• Українська
  • Русский
  • English
Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Cloak and  Dagger Boys

8 June, 1999 - 00:00

Speaker Advises SBU Chief and Prosecutor-General not to Fool
Around
The session of the Yeliashkevych Commission, specially set up by Verkhovna
Rada to monitor the observance of law during the presidential election
campaign, made headlines because, for the first time, representatives of
the Security Service (SBU) and Prosecutor-General's Office were asked directly:
who empowered all the enforcement services to work for one person?

"I think you have been simply taught to break laws, you've forgotten
who you represent and where you are! This is not the President's Administration
where you go running, this is Verkhovna Rada." This emotional outburst
by Speaker Oleksandr Tkachenko followed a period during the commission
session when some probable presidential candidates and the press were several
times moved to laughter by some high officeholders who brazenly pretended
that what is going on concerning the elections is not to their knowledge
or outside their competence. Or, as the SBU deputy Chairman put it, causing
a burst of laughter: "I was not there, so I heard and saw nothing."

Meanwhile, the focus was an SBU meeting, where all were "set up" to
work for the current President's victory. Deputy Yermak also spoke about
a similar meeting in the Crimea, this time among police officers. Members
of parliamentary committees and prospective presidential candidates also
tried to find out why there is such total surveillance, bugging, and phone-tapping.
Why are provocative materials being spread at will and the sources cannot
be traced? Why are even those who placed their signature in favor of a
certain candidate being harassed? Why are factory managers being threatened
with dismissal if they collect signatures for anybody other than President
Kuchma?

It has already come to blatant frame-up: representatives of various
political forces told about an unprecedented case. On May 30, certain people
were collecting signatures throughout Kyiv for the main contenders on fake
signature sheets. A version of why this is being done is: fakes can be
used to replace genuine documents at a later stage. But no one said this
aloud, for this would have been perhaps an impolite and so far groundless
suspicion about the Central Elections Commission (CEC) whose chief, Mykhailo
Riabets, was present at the session.

Mr. Riabets, incidentally, had to explain why the candidates filled
in different forms of financial statements and why a form drawn up by the
Ministry of Finance was rejected, one which points out the incomes of family
members and financial liabilities, including those abroad. It would be
a sin against the truth to say that the answer was very coherent and logical.
It was the same story with the CEC's hasty recommendation to cancel live
broadcast of debates: if our independent body is justly concerned about
equality of rights, why is it not indignant at the unprecedented use of
state-controlled television time as a mouthpiece privatized by the President?

The speeches of SBU and Prosecutor-General's deputies in general gave
the impression that no one is responsible for anything in this country.
This also aroused suspicion: the visiting high officials do not take what
is going on seriously, and this parliamentary commission is to them like
water off a duck's back.

The hitherto-silent Speaker Tkachenko took the floor and, we should
note, managed to show the high-placed comrades that they were somewhat
mistaken. Having noted that they should correct the constitutional error,
whereby enforcement bodies are subordinated to one person, and promising
to invite the top executives whom nobody authorized to flout the invitation
of a legislative commission, the Speaker in fact tweaked the ears (or something
else) of the high officials present.

By Tetiana KOROBOVA, The Day

 

INCIDENTALLY

On June 1 the Speaker made it quite clear that it is time to discuss
the question of government responsibility. By contrast, as early as May
Mr. Tkachenko condescendingly calmed down lawmakers all set to lay a vote
of no confidence at the Cabinet's door: better not, he counseled, for it
would not improve things. Perhaps this cardinal change in attitude toward
Premier Valery Pustovoitenko was not least caused by the fact that the
head of government gathered parliamentary faction leaders in his office
on May 31 and tried to strike a deal about toppling the "rebellious Speaker."

It is too early to speculate about the turn of events surrounding the
Speaker's chair. What is clear is this:

1. There will be attempts to stage an anti-Speaker coup.

2. Mr. Tkachenko has taken up the hatchet and gone on the warpath against
President Kuchma and Premier Pustovoitenko.

3. We should expect early publication of interesting information about
Mr. Tkachenko's activities as chairman of the notorious Land and People
Association.

Oleksandr YURCHUK, Center for Journalistic Research

 

Rubric: