[Ohio UZO News] note; Congress. resolution; NYT (2); WSJ

Tue Oct 9 11:48:32 EDT 2007

Please take a few minutes and contact your Congressperson asap and ask
him or her to cosponsor H. Res. 713 congratulating the Ukrainian people
for holding free, fair, open and transparent elections on September 30.
It's not that hard to do. We need additional cosponsors if this
resolution is to be adopted in the House.  See list of current
cosponsors below, as your Rep may already be a cosponsor. Click on the
following link for information on how to easily contact (including call)
your Representative -- even if you do not know his or her name: 
http://www.house.gov/writerep <http://www.house.gov/writerep> .  

Orest Deychakiwsky

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.

October 5, 2007

SUPPORT H. RES. 713

Congratulating the people of Ukraine for holding free, fair, and
transparent parliamentary elections on September 30, 2007

Cosponsors:  Steny H. Hoyer, Christopher H. Smith, Louise McIntosh
Slaughter, Joseph R. Pitts, Robert B. Aderholt, G.K Butterfield, Hilda
L. Solis, Marcy Kaptur, Donald M. Payne, Carolyn C. Kilpatrick, Doris O.
Matsui, Gwen Moore

Dear Colleague:

Please join me in supporting democratic processes and the rule of law in
Ukraine by cosponsoring H. Res. 713, congratulating the Ukrainian people
for holding free, fair and transparent elections on September 30.This
resolution is a demonstration of Congress' interest, concern, and
support for Ukraine as that strategically important country perseveres
towards full democracy and the rule of law. 

A political dispute between Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko and
Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich -- rooted in weak constitutional
delineations of their powers -- resulted in a political crisis in April
and May.  After weeks of tense standoff, Yushchenko, Yanukovich and
Parliamentary Speaker Oleksandr Moroz reached an agreement calling for
early elections to be held on September 30.  

Ukraine has made important progress since the 2004 Orange Revolution,
but its democratic institutions and the rule of law are still emerging
and lack in their ability to safeguard democratic gains.  Thus, it is
very significant that the September 30 elections were conducted in a
peaceful, orderly manner and in an open and competitive environment
consistent with Ukraine's commitments as a participating State of the
OSCE. While democratic elections will not, in and of themselves, resolve
all of the challenges facing Ukraine in strengthening the rule of law
and delineating power among branches of government, they are a critical
stepping-stone in Ukraine's democratic development.  

Democratic consolidation and the rule of law will enhance Ukraine's
aspirations for full integration with the West and, importantly, serve
as a positive model for other former Soviet countries, many of whom are
in the grip of authoritarianism.    

Please have your staff contact Orest Deychakiwsky at the Helsinki
Commission at 5-1901 or e-mail orest.deychak at mail.house.gov regarding
co-sponsorship.

Below please find the text of the resolution.  

Sincerely,

 /s/

Alcee L. Hastings, M.C.

Chairman

Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe

INTRODUCTION OF RESOLUTION CONGRATULATING THE UKRAINIAN PEOPLE ON THE
SEPTEMBER 30, 2007, PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS -- HON. ALCEE L. HASTINGS
(Extensions of Remarks - October 05, 2007)

[Page: E2080] 

---

HON. ALCEE L. HASTINGS

OF FLORIDA

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2007

*	Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, as Chairman of the
Helsinki Commission I rise to introduce a resolution congratulating the
Ukrainian people for the holding of free, fair and transparent
parliamentary elections on September 30, 2007. These elections were held
in a peaceful manner consistent with Ukraine's democratic values, and in
keeping with that nation's commitments as a participating State of the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. 

*	While there were some shortcomings, these elections stand in
contrast to the vast majority of elections that have taken place in the
countries of the former Soviet Union over the course of the last 15
years. Tone Tingsgaard, the Special Coordinator of the short-term
election observers for the International Election Observation Mission
(IEOM) and Vice President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, stated
that these elections were conducted ``in a positive and professional
manner.'' The OSCE-led IEOM's preliminary statement concluded that the
elections confirmed an open and competitive environment for the conduct
of the election process and that freedom of assembly and expression were
respected. IEOM 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, and the vote count was assessed as good or very good in
94 percent of the IEOM reports. 

