The Ukrainian Weekly 1997, No.52
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
www.ukrweekly.com INSIDE:• “1997: THE YEAR IN REVIEW” – beginning on page 3. Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profit association Vol. LXV HE No.KRAINIAN 52 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1997 EEKLY$1.25/$2 in Ukraine ThirtyT parties U W Kyiv Chamber Choir performs at White House are registered for ’98 elections by Roman Woronowycz Kyiv Press Bureau KYIV — Ukraine’s elections to Parliament will feature a very crowded field of political parties, with so many centrist parties registered that a major fragmentation of the vote among them is almost inevitable. Thirty political parties and blocs met the December 18 deadline for registering for the March 29, 1998, elections by pre- senting petitions of 200,000 registered voters, with at least 10,000 signatures from each of 14 regions of Ukraine, to the Central Electoral Commission. Among the 30 are more than 20 par- ties that are considered democratically inclined, from the right-leaning National Front bloc to the Social Democrats on the other side of center. However, they have failed to form any substantial politi- Yaro Bihun cal blocs, which leaves the center frag- mented against a tightly organized group The Kyiv Chamber Choir, following its performance of Ukrainian carols during the VIP viewing of the White House Christmas of Communists and Socialists. Many decorations. The choir members are flanked (on the left) by Managing Director Mykola Trofimov, The Washington Group political pundits and politicians believe Cultural Fund Director Laryssa Chopivsky and Music Director and Conductor Mykola Hobdych, and (fourth and fifth from the voters will scatter their votes, leaving right) Chief of Staff to the First Lady Melanne Verveer and Kyiv City Minister of Culture Alexander Bestrushkin. few of the centrist parties able to garner by Yaro Bihun Mykola Lysenko, as well as by two con- out two memorable pieces from what she the 4 percent required in the new mixed Special to The Ukrainian Weekly temporary composers, Lesia Dychko and perceived to be an otherwise uninteresting system electoral law to seat candidates in Victor Stepurko. the next Verkhovna Rada. program: “the lovely, anonymous 16th-cen- WASHINGTON — The Kyiv Chamber The second half of the program, devoted tury monody sung beautifully (to the “It is a sign of the times that so many Choir, on its debut tour of the United to Ukrainian Christmas music, highlighted accompaniment of a single pedal point centrist parties have registered,” said States, brought the best of Ukrainian eccle- even more contemporary works. In addition hummed by the men) by conductor Mykola Anatolii Matvienko, chairman of the siastical and Christmas music to the to carols by Ms. Dychko and Mr. Stepurko, Hobdych and the announcement of the National Democratic Party, which is nation’s capital last weekend. the choir sang carols by Yuriy Alzhnev, good news of Christ’s birth, played on a set considered the party of power. “The The choir sang Ukrainian carols at the Anatolii Avdiievsky, Yevhen Stankovych many parties with a centrist orientation White House, baroque and contemporary of plaintive panpipes and recited (in and Alexander Yakivchuk. Russian [actually, Church Slavonic — ed.]) are going to get in the way of one anoth- religious music masterpieces at the Most of the program was sung a cappel- er.” National Cathedral, and a program combin- by one of the singers with a stunning bass la, but some works included accompani- voice. The rest was full of gorgeous sounds, Vyacheslav Chornovil, head of the ing both before a large audience at the ment by sopilka, pan flute, alto sax and jin- Rukh Party, said the 30 political choices George Mason University Center for the but not of very interesting music.” gle bells, and parts were choreographed and The audience, however, which filled will “pull the vote apart.” He believes Arts. animated. that most of the parties that have regis- Washington was the second of four The Washington Post reviewer singled (Continued on page 22) tered are not true parties but merely cities on the choir’s East Coast tour, which groups organized to protect political and began December 18 at the Ukrainian individual interests. “Thirty parties is a Cultural Center in Philadelphia and includ- fiction,” said Mr. Chornovil. “There is ed concerts also in New York City’s Carnegie Hall and at the Music Hall in Plane wreckage found near Mt. Olympus no such thing as a Liberal Democratic by Roman Woronowycz them 25 Ukrainian and 34 Greek citizens. Party or a Christian Democratic Party. Portsmouth, N.H. Kyiv Press Bureau “It’s an area of total disaster,” said There are three parties or political inter- “The group has only 20 singers, but Fillipos Petsalnikos, a government minis- ests: the Communists, Rukh and the what singers they are – big, marvelously KYIV — The remains of the YAK-42 ter who represents the area, according