Power applies criminal methods against opposition
(Continued from Title Page)
Chief of the Zhovtnevy district police department Valery Trofymenko refused to answer The Day 's questions, but chief of the Luhansk city police directorate Valery Malakhov agreed to comment on the situation.
He said he had got to know about Mr. Marchuk's forthcoming visit to Luhansk one and a half days before. On the same day, in his words, the authorities closely studied the presidential candidate's program in order to ensure his protection by reinforced police details. If this was really so and, as Malakhov affirms, the law-enforcement bodies did not violate the law on elections, why was the premises, where the presidential candidate was to meet Luhansk residents, not duly inspected for various gadgets prone to explode? There was no intelligible answer to this question.
It is clear the provocateurs were eager to do Mr.Marchuk harm. But it came off just the other way round. While many had come to see the contender for the country's highest office, not yet feeling any deep affection for Mr. Marchuk, what had happened only convinced them that he is a serious figure and the main rival of the current President. The people said this openly. I even heard a group of pro-Communist old-age pensioners speaking in uncomplimentary terms about their leader Petro Symonenko and having to admit that «Symonenko is no match for Marchuk.»
As to the unknown person who raised the bomb-scare, Mr. Malakhov assured us police was already searching for him, only to add honestly he was doubtful the culprit would be found.
«The executive power has been openly interfering lately in the election campaign,» presidential candidate Yevhen Marchuk thus commented on the Luhansk event during yesterday's press conference. «This means that civil servants (who earn salary from a budget formed on the basis of taxes collected from all citizens of Ukraine) are engaged in Leonid Kuchma's election campaign, thus breaking the law,» The Day 's Dmytro SKRIABIN reports.
According to Mr. Marchuk, he was repeatedly told during his meetings with the regional electorate about attempts of the executive power to exert pressure on citizens. Facts were revealed when local bosses summoned factory managers and directly instructed them to prevent their employees from meeting the presidential candidate. Mr. Marchuk thinks that power «has opted for a new technique — intimidation» in its scenarios of pre-election struggle. He stressed, however, that, in spite of these attempts, all his meetings with voters had drawn full houses.
Asked to compare the behavior of the executive power during the 1994 elections and now, Mr. Marchuk reiterated: «What Leonid Kuchma's current team is doing defies comparison with what Leonid Kravchuk's team was doing, these are worlds apart. The current authorities are applying criminal methods against me, Oleksandr Moroz, and Oleksandr Tkachenko.»
A statement of Mr. Marchuk's Luhansk oblast election headquarters says: «The ‘Luhansk bomb' incident could just be considered the criminal freak of a lone political provocateur if it did not logically fit in with a whole series of events that began to occur in Luhansk region immediately after Yevhen Marchuk was registered as candidate for president.» «We cannot but come to a conclusion,» the statement stresses, «that there are certain political forces in Ukraine, which are seriously afraid of Mr. Marchuk's meetings with the electorate... and are panic-stricken over the Fair Election Deal signed by presidential candidates Yevhen Marchuk, Oleksandr Moroz, Oleksandr Tkachenko, and Yuri Kostenko.» They do all they can to sow «the seeds of discord between Yevhen Marchuk and Oleksandr Moroz, between the inhabitants of Eastern and Western Ukraine.»
Mr. Marchuk said yesterday at the press conference that he rules out the possibility of standing down in favor of Mr. Moroz. In his words, the Fair Election Deal provides for coordinated actions «within the framework of the document signed» as well as measures to prevent election fixing. «And who and in whose favor will stand down is not now on the agenda,» Mr. Marchuk stressed.
The presidential candidate also pointed out that the developments in Daghestan and the recent change of government in Russia will not seriously affect the course of presidential campaign in Ukraine. Mr. Marchuk noted that Russia takes part in the Ukrainian presidential campaign, above all, through the activities of Boris Berezovsky whom the governmental changes «will not seriously influence.» «Berezovsky is dealing with the Ukrainian elections the way he has been doing this before,» Mr. Marchuk says. He also said that «President Leonid Kuchma himself is now hardly pleased that the president of Russia, in his current condition, will be supporting Kuchma.»