*	These pre-term elections did not come about easily, coming on
the heels of a political crisis that engulfed Ukraine's president, prime
minister, and parliament for several months earlier this year. These
political disputes were rooted in weak constitutional delineations of
the powers of the president and prime minister. After weeks of tense
standoff, however, agreement was reached on May 27 stipulating new
parliamentary elections for September 30. Now that the elections have
concluded, it is my hope that Ukraine's political leaders will form a
government reflecting the will of the Ukrainian people as expressed by
the results of the elections; a government that advances political
stability and democratic development. It is my hope, too, that the new
parliament and government will focus on the constitutional framework,
especially the question of separation of powers, in order to avoid the
political uncertainty that we witnessed earlier this year. Ukraine also
needs to further undertake the hard work of strengthening the rule of
law, including an independent judiciary, and fighting corruption.

*	Madam Speaker, the conduct of these elections is a testament to
the Ukrainian people's determined path towards the consolidation of
democracy as Ukraine advances its integration with the Euro-Atlantic
community. As such, Ukraine serves as a model for the post-Soviet
countries, all too many of which have unfortunately retreated to
heavy-handed authoritarianism. 

*	This House can pride itself on having been a staunch supporter
of freedom, human rights and democracy in Ukraine for many years--even
before the restoration of Ukraine's independence in 1991. As this
resolution underscores, it is important to continue our efforts to the
further development of a democratic system in Ukraine based on the rule
of law, a free market economy, and consolidation of Ukraine's security
and sovereignty. I urge my colleagues to support this timely resolution.

The New York Times

October 7, 2007

In a Political Twist, a Hairdo as Manifesto 

By CLIFFORD J. LEVY
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/clifford_j
_levy/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 

KIEV, Ukraine

IT curls around her head like a golden crown, a rococo flourish that
sets her far apart from the jowly men she has challenged. Out of power
for two years, the Ukrainian firebrand Yulia V. Tymoshenko
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/t/yulia_v_ty
moshenko/index.html?inline=nyt-per>  has plotted a comeback that
culminated in a strong showing in parliamentary elections last week.

And part of her strategy is her hairstyle, or rather "the Braid."

Ms. Tymoshenko's plait first attracted wide notice in the Orange
Revolution of 2004, when, fairly or not, her beauty was commented upon
nearly as often as her role in bringing down the post-Soviet government
that reigned in Kiev.

In the United States, hair, whether Hillary Rodham Clinton
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/hillary_ro
dham_clinton/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 's latest cut or Rudolph W.
Giuliani
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/rudolph_w_
giuliani/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 's eschewing of a comb-over, has
often been a distraction for politicians.

In the Tymoshenko camp, there are no such worries. The braid has become
such a staple of her persona that her Web site unabashedly features
articles about it, including some claiming that the braid has influenced
designers like Narciso Rodriguez
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/narciso_ro
driguez/index.html?inline=nyt-per>  and celebrities like Sienna Miller.

Yet the braid is not just a fashion statement. It is a calculated
political tool with significant cultural resonance, one that has helped
turn her into more than a candidate. To her supporters at least, she is
regarded as a kind of Lady Liberty.

A braid is a traditional Ukrainian hairstyle, and by adopting it, Ms.
Tymoshenko, 46, has been able to underline her nationalist credentials,
drawing a contrast with her main opponents, who are more closely linked
to the onetime overlord to the East, Russia. 

Wrapped up in Ms. Tymoshenko's nationalism are religious overtones. She
has often tried to capitalize on the revival of the church in Ukraine,
and the braid echoes the halos found in representations of Orthodox
Christian icons. Imagine the effect at political rallies, where she
often calls for moments of prayer. 

