Posted on 11/26/2004 4:36:45 AM PST by anonymoussierra
Thousands of demonstrators have laid siege to government buildings in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, in protest at the presidential election results. They have prevented officials getting to work and briefly delayed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, named as the winner of the disputed poll.
The supporters of opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko have vowed to protest until the result is overturned.
Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts are under way to find a solution to the crisis.
Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski has had a meeting with outgoing President Leonid Kuchma as part of a mediation trip to Kiev.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana is also due to join the negotiations between Mr Kuchma, the pro-Russian Mr Yanukovych, and Mr Yushchenko, who supports closer ties with the EU.
Ukraine's supreme court has suspended the presidential poll result while it considers the opposition's complaints.
According to the official election result, Mr Yanukovych won with 49.46% of the vote against Mr Yushchenko's 46.61%.
Click here to see a regional breakdown of the official results But Mr Yushchenko's supporters say the authorities oversaw massive fraud and independent observers reported widespread abuses.
Buildings surrounded
Hundreds of thousands of protesters are gathered in central Kiev, waving banners and singing after spending their fifth consecutive night on the streets.
Among them are dozens of police cadets.
Thousands more protesters have surrounded nearby government buildings, including the residence of President Kuchma, aiming to paralyse government business.
About 10,000 protesters have also now gathered in front of Kiev's main railway station.
Government supporters, including several thousand miners, have held rival but smaller rallies.
Ukraine's Supreme Court will examine Mr Yushchenko's appeal against the electoral authority's decision on Monday, and insists no final assessment of the election can be made until then.
Serhiy Tyhipko, an aide to Mr Yanukovych, said he saw "no justification" for the result to be suspended.
Correspondents say the Supreme Court has in the past shown itself to be independent-minded.
It cannot invalidate the whole election, but it can force regional recounts.
Both sides of the dispute have lodged allegations of irregularities with the court.
Diplomatic drive
Mr Solana's spokeswoman, Cristina Gallach, said he wanted to discuss "a negotiated diplomatic solution" to the crisis.
Mr Kwasniewski has drawn up a three-point plan to resolve the crisis: verifying the election results, annulling those tainted by irregularities, and the renunciation of violence by all sides.
Lech Walesa, the former Polish president who led an anti-communist movement in the 1980s, has said he believes a compromise is possible.
Before World War II, a large part of western Ukraine belonged to Poland and people there are keenly watching events unfold in Kiev.
But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has criticised European intervention in the crisis. He said a solution to the crisis could only be found "by the Ukrainian people themselves".
Correspondents point out that Moscow has made no secret of its support for Mr Yanukovych.
TV stations rebel
On Thursday, state-owned TV station UT1 rebelled against government control by announcing live on air that its news team was joining opposition protests.
Hours earlier the private, formerly pro-government channel One Plus One said it would stop bending to government pressure in news reports.
Mr Yushchenko started the presidential campaign as Ukraine's most popular politician, and it took an enormous propaganda effort on state-run TV channels to make Mr Yanukovych look like a real contender, correspondents say.
The move may mean that pictures making plain the huge size of the opposition demonstrations will now reach the heartlands of Mr Yanukovych's support in the industrial east of the country, reports BBC world media correspondent Sebastian Usher.
So far, the country's coal miners there have refused to join a general strike, called by the opposition but reported to have had only limited impact so far.
BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/country_profiles/1102303.stm
Country profile: Ukraine
Ukraine gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Sandwiched between Russia and Europe, it tries to keep on good terms with both.
A significant minority of the population are Russians or use Russian as their first language but Ukraine has largely been free of the ethnic conflicts which have dogged some other former Soviet republics.
The country's first president, former Communist Party official Leonid Kravchuk, presided over a period of economic decline and runaway inflation. He was narrowly defeated in the 1994 presidential election by Leonid Kuchma, who advocated closer ties with Russia.
The economy continued to fare badly under President Kuchma who became embroiled in a series of stand-offs with parliament and failed to push ahead with economic reforms. Corruption is a major problem and investors have been wary. However, the new millennium has brought economic growth for the first time, with rising industrial output, improving exports and falling inflation.
Throughout the last decade Ukrainian foreign policy has played a delicate balancing act between the West and Russia
It played an active part in Nato's Partnership for Peace programme and has declared EU membership to be a strategic objective. In May 2002 it announced that it intended to abandon neutrality and apply formally for Nato membership. The alliance has welcomed the bid but says that further political, economic and military reforms are needed before it can be successful.
