INSIDE: • Kuchma prepares for the elections — page 2. • Vova and family get visa extension — page 3. • Interview with National Bank of Ukraine chairman — page 8. HE KRAINI A N EEKLY T PublishedU by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profitW association Vol. LXV No. 12 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MARCH 23, 1997 $1.25/$2 in Ukraine Religious strife in Ukraine continues 85,000 demonstrate in Ukraine among competing Orthodox Churches for back pay and pensions by Roman Woronowycz was to have been turned into a seminary (at by Roman Woronowycz Demonstrations of no more than 7,000 Kyiv Press Bureau that time the UAOC and the UOC-KP were Kyiv Press Bureau people each were held in Kharkiv, still one Church). Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Symferopol. In KYIV — The Ukrainian Autocephalous Bishop Ihor of Kharkiv told The KYIV — Approximately 85,000 peo- Kyiv the “Red” march attracted less than Orthodox Church (UAOC) continues to Weekly on March 17 that he had long sus- ple, according to the Ministry of Internal 3,000 individuals. Simultaneously, 1,000 disintegrate amid another flare-up of inter- pected Archbishop Mykhail was involved Affairs of Ukraine, gathered on March followers of Rukh gathered for a daylong Church strife in Ukraine. The latest scandal in financial improprieties, and that it seems 18 in cities throughout Ukraine to protest counter-protest for back wages and the involves the desertion of a leading bishop the archbishop is a culprit in the sordid the non-payment of back wages and pen- removal of the Communist and Socialist and the takeover of the UAOC offices by affairs of the Church. “When we entered sions, and the continuing economic leadership of the Verkhovna Rada. the Ukrainian Orthodox Church — Kyiv the chancery back in November after the malaise. Yevhen Kushnariov, President Leonid Patriarchate (UOC-KP). renegade bishops had taken the chancery What had been touted as a nationwide Kuchma’s chief of staff, said the strikes At the beginning of March, Bishop from the patriarch, we found documents general strike that could lead to the down- were part of a strategy by Communists to Ioan (Boichuk), who had assumed the that were forged by Mykhail and papers to fall of the current government and the cause upheaval in Ukraine. He blamed day-to-day administration of the UAOC which he fraudulently applied the seal of return of the Communists to power fell far National Deputy Petro Symonenko, head after a synod of bishops dismissed the patriarch,” said Bishop Ihor. The arch- short of leftist expectations, however. of the Communist Party of Ukraine, for Patriarch Dymytrii amid charges of fraud bishop, ironically, was the person who The demonstrations and marches were inciting the population. He also accused the and embezzlement on November 19, convened the Synod of Bishops at which organized by the All-Ukrainian Union of Russian Communist Party of direct 1996, quietly aligned himself with the Patriarch Dymytrii and Bishop Ihor were Workers, an organization that is thought involvement. “Zyuganov has made it clear UOC-KP. Along with him went the doc- dismissed. Archbishop Mykhail is under to be supported by the Communist Party by his comments in Miensk that this was a uments of the UAOC, its property and investigation by the Procurator General’s of Russia. They had boasted that 2 mil- centrally coordinated plan, which demands the Church chancery located on the Office of Ukraine, as are Patriarch lion people would demonstrate in a response from Ukraine because of its grounds of St. Mykhailo Sobor. Dymytrii and Bishop Ihor. Ukraine for a return to communism. anti-Ukrainian character,” said Mr. On March 9 seminarians of the Kyiv However, Bishop Ihor said that neither The Ukrainian economy’s continued K u s h n a r i o v . Spiritual Seminary of the UOC-KP he nor the patriarch would take responsi- stagnation has left the government Gennadii Zyuganov, head of the entered the chancery of the UAOC and bility for the commercial use of the offices unable to pay more than 2.7 billion Communist Party of Russia, in remarks forcibly removed the six people inside, because Bishop Ioan had controlled what hryvni (about $1.5 billion) that it owes made in Miensk at the Third Congress of including Patriarch Dymytrii, Bishop went on inside the chancery for the last workers in back pay. the Nations of the USSR during the week Makarii and four others. The evicted four months. No charges have been lev- The Federation of Trade Workers, the of March 10, said his party was coordinat- group tried to re-enter the building amid eled at any of the clergy involved. largest union in Ukraine, refused to join the ing plans for demonstrations in Kyiv on a scuffle, were momentarily successful, At least one UAOC adherent, who strikers. Oleksander Stoian, the president of March 18 