The success of her look can be seen in one of her strongholds, central
Ukraine. In a tiny village home last week, an elderly woman named
Praskovya Teplyuk posted a photo of Ms. Tymoshenko right next to that of
a traditional Orthodox icon. Ms. Teplyuk seemed to regard both with
equal fervor.

What did she think of the other candidates? "They are all gangsters,"
Ms. Teplyuk said.

Ms. Tymoshenko has tried to play up that view with her other signature
look, white clothing, which is intended to show her purity in the face
of what she has called a corrupt political and business culture. (Her
rivals are quick to point out that Ms. Tymoshenko was once an energy
oligarch in Ukraine.)

Ms. Tymoshenko's hair color, by the way, has varied over the years, from
dark to blond, but lately, she seems to be keeping it almost as light as
her clothing.

Ms. Tymoshenko's advisers acknowledge that using a hairstyle as a
campaign symbol could trivialize her. But they say she is such an
electrifying leader and speaker that no Ukrainian would consider her a
hollow candidate.

Still, she is regularly asked that most frivolous of questions: Is the
braid real?

"Everything that I have is natural - braid, nails - I practically never
use cosmetics," she once said at a news conference. "They often ask me
in the provinces about my braid. Now, once and for all, I am going to
lay to rest these rumors."

With that, in front of the cameras, she let her hair down,
Rapunzel-like, for all the world to see.

The New York Times

October 6, 2007

The Saturday Profile

A Priest Methodically Reveals Ukrainian Jews' Fate 

By ELAINE SCIOLINO
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/elaine_sci
olino/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 

PARIS, Oct. 5 - His subjects were mostly children and teenagers at the
time, terrified witnesses to mass slaughter. Some were forced to work at
the bottom rung of the Nazi killing machine - as diggers of mass graves,
cooks who fed Nazi soldiers and seamstresses who mended clothes stripped
from the Jews before execution.

They live today in rural poverty, many without running water or heat,
nearing the end of their lives. So Patrick Desbois has been quietly
seeking them out, roaming the back roads and forgotten fields of Ukraine
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritorie
s/ukraine/index.html?inline=nyt-geo> , hearing their stories and
searching for the unmarked common graves. He knows that they are an
unparalleled source to document the murder of the 1.5 million Jews of
Ukraine, shot dead and buried throughout the country. 

He is neither a historian nor an archaeologist, but a French Roman
Catholic priest. And his most powerful tools are his matter-of-fact
style - and his clerical collar. 

The Nazis killed nearly 1.5 million Jews in Ukraine after their invasion
of the Soviet Union in June 1941. But with few exceptions, most notably
the 1941 slaughter of nearly 34,000 Jews in the Babi Yar ravine in Kiev,
much of that history has gone untold. 

Knocking on doors, unannounced, Father Desbois, 52, seeks to unlock the
memories of Ukrainian villagers the way he might take confessions one by
one in church. 

"At first, sometimes, people don't believe I'm a priest," said Father
Desbois in an interview this week. "I have to use simple words and
listen to these horrors - without any judgment. I cannot react to the
horrors that pour out. If I react, the stories will stop."

Over four years, Father Desbois has videotaped more than 700 interviews
with witnesses and bystanders and has identified more than 600 common
graves of Jews, most of them previously unknown. He also has gathered
material evidence of the execution of Jews from 1941 to 1944, the
"Holocaust of bullets" as it is called. 

Often his subjects ask Father Desbois to stay for a meal and to pray, as
if to somehow bless their acts of remembrance. He does not judge those
who were assigned to carry out tasks for the Nazis, and Holocaust
scholars say that is one reason he is so effective. 

"If a Jewish taker-of-testimony comes, what would people think - that
this is someone coming to accuse," said Paul Shapiro, director of the
Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum in Washington. "When a priest comes, people open up. He
brings to the subject a kind of legitimacy, a sense that it's O.K. to
talk about the past. There's absolution through confession." 

