A wish and a prayer for the Ukrainian democrats, please

Well, I have read; I have listened and it seems to me that the cold war is heating up.

Strange that it all comes down to the balance of power once again.


pity this busy monster,manunkind,

not. Progress is a comfortable disease:
your victim (death and life safely beyond)

plays with the bigness of his littleness
--electrons deify one razorblade
into a mountainrange;lenses extend

unwish through curving wherewhen till unwish
returns on its unself.
A world of made
is not a world of born--pity poor flesh

and trees, poor stars and stones,but never this
fine specimen of hypermagical

ultraomnipotence. We doctors know

a hopeless case if--listen:there's a hell
of a good universe next door;let's go

General strike call raises stakes in Ukraine
November 25, 2004 - 8:24AM/the AGE

Election officials today declared Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych the winner of Ukraine's presidential election, prompting opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko and his allies to call for a nationwide strike to protest what his camp contends was brazen vote fraud.

"My actions to combat the current regime will be even more consistent and powerful," Yushchenko pledged. "This decision puts Ukraine on the verge of civil conflict."

Kremlin-backed Yanukovich won 49.46 per cent of Sunday's vote, against reformist Yushchenko's 46.61 per cent, the Central Election Commission said in announcing the final results earlier Wednesday.

Yushchenko called for an "all-Ukrainian political strike."

Addressing hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters gathered in central Independence Square, Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz said: "The all-Ukrainian national strike means that we are organising citizens, stopping lessons at schools and universities, stopping work at enterprises, stopping transport ... and, thus, we'll force the authorities to think about what they are doing."

Yuliya Tymoshenko, Yushchenko's key ally, said the opposition will "surround all government buildings, block railways, airports and highways."

"We have a strict intention to seize power in our hands at these sites," she said, vowing a "consistent struggle that will lead to the destruction of this regime."

She also said the opposition would go to Ukraine's Supreme Court on Thursday to protest the alleged election fraud, and urged supporters to remain in the central Kiev square.

Yushchenko, who led the crowd in chanting: "we will not give up," called the election commission results "their latest crime."

"With this decision, they want to put us on our knees," he told his followers as the crowd chanted: "Shame! Shame!"

Meanwhile, Yanukovich said negotiations with Yushchenko's team would begin on Thursday, the Interfax news agency reported, citing Ukrainian television.

"We will be looking for common language," he was quoted as saying. "Ukraine is our common land, and we should have a chance to live together as well as possible."

The prime minister's staff declined to comment on the report.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said the United States considered the election results illegitimate. European Union nations had already severely criticised the vote.

"If the Ukrainian government does not act immediately and responsibly there will be consequences for our relationship, for Ukraine's hopes for a Euro-Atlantic integration and for individuals responsible for perpetrating fraud," Powell said.

Yushchenko and his allies have accused authorities of rigging Sunday's vote in favour of Yanukovich, a claim backed by Western observers.

Outgoing President Leonid Kuchma said Yushchenko supporters were trying to "carry out ... a plan of a coup d'etat." He called "on all political forces to negotiate immediately," and on the international community to "refrain from interference in Ukraine's affairs."

Kuchma called the election "an examination of the maturity and democracy of all the Ukrainian people. "We will pass this exam," he said.

The election commission announcement came after a flurry of statements on the possibility of negotiations to find a compromise, which Kuchma had proposed earlier.

Mykola Tomenko, a lawmaker and Yushchenko ally, told the Western-leaning politician's earlier today that the opposition would only negotiate a handover of power to Yushchenko.

Yushchenko claimed victory on Tuesday over Yanukovich in the presidential run-off, which many Western nations said did not meet democratic standards. In a sign he would not back down, he took a symbolic oath of office.

The election has led to an increasingly tense tug-of-war between the West and Moscow, which considers Ukraine part of its sphere of influence and a buffer between Russia and eastward-expanding NATO.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already congratulated Yanukovich on his victory, and the Kremlin-controlled Russian parliament denounced the Ukrainian opposition for its "illegal actions."

The opposition supporters have taken over blocks of Kiev's main street, setting up a giant tent camp. Yanukovich supporters have become increasingly visible in Kiev, also setting up hundreds of tents on a nearby wooded slope.

Kiev's city council and the administrations of four other sizable cities - Lviv, Ternopil, Vinnytsia and Ivano-Frankivsk - have refused to recognise a Yanukovich victory.

- AP

Fox News says it appears civil war is imminent.

They showed riot police (from Russia?) in gear and massing.

Keep getting waves of chillbumps.

Another fight for freedom.

