>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: "International"<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >February 1, 2000 UPDATE on > >INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTER SPECIAL REPORT: >IS US BEHIND 'QUIET COUP' IN UKRAINE? > >February 1, 2000--As of this writing, Tkachenko is refusing to leave >his office. His phone and fax have been disconnected and state >television is refusing to air his statements. His official security has been >removed and he is being guarded by Communist, Socialist and >Peasant Party deputies. > >Tkachenko is a member of the Peasant Party and Martynyuk is in the >Communist Party. The rightwing pro-U.S. bloc is continuing to >boycott Rada meetings in an attempt to give Kuchma an excuse to >dissolve the body. On Feb. 1, thousands of pro-Tkachenko >demonstrators gathered outside the Rada building to show their >support for the sitting parliament. A reported 600 rightists gathered >outside Ukraine House, where the pro-IMF, pro-NATO bloc was >meeting. > >INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTER SPECIAL REPORT: >IS US BEHIND 'QUIET COUP' IN UKRAINE? >Ramsey Clark, IAC Protest Move to Set Up Presidential Dictatorship > >January 30, 2000--KIEV, Ukraine--US officials and Ukrainian >president Leonid Kuchma are collaborating in an effort to break up >Ukraine's parliament and concentrate power in the president's hands, >Ukrainian opposition leaders told International Action Center >representatives last week. IAC members Larissa Kritskaya and Bill >Doares were in Kiev to attend a hearing of the International Peoples >Tribunal on NATO War Crimes in Yugoslavia (English translation; see >accompanying dispatch). It appears that Washington's goal is to bring >Ukraine into NATO and to smash parliamentary resistance to the >privatization of land and other measures demanded by the >International Monetary Fund. > >This former Soviet republic now has two rival parliaments in the wake >of an attempt by Kuchma to illegally oust parliament speaker >Oleksandr Tkachenko and deputy speaker Adam Martynyuk. The >two have accused Kuchma of falsifying the results of last November's >presidential election. Their charges were borne out by European >Union electoral observers. > >GORE AND KUCHMA--PARTNERS IN CRIME The regime's >action came on the heels of a private meeting in Washington between >Kuchma and US vice president Al Gore. Kuchma was first elected in >1996 with considerable support from the CIA-linked Soros >Foundation. > >To engineer Tkachenko and Martynyuk's removal, rightwing >Verkhovnye Rada (parliament) deputies and their allies held an >extralegal gathering in a nongovernment building Jan. 21 at the same >time as an official Rada session was in progress. The unconstitutional >gathering voted to oust Tkachenko and Martynyuk and replace them >with Kuchma allies and to abolish the basic democratic right of >parliamentary immunity. It also named a new head of the central bank. >Tkachenko and Martynyuk were not invited to the session or told of >the charges against them. The only record of the vote and attendance >at the rightwing gathering is the claims of its organizers. Previous >attempts to remove Tkachenko and Martynyuk by constitutional >means had failed. > >As of this writing, Tkachenko is refusing to leave his office. His phone >and fax have been disconnected and state television is refusing to air >his statements. His official security has been removed and he is being >guarded by Communist, Socialist and Peasant Party deputies. >Tkachenko is a member of the Peasant Party and Martynyuk is in the >Communist Party. The confrontation may come to a head Feb. 1 >when the Rada is scheduled to reconvene after winter recess. > >"There has been considerable pressure to forcibly Westernize >Ukraine," speaker Tkachenko told the IAC. "The presidential election >was determined by force and now the president wants to use force >against parliament. He is trying to create an artificial majority in order >to concentrate power in his hands. Our constitution has been violated >at every step." > >Kuchma's ultimate aim is to abolish the existing single-chamber Rada >where many "reforms" demanded by US bankers and Kuchma's >wealthy allies have been blocked. He wants to replace it with a a >smaller, two-chamber body with an upper chamber comprising >regional governors appointed by himself. To achieve this, he has >ordered a "popular referendum" that will presumably be as controlled >as last year's presidential election. > >WALL STREET RULES With nearly 50 million people, Ukraine is >the second-largest former Soviet republic. It was one of the USSR's >most productive agricultural and industrial regions. Today, like other >former Soviet republics, it has been devastated by "economic >restructuring" dictated by the International Monetary Fund. Since the >fall of the USSR, Ukraine's industrial production has dropped 70 >percent. Its population has fallen by 2 million in just the past two >years. The old-age pension is $13 a month and millions of workers >are not being paid. While hunger stalks many regions, one-third of the >state budget goes in interest payments to Western banks. The >country's debt has risen 30 times since Kuchma took office in 1996. > >The Kuchma regime has tried to create a fascist-like atmosphere by >exploiting divisions similar to those used to break up Yugoslavia. It >has whipped up Ukrainian nationalism on an anti-Russian basis (one- >quarter of the population is Russian). Soviet-era books have been >burned in public squares and opposition activists attacked by fascist >gangs. The regime's alleged nationalism does not stop Wall Street >from dictating its economic policy. It has agreed to raise food and fuel >prices, rents and gas and electricity rates on a schedule dictated by the >International Monetary Fund. > >"It is obvious that the United States has designed the Ukraine's >political landscape," Oleg Grachev, Kiev regional secretary of the >Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU), told Kritskaya and Doares. >"You cannot speak about injustice and electoral falsification in this >country without speaking of the domination of the International >Monetary Fund." > >MARKED BALLOTS AND HAND GREANDES KPU general >secretary Petro Simonenko, who calls for Ukraine to withdraw from >the IMF, was the runner-up in November's presidential election. He >got an official 38 percent of the vote. The KPU brought evidence of >marked ballots, ballot-box stuffing and vote-buying to Ukraine's >criminal court but was told such matters were outside the court's >jurisdiction. In the first round of the presidential election, Progressive >Socialist Party candidate Natalia Vitorienko, who also condemns the >IMF, was injured by a hand grenade tossed into a rally she was >addressing. > >"Kuchma is trying to make a coup to gain absolute power," said >Ukraine Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz. "He is acting on >behalf of powerful private groups that support him. Since Kuchma >came to office, Ukraine has gotten poorer but his friends have gotten >rich. They now want to get even richer by selling shares in land and >grabbing control of basic industries like steel, petrochemicals and even >oil and gas, which is now forbidden to be privatized." > >On Jan. 29, workers across Ukraine marched to protest the IMF- >Kuchma program and to demand unpaid back wages. Jan. 29 is the >anniversary of the 1918 uprising by Kiev's Arsenal workers that was >drowned in blood by the Western-backed regime that then ruled >Ukraine. > >Former US attorney general and IAC founder Ramsey Clark sent >letters of protest to president Kuchma and the Rada. > >An IAC statement said, "Like the war against Yugoslavia, the attempted >presidential coup in Ukraine is part of the NATO-Pentagon drive to the east, >which carries great danger for all humanity. The US corporate media, >which so obediently repeated Pentagon-State Department lies about >Kosovo, appears to have imposed an information blockade on the >events in Ukraine and US involvement there. We must break that >blockade. The democratic forces in Ukraine deserve the support of >antiwar and justice-loving people in this country and around the >world." > >Letters of support can be faxed to Deputy V.N. Romashenko at 011 >380 44 293 2792 or 011 380 44 229 7228. > > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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