[Ohio UZO News] AP; CT; FT; UW; Note
Deychak, Orest
Orest.Deychak at mail.house.gov
Thu Nov 15 14:27:47 EST 2007
<javascript:void(0)>
In Ukraine, a fiesta of democracy: vibrant, fun, sometimes absurd
By MARIA DANILOVA
Associated Press Writer
15 November, 2007
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Election ballots that magically change votes. Polling stations that burst into flames. Voters hypnotized by a psychic.
Ukraine's young democracy is anything but boring.
This former Soviet republic is still experimenting with democracy, ushered in by the Orange Revolution three years ago. The results are impressive: a stream of competitive elections, vibrant media, and a robust opposition.
Plus comedy.
Having lived under centuries of Russian Czarist rule, 70 years of Soviet communism and a bleak decade of post-Soviet stagnation, today's Ukraine is in many ways Russia's antithesis.
In Russia, critics complain of increasingly heavy-handed rule. Opposition rallies are violently dispersed, election results are all but known in advance and everything is taken very seriously.
Here, the more hotly contested an election is, the better.
The tone was set in 2004 with the Orange Revolution, when the presidential election was rigged in favor of the Kremlin-backed candidate. Protesters jammed Kiev's streets for weeks, overturned the fraudulent vote and brought the pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko to power.
Since then there have been three or four national elections, depending on how you count, with the latest less than two months ago. But unlike in Russia, where an uncertain outcome is perceived by many as a threat to stability and security, Ukrainians seem to thrive on cliffhangers.
In the Sept. 30 parliamentary election, none of the three main parties won enough votes to form a government, and complex coalition talks are taking place. Yet life goes on.
The media, once toothless, are now free to grill Ukraine's leaders on anything from their tax returns to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's criminal record. He served time in jail as a young man for robbery and assault, but both convictions were later overturned.
Nothing, it seems, is off-limits. Yulia Tymoshenko, the glamorous Orange Revolution heroine, is asked at a news conference whether her rich blond hair, braided peasant-style, is real. It is, she insists.
President Yushchenko is asked on live television about failures to deliver on Orange Revolution promises. Tymoshenko is grilled on allegations of corruption in her party. Yanukovych is given to barnyard epithets that add a certain earthiness to the campaign trail.
Multicolored protest tents pop up regularly in central Kiev, sometimes right in front of the presidential administration building -- something that would be unthinkable in Moscow, where such protests tend to be broken up before anybody notices them. Ukrainians rally against anything from foreign policy to city construction plans. And nobody seems to mind.
But it's not all serious. Natalia Vitrenko, known for going barefoot and staging fiery protests, appears on a TV talk show to claim that votes for her aggressively pro-Russian, anti-American party were stolen with a high-tech mechanism funded by U.S. billionaire George Soros.
As her host struggles to keep a straight face, Vitrenko produces a ballot cast for Tymoshenko's bloc and says it was actually checked for her party until the mechanism moved the tick to the wrong box.
In Ukraine, lurid claims are a bipartisan thing. As the Sept. 30 election neared, a Tymoshenko supporter said her opponents could resort to dirty tricks such as spraying voting slips with a mysterious liquid that would set them on fire in the ballot box. Yanukovych's team hit back by accusing Tymoshenko of hiring a psychic to brainwash voters.
Someone did try to set a polling station on fire in western Ukraine, where Tymoshenko's party did extremely well. Her supporters were quick to blame Yanukovych's party. His party denied it.
Then came the vote count, and election officials were determined it would be beyond reproach. They took 2 1/2 days to count 99.5 percent of the votes, and another 2 1/2 days to count the remaining 0.5 percent.
The result has finally been validated by a court, but peace and quiet are nowhere in sight. While Tymoshenko is poised to return as prime minister, her opponents have threatened lawsuits, street protests or a boycott of parliament to challenge her victory.
So what, they say -- that's democracy.
Chicago Tribune
EU probes Ukrainian link to CIA renditions; Lawmaker claims base, airstrip used
By Jan Sliva, Associated Press
STRASBOURG, France
An EU investigator said Wednesday he has evidence to suggest that a Ukrainian airstrip was used by CIA-operated planes involved in the U.S. rendition program.
