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UKRAINIAN NATIONALIST VETERANS SEEK COMBATANT STATUS. A group of Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) veterans and several thousand sympathizers took to the streets in Kyiv on October 14 to mark the 64th anniversary of the founding of the UPA and demand official recognition as war combatants for UPA fighters, Ukrainian and international news agencies reported. The UPA was a nationalist guerilla force that fought the Nazis as well as Soviet and Polish troops during World War II and immediately after it. Several thousand policemen guarded the rally in Kyiv against left-wing demonstrators who unsuccessfully tried to break through police barriers and provoke clashes. President Viktor Yushchenko said the same day that he has signed a decree on "restoring historical justice" to UPA veterans, Interfax-Ukraine reported. "As a president, I do not define the [combatant] status. But I may stimulate the government and parliament to consider this issue and take the decision. This is the purpose of the decree I signed today in the morning," Yushchenko told journalists. JM
MOLDOVA SAYS IT WILL NOT RECOGNIZE REFERENDUM IN SOUTH OSSETIA. Moldovan parliament speaker Marian Lupu said on October 15 that Chisinau would not recognize an independence referendum in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, Moldpres reported the same day. Speaking at a meeting of the GUAM Parliamentary Assembly in Chisinau, Lupu said Moldova "will not admit the possibility of legal consequences if an eventual plebiscite is held in South Ossetia." The GUAM regional organization includes Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova. South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity announced on September 11 plans to hold a referendum on independence (see "RFE/RL Newsline," September 12, 2006). Moldova's breakaway Transdniester region held a widely unrecognized referendum on independence in September (see "RFE/RL Newsline," September 18, 2006). BW