"Il manifesto" del 21 Gennaio 2000:

GUERRA DELLA NATO
TROVATE IN ADRIATICO ALTRE CLUSTER BOMB

Negli ultimi giorni altri ordigni sganciati dai bombardieri Nato durante
la
guerra contro la Jugoslavia sono incappati nelle reti di due pescherecci
di
Caorle. A seguito di questo ritrovamento il ministro per l'Agricoltura
Paolo De Castro ha convocato per il 27 gennaio l'apposita Unità di
crisi,
istituita presso la Presidenza del consiglio. Sette mesi sono passati
dalla
fine della guerra, ma continuano a mancare le condizioni di sicurezza
per
la piena ripresa della pesca in Adriatico. E proprio in assenza di tali
garanzie, dallo scorso 21 novembre è stata decretata l'istituzione al
largo
delle coste romagnole di due nuove zone di "tutela biologica",
off-limits
per la pesca.

---

"Il manifesto" del 25 Gennaio 2000:

DOPOGUERRA
Cluster bomb, ancora allarme in Adriatico

- FRANCESCA LONGO - TRIESTE

S ia Lega Pesca che i comuni dell'alto Adriatico, e in particolare
quello
di Caorle, s'attendono molto dalla convocazione, giovedì prossimo,
dell'apposita Unità di crisi interministeriale istituita presso la
presidenza del Consiglio e voluta dal ministro per le politiche agricole
e
forestali, Paolo De Castro. Il ritrovamento, lo scorso giovedì, di un
ordigno della seconda guerra mondiale e di cluster bomb (neanche poche,
se
si pensa che il peschereccio "Vento dell'est" ne avrebbe ripescate
parecchie decine) ha messo in chiaro che l'allarme bombe seguito
all'aggressione Nato alla Jugoslavia è ancora tragicamente d'attualità.

Spiega il sindaco di Caorle, Luigino Moro: "Non ho motivo di mettere in
dubbio le assicurazioni che con il sindaco di Chioggia abbiamo avuto a
suo
tempo dal ministro della difesa e dal presidente del consiglio, sulla
bonifica delle aree di rilascio segnalate dagli Stati Uniti. Ma
evidentemente, le mappe fornite dalla Nato devono essere state
incomplete".
"Di fatto - prosegue - la bonifica la stanno facendo i pescatori".

Il sito in cui due pescherecci hanno rinvenuto gli ordigni, non pare
essere
compreso tra quelli indicati. Né le bombe possono esser state spostate
dalle maree. "Nei giorni precedenti al ritrovamento, si pescava in una
zona
molto vicina e nessuno ha rinvenuto bomblet. Data la conformazione dei
fondali e il movimento delle correnti, quelle bombe si possono
"spostare"
solo con la pesca a strascico. Deduco quindi che la mappatura dei luoghi
di
rilascio sia incompleta". Moro non è allarmista, tutt'altro: "Oggi i
pescatori sono in allerta, conoscono bene il decalogo divulgato dalle
capitanerie di porto e applicano alla lettera le disposizioni -
aggiunge.
Ma non è pensabile che assolvano a un ruolo che non spetta loro, compito
che, finché c'è attenzione e tensione, limita i pericoli. Se la
situazione
dovesse essere dimenticata, senza una bonifica accurata di tutte le
aree,
allora sì che la faccenda si aggraverebbe". Nessun problema per il
turismo
("A riva le bombe non arrivano"), caso mai viva preoccupazione per
l'ambiente marino. "Mi auguro non si provveda a far brillare gli ordigni
in
mare - conclude il sindaco - perché i fondali ne risenterebbero". E
sottolinea che le speranze di tutti sono concentrate nell'incontro di
giovedì, a cui ha chiesto di poter partecipare.

"La decisione di convocare l'Unità di crisi - fa eco Ettore Ianì,
presidente della Lega pesca - risponde alle preoccupazioni e alle
istanze
più volte espresse dalla nostra organizzazione in merito al ripristino
di
adeguate garanzie e condizioni di sicurezza per il lavoro di bordo alla
ripresa delle attività di pesca, dopo la conclusione del periodo di
fermo
bellico. Non dimentichiamo che proprio in assenza di tali garanzie,
dallo
scorso 21 ottobre, su sollecitazione della stessa Unità di crisi, è
stata
decretata l'istituzione - a largo delle coste emiliano-marchigiane - di
due
nuove zone, cosiddette "di tutela biologica", ad oggi ancora off-limits
per
la pesca". "Ci auguriamo - conclude Ianì - che la riunione del 27
gennaio
possa costituire l'occasione per fornire alle legittime richieste della
categoria le dovute certezze in merito alla sicurezza del lavoro in
mare,
alla durata del regime di interdizione nelle due zone di tutela, nonché
all'attuale stato di avanzamento delle operazioni di bonifica dei
fondali
in Adriatico".

