www.ukrweekly.com INSIDE:• Interview with Cardinal Lubomyr Husar — page 3. • Scholar speaks on Ukraine’s “challenging decade” — page 9. • Ukrainian debutante balls of 2001 — pages 13-15. Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profit association Vol. LXIX HE KRAINIANNo. 17 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, APRIL 29, 2001 EEKLY$1/$2 in Ukraine VERKHOVNAT U RADA VOTES TO OUSTW YUSCHENKO by Roman Woronowycz Kyiv Press Bureau KYIV – An unlikely, even if only temporary, political coalition of business oligarchs and Communists succeeded in removing Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko on April 26, just over 16 months after the popular, reform-minded for- mer banker took the helm of the government and made the first sustained attempts at economic reform in the country’s nearly 10-year history. Three pro-business political factions in the Verkhovna Rada joined a resurgent Communist Party faction to oust Ukraine’s second-longest serving prime minister by a vote of 263-69, with 77 national deputies either not voting or abstaining. In accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine, the pres- ident has 60 days to nominate a new prime minister. Speaking in the session hall after the vote, Mr. Yuschenko said he believes the decision taken by the law- makers will have serious consequences. “As a private citizen, I am convinced that democracy in Ukraine has received a serious setback today,” said a weary-looking, but otherwise emotionally restrained Mr. Yuschenko, who added that he would stay in politics and continue to fight for democracy as his backers on the parlia- mentary floor and in the visitor’s gallery shouted, “Yuschenko, Yuschenko!” Viktor Pobedinsky Minutes later the ex-prime minister appeared outside the main doors to the Verkhovna Rada Building before which Viktor Yuschenko, with some of the national deputies who support him, speaks to the crowd of 15,000 gathered nearly 15,000 vocal supporters had gathered as the vote in Kyiv after the Verkhovna Rada dismissed his reformist government. took place inside. Mr. Yuschenko, showing more emotion, The vote that brought down the government came from told the cheering throng that he was not embarrassed for a highly unusual and, most experts believe, unsustainable what he and his government had accomplished. coalition of the Communist faction with the ostensibly capi- “A year ago I had said we would move strongly on a tal-oriented factions of the Labor Ukraine Party led by Yuschenkos subjected program of national well-being. I said that I would not be Serhii Tyhypko, Oleksander Volkov’s Democratic Union embarrassed at the end to exit through the front doors of and the Social Democratic Party (United) of Viktor this building when the end came and to face the nation. Medvedchuk, who is also the Parliament’s first vice-chair- to smear campaign Today that time has come,” said Mr. Yuschenko. man. by Roman Woronowycz He also asked the restless crowd, which repeatedly Officially, the government’s failure to move the country Kyiv Press Bureau shouted for the ouster of President Leonid Kuchma, to out of its precarious financial situation and to better the KYIV – The political tactics utilized to discredit remain calm and refrain from violence. Protesters then lives of the Ukrainian people was given in the resolution as Ukraine’s Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko in the marched to the Presidential Administration Building, locat- the reason for the removal of the Yuschenko government. Ukrainian media in the days prior to the April 26 ed two blocks away, where they continued their peaceful However, there is little doubt among political experts that vote that brought down his government included a demonstration under the watchful eye of hundreds of state vicious smear campaign. militia officers, many in riot gear. (Continued on page 8) In the trenches of political warfare in Ukraine, slanderous accusations are not rare. But the propa- ganda campaign against Mr. Yuschenko, which Canadian MP’s bill seeks to promote redress for internment operation carried on for nearly two months, went beyond the usual twisting of his record and implications of OTTAWA – Inky Mark, member of Parliament for “All I want to do is see that Canadians are aware of this criminal wrongdoing, to include attacks on his Dauphin-Swan River, Manitoba, held a press conference on issue, that the prime minister fulfills his promise so that the wife and questions about his loyalty to Ukraine. April 24 in conjunction with the Ukrainian Canadian Civil families of those who were interned can finally put this to Much of the campaign to dirty Mr. Yuschenko Liberties Association to promote the issue of redress for the rest,” he added. came through media outlets owned by two lead- internment of thousands of Ukrainian Canadians and other Mr. Mark has some 6,070 people of Ukrainian descent in ing members of the Social Democratic Party European immigrants during World