ïêàëíéë êéÑàÇëü! CHRIST IS BORN! Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profit association Vol. LXVIII HE No.KRAINIAN 52 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2000 EEKLY$1/$2 in Ukraine Chornobyl shuts down as world watches TensT of thousands U W by Roman Woronowycz attend funeral services Kyiv Press Bureau KYIV – As representatives of the international community watched, President Leonid Kuchma gave the order on for Cardinal Lubachivsky December 15 that shut down forever the third nuclear reactor at by Roman Woronowycz the Chornobyl power plant, effectively beginning the de-com- Kyiv Press Bureau missioning of the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident. LVIV – Tens of thousands of faithful “In accordance with a decision made by Ukraine and from lined the streets of Lviv on December 20 agreements made with the world community, I direct that the to pay their last respects to Cardinal No. 3 reactor at Chornobyl be shut down,” Mr. Kuchma said at Myroslav Ivan Lubachivsky, archbishop 1:16 p.m. Kyiv time, in ordering Vitalii Tolstonohov, the gener- major and head of the 7-million-strong al director of the Chornobyl nuclear plant, to begin the shut- Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church down operation. (UGCC). President Kuchma and his guests then viewed the control The 86-year-old primate died on room of reactor No. 3 via a live feed on a large monitor at the December 14 at his residence in the St. Ukraina Palace concert hall, while an engineer at Chornobyl George’s Metropolitan Palace of compli- threw the switch that halted the huge, atomically fueled, elec- cations due to pneumonia. Cardinal tricity-generating turbine. Lubachivsky had a history of heart prob- In doing so, Ukraine fulfilled a promise it had made when it lems and seldom had appeared in public signed an agreement with the Group of Seven most industrial- in recent years. ized countries in 1995 to do so in return for financial support The nearly two-kilometer-long proces- for the development of compensatory energy-generating sion of bishops, clergy, nuns and monks sources. As late as the beginning of December some doubt that accompanied the red casket carrying remained about whether Ukraine would follow through on its the last Ukrainian Greek-Catholic patri- promise and whether the West was adhering to its part of the AP arch of the 20th century wound through bargain. However, uncertainty diminished when the European the narrow city streets of this western Bank for Reconstruction and Development agreed to extend to Sergei Bashtovoi, a leading engineer at the Chornobyl Ukrainian city for nearly two hours Ukraine a $215 million loan to help with the completion of nuclear power plant, turns the key of the emergency stop as he shuts down the last functioning reactor, officially closing (Continued on page 4) (Continued on page 6) the plant on December 15. UNWLA concludes 75th anniversary celebrations Protesters erect tent towns in Kyiv by Tamara Stadnychenko appointed private dining area, was well Special to The Ukrainian Weekly attended. Among the guests were Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, Ukraine’s as Gongadze scandal continues ARLINGTON, Va. – Capping a year- ambassador to the United States, his by Yarema A. Bachynsky The demonstrators on Independence long series of festive and commemora- wife, Natalia Gryshchenko; and Aileen Special to the Ukrainian Weekly Square put forth a number of demands, tive programs to celebrate the 75th among them the resignation of President Marshall, the wife of Carlos Pasqual, KYIV – Some four weeks after National anniversary of the founding of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Leonid Kuchma, Minister of Kravchenko, Deputy Oleksander Moroz made public a Ukrainian National Women’s League of Attesting to the strong ties between Security Service of Ukraine Director tape implicating President Leonid Kuchma, America (UNWLA), members and their the UNWLA and elected officials of Leonid Derkach and Customs Committee Minister of Internal Affairs Yurii guests gathered at the Crystal City Hyatt American communities with a strong of Ukraine Chairman Yurii Solovkov. They Kravchenko and other top-level Ukrainian Regency in Arlington, Va., for a gala Ukrainian presence was the roll call of also called upon Ukrainian authorities to banquet which was held on December 2. officials in the disappearance and possible permit an independent investigation of all The banquet, hosted in an elegantly (Continued on page 10) murder of opposition journalist Heorhii allegations against the president and other Gongadze, the scandal known as individuals allegedly tied to the Gongadze “Kuchmagate,” “Gongadzegate” or matter and the Melnychenko tapes, as well “Tapegate” shows no signs of abating. as to submit the body found in a forest in While Parliament continued its review of Tarascha (near Kyiv) to an independent the scandal, ordinary Ukrainians and politi- international forensic examination. cal activists of all stripes took to the streets The headless corpse was discovered on