www.ukrweekly.com INSIDE:• Kyiv conference on NATO at 50 — page 8. • In memoriam: Vyacheslav Chornovil — page 9. • The Vydubytskyi Monastery — centerfold. Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profit association Vol. LXVIITHE UKRAINIANNo. 15 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, APRIL 11,W 1999 EEKLY$1.25/$2 in Ukraine Ukraine increasesthat mix,” said the president. involvementMoscow tenuous at best,in the CIS CIS – which for Rada Chairman Tkachenko advocates President Kuchma also was in Russia on all practical purposes is run by Russia, whose April 2 on CIS business, although several president controls the chair – has lain nearly common currency and defense system thousand miles to the east in Moscow, where dormant. In fact, the CIS has never established he attended the first CIS Council of Heads of a practical purpose or program and has yet to by Roman Woronowycz State summit held in more than a year. After find a definitive reason for its existence. Kyiv Press Bureau the summit’s conclusion he expressed satisfac- President Kuchma declared the revival of KYIV – Ukraine’s involvement in the tion that he and the 12 other leaders of coun- the commonwealth chiefly on the basis of a Commonwealth of Independent States deep- tries that once were a part of the Soviet Union series of administrative reforms that were ened on April 1-2, as Ukraine officially entered had revived the organization. adopted to streamline the heavily bureaucratic the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (IPA) as its “Today I can say that the CIS does exist,” organization. newest member during a plenary session held Mr. Kuchma told Interfax-Ukraine after the Other than that, the summit attendees did in St. Petersburg. conclusion of the one-day meeting. not conclude any striking resolutions or The session was one of two CIS gatherings It was a notable change in attitude from just announce any major changes in the mandate of in Russia during the weekend – the other being a month earlier, when he had told journalists the organization. the first CIS summit of heads of state in more during a visit to Kyiv by Belarusian President The 12 leaders could not agree on how to than a year, held in Moscow – which leaders Alyaksandr Lukashenka that “the CIS barely address the military and civil conflict in the hoped would reinvigorate the commonwealth exists.” rump Yugoslavia. The presidents did not sup- and set it on a new path. With President Boris Yeltsin of Russia ail- The Ukrainian delegation to the IPA, a ing and his hold on the reins of power in (Continued on page 3) largely consultative body that represents the national assemblies of 10 of the common- wealth’s 12 member-states, made its voice heard even before it officially took its seat. Oleksander Tkachenko, Verkhovna Rada Udovenko elected acting chairman of Rukh chairman and leader of Ukraine’s delegation, called for a single currency and defense system Justice Ministry rules that Chornovil group is legitimate Rukh among the members. by Roman Woronowycz “We must consider developing a common Kyiv Press Bureau currency and a single defense system. The events that surround us show that we must KYIV — The Central Leadership of the unite to be strong,” said Mr. Tkachenko upon Rukh Party that had remained loyal to arriving in St. Petersburg at Pulkovo Airport, Vyacheslav Chornovil, who recently was killed according to Ukrainian Television News. in an auto accident, elected Hennadii Mr. Tkachenko has called for a Slavic union Udovenko acting party chairman on March 31. comprising Ukraine, Russia and Belarus on Mr. Udovenko’s election came on the heels more than one occasion, but this was the first of a decision made the same day by Ukraine’s time the Verkhovna Rada leader had Ministry of Justice to accept the statutes and announced he was for much tighter relations by-laws of the Rukh Party now headed by Mr. among all the states of the commonwealth. Udovenko and to reject those of the splinter Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada had repeatedly party organization of the same name. rejected membership in the IPA, which is The Ministry of Justice stated in its ruling heavily dominated by Communists, until Mr. that only the March 7 party congress organized Tkachenko all but ramrodded a proposal for by supporters of Mr. Chornovil was held membership through his Parliament on according to the party’s statutes and by-laws. March 3. The Rukh Party split in mid-February after Mr. Tkachenko, a member of the Peasants’ a group of Rukh national deputies removed Party who was elected chairman of the Mr. Chornovil as parliamentary faction head Verkhovna Rada because of his perceived and as chairman of the party for his alleged pragmatism, has only expounded on the need authoritarian ways. Two party congresses were for a return to the Moscow fold since assuming convened soon thereafter: an extraordinary that post. congress on February 28, which elected At Polkovo Airport the leader of the National Deputy Yurii Kostenko its new chair- Efrem Lukatsky Ukrainian parliamentary delegation also said man; and a previously