INSIDE:• Interview: Vyacheslav Chornovil on issues facing Parliament — page 3. • Ukrainian organizations announce joint conference in D.C. — page 9. • Ukelodeon: a new children’s section — pages 18-19. Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profit association Vol. LXVII HE No.KRAINIAN 7 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1999 EEKLY$1.25/$2 in Ukraine SecurityT forcesU begin crackdown Canadian courtsW rule on two cases on organized crime in Crimea of denaturalization and deportation by Nathan Hodge Ukraine cleaning house, however, the by Andrij Kudla Wynnyckyj government was not legally entitled to bar Special to The Ukrainian Weekly Kuchma administration, has reminded Mr. Toronto Press Bureau immigrants for “security reasons” at the Grach that the Constitution does not guaran- time of the former Ukrainian volksdeutsch- KYIV – With the passage of a new tee real autonomy. TORONTO – In two cases decided er’s (person of German origin) arrival in Constitution for the Crimean autonomous In an interview with the newspaper Den recently by Canada’s Federal Court, prose- 1948. republic on December 23, 1998, the penin- (Day), Serhii Kunitsyn, the president’s rep- cutors failed to prove that the men they On January 29, Federal Court Judge sula seemed poised for a reduction in ten- resentative to Crimea, took direct issue with accused and committed war crimes during Marc Nadon found that by not alerting sions. President Leonid Kuchma officially Mr. Grach. “I can only accept statements World War II. Canada’s immigration authorities that he presented the document to the Crimean about a ‘criminal revolution’ ironically,” he The Ministry of Citizenship and had changed his name, and by not answer- leadership in a signing ceremony on said. “The fight against crime was going on Immigration (legally in the person of ing a question about his employment in the February 5, but the celebration was over- well before his [Grach’s] time. It really Minister Lucienne Robillard) had brought 10 years prior to 1951 (which would have shadowed by a public campaign of arrests picked up speed with the appointment of civil denaturalization and deportation pro- revealed that he was a collaborator), Mr. aimed at Crimean officials. Internal Affairs Ministry and State Security ceedings against two pensioners, Katriuk had obtained entry into Canada by The adoption of the Constitution was an generals [Oleksander] Kosianenko and Volodymyr Katriuk of Montréal and Johann false means. In addition, the judge found acrimonious process. The region’s Crimean [Hennadii] Moskal.” Dueck of St. Catharines, Ontario. In two that by not revealing his full wartime histo- Tatar minority appealed to President He also made a gesture to the Tatars. separate decisions (Mr. Katriuk’s handed ry in applying for Canadian citizenship in Kuchma for a veto, arguing that the “The Constitution has provoked the former- down in Montreal, Mr. Dueck’s in Toronto), 1957 (under his real name), Mr. Katriuk did Constitution made no provisions to protect ly deported peoples [of Crimea], particular- their lawyers were told that the charges of so fraudulently. minority rights. The Constitution, which ly Tatars, who comprise 12 percent of the war crimes were unsubstantiated. Mr. Katriuk, born in the village of establishes Ukrainian as an official lan- population,” he said. “The Constitution And yet, Mr. Katriuk lost a decision in Luzhany, Bukovyna, in 1921, did not dis- guage, also provoked ire in Moscow. does not represent their interests,” he added. the civil proceedings called to determine if pute that he served with an auxiliary police During debates in the Russian Duma over he had obtained his citizenship by fraud and battalion in Ukraine and Belarus in 1942- the ratification of the so-called “big treaty” The center’s control deception, or by knowingly concealing 1943. However he underlined that he com- between Ukraine and the Russian Mr. Kunitsyn’s statements were also a material circumstances. Mr. Dueck won, as Federation, Russian legislators leveled reminder to the Crimean leadership that the the judge in his case ruled that the Canadian (Continued on page 8) accusations of “forced Ukrainization” “Yalta option” is still available. Last against the Constitution’s authors. January, 400 Internal Affairs Ministry While hot air circulated in Moscow, troops raided municipal offices in Yalta National Bank of Ukraine sets Crimea began to heat up. First, the offices after President Kuchma ordered the ouster of Mustafa Jemilev, the leader of the of Oleksander Kalius, the democratically Crimean Tatar Mejlis (the Tatar’s unofficial elected mayor of that resort city. Volodymyr new currency corridor for hryvnia Parliament) were firebombed on January Marchenko, a government official in charge 14. Soon afterwards Ukrainian state security of resorts and sanatoria, was installed in his by Pavel Polityuk its state budget for this year. forces