and sutures. results. Mr. Pustovoitenko went so far as was ousted and yet another Russian gov- The Counterpart Alliance Program, a to assess that by the beginning of next ernment installed, Kyiv was concerned Bloc of 20 parties non-governmental organization funded by year Ukraine’s largest gas debt will have that the progress that had been made the U.S. Agency for International been at least reduced. would be halted or even reversed. Development, will oversee the distribution “Ukraine will most likely begin the But Mr. Pustovoitenko said he had endorses Kuchma year 2000 free of indebtedness to by Roman Woronowycz of the equipment and supplies in the next found common language with Mr. Putin two months, assisted by the international Russia’s Gazprom,” said Mr. and that more meetings between the two Kyiv Press Bureau private volunteer organizations MAP Pustovoitenko after the two government are planned. leaders had concluded their talks. KYIV – President Leonid Kuchma’s International, the International Medical Russia has demanded that Ukraine Gazprom is the second largest Russian election campaign gathered steam on Corps and Heart to Heart. charge no more than the domestic price oil and gas supplier and is 51 percent August 31 when the National Counterpart International Deputy of Russian commodities, which are Democratic Party organized an assembly General Director Sergei Zhgirov said that owned by the Russian government. much cheaper than on the world market of 20 political parties that vowed to sup- Kyiv and Moscow have been at log- (Continued on page 4) (Continued on page 5) port the incumbent in the presidential gerheads for months over an ever- elections. Although most of the parties had jumped aboard the bandwagon much ear- Horyn says Ukraine’s political maturity is being tested lier, the shindig thrown for the president, a drawn-out three-hour affair filled with by Andrij Kudla Wynnyckyj Mykhailo Horyn, Ukrainian World The former national deputy of the speeches and promises, was a solid Toronto Press Bureau Coordinating Council executive member Verkhovna Rada said the task is “no easier expression of the rising political tide in and former Soviet political prisoner. now that we’ve been asked to break with TORONTO – At the last Ukrainian the center-left and center-right of the Mr. Horyn, who was on a visit to the past, and many have found it difficult to Independence Day celebrations of this mil- political spectrum for Mr. Kuchma. The Canada from Ukraine, said his country’s unhitch themselves from the Muscovite parties supporting the president comprise lennium, the speakers at the official cere- people “are still learning how to be a peo- monies held at the St. Volodymyr Cultural wagon.” more than a fourth of the 76 registered in ple with a state.” The man who suffered He invoked the Biblical story of Moses, Ukraine. Center in Oakville, Ontario (about 30 miles imprisonment in the Soviet gulag said that west of Toronto) on August 22 allowed who wandered in the desert for 40 years to With eight weeks left in the campaign, securing statehood is difficult work. “Who rid his nation of those who could not let go President Kuchma leads the candidate themselves – perhaps for the first time – to knew that it required sacrifice and dedica- pack with popular support of about 20 be negative about the state established in tion?” he asked with heavy irony. (Continued on page 6) percent. The president’s campaign team 1991. has been searching to build a widely Ukrainian World Congress Vice- based coalition for some time in order to President Maria Szkambara said, “We had achieve a quick victory for Mr. Kuchma expectations that Ukrainian consciousness in the first round of voting. They fear would grow once independence was that in a second round the president achieved, that youth would embrace the would become susceptible to an organ- new state, but it appears it is not so.” ized effort from the left, currently splin- She urged the 1,400 people assembled tered among four candidates, which under the cloudless sun-filled sky to sup- could lead to the president’s downfall. port the UWC’s open letter to Leonid Among the political organizations that Kuchma, in which the diaspora umbrella signed on to the affair, called “Our body expressed grave concern about the Choice is Leonid Kuchma,” were politi- Ukrainian state’s commitment to its own cal opposites such as the Ukrainian official language. National Conservative Party and the One could hardly fault a diplomat for Republican Christian Party from the accenting the positive, and yet the progress right and the Labor Party and the Party Ukraine’s Consul General in Toronto for the Regional Rebirth of Ukraine from Mykola Kyrychenko reported is mirrored the left. by failure in reality. Mr. Kyrychenko Many of the organizations that claimed that the pace of reform in his expressed their support for the president country has accelerated, that the drop in the by agreeing to be represented at the country’s productivity has been arrested, event are smallish political organizations and that respect for the legal foundations of democracy in Ukraine has grown. Andrij Kudla Wynnyckyj (Continued on page 5) The day’s keynote speaker was Mykhailo Horyn addresses crowd in Oakville, Ontario. 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1999 No. 36 NEWS ANALYSIS NEWSBRIEFSNEWSBRIEFS Forced/slave labor compensation Patriotic forum calls for single candidate since the state lacks the funds to hold a sec- ond round. (RFE/RL Newsline) KYIV – A forum of “patriotic, anti-cor- negotiations to continue in October ruption, pro-independence and democratic Incumbent starts re-election campaign by Myroslaw Smorodsky since these events occurred, their claims are forces” took place in Kyiv on August 22, MYRHOROD – “I can say only today not time-barred for various legal and histor- Interfax and RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service that I have started working for the future The fourth round of negotiations regard- ical reasons, and because of the magnitude reported. The forum was organized by the election,” President Leonid Kuchma told ing reparations to forced/slave laborers who of the atrocities. Open Politics association and attended by journalists on August 19, after visiting were unwillingly conscripted by Nazi According to the filed class action com- five presidential hopefuls: Yurii Kostenko, Ukraine’s famous Sorochynskyi Fair in Germany to work in its industrial war plaints, these corporations have grown to Yurii Karmazin, Volodymyr Oliinyk, Vasyl Myrhorod, Poltava Oblast. Mr. Kuchma, machine during World War II ended on the importance and economic stature that Onopenko and Oleksander Rzhavskyi. who was accompanied by Moldova’s August 26 in Bonn, Germany. Although the they have today in part because they bene- Candidates Hennadii Udovenko, Yevhen President Petru Lucinschi, noted that the discussions did not resolve the compensa- fited and profiteered from forced/slave Marchuk and Vitalii Kononov did not presidential campaign is “becoming a nega- tion matter, the negotiating parties were of labor for which they, as individual business attend.