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RFE/RL Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine Report Vol. 3, No. 21, 5 June 2001

A Survey of Developments in Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine by the Regional Specialists of RFE/RL's Newsline Team

NATIONAL SECURITY BUREAU OFFICIAL CRITICIZES YAD VASHEM. Marek Siwiec, head of the National Security Bureau, told Radio Zet on 30 May that the Yad Vashem Institute had resorted to illegal methods to remove to Israel the frescoes of renowned Polish-Jewish artist and writer Bruno Schulz from Drohobych, western Ukraine. The previous day, Yad Vashem acknowledged that the frescoes had been removed from Drohobych and taken to Israel "at its instruction and with the knowledge of the Ukrainian authorities," Polish Television reported.

The frescoes in question -- discovered by Polish conservators three months ago -- were painted by Schulz in 1942 in the children's rooms of the house of the Gestapo head in Drohobych. Schulz, who was killed by a Gestapo officer in Drohobych's Jewish ghetto, sought to save his life by painting the frescoes.

According to Polish Television, two weeks ago three people entered the house containing Schulz's frescoes. In the local administrative office, they presented themselves as employees of the Israeli Yad Vashem Institute. They spent three days removing the plaster-based frescoes off the walls. On 28 May, one of the elderly couple who owns the apartment showed the local authorities a contract, in accordance with which the couple had donated the wall paintings to the Yad Vashem Institute in Israel. The frescoes were on a list of national monuments of Ukraine.

"I am embarrassed by this situation, since more than anything else this recalls the situations in which the Israeli authorities kidnapped war criminals, when the world, in the name of a higher historical settling of accounts, turned a blind eye. Here, there was no reason to use extra-legal methods, since the authorities of one country and of another -- of Israel and of Poland -- had declared their assistance [in preserving the work]. They wanted to protect this place," Siwiec told Radio Zet. In Siwiec's view, the Polish authorities cannot do anything in this case, since Poland has no role in this conflict.

"It would never enter my head that the universally highly regarded Yad Vashem Institute would allow itself such a criminal act," Jerzy Ficowski, Schulz's biographer, told Radio Zet. "The perpetrators of this theft thus also carried out the destruction of the whole work, and this work is above all a historical and biographical document dating from the last, most tragic period of the murdered artist's life. This is a single work. It has been hacked about, and in the form of something like carnage it has been shipped in parts to Jerusalem," Ficowski added.

Interfax reported on 1 June that the Lviv Oblast administration is going to ask prosecutors to launch a criminal investigation into the removal of Schulz's frescoes from Ukraine to Israel. According to the administration, the shipping of the frescos out of Ukraine was an act of smuggling.

UKRAINE

KUCHMA MANEUVERS. Last week's appointments made by Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma to the new cabinet of Premier Anatoliy Kinakh seemed to fully confirm the opinions of those observers of the Ukrainian political scene who have asserted that the ousting of Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko was orchestrated by Kuchma solely to defuse the president's own political problems. Kuchma made Kinakh's cabinet almost a copy of Yushchenko's by reappointing 11 cabinet members who served under Yushchenko. "Only the premier was changed, while the government remained [the same]," Kuchma commented on the recent government reshuffle in Ukraine, speaking to journalists at the CIS summit in Minsk.

The issue of Yushchenko's ouster emerged when the Ukrainian opposition -- most notably the National Salvation Forum and the For the Truth groups -- were staging regular and vigorous demonstrations in Kyiv, demanding the ouster of Kuchma and top state officials over their alleged role in the murder of independent journalist Heorhiy Gongadze. The allegation seemed to be confirmed by secret audio recordings made by former presidential bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko in Kuchma's office and subsequently made public in Ukraine by Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz. Even though not impressively large, those anti-Kuchma protests placed Ukraine's "tape scandal" in the spotlight of Ukrainian and world public opinion and did much damage to Kuchma's political stature.

Those who suspect Kuchma and his administration of political plots assert that Kuchma ordered the arrest of former Deputy Premier Yuliya Tymoshenko and orchestrated the dismissal of Yushchenko in an attempt to gradually change the direction of opposition protest actions. And indeed, following Tymoshenko's arrest and the inauguration of Yushchenko's dismissal process in the parliament, opposition groups became involved in organizing actions in defense of these two politicians. The opposition's drive to oust Kuchma, though not dropped altogether, had already become less energetic before 26 April, when Yushchenko was voted out of his post. That drive subsided almost completely in May, when different opposition factions engaged in disputes over the expediency of holding an antiKuchma referendum.

