Local Vote Seen As Harbinger of Rada Elections Dead at 91 a Nasty Battle Marred by Assault, Intimidation
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INSIDE: l Former U.S. envoy on progress, setbacks in Ukraine – page 3 l Taras Shevchenko honored in two capitals – page 8 l Special section: Ukrainian Debutante Balls – pages 9-14 THEPublished U by theKRAINIAN Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal W non-profit associationEEKLY Vol. LXXX No. 13 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MARCH 25, 2012 $1/$2 in Ukraine John Demjanjuk Local vote seen as harbinger of Rada elections dead at 91 A nasty battle marred by assault, intimidation by Zenon Zawada Special to The Ukrainian Weekly KYIV – The March 18 vote in the Kyiv Oblast town of Obukhiv offered a hint of what to expect for the October 28 national parliamentary elections – a nasty, even physical battle replete with fraud accusations, intimidation and vio- lations, both before and on the day of the election. The day’s antics included an assault committed by a Party of Regions national deputy, disputes about the vote count and contradictory election law, as well as allegations of fraud techniques such as intimidation, denial of candidate registra- tion, vote-buying, fake exit polls and ballot-stuffing. One of the chief contenders for City Council chair, Anatolii Shafarenko of the populist UDAR party, was UNIAN/Aleksandr Sinitsa denied access to polling stations to observe, his party National Deputy Iryna Herashchenko (Our Ukraine- reported. The nationalist Svoboda Party candidate, Valerii People’s Self-Defense) speaks to the press at the Vorobets, was denied registration altogether in mid-Febru- Verkhovna Rada two days after she was manhandled by John Demjanjuk in a photo taken in December 2011. ary, in an alleged violation of election law. National Deputy Petro Melnyk (Party of Regions) at a Additionally, “the government used old ‘trusted’ tech- polling station in Obukhiv, Kyiv Oblast. PARSIPPANY, N.J. – John Demjanjuk, the former U.S. citi- nologies, including so-called ‘carousels,’” UDAR Deputy zen who was appealing his 2011 conviction in Germany on Indeed, Mr. Chernenko’s credibility has been questioned Chair Artur Palatnyi said in a March 18 press release. by political observers ever since his predecessor, Ihor 28,060 counts of accessory to murder at the Nazi death “What happened in Obukhiv was a warm-up and dress camp in Sobibor, Poland, died at a German nursing home Popov, resigned from the CVU chairmanship in 2009 to join rehearsal for the future parliamentary elections.” the Single Center party, which is closely affiliated with the on March 17. He was 91. The election was held to select a City Council chair to suc- The Bavarian police confirmed Mr. Demjanjuk was Party of Regions. ceed Volodymyr Melnyk, a Party of the Regions member who Since then, Mr. Chernenko has made assessments on found dead early that day in his room in a nursing home in died in an unusual car accident in October 2011. The southern Germany. He had been suffering from bone mar- several elections which were not considered by numerous declared winner was Oleksander Levchenko, also of the political observers and players to be objective. row disease and chronic kidney disease. Party of Regions, who reportedly earned 39 percent of votes. Mr. Demjanjuk, who through the years was accused of “The sociological sampling of Obukhiv is a lot better for Voter turn-out was unusually low at 41 percent, which the opposition than Ukraine’s average, yet the victory was being a guard at several Nazi camps, denied that he ever National Deputy Iryna Herashchenko of the Our Ukraine- served as a camp guard and insisted that he was a prisoner gained by the Party of Regions candidate,” Mr. Parubii People’s Self-Defense faction said reflected the exhaustion wrote on his Ukrayinska Pravda blog posted on March 19. of war – a Red Army soldier captured by the Germans. He most Ukrainians have for politics. In all, 28,600 voters cast claimed he was a victim of mistaken identity. “Obviously, the vote didn’t occur without falsifications, evi- their ballots at 15 local polling stations, reported the dence of which is the brutal attack on Iryna Herashchenko by Mr. Demjanjuk’s German lawyer, Ulrich Busch, under- Committee of Voters of Ukraine (CVU). scored that his client “died unconvicted and as an innocent a Party of Regions bandit with a deputy’s mandate, as well as The CVU, led by Oleksander Chernenko, reported no fal- ‘blue sweaters’ and fake exit polls,” he wrote. man according to European and German law.” Dr. Busch sifications, overlooking pre-election corruption such as the explained that, according to the European Convention of National Deputy Petro Melnyk of the Party of Regions denied registration of Mr. Vorobets’ candidacy and the violently grabbed the petite Ms. Herashchenko after she Human Rights, anyone charged with a criminal offense is denied registrations of