The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 29, 2004, Page 5, Image 5
Ukraine political crisis intensifies; province calls for changes in autonomy
By MARA D. BELLABY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KIEV, Ukraine — The crisis over
Ukraine’s disputed presidential election
intensified Sunday, as a key eastern
province called a referendum on
autonomy and the opposition
demanded the current president fire his
prime minister, the official winner of last
week’s vote that has bitterly divided this
former Soviet republic.
The opposition warned President
Leonid Kuchma it would block his
movements unless he fired Prime
Minister Viktor Yanukovych and
fulfilled other demands within 24 hours.
Earlier, Kuchma called on the
opposition to end its four-day blockade
of government buildings, saying
compromise was the only solution to the
crisis that has developed into a tense
political tug-of-war between the West
and Moscow over Ukraine’s future.
On Saturday, Ukraine’s parliament
declared the election invalid amid
international calls for a new vote, and
lawmakers also passed a vote of no
confidence in the Central Elections
Commission, which declared Moscow
backed Yanukovych the winner.
Both parliamentary votes, however,
are symbolic only and have no legal
standing.
Opposition leader Viktor
Yushchenko, who claims he was cheated
out of victory in the Nov. 21
presidential runoff, urged his supporters
Sunday to stay in the streets. Hundreds
of thousands of demonstrators have
thronged downtown Kiev for a week to
support Yushchenko’s claim the election
was rigged.
The Supreme Court will consider
Yushchenko’s appeal today. The court’s
ruling could pave the way for a new vote,
which the opposition is demanding, or
remove the only barrier to Yanukovych’s
inauguration. The United States and
other Western) nations say the vote was
marred by massive fraud. Russian
President Vladimir Putin openly backed
Yanukovych and congratulated him on
his victory. Moscow considers this
nation of 48 million people part of its
sphere of influence and a buffer between
Russia and NATO’s eastern flank.
Yushchenko also has called for a new
vote Dec. 12 under the watch of the
Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe. He also has
demanded that the 15 members of the
election commission be replaced.
Yulia Tymoshenko, a top ally of
Yushchenko, told a rally of about
100,000 opposition supporters in Kiev’s
main square Sunday that Kuchma had
until this evening to fire Yanukovych.
“We know where he is, and we can
prevent him from making a single step if
he doesn’t fulfill our demands,”
Tymoshenko said.
Her other demands included firing
the governors of eastern regions warning
of autonomy bids and initiating a bill to
reshuffle the Central Election
Commission. If Kuchma does not fulfill
them, he should be prosecuted for
“crimes against the people,”
Tymoshenko said as protesters shouted
“Down with Kuchma!”
She said opposition crowds would
march to the Supreme Court and the
Ukrainian parliament where
Yushchenko’s supporters would seek a
no-confidence vote today in
Yanukovych’s Cabinet.
Supporters of Yanukovych struck
back from Donetsk, his native region
and power base. The regional legislature
voted 164-1 to hold a Dec. 5
referendum on autonomy for the
province. About 30,000 demonstrators,
who gathered outside regional legislature
in the city of Donetsk, shouted pro
Yanukovych slogans.
“We won’t tolerate what’s going on
in Ukraine,” Donetsk Gov. Anatoly
Bliznyuk told lawmakers. “We have
shown that we are a force to consider.”
Starting Thursday, Yushchenko
supporters encircled the Cabinet and the
president’s administration buildings,
refusing to let anyone enter or leave.
Kuchma, who backed Yanukovych,
criticized the blockades Sunday as a
“gross violation of law” that “would be
unacceptable in any nation.” He made
his comments during a meeting of his
National Security Council, parts of
which were broadcast live on Ukrainian
television.
“Compromise is the only way to
avoid unpredictable consequences,”
Kuchma said.
Yushchenko responded that the
“peaceful pickets will not be lifted, but
will continue.” He urged tens of
thousands of his supporters in and
around Independence Square to
maintain their vigil.
“You will ask me how long We should
stay here, is it worth staying here?” he
said. “Even the Georgian revolution
lasted for three weeks. ... I am asking
you, I am demanding that you stay here
until the end.”
Many of the Ukrainian
demonstrators have been inspired by the
November 2003 massive street protests
in the former Soviet republic of Georgia
that helped lead to the resignation of
longtime President Eduard
Shevardnadze.
Representatives of the Western
leaning Yushchenko and Yanukovych
were expected to resume negotiations
Sunday under the auspices of European
Union negotiators, but a Yanukovych
aide said in the afternoon that the two
sides had not met.
Stepan Havrysh said the prime
minister’s campaign team was upset by
the parliamentary votes but still
SERGEI CHUZAKOWTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rival presidential candidates’ supporters of Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych argue in Kiev,
Sunday. Outgoing President Leonid Kuchma on called compromise the only way out of Ukraine’s
political crisis, with the rift between the opposition and the government growing as protesters blockaded
government buildings for a fourth day and governors in eastern Ukraine met to discuss autonomy.
optimistic the talks might resume today.