(Continued from Title Page)
Chief of the Zhovtnevy district police department Valery Trofymenko refused to answer The Day 's questions, but chief of the Luhansk city police directorate Valery Malakhov agreed to comment on the situation.
He said he had got to know about Mr. Marchuk's forthcoming visit to Luhansk one and a half days before. On the same day, in his words, the authorities closely studied the presidential candidate's program in order to ensure his protection by reinforced police details. If this was really so and, as Malakhov affirms, the law-enforcement bodies did not violate the law on elections, why was the premises, where the presidential candidate was to meet Luhansk residents, not duly inspected for various gadgets prone to explode? There was no intelligible answer to this question.
It is clear the provocateurs were eager to do Mr.Marchuk harm. But it came off just the other way round. While many had come to see the contender for the country's highest office, not yet feeling any deep affection for Mr. Marchuk, what had happened only convinced them that he is a serious figure and the main rival of the current President. The people said this openly. I even heard a group of pro-Communist old-age pensioners speaking in uncomplimentary terms about their leader Petro Symonenko and having to admit that «Symonenko is no match for Marchuk.»
As to the unknown person who raised the bomb-scare, Mr. Malakhov assured us police was already searching for him, only to add honestly he was doubtful the culprit would be found.
«The executive power has been openly interfering lately in the election campaign,» presidential candidate Yevhen Marchuk thus commented on the Luhansk event during yesterday's press conference. «This means that civil servants (who earn salary from a budget formed on the basis of taxes collected from all citizens of Ukraine) are engaged in Leonid Kuchma's election campaign, thus breaking the law,» The Day 's Dmytro SKRIABIN reports.
According to Mr. Marchuk, he was repeatedly told during his meetings with the regional electorate about attempts of the executive power to exert pressure on citizens. Facts were revealed when local bosses summoned factory managers and directly instructed them to prevent their employees from meeting the presidential candidate. Mr. Marchuk thinks that power «has opted for a new technique — intimidation» in its scenarios of pre-election struggle. He stressed, however, that, in spite of these attempts, all his meetings with voters had drawn full houses.
Asked to compare the behavior of the executive power during the 1994 elections and now, Mr. Marchuk reiterated: «What Leonid Kuchma's current team is doing defies comparison with what Leonid Kravchuk's team was doing, these are worlds apart. The current authorities are applying criminal methods against me, Oleksandr Moroz, and Oleksandr Tkachenko.»
A statement of Mr. Marchuk's Luhansk oblast election headquarters says: «The ‘Luhansk bomb' incident could just be considered the criminal freak of a lone political provocateur if it did not logically fit in with a whole series of events that began to occur in Luhansk region immediately after Yevhen Marchuk was registered as candidate for president.» «We cannot but come to a conclusion,» the statement stresses, «that there are certain political forces in Ukraine, which are seriously afraid of Mr. Marchuk's meetings with the electorate... and are panic-stricken over the Fair Election Deal signed by presidential candidates Yevhen Marchuk, Oleksandr Moroz, Oleksandr Tkachenko, and Yuri Kostenko.» They do all they can to sow «the seeds of discord between Yevhen Marchuk and Oleksandr Moroz, between the inhabitants of Eastern and Western Ukraine.»
Mr. Marchuk said yesterday at the press conference that he rules out the possibility of standing down in favor of Mr. Moroz. In his words, the Fair Election Deal provides for coordinated actions «within the framework of the document signed» as well as measures to prevent election fixing. «And who and in whose favor will stand down is not now on the agenda,» Mr. Marchuk stressed.
The presidential candidate also pointed out that the developments in Daghestan and the recent change of government in Russia will not seriously affect the course of presidential campaign in Ukraine. Mr. Marchuk noted that Russia takes part in the Ukrainian presidential campaign, above all, through the activities of Boris Berezovsky whom the governmental changes «will not seriously influence.» «Berezovsky is dealing with the Ukrainian elections the way he has been doing this before,» Mr. Marchuk says. He also said that «President Leonid Kuchma himself is now hardly pleased that the president of Russia, in his current condition, will be supporting Kuchma.»
Newspaper output №:
№31, (1999)Section
Close up