Unlike in Poland and Germany, where the Holocaust remains visible
through the searing symbols of the extermination camps, the horror in
Ukraine was hidden away, first by the Nazis, then by the Soviets. 

"There was nothing to see in Ukraine because people were shot to death
with guns," said Thomas Eymond-Laritaz, president of the Victor Pinchuk
Foundation, Ukraine's largest philanthropic organization. "That's why
Father Desbois is so important."

The foundation helped underwrite a conference on the subject at the
Sorbonne this week - the first to bring together Western and Ukrainian
scholars - and has begun contributing funds to Father Desbois's project.

Some of the results of Father Desbois's research - including video
interviews, wartime documents, photographs of newly uncovered mass
graves, rusty bullets and shell casings and personal possessions of the
victims - are on display for the first time at an exhibit at the
Memorial of the Shoah in the Marais district of Paris. 

The exhibit shows, for example, images of the 15 mass graves of several
thousand Jews in a commune called Busk that Father Desbois and his team
discovered and began excavating after interviewing several witnesses.
Among hundreds of other items on display is a black-and-white photo from
1942 that shows a German police officer shooting naked Jewish women
lying in a ravine in the Rivne region.

Traveling with a team that includes two interpreters, a photographer, a
cameraman, a ballistics specialist, a mapping expert and a notetaker,
Father Desbois records all the stories on video, sometimes holding the
microphone himself, and asking questions in simple language and a flat
tone. 

In Buchach in 2005, Regina Skora told Father Desbois that as a young
girl she witnessed executions.

"Did the people know they were going to be killed?" Father Desbois asked
her.

"Yes." 

"How did they react?"

"They just walked, that's all. If someone couldn't walk, they told him
to lie on the ground and shot him in the back of the neck."

Vera Filonok said she was 16 when she watched from the porch of her mud
hut in Konstantinovka in 1941 as thousands of Jews were shot, thrown
into a pit and set on fire. Those who were still alive writhed "like
flies and worms," she said.

There are stories of how the Nazis drummed on empty buckets to avoid
having to listen to the screams of their victims, how Jewish women were
made sex slaves of the Nazis and then executed. One witness said that as
a 6-year-old he hid and watched as his best friend was shot to death. 

Other witnesses described how the Nazis were allowed only one bullet to
the back per victim and that the Jews sometimes were buried alive. "One
witness told of how the pit moved for three days, how it breathed,"
Father Desbois recalled. 

Father Desbois became haunted by the history of the Nazis in Ukraine as
a child growing up on the family farm in the Bresse region of eastern
France. His paternal grandfather, who was deported to a prison camp for
French soldiers in Rava-Ruska, on the Ukrainian side of the Polish
border, told the family nothing about the experience. But he confessed
to his relentlessly curious grandson, "For us it was bad, for 'others'
it was worse." 

There were other family links to the German occupation of France. One
maternal cousin who carried letters for French resisters perished in a
Nazi concentration camp. Father Desbois's mother told him only recently
that the family hid dozens of resisters on the farm.

After teaching mathematics as a French government employee in West
Africa and working in Calcutta for three months with Mother Teresa
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/t/teresa_mot
her/index.html?inline=nyt-per> , he joined the priesthood. His secular
family was horrified.

He started as a parish priest, studying Judaism and learning Hebrew
during a stint in Israel. He asked to work with Gypsies, ex-prisoners or
Jews, and was appointed as a bridge to France's Jewish community. 

It was on a tour with a group in 2002 that, visiting Rava-Ruska, he
asked the mayor where the Jews were buried. The mayor said he did not
know.

"I knew that 10,000 Jews had been killed there, so it was impossible
that he didn't know," Father Desbois recalled. 

The following year, a new mayor took the priest to a forest where about
100 villagers had gathered in a semicircle, waiting to tell their
stories and to help uncover the graves buried beneath their feet.