Solidarity with Ukraine. I couldn't bear it if they are massacred like so many before them.

Recent from msnbc.

Has clickable links to related history for those interested--and links to Powell's remarks.

It appears, from what I read, that fraud was witnessed.

Powell has said there will be consequences... (To whom? The govt of Ukraine? Russia?) I think we've rejected the results of the vote.

It's breathtaking to watch a country mass and demand their voice be heard. Powerful. Majestic. There's nothing like it.

last night at the place i just came from

glad i went, though i'm pretty cold and damp
i'll go again on Friday or the weekend if things continue to develop



The CBC this morning interviewed a father and daughter team who went as election observers. The most bizarre thing (IMNSHO) they described was a polling station the daughter was at, where pens with invisible ink seemed to have been provided. People voted, the scrutineers put the ballots away, hours laterm, at counting time, the ballots were blank. Apparently, if more than 10% of the ballots at a polling station are spoiled, the results from that entire polling station are discarded - so about 40 people gathered round and tried to figure out what the invisible ink ballots might have been! They apparently decided the votes would probably be for the ruling party.

Good on you, ehBeth!

I'm really glad I went, msOlga, even though I didn't stay long (dogs, ya know). Kinda knew I HAD to (for me) when someone at work asked me why I was going - "you're not Ukrainian, are you?" - Well, no, I'm not Ukrainian, but I care about what's happening there for many reasons - and dang it's time to walk the talk (sometimes I hate that phrase - tonight I lived it).

I'm wondering how Ukrainians in Oz will respond, eh Beth.

look here, msOlga - appears they're starting to take notice - though things are a bit more active here right now

Thank you for that ehBeth!

Hell yeah. This from one of the Dutch newspapers, yesterday:

<goes off to look>

Damn, the article isn't online. I read it in my lunch. If it werent so sad, it would have been kind of funny - it listed a mindboggling range of fraud practices witnessed during the Ukrainian elections. Let me try to remember some by heart.

The one with the invisible pen was the most surreal. Without the signature of the election precinct chief, your vote is invalid. This one precinct chief signed (some?) votes with his invisible pen. Unclear how widespread the practice was.

Fraud centred around two patterns. In the pro-Russian, pro-Kuchma East, it was focused on forcing turnout up. And so, a journalist witnessed how one voting box was filled with real votes, while two more were kept behind in another room - and at the end of the day, all three were full.

But that was primitive kids stuff. The Kuchma machine has money. So there is another way. Apparently, voters arrive at the precinct with their empty ballot. The Yanukovich fellow outside buys their empty ballot, in exchange for one already filled in for Yanukovich. He fills in the empty one he just bought for Yanukovich, and gives it to the next voter in line, in return for his empty ballot. Et cetera.

There's collective ways to buy votes too. In the East, the apparatchiks are all pro-Kuchma. In one town, the factory workers (I think it was) were told that if their precinct did not yield a high turnout and ample Yanukovich victory, the workers would not be paid the next month. Simple. Workers in the Ukraine know about not being paid, so its at the same time unremarkable and effective enough. With soldiers it works even better of course.

And of course, with the co-operation of the local apparatchiks, more subtle ways again were practiced. They had the population registers, and knew who would not in any case be coming out to vote (too old, sick). Those votes were cast "for them" - and for Yanukovich. Lot of dead people got to vote too.

In the end, one of the two major cities in the East had a turnout of 96%. Smaller places had a turnout of over 100%. Oops.

In the West, on the other hand, where there was no way people were going to vote for Yanukovich in any great numbers, the trick was to depress turnout. Hence disappearing ballot boxes. Hence self-erasing ink, probably. Hence thousands of people whose name suddenly did not appear on the voting lists anymore.

Hence, also, various subtle ways to invalidate votes. A precinct chief whom the voters hand their ballot needed to only press his nail into the Yanukovich box on a Yushchenko ballot to invalidate the vote.

Mind you, in the West fraud was also observed in Yushchenko's favour. But the overwhelming majority of fraud was unsurprisingly in the regime's favour.

Damn, wish I had that article.

You'll find it, nimh! Of that I'm certain. :wink:

World condemns Ukraine's disputed poll
November 25, 2004


Flower power ... riot police - with carnations inserted into their shields by opposition supporters - guard the presidential administration building in Kiev.
Photo: AP

Ukraine's Moscow-backed Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovich, at the centre of a political crisis over the disputed presidential poll, said he saw no reason for opposition street demonstrations.

A third day of mass protests began in the frigid capital yesterday, a day after the opposition presidential candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, took a symbolic oath of office in parliament.

