Posted on 11/24/2004 9:34:43 PM PST by FairOpinion
KYIV, Mar. 2 (Ukrainian News) - Major international financier George Soros in a letter published by the Financial Times on Friday called on President Leonid Kuchma to step aside pending the outcome of an official investigation into the murder of journalist Georgy Gongadze.
State prosecutors ruled Gongadze’s death a murder this week after DNA tests showed a 99.9 percent probability that a headless body found in the outskirts of Kyiv last November belonged to the journalist.
The letter from Soros is the latest in high-profile appeals that Ukraine clean up its act with respect to democracy, the rule of law and press freedom.
U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday also sent a sharply-worded verbal message to Ukraine, delivered by United States ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pasqual.
In the message, the U.S. warns Ukraine that the financial aid that the U.S. has been doling out to the economically-strained ex-Soviet state since it gained independence was at risk due to repressive measures by Ukrainian authorities against democratic processes.
In his letter, entitled "Step Aside, Mr. Kuchma," Soros calls on Kuchma to hand over his duties to Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko while the investigation into Gongadze’s murder goes forward.
"If Mr. Kuchma cares about Ukraine's survival as an independent democratic state, he must take responsibility for his actions and hand over his duties to the Prime Minister ... pending the results of the investigation," Soros said in the letter.
According to Soros, an objective investigation into Gongadze’s murder and other crimes that Kuchma has been accused of was not realistic unless Kuchma stepped aside and allowed the investigation to go forward.
Audio recordings made secretly in Kuchma’s office appear to implicate the president in engineering Gongadze’s disappearance, in addition to other alleged criminal acts.
Soros also said that Kuchma's recent letter to the Financial Times showed that Kuchma "takes any opportunity to lash out at his opponents."
"If Mr. Kuchma remains recalcitrant, continues to harass political opponents and the media and drags his feet on the investigation, he risks relegating Ukraine to the same fate as neighboring Belarus..." Soros said.
In his letter Soros recalled his last meeting with Kuchma. Soros said he was "taken aback by the president's scathing, virulent remarks about Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine's prime minister, and Yulia Tymoshenko, the former deputy prime minister."
"And later I found myself in the uncomfortable position of urging Mr. Yushchenko to accommodate the president," Soros wrote.
George Soros heads the Open Society Institute, which has held several philanthropic programs in Ukraine in the past few years.
Soros also pointed out in the letter that he had been deeply involved in Ukraine by trying to help it make the transition from a closed to an open society by creating the Ukrainian Renaissance Foundation and giving Ukraine more than $100 million in support.
Read the full text of Soros’s letter published by the Financial Times at http://navigation.helper.realnames.com/framer/1/1/default.asp?realname=Financial+Times&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eft%2Ecom&frameid=1&providerid=1&uid=30013336
Now you have it. Wow, that was a great find.
It turned out it was a parody, but it's just about what international "observers" do say about the US.
you are still refusing to answer the question. why do you ignore the fact that most refuse to acknowledge the validity of the election?
the principal does not remain.
The article was satire of some sort, or the author was a nutter.
OK. Here is one, which is not a parody, they mean it.
Big Media’s Democracy Double Standards
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=4509
The Washington Post and other leading American newspapers are up in arms about the legitimacy of a presidential election where exit polls showed the challenger winning but where the incumbent party came out on top, amid complaints about heavy-handed election-day tactics and possibly rigged vote tallies.
Of course, the election in question occurred in the Ukraine.
In the United States - where exit polls showed John Kerry winning on Nov. 2, where Republican tactics discouraged African-American voting in Democratic precincts, and where George W. Bush’s vote totals in many counties were eyebrow-raising - the Post, the Times and other top news outlets mocked anyone who questioned the results.
You are projecting onto Soros a "plan" which is more a reflection of your own agenda and fears than anything else, is my working theory at present.
Just because there are quite a few of them does not make them correct or perceptive.
Did you see my post about the pilot program in New York?
So clean off your glasses, and take another look. I'm not making this stuff up.
Dictatorship is part of the culture of death. Dictatorship devalues the importance of individual life. The Pope has been consistent about this. He stood up to Communism and now he's standing up to Criminalism.
Just because a bunch of criminals say they will be meaner to gay people than the democratically-elected guy, you would let them turn the country into a dictatorship???
It's true Soros is a very rich, immoral man who wants to influence the world politically. But it's also true that there are quite a few oligarchs backing Yanukovych. They are shady rich men, whose fortunes were achieved even less honestly than Soros', who want to harm the world for personal gain. If you're against Soros, you should be against the Oligarchs ten times as much.
just because the election is a fraud does not make it correct or perceptive.
Putin hates the death culture as well.
there you go, now we are referring to marxists websites for proof. brilliant. you still cant answer the question can you? why do you side with putin and old soviet communists as opposed to the us, eu, powell, bush, nato?
I don't think he is angel. But I prefer him to Soros and Yuschenko.
You know the point I am trying to make -- people can and do say the same thing about both the Ukraine and US elections.
BTW, did you know that Yanukovich won by a margin of almost 3 points?
"Pro-Moscow Yanukovych had 49.46 percent of the vote while Yushchenko was named on 46.61 of the ballots, the commission said Wednesday."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1288173/posts
no i dont understand what you are trying to say. you take putin's word over everyone elses including our own government who says 'there was widespread fraud'
BTW, did you know the election was a fraud?
you still wont answer the question.....why do you take putin's word over the us, bush, powell, eu, nato?
I agree with you and FairOpinion, but I readily admit, I'm not the most informed out there. However if there is one truism in life, everyone has two things, one is an opinion and the other is an (blank so as to not have to type it).
The way I see it which nobody has mentioned.
Putin has been said by the President to be a good guy. Remember everyone how the President said he looked into his eyes and saw his soul?
He's committed somewhat to helping in the War on terror, especially post Beslan. His Iran contracts were pre-Beslan, and since it he's determined to actually help win this war.
Putin's guy, Yanukovich, sees the War on terror. He is committed to staying in the fight, and supporting the US.
On the other hand, we have a candidate embraced by the socialists, who's statements seem to coincide with the socialists. He has France, and Soros behind him which is enough to throw some huge flags against him. He's got all the liberals, including the immoral left as has been mentioned earlier with their culture of death. All that is in his corner.
We don't need EU to grow any further, especially not with another Soros funded person in charge. The lines are already somewhat drawn, and its the Islamic terrorists, and the EU vs Russia and the US. Which side are the Chechen terrorists on? Yushchenko's.
Finally where did the Pope endorse a candidate? Our President didn't either, he just said we would like to make sure the returns were fair, in order to send our seal of approval.
And my disclaimer: I have no contacts in the Ukraine, most if not all of my information came from sources linked from various FR threads and Fox News programs that have touched on it today.
Kerry is the one that has the plan.
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