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From: Transitions Online <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: New at TOL
Date: 19 February 2001 20:29
Transitions Online - Intelligent Eastern Europe
New at TOL: 12 - 18 February 2001
OUR TAKE: Up Against a Wall
On Ukraine's troubling crossroads.
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=6&NrSection=16&NrArticle=599&ST1=body&ST_T1=wir&ST_ma
x=1
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WEEK IN REVIEW: 12 - 18 February 2001
Point of No Return
Kuchmagate scandal brings Ukraine to the intersection of authoritarianism and democracy.
By Oleg Varfolomeyev
http://www.tol.cz/week.html
Invasion of the Baby Snatchers
Czech experts reveal that communists stole almost 600 babies born in jail and changed their identities.
By Petra Breyerova
http://www.tol.cz/week.html
Life for the "Tractor Driver"
First Chechen terrorist leader tried and sentenced to life in prison.
By Maria Antonenko
http://www.tol.cz/week.html
Shooting Fish in a Barrel
Estonian politics gets exciting as lie detectors, boyish games, and alcohol have the prime minister floundering in the opposition's
pool.
By Kristjan Kaljund
http://www.tol.cz/week.html
Protecting Human Life
Abortion issue raises conflict in Slovakia's constitutional discussions.
By Barbora Maroszova
http://www.tol.cz/week.html
MORE WEEK IN REVIEW:
http://www.tol.cz/week.html
- Small Parliamentary Victories, War Zone Tragedies for Serbia
- Budapest Chooses F-16s Over MiGs
- Oppositionist's Son Arrested in Belarus
- Albanian University in Macedonia Nearing Completion
- Kazakh History To Be Crushed by Big Oil?
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Invitation:
Attend the Privacy Conference at Central European University, March 23-24, 2001. The Conference is free and open to the public.
It will be held at the Central European University auditorium, Nador u. 9, Budapest. Please visit the official site of the
conference, http://www.socres.org/budapest/, for more information about the conference, including agenda and registration.
------------------------------------
SPECIAL REPORT: Tough Love for Women
Conspiracy of Silence
By Susan C. Pearce
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=6&NrSection=2&NrArticle=586
"Because the soup was too salty." Three years ago, Poles were confronted with billboard after billboard featuring such slogans.
Above the slogan was a stark close-up photograph of a woman's badly bruised face fixed in a straightforward gaze, sometimes
accompanied by the face of an equally brutalized child. The ads were the work of the government's Blue Line campaign, which hoped
to raise public awareness about family violence. Poland may be a strong "family" society based on Christian values, but the image
masks widespread domestic violence.
Choose Life, If You Can Afford It
By Nonna Chernyakova and Russell Working
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=6&NrSection=2&NrArticle=587
The only Roman Catholic Church in this Far Eastern seaport sits high on a hill at the end of a road half washed away by last
summer's typhoons. But every month, 50 or 60 women trudge up to its Women's Support Center to take a free pregnancy test. In
Russia, abortion is the most common form of contraception, and religious groups are hard-pressed to change public opinion on the
matter.
Woman Traps
By Marius Dragomir
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=6&NrSection=2&NrArticle=592
Ioana from Bucharest, Romania, left home in February 1999. "After my parents lost their jobs, they started to drink a lot. They
were always drunk and irate. My father used to curse and beat me," says Ioana, who was a high-school student at the time. Trying to
build a future for herself, she decided to go to live with a cousin in Oradea, Romania. While she was looking for a job, Ioana met
Diaconu, a man who promised to help her find a job. Her search for a job led to her becoming a prostitute in Prague. Ioana's is a
familiar story.
Honor Killings to Discrimination
by Andrea Mrozek
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=6&NrSection=5&NrArticle=594
Women's lives across the region are diverse: From countries that are still practicing virgin examinations and honor killings and
those, like Latvia, where almost 50 percent of all university professors are women. A new book on the region's women makes some
puzzling assumptions and fails to compare like with like.
FEATURES:
Amateur Mining
by Nomin Lhagvasuren
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=6&NrSection=2&NrArticle=590
The line between life and death is so thin in one Mongolian town--dependent for decades on a state-owned mine that closed 10 years
ago--that while a rescue group and the police were searching for survivors in the rubble of the latest accident, another group was
digging coal only 20 meters from the scene.