Apparently, the Communists and the so-called oligarchic parties helped Kuchma get rid of Yushchenko in exchange for some promised concessions. Many Ukrainian commentators maintained that Kuchma had agreed to introduce some "oligarchic" ministers in the new government. If this theory holds water, then Kuchma must have immensely disappointed the oligarchs. There are only several vacancies left in Kinakh's cabinet, and all of them are in relatively less important ministries. It is also not clear what the Communists have gained by contributing to Yushchenko's ouster. Neither Kuchma nor Kinakh have promised to make an about-face change in Ukraine's economic or political course, as postulated in the Communist Party's program.

Kuchma has managed to tighten his grip on the government following the "tape scandal" and Yushchenko's dismissal. Last week the Ukrainian president issued a decree introducing the posts of state secretaries and deputy state secretaries for the Cabinet of Ministers and individual ministries. The state secretaries are to be appointed for five-year terms. Kuchma's spokesman, Volodymyr Lytvyn, explained that the decree was necessitated by frequent cabinet reshuffles which, he argued, threaten to "disorganize the executive branch" in the country's "period of transition and political restructuring." The state secretaries, not subordinated to the prime minister, are to deal with day-to-day running of the government and provide continuity between consecutive cabinets.

Many opposition politicians have voiced fears that Kuchma's move indicates a further assault on democracy on his part. Tymoshenko said the introduction of state secretaries is "the logical transformation of the authoritarian [power] system into dictatorship." Reforms and Order Party leader Viktor Pynzenyk said the decree is politically tantamount to "the liquidation of the institute of the Cabinet of Ministers which is now becoming a windowdressing [body] since the entire power has been focused on the president." And Kyiv-based political scientist Mykola Tomenko commented that many ministers from the previous cabinet of Yushchenko retained their posts in that of Kinakh, but "significantly lost their powers" to state secretaries. "Kinakh is becoming a sort of presidential representative or adviser to deal only with managing the regional system of power, some economic branches, and individual enterprises," Tomenko added.

With summer vacations close at hand, the Ukrainian opposition may face additional difficulties in mobilizing its adherents for anti-Kuchma protests on the scale they did in February and March. And when a new period of political activity starts in September, most politicians and parties will probably be much more interested in ensuring their own political future in next year's legislative elections than in trying to threaten that of the president. Thus, even if morally damaged, Kuchma seems to be politically secure at least until a new legislature is formed.

Perhaps the most bitter pill for the National Salvation Forum in its anti-Kuchma campaign was how Yushchenko behaved following his ouster. Yushchenko declined offers to join or even head the anti-Kuchma opposition and announced that he is going to form a "broad democratic coalition" to win in next year's parliamentary elections. But the first persons he consulted on the creation of such a coalition were parliamentary speaker Ivan Plyushch and -- Leonid Kuchma. Some Ukrainian commentators are convinced that only one move by the opposition -- a political alliance of Yushchenko (as candidate for the post of president), Tymoshenko (would-be premier), and Moroz (would-be parliamentary speaker) -- could radically revamp the Ukrainian political scene and give democrats a fair chance to defeat both "the party of power" grouped around Kuchma and several oligarchic parties. But at present, such an alliance seems to be the least likely political development of all.

"RFE/RL Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine Report" is prepared by Jan Maksymiuk on the basis of a variety of sources including reporting by "RFE/RL Newsline" and RFE/RL's broadcast services. It is distributed every Tuesday.

MOSCOW'S CULTURAL TIES WITH CIS, BALTIC COUNTRIES VARY WIDELY. First Deputy Culture Minister Denis Molchanov told the Duma on 4 June that Moscow has become more active in promoting cultural ties with the CIS countries and the Baltic states, but he stressed that the level of ties varies widely, ITAR-TASS reported. Most active are exchanges with Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and the Baltic countries. Things are improving with Ukraine, but ties with Turkmenistan are virtually nonexistent, although Molchanov said that "this was not our fault." Ties with the remaining countries "are below the desired level" for a variety of reasons. PG

