Yushchenko Orders Tent Camp Razed
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Posted on 01/17/2005 9:59:33 AM PST by jb6
KIEV -- Presidential election winner Viktor Yushchenko told his supporters Friday to raze their downtown tent camp, but in a sign of emerging cracks in his team, top ally Yulia Tymoshenko criticized him and urged him to respect the camp stalwarts, many of whom were disappointed by the call to leave.
"We must respect people who came to protect democracy," Tymoshenko told reporters Saturday. "I'm against any orders, and people should leave when they are ready."
The sprawling camp on Kiev's main avenue sprang up within hours after the Nov. 21 presidential runoff vote to house protesters alleging massive fraud. Viktor Yanukovych, then the prime minister and favored by the Kremlin, was declared the winner, but the Supreme Court annulled the election because of fraud and ordered a rerun on Dec. 26.
Yanukovych filed an appeal for another repeat election to the Supreme Court on Friday. His new complaint was based on 621 volumes of documents and 233 videotapes. Court spokeswoman Natalya Sarapyn said the court would begin considering the appeal on Monday and that the law says the process should take no more than five days.
Despite the appeal, Yushchenko is widely expected to be inaugurated this month, and his call to disband the camp appeared to underline his confidence.
Tymoshenko said she expected Yushchenko to be sworn in by Wednesday, but added that camp stalwarts must share the joy of victory.
"We believe Yushchenko will be sworn in by Jan. 19 ... in the parliament and then before the people on [Kiev's] main square," Tymoshenko said.
She added that Yanukovych's appeal "does not represent a threat."
Many of about 1,000 remaining residents of the camp defied Yushchenko's order to disperse and vowed to stay until his inauguration. "We're not leaving until the end of inauguration, it's like leaving empty-handed," said Andriy Khomenko, one of the camp's leaders.
Dozens of posters reading "Yushchenko, Help!" and "New Government, Are You Real?" appeared early Saturday around the camp.
Yushchenko, in calling for the camp's closure, hinted at nostalgia for the heady first days of the protests, when crowds topping 100,000 jammed downtown Kiev and danced and cheered. "It's a pity that the camp as a symbol of this process is already history," he said, "but on the other hand, we are only beginning the Orange Revolution."
Early Saturday, city authorities brought three heavy trucks and a minivan to help stalwarts to leave, but the vehicles remained unused and parked near the camp.
Tymoshenko said Saturday that she believes Yushchenko will appoint her prime minister because "he would not find" a better candidate. At the same time, she acknowledged that she had not met with Yushchenko after his return from a vacation five days earlier. Yushchenko, meanwhile, has met a number of other politicians.
Tymoshenko said that in the coalition agreement between Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party and the opposition bloc that bears her name "it was precisely written" she would be given the prime minister's posting.
"I believe that Yushchenko will not start with breaking the agreements and will implement them," she said.
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Awfully darned cold to be tent camping, isn't it? Brrrrr...
Yushchenko Orders Tent Camp Razed
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This winter is awfully hot at least in Poland, we have snow only in mountains! Temperature is often above the zero. In Ukraine winter may be a bit stronger but also not so cruel I think.
bump
I'm really surprised and shocked. A leftist EU politico unceremoniously disposes of the masses once they have served their purpose in putting him into power. Nothing to see here -- move along... Yushchenko is so much from the Clinonista Mafia mold that it isn't even funny.
Oh, it's going to be funny alright, marking down his various "achievements" as they move along. Remember Saakashvili? He not only received $2 million from Soros, he has now put all Georgian assets up for sale, guess who's got first dibs. He did get the police to work for a change and electricity is more steady, along with water. Of course, price have trippled, salaries have not. Media freedom has been curtailed and Republican, Industrial and Conservative parties have suffered oh and there is also disenfranchisement of the parliment. But hay, those are minor things.
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