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INSIDE: • News analysis: Washington tries to reassure Kyiv – page 3. • Ethnic unrest and culture wars in Odesa – page 4. • Sanctuary Project: Ukrainian religious culture in Canada – page 11. THEPublished U byKRAINIAN the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profitW associationEEKLY Vol. LXXVII No.31 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 2, 2009 $1/$2 in Ukraine A surprise visit from Ruslana Arrest in Gongadze case spawns yet another scandal by Danylo Peleschuk nalist’s decapitated body was found in Special to The Ukrainian Weekly November 2000. Some political observers now doubt the KYIV – A day had not passed since the SBU’s claims that Mr. Pukach divulged cru- unexpected July 21 arrest of Oleksii Pukach, cial details, citing a lack of credibility that a high-ranking police officer involved in the results from a need to pay political divi- murder of journalist Heorhii Gongadze, dends. The rapid-fire contradictions only when the Pukach case became a scandal in add to the mystery of what Mr. Pukach has and of itself. said so far. Claims from Security Service of Ukraine “If the average Western person lies 10 (SBU) officials that Mr. Pukach would name percent of the time, then those figures are 10 the murder’s orderers and locate Gongadze’s times higher for the SBU,” said Ivan skull were dismissed by his lawyer, Serhii Lozowy, president of the Institute of Osyka, who said his client never gave such Statehood and Democracy n Kyiv. “They information. don’t understand that they have to come out “I believe this is stupidity and disinfor- with several times more effort to prove that mation of public opinion,” Mr. Osyka said this is all true.” on July 22. “If Pukach names some people, Nonetheless, evidence has surfaced that then according to procedure the accusations Mr. Pukach could indeed be offering valu- will be presented and the public will learn of able information, as the SBU claimed. this. What Pukach will say will be estab- Investigators allegedly found a skull frag- lished, and the procedures will occur in the ment in the Bila Tserkva region outside of Markian Hadzewycz presence of a lawyer. To make such loud Kyiv, where Mr. Pukach told them it was and incompetent statements in a period of an buried, reported UNIAN on July 28. Ms. Fresh from her performance at the Ukrainian Cultural Festival at Soyuzivka, election campaign is incompetent and pop star Ruslana paid a surprise visit on Monday, July 20, to campers at Plast Gongadze asked that the skull fragment be unatisfactory in relation to society.” examined abroad, citing intense political Ukrainian Scouting Organization’s Vovcha Tropa grounds in East Chatham, N.Y. The scandal intensified after Mr. Pukach Above, Ruslana poses for a photo with some of the campers and counselors; she pressure in Ukraine that could hamper the dismissed Mr. Osyka on July 27. investigation. holds up her right hand in the traditional Plast greeting of SKOB (Sylno, Krasno, While President Viktor Yushchenko Oberezhno, Bystro – Strongly, Beautifully, Carefully, Swiftly). The full story about Lt. Gen. Pukach served as the Internal raised hopes that Mr. Pukach’s discovery Affairs Ministry’s criminal investigation Ruslana’s visit appears on page 12. would lead to the arrests of top-ranking offi- chief at the time of the Gongadze murder cials, the doubts expressed by Gongadze’s and is believed to have been the go-between widow, Myroslava, that Mr. Pukach’s arrest for those who ordered the murder and those could lead to a dead end are instead gaining who carried it out. Pylyp Orlyk’s Constitution of 1710 credibility. The Procurator General’s Office formally SBU Deputy Chair Vasyl Hrytsak said at charged Mr. Pukach on July 24 with kidnap- a July 22 press conference that Mr. Pukach ping, murder and the destruction of docu- is found in Moscow archives confessed to his role in the murder, even ments, amidst wide suspicion within EDMONTON, Alberta – The young separation of government powers into claiming that he had strangled the muckrak- Ukrainian political circles about the arrest’s Kyiv historian Oleksandr Alfiorov of legislative, executive and judicial ing journalist himself, and disclosed during motives and circumstances. the Institute of Historical Education, branches. The document consists of a an all-night interrogation the names of those Some allege police knew of Mr. Pukach’s Mykhailo Drahomanov National preamble and 16 articles, and the who ordered the murder. whereabouts, as he was living a rural life- Pedagogical University, has discovered Ukrainian state is variously referred to Mr. Pukach also allegedly offered to style in Molochky, a remote Zhytomyr vil- the only known 18th century Ukrainian- in the text as Ukraine, Little Russia and reveal where Gongadze’s head is buried. language version of Hetman Pylyp the Zaporozhian Host. The head has been missing since the jour- (Continued on page 20) Orlyk’s