He met other mayors and parish priests who helped find more witnesses.
In 2004, Father Desbois created Yahad-In Unum, an organization devoted
to Christian-Jewish understanding run from a tiny office in a
working-class neighborhood in northeastern Paris, backed and largely
financed by a Holocaust foundation in France and the Catholic Church. 

To verify witnesses' testimony, Father Desbois relies heavily on a huge
archive of Soviet-era documents housed in the Holocaust museum in
Washington, as well as German trial archives. He registers an execution
or a grave site only after obtaining three independent accounts from
witnesses.

Only one-third of Ukrainian territory has been covered so far, and it
will take several more years to finish the research. A notice at the
exit of the Paris exhibit asks that any visitor with information about
victims of Nazi atrocities in Ukraine leave a note or send an e-mail
message. 

"People talk as if these things happened yesterday, as if 60 years
didn't exist," Father Desbois said. "Some ask, 'Why are you coming so
late? We have been waiting for you.'" 

  <javascript:void(0)> 

Earnings Digest: Gazprom's Profit Rises 14% --- Ukraine Reaches
Debt-Payment Pact For Natural Gas 

WSJ News Roundup 

9 October 2007

MOSCOW -- Russian gas monopoly OAO Gazprom said its fiscal-first-quarter
net profit rose 14%, a boost that came mostly from nonoperating items. 

Gazprom also said its chief, Alexei Miller, and Ukraine Energy Minister
Yuriy Boiko had agreed on a schedule for paying debt owed by Ukrainian
companies and that a deal setting out terms was expected to be signed
today. 

Gazprom had threatened to turn off natural-gas supplies to Ukraine
unless it is paid $1.3 billion in debt this month, a move seen by some
observers as politically motivated. 

Yulia Tymoshenko, the leader of Ukraine's Orange Revolution who recently
emerged as the big winner in parliamentary elections, had campaigned on
a promise that if she became prime minister she would annul the existing
contract with Gazprom, which is based on a complex arrangement under
which gas is sold to Ukraine through a middleman. 

Ukraine currently pays a little more than half the price some of its
neighbors pay for gas, a result of negotiations Prime Minister Viktor
Yanukovich conducted last year. There had been fears that a row with
Russia similar to one in 2006 could affect gas supplies to Europe. 

Gazprom's net profit increased to 210.31 billion rubles ($8.39 billion)
from 185.16 billion rubles a year earlier. Revenue rose 4.3% to 611.53
billion rubles from 585.78 billion rubles. 

Earnings were bolstered by a gain of 44.69 billion rubles from the
deconsolidation of the company's pension-fund unit Gazfond and a gain of
8.59 billion rubles from the disposals of financial assets. 

Adjusted for the disposals, net income was around 10% above forecasts,
said Alexander Burgansky, senior oil-and-gas analyst at Renaissance
Capital in Moscow. "At first glance, the results look very strong," he
said. 

Gazprom shares rose 1.1% to $11.70 on the Russian Stock Exchange, a high
for the year and the first time this year the stock has risen above its
closing price at the end of 2006. 

Operating profit fell to 209.8 billion rubles from 230.5 billion rubles
because of a sharp slowdown in revenue growth due to unseasonably warm
temperatures in Central and Western Europe. Operating costs rose 13%,
faster than revenue, as higher purchasing costs for oil and gas also bit
into profit margins. 

Export sales volumes fell to 39.9 billion cubic meters from 45.6 billion
cubic meters in the much colder first quarter of 2006. Likewise, exports
to former Soviet Union countries fell to 28.1 billion cubic meters from
28.8 billion cubic meters a year earlier. 

Higher export prices partly offset the drop in volumes, with the average
export price rising 2.7% in ruble terms to 7,091 rubles per thousand
cubic meters. In Russia, where the company sold 60% of its gas in the
quarter, the average received price rose 15% to 1,286.90 rubles per
thousand cubic meters. 

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