and in Moscow on March 27. but were thrown out again. attended at a press conference in the the union who is also a deputy in the Mr. Kushnariov did not deny that the As the six awaited reinforcements in chancery yard on March 13, during which Verkhovna Rada and is allied with Ukrainian people had every reason to the form of UAOC faithful, the militia, Patriarch Dymytrii spoke to the press as Chairman Oleksander Moroz, said his orga- demonstrate. “People either do not have armed with automatic weapons, arrived nization cannot by law take part in political and restored calm. They refused to allow (Continued on page 12) actions, which is what he called the protests. (Continued on page 17) the patriarch to enter the building, claim- ing that they were there to restore order and not to right wrongs, according to Oleh Kalynychenko, an assistant to Patriarch Kievskiye Viedomosti reporter found dead on outskirts of Kyiv D y m y t r i i . JERSEY CITY, N.J. — A regional Associated Press that Mr. Shevchenko have been gathered on violence against Bishop Ioan is said to have moved to reporter on Ukraine’s mass-circulation complained that, after the stories were journalists, but independent surveys the UOC-KP under the jurisdiction of newspaper Kievskiye Viedomosti was published, security service agents pur- quote 15 percent of Ukrainian journal- Patriarch Filaret – because of his disen- found dead in suspicious circumstances, sued him. A spokesman for the SBU ists as saying they have feared for their chantment with the various financial fias- one of the daily paper’s editors said on said the agency had nothing to do with lives after publishing political stories. coes that have plagued the Church. He has March 14. “Our reporter Petro Mr. Shevchenko’s death. They also say about 80 percent of jour- refused public comment. Bishop Ioan was nalists in Ukraine feel there is political named bishop of Ivano-Frankivsk on Shevchenko was found hanged in a Deputy Editor Rakhmanin said there March 7 by Patriarch Filaret. remote part of Kyiv last night,” Serhii was no clear sign of violence against censorship in Ukraine. On December 4, 1996, Bishop Ioan Rakhmanin, Viedomosti’s deputy editor, the reporter but added, “Nothing is The executive director of the had told The Weekly that the UAOC told Reuters. clear at the moment. ... We will insist Committee to Protect Journalists, bishops who had been dismissed, includ- The Associated Press reported that that the investigation should take into William Orme Jr., wrote to President ing Patriarch Dymytrii and Bishop Ihor police said Mr. Shevchenko, 43, was account the possibility of a political Kuchma that “Unless a death like this is (Isichenko) of the Kharkiv-Poltava found hanging in a boiler house on the explanation for the incident.” carefully investigated and the findings Eparchy, had established organizations outskirts of Kyiv. Mr. Shevchenko had “We will also demand a criminal made public, a climate of intimidation to launder money through the Church. been reporting from the eastern industrial case be opened and that a suicide sce- can persist for reporters.” Recently he accused Archbishop city of Luhansk on the Russian border nario is not just assumed,” he said. The full text of the letter sent on Mykhail (Dutkevych) of Bila Tserkva, and last month published several pieces Respublika reported that Mr. March 14 by the New York-based who had remained with Bishop Ioan and on a conflict between the local mayor and Shevchenko’s colleague Serhii Kiseliov Committee to Protect Journalists – Metropolitan Vasilii (appointed locum the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). said at a March 14 press conference in which lists on its board prominent jour- tenens by the synod after the patriarch’s An American human rights group, Kyiv that, from his telephone conversa- nalists from CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, expulsion), of running a series of com- Committee to Protect Journalists, said it tions with Mr. Shevchenko, he under- The New York Times, The Washington mercial enterprises at the UAOC offices. was joining with Ukrainian journalists stood that the reporter had very important Post, The Los Angeles Times, Time One of the seminarians now ensconced to demand that President Leonid information which he had intended to magazine and other news media outlets in the chancery building said that, of the 26 Kuchma investigate the death. bring to the newspaper’s editorial offices – to President Kuchma follows. rooms in the chancery, only four looked as Although police ruled the death a sui- in Kyiv. Mr. Kiseliov said he believes * * * if they were used for Church business when cide, colleagues said they believed Mr. that is why Mr. Shevchenko is now dead. The Committee to Protect Journalists the seminarians took control of the building Shevchenko had been murdered.