Constitution of 1710. According to the constitution, legis- He found the document in the winter lative power was vested in the General of 2009 while examining an unsorted Council (parliament), which was to collection of “Files on Ukraine” at the hold three annual sessions – at New election bill moves ahead Central Russian Archive of Older Christmas, Easter and the Feast of the Documents in Moscow. Holy Protection. The hetman and the as presidential election approaches The Orlyk Constitution was adopted General Staff Council constituted the by Kozaks meeting in exile near the executive branch, while legal matters by Danylo Peleschuk (CEC) issues its final result, after which all small town of Bendery (in present-day fell under the jurisdiction of the Special to The Ukrainian Weekly complaints must be presented within a two- Moldova). Mr. Alfiorov’s find refutes General Court. day period to a single court, the High the suggestion that the constitution, Provision was also made for local KYIV – Ukraine’s Parliament on July 24 Administrative Court in Kyiv, whose deci- hitherto known only in a Latin original self-government on the basis of inter- approved the second reading of the presiden- sion can’t be appealed. and copies, was a forgery. national (Magdeburg) law, which was tial election bill, which observers said isn’t as “The most dangerous part of this bill is It would now appear that the gradually restricted by the tsarist harsh as the first version approved July 1 but that it would dramatically curtail the rights of Ukrainian version of the constitution administration. still contains provisions that alarm them. citizens, voters and even some of the candi- was secretly kept at the Zaporozhian Thus, the Ukrainian Constitution of On a positive note, district and local elec- dates themselves,” said Oleksander Sich – the headquarters of the 1710 preceded those of the United tion commissions will consist of representa- Chernenko, chair of the Committee of Voters Zaporozhian Kozaks on the lower States (1787), France (1791) and tives submitted by the presidential candidates of Ukraine (CVU). “Appeals will be possible Dnipro River – until 1775, when it was Poland (1791). Although it was not themselves, not by the current five parlia- theoretically, but realistically it’ll be very seized, along with other documents, by implemented because of unfavorable mentary factions, as the bill’s first reading hard for any commission to appeal success- the Russian troops who destroyed the fully.” political circumstances, it attested to stipulated – a provision highly criticized by Sich in that year. President Viktor Yushchenko announced the progressive intentions of the Kozak observers. The Orlyk Constitution is regarded on July 27 that he will veto the bill, citing the as the first in the world to establish the (Continued on page 21) Yet, the bill still forbids any court appeals until the Central Election Commission (Continued on page 11) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, AUGUST 2, 2009 No. 31 ANALYSIS NEWSBRIEFS Vice-President Biden’s mission to Kyiv Election law is amended territory, the press service of Sevastopol City Council on July 28 quoted Council by Roman Kupchinsky do not believe or care much for U.S. pro- KYIV – The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Chairman Valerii Saratov as saying. Eurasia Daily Monitor tection and would prefer to bask in the on July 24 passed a bill of amendments to “Sevastopol has the right to count on 50 Kremlin’s care. the law on presidential elections. The bill percent of $97.75 million (U.S.), which is The visit by U.S. Vice-President Joe Mr. Biden’s message lost some of its amends the procedure for forming district around 750 million hrv. The city currently Biden to Kyiv on July 21-22 was a stren- credibility when on July 21 Jaap de Hoop and precinct electoral commissions, reduces receives only 100 million hrv, and this sum uous test of his diplomatic skills. He Scheffer, the secretary-general of NATO, the election campaign period from 120 to remained unchanged in recent years,” he needed to avoid the political land mines stated that neither Ukraine nor Georgia 90 days, and eliminates the institute of said. “The Russian fleet currently occupies separating Ukrainian President Viktor are ready to join NATO and that this is absentee certificates and subscription lists over 3,300 hectares in Sevastopol, and Yushchenko and his nemesis, Prime unlikely to change soon, citing the com- in support of a presidential candidate. Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, as well as plicated political situation in the two much of this land is located in the city’s Beside that, the required monetary deposit zones that are profitable for development, present a neutral face to Viktor states (www.mosnews.com, July 21). of a presidential candidate was increased Yanukovych, the head of the Party of William Taylor, former U.S.

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