Nevertheless, Ukraine has sent over 1500 peacekeepers to Iraq as part of the stabilisation force led by Poland, a Nato member, and has also contributed troops to peacekeeping operations in Kosovo and Afghanistan.
Millions continue to suffer as a result of the 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl, during which about 8% of the country was contaminated.
Crimea is an autonomous republic within Ukraine. It was transferred from Russia in 1954.
Population: 48.1 million (UN, 2004)
Capital: Kiev
Area: 603,700 sq km (233,090 sq miles)
Major languages: Ukrainian (official), Russian
Major religion: Christianity
Life expectancy: 65 years (men), 75 years (women) (UN)
Monetary unit: 1 hryvnya = 100 kopiykas
Main exports: Military equipment, metals, pipes, machinery, petroleum products, textiles, agricultural products
GNI per capita: US $970 (World Bank, 2003)
Internet domain: .ua
International dialling code: +380
Many Ukrainian media outlets are privately-owned but this does not prevent the government and authorities from trying to influence their output.
While the authorities attempt to keep the media in line, Ukraine still has a significant - albeit struggling - opposition media. The Kuchma government has seen the closure of several opposition papers. However, the range of opinions represented in the national press suggests that the printed media enjoy much more freedom than TV and radio stations.
Several journalists investigating high-profile crimes have died in mysterious circumstances. Journalist Georgiy Gongadze disappeared in 2000, his body was found and eventually identified a year later.
In 2002 the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders reported that 10 journalists had died in suspicious circumstances in the last four years.
Ukraine's commercial TV networks, particularly Inter TV and Studio 1+1, attract the lion's share of the viewing audience.
The FM radio band in Kiev is busy, with more than 20 stations competing for listeners.
The press
Fakty i Kommentarii - mass-circulation daily
Silski Visti - daily, popular among rural readership
Vecherniye Vesti - mass-circulation daily
Segodnya - mass-circulation daily
Kievskiye Vedomosti - daily
Kyiv Post - English-language daily
Den - daily, English-language pages
Zerkalo Nedeli - political weekly, English- language pages
Ukrayinska Pravda - online news, English-language pages
Television
National TV Company of Ukraine - state-run, operates UT1, UT2, UT3 networks
Inter TV - national, commercial
Studio 1+1 - national, commercial
STB - commercial
Novy Kanal - commercial
ICTV - commercial
Radio
National Radio Company of Ukraine - state-run, operates UR1, Promin, Radio Muz networks
Russkoye Radio - commercial
Europa Plus - commercial
Hit FM - commercial
Nashe FM - commercial
News agencies
UNIAN
Interfax-Ukraine - English-language page
Dzieki(Thank you)
The fumbled election scam sounds like a CBS project. They may have to send for Dan Rather and Micheal Moore to fake them thru.
"The fumbled election scam sounds like a CBS project. They may have to send for Dan Rather and Micheal Moore to fake them thru."Thank you I do not know what is person "Dan Rather" I do know who person is "Micheal Moore" that person is comunist evil person that person do not like strong good persons
While the authorities attempt to keep the media in line, Ukraine still
has a significant - albeit struggling - opposition media. The Kuchma
government has seen the closure of several opposition papers.
However, the range of opinions represented in the national press
suggests that the printed media enjoy much more freedom than TV
and radio stations.
Several journalists investigating high-profile crimes have died in
mysterious circumstances. Journalist Georgiy Gongadze disappeared
in 2000, his body was found and eventually identified a year later.
In 2002 the media watchdog Reporters Without Borders reported that
10 journalists had died in suspicious circumstances in the last four
years.
Ukraine is also a center for light aircraft development and production. Quite a few cutting edge experimental kitplane aircraft are produced there and marketed worldwide. From what I've seen their engineering is first rate, as is the quality of the products they produce.
Ukraine Judges Stop President Taking Office And Begin Election Inquiry
Thank you
"Main exports: Military equipment, metals, pipes, machinery, petroleum products, textiles, agricultural products
Ukraine is also a center for light aircraft development and production. Quite a few cutting edge experimental kitplane aircraft are produced there and marketed worldwide. From what I've seen their engineering is first rate, as is the quality of the products they produce."That is truth Thank you
Are you Ukrainian? I've met some wonderful people from Ukraine through my ties to the experimental aircraft builders and to the sailplane industry. I've met some great folks who hale from the Baltic states also. One lady I met who works at my local grocery store in the fish department hails from Latvia. My wife and I became friendly with her over time and she has given us a wealth of knowledge about how to choose fish. Very nice folks from what I've experienced.
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