CHORNOBYL LINK SEEN IN POPULATION DROP. The Ukrainian government said on 30 January that the Chornobyl nuclear accident was one of the main factors that has caused the country's population to decrease, AFP reported. The State Public Statistics Committee reported that the population shrank by a total of some 375,000 people in the first 11 months of last year. Medical officials said that male fertility problems, linked to the 1986 Chernobyl explosion, had contributed to a 3 percent drop in Ukraine's population since 1991. Another main contributor to the decline is the difficult economic situation, which has lowered life expectancy rates. PB

During 1997, some post-communist governments made significant progress in improving the protection of the human rights in their countries. Others failed to do so or even retreated from earlier gains. But all continue to face challenges in bringing their domestic performance up to their international commitments.

That is the conclusion of the U.S. State Department in its annual survey of human rights around the world, a document explicitly used to guide American policy and carefully read by many as an indication of both conditions on the ground and American concerns about particular countries.

As has been the case since its inception 20 years ago, this year's report generally avoids any classification of countries according to their political pasts. An exception is the survey's discussion of countries included in a section called "Countries in Transition." But a reading of its chapters on the post-communist countries suggests that the U.S. has reached three more general conclusions about them.

First, the report notes a growing divergence in the performance of post-communist states, an acknowledgment by Washington that these countries are moving in this area -- as in so many others -- along very different tracks and at very different speeds.

Second, the report explicitly delinks progress toward democracy and progress toward free market reforms, and it notes that many of the problems in these countries stem from the weakness of state structures rather than ill-will on the part of leaders.

And third, the report calls attention to the growing fear and suspicion of minority groups in many parts of Europe -- both in the traditional democracies and in former communist countries -- a development that the report suggests is of particular concern.

More specifically, the State Department report draws the following conclusions about the countries monitored by "RFE/RL Newsline":

RUSSIA. Noting that Russia "continues to be a state in transition," the report says that its democratization is slow, its judiciary weak, and its leaders unable to implement their own laws and commitments. The report sharply criticizes conditions in Russian prisons, targeting by the police of darker-skinned people in general and citizens from the Caucasus in particular, and restrictions on freedom of the press. But it is especially critical of the new Russian law on religion, a law already being used by some officials to harass certain religious groups.

TRANSCAUCASUS and CENTRAL ASIA. The report suggests that the three Transcaucasian countries are moving in very different directions, while the five Central Asian states are generally doing more poorly. It says that Azerbaijan has made significant progress toward economic reform but taken few steps toward democracy. It also criticizes conditions in both Armenia and Georgia but notes that in Georgia, an increasingly assertive parliament and population have restrained law enforcement agencies.

Across Central Asia, the report suggests that basic freedoms are curtailed by legislatures and judiciaries still subordinate to powerful presidents. But it indicates that conditions in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are not as bad as elsewhere.

EAST-CENTRAL EUROPE. The status of human rights also varied widely among the countries in this region, according to the report. It suggested that Belarus, under President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, has moved backwards in virtually all areas. The report gives a mixed picture of Ukraine, identifying it as a country in transition with problems arising from the inheritances of Soviet times and flowing from the weaknesses of the country's political structures. It praised the three Baltic countries for progress on most issues but noted their continuing difficulties with prisons and, in the case of Latvia and Estonia, with those ethnic Russians who lack citizenship. The report gave generally high marks to Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, while decrying growing popular hostility toward the Roma and other minorities in the latter. It was more critical of conditions in Slovakia.

SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE. The State Department report found that the status of human rights in Albania had declined sharply during the country's general breakdown last year and had made only a modest recovery since then. It suggested that Romania generally respects human rights but criticized the government's lack of effective control over the actions of police, poor prison conditions, and ill treatment of women and Roma. It criticized Bulgaria for its inability to control its own officials. Both of these countries, the report said, have passed laws that tend to restrict religious freedoms.

Concerning the successor states to Yugoslavia, the report praised Bosnia-Herzegovina for significant progress on human rights. It also gave high marks to Slovenia and Montenegro. But the report said that the record remained mixed in Croatia and Macedonia. And it concluded that the situation in Serbia was extremely bad with serious human rights abuses on virtually every front.

As in the past, those governments that received high marks are likely to tout them as a mark of their standing internationally, while those leaders that did not will criticize the report as biased or incomplete. But as this year's report makes very clear, there are no easy answers or final victories in the cause of human rights.

YELTSIN, KUCHMA HOLD INFORMAL TALKS. Yeltsin and his Ukrainian counterpart Leonid Kuchma found much to agree on during informal talks in Moscow on 30-31 January, RFE/RL correspondents in Moscow and Kyiv reported. Yeltsin announced that in the next Ukrainian presidential election, scheduled for 1999, he will back Kuchma. In a joint statement released on 31 January, the two presidents praised "the process of positive changes in Russian-Ukrainian relations" and confirmed that they will sign a program on economic cooperation during Kuchma's formal visit to Russia, planned for late February. (Russia and Ukraine have previously agreed to stop charging VAT on each other's imports as of 1 February.) However, the joint statement criticized "an unjustified delay" in settling some issues, such as the demarcation of the Russian-Ukrainian border and the implementation of agreements on dividing the Black Sea Fleet, Russian news agencies reported. LB