By Iryna HAVRYLOVA, The Day
Last Thursday Verkhovna Rada held a press conference on behalf of its delegation
that had taken part in a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe (PACE).
According to delegation member Serhiy Holovaty, the official mass media
campaign unfolded on the eve of the visit to Strasbourg was aimed at making
the public think that PACE sanctions, including a possible suspension of
Ukraine's Council of Europe membership, had been exceptionally caused by
failure to approve a moratorium on capital punishment.
People's Deputy Holovaty is convinced that the state is spreading this
ideological construct only to cover up the fruits of its policy of eliminating
democratic institutions and to divert public attention from other problems.
The Council of Europe is today much more concerned about the state of
democracy in Ukraine, encroachments on the freedom of speech, illegal interference
of the executive power in the election process, and cynical pressure on
the judicial power.
Socialist Deputy Ivan Chyzh opined that the executive might be even
interested in the suspension of Ukraine's membership of the Council of
Europe during the 1999 election campaign in order to establish control
over the press, the judiciary, and to restrict monitoring by international
observers of the election process.
It should be noted that the issue of the ratification of Protocol No.
6 (regarding the abolition of capital punishment) has now reached a compromise:
the Constitutional Court has received a parliamentary request to pronounce
unconstitutional Article 24 of the Criminal Code.