---

"Il manifesto" del 29 Gennaio 2000:

CLUSTER BOMB
Quanto durerà la bonifica in Adriatico?

- FRANCESCA LONGO - TRIESTE

Ci sono ancora bombe, ma c'è anche un preciso impegno del ministro delle
politiche agricole e forestali, Paolo De Castro, a chiudere al più
presto
le operazioni di bonifica al fine di limitare il rischio per la pesca in
Adriatico. Il ministero, al termine della riunione dell'unità di crisi
del
27 gennaio, fa sapere che "a partire dall'ottobre '99, a seguito di
ulteriori rinvenimenti di ordigni da parte di pescherecci nell'alto e
medio
Adriatico, la Marina militare ha iniziato attività di ricerca anche al
di
fuori delle aree di sgancio, già oggetto di precedenti attività di
bonifica".

Tale attività ha permesso di individuare otto ordigni, di cui cinque
risalenti alla II guerra mondiale. Ciò non stupisca più di tanto: per
bonificare l'Italia dalle bombe di due conflitti mondiali si prevedono
ancora dieci anni di lavori, tra artificieri dell'esercito e una
speciale,
quanto sconosciuta, organizzazione di volontariato di civili - circa 70
persone che effettuano una media di più di duemila interventi all'anno.

"Le attività di ricerca, iniziate il 13 maggio '99 - sottolinea il
comunicato del ministero - proseguono con cinque unità cacciamine della
Marina militare permanentemente dislocate in Adriatico (...).
Relativamente
all'attività di pesca a strascico e sulla base degli elementi
disponibili
si ha motivo di ritenere che il livello di rischio sia analogo a quello
precedente la guerra in Kosovo, ma non si esclude la possibilità di
ulteriori rinvenimenti di ordigni nelle reti dei motopesca". Insomma, si
ammette implicitamente l'ipotesi che le indicazioni fornite dalla Nato
sui
luoghi di sgancio non siano state troppo precise e quindi si continuano
le
operazioni di ricerca e bonifica. E soprattutto si riaggiorna l'incontro
a
metà febbraio, per una progressiva valutazione della situazione.

"L'impegno che l'Unità di crisi dimostra nella gestione di questa nuova
emergenza - commenta Ettore Ianì, presidente di Lega Pesca - è
rassicurante. Ma è innegabile anche il perdurare di uno stato
d'incertezza,
che nessuno può sottovalutare".

"Ciò ci stimola a non abbassare la guardia - prosegue - per una piena
tutela e sicurezza dei nostri associati. E chiediamo con forza qual è la
reale situazione delle due zone di interdizione della pesca a strascico,
istituite ad ottobre e ancora vigenti a largo delle coste
marchigiano-romagnole e su cui la riunione non ha fornito significativi
elementi di novità".

Dopo aver sottolineato il senso di responsabilità che il movimento
cooperativo per la pesca ha manifestato durante la guerra e manifesta
ora
nel corso della bonifica, Ianì chiede di sapere "per quanto tempo ancora
sarà negato il diritto al lavoro, proprio in un momento, come quello
attuale, in cui le imprese si trovano schiacciate dalle pesanti
ripercussioni dei rincari del prezzo del gasolio per i motopescherecci".

--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
------------------------------------------------------------

GUINNESS DEI PRIMATI / 1.


Nel breve articolo "Il mare sotto Berlino", apparso su "Il Manifesto"
del 25/1 scorso, il professor ex-Predrag ex-Matvejevic riesce a
collezionare la bellezza di otto (8) autocitazioni:
1: "...ne ho parlato tanto nelle mie 'confessioni'..."
2: "Dovevo ribadire tante volte..."
3: "Ripetevo spesso..."
4: "L'ho gia' tentato ne 'Il Mondo ex', invano..."
5: "...tante domande particolari, di cui ho riempito tutto un
'Epistolario dell'Altra Europa'"
6: "L'avevo chiesto qualche anno fa in una lettera indirizzata a
Gorbaciov..."
7: "...ho coniato questa parola..."
8: "L'autore del 'Breviario Mediterraneo' osserva con tristezza..."
(riferendosi a se stesso in terza persona)


--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
RIMSKI SAVEZ ZA JUGOSLAVIJU
e-mail: crj@... - URL: http://marx2001.org/crj
** NO COPYRIGHT ! **
------------------------------------------------------------

POLONIA: finalmente democrazia! Tagliati i fondi al giornale
indipendente "Rivista ecologista delle Brigate Verdi" per aver scritto
la verita' sulla guerra d'aggressione della NATO in Jugoslavia. Una
petizione da firmare.

UCRAINA: reportage speciale dell'International Action Center - con un
"colpo di Stato morbido" il presidente Kuchma, sostenuto dagli USA,
cerca di sbarazzarsi del Parlamento. Segue le orme di Eltsin?


> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2000 08:39:24 -0800
> From: Peter Bein <pbein@...>
> Reply-To: "STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN!" <STOPNATO@...>
> To: STOPNATO@..., Eternera@...
> Subject: Help Polish Green Brigades
>
> STOP NATO: ¡NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.HOME-PAGE.ORG
>
> Friends, please sign the petition at
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/gbnfos.htm
>
> Background below. Thank you.
>
> Piotr Bein
> piotr.bein@...
>
> =================================================
> February 1, 2000
> Vancouver/Canada and Cracow/Poland
>
> Polish "Green Brigades" need help
> Grassroot publications denied government funding
>
> Withdrawing public funds from a country's leading independent magazine does
> not contribute to freedom of information. For publishing alternative
> information on NATO war in Yugoslavia, depleted uranium weapons, and the
> hypocrisy of some European Greens re human rights in Kosovo, the "Green
> Brigades Ecologist Magazine", a Polish environmental bi-weekly, received a
> death sentence from the government-run fund for the protection of the
> environment. Well-read "Dzikie Zycie", "Kropla" and many other small,
> independent publications shared a similar fate.
>
> Andrzej Zwawa, the chief editor of the Green Brigades Publishing House is
> trying to rescue the magazine, despite government decision. He issued a
> petition to the government in Polish and English, which supporters can sign
> on the Internet at http://www.most.org.pl/zb/gbnfos.htm.
>
> The punishment was dealt under the pretext of withdrawing funds from small
> publications. With a circulation of only 1,000 copies every 2 weeks, Polish
> "Green Brigades" serves as an information exchange forum for the country's
> environment and community movement, as well as the general public. The
> bi-weekly appears on the Internet, where it enjoys far greater readership.
> The staff, facilities and equipment are basic. Often 3-5 people work on
> less than adequate computers in a cramped space, equivalent to half the
> area of a plushy office in the government or its fund.
>
> All texts in "Green Brigades" come from volunteer authors, who are
> proponents and opponents of diverse religions, political and military
> alliances, organizations, ideas and worldviews. Although an unfair 1998
> article in respectable "Polityka" weekly unfairly labeled it "sectarian",
> the environmental bi-weekly remains one of Poland's few non-bigoted
> publications. Access to the records of the granting decision was denied,
> but well-informed sources maintain that the commission refused the funding
> because texts of "...anarchists, leftists, opponents of bombing of
> Yugoslavia by NATO..." have appeared in the condemned publications.
>
> The grassroots activists wonder how much influence sectarian hysteria
> exerts on the funding decisions. A recent book by two Catholic clergy,
> professors Slipko and Zwolinski, titled "Rozdroza ekologii" (cross-roads of
> ecology) manipulates original statements of environmentalists to make them
> look sectarian and dangerous to society. According to the professors in
> cassocks, vegetarianism is a religion, and Greenpeace "...have no idea what
> is really harmful and hazardous for the environment… while promoting
> technologies that are lethal for the environment." Using the book as court
> evidence, the mayor of Bielsko, the seat of "Dzikie Zycie", refused city
> funding for this publication.
>
> Zwawa's bi-weekly featured numerous authors from Western Europe and North
> America on topics ranging from deep ecology, through deforestation, organic
> farming, agrotourism and global climate change, to the use of depleted
> uranium weapons in Yugoslavia. "Green Brigades" held an interview with Niaz
> Dorry of Greenpeace USA, the 1998 "Time" magazine 'Hero of the Planet'. It
> also presented: the North American solar aquatic method of treating sewage;
> a community sustainability project downtown Vancouver, British Columbia;
> the controversy over Makah whale hunt off the coast of Washington state;
> the clear-cutting of old-growth rainforests in Canada; the risks from
> marine aquaculture and overfishing worldwide; the struggle of American
> Indians to retain their lands; the warming up of Alaska; and many other
> topics.
>
> The articles presented to the Polish reader international organizations,
> such as Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Norwegian
> Environmental Protection Agency, Sierra Club, Western Canada Wilderness
> Committee, Friends of Clayoquot Sound, Raincoast Conservation Society,
> Forest Action Network, People's Action for Threatened Habitat, Raging
> Grannies, Eco-Cafe, American Association for the Advancement of Science,
> Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Global Climate Coalition, US
> National Fisheries Service, US National Oceanic and Atmospheric
> Administration, Georgia Strait Alliance, Makah Tribal Council, Worldwatch
> Institute, International Whaling Commission, World Council of Whalers,
> Fisheries and Oceans Canada, American Ocean Campaign, Canadian Museum of
> Nature, Ocean Voice International, Harvard Medical School - Health and
> Global Environment Centre, Ecological Action Centre in Halifax, Hatfield
> Marine Sciences Centre, and many other.
>
> Sample articles (in Polish) can be viewed on the web at:
>
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/131/morze1.htm (marine life)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/131/morze2.htm (interview with Niaz Dorry)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/131/wieloryb.htm (whale hunts)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/133/nato.htm (NATO, militarism)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/133/prezenta.htm (European Union politics)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/133/nowoczes.htm (eco-philosophy)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/135 (eco-philosophy)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/139/military.htm (militarism)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/140/klimat.htm (climate change)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/141/euroscep.htm (European Union politics)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/141/dzikie.htm (deforestation)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/142/dzikie.htm (deforestation)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/143/military.htm (depleted uranium weapons)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/143/nato.htm (NATO controversy)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/144/nato.htm (European Greens and NATO)
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb/zb/145/zwierze.htm#schronisko (animal rights)
>
>
> Contact information:
>
> Andrzej Zwawa, chief editor of "Zielone Brygady"
> Wydawnictwo "Zielone Brygady" (Green Brigades Publishing House)
> Slawkowska 12/24, PL 31-014 Kraków, Poland
> telephone: +4812 422 2147, or 422 2264, or 429 5332 extension 30
> fax: +4812 429 5332 extension 26 or 22
> SMS: 48603363721@...
> e-mail: zb@...
> http://www.most.org.pl/zb
>
> Piotr Bein, contributing author
> Vancouver, Canada
> telephone and fax: +604 228 9437
> e-mail: piotr.bein@...
>
> ______________________________________________________________________


INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTER SPECIAL REPORT

IS US BEHIND 'QUIET COUP' IN UKRAINE?

Ramsey Clark, IAC Protest Move to Set Up Presidential Dictatorship

KIEV, Ukraine--US officials and Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma
are collaborating in an effort to break up Ukraine's parliament and
concentrate power in the president's hands, Ukrainian opposition
leaders told International Action Center representatives last week.
IAC members Larissa Kritskaya and Bill Doares were in Kiev to
attend a hearing of the International Peoples Tribunal on NATO War
Crimes in Yugoslavia (English translation; see accompanying
dispatch). It appears that Washington's goal is to bring Ukraine into
NATO and to smash parliamentary resistance to the privatization of
land and other measures demanded by the International Monetary
Fund.

This former Soviet republic now has two rival parliaments in the wake
of an attempt by Kuchma to illegally oust parliament speaker
Oleksandr Tkachenko and deputy speaker Adam Martynyuk. The
two have accused Kuchma of falsifying the results of last November's
presidential election. Their charges were borne out by European
Union electoral observers.

GORE AND KUCHMA--PARTNERS IN CRIME The regime's
action came on the heels of a private meeting in Washington between
Kuchma and US vice president Al Gore. Kuchma was first elected in
1996 with considerable support from the CIA-linked Soros
Foundation.