began reeling in Crimean officials in place. Special to The Ukrainian Weekly Domestic debt traders and stockbrokers a crackdown on organized crime. “The actions of the MVS [Ministry of had been anxiously speculating whether the Even as Leonid Grach, the chairman of Internal Affairs] are in step with Grach’s KYIV – The National Bank of Ukraine cash-strapped government would maintain Crimea’s Communist-dominated legisla- promises of a clean-up,” observed Andrii and the government ended months of sus- the corridor policy or let the embattled cur- ture, gloated over his triumph in getting a Nikiforov, director of the Crimean pense over its 1999 currency policy by set- rency float. separate Constitution for Crimea, the crimi- Information Agency, a Symferopol-based ting a new trading band for the hryvnia at Ukraine – whose central bank chairman nal clean-up of Crimea appears to be a news service, “but it is all orchestrated from 3.40-4.60 to the dollar (from the previous earlier this week had declined to reveal the reminder to him of Kyiv’s hold over the Kyiv.” 2.50-3.50). They also pledged to liberalize level of foreign exchange reserves – had region. The Crimean branch of the Ministry Mr. Nikiforov said the campaign is part the currency market. been supporting the hryvnia within its pre- of Internal Affairs announced the arrests of of the consolidation of the center’s hold on Vice Prime Minister Serhii Tyhypko said vious trade band via strict administrative 11 Kerch and Yevpatoria city council mem- the region, despite the Kuchma administra- the new corridor for the hryvnia, which has controls rather than intervention. bers during the past week, and Internal tion’s assurances of greater autonomy for traded at an unchanged 3.4270 per U.S. dol- Economists who say the controls are unsus- Affairs Minister Yurii Kravchenko has Crimea. “In effect, this is a continuation of lar since early November, would be effec- tainable in the long run have long called for promised the arrests of several Crimean the same campaign that was stared in tive for 1999. them to be lifted in the interests of keeping mayors, whom he accused of sheltering Symferopol and Yalta last year,” he said, “In 1999 the Cabinet of Ministers and the economy stable. criminals. adding “Now they’re extending it into the the National Bank strongly intend to follow “I am not so sure they have the means to At a press conference on January 28 in regions, using the same tactics.” an exchange rate policy in the range of support it (the hryvnia corridor) – whether Symferopol, Minister Kravchenko said that Mayor Kalius was sacked on allegations 3.40-4.60 hryvni per dollar,” Mr. Tyhypko they have the right policies, meaning the corrupt Crimean mayors were responsible of “mishandling privatization.” The said at a February 9 news conference right budget, the right balance of payments for “escalating tensions in the region,” and Kuchma administration has used such attended by National Bank of Ukraine development and external financial sup- that investigations are under way against measures on several occasions to rein in Chairman Viktor Yuschenko. port,” said one analyst. municipal officials from Kerch, Symferopol recalcitrant or independently minded local Ukraine had upped the band to the cur- “If we assume Ukraine works well under and Yevpatoriia for involvement in shadow governments. Government black berets rent range from 1.80-2.25 in September the existing IMF program, then they may be business, Interfax reported. ejected Odesa Mayor Eduard Hurvits last 1998, when international market turmoil able to sustain the new exchange rate The firebombing of the Mejlis appears to May by storming city hall, and Uzhhorod spread to the ex-Soviet country. The 1999 regime. But, if for any reason reforms slow be unrelated to the anti-crime campaign, but Mayor Serhii Ratushniak fled the country in budget is targeted at an average exchange again, it may not be sustained for a long Mr. Jemilev told the Kyiv Post that he October 1998 after prosecutors issued an rate of 4 hrv per dollar. time,” he added. believed the incident was planned by arrest warrant. Both had been strong critics “We support the central bank – this Mr. Yuschenko did not exclude the possi- Crimean Communists. Mr. Grach, also the of the Kuchma administration and had com- should be a policy of a currency corridor bility that the bank might raise reserve leader of the Crimean Communist Party, peted for power with centrally appointed and not a free-floating rate,” Mr. Tyhypko requirements for local commercial banks to denied any connection. oblast administrators. said, ending months of dispute over the 17-18 percent of their funds from 15 per- As he lobbied for the adoption of the Oleksander Dombrovskii, press main principles of Ukraine’s currency strat- cent and boost its refinancing rate from 60 Constitution, Mr. Grach had railed against spokesman for the Ministry of Internal egy.