INSIDE: • Verkhovna Rada committee acts toward impeachment of Kuchma — page 2. • Baby sellers found guilty— page 3. • Sports: at Verkhovyna, SUM-ivka, Soyuzivka — pages 8-11. HE KRAINI A N EEKLY T PublishedU by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profitW association Vol. LXV No. 37 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1997 $1.25/$2 in Ukraine Ukrainian astronaut in training European Union leaders travel to Kyiv to fly aboard U.S. space shuttle for first meeting with Ukrainian officials by Oleh Bula formed by Col. Kadenyuk, which are by Roman Woronowycz leaking reactor. The G-7 states meeting Special to The Ukrainian Weekly known as the Collaborative Ukrainian Kyiv Press Bureau at the Denver summit in June pledged Experiments (CUE). He is working togeth- $300 million. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The first er with Dr. Paul Williams of the University KYIV — Leaders of the European But Mr. Santer explained the money Ukrainian astronaut will fly aboard an of Wisconsin, who developed the Fast Union came to Ukraine on September 5 pledged has conditions attached, includ- American space shuttle on November 19. Plants program, an integral part of CUE, bearing gifts and urging Ukraine’s lead- ing those outlined in a December 1995 On a 16-day mission, Payload Specialist and with Dr. Mary Musgrave, the principal ers to restart the country’s stalled reform Memorandum of Understanding with the Col. Leonid Kadenyuk will conduct a vari- investigator for the United States. programs. G-7 countries that noted stringent nuclear ety of microgravity science experiments. The CUE is an international effort European Commission President safety issues. He also said the EU is These experiments are of particular interest where-by teachers and students will have Jacques Santer and Prime Minister of ready to help finance the completion of to hundreds of thousands of students in the opportunity to investigate plants – very Luxembourg Jean-Claude Juncker, the reactors at the Rivne and Khmelnytsky both the United States and Ukraine. special fast-growing plants that are able to current holder of the European Union’s plants, but again with conditions As Col. Kadenyuk is conducting experi- germinate in under 48 hours – in space. rotating six-month presidency, flew into attached. “The nuclear safety of the sites ments in space, high school teachers from Aboard the Space Shuttle mission in Kyiv for several hours for the first-ever must be 100 percent ascertained,” said both countries will be leading their classes November (STS-87), Col. Kadenyuk will meeting between the leaders of the Mr. Santer, at which time Prime Minister through the very same experiments here on work on pollination of the Wisconsin Fast European Union and Ukraine. Juncker added, “It also means that Earth. Special downlinks have been estab- Plants, whose correct scientific name is Although the meeting was called a Chornobyl must be closed by the year lished, and while orbiting far above the Brassica rapa, otherwise known as Chinese “summit,” it was more a “getting to 2000.” Earth’s surface, in space, Col. Kadenyuk c a b b a g e . know you” affair, as Mr. Juncker Although the two leaders praised the will be speaking directly with students in Middle and high school students and acknowledged. “This first meeting was economic reform efforts undertaken by both Ukraine and the United States. teachers in the United States and Ukraine not merely symbolic, it allowed us to get President Kuchma, the stabilization of Ukraine will be linked through a special will then duplicate the flight experiments in to know one another,” said Mr. Juncker the currency and the leveling of infla- communications network set up with a real time and communicate online. After at a press conference with his EU cohort, tion, they urged the president to keep Ukrainian television station. Ukrainians the shuttle mission, the pollinated plants Mr. Santer, and Ukraine’s President pushing towards a free-market economy. throughout the country will be watching will be recovered, dissected and investigat- Leonid Kuchma. “We look positively at the changes that their own astronaut as he works with the ed in the laboratory. This information will The two EU leaders brought with them have taken place in this country, but other crew members on the Space Shuttle then be shared with students in both coun- a pledge of a $110 million aid package realize there is still much to be done” o r b i t e r . t r i e s . from the EU for containing Chornobyl said Prime Minister Juncker. “We call Dr. Thomas Dreschel, science education In May 1995, the presidents of the reactor No. 4, whose sarcophagus, hastily on people not to move away from the coordinator for the Life Sciences Support United States and Ukraine issued a joint built after the 1986 calamity, is quickly path of economic reforms. If Ukraine Center at the Kennedy Space Center, crumbling. Ukraine estimates