KUCHMA SAYS PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE TO OUST CABINET 'PROVOCATION.' Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma said in Simferopol on 4 June that the parliament's decision to discuss on 16 June a no-confidence vote in the government is a "political provocation," Interfax reported. "It suits some political forces to escalate the situation in Ukraine yet again, five months before presidential elections," Kuchma remarked. The debate was proposed by Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 4 June 1999). Premier Pustovoytenko said the next day that the Communist motion is a "political reprisal." He stressed that the government is doing its best to improve the financial situation in the country, including the payment of wage and pension arrears. JM

SLOVAKIA TO RESTRICT ENTRY OF UKRAINIAN NATIONALS. The Interior and the Foreign Ministry will issue instructions "in the next days" on restricting the entry of, and the granting of residency permits to, Ukrainian nationals, CTK reported on 4 June. citing Radio Twist. Vladimir Palko, chairman of the parliament's Defense and Security Committee, said that the main reason for imposing the restrictions is that the "Ukrainian mafia has become a problem in Slovakia." Palko said that Ukrainians were involved in the murder of former Economy Minster Jan Ducky earlier this year and may be responsible for other murders as well. On 31 May, the Czech government said it will examine imposing visa requirements on Ukrainian nationals (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 1 June 1999). MS

KUCHMA'S RIVAL COMPLAINS OF OBSTACLES IN PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN. Oleksandr Moroz, head of the Ukrainian Socialist Party and a presidential hopeful, has accused the authorities of blocking his presidential campaign, AP reported on 7 June. Moroz said the Central Electoral Committee is refusing to give him forms to collect the required signatures supporting his candidacy. "We are facing a deliberate and planned campaign aimed at preventing my participation in the elections," the agency quoted Moroz as saying. The same day, the Supreme Court began considering Moroz's complaint that he has received only 110,000 forms, instead of the necessary 260,000. "I know that the strategy of Kuchma's present team is to prevent me from registering [as a presidential candidate]," Moroz told the 5 June "Zerkalo nedeli." JM

TURKMENISTAN PRESSES UKRAINE TO REPAY GAS DEBT. Turkmenistan is demanding that Ukraine either pay its debt for gas supplies in 1998, totaling $120 million, or restructure the sum into a "sovereign debt," the "Eastern Economic Daily" reported on 8 June. Turkmen sources estimate that Ukraine's debt for gas supplies in 1999 so far exceeds $300 million, while the total debt for Turkmen gas received by the end of 1998 stands at $450 million. Turkmenistan halted gas supplies to Ukraine last month. JM

MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT RESPONDS TO PARLIAMENTARY RESOLUTION. Presidential spokesman Anatol Golea told journalists on 7 June that President Petru Lucinschi views the parliamentary resolution accusing him of breaching the constitution as "an attempt to exercise pressure on the Constitutional Court" (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 7 June 1999). The court has yet to rule on the legality of the 23 May non-binding referendum. In other news, Flux reported that Ukraine will not renew electricity supplies to Moldova as long as the government in Chisinau persists in refusing to offer state guarantees that it will pay off its $16.2 million debt by the end of 1999. Citing a government official in charge of energy supplies, the agency said that since Romania and the Transdniester are unable to cover Moldova's consumption needs, electricity shortages are likely to continue. MS

End Note: UKRAINE'S HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN IN TIGHT SPOT xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

UKRAINIAN SUPREME COURT RULES IN MOROZ'S FAVOR. The Supreme Court on 8 June ordered the Central Electoral Commission to issue another 150,000 voter registration forms to presidential candidate Oleksandr Moroz, who has accused the authorities of blocking his election campaign (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 8 June 1999). The candidates registered to run in the 31 October elections must use such forms to collect by 13 July at least 1 million signatures supporting their candidacy. Electoral officials said they will fulfill the court decision, although one of them, Viktor Alsufyev, commented that the court "allowed itself to be dragged into political games," AP reported. Alsufyev noted that the court earlier refused to give more registration forms to President Leonid Kuchma and Hennadiy Udovenko, a candidate from Popular Rukh. JM

UKRAINIAN TV STATION COMPLAINS OF POLITICAL HARASSMENT. The STB television company, a popular private network set up in Ukraine in 1997, has complained of political pressure, which, it says, is part of a growing battle for control over the media during the presidential campaign, AP and Reuters reported. STB acting chairman Dmytro Prykordonnyy told journalists on 8 June that the government ordered the channel to stop broadcasting outside Kyiv by means of satellite. The order, if implemented, would deprive STB of access to half its viewers, according to Prykordonnyy. He also said tax inspectors are almost constantly at STB's offices, looking for tax violations. In March, STB appealed to the president and the parliamentary speaker for protection against assaults on and intimidation of its journalists (see "RFE/RL Newsline." 5 March 1999). JM

UKRAINE'S FOREIGN DEBT TOTALS $12.4 BILLION. The Kyiv newspaper "Biznes" reported on 7 June that Ukraine's foreign debt totaled $12.4 billion as of 1 May. The country owes $2.79 billion to the IMF (24.3 percent of the total debt), $1.89 billion to Russia (16.5 percent), $1.77 billion in fiduciary loans (15.4 percent), and $1.21 billion to the World Bank (13.8 percent), among other creditors. JM

UKRAINE'S HUMAN RIGHTS OMBUDSMAN IN TIGHT SPOT

Hopes were high last year when Ukraine established the office of ombudsman, charged with monitoring, protecting, and upholding the rights of individuals.