To engineer Tkachenko and Martynyuk's removal, rightwing
Verkhovnye Rada (parliament) deputies and their allies held an
extralegal gathering in a nongovernment building Jan. 21 at the same
time as an official Rada session was in progress. The unconstitutional
gathering voted to oust Tkachenko and Martynyuk and replace them
with Kuchma allies and to abolish the basic democratic right of
parliamentary immunity. It also named a new head of the central bank.
Tkachenko and Martynyuk were not invited to the session or told of
the charges against them. The only record of the vote and attendance
at the rightwing gathering is the claims of its organizers. Previous
attempts to remove Tkachenko and Martynyuk by constitutional
means had failed.

As of this writing, Tkachenko is refusing to leave his office. His phone
and fax have been disconnected and state television is refusing to air
his statements. His official security has been removed and he is being
guarded by Communist, Socialist and Peasant Party deputies.
Tkachenko is a member of the Peasant Party and Martynyuk is in the
Communist Party. The confrontation may come to a head Feb. 1
when the Rada is scheduled to reconvene after winter recess.

"There has been considerable pressure to forcibly Westernize
Ukraine," speaker Tkachenko told the IAC. "The presidential election
was determined by force and now the president wants to use force
against parliament. He is trying to create an artificial majority in
order
to concentrate power in his hands. Our constitution has been violated
at every step."

Kuchma's ultimate aim is to abolish the existing single-chamber Rada
where many "reforms" demanded by US bankers and Kuchma's
wealthy allies have been blocked. He wants to replace it with a a
smaller, two-chamber body with an upper chamber comprising
regional governors appointed by himself. To achieve this, he has
ordered a "popular referendum" that will presumably be as controlled
as last year's presidential election.

WALL STREET RULES With nearly 50 million people, Ukraine is
the second-largest former Soviet republic. It was one of the USSR's
most productive agricultural and industrial regions. Today, like other
former Soviet republics, it has been devastated by "economic
restructuring" dictated by the International Monetary Fund. Since the
fall of the USSR, Ukraine's industrial production has dropped 70
percent. Its population has fallen by 2 million in just the past two
years. The old-age pension is $13 a month and millions of workers
are not being paid. While hunger stalks many regions, one-third of the
state budget goes in interest payments to Western banks. The
country's debt has risen 30 times since Kuchma took office in 1996.

The Kuchma regime has tried to create a fascist-like atmosphere by
exploiting divisions similar to those used to break up Yugoslavia. It
has whipped up Ukrainian nationalism on an anti-Russian basis (one-
quarter of the population is Russian). Soviet-era books have been
burned in public squares and opposition activists attacked by fascist
gangs. The regime's alleged nationalism does not stop Wall Street
from dictating its economic policy. It has agreed to raise food and fuel
prices, rents and gas and electricity rates on a schedule dictated by
the
International Monetary Fund.

"It is obvious that the United States has designed the Ukraine's
political landscape," Oleg Grachev, Kiev regional secretary of the
Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU), told Kritskaya and Doares.
"You cannot speak about injustice and electoral falsification in this
country without speaking of the domination of the International
Monetary Fund."

MARKED BALLOTS AND HAND GREANDES KPU general
secretary Petro Simonenko, who calls for Ukraine to withdraw from
the IMF, was the runner-up in November's presidential election. He
got an official 38 percent of the vote. The KPU brought evidence of
marked ballots, ballot-box stuffing and vote-buying to Ukraine's
criminal court but was told such matters were outside the court's
jurisdiction. In the first round of the presidential election,
Progressive
Socialist Party candidate Natalia Vitorienko, who also condemns the
IMF, was injured by a hand grenade tossed into a rally she was
addressing.

"Kuchma is trying to make a coup to gain absolute power," said
Ukraine Socialist Party leader Pavel Moroz. "He is acting on behalf of
powerful private groups that support him. Since Kuchma came to
office, Ukraine has gotten poorer but his friends have gotten rich.
They now want to get even richer by selling shares in land and
grabbing control of basic industries like steel, petrochemicals and even
oil and gas, which is now forbidden to be privatized."

On Jan. 29, workers across Ukraine marched to protest the IMF-
Kuchma program and to demand unpaid back wages. Jan. 29 is the
anniversary of the 1918 uprising by Kiev's Arsenal workers that was
drowned in blood by the Western-backed regime that then ruled
Ukraine. The opposition has called for mass demonstrations outside
parliament on Feb. 1 in support of Tkachenko and Martynyuk.

Former US attorney general and IAC founder Ramsey Clark sent
letters of protest to president Kuchma and the Rada.

