Early Election Still In Doubt As Parliament Fights

KIEV, Ukraine -- The nation still wonders when, or if, an early poll will happen. The parliamentary election date remains unclear since President Victor Yushchenko suspended his decree on Oct. 20 dissolving parliament so that the lawmakers could vote for emergency measures to combat the economic crisis.
What is clear is that the date Yushchenko insists on, Dec. 14, is unrealistically early.“Elections won’t be held until Jan. 21, if they are held at all,” said Oleksandr Chernenko, analyst of Committee of Voters of Ukraine, a non-governmental organization.A date during the prolonged Christmas and New Year holidays would be risky because the turnout could be much less than 50 percent, invalidating the vote.The election will cost Hr 417 million, but Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s allies have blocked the vote.The latest attempt to allocate cash on Oct. 29 ended up just four votes short of the 226-vote majority.Some experts say Yushchenko will cancel elections because of dwindling support for his bloc.Our Ukraine would get from 3 to 6 percent, according to recent polls, while its main competitors, Tymoshenko’s bloc and the Party of Regions – would get more than 25 percent, according to a recent Kyiv International Institute of Sociology poll.
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Victor Yushchenko Attacked With His Own Weapon
KIEV, Ukraine -- The scandal over Ukrainian arms sales to Georgia continues unabated in Kiev. Head of the Rada ad hoc investigation commission Valery Konovalyuk from the Party of Regions accused Ukraine’s Government of “pressurizing” his colleagues and him, but despite this fact, he promised to complete the investigation he started and ask President Yushchenko unpleasant questionIn addition, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev promised “not to forget” those who had armed the Mikhail Saakashvili regime. However, according to the information of Kommersant, Moscow doesn’t know yet how to punish Kiev for supporting Tbilisi.Investigation maniaAfter a short period of lull, a scandal over Ukraine’s arms supplies to Georgia broke out anew, with Head of the Rada ad hoc investigation commission Valery Konovalyuk from the Party of Regions being the key newsmaker.Yesterday Mr Konovalyuk held a press conference in Kiev, where he told reporters about the progress in investigating the country’s high-ranking officials’ power abuse. According to the MP, during its work, the commission managed to collect so much proof that it will be enough for making Ukraine’s top politicians answer. “We have enough evidence to raise the question of bureaucrats’ responsibility,” the head of the commission stated.Saying that he doesn’t mean impeaching Mr Yushchenko yet, Mr Konovalyuk added that his investigation bodes ill for the President. “We are preparing a report to be delivered in the Parliament. We have coordinated it with several parties that, regardless of the political crisis in the country, we will present the report in the Rada.”However, before making the collected data public, Valery Konovalyuk and his colleagues plan to tour Georgia and South Ossetia to collect extra information. “It will allow us to make preliminary conclusions, which will prompt the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office and other law enforcement bodies to react to the irregularities the commission has found,” the MP said complaining that he has to work under the Government’s pressure. “The Government pressurizes us. We warned that various provocations will be carried out to impede the commission’s work, but we are determined to take the investigation to the end.”Those PersecutedMr Konovalyuk’s commission was set up on September 2. By the way, this date is considered the outset of the current political crisis in Ukraine. On that day the “orange” coalition, formed by the Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc (BYuT) and the pro-presidential bloc “Our Ukraine – People’s Self-defense”. The democratic alliance collapsed after the BYuT and the Party of Regions, despite Our Ukraine’s resistance, took through the Parliament laws that significantly cut the head’s of state powers.Victor Yushchenko was denied the right to participate in the Government’s meetings and legalized the impeachment procedure – it now requires 226 MPs’ signatures (there are 450 members of the Rada in total). The Party of Regions intended to adopt a resolution to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but this idea was not endorsed by the majority, and it all ended with setting up a commission to investigate arms supplies to Georgia.Within two months the commission made no revealing documents public, which would point to the Government’s power abuse when exporting Ukrainian weaponry. Nevertheless, the commission’s members often drop hints that it was President Yushchenko who sanctioned violating the law. Valery Konovalyuk stated on several occasions that his commission has found facts of illegal arms supplies to Georgia, which was controlled by the President. Much speculation was