But those hopes have since been dashed, with some citizens saying the office seems remote and unhelpful. And employees at the office say they lack the resources to provide much help.

The problems come at a critical stage for Ukraine's international relations. The Council of Europe is threatening measures if the country does not introduce improved human rights legislation. While the ombudsman's office is only a small part of Ukraine's human rights activities, improvements in the way it functions would clearly help the country's image abroad.

Under existing laws, the office's powers are fairly clear. Citizens or residents can address complaints to the ombudsman, who can then present their case to the authorities or the Constitutional Court. The ombudsman also has the right to unrestricted access to any public official, including the president, and is free to inspect any government institution, such as prisons.

The problem is that the law provides the ombudsman with only limited enforcement authority and does not penalize those who obstruct human rights inquiries. Although the law states that the executive branch is to draw up and submit amendments necessary for Ukrainian legislation to comply with the mandate of the ombudsman, this has still not been done.

According to Nina Karpachova, whom the parliament elected as ombudsman last year, her office has taken over that task, proposing amendments to some 70 laws to allow her to operate as stipulated by the law on the ombudsman. However, those amendments have not been enacted.

One of Karpachova's aides, Vasily Radko, told RFE/RL that the failure to enact the amendments means that the office can do little to address the concerns of those who petition it. "We made our changes to 70 laws because the rights of the plenipotentiary Secretariat aren't written [into legislation], he notes. "Until that's done it's difficult for people and for us. We need such an institution with plenipotentiary power. People appeal to us, with their misfortunes, as a last resort. Of course we want our help to be more functional, but at this stage we can only talk to people and help if we can."

There are other shortcomings. Last year, the office, which includes a staff of 30 squeezed into a few small rooms, was not included in the budget, so the employees depended solely on contributions from the foreign diplomatic community. Radko says part of the problem is that a large percentage of those who come to the office have complaints that are not within its competence.

For example, a former collective farm head from Khmelnitsky region claims he was unfairly convicted of alleged abuse of his position because he had installed a telephone at work and tried to privatize the farmland. The ombudsman applied to the regional prosecutor, who eventually gave a negative answer, whereupon the ombudsman turned to the prosecutor-general to review the case. Radko can only explain to the outraged farmer that the process takes a very long time and the ombudsman can do nothing more for him.

Citizens, however, can take their pleas a step further than the ombudsman. Last year, 13,000 Ukrainians applied to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, according to Petro Rabinovich, a human rights expert from Lviv University. Only 200 cases were accepted. The problem, said Rabinovich, is that people do not know how to formulate their complaints or indeed what their rights are under the European Convention of Human Rights.

In theory, those rights should be the same as they are at home, as Ukraine ratified the convention in 1997. One of the jobs of the ombudsman is to oversee Ukraine's adherence to the convention. But in the year since Karpachova was appointed, Ukraine's human rights record has been criticized by a Council of Europe report released at the end of 1998 and a U.S. State Department report released in February of this year.

Both documents sharply criticized the country for what they described as an unreformed prison system, a corrupt judiciary, and the repression of the free press. The Council of Europe report also cited Kyiv's failure to abolish the death penalty. In May, President Leonid Kuchma was named the world's sixth-worst enemy of the free press by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Official response to the criticism so far has been angry and defiant. Kuchma has threatened to sue the authors of the New York report. Some parliamentary deputies have said Ukraine cannot impose Western standards on human rights because of its weak economy, arguing that international bodies have no right to criticize the country.

The author is an RFE/RL correspondent based in Kyiv. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

               Copyright (c) 1999 RFE/RL, Inc.
                     All rights reserved.

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NEXT CIS SUMMIT SET FOR OCTOBER. Meeting in Minsk on 4 June, the CIS heads of government scheduled the next CIS summit for October 1999, Interfax reported on 8 June, quoting a senior Ukrainian Foreign Ministry official. The heads of government failed, however, to finalize an agreement on creating a CIS free economic zone, although CIS Executive Secretary Yurii Yarov had secured support for that project during talks with CIS presidents last month. It is not clear which CIS member states objected to the proposed free economic zone. Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka blamed all five GUUAM members (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Moldova) for "literally blocking" adoption of the resolution. But Georgian State Minister Vazha Lortkipanidze told Caucasus Press on 8 June that Georgia approved the proposal to create a free economic zone on condition that the regulations do not conflict with those of the World Trade Organization, which Georgia hopes to join before the end of this year. LF