A wish and a prayer for the Ukrainian democrats, please

Just a silly and inessential question....
why does Yushchenko look so harsh?

Ukrainian Candidate's Illness Unclear

Wednesday December 8, 2004 5:01 PM

By SUSANNA LOOF

Associated Press Writer

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - A combination of poisons could have sparked the ailment that struck Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko during the campaign, but there's no conclusive evidence that he was poisoned, the director of the hospital that treated him said Wednesday.

Yushchenko, whose formerly smooth skin has turned pockmarked since he fell ill, has alleged that Ukrainian authorities poisoned him - a charge they deny.

Doctors are still running tests to try to determine what caused the illness, said Dr. Michael Zimpfer, the Rudolfinerhaus director.

``We are meticulously investigating that, and we are running entirely new tests in different labs, but there is no evidence so far,'' he said.

Doctors had only ``a descriptive diagnosis'' but no proof of what caused the illness, Zimpfer said, adding it could have had natural causes or have been sparked by a poison.

``It might also have been a combination of poisons. Everything is in the air,'' he said.

Zimpfer rejected as ``entirely untrue'' a story in Wednesday's edition of the London daily The Times, which quoted Dr. Nikolai Korpan - the Rudolfinerhaus physician who oversaw Yushchenko's treatment - as saying the Ukrainian candidate had been poisoned and the intention was to kill him.

Hours after the newspaper report was published, Korpan denied making the remarks.

``The suspicion of poisoning has until now neither been confirmed or excluded,'' Korpan was quoted as saying by the Austria Press Agency.

One of the theories being tested was whether Yushchenko could have suffered from dioxin poisoning, as suggested by British toxicologist John Henry.

Yushchenko first sought treatment at Vienna's private Rudolfinerhaus clinic on Sept. 10, four days after falling ill. He went home in mid-September to resume campaigning. But he came back to the hospital later that month for more treatment, returning to the campaign in early October.

One of the chief doctors treating Yushchenko, Lothar Wicke, had been placed under police protection after receiving an anonymous threat. No details about the threat have been released.

Yushchenko was defeated by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych in the Nov. 21 presidential election runoff, but the result was later canceled by the Supreme Court amid accusations of fraud that led to massive street protests. A rerun of the election is set for Dec. 26.

December 8, 1991 - Leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine met and signed an agreement ending the U.S.S.R. and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in the Belovezhskaya Pushcha Nature Reserve in Belarus.

I can't decide if I think it feels like this happens yesterday or a long time ago.

Ukraine government back to work as crisis eases

KIEV (AFP) - Ukraine's civil servants went back to work for the first time in weeks as the opposition lifted its blockade of government buildings and a political crisis eased following a compromise with the ruling regime.


The buses and human chains used by the opposition to block access to government buildings after a disputed presidential vote melted away and state employees were again free to enter their places of work without obstruction.


"I am glad it's over, it was incredibly irritating," said Ivan Volkov, a staffer with the cabinet of ministers.


Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko called on his supporters to lift the blockades after he struck a compromise with outgoing President Leonid Kuchma, breaking a tense standoff sparked by a contested election on November 21.


The compromise, which smoothed the way for a rerun vote on December 26, was hailed in Ukraine and abroad as a breakthrough in the political crisis that has polarized this strategic nation and fueled Cold War-like rhetoric between Russia and the West.


But on Thursday, Russia and NATO agreed to "work to ensure a free, fair electoral process that reflects the will of the Ukrainian people."


NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer called it a breakthrough agreement that "shows that this is not and this should not be ... an East-West confrontation, it's not an East-West rivalry."


Meanwhile thousands of Yushchenko supporters who had come to Kiev in the aftermath of a disputed vote packed up to go home.


Mikhailo, an 18-year-old student from the western town of Terebovlya, smoked his last cigarette before climbing onto a bus to take him home.


"I've been here since November 22," he said, adding that he would take his exams and return to Kiev afterwards "to defend the rights of our country."


But others vowed to stay in the tent camps set up in central Kiev to serve as both shelter and a quasi campaign headquarters.


"Yesterday there were fireworks and we claimed victory," said Sergei Semenchenko, a 22-year-old who came to Kiev from the eastern region of Chernigiv. "But we're staying here until the vote."


The compromise that broke the tense standoff between Yushchenko and Kuchma was a bill passed by parliament on Wednesday, which included measures pushed by both the opposition and the outgoing leader.


The opposition got electoral law changes and a new central election commission, measures it saw as vital in preventing fraud from marring the December 26 rerun vote, as had been the case with the November 21 election that was later annulled by the supreme court because of irregularities.


Meanwhile Kuchma got a controversial constitutional amendment that transfers many of the powers of the presidency to parliament.


