INSIDE:• NATO chief on first visit to Ukraine — page 2. • Analysis of Russia-Belarus “community” — page 2. • Special section “Chornobyl: The First Decade” — beginning on page 3. Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profit association Vol. LXIV HE KRAINIANNo. 16 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, APRIL 21, 1996 EEKLY$1.25/$2 in Ukraine T U W“An accident has taken place at the Chornobyl power station, and one of the reactors was damaged. Measures are CCHHOO RRNNOO BBYYL:L: being taken to eliminate the conse- quences of the accident. Those affected by it are being given assistance. A gov- TTHH EE FFIIRRSSTT DDEECCAA DD EE ernment commission has been set up.” — Announcement of USSR Council of Ministers read on April 28, 1986, on Moscow television. “At the Chornobyl atomic energy station there was an accident that led to the ruin of a portion of the building housing the [fourth] reactor and to some release of radioactive materials. As a result of the accident, two people have died. The radiation situation at the CAES, as well as surrounding areas, is stabilized.” — Report in Pravda Ukrainy on April 30, 1986. The destroyed fourth reactor of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant as photographed soon after the April 26, 1986, disaster by Andrey Illesh. 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, APRIL 21, 1996 No. 16 NATO secretary-general visits Kyiv; offers no new commitments to Ukraine NEWSBRIEFSNEWSBRIEFS Belarus poll shows support for union equal rights to education and medical care by Marta Kolomayets special relationship with Ukraine “has of citizens of both states on the other’s terri- Kyiv Press Bureau opened all kinds of possibilities and we MIENSK — A majority of local resi- tory. (OMRI Daily Digest). will explore it.” dents voiced varying degrees of support KYIV — NATO Secretary-General Later, at a news conference with Foreign for the recently concluded treaty on cre- Indonesia may be Ukraine’s launch pad Javier Solana Madariaga lauded coopera- Minister Udovenko, he told reporters that ation of a Union of Sovereign Republics, tion between the alliance and Ukraine, the special partnership with Ukraine was Belapan reported on April 15. The poll, JAKARTA — Ukrainian President emphasizing the important role Ukraine forged back in September, when a “16 plus conducted by the Zerkadlo sociological Leonid Kuchma and Indonesian President plays in the stability of Europe, but offer- one” relationship was clinched in Brussels, service, surveyed 300 people. Of these, 47 Suharto have discussed the possibility of ing no major new commitments to this Ukraine launching a communications which allows the two sides to discuss vari- percent said they completely supported the new independent state, just south of satellite from an Indonesian site, Agence ous security issues. (There are 16 NATO community’s formation; 16 percent voiced expansive Russia. France Presse reported on April 11. The member-states; the one refers to Ukraine.) partial support; 17 percent were in com- “NATO attaches great importance to satellite would help resolve Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Udovenko empha- plete opposition; and a further 20 percent the independence and sovereignty of communications problems among its thou- sized that the special relationship of found the question too difficult to answer. Ukraine. Your country has played an sands of islands. Mr. Kuchma told Mr. which Mr. Solana spoke includes When asked about the effect the communi- important role in the stability and securi- Ukraine’s active participation in the Suharto that Ukraine could launch the ty on the continent of Europe,” said the ty would have on Belarus’ sovereignty, 30 satellite with its rockets, but would be Partnership for Peace program, its coop- percent responded it would be strength- NATO chief during a news conference eration in the Council of NATO coopera- unable to finance the project owing to its on April 15. ened; 28 percent said it would be lost; 16 economic difficulties. Mr. Kuchma is in tion, its commitment to peacekeeping percent felt it would make no difference; Mr. Solana, who arrived in Kyiv that with the IFOR troops in Bosnia, as well Indonesia to try to increase trade and eco- morning for a one-day visit, is the first and 26 percent said they did not know. nomic cooperation between Ukraine and as official visits between NATO and (OMRI Daily Digest) NATO chief to visit Ukraine. During a Ukraine, such as Mr. Solana’s one-day the Far East. (OMRI Daily Digest) packed day of meetings with President trip to Kyiv. Belarus Parliament factions split on treaty March inflation rate hits new low Leonid Kuchma, Prime Minister Yevhen He also noted that the two sides had MIENSK — Three of the five Bela- Marchuk, Defense Minister Valeriy signed documents last year which KYIV — The monthly inflation rate in rusian parliamentary factions — the Com- Shmarov, Foreign Minister Hennadiy emphasize a deepening of relations in Ukraine for March was 3 percent, said