to party of power, or the nomenklatura. The focused voices, the kind that might easily Ukrainian aircraft and its passengers that the Associated Press. rest is political clutter.” hold their own on the opera stage but with- disappeared while attempting to land at The plane disintegrated on impact, The Hromada Party, under the guid- out the kind of operatic vibrato that can the Greek port city of Salonika were which left a nearly 200-meter swath of ance of its leader Pavlo Lazarenko, who make an ensemble rattle,” wrote finally found on December 20 outside the clipped and uprooted trees. Only a piece is considered a master organizer, was the Washington Post reviewer Joan Reinthaler city in a heavily wooded area near Mount of wing and part of the cockpit remained first to register its petitions with the following their December 20 performance Olympus. intact, possibly giving investigators CEC. On December 1, its representatives at the George Mason Arts Center. “They After a three-day trouble-filled search important data from the flight recorder submitted signatures of 360,000 voters. can sing wonderfully clean unisons and the by land and by air, which included 5,000 and other instruments. Publicly, it had claimed to have gathered basses have low E’s to die for,” she added. civilian and military personnel and a U.S. The intense fire that followed charred more than 1 million. “These are, of course, the sort of voices that military plane with weather-piercing sur- and fused many of the human remains. Rukh and the Communist Party came the music on their all-Ukrainian program veillance equipment, rescuers discovered Clothes and valuables were found in the second, submitting their documents was written for.” the charred wreckage of the three-engine trees and scattered about the crash site. almost simultaneously on December 8. The ecclesiastical part of the concert pro- turbofan jet in a snow-covered valley According to Interfax-Ukraine, the Rukh delivered 560,000 voters’ signa- gram included works by such noted com- near the village of Fotina. remains of 15 Ukrainian citizens have posers as Artem Vedel, Mykola Diletsky, There were no survivors among the 70 (Continued on page 24) Kyrylo Stetsenko, Mykola Leontovych and passengers and crew members, among (Continued on page 24) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1997 No. 52 Ukrainian National Assembly NEWSBRIEFSNEWSBRIEFS registered as political party Adidas to sponsor Olympic team protection of Ukrainian and Croatian invest- by Zenon Zawada Following its recognition, the UNA- ments was signed by Foreign Economic Special to The Ukrainian Weekly UNSO underwent another significant politi- KYIV — Adidas Ukraine signed a spon- Relations and Trade Minister Serhii Osyka cal facelift, when the ideological leader of sorship agreement with Ukraine’s National and Croatian Economy Minister Nenad KYIV — After two years of political the organization since its birth in 1991, Olympic Committee on December 15. The Porges on December 15. Talks focused on stagnation, due to repeated refusals of Dmytro Korchynskyi, resigned from party agreement will secure valuable long-term the first meeting of the bilateral commission recognition by Ukraine’s Ministry of leadership on November 12. Mr. funding for the team. (Eastern Economist) on economic cooperation scheduled for the Justice, the Ukrainian National Assembly, Korchynskyi, known by many Ukrainians first half of 1998. It is expected that the the political arm of the ultra-nationalist, for his bushy, Shevchenko-like mustache June date set for first launch committee will meet once a year. Trade paramilitary Ukrainian National and provocative sound bites on television, KYIV — The Sea Launch company will between Ukraine and Croatia fell disas- Assembly/Ukrainian National Self-Defense cited his disinterest in politics as a major start commercial launches of satellites in trously in the 1992-1997 period. Ukrainian Organization (UNA-UNSO), achieved offi- reason. June 1998. According to Boeing, the con- exports in the first 10 months of this year cial recognition as a national political party He said his years of work with the UNA- struction of a base port in Long Beach, totaled $6.7 million (U.S.) and consisted in Ukraine. UNSO have resulted in the transformation Calif., is almost complete. Sea Launch is a mainly of metal and chemical products. As a result, the organization, which has of an “elitist organization into a right-wing joint Russian-American-Ukrainian- Imports to Ukraine totaled $8.6 million significantly toned down its chauvinistic petty bourgeois party.” Norwegian project. It will launch satellites (U.S.) and were concentrated in the paper and ethnocentric rhetoric in recent years, “Politics turned out to be far worse than produced by Ukrainian firm Pivdenne, the industry, paints and varnishes, batteries and held a national party convention on good old extremism,” Mr. Korchynskyi Russian firm Energia and the Boeing medicines.