caused by the commission head’s statement that the Ukrainian Government supplied a Buk-M1 missile system, which guarded Ukraine’s border. Last time Mr Konovalyuk “agitated” the public on October 8, when he stated that the commission got information from the treasury that the lion’s share of the funds, raised from arms sales, was directed neither to the Ukrainian federal budget nor the Defense Ministry. According to the MP, Ukraine has sold weaponry worth $2 billion since 2005, whereas the budget received only $160,000 of it. It need be said that no documents were then demonstrated to the public.A crime Without ElementsVictor Yushchenko’s administration denies violating any international legal norms as far as military and technical cooperation with Georgia is concerned. Yesterday head of the Military Security Department of Ukraine’s Security Council Sergei Khimchenko stated that Kiev “cooperates with Tbilisi in accordance with its national interests and international law”. According to him, the UN Security Council, the OSCE, the EU or any other IOs have never imposed any sanctions or embargoes on Georgia. Mr Khimchenko made no secret of the fact that Ukraine increased its military export volume to Georgia by third in 2007-2008, adding that the two countries cooperate according to an agreement of July 4, 1997. “Approximately to 40%,” he said when asked to what extent arms supplies grew.Moreover, Mr Khimchenko stated that Ukraine will keep on supplying weaponry to Georgia in accordance with concluded agreements. “We are not supplying arms there now, but the agreements we signed before, are valid,” the official told Kommersant. At the same time he denied accusations of supplying arms to Georgia during the military conflict and Ukrainian soldiers’ participation in hostilities. According to him, the latest arms delivery was according to a contract signed a year ago.Mr Khimchenko’s statement was a response to Russian officials’ accusations of illegally arming Georgia. Early this month Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called Ukraine’s arms supplies to Georgia a “crime” when receiving is Ukrainian counterpart Yuliya Tymoshenko in Moscow. “I believe that there can be no worse crime than arms supplies to a conflict zone. Missile systems were used to kill soldiers, which can’t but worry us,” Mr Putin said after talks with Ms Tymoshenko. Speaking about Ukrainian military specialists’ participation in the August five-day war, the Russian Prime Minister cut it short, “It was a crime.”Yesterday Russia’s officials once again brought up this issue. During a meeting of a commission on military and technical cooperation President Dmitry Medvedev stated that, in its foreign policy, Russia will consider the actions of the countries that supplied arms to the Mikhail Saakashvili regime. Although Medvedev did not mention Ukraine, his statement implies that Moscow views Kiev as the main culprit. “We are aware that several states supplied arms to the Mikhail Saakashvili regime, which encouraged it to launch aggression, and now they are reloading the regime with extra weaponry,” Mr Medvedev said. “Unfortunately, several states that are friendly to Russia, took part in it. We won’t forget it. We will consider it in our foreign policy.”Yesterday Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov explained the essence of Moscow’s claims. According to the official, there are a lot of international documents regulating arms trade, which were signed by Ukraine’s officials. “These include the OSCE document of 1993 about conventional weapons and small arms. But in Ukraine’s case heavy assault arms were delivered. Kiev doesn’t even deny that it supplied it to Georgia shortly before the military conflict,” Mr Ryabkov told Kommersant. “We are going to raise this issue in all international formats, and we regret that the Ukrainian party is no even ashamed of its actions.” The diplomat complained that it is impossible to punish Ukraine with international sanctions, “Sanctions are the UN Security Council’s prerogative. All our attempts to impose embargo on arms supplies to Georgia were blocked by the countries conniving at the aggressor.”Interestingly, Moscow has no own proof of the Ukrainian Government’s illegal arms trafficking. “I have no information that Russia is investigating the matter,” Igor Lyalkin-Frolov from the Russian Foreign Ministry Information and Press Department told Kommersant. “We’ll see what results Ukraine’s parliamentary commission reports.”It is not ruled out that Russia will respond with concrete actions at the final stage of Ukraine’s electoral campaign – voting has been postponed.
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Conditions Still Poor, Unhealthy In Ukraine's Prisons
KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine’s draconian prisons breed disease, are overcrowded and inmates are treated inhumanely. Prisons, by design, aren’t supposed to be pleasant places. But they’re also not supposed to be deadly places, as they are all too often in Ukraine – a consequence of under-funding, overcrowding, brutality and poor medical care.