Giovanni Fava said he was also looking into possible CIA use of a military facility at a Ukrainian base. Fava, an Italian member of the European Parliament, drafted a report last year identifying more than 1,000 secret CIA flights with stopovers on European territory since 2001. He identified several of them as being used to transfer terror suspects.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Anatoly Gritsenko, in a telephone interview, dismissed Fava's statements on the use of Ukrainian airspace by CIA planes and the use of a military base, calling them "nonsense." He declined to comment further.
In a report earlier this year, Swiss investigator Dick Marty accused the CIA of running secret prisons in Poland and Romania to interrogate terrorist suspects. He said prisoners were typically shackled and handcuffed, kept naked and in isolation.
The CIA, while stopping short of a denial, said the report was "distorted." Poland and Romania denied the charges.
John Bellinger, Legal Adviser to the U.S. Secretary of State, said that while there have been CIA flights over Europe or flights with stopovers, they may have simply carried intelligence experts, counterterrorist officials or forensic evidence.
Fava and fellow Italian EU lawmaker Giulietto Chiesa cited what they said was a secret Ukrainian government document they had seen authorizing the landing of a CIA-operated Gulfstream jet plane five times in August 2005.
They said the plane was earlier used in the transfer of Egyptian cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, who was abducted from a street in Milan, Italy, before being flown to U.S. bases in Italy and Germany and finally to Egypt.
Andrei Lysenko, spokesman for Ukraine's Defense Ministry, said that "according to the information provided," no such CIA-operated planes ever entered Ukrainian airspace.
Fava said the European Parliament's civil liberties committee will follow up on his evidence with a report in several months.
A purported Egyptian government fax intercepted by the Swiss foreign intelligence agency, published in a Swiss newspaper in 2006, singled out Ukraine as one of the countries allegedly housing a U.S. detention facility.
The European Parliament's inquiry into CIA operations in Europe started in January, following media reports that U.S. intelligence officers interrogated Al Qaeda suspects at secret prisons in Eastern Europe and transported some to locations farther afield on secret flights that passed through Europe following the Sept. 11 attacks.
New York-based Human Rights Watch also identified Romania and Poland as possible hosts of secret U.S.-run detention facilities.
Clandestine detention centers and the secret transfer of terrorist suspects via Europe to countries where they could face torture -- a process known as "extraordinary rendition" -- would breach the continent's human-rights treaties.
Financial Times
November 13, 2007
Metinvest factory deals agreed
By Roman Olearchyk in Kiev
Published: November 13 2007 02:00
Metinvest, the steel holding controlled by Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, has signed agreements to buy steel factories in the UK and Italy, marking the continued expansion of Ukraine's steel groups in Europe.
Metinvest announced yesterday that a subsidiary had signed agreements to purchase Italy's Trametal and Spartan UK from the Malacalza family for an undisclosed amount. The deal is thought to be worth more than €500m ($727m). Regulatory approval is expected within 60 days.
Metinvest, one of the largest steel groups in Ukraine, itself ranked as one of the top 10 steel-exporting countries, plans to combine Trametal and Spartan with its Italian steel-rolling company, Ferriera Valsider, to create a company with more than 1m tonnes of plate rolling capacity in the European Union.
Trametal and Spartan UK operate plate rolling plants in San Giorgio de Nogaro, Italy, and at Newcastle in northeast England, respectively. The companies posted combined sales of more than €370m and produced more than 536,000 tonnes of plate in 2006. Located in Verona, Ferriera Valsider produces plate and hot-rolled coil. It posted sales of more than €265m in 2006.
"We believe that Trametal and Spartan perfectly fit our long-term strategy of producing more value-added products and improving the company industrial balance," said Igor Syry, general director of Metinvest, adding that Italy was "a key market" for the group.
Metinvest is a vertically-integrated steel holding with assets in coal and iron ore mining, coke production, iron ore enrichment, and steel and steel product production. The group produces about 6m tonnes of coking coal, more than 7m tonnes of coke, more than 40m tonnes of iron ore products and more than 11m tonnes of crude steel per year.
Mr Akhmetov also controls billions of dollars of assets in energy, media, telecommunications and sports.
Metinvest is one of three Ukrainian steel groups that have moved to expand outside Ukraine with acquisitions in Europe and other regions.