that it explained the experiments that will be per- (Continued on page 8) needs $750 million to properly secure the (Continued on page 7) Miss Europe competition in Kyiv marred by scandal and walkout by Roman Woronowycz Kyiv Press Bureau KYIV — Miss Europe 1997 was crowned in Kyiv on September 6, the first time such a competition was held in a former Soviet republic, but not before the pageant was marred by scandal and a walkout by almost one-quarter of the contestants. The incidents have led to more bad publicity for this young country attempting to push itself closer to Europe. Ten beauties from the northern European countries of England, Wales, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark and Iceland complained to foreign diplomats of threats to their safety, and of poor food and accommodations after quitting the competition on September 3. The Kyiv Post quoted a Swedish journalist on September 4 as saying that “several of the contestants were forcibly taken from their rooms and forced to dance with their abductors.” The incident allegedly occurred the evening of September 2 when the girls were roused from their beds and told they should pre- pare themselves for an evening at a Kyiv casino and night club, the Red and Black. There they were forced to dance with strangers, which some have alluded to as gangster types. The next day the women failed to show up for a luncheon at the Provence restaurant. Viktor Pensky, press attaché for both the Miss Ukraine and the Miss Europe organizations, told The Roman Woronowycz Weekly that the norm was for the contestants to attend Miss Greece Isabelle Darras, who won the 1997 Miss (Continued on page 17) Miss Ukraine Natalya Nadtochey of Kharkiv. Europe title, with French film star Alain Delon. 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1997 No. 37 Baby sellers found guilty by Roman Woronowycz by President Leonid Kuchma during cele- Kyiv Press Bureau brations of the first anniversary of Ukraine’s Constitution, while the sentences Kuchma set for leading role in region tion card and outlining procedures for KYIV — Four men charged with of Messrs. Zyma and Ursul have been closing down an enterprise. The change in involvement in the illegal sale of newborn deferred for two years. VILNIUS — An international confer- procedure is intended to decrease corrup- babies to foreigners have been found guilty However, Dr. Doroshenko effectively ence for co-existence and good-neighbor- tion and encourage business development in Ivano-Frankivsk, but will spend little served nine months because he was ly relations was held here, hosted by by simplifying regulations. (UNIAN, additional time in prison. detained for the entire period of the trial, Lithuania’s President Algirdas Brazauskas Eastern Economist) The four men, Volodymyr Doroshenko, which began on December 24, 1996. Dr. on September 5-6. Ten East European chief physician of the Lviv Regional Fedak, Mr. Zyma and Mr. Ursul were presidents and Russian Prime Minister Revolutionary plastic card introduced Prenatal Center, Yuri Zyma, former deputy released on bail and personal recognizance Viktor Chernomyrdin attended the confer- HORLIVKA — The Horlivka branch of chief of the Lviv City Administration; during the course of the trial. ence aimed at showing that the region, so the First Ukrainian International Bank has Bohdan Fedak, former chief physician of The men also are prohibited from hold- often a place of conflict and tragedy in the opened its first automatic cash machine the Lviv Oblast Clinical Hospital; and ing senior governmental or medical posi- past, is no longer a source of instability. using Cirrus Maestro plastic cards that are Zinoviy Ursul, Halych Raion chief adminis- tions for a period of three years. During the conference, President Kuchma recognized worldwide. The bank is plan- trator; were found guilty of criminal negli- The discovery of an illegal baby adop- met with Bulgaria’s President Pyotr gence and abuse of office, according to tion ring working in western Ukraine led Stoyanov and the two agreed to develop ning to introduce several more machines in Interfax-Ukraine. the Verkhovna Rada in July 1994 to ban cooperation in tourism, trade and trans- the coming months. Branch director Ruslan The charges stemmed from their adoptions by foreigners, which lasted until port. Mr. Stoyanov invited Mr. Kuchma to Rudyh said, “This is the first Ukrainian involvement in the sale of babies to foreign- July of 1996. Then the legislature amended visit Bulgaria in 1998. Addressing the plastic card adapted to the European sys- ers, including U.S. citizens. The babies the Civil Procedure Code and the Marriage conference, Mr. Kuchma proposed hold- tem,” and added that in two to three years’ time Ukrainian citizens who have a hryvnia involved had been placed in orphanages and Family Code to tighten the adoption ing a summit of leaders of Baltic and because their mothers were serving prison process.