SELEZNEV SEES STRONG RESISTANCE TO RUSSIA-BELARUS UNION STATE. Speaking to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Russia-Belarus Union in Grodno on 4 June, Duma Speaker Gennadii Seleznev said that fusing the two countries together faces strong resistance and will take a long time to realize, Russian and Western agencies reported. But he said that the constitutions of the two countries could be harmonized as early as fall 2001 and said that he already considers the two countries to be military allies, Interfax-West reported. The meeting also saw the emergence of the interparliamentary association of deputies "For the Union of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia," whose members called for the support of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, ITAR-TASS reported. PG

UKRAINE SAID STILL STEALING RUSSIAN GAS. Yurii Komarov, a senior Gazprom official, said that Ukraine is illegally siphoning off Russian gas from pipelines passing through its territory, AP reported on 4 June. Komarov noted, however, that Gazprom is less disturbed by the theft than by the fact that Ukraine is then selling the gas abroad. PG

END NOTE: UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT REASSERTS CONTROL

BELARUSIAN, RUSSIAN, UKRAINIAN LEGISLATORS SET UP INTERPARLIAMENTARY GROUP. The Parliamentary Assembly of the RussiaBelarus Union on 4 June gathered for a two-day session in Hrodna, western Belarus. The session was attended by Ukrainian lawmakers. Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian lawmakers set up an interparliamentary deputy association called For the Union of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia (ZUBR). ZUBR's declared goals include "the restoration of the unity of the Russian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian people" and the consolidation of efforts toward the creation of a union of the three Slavic nations, Belapan reported. Meanwhile, Russian State Duma Speaker Gennadii Seleznev told journalists in Hrodna that plans to merge Russia and Belarus into a single state face strong resistance from some "executive and political structures" and will take a long time to implement. Several dozen young people in Hrodna protested the Belarusian-Russian integration, shouting "Shame!" and "Independence!" at deputies leaving the session hall. JM

KUCHMA REAFFIRMS UKRAINE'S PRO-EUROPEAN COURSE... Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma told journalists in Dnipropetrovsk on 4 June that Ukraine's course to integrate into Europe remains unchanged, Interfax reported. Kuchma was commenting on media reports alleging that Ukraine is to change its political course following the dismissal of Premier Viktor Yushchenko (see End Note below). "According to the constitution, the government is a tool and a mechanism [for implementing] the president's program with which he won the elections," Kuchma noted. Kuchma also said the attitude of the EU to Ukraine has recently become "warmer." In his opinion, Pope John Paul II's visit to Ukraine this month will add to the country's stability. JM

...PLEDGES TO BRING CASPIAN OIL TO EUROPE THIS YEAR. Kuchma announced that this year Ukraine will complete the construction of the Odesa-Brody oil pipeline and an oil terminal near Odesa. The Ukrainian president made the statement while visiting the Pivdenmash plant along with his Polish counterpart Aleksander Kwasniewski. "Today we should join our efforts in seeking the possibility of filling [this pipeline] for Caspian oil to reach both Poland and, first and foremost, Europe. These tasks -- more political than economic in nature -- are facing the Polish and Ukrainian presidents," Ukrainian New Channel Television quoted Kuchma as saying. The 667-kilometer pipeline linking the Black Sea port of Odesa with Brody in Lviv Oblast is 80 percent ready, Interfax reported. JM

U.S. DEFENSE CHIEF MEETS UKRAINIAN LEADERSHIP. U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld met with Ukrainian President Kuchma and other top Ukrainian officials in Kyiv on 5 June, AP reported. Rumsfeld, the most senior member of President George W. Bush's administration to visit Ukraine, told journalists the previous day that the Pentagon and Bush wanted to show their support for a democratic Ukraine. Following his meeting with Kuchma, Rumsfeld said the former assured him that Ukraine will continue its transition from communism to a Western-oriented democracy. "He did personally assure us that this is his commitment and intention and asked me to convey that to the president of the United States," Rumsfeld noted. JM

POLISH PRESIDENT SAYS NO FINAL DECISION ON PIPELINE BYPASSING UKRAINE. Kwasniewski said in Dnipropetrovsk on 4 June that Warsaw has not yet agreed to the construction of a pipeline to take Russian gas to Europe while bypassing Ukraine. President Kwasniewski said the Polish government will explore the issue of the bypass pipeline in detail, adding that oil and gas export routes must not serve as "a means of political pressure." Kwasniewski was speaking to a Ukrainian-Polish economic forum in Dnipropetrovsk. Earlier the same day, Kuchma and Kwasniewski opened a Ukrainian-Polish center intended to promote the development of businesses and investments between the two countries. JM

UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT REASSERTS CONTROL

Last week's appointments made by Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma to the new cabinet of Premier Anatoliy Kinakh seemed to fully confirm the opinions of those observers of the Ukrainian political scene who have asserted that the ousting of Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko was orchestrated by Kuchma solely to defuse the president's own political problems.