Speaking at a government meeting yesterday, Mr Yanukovich, who appears poised to be declared winner of Sunday's run-off vote, shrugged off the huge rallies of Yushchenko supporters, saying: "We [ordinary people] have all we need to be able to live normally. Nothing extraordinary is taking place."

Ukraine's central electoral commission said yesterday that it would announce the final results of the disputed presidential poll later in the day.

On Tuesday, with 99.48 per cent of precincts counted, official but still not final results gave Mr Yanukovich 49.39 per cent of the vote against 46.71 per cent for Mr Yushchenko. Exit polls had put Mr Yushchenko well ahead.

Mr Yushchenko's supporters massed at Independence Square and the Supreme Rada, Ukraine's 450-seat parliament, their numbers reaching an estimated 200,000 on Tuesday. That night, they marched to the presidential administration building, where they were met by lines of riot police standing 12 deep.

The risk of violent unrest in the former Soviet republic of 48 million people heightened as both sides claimed victory and stepped up their rhetoric following the vote that Western European observers said was marked by widespread fraud.

"Ukraine is on the threshold of a civil conflict," Mr Yushchenko said in parliament on Tuesday. "We have two choices: Either the answer will be given by the parliament, or the streets will give an answer." Supporters cheered as he took the oath, which has no legal status.

In the face of the protests and strong condemnation from the US and the European Union, the Government appeared to hesitate. President Leonid Kuchma, who supported Mr Yanukovich, called for negotiations.

But the opposition said yesterday it would not negotiate. Mykola Tomenko, a close aide to Mr Yushchenko, told the huge crowd: "I want to tell you that we will not hold negotiations with Yanukovich and the people who surround him."

The White House said in a statement: "We strongly support efforts to review the conduct of the election and urge Ukrainian authorities not to certify results until investigations of organised fraud are resolved."

Jan Peter Balkenende, the Dutch Prime Minister, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, telephoned Mr Kuchma to express the presidency's "serious concerns" about the election.

The NATO Secretary-General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to express the alliance's disappointment with the way the presidential election was handled, officials said yesterday. The German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroder, told his parliament yesterday that the election showed massive fraud.

But Russia, which backed Mr Yanukovich, dismissed foreign charges of electoral fraud as premature and arrogant.

Vaclav Havel, the former Czech president and leader of the 1989 "Velvet Revolution" that overthrew Communist rule, yesterday urged Ukrainians to keep up their protests.

"All respected domestic and international organisations agree that your demands are justified. Therefore I wish you strength, endurance, courage and fortunate decisions," Mr Havel said in a statement from Taipei, where he was travelling.

The role of the Communist Party in parliamentary manoeuvring remains critical. It did not endorse a candidate in the second round of voting despite pressure from Russia to back Mr Yanukovich. If it sides with Mr Yushchenko there would be enough votes to demand a review of the election and the 11,000 violations that the Yushchenko campaign claims to have collated.

The Washington Post, The New York Times, Reuters

Government Warns U.S. Citizens in Ukraine

1 hour, 11 minutes ago White House - AP Cabinet & State

WASHINGTON - The State Department is alerting U.S. citizens to the potential for civil unrest in Ukraine, following that country's disputed presidential elections.

The U.S. Embassy in Kiev has urged Americans living in Ukraine to remain vigilant about the possibility of election-related demonstrations and disturbances following Ukraine's presidential election Sunday. That advice is in effect until Dec. 7.

The election results are in dispute and many police forces have gathered around the rallies in Kiev.

U.S. citizens are urged to avoid the demonstrations and areas around them.

The State Department cited reports that certain intercity travel in Ukraine is now restricted and buses and trains to Kiev have been canceled.

Americans who travel to Ukraine are urged to register with the U.S. Embassy in Kiev or check the State Department's travel Web site.

I hope that everyone, everywhere, who cares about this gets out to express their support. Apparently, there are images going back to Kiev on photo-phones showing the supporters in other countries - it's a good thing when their media is having some difficulties getting news out.

Seems to be a bit difficult, at least in Kiev itself, when one follows the latest news.






Neeka's Backlog seems to be quite reliable: she works as a freelance journalist for euro-correspondent.com.

Sounds like Fox. They wish!

Interesting statement from Moscow:

Source

Certainly doesn't appear there's nuch call to stop worryin'

Kyiv Post: Opposition calls for general strike

News-Telegraph(UK): "We will face the tanks if we have to" - protestors

NYT: Powell Says U.S. Will Not Accept Final Tally in Ukraine

Nice hedge: "In accordance with Ukrainian laws"... Certainly they're not insinuating that the election commission would break that law?