the munists, the Agrarians and the pro-presi- Udovenko and members of the Ukrainian many fields, including scientific-techni- Ministry of Statistics in a report released on Parliament, Mr. Solana spoke of an cal research, economic, military and eco- dential Accord group — have approved the April 12. This is the lowest figure since the “enhanced relationship” between NATO logical cooperation. Russian-Belarusian integration treaty, Bela- beginning of the year and one of the lowest and Ukraine. However, Mr. Udovenko, like all of rusian Television reported on April 10. The in recent months. (Respublika) But the term “enhanced relationship” the officials Mr. Solana met with in Kyiv, three factions voiced support for Belarusian Fourteenth certificate auction sets record was not defined, nor were any documents emphasized Ukraine’s non-aligned status, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s poli- signed between the alliance and Ukraine cies and urged the Parliament’s speedy rati- as proclaimed in Ukraine’s 1990 ZAPORIZHZHIA — More than 60,000 during Mr. Solana’s visit, which the fication of the treaty. The two other parlia- Declaration of State Sovereignty and privatization certificates were invested into NATO chief called “very fruitful.” mentary factions — the Social Democrats reaffirmed in the 1991 Proclamation of local industry by private citizens and finan- and Civic Action — are unlikely to be as He said that his conversation with Independence. cial institutions during the recently held pri- supportive, since their leaderships have crit- President Kuchma was “very frank, very “Ukraine intends to move toward vatization auction, reported the oblast’s sincere and very fruitful,” but did not icized Mr. Lukashenka’s pro-Russian poli- center for certificate auctions on April 12. (Continued on page 21) divulge any details, adding only that the cies. In related news, the executive commit- This is the largest number of certificates tee of the Russian-Belarusian Community invested at a single auction here. For the met for the first time in Moscow on April first time ever, long lines formed at the cen- 11. Among the first directives issued by the ter’s doors, primarily due to the initial share group, chaired by Russian Prime Minister ANALYSIS: The new union Viktor Chernomyrdin, were the granting of (Continued on page 21) signed by Russia and Belarus by David R. Marples his authority over opposition groups and mildly independent media centers. On April On April 2 in Moscow, Belarus and Rus- Radionuclides seeping into drinking 2, however, he effectively signaled the KYIV — The Dnipro River basin, half-life of 25,000 years, poses the most sia signed a “Treaty on Forming a Union of death knell of the young independent state. which supplies two-thirds of Ukraine’s long-lasting hazard. Sovereign Republics.” The union is not a treaty between equal 52 million people with daily drinking According to Greenpeace Ukraine The signing of the treaty, from the partners. Rather it signifies the subjugation water, is being markedly affected by member Hanna Tsvetkova, a nuclear Belarusian perspective marks perhaps the of a small struggling nation to a larger and particles of plutonium, cesium and stron- specialist, “The migration of radionu- climax of a long campaign by Russophile powerful state. That Mr. Lukashenka will tium seeping into the water table from clides out of the [30 - kilometer ‘dead’] elements to draw closer to Belarus’s east- play a prominent role in the new supra- contaminated soil near the site of the zone is the most complex and burning ern neighbor. national organization does not conceal the Chornobyl nuclear accident, the issue” in dealing with Chornobyl-relat- Belarus was a founding member of the fact that policy will effectively be decided Associated Press reported on April 3. ed contamination. Commonwealth of Independent States in Moscow. The stipulations publicized The wetlands and marshes of the The AP report also explained that the (CIS); in fact, it hosted the December appear remarkably similar to the sort of Prypiat River, the largest right-bank past winter’s heavier than normal snow- 1991 meeting of Slavic states at which role that Mikhail Gorbachev envisioned Dnipro tributary, have absorbed large falls and resultant severe spring floods the CIS was formed in December 1991. for union republics in his unsuccessful amounts of plutonium and other are causing significant amounts of Under the premiership of Vyachaslau attempt to form a revised union in the radioactive elements over the past radionuclides to travel far past the areas Kebich in the spring of 1993, a powerful spring and summer of 1991. decade, said the report. And, although originally contaminated by plutonium, lobby of Communists in Parliament intro- The treaty has created a Supreme expelled in lesser quantities than the cesium, strontium and other radioactive duced the concept of a military and security Council (Soviet) as the major organization, other elements, the plutonium, with a elements.