ANALYSIS:
Collecting Scalps
By Russell Working and Nonna Chernyakova
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOLnew/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=6&NrSection=2&NrArticle=589&ST1=body&ST_T1=letter&ST_
max=1
There were no street celebrations, no mobs swarming the executive mansion, no panicked leader scrambling into a helicopter that
slices off into the night, as sometimes happens when strongmen fall in lawless places. Will Nazdratenko's Putin-pressured fall
change anything for the better in the Russian Far East?
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- Internews Russia (www.internews.ru) is a Russian non-profit organization, which has been working since 1992 to provide support to
independent Russian television broadcasters and the Russian television industry as a whole.
- Central Europe Review (www.ce-review.org) the weekly Internet journal of Central and East European politics, society, and
culture.
-----------------------------------
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OUR TAKE: Up Against a Wall
Back in December 2000, when the "Kuchmagate" scandal was starting to break, beleaguered Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma said that
the allegations against him and his associates were an "onslaught on the foundations of our statehood, on the stability of
Ukrainian society." He added that it was an attempt "to portray Ukraine ... as a wild and benighted society."
Thankfully Ukraine isn't yet that kind of society. But without due care, it could go down the regressive road of neighbors like
Belarus. The concern is that events will spin out of control and--despite popular opposition and international pressure--Kuchma
will use every means available to stay in power, like other counterparts in the region. At a 14 February meeting sponsored by the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, analysts agreed that "the course that is chosen now will determine if Ukraine is still
considered a democratizing nation or whether it moves closer to authoritarianism, with a more controlled environment and more
constrained policy choices."
The high-profile scandal--involving the disappearance of journalist Georgy Gongadze, the discovery of a decapitated body alleged to
be his, and the release of audio tapes that allegedly link Kuchma and several key ministers to the crime--has the government in a
state of chaos the likes of which the country hasn't seen since its independence.
Kuchma's actions now have all the trappings of a man with his back against the wall: On 13 February, the authorities arrested the
country's former deputy energy minister and leading oppositionist, Yulia Tymoshenko, and the president sacked the head of the SBU,
Ukraine's secret service. Rhetorically, the language of the government has recently been more virulent and, regressing back to
Soviet-era parlance, has compared the protesters to Nazis.
But Ukraine is no Belarus and Kuchma is no Lukashenka: The Carnegie report said that while there is obvious harassment of the media
and demonstrators, "there is no heavy climate of fear [in Ukraine]." The report, however, also concluded, there are those in
Kuchma's inner circle who could accelerate the downward spiral into authoritarianism. While Kuchma is no despot, he is no democrat
either. The president was in hot water last year after a controversial referendum in April that increased his presidential power.
Western governments gritted their teeth and hoped that his actions weren't those of a power-crazed dictator, but of a frustrated
reformer who wanted to speed things up but was stymied by parliamentary impasse.
That is the fundamental question--and the one on which the jury is still out. There is actually little the West can do now, apart
from continuing to pressure for a sound investigation into the matter and making the right noises about the development of civil
society. Ukraine, like Belarus, is shifty ground for the West. Desire exists for increased involvement--largely through the
nonprofit sector--to encourage nation building, the development of civil society, and, ultimately, foreign direct investment. But
there are also geostrategic concerns, with Ukraine as a NATO buffer zone and future border state of the European Union, and, of
course, the influence of its big brother, Russia.
Many analysts are saying that the West has already lost Ukraine to Russia and that the country is "Westward leaning no more"--the
country's policy in recent years. Russia is still the powerhouse of the Ukrainian economy and investments from Western
companies--who are put off by bureaucratic obstructions and the country's business culture--are still scarce. Investing in Ukraine
has been left largely to Russian firms, which have the know-how, the connections, and the logistical networks. Moreover, although
Ukraine is still participating in NATO's Partnership for Peace Program, its soldiers still regularly engage in exercises with
Russian troops. Other signs indicate that Ukraine is falling into Russian arms: Kuchma met last week with Russian President
Vladimir Putin about further cooperation on an electricity network and satellites.
Right now, Ukraine is at a crossroads. Evidence suggests that the president ordered the death of a journalist who was meddling in
his business. When the people found out, they began to protest and call for his resignation. But in many countries of the former
Soviet Union, this scandal would never have been brought to the surface--the tapes would never have been made public. And, in the
rare event that they had been, protests would have been muted, and police would have taken to the streets and cracked some skulls.
At least in Ukraine, the scandal is public and the actions against the protesters have, so far, been restrained. Despite the bad
omens, that is at least a sign that some progress has been made in the nation's transition.
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Transitions Online - Intelligent Eastern Europe
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