War I, which he called his riding. That figure represents over 13 percent of the pop- (United): the Russian-language Kyiv daily “one of Canada’s darkest moments.” ulation in Dauphin-Swan River. Kievskie Viedomosti owned by Hryhorii Surkis Mr. Mark referred to a promise made during the 1993 Prof. Lubomyr Luciuk and children’s author Marsha and the Russian-language television channel Inter election by then Opposition Leader Jean Chrétien to the Skrypuch of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties controlled by Oleksander Zinchenko and consid- Ukrainian community and the families of those interned Association participated in the press conference with Mr. ered one of the top two broadcast outlets in the that he would bring the redress issue to a close when his Mark. country. party became government. “That was almost eight years Prof. Luciuk, the UCCLA’s research director, told the In the most vicious of the fabricated news ago, and the families of these unjustly interned people attending reporters that Bill C-331 would not cost taxpayers reports, Mr. Yuschenko’s wife, Katherine (née deserve to see that promise fulfilled,” said Mr. Mark. “one red cent.” Instead, the UCCLA “is simply asking for Chumachenko), 40, who is a U.S. citizen born and Mr. Mark has been promoting the issue of Ukrainian the money that was confiscated from the internees to be tal- raised there, was accused of being a CIA operative redress since his arrival on Parliament Hill in 1997. lied up and used to place memorial plaques at all 24 con- placed by the United States to begin a relationship centration camp sites across the country,” he said. “I come from a riding that is home to a great number of with the prominent Ukrainian reformer when he A permanent museum in Banff National Park, which was people of Ukrainian descent. It is important to them that jus- was still the head of the National Bank of Ukraine. the site of two concentration camps, is also proposed. In tice be served. That’s why I had a Private Member’s Bill The Yuschenkos were married in 1998 after a addition, educational materials on the internment of lengthy romance; they have two daughters. drafted to seek an apology and restitution for this travesty of Ukrainians would be created and distributed to schools. justice. I wanted to do all I could to promote the right thing (Continued on page 10) being done,” Mr. Mark explained. (Continued on page 4) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, APRIL 29, 2001 No. 17 ANALYSIS Yuschenko rendered powerless NEWSBRIEFSNEWSBRIEFS PACE to vote Ukraine out? members of the government agree that by Jan Maksymiuk demonstrations demanding Mr. Kuchma’s NTRCU chief Vadym Dolhanov is in fact RFE/RL Poland, Belarus and Ukraine ouster, has recently began mustering public STRASBOURG, France – The working against the president since state support for Mr. Yuschenko to prevent his Parliamentary Assembly of the Council television often gives airtime to critics of PRAGUE – Prime Minister Viktor dismissal (it reportedly has collected more of Europe (PACE) was expected to vote the government. Ms. Zarudna added that Yuschenko is widely expected to lose a no- than 3 million signatures in support of the on April 26 on a motion of its state television does not fulfill its main confidence vote this week in the prime minister). And, quite naturally, the Monitoring Committee to expel Ukraine function of providing objective informa- from the Council of Europe. In its rec- Parliament. Last week, 290 lawmakers sup- Ukrainian media, both state- and privately tion. (RFE/RL Newsline) ommendation to exclude Ukraine, the ported a motion to rate as unsatisfactory the owned, have almost completely switched to Monitoring Committee listed a stream of Kuchma praises relations with Lithuania performance of the Yuschenko Cabinet on covering the conflict between Mr. complaints against Ukraine, including Ukraine’s “Reforms for Prosperity” socioe- Yuschenko and the parliamentary “oli- conomic program in 2000. The Verkhovna “murders of journalists” and “repeated VILNIUS – Ukrainian President Leonid garchs.” Rada needs 226 votes to pass a no-confi- aggression against and continuing intimi- Kuchma and his Lithuanian counterpart, This week, however, President Kuchma dence vote in the Cabinet of Ministers and dation of journalists, members of Valdas Adamkus, declared in Vilnius on seems to have changed his mind about the dismiss it. Parliament and opposition politicians in April 23 that bilateral relations between standoff. While in Vilnius on an official trip, Mr. Yuschenko’s ouster is demanded by Ukraine,” Reuters reported. However, their countries can serve as an example for the Ukrainian president noted that “the gov- a rather unlikely alliance of the PACE President Lord Russell-Johnston other European states to follow, the BNS ernment’s dismissal is not to Ukraine’s ben- Communists with the so-called pro-presi- said the vote will be mostly symbolic as press service reported.