The Industrial Union of Donbass Corporation, controlled by billionaires Serhiy Taruta and Vitaliy Gayduk, has snapped up steel mills in Poland and Hungary, and has interests in a US mill. The group is looking at buying the Gdansk shipyard in Poland.
Ukraine's Privat group, controlled by billionaires Igor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Bogolyubov, controls vast ore mining interests in Ukraine, Georgia and Ghana, as well as ferroalloy plants in Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Russia and the US. Mr Bogolyubov is bidding for control of Australia's Consolidated Minerals.
The Ukrainian Weekly
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Following is the excerpt of a news story published this week.
For the full text of this story please see The Ukrainian Weekly, No. 44, 2007
| About The Ukrainian Weekly <http://www.ukrweekly.com/about.shtml> | Subscribe <http://www.ukrweekly.com/subscribe.shtml> | Advertising <http://www.ukrweekly.com/advertising.shtml> | Meet the Staff <http://www.ukrweekly.com/staff.shtml> | Home Page <http://www.ukrweekly.com/> |
Click here to see list of excerpted stories for this week. <http://www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/2007/TOC/4407TOC.shtml>
________________________________
Helsinki Commission briefing focuses on implications of Ukraine’s elections
WASHINGTON – “The Ukrainian Elections: Implications for Ukraine’s Future Direction” was the title of a briefing held by the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission) on Thursday, October 25.
The witnesses and panelists at the briefing were: Oleh Shamshur, ambassador of Ukraine to the United States; William Miller, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine; and Stephen Nix, director of the Eurasian Division, International Republican Institute (IRI); with Orest Deychakiwsky, senior staffer of the Helsinki Commission, moderating. Messrs. Miller and Nix both were in Ukraine for the parliamentary elections, as was Mr. Deychakiwsky.
Mr. Deychakiwsky offered opening remarks, noting that a few weeks ago Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), chairman of the Helsinki Commission, had introduced a bipartisan resolution congratulating the Ukrainian people for holding free, fair and transparent parliamentary elections on September 30. That resolution, Mr. Deychakiwsky explained, was based on the findings of the OSCE-led international observation mission, which concluded that the elections were “mostly in line with OSCE commitments and other international standards for democratic elections.”
“The OSCE observers, including many OSCE parliamentarians, as well as Helsinki Commission staff, assessed both the voting and counting process as good or very good in nearly all of the 3,000 polling stations that were visited,” he added.
“The conduct of these elections is a testament to the Ukrainian people’s determined path toward the consolidation of democracy as Ukraine advances its integration with the Euroatlantic community,” Mr. Deychakiwsky continued. “As such, Ukraine serves as the model for the post-Soviet countries, too many of which have, sadly, retreated to heavy-handed authoritarianism.”
* * *
A question and answer session followed, during which members of the audience had a chance to follow up on the speakers’ remarks.
In answer to a question about how such divergent forces as the Tymoshenko Bloc and the Party of the Regions could possibly work together, Ambassador Miller cited an example from American history: “I’ve been reading this marvelous book on our elections of 1800, the struggle between Adams and Jefferson, and you know it took, I guess, 39 votes in the Electoral College before Jefferson was elected, and a lot of shady business went on surrounding the election. And if you remember Jefferson’s inaugural address – we’re all members of the same nation was basically his message, not the one party or the other, we are Americans.”
“And I would say that that is happening in Ukraine too,” he continued, “that despite the divisions, which are marked, that the system of government that’s been devised in the process of developing a democratic independent nation, that it’s the handling of the disparity of views, the diversity of views by vote – by vote, rather than diktat, rather than by ukaz.”
NOTE on Congressional resolution:
Note: There are now a fairly respectable number of 31 cosponsors of H. Res. 713. Please scroll down to the list below to see if your Representative has cosponsored. Thanks to all those who took the time to contact their Representatives to urge their support for a resolution encouraging Ukraine’s movement in the right direction, regardless of whether or not your Member chooses to cosponsor. Also, for those who haven’t yet done so, please take the time to read the entire text of the resolution found below, especially the “Resolved” clauses. (I say this as one reader said he found the resolution somehow “demeaning” to the Ukrainian people, but had not actually taken the time to read the entire text).