“Those taken into custody and placed in SIZO [pretrial detention centers] should not be sent to the morgue afterwards,” said Nina Karpacheva, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman.But too many of them are.The Ukrainian penal system consists of 183 institutions with 150,000 inmates. The mortality rate in prisons rose by 33 percent in the first seven months of the year, to 1.2 cases per 1,000 inmates, compared to the same period a year ago. The situation was worse in pre-trial detention facilities, according to the State Penitentiary Department. Mortality increased 47 percent, to 2.8 deaths per 1,000 inmates in the first seven months of 2008, compared to the same period a year ago.Karpacheva has been investigating the situation and is calling for improvements.“Unfortunately, the problem with Ukrainian prisons is principally one of a systematic and well-established nature, which can not be changed immediately. And only essential legislative and judicial reforms can solve the major problems of Ukrainian penitentiaries,” Karpacheva said.Among her ideas are simply sending fewer people to prison or detention centers by setting higher standards for police who, she contends, are still making too many dubious arrests. Judges should also make more use of non-prison alternatives for punishment, especially for juveniles.The lack of financing, certainly, is an issue. Karpacheva said that less than Hr 3 was spent in 2007 daily for the treatment of those ill with tuberculosis and notes that prison employees are still poorly paid.Most deaths in confinement, she said, are a consequence of poor medical care, with people dying of untreated or undiagnosed illnesses. “Efficient diagnostic methods in Ukrainian penitentiary establishments should be the first step to solving tuberculosis, AIDS/HIV and high mortality rate problems,” Karpacheva said.Among the deadliest places, Kyiv’s pre-trial detention center No. 13 stands out with 24 recorded unnatural deaths among 2,800 inmates in a four-month period in 2007 alone. Of the 24 deaths, two were classified as murders, while three were suicides.The rest, Karpacheva said, “were the result of illnesses and the incapability of medical personnel to save a human life. An analysis of the illnesses that caused death showed that, among 17 inmates, only 6 could have been infected after arriving at the facility. The rest were when they were already ill, but their diseases were not diagnosed in time.”And some cases are just tragic mysteries, such as the death in 2007 of Serhiy Karashchenko. According to Karpacheva, the 34-year-old Karashchenko was transferred on July 13, 2007, despite obvious symptoms of illness, from the temporary police jail in Bila Tserkva to a pre-trial detention center in Kyiv.When he arrived, Karashchenko was diagnosed with an advanced stage of pulmonary tuberculosis and placed in quarantine. Within 34 days, he was dead.Less than two months earlier, on May 24, 2007, a hospital in Bila Tserkva provided a medical certificate declaring Karashchenko to be in good physical shape – even though he weighed only 47 kilograms despite being 180 centimeters tall.Untreated physical illnesses are not the only problem. Undiagnosed psychological problems can have deadly consequences, too. Such was the case involving an inmate who strangled a cellmate.Court medical experts recognized the inmate, Serhiy Kulishev, a prisoner of Kyiv pre-trial detention facility No. 13, as mentally and emotionally unstable. He should have been sent to solitary confinement and been kept under constant observation by a psychiatrist. Instead, he was placed in a prison medical center with two men, one of whom he strangled.Lack of proper psychological care is one of the major problems in penitentiaries, Vasyl Koshynets, head of State Penitentiary Department, told Channel 5 TV. He told the news program that there are 600 inmates for every psychologist, who work “for nothing.”Self-inflicted injuries and other types of violence happen frequently.According to the United States State Department, which gives annual human rights ratings, such incidents are often “a result of harsh treatment of prisoners by facility staff, who beat prisoners and destroyed their food during the year the media reported several incidents of prisoner-on-prisoner violence in pretrial detention facilities with fatalities.”Indeed, human rights groups have been expressing their concerns. On March 27, for example, 40 inmates in a Kharkiv Oblast prison hurt themselves to protest the “horrible conditions and inhumane treatment from personnel,” according to the Helsinki Human Rights group, citing a Vinnytsya human rights group.However, in Holos Ukrainy newspaper, Ukrainian General Prosecutor Oleksandr Medvedko denied many claims of abuse and abusive conditions. He said the accusations are “constantly supplemented by vivid and emotional, though, generally unproven description of pictures of mass torture, supposedly widely used against prisoners by the administration of [pre-trial detention centers] and penal institutions.”Overall, the U.S. State Department – in its annual human rights assessment – still considers Ukrainian prisons and detention centers as not meeting international standards. Karpacheva said the worst place in Ukraine might be the Sevastopol temporary police holding facility.“Stench, unsanitary conditions, lack of fresh air and daylight, concrete floors … Every second cell doesn’t have individual sleeping places — inmates (including women) are forced to take turns sleeping on a bed,” Karpacheva said. “Despite the established limit of 82 people, the facility hosts 112 people every day on average.” She also said 10 percent of inmates in a survey had been detained for more than 10 days, beyond the limits set by Ukrainian law for pre-detention confinement.Despite the government's permission for visits by independent human rights monitors, Oleksandr Bukalov, leader of Donetsk Memorial, a rights group, said the public has little oversight over prisons. “The state penitentiary department demonstrates a strong unwillingness to promote public control in its establishments. Its administration is satisfied with the situation where declarations about public control are proclaimed, but in reality, do not exist,” Bukalov said.Overall, conditions are improving slowly, according to the U.S. State Department. Even Karpacheva said that “conditions in many prisons and pre-trial facilities were essentially improved and now meet international standards.” But she also said most of the changes are “small improvements.”