An IAC statement said, "Like the war against Yugoslavia, the
attempted presidential coup in Ukraine is part of the NATO-Pentagon
drive to the east, which carries great danger for all humanity. The US
corporate media, which so obediently repeated Pentagon-State
Department lies about Kosovo, appears to have imposed an
information blockade on the events in Ukraine and US involvement
there. We must break that blockade. The democratic forces in
Ukraine deserve the support of antiwar and justice-loving people in
this country and around the world."

Letters of support can be faxed to Deputy V.N. Romashenko at 011
380 44 293 2792 or 011 380 44 229 7228.

---

February 1, 2000 UPDATE on

INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTER SPECIAL REPORT:
IS US BEHIND 'QUIET COUP' IN UKRAINE?

February 1, 2000--As of this writing, Tkachenko is refusing to leave
his office. His phone and fax have been disconnected and state
television is refusing to air his statements. His official security has
been
removed and he is being guarded by Communist, Socialist and
Peasant Party deputies.

Tkachenko is a member of the Peasant Party and Martynyuk is in the
Communist Party. The rightwing pro-U.S. bloc is continuing to
boycott Rada meetings in an attempt to give Kuchma an excuse to
dissolve the body. On Feb. 1, thousands of pro-Tkachenko
demonstrators gathered outside the Rada building to show their
support for the sitting parliament. A reported 600 rightists gathered
outside Ukraine House, where the pro-IMF, pro-NATO bloc was
meeting.

INTERNATIONAL ACTION CENTER SPECIAL REPORT:
IS US BEHIND 'QUIET COUP' IN UKRAINE?
Ramsey Clark, IAC Protest Move to Set Up Presidential Dictatorship

January 30, 2000--KIEV, Ukraine--US officials and Ukrainian
president Leonid Kuchma are collaborating in an effort to break up
Ukraine's parliament and concentrate power in the president's hands,
Ukrainian opposition leaders told International Action Center
representatives last week. IAC members Larissa Kritskaya and Bill
Doares were in Kiev to attend a hearing of the International Peoples
Tribunal on NATO War Crimes in Yugoslavia (English translation; see
accompanying dispatch). It appears that Washington's goal is to bring
Ukraine into NATO and to smash parliamentary resistance to the
privatization of land and other measures demanded by the
International Monetary Fund.

This former Soviet republic now has two rival parliaments in the wake
of an attempt by Kuchma to illegally oust parliament speaker
Oleksandr Tkachenko and deputy speaker Adam Martynyuk. The
two have accused Kuchma of falsifying the results of last November's
presidential election. Their charges were borne out by European
Union electoral observers.

GORE AND KUCHMA--PARTNERS IN CRIME The regime's
action came on the heels of a private meeting in Washington between
Kuchma and US vice president Al Gore. Kuchma was first elected in
1996 with considerable support from the CIA-linked Soros
Foundation.

To engineer Tkachenko and Martynyuk's removal, rightwing
Verkhovnye Rada (parliament) deputies and their allies held an
extralegal gathering in a nongovernment building Jan. 21 at the same
time as an official Rada session was in progress. The unconstitutional
gathering voted to oust Tkachenko and Martynyuk and replace them
with Kuchma allies and to abolish the basic democratic right of
parliamentary immunity. It also named a new head of the central bank.
Tkachenko and Martynyuk were not invited to the session or told of
the charges against them. The only record of the vote and attendance
at the rightwing gathering is the claims of its organizers. Previous
attempts to remove Tkachenko and Martynyuk by constitutional
means had failed.

As of this writing, Tkachenko is refusing to leave his office. His phone
and fax have been disconnected and state television is refusing to air
his statements. His official security has been removed and he is being
guarded by Communist, Socialist and Peasant Party deputies.
Tkachenko is a member of the Peasant Party and Martynyuk is in the
Communist Party. The confrontation may come to a head Feb. 1
when the Rada is scheduled to reconvene after winter recess.

"There has been considerable pressure to forcibly Westernize
Ukraine," speaker Tkachenko told the IAC. "The presidential election
was determined by force and now the president wants to use force
against parliament. He is trying to create an artificial majority in
order
to concentrate power in his hands. Our constitution has been violated
at every step."

