WEEKLY ROUNDUP 

In the Slovak city of Presov, a number of Transcarpathian cultural figures attended the Second Ruthenian Language Congress. According to Volodymyr Fedynyshynets, a Transcarpathian writer, a letter from the Vojvodina Ruthenians was read out, stating that their delegation would not be able to attend due to certain circumstances, and that they were grateful to the Ukrainian people for not supporting the NATO action in Yugoslavia.

The political vacuum in the region after the Soviet Communist Party's disappearance is being quickly filled by the SDPU(u). By aptly using the Social Democratic idea, which is close to the Transcarpathian populace, during the last parliamentary elections, Mr. Medvedchuk, Transcarpathia's majority People's Deputy, declared last week in Uzhhorod that his party will support Leonid Kuchma in the presidential campaign. The party leader apparently believes that clever occurring in Ukraine over the past five years have been truly Social Democratic and Uniting...

Others think differently. Petro Skunts, poet, winner of the Taras Shevchenko State Prize, is ironic: "Leonid Kuchma would have long surrendered Ukraine, except that the smart Leonid Kravchuk had the time to assert Ukraine in the world arena so much Mr. Kuchma had to recall his native Ukrainian language. And he is having a hard time using it."

There is a month of sanitary cleanup in the region. A total of 215 populated areas have been tidied up, along with 440 km. of river banks. The Oblast Council allowed industrial development of mineral water bore holes at a number of local resorts. The opposition paper RIO marked the first anniversary of the Council and its Chairman Ivan Ivanch, writing April 17 that this power structure "is just a 'legalizer' of the activities - mostly inactivity - of the oblast state administration as a mouthpiece of the SDPU(u) organization wielding real power in this region."

By Vasyl ZUBACH, The Day, Uzhhorod