www.ukrweekly.com INSIDE:• Analysis: Is the Cold War over? — page 2. • News and Views: About Soyuzivka’s deficit — page 6. • Women entrepreneurs honored by theater community – page 9. Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profit association Vol. LXVII HE KRAINIANNo. 4 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JANUARY 24, 1999 EEKLY$1.25/$2 in Ukraine UkraineT reportsU poor harvest; Presidential campaignW season in full swing, analysts cite misguided policy as two parties announce support for Udovenko by Pavel Politiuk Soviet-style collective farms from market by Roman Woronowycz Special to The Ukrainian Weekly reforms and radical changes, which would Kyiv Press Bureau make them more effective and competitive, KYIV — Ukraine, once the breadbasket are at the heart of Ukraine’s agricultural KYIV – Several of Ukraine’s leading of Europe and then the Soviet Union, har- problems. parties and the country’s Parliament made vested just 26.5 metric million tons of grain “Private land ownership is the key prob- key announcements on January 15-16 on in 1998 – down about 25 percent from the lem for Ukrainian agrarian reforms, and any presidential elections – signs that the cam- previous year’s crop of 35.5 million tons. changes are impossible without it,” said paign season is moving into full swing. While the Rukh and the Reform and The crop of 26.5 million tons was the Mykola Vernytsky, analyst at Ukraine’s Order parties officially declared they will second worst since independence in 1991 Agricultural Exchange. back former Minister of Foreign Affairs and far below Soviet-era harvest levels of The Constitution of Ukraine allows pri- Hennadii Udovenko for president, leaders about 50 million metric tons. Only the 1996 vate land ownership, but analysts say there harvest was poorer at 24.5 million tons. of the National Democratic Party and the is no mechanism to properly implement Social Democratic Party (United) Ukraine’s Agriculture Ministry officials such reforms. The left-leaning Ukrainian blamed drought and the crisis in neighbor- announced the formation of a centrist Verkhovna Rada has said repeatedly that it coalition to include the Green Party and ing Russia, while independent agricultural will not allow the privatization of land. analysts said the poor performance had Ukraine’s largest business association. Last week President Leonid Kuchma The political moves occurred after more to do with a misguided farm policy appointed Mykhailo Hladii to the newly since independence. Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada passed a presi- created post of vice prime minister of agri- dential election law that specifies the man- “This (poor crop) is the result of serious culture and, while announcing the appoint- drought in the eastern and central Ukrainian ner in which the 1999 elections are to pro- ment, said that the main task for the former ceed. regions, such as Kharkiv and Poltava,” said head of the reform-minded Lviv Oblast Stepan Dovhan, vice-chairman of the sow- The law, approved on January 15 by a would be to introduce radical market vote of 232-32, stipulates that presidential Hennadii Udovenko ing department in the Agriculture Ministry. reforms. However, agricultural consultant Serhii candidates can be nominated by political “Hladii’s task is to quickly implement parties or a group of at least 500 voters. leader of the Social Democratic Party Feofilov put the blame elsewhere. “The market reforms in the Ukrainian agricultural Each candidate must collect at least 1 mil- (United); National Deputy Ivan Pliushch results expose the absence of market sector and to introduce private land owner- lion signatures, with a minimum of 30,000 of the National Democratic Party; Kyiv reforms in Ukraine and the Ukrainian ship,” said Pavlo Haidutsky, deputy chief of each from 18 of Ukraine’s 25 oblasts. Mayor Oleksander Omelchenko; and Agriculture Ministry’s misguided policies,” the Kuchma administration and a former To be elected in the first round a candi- Donetsk Mayor Volodymyr Rybak. said Mr. Feofilov, director of the Kyiv- agriculture minister. date must receive more than 50 percent of Other members of the committee based UkrAgroConsult company. the vote. If no single candidate receives a include Zinovii Kulyk, until recently Analysts said policies that protect the (Continued on page 3) majority, then a second round will take President Kuchma’s minister of informa- place between the two highest vote-get- tion, Yevhen Kushniarov, a former presi- ters, during which a simple majority will dential chief of staff and current head of Ukrainian organization protests be sufficient for victory. the New Ukraine political organization, The first round of elections is sched- and Anatolii Tolstoukhov, the current min- Wiesenthal Center’s mail solicitations uled for October 31. ister of Cabinet affairs (a position former- The election law requires that a candi- ly known as minister of the Cabinet of date be at least 35 years old and have Ministers). Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association Canada’s Commission of Inquiry on lived in Ukraine a minimum of 10 years. The coalition brings together the major CALGARY – Representatives of War Criminals, headed by Justice Although the law will not go into effect centrist political parties and figures. The the Ukrainian Self Reliance League Jules Deschenes, reviewed their status until it is signed by President Leonid National Democratic Party, the Green (USRL) of Canada have formally and again cleared the unit of any com- Kuchma, its passage prodded several par- Party and what is left of the fragmented ties to begin moving forward their election protested to Canada’s Minister of plicity in war crimes. Social Democratic Party (United) without strategies. National Revenue, Herb Dhaliwal More recently, Canada’s Minister of Yevhen Marchuk, as well as the Liberal Hours after the vote on the election bill, about unsolicited bulk mail solicita- Justice Anne McLellan herself Party and the Democratic Party form the acknowledged in correspondence with Prime Minister Valerii Pustovoitenko and tion for donations by the Toronto- core of the new alliance. the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties former President Leonid Kravchuk based Friends of the Simon Zlahoda also has the support of two Association that there is no evidence announced the formation of the All- Wiesenthal Center, which lists itself former prime ministers, current National that would merit the commencement of Ukrainian Zlahoda (Concord) Association as having Canadian Charitable Deputies Vitalii Masol and Yukhym court proceedings against any member of Democratic Forces, a political organi- Registration No. 0567586-21-27. Zviahilskyi, as well as backing from of the Galicia Division. zation geared to unite centrist political Recently, members of the USRL Anatolii Kinakh, the head of the The USRL’s president, Edmonton movements into a single force for the and other Ukrainian Canadians have Ukrainian Entrepreneurs and Industrialists lawyer Eugene Harasymiw, has asked elections. received correspondence from the Union, the largest business association in that the Minister of National Revenue With some 300 invited guests on hand Wiesenthal Center which claims that Ukraine, which is politically close to the explain how the distribution of “hate – many there simply as interested thousands of Ukrainians who were president. literature” of this type by the Friends observers – Mr. Pustovoitenko read a res- members of the Ukrainian Division Although many on the organizing com- of the Simon Wiesenthal Center can olution that outlined the Zlahoda coali- Galicia during the second world war mittee are past or current members of the be defined as “charitable.” The USRL tion’s aims as: “confirming a democratic, and who allegedly slaughtered Jews in administration or the government of has also called for the revocation of law-governed and socially oriented state, that period, are now living comfort- President Kuchma, the prime minister, the Friends of the Wiesenthal [caring for] the well-being of its citizens, ably in Canada. speaking at a press conference after the Center’s charitable status in Canada. overcoming the estrangement between the The Wiesenthal Center’s literature announcement, declined to say whom the Mr. Harasymiw likewise recommend- state and society, and forming a society of makes no mention of the fact that movement would support in the October ed that the minister of justice formal- solidarity that is true to general human members of this division were presidential elections. “We do not want ly investigate the Wiesenthal group’s values.” screened by Canadian, British, people whose aim is to deny support to activities to determine if they have Prime Minister Pustovoitenko will co- American and Soviet officials just somebody. When the formation of the chair the organizing committee of the association is complete we will decide after the war and that, in 1986, (Continued on page 3) political coalition along with Mr. Kravchuk, today a national deputy and a (Continued on page 3) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JANUARY 24, 1999 No. 4 NEWS ANALYSIS NEWSBRIEFSNEWSBRIEFS Rada votes to start abolishing presidency ... February 15 to face interrogation by Swiss Is the Cold War really over? authorities. He was released in December by Paul Goble Unfortunately, Mr. Kortunov goes on, KYIV – On its third attempt, the on $3 million (U.S.) bail, following his RFE/RL Newsline “most democrats” in Russia itself do not Verkhovna Rada passed a motion that pro- arrest on charges of money-laundering as he deny Moscow’s “defeat” in the Cold War vides for abolishing the Ukrainian presiden- tried to enter the country on a Panamanian A leading Russian foreign policy ana- or conceal their “joy” over it or even cy, Interfax reported on January 14. By a passport. Mr. Lazarenko, leader of the lyst has suggested that the Cold War is their role in bringing it about. And he vote of 237 to 26, the Parliament decided to Hromada Party, denies all charges.