to advance their case. November 2. Subsequently, a number of On Friday, December 15, in a move that items and bone scars were observed on the harked back to the civil disobedience of body, suggesting that it might be that of Mr. 1990, that forced the resignation of Vitalii Gongadze, who disappeared from Kyiv Masol, prime minister of then Soviet streets on September 16 and has not been Ukraine, a group of students and political seen since. Last week Mr. Gongadze’s wife, activists erected six pup tents on Myroslava, viewed the remains and identi- Independence Square in Kyiv. Those partic- fied the personal items as belonging to her ipating represented such ideological oppo- husband, but could not say with certainty nents as Socialists, the “My” (We) centrist that the badly mutilated body belonged to union, members of the two Rukh parties, her husband. and the radical nationalist UNA-UNSO, Over the weekend the tent town on the among others. city’s central square grew. The anti-Kuchma Leading the anti-Kuchma camp on the camp was joined by six tents set up by pro- Tatiana Terleckyj ground were Volodymyr Chemerys, former Kuchma demonstrators identified by police Participating in the symbolic candle-lighting ceremony at the UNWLA’s national deputy and ally of current National on the scene as their fellow officers. 75th anniversary banquet are (from left): Shelby P. Hamlett of the General Deputy Serhii Holovatyi, and Yurii Meanwhile, Ukrainian broadcast media Federation of Women’s Clubs, Iryna Kurowyckyj and Anna Krawczuk. Lutsenko, Socialist Party activist and 1990 hunger strike participant. (Continued on page 13) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2000 No. 52 ANALYSIS NEWSBRIEFSNEWSBRIEFS ‘Kuchmagate’ and the Ukrainian diaspora Population to shrink to 49.28 million the former prime minister of Ukraine who by Taras Kuzio is currently being detained in the United has demanded that the parliamentary KYIV – The State Statistics Committee investigation into Mr. Chornovil’s death States on charges of money laundering, PART I estimated that by the beginning of 2001, declared himself a political prisoner. Mr. be re-opened. Ukraine’s population will drop to 49.28 Recent events should force us to sober If the existence of Orly proves to be Lazarenko’s attorney, Maryna Dovhopola, million, or 210,000 persons less than the said that he made a statement in the court up to the fact that, nearly a decade after true, it will not come as much of a sur- average figure throughout 2000. In the Ukraine became an independent state, prise. In November an anonymous letter that Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma beginning of 2000, Ukraine had 49.71 mil- and White House officials are in conspiracy what is being built in Ukraine is very far from a Belarusian KGB employee to the lion residents, while in the beginning of from the ideals that the diaspora holds independent news agency Belapan against him. Mr. Lazarenko did not make 1999 this figure was around 50.1 million. any statements with regard to the Swiss law dear. First came former Prime Minister revealed that the Belarusian presidential (Eastern Economist) Pavlo Lazarenko’s theft of millions, then administration had a similar special pur- enforcers, who have already sentenced him to a year and a half in jail. (BBC allegations that National Deputy Viktor pose unit called Almaz that was involved Odesa-Gdansk pipeline is discussed Monitoring Service) Zherebtski stole German government in the murder of Russian Public ODESA – Ukrainian President Leonid compensation for Ukrainian slave labor- Television (ORT) cameraman Dmitryi A tax break for Ukrainian ers and now “Kuchmagate.” Zavadskyi and opposition politician Kuchma and his Polish counterpart, Just how many more scandals are Viktor Gonchar. Aleksander Kwasniewski, meeting in IVANO-FRANKIVSK – Starting on needed before the diaspora wakes up to And we had thought that Ukraine was Odesa on December 17-18, discussed the January 1, 2001, Ivano-Frankivsk will what is going on Ukraine? It is time to not Belarus! construction of an oil terminal in Odesa and implement a privileged tax for enterprises realize that the main threat to Ukraine’s While Belarusian President an Odesa-Gdansk pipeline to deliver that sell only Ukrainian-language products. independence rests not with an external Alyaksandr Lukashenka was introducing Caspian Sea and Kazak oil to Europe. Such enterprises will pay a single 11.4 hrv country (i.e., Russia) – but internally, a neo-Soviet regime, suppressing politi- President Kwasniewski called for the cre- per month tax, or 43 percent less than the from Ukraine’s own Lukashenka. cal freedoms, imposing a command ation of an international consortium to com- regular single tax rate. The vice-chairman plete the pipeline, whose Ukrainian stretch We receive disturbing news on a daily administrative economy, continuing of the City Council’s Entrepreneurship is 80 percent finished, and to organize oil basis about what kind of regime has been Russification and seeking reunion with Development Department, Andrii deliveries through it.