Kuchma's ultimate aim is to abolish the existing single-chamber Rada
where many "reforms" demanded by US bankers and Kuchma's
wealthy allies have been blocked. He wants to replace it with a a
smaller, two-chamber body with an upper chamber comprising
regional governors appointed by himself. To achieve this, he has
ordered a "popular referendum" that will presumably be as controlled
as last year's presidential election.

WALL STREET RULES With nearly 50 million people, Ukraine is
the second-largest former Soviet republic. It was one of the USSR's
most productive agricultural and industrial regions. Today, like other
former Soviet republics, it has been devastated by "economic
restructuring" dictated by the International Monetary Fund. Since the
fall of the USSR, Ukraine's industrial production has dropped 70
percent. Its population has fallen by 2 million in just the past two
years. The old-age pension is $13 a month and millions of workers
are not being paid. While hunger stalks many regions, one-third of the
state budget goes in interest payments to Western banks. The
country's debt has risen 30 times since Kuchma took office in 1996.

The Kuchma regime has tried to create a fascist-like atmosphere by
exploiting divisions similar to those used to break up Yugoslavia. It
has whipped up Ukrainian nationalism on an anti-Russian basis (one-
quarter of the population is Russian). Soviet-era books have been
burned in public squares and opposition activists attacked by fascist
gangs. The regime's alleged nationalism does not stop Wall Street
from dictating its economic policy. It has agreed to raise food and fuel
prices, rents and gas and electricity rates on a schedule dictated by
the
International Monetary Fund.

"It is obvious that the United States has designed the Ukraine's
political landscape," Oleg Grachev, Kiev regional secretary of the
Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU), told Kritskaya and Doares.
"You cannot speak about injustice and electoral falsification in this
country without speaking of the domination of the International
Monetary Fund."

MARKED BALLOTS AND HAND GREANDES KPU general
secretary Petro Simonenko, who calls for Ukraine to withdraw from
the IMF, was the runner-up in November's presidential election. He
got an official 38 percent of the vote. The KPU brought evidence of
marked ballots, ballot-box stuffing and vote-buying to Ukraine's
criminal court but was told such matters were outside the court's
jurisdiction. In the first round of the presidential election,
Progressive
Socialist Party candidate Natalia Vitorienko, who also condemns the
IMF, was injured by a hand grenade tossed into a rally she was
addressing.

"Kuchma is trying to make a coup to gain absolute power," said
Ukraine Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz. "He is acting on
behalf of powerful private groups that support him. Since Kuchma
came to office, Ukraine has gotten poorer but his friends have gotten
rich. They now want to get even richer by selling shares in land and
grabbing control of basic industries like steel, petrochemicals and even
oil and gas, which is now forbidden to be privatized."

On Jan. 29, workers across Ukraine marched to protest the IMF-
Kuchma program and to demand unpaid back wages. Jan. 29 is the
anniversary of the 1918 uprising by Kiev's Arsenal workers that was
drowned in blood by the Western-backed regime that then ruled
Ukraine.

Former US attorney general and IAC founder Ramsey Clark sent
letters of protest to president Kuchma and the Rada.

An IAC statement said, "Like the war against Yugoslavia, the attempted
presidential coup in Ukraine is part of the NATO-Pentagon drive to the
east,
which carries great danger for all humanity. The US corporate media,
which so obediently repeated Pentagon-State Department lies about
Kosovo, appears to have imposed an information blockade on the
events in Ukraine and US involvement there. We must break that
blockade. The democratic forces in Ukraine deserve the support of
antiwar and justice-loving people in this country and around the
world."

Letters of support can be faxed to Deputy V.N. Romashenko at 011
380 44 293 2792 or 011 380 44 229 7228.



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LULU' MARLENE


Il Corriere della Sera, 17/1/2000:
"D'Alema corre a casa per la sua Lulu' - Il premier va e viene da Roma
per il Labrador che ha perso uno dei cuccioli.
(...) Anche Massimo D'Alema ha dovuto lasciare in tutta fretta il
Lingotto [dove si svolgeva il congresso DS] per volare a Roma... Ma
niente motivi politici dietro questa 'fuga'. Solo l'apprensione del
presidente del Consiglio per il suo Labrador Lulu' e la sfortunata
cucciolata... D'altra parte e' noto il suo accanimento per questo
Labrador, che porta con se' in tutte le vacanze... 'Lulu' e' un flusso
d'amore indipendentemente da come ci si comporta con lui'."


--------- COORDINAMENTO ROMANO PER LA JUGOSLAVIA -----------
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