H.RES.713 [110th]
Title: Congratulating the Ukrainian people for the holding of free, fair, open and transparent parliamentary elections on September 30, 2007, in a peaceful manner consistent with Ukraine's democratic values and national interest, in keeping with its commitments as a participating State of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Sponsor: Rep Hastings, Alcee L. <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD003+@4((@1(Rep+Hastings++Alcee+L.))+00511))> [D-FL-23] (introduced 10/4/2007) Cosponsors: 31 <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/D?d110:1:././temp/~bdsrQk:@@@P:dbs=n:|/billsumm/billsumm.php|>
Committees: House Foreign Affairs
Latest Major Action: 10/4/2007 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
________________________________
COSPONSORS, ALPHABETICAL [* = original cosponsor]: (Change sort: by date <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/D?d110:1:./temp/~bdsrQk:@@@N:dbs=n:|/billsumm/billsumm.php|> , by party <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/D?d110:1:./temp/~bdsrQk:@@@Q:dbs=n:|/billsumm/billsumm.php|> )
Cosponsor Statistics: 31 current (includes 12 original)
Rep Ackerman, Gary L. <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Ackerman++Gary+L.))+00004))> [D-NY-5] - 10/25/2007
Rep Aderholt, Robert B. <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Aderholt++Robert+B.))+01460))> [R-AL-4] - 10/4/2007 *
Rep Bilirakis, Gus M. <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Bilirakis++Gus+M.))+01838))> [R-FL-9] - 10/29/2007
Rep Blunt, Roy <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Blunt++Roy))+01464))> [R-MO-7] - 10/29/2007
Rep Brown, Corrine <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Brown++Corrine))+00132))> [D-FL-3] - 10/10/2007
Rep Butterfield, G. K. <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Butterfield++G.+K.))+01761))> [D-NC-1] - 10/4/2007 *
Rep Crowley, Joseph <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Crowley++Joseph))+01604))> [D-NY-7] - 11/13/2007
Rep Diaz-Balart, Lincoln <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Diaz-Balart++Lincoln))+00294))> [R-FL-21] - 10/16/2007
Rep Engel, Eliot L. <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Engel++Eliot+L.))+00344))> [D-NY-17] - 10/25/2007
Rep Gallegly, Elton <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Gallegly++Elton))+00425))> [R-CA-24] - 11/7/2007
Rep Gerlach, Jim <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Gerlach++Jim))+01743))> [R-PA-6] - 10/22/2007
Rep Hoyer, Steny H. <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Hoyer++Steny+H.))+00566))> [D-MD-5] - 10/4/2007 *
Rep Kaptur, Marcy <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Kaptur++Marcy))+00616))> [D-OH-9] - 10/4/2007 *
Rep Kilpatrick, Carolyn C. <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Kilpatrick++Carolyn+C.))+01497))> [D-MI-13] - 10/4/2007 *
Rep Klein, Ron <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Klein++Ron))+01842))> [D-FL-22] - 11/13/2007
Rep Levin, Sander M. <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Levin++Sander+M.))+00683))> [D-MI-12] - 10/10/2007
Rep Mack, Connie <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Mack++Connie))+01776))> [R-FL-14] - 11/8/2007
Rep Matsui, Doris O. <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Matsui++Doris+O.))+01814))> [D-CA-5] - 10/4/2007 *
Rep Meeks, Gregory W. <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Meeks++Gregory+W.))+01506))> [D-NY-6] - 10/16/2007
Rep Moore, Gwen <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Moore++Gwen))+01811))> [D-WI-4] - 10/4/2007 *
Rep Payne, Donald M. <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Payne++Donald+M.))+00902))> [D-NJ-10] - 10/4/2007 *
Rep Pitts, Joseph R. <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Pitts++Joseph+R.))+01514))> [R-PA-16] - 10/4/2007 *
Rep Rothman, Steven R. <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Rothman++Steven+R.))+01520))> [D-NJ-9] - 11/13/2007
Rep Schwartz, Allyson Y. <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Schwartz++Allyson+Y.))+01798))> [D-PA-13] - 10/15/2007
Rep Sestak, Joe <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Sestak++Joe))+01874))> [D-PA-7] - 10/25/2007
Rep Slaughter, Louise McIntosh <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Slaughter++Louise+McIntosh))+01069))> [D-NY-28] - 10/4/2007 *
Rep Smith, Christopher H. <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Smith++Christopher+H.))+01071))> [R-NJ-4] - 10/4/2007 *
Rep Solis, Hilda L. <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Solis++Hilda+L.))+01636))> [D-CA-32] - 10/4/2007 *
Rep Watson, Diane E. <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Watson++Diane+E.))+01682))> [D-CA-33] - 10/25/2007
Rep Weiner, Anthony D. <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Weiner++Anthony+D.))+01597))> [D-NY-9] - 11/7/2007
Rep Wexler, Robert <http://www.congress.gov/cgi-lis/bdquery/?&Db=d110&querybd=@FIELD(FLD004+@4((@1(Rep+Wexler++Robert))+01537))> [D-FL-19] - 10/15/2007