After more than two weeks of standoff over the election that saw Yushchenko regions refuse to recognize any other president, parliament passed the compromise bill by a crushing majority of 402 to 21 and the chamber erupted in applause as the result appeared on a huge electronic board.


"This is an act of consolidation and reconciliation that proves Ukraine is united and indivisible," parliament speaker Volodymyr Litvin said afterward.


The European Union, which sent mediators three times to aid the negotiations during the standoff, hailed parliament's vote as a breakthrough and US Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) called Kuchma to congratulate him on the vote, according to the Ukrainian presidency.

The compromise is expected to boost Yushchenko's chances of winning the December rerun, but will also weaken the presidency.

The amendment transfers important powers from the presidency to parliament, where opposition forces are now in a minority, and is due to enter into force by January 1, 2006 at the latest.

Under the reforms, the president loses the power to appoint all top posts except for the prime minister, defense and foreign ministers, and his candidates for these three posts need to be approved by legislators as well.

Opposition Leader in Hospital
Friday December 10, 2004 9:01 PM

By SUSANNA LOOF

Associated Press Writer

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Ukrainian opposition leader and presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko checked into a private Vienna hospital Friday for more tests to determine whether a mysterious illness that has disfigured his face was caused by poisoning.

Arriving at the Rudolfinerhaus clinic, Yushchenko said he would stay until Monday, unless the tests were finished before then.

Yushchenko, 50, first fell ill in September and was rushed to the Vienna hospital. He resumed campaigning later in the month but with a pockmarked and badly disfigured face.

He has accused Ukrainian authorities of trying to poison him ahead of Ukraine's presidential vote - an allegation they have denied.

``Everything is going well. I plan to live for a long time and I plan to live happily. I am getting better health every day,'' said Yushchenko, wearing a scarf in his campaign color of orange and accompanied by his wife, Kateryna Chumachenko.

Dr. Michael Zimpfer, director of the Rudolfinerhaus hospital, said that among the tests would be tissue biopsies, a check of his blood chemistry and an examination of his internal organs.

``He needs to be re-examined so that we can get a chance to further clarify the nature of his illness,'' Zimpfer said.

Dr. Nikolai Korpan, the Rudolfinerhaus physician who oversaw Yushchenko's treatment, said earlier this week that doctors were working on three different poisoning theories, including one involving dioxin.

Yushchenko suffered from a series of symptoms, including back pain, acute pancreatitis and nerve paralysis on the left side of his face.

Zimpfer said doctors ``cannot exclude poisoning,'' but added: ``Theoretically it could be that we never can prove poisoning because he only came here a few days after the symptoms appeared. On the other hand, there are poisons that stay in the body a long time.''

If his disfigurement turns out to be chloracne - a type of adult acne caused by exposure to toxic chemicals - it could take a long time to clear, Zimpfer said. Sometimes it takes two to three years for people to heal.

Ukraine's Supreme Court voided the outcome of the Nov. 21 presidential runoff election, which Yushchenko lost to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, following allegations of massive vote fraud. A rerun of the ballot is slated for Dec. 26.

Yushchenko told reporters that he was confident of victory in the runoff - provided the vote is fair.

``There are no doubts that we will win on Dec. 26. We don't have a problem with support, we don't have a problem with getting votes. The problem is an honest election,'' Yushchenko said.

Doctors: Yushchenko was poisoned
Associated Press
Saturday December 11, 2004

The mysterious illness of Ukrainian opposition leader and presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko was caused by dioxin poisoning that was likely intentional, doctors have said.
"There is no doubt about the fact that Mr Yushchenko's disease has been caused by a case of poisoning by dioxin," said Dr Michael Zimpfer, director of Vienna's private Rudolfinerhaus clinic.

Zimpfer said Yushchenko's blood and tissue registered concentrations of dioxin 1,000 times above normal levels.

"It would be quite easy to administer this amount in a soup," Zimpfer said, adding that tests showed the dioxin was taken orally. "The criminal investigation does not fit within our purview but ... there is suspicion of third-party involvement."

Tests run over the past 24 hours provided conclusive evidence of the poisoning, Zimpfer said. When first seen by the Austrian doctors, Yushchenko was in a "critical stage" but was "not on the verge of dying," Zimpfer said.

He is now in "satisfactory" condition and his dioxin levels have returned to normal.

Yushchenko has accused Ukrainian authorities of trying to poison him in the runup to a presidential vote marred by fraud. Ukraine's Supreme Court voided the outcome of that vote, which Yushchenko lost to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, and a rerun of the ballot is slated for December 26.

Yushchenko first fell ill in September and was rushed to the Vienna hospital. He resumed campaigning later in the month but with a pockmarked and badly disfigured face.

