www.ukrweekly.com ubhshed by the Ukrainian National Association inc., a fraternal non-profit association! :rainian Week!v vol. LVIII No. 10 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MARCH n, 1990 50 cents Election week in Ukraine: winners, losers and new hopes Rukh announces intention Democratic Bloc candidates to form political party score some major victories JERSEY C1TY, N.J. - Leaders of Rukh Chairman Drach told Reuters Rukh, the Popular Movement of U– reporter Peter Conradi in Kiev on kraine for Perebudova, on March 6 March 6 that during campaigning declared their intentions to create a "people asked us why we did not form a formal opposition party to press for an party." independent republic. "And at the last plenary meeting of The draft declaration, issued by ivan the Ukrainian Communist Party, we Drach, Rukh chairman, and Mykhailo were asked how Rukh people like Horyn, Rukh secretary, who were both myself could continue to be Commu– elected people's deputies to the republi– nists. So finally, we told ourselves that can parliament on Sunday, March 4, we should make up our minds and form representing districts in the western a party for the national, social and Ukrainian city of Lviv, challenges the spiritual renaissance of Ukraine," Mr. ruling Communist Party of Ukraine, Drach told Reuters. requiring it to take full responsibility for "Our party will stand for the indepen– "the famine of 1932-33, the destruction dence of Ukraine, for its political and of Ukrainian intelligentsia, deporta– social sovereignty. And at this stage the tions and repressions, the policy of only way to achieve this is to leave the Russification, economic decline and the Soviet Union," Mr. Drach said. ecological tragedies of Ukraine." A vote on the endorsement of this Buoyed by initial election results, proposal will be held on Sunday, March Former political prisoner vyacheslav First Secretary volodymyr ivashko, of which showed successes for reformers, 25, when the 96-member Grand Council Chornovil was among the Democratic the Communist Party of Ukraine, failed including progressive Communists, and of Rukh convenes. According to Mr. Bloc candidates elected to the new to win election and is headed for a run- put Rukh in a position to provide 25 Drach, if the plan is endorsed, a found– Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR. off with a Democratic bloc opponent. percent of the new parliament's mem– ing congress of the new party will be bers, prompted Mr. Drach to urge the held "as soon as possible." He thinks conversion of Rukh's loose alliance of this is no major problem because the Run-offs for 273 of seats to define parliament human rights activists, Green World prevailing mood is for independence, members and radical Communists into reported Canada's Globe and Mail on JERSEY C1TY, N.J. - in unpre– Election Commission has not yet pub– a full-fledged political party. March 7. cedented multi-candidate elections to iished the final results of the elections to The declaration, signed by 15 Rukh in the declaration, the signatories the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian the 450-seat Ukrainian parliament and activists calls for political pluralism, state: "it has become clear: as long as SSR held on March 4, Communist local councils, it was clear that candi– democratization and "real final inde– one party exists, with one center for all Party apparatchiks were soundly de– dates from the national-democratic pendence." (Continued on page 12) feated by candidates of the Democratic movement faired very well, winning Bloc in a number of districts, while the virtual landslide victories in two majority of seats' have been forced into western Ukrainian oblasts, Lviv and run-off elections in two weeks, reported ivano-Frankivske, reported the Ukrai– various sources last week. nian Press Agency, (in accordance with Although the Ukrainian Central (Continued on page 5) Rukh reports elections violations LONDON - The Popular Move– voting officially began. There were ment of Ukraine for Perebudova also reports of ballot boxes not being (Rukh) has reported that the elec– properly sealed and of some that tions to the Ukrainian SSR Supreme were not sealed at all. Soviet and local Soviets which took The Ukrainian Press Agency based place on March 4, were plagued with in London relayed the following list numerous violations of the electoral of violations in Kiev compiled by law. Rukh. in one Kiev constituency, for і in electoral district No. 2 (Kiev example, election leaflets belonging ward No. 9^9) there were reports that to the Communist Party had been sealed boxes which contained com– pinned to the walls of ballot booths pleted ballot papers of people who in direct contravention of the elec– had cast their vote ahead of the toral law, which states that no cam– election day, had been tampered paigning is to be conducted on with. election