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Faina Crew Still Waits For Rescue
KIEV, Ukraine -- The fate of the ship’s crew still unknown despite efforts on many fronts. “Tell them, I am alive.” That is the message that Yevgeniy Grigoriev, a Latvian hostage on the pirate-captured vessel MV Faina, wanted to pass on to his worried relatives. Grigoriev was speaking by telephone with Nina Karpacheva, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, who recently returned from a trip to Kenya.
At a press conference on Oct. 27 in Kyiv, Karpacheva gave an update on the state of negotiations to free the 20-member crew of mostly Ukrainians. The crew and their arms-laden vessel were taken hostage on Sept. 25 by Somalian pirates who are still demanding a multi-million-dollar ransom.On Oct. 21, Karpacheva was able to speak from Kenya by telephone with other members of the crew, including Grigoriev. “The negotiation process to liberate the Faina crew is coming to a decisive stage,” Karpacheva told journalists.At last word, 17 Ukrainians, 2 Russians and 1 Latvian were alive on board – a fact Karpacheva was able to confirm during her telephone conversation. Tragedy, however, struck soon after the seizure, when the Russian crew captain died of natural causes.Karpacheva said she is hopeful the standoff will have a happy ending. Relatives of the crew, meanwhile, have reportedly been trying to raise money to free their loved ones.In other meetings on her trip, Karpacheva said that Mohamed Ali Nur, Somalia’s ambassador to Kenya, assured her that “pirates never kill the crew.”The ombudsman said negotiations, not force, should be used to end the stalemate. “Everything possible has to be done so that power is not applied under any circumstances,” she said.She joined the rising chorus of international voices calling for stronger action against piracy at sea, including stronger patrols. She also said that she gained an understanding of the extent to which Somalia, which is caught up in an Islamic insurgency, has become a failed and lawless nation.“The last two generations of Somalians were brought up without a school education,” Karpacheva said. “These youngsters know nothing but how to hold a gun and follow the orders of those who stand behind them. These are the type of people who captured the vessel. The youngest of them is only 14. It’s essential to find out who is really manipulating these boys and runs this black market if we want to fight the piracy.”Karpacheva also called on the owner of the ship, Vadim Alperin, to pay compensation to the kidnapped crew. “I truly hope he will be guided by moral values as well,” Karpacheva said.The ship contains a cargo of 33 battle tanks and heavy weaponry. Its seizure has focused international attention on the pirate menace off the Horn of Africa. Ships of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet have surrounded the Faina for more than a month to be sure the cargo does not get into the hands of insurgent groups linked to al-Qaida.According to the Associated Press, the pirates’ spokesman, Sugule Ali, said they received a fax on Oct. 17 from Viktor Murenko, head of ship operator Tomex Team, saying Kenya had declined to pay any ransom for the cargo it claims.