The crisis has exacerbated the stark
divide between the pro-Russian, heavily
industrialized eastern half of Ukraine,
where Yanukovych draws his support,
and the west, Yushchenko’s stronghold
including the capital Kiev, which is a
traditional center of Ukrainian
nationalism.
The crisis also has overshadowed
political differences between the
candidates.
Yushchenko, whose wife is U.S.-bom,
says he wants to push the country to
greater integration with Western Europe,
and he has suggested he would seek
NATO membership. His critics worry he
will alienate Ukraine from Russia, its key
trade partner and main energy supplier.
Yanukovych was expected to pursue
closer ties with Moscow. Many Russian
speaking Ukrainians in the east fear a
Yushchenko presidency would make
them second-class citizens.
The Donetsk referendum vote came
after an urgent meeting attended by
Yanukovych and some 3,500 delegates
from eastern and southern Ukraine.
Participants adopted a resolution
vowing that they could take measures
including a referendum on seeking
autonomy.
Autonomy for Donetsk would
require changing Ukraine’s constitution
to allow for stronger self-rule for its
provinces. While such changes could
face serious opposition, the vote
suggested Ukraine’s rift could widen if
the election results are overturned.
Iran group canvasses for suicide bombers to attack U.S. in Iraq, Israel
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TEHRAN, Iran — The 300 men
filling out forms in the offices of an
Iranian aid group were offered three
choices: Train for suicide attacks against
U.S. troops in Iraq, for suicide attacks
against Israelis or to assassinate British
author Salman Rushdie.
It looked at first glance like a
gathering on the fringes of a society
divided between moderates who want
better relations with the world and hard
line Muslim militants hostile toward the
United States and Israel.
But the presence of two key figures
— a prominent Iranian lawmaker and a
member of the country’s elite
Revolutionary Guards — lent the
meeting more legitimacy and was a clear
indication of at least tacit support from
some within Iran’s government.
Since that inaugural June meeting in
a room decorated with photos of Israeli
soldiers’ funerals, the registration forms
for volunteer suicide commandos have
appeared on Tehran’s streets and
university campuses, with no sign Iran’s
government is trying to stop the
shadowy movement.
On Nov. 12, the day Iranians
traditionally hold pro-Palestinian
protests, a spokesman for the
Headquarters for Commemorating
Martyrs of the Global Islamic
Movement said the movement signed
up at least 4,000 new volunteers.
Mohammad Ali Samadi, the spokesman,
told The Associated Press the group had'
no ties to the government.
And Iranian Foreign Ministry
spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told
reporters recently that the group’s
campaign to sign up volunteers for
suicide attacks had “nothing to do with
the ruling Islamic establishment.”
“That some people do such a thing is
the result of their sentiments. It has
nothing to do with the government and
the system,” Asefi said.
Yet despite the government’s
disavowal of the group and some of its
programs, there are indications the
suicide attack campaign has at least some
legitimacy within the government.
The first meeting was held in the
offices of the Martyrs Foundation, a
semiofficial organization that helps the
families of those killed in the 1980-88
Iran-Iraq war or those killed fighting
for the government on other fronts. It
drew hard-line lawmaker Mahdi
Kouchakzadeh and Gen. Hossein
Salami of the elite Revolutionary
Guards.
I
“This group spreads valuable ideas,”
Kouchakzadeh told AP.
“At a time when the U.S. is
committing the crimes we see now,
deprived nations have no weapon other
than martyrdom. It’s evident that Iran’s
foreign policy makers have to take the
dignified opinions of this group into
consideration,” said Kouchakzadeh, who
also is a former member of the
Revolutionary Guards.
Iranian security officials did not
return calls seeking comment about
whether they had tried to crack down on
the group’s training programs or
whether they believed any of Samadi’s
volunteers had crossed into Iraq or into
Israel.
_ - I
■ PANEL
Continued from page 1
and more than 180,000 do not know
they are infected.
Today’s panel discussion marks the
Philomathic Society’s first public event
on campus. The group traces its roots
back to USC’s Euphradian and
Clariosophic societies of the early 19th
century. “Philomathic” is a Greek word
meaning “love of learning.”
In an e-mail to The Gamecock, a
member of the Philomathic Society who
identified himself as Maximillian
LaBorde, an apparent pseudonym,
wrote that organizers met with USC
administrators last April to ratify a
student organization constitution.
LaBorde was a professor and
president at USC during the Civil War.
“In re-establishing the Philomathic
Society, we seek to foster the
development of true men and women of
learning, scholars who will recognize the
merit of all intellectual pursuits,” the
member wrote.
While the e-mail states that society
members hold closed meetings regularly,
it makes no mention of other events
sponsored or activities undertaken by
the group since April.
And according to the e-mail,
members seek to remain anonymous as
they pursue the society’s goals. •
“This reticence encourages the
Society’s members to pursue pure
I-:——n—as—■—’—
altruism, disregarding any self
promotion in the hope of realizing the
greater reward of personal fulfillment,”
the member wrote.
The member lists attracting “great
thinkers” to lectures at USC and
renovating the former Clariosophic Hall
in Pinckney-Legare College as two of
the society’s long-term goals.
Comments on this story? Email
gamecocknetvs@gum.se. edu
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