day. ^ Observers were not allowed into in some districts of Kiev, Rukh some voting stations. This happened had been prevented from registering in electoral district No. 8 (ward No. its observers and in others there were 55-7^55 and 6i;61) claiming that Two of Rukh's leading activists, chairman ivan Drach (left) and secretary not enough ballot papers to go they had not been registered with Mykhailo Horyn, captured seats in the city of Lviv as deputies to the new Ukrainian around. Rukh spokesmen claimed regional electoral commissions. parliament, inspired by Democratic Bloc candidates' successes, the two leaders that ballot papers had either been ^ independent observers were not drafted a document which calls for the formation of a political opposition party in destroyed or had been filled in before (Continued on page 16) Ukraine. 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MARCH II,1990 NO. 10 A GLIMPSE OF SOVIET REALITY Rukh protests idea of USSR presidency LONDON - The branch of the Ukrainian SSR Supreme Soviet from Popular Movement of Ukraine for ivano-Frankivske, wrote the following The economic outlook Perebudova (Rukh) in ivano-Frankiv– statement: ske, western Ukraine, on February 28 "1 am categorically opposed to the organized a demonstration which introduction of a presidential form of for Ukraine in 1990 adopted a resolution opposing the government because this kind of go– by Dr. David Marples percent of the total population - are establishment of the position of presi– vernment, in contrast to the parliamen– said to be in "extreme" need of housing. dent of the Soviet Union as long as the tary, is more centralized. The Ukrainian republic is facing a As part of the over-all plan of "Resi– USSR remains a one-party state and "in democratic states, such as the particularly difficult economic year. dence-2000," in accordance with which until a new all-union treaty is nego– U.S.A. and France, the presidential With a high budgetary deficit, a every Soviet family is supposed to be tiated between the republics of the form of government guarantees immu– shortage of basic supplies of food and provided with an apartment by the end USSR. nity for countries from government consumer goods, an uncertain mood of the century, the building program for The London-based Ukrainian Press crises. There exists (in those countries) a among the labor force, and electric 1990 anticipates a total of 105.1 million Agency also reported that a telegram mechanism of controlling the presiden– power cuts predicted, 1990 promises to square meters of residences, more than with the same resolutions was sent to tial government as well as over-all be an extremely complex transition 17.5 million square meters over the total the Committee to Review the Constitu– democratic traditions, in the USSR, year, before the republic embraces constructed in the 12th Five-Year Plan. tion and Ukrainian deputies to the all- under a one-party system, there is no "economic sovereignty" in the year The "older" Ukrainian industries are union Supreme Soviet, Messrs. Tka– tradition of a relationship between the 1991. The need for a convertible ruble clearly in trouble. Coal output, for chuk and Dmytro Pavlychko. supreme government and democratic has been emphasized by Ukrainian example, fell to 179 million metric tons More than 2,000 members of the parties and organizations, in other economists as has the importance of in 1989, the lowest total in more than a ivano-Frankivske Rukh branch called words there is no mechanism worked holding down wage increases this year. decade. Moreover, while a gradual upon other informal groups in Ukraine out to control the presidential (posi– in addition, the costs of eliminating reduction in coal output has been to organize protests against the intro– tion). the effects of the Chornobyl accident anticipated over the next few years, this duction of a presidential system. "in sum, in our conditions the amal– have become one of the biggest single sudden drop was 9.4 million tons below On March 2 the ivano-Frankivske gamation of the functions of head of impediments to any economic recovery, the anticipated total. The alleged reason branch of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union state and government in one person is and costs in this sphere are continuing for this shortfall was not the coal strike (UHU) adopted an analogous resolu– very dangerous, as it could lead to a to rise as a result of major building work of last summer, but rather the fact that tion. severe dictatorship. Therefore to place required for residences and other build– the Ukrainian coal mines are now being Lev Lukianenko, head of the UHU, one's trust in an individual like Gorba– ings for present and future evacuees. worked only six days per week instead and newly elected people's deputy to the (Continued on page 10) Moreover, the measures being intro– of seven.