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A High-Ranking Smoker Keeps Cigarette Prices Low In Nation
KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian Finance Minister Victor Pynzenyk can touch the clouds without opening the windows on the eighth floor of his government office.He sits in his own cloud of dense cigarette smoke while drafting anti-crisis plans for the nation.One of the best economists in Ukraine, he is also one of the most notorious chain smokers.“During the five minutes that I was there, he had five cigarettes,” said parliamentarian Oleh Lyashko from Yulia Tymoshenko’s party, describing the minister’s vice.Public health advocates blame Pynzenyk for some of the cheapest cigarettes and, consequently, one of the highest smoking rates in the world by resisting meaningful tax hikes on the deadly products.About 40 percent of the nation’s adults light up regularly, while many popular brands still sell for $1 or less a pack. In Western nations that have cut smoking rates, cigarette taxes have pushed retail prices to $5 or more per pack.“Enough cringing before tobacco giants,” said Hanna Hopko from the Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.Together with some 20 other anti-smoking activists, she picketed the Cabinet of Ministers earlier this week.“The government has decided to raise taxes on virtually everything - alcohol, cars, gas and land in the face of a financial crisis. But cigarettes seem to be omitted on purpose,” said Hopko, referring to the latest economic plan drafted by Pynzenyk.Based on World Health Organization (WHO) research, higher cigarette prices are the most effective way to get adults to quit smoking and to prevent children from starting.The finance minister, however, is against the hike. “Raising excise taxes will result in smuggling from Russia, Belarus and Moldova,” Pynzenyk said. “Money from cigarette sales will go to these countries.”Driven by budget needs for flood relief in western Ukraine this summer, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko managed to push a 10 percent per pack tax hike through parliament. She wanted taxes on cigarettes increased much more.But her ally Pynzenyk, together with President Victor Yushchenko opposed such an abrupt increase, echoing tobacco industry arguments that predict the black market would surge, raising even less for state coffers.They failed, however, to suggest an alternative on how to reduce smoking today.Tobacco ads still prevail over social campaigns in outdoor and print media and also find their way onto late-night television and radio.A stricter, but still not complete, nationwide ban on advertising will only come into effect next year, when billboard ads will be removed.The Kyiv City Council took a bold step and partially restricted smoking in public places like bus stops, schools and subways.But a single trip through the underground passageway at Independence Square shows that people ignore the rule continuing to smoke even next to the “no smoking” signs.Lawmakers went further and banned cigarettes from workplaces and government buildings altogether.But many, including Pynzenyk, continue to smoke inside.Parliament and other government toilets stink of tobacco fumes.The fact that Ukraine is a smoker’s paradise is written even in travel guides. “You can expect a lot of second-hand smoke in just about any restaurant or bar, although under law they must offer no-smoking sections,” reads the latest edition of the Thomas Cook travel guide.According to the WHO, more than 100,000 Ukrainians die of diseases caused by smoking annually.Nevertheless, certain politicians insist that raising taxes will contribute to smuggling from the neighboring countries.“Smuggling is a corruption problem. Stop telling us tales,” said Hopko of Tobacco-Free Kids. “Let’s fire customs officials or give them fair wages to avoid illicit trade, otherwise we’ll all go up in smoke.”Health advocates agree that smuggling may become an issue if prices rise drastically above those in Russia or Moldova. A pack of Marlboro cigarettes in Ukraine, however, is still cheaper by a third compared to a Russian pack. So there is room for improvement.“Moldova won’t feed Ukraine because Romania is closer and more profitable,” said Hopko, slamming Pynzenyk’s reasons for freezing excise taxes.The finance minister, however, remains at odds not only with anti-smoking activists.“Ukraine has the lowest taxes on cigarettes in the world, three to four times less than other countries,” Tymoshenko said in advocating for even higher duties. The first hike enforced in September generated an additional $200 million for Ukraine’s budget.A further increase of Hr 1.50 per pack could bring another billion dollars to the budget, specifies a new bill registered in the parliament.Why the measure failed to make it into Pynzenyk’s anti-crisis proposal is open for discussion. The finance minister, drawing up rescue plans like reaching for the crimeajewel for the nation, was too busy to comment.Oleh Lyashko from Tymoshenko’s party suggested that Pynzenyk did not want to pay more for the cigarettes he smokes in large quantities.“It’s impossible to stay long in his office, and he has really bad breath,” said Lyashko, who smoked for 15 years and quit recently.“He told me that they raised taxes two months ago and did not want to do it so soon again,” he added, denying a link between the minister and the tobacco industry.