Kuchma made Kinakh's cabinet almost a copy of Yushchenko's by reappointing 11 cabinet members who served under Yushchenko. "Only the premier was changed, while the government remained [the same]," Kuchma commented on the recent government reshuffle in Ukraine, speaking to journalists at last week's CIS summit in Minsk.

The issue of Yushchenko's ouster emerged some two months ago when the Ukrainian opposition -- most notably the National Salvation Forum and the For the Truth groups -- were staging regular and vigorous demonstrations in Kyiv, demanding the ouster of Kuchma and top state officials over their alleged role in the murder of independent journalist Heorhiy Gongadze. Those allegations seemed to be confirmed by secret audio recordings made by former presidential bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko in Kuchma's office and subsequently made public in Ukraine by Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz.

Even though not impressively large, those anti-Kuchma protests brought Ukraine's "tape scandal" into the spotlight of Ukrainian and world public opinion and did much damage to Kuchma's political stature.

Those who suspect Kuchma and his administration of political plots assert that Kuchma ordered the arrest of former Deputy Premier Yuliya Tymoshenko and orchestrated the dismissal of Yushchenko in an attempt to gradually change the direction of opposition protest actions. And indeed, following Tymoshenko's arrest in mid-February and the inauguration of Yushchenko's dismissal process in the parliament, opposition groups became involved in organizing actions in defense of these two politicians. The opposition's drive to oust Kuchma, though not dropped altogether, had already become less energetic before 26 April, when Yushchenko was voted out of his post. That drive subsided almost completely in May, when different opposition factions engaged in disputes over the expediency of holding an anti-Kuchma referendum.

Kuchma has managed to tighten his grip on the government following the "tape scandal" and Yushchenko's dismissal. Last week the Ukrainian president issued a decree introducing the posts of state secretaries and deputy state secretaries for the Cabinet of Ministers and individual ministries. The state secretaries are to be appointed for five-year terms. Kuchma's spokesman, Volodymyr Lytvyn, explained that the decree was necessitated by frequent cabinet reshuffles which, he argued, threaten to "disorganize the executive branch" in the country's "period of transition and political restructuring." The state secretaries, not subordinated to the prime minister, are to deal with the day-to-day running of the government and provide continuity between consecutive cabinets.

Many opposition politicians have voiced fears that Kuchma's move indicates a further assault on democracy on his part. Tymoshenko said the introduction of state secretaries is "the logical transformation of the authoritarian [power] system into dictatorship." Reforms and Order Party leader Viktor Pynzenyk said the decree is politically tantamount to "the liquidation of the institute of the Cabinet of Ministers, which is now becoming a window-dressing [body] since the entire power has been focused on the president." And Kyiv-based political scientist Mykola Tomenko commented that many ministers from the previous cabinet of Yushchenko retained their posts in that of Kinakh, but "significantly lost their powers" to state secretaries. "Kinakh is becoming a sort of presidential representative or adviser to deal only with managing the regional system of power, some economic branches, and individual enterprises," Tomenko added.

Perhaps the most bitter pill for the National Salvation Forum in its anti-Kuchma campaign was how Yushchenko behaved following his ouster. Yushchenko declined offers to join or even head the anti-Kuchma opposition and announced that he is going to form a "broad democratic coalition" to win in next year's parliamentary elections. But the first persons he consulted on the creation of such a coalition were parliamentary speaker Ivan Plyushch and -- Kuchma. Some Ukrainian commentators are convinced that only one move by the opposition -- a political alliance of Yushchenko (as candidate for the post of president), Tymoshenko (would-be premier), and Moroz (would-be parliamentary speaker) -- could radically revamp the Ukrainian political scene and give democrats a fair chance to defeat both "the party of power" grouped around Kuchma and several oligarchic parties. But at present, such an alliance seems to be the least likely political development of all.