He returned to the hospital later in September for further treatment and checked in for a third time yesterday.

Yushchenko was poisoned with dioxin-Austrian doctor says

11.12.2004, 17.42

VIENNA, December 11 (Itar-Tass) - Ukraine opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned with dioxin, Yushchenko's doctor Nikolai Korpan and the head of the Rudolfinerhaus Clinic in Vienna Michael Zimpfer said on Saturday.

11.12.2004

Yushchenko Poisoned, Doctors Say

Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko was the victim of dioxin poisoning and the toxin was probably administered deliberately by a "third party", his doctor in Vienna said on Saturday.

"There is no doubt about the fact that the disease has been caused by a case of poisoning by dioxin," said Michael Zimpfer, the medical chief of Vienna's Rudolfinerhaus clinic. "We suspect a cause triggered by a third party."

Zimpfer added the clinic's conclusion that Yushchenko had been poisoned was based on "skin changes, blood samples and histological findings."



Yushchenko, the 50-year-old pro-Western candidate in the Ukraine's bitterly contested presidential race, fell ill on Sept. 6 with an ailment that has left his face severely disfigured.

Seen as the likely winner of a Dec. 26 re-run of a second round of the Ukraine's November presidential vote which sparked mass protests by his supporters and was finally invalidated on grounds of fraud, Yushchenko repeatedly claimed that he was poisoned by political rivals.

Ukrainian public prosecutors have opened an investigation and said on Oct. 22 that he was suffering from a fever caused by a virus that affected his liver.


Victim of a murder plot?

But before leaving for Vienna on Friday, Yushchenho reiterated that he had been the victim of a murder plot.

"I believe now more and more that what happened to me was an act of a settling of political scores," he told reporters. "The aim was to kill me."


He said he planned to return to Kiev on Sunday and was confident of defeating Yanukovych when voters return to the polls in two weeks.

"The recent revolution (in Ukraine) has opened the eyes of many civil servants who were implicated in (fraud) during the earlier rounds," he said.


Yushchenko pushes for EU membership

In an interview with the Financial Times published on Saturday, he called on the European Union to accept his country as a future member of the 25-strong bloc at a future date.

"Of course, Ukraine is waiting for real concrete steps in response to these democratic and political processes that are occurring in Ukraine," Yushchenko said in an interview with the Financial Times published on Saturday. "We are awaiting analogous steps from the European Union. In these 17 days we have shown that we are a different country, we are a different people."

In the interview Yushchenko, who trained as an economist, set out a plan consisting of four stages, culminating in the adhesion of the former Soviet republic to the EU.

Ukraine, he told the newspaper, should first become a market economy. It should then join the World Trade Organisation, and become an EU associate member before eventually acquiring full membership.


Putin supports EU plan

Friday President Vladimir Putin said he would be "pleased" to see Ukraine admitted to the European Union because this would only benefit Russia's economy due to its deep and long-standing industrial links with its neighbor.

The Russian leader's comments marked a sharp departure from the barrage of criticism that Russia has directed at the European Union and other European institutions in the past 10 days.



Privatization criticized

In the interview Yushchenko also criticised the series of privatizations under the presidency of outgoing Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, which he said had favoured people close to the regime.

"Many assets we all know were handed over without competition just as more than 200 years ago Catherine the Great gave out land in southern Ukraine to her lovers and favourites," he was quoted as saying. "In this same way today strategic assets of the state were transferred to people close to Kuchma and (Prime Minister Viktor) Yanukovytch."

Author DW staff / AFP (win)

This has been all over the news for the past few hours - but I haven't seen any mention of it appearing in CIS or Ukraine sources ... doesn't mean its not there - just that I can't find it, but I'm pretty good at ferretin' out news.

Breaking news

Austrian doctors running new tests on Yushchenko
Dec 11, 14:12

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Doctors were closing in on the cause of the mysterious illness that has struck Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko, the head of the clinic where he is being treated said Dec. 11.

Physicians began running new tests the evening of Dec. 11, when Yushchenko was admitted for a third time to Vienna's private Rudolfinerhaus clinic, hospital director Dr. Michael Zimpfer said.

"We're closing in," Zimpfer said. "We started last night to do the entire imaging, including nuclear medicine, to look at the function of the organs, skeletal system and to see what kind of damage might be hiding," he said.

Doctors were also investigating Yushchenko's blood to check for any signs of poisoning.

The physician who oversaw the opposition leader's treatment said a press conference would be held the afternoon of Dec. 11 to announce the findings.

"Everything will be clarified today," Dr. Nikolai Korpan told reporters. "Today I will able to tell you a few things ... "