scheduled session on Ukraine must consider giving Yugoslavia mili- March 7, which retained Mr. Chornovil. Hennadii Udovenko tary support. “It is our duty and paramount The Justice Ministry ruling supported an a close political ally of Mr. Chornovil. He had objective to unhesitatingly render humanitarian appeal from Mr. Chornovil to reject the finally taken party membership before his elec- aid, in the form of food and medical supplies, February 28 congress as illegitimate. tion as party chairman. The Central and, first and foremost, military aid to the peo- One of Mr. Udovenko’s new assistant chair- Leadership’s election of Mr. Udovenko must ple of Yugoslavia,” said Mr. Tkachenko, men, Yurii Klychkovskyi, said the Justice still be ratified by the Rukh Congress sched- according to Interfax-Ukraine. Ministry decision validates his party’s assertion uled for May. His proposal was nipped in the bud by that there is only one legitimate Rukh. The new leader of Rukh explained that his President Leonid Kuchma, who “categorically “By approving the statutes submitted by the first task will be to consolidate the party’s denied” that any aid would be offered. ninth congress’s second session, the Ministry forces and to prepare for the upcoming presi- “Only politicians with neither soul nor heart of Justice in effect rejected the 10th congress dential elections. He announced that he are capable of calling for military aid to (held by the splinter Rukh group),” said Mr. remains a presidential candidate and that the Yugoslavia,” said Mr. Kuchma, who has led a Klychkovskyi. “The head of our congress was political coalition of Rukh, the Reform and Ukrainian effort to mediate the Kosovo con- Chornovil and our group is, therefore, the only Order Party and the Republican Christian Party flict. one that can carry the name Rukh.” would continue. “I would counsel those politicians who are Mr. Udovenko, Ukraine’s minister of for- The Rukh group headed by Mr. Kostenko, proposing this to send their own children and eign affairs until he resigned after his election grandchildren, and not to throw Ukraine into to Ukraine’s Parliament, had recently become (Continued on page 3) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, APRIL 11, 1999 No. 15 ANALYSIS NEWSBRIEFS CIS: the jackals and the lion NEWSBRIEFS Kuchma and Yeltsin meet in Moscow (Eastern Economist, RFE/RL Newsline) by Paul Goble now made it impossible to create such an MOSCOW – Presidents Leonid Ukraine notified about ship movements integrated economic space. The more As the Commonwealth of Independent Kuchma and Boris Yeltsin met at the than 1,000 CIS agreements that some of Russian president’s Moscow residence on KYIV – Verkhovna Rada Committee for States was preparing for a summit in the commonwealth’s members have National Security and Defense Chair Moscow on April 2, one of Russia’s lead- April 1, where the two personally handed signed have had the effect of discrediting over ratification papers on the two Heorhii Kriuchkov announced on April 5 ing foreign-policy commentators argued the very idea of future cooperation. that Ukraine was informed prior to the that Moscow should stop trying to inte- nations’ treaty on friendship, partnership Mr. Karaganov went on to argue that and cooperation. Mr. Yeltsin commented event of Russia’s plans to send ships to the grate the former Soviet space on the the non-Russian countries made “a major Yugoslavian war zone. Mr. Kriuchkov basis of the CIS and instead deal one-on- that the number of misunderstandings strategic mistake” in not agreeing to a between Russia and Ukraine had been added, however, “I cannot predict NATO one with each of the former Soviet actions against the Russian Black Sea Fleet tight political arrangement five years steadily decreasing recently. Foreign republics. base in Sevastopol, should Russia become ago, one that would have restricted Minister Borys Tarasyuk called the sign- Appearing at a roundtable discussion embroiled in the Yugoslavian conflict.” The Russia’s freedom of action even more ing of the document, which now comes organized by the Russian foreign-policy U.S. State Department announced, “This than their own. Indeed, he suggested that into force, “a historic event for Ukraine journal International Affairs, Sergei move by Moscow could give the wrong sig- this mistake was “a paragon of foreign- and Russia,” adding, “the treaty will form Karaganov suggested that the CIS today policy idiocy.” nals to Yugoslavia and the Balkans as a the juridical base for all future documents “is a rare example of a retrograde move- In fact, several CIS leaders, particular- whole.” Meanwhile, Rukh leaders issued a regulating relations between the two ment in history” and that overcoming ly Kazakstan’s President Nursultan statement on April 5 protesting against the countries.” The treaty, which formally “illusions” about it will serve Moscow’s Nazarbayev, did push at that time for a departure from Sevastopol of Russian BSF took effect with the document exchange, interests as it attempts to expand its more precisely defined arrangement warships for the Yugoslavian war zone.