H.RES.713
Whereas the International Election Observation Mission led by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (`OSCE'), led by parliamentarians of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly,... (Introduced in House)
HRES 713 IH
110th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 713
Congratulating the Ukrainian people for the holding of free, fair, open and transparent parliamentary elections on September 30, 2007, in a peaceful manner consistent with Ukraine's democratic values and national interest, in keeping with its commitments as a participating State of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
October 4, 2007
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida (for himself, Mr. HOYER, Ms. SLAUGHTER, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Ms. SOLIS, Mr. BUTTERFIELD, Mr. ADERHOLT, Ms. KAPTUR, Ms. MATSUI, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, Ms. KILPATRICK, Mr. PAYNE, and Mr. PITTS) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
________________________________
RESOLUTION
Congratulating the Ukrainian people for the holding of free, fair, open and transparent parliamentary elections on September 30, 2007, in a peaceful manner consistent with Ukraine's democratic values and national interest, in keeping with its commitments as a participating State of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Whereas the International Election Observation Mission led by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (`OSCE'), led by parliamentarians of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, declared the September 30 2007 pre-term parliamentary elections in Ukraine were conducted mostly in line with OSCE commitments and other international standards for democratic elections and in an open and competitive environment;
Whereas voting was conducted in an orderly and transparent manner and International Election Observation Mission observers assessed the voting process as good or very good in 98 percent of the nearly 3,000 polling stations visited, notwithstanding some shortcomings, notably with respect to the quality of voter lists;
Whereas the vote count was assessed as good or very good in 94 percent of the International Election Observation Mission reports;
Whereas the Ukrainian people, most spectacularly during the Orange Revolution of 2004, demonstrated their ability to resolve political differences through nonviolent protest and in a manner consistent with democratic principles;
Whereas, despite the real democratic gains made by the Ukrainian people since the Orange Revolution, serious political disputes between President Victor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Victor Yanukovich, rooted in weak constitutional delineations of their powers, resulted in a political crisis earlier this year;
Whereas after weeks of tense standoff, agreement was reached on May 27, 2007 among the President, Prime Minister and parliamentary chairman stipulating new parliamentary elections for September 30;
Whereas the United States Congressional delegation to the 16th annual session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly in Kyiv received assurances from President Yushchenko and other prominent Ukrainian officials that Ukraine would not backtrack on the path to political reform and good governance; and
Whereas the United States Congress has consistently demonstrated strong bipartisan support for an independent, democratic Ukraine: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) congratulates the people of Ukraine for holding free, fair, open and transparent parliamentary elections on September 30, 2007, in a peaceful manner consistent with Ukraine's democratic values and national interest, in keeping OSCE standards on democratic elections;
(2) welcomes the strong relationship formed between the United States and Ukraine since the restoration of Ukraine's independence in 1991 and especially following the 2004 Orange Revolution;
(3) expresses strong and continuing support for the efforts of the Ukrainian people to build upon the democratic gains of the Orange Revolution by strengthening respect for human rights and the rule of law, including an independent judiciary;
(4) recognizes that the consolidation of democracy and the rule of law, and combating corruption, in Ukraine will further strengthen its independence and sovereignty, enhancing Ukraine's aspirations for full integration with the West and serving as a positive role model for other post-Soviet countries;
(5) calls for the timely formation of a government that reflects the will of Ukrainian voters and advances political stability and democratic development, with a special focus on the constitutional framework, in order to address the important issues facing Ukraine; and
(6) pledges its continued assistance to the further development of a free and transparent democratic system in Ukraine based on the rule of law, a free market economy and consolidation of Ukraine's security and sovereignty.
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