representatives from the Front for presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law, refused his demands that she leave a polling station before Change and UDAR – both leading opposition parties – to the vote count began. He argued that she didn’t have the and in Germany that means once the final verdict is hand- local election commissions. ed down on an appeal. right to witness the count, while she insisted she had the Mr. Chernenko’s claim of “more or less normal” elec- right to observe as a national deputy. Munich court spokeswoman Margarete Noetzel told the tions was not supported by the UDAR and Svoboda parties, press that, under German law, because the defendant died “I realized that neither my status, nor personal relations, as well as the Spilna Sprava (Common Cause) civic move- will save me from similar behavior by [my] colleagues from before his final appeal was heard and because a person is ment and National Deputy Andrii Parubii of the Our presumed innocent until proven guilty, he is still technical- Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense Bloc. (Continued on page 4) ly presumed innocent. In a statement to The Ukrainian Weekly, Mr. Demjanjuk’s son, John Jr., said: “My father died a free man, innocent and not convicted Tymoshenko accused of “high treason” since a successful appeal could not conclude upon his death. Over the last 35 years, the only criminal proceeding RFE/RL “bear signs of high treason.” that did conclude resulted in an Israeli acquittal. The report alleges that Ms. Tymoshenko acted “in favor KYIV – A majority in the Ukrainian Parliament has “Since the accusations in Germany, I stated that it was a of a foreign state” because her private company alleg- voted to accuse jailed former Prime Minister Yulia political farce as, at his advanced age and poor health, he edly owed Russia’s Defense Ministry more than $400 Tymoshenko of committing “high treason” during could not survive another legal process. As Nazi Germany million and she possibly faced criminal prosecution. committed crimes against humanity by killing a forgotten negotiations on a 2009 gas contract with Russia. Ms. Tymoshenko’s office dismissed the accusations several million Soviet POWs by a tortuous starvation and Ms. Tymoshenko is currently serving a seven-year as “complete rubbish.” diseased death, today’s Germany intentionally chose such prison term on charges she abused her office during The European Union and the United States have a surviving POW as a scapegoat to blame Ukrainians for those negotiations, which resulted in an increase in condemned Ms. Tymoshenko’s prosecution as politi- the Nazi crimes by German criminals which historically the price Ukraine paid for Russian gas imports. cally motivated. went unpunished. Lawmakers voted to endorse a parliamentary investigation claiming that Ms. Tymoshenko’s actions (With reports from ITAR-TASS and the Associated Press) (Continued on page 4) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MARCH 25, 2012 No. 13 ANALYSIS Yanukovych to entice voters Vlasenko hopes verdict will be canceled Articles 364 and 365 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, pursuant to which former KYIV – Serhiy Vlasenko, a defense lawyer Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was sen- with handouts ahead of election for former Prime Minister Yulia tenced, despite the appeals of Europe, the Tymoshenko, has said that Ukraine’s Higher faction leader, Oleksander Yefremov, told a by Pavel Korduban which would be needed to unfreeze the Specialized Court for Civil and Criminal press briefing on March 21. “We do not set Eurasia Daily Monitor IMF loans – as an achievement to be proud of in the run-up to the parliamentary elec- Cases is obliged to cancel the verdict against the task to regulate these two articles... President Viktor Yanukovych on March tion. The IMF last month advised that the his client in the Russian gas supply contract Eleven EU countries have similar articles in 7 pompously instructed the Ukrainian gov- government hike domestic gas prices by 30 case. “Ms. Tymoshenko’s defense team has their Criminal Procedure Codes, as well as ernment to launch social reforms. The plan percent for households and by 58 percent currently received compelling evidence in four countries that intend to join the EU. boils down to bribing the poorest strata for utility companies. Without the hikes, the gas case regarding the absence of any Therefore, we expect from our European with handouts at a time when the coffers the state-owned oil and gas behemoth guilt in Ms. Tymoshenko’s actions,” he said colleagues an answer to the question of are nearly empty and international credi- Naftohaz Ukrainy, whose deficit amounted at a press conference in Kyiv on March 21. why they recommend that we cancel what tors want to see less government spending. to 1.6 percent of GDP last year, will contin- He said that the defense team had received they themselves have,” he said.