Yushchenko Seeks to Find Way Out of Crisis

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko met with parliamentary faction leaders to try to find a way out of the deepening political crisis triggered by the breakup of his Orange Revolution team.


Viktor Yushchenko meets with parliamentary representatives
Yushchenko said he wants to "bury the hatchet" with ousted Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, but stopped far short of accepting his former ally's proposal to return to the government.

"All political forces, including Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko, should take part in forming the government," Yushchenko said a day after parliament refused to approve his choice of acting Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov for the nation's No. 2 job.

Tymoshenko took part in the meeting, along with losing presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych, whose party joined forces with her faction to block Yekhanurov's candidacy.

"We may look at things in different ways but I am convinced that we have ideals which may unite us," Yushchenko said at the start of the meeting. He asked the participants not to do anything "that would hurt the country's image or her reputation."

Ukraine has sunk into a political quagmire since the Orange Revolution team that brought Yushchenko to power disintegrated two weeks ago amid mutual allegations of corruption and infighting. Yushchenko dismissed the government Sept. 8, a move that has left him politically vulnerable in a parliament still dominated by communists and his former foes. The opposition has grown even larger, with lawmakers expressing loyalty to Tymoshenko.

Tymoshenko told journalists she was ready to offer Yushchenko an alliance aimed at creating a new coalition government.

"I am ready to sit down with him (Yushchenko) today ... and suggest we unite forces and create a new government," Tymoshenko said.

Asked if she was proposing that Yushchenko name her prime minister again, she said: "We need to restore the status quo."

"In my heart, there are no bad emotions about the president," she said.

Asked about the offer, Yushchenko said only that he had called Tymoshenko on Monday and proposed she "bury the hatchet and not violate the ideas of Independence Square because we stood there together and at that time we elected the president of Ukraine and not the prime minister."

Yushchenko added: "I am excluding no one." But he did not directly respond to Tymoshenko's wish to be named prime minister again.

Earlier, Yushchenko's aides said he would likely forward Yekhanurov's name for a second vote. Yushchenko repeated that he thought Yekhanurov's candidacy would help "consolidate the majority of political forces." He said Wednesday, however, that he would make a final decision after the closed talks. A new vote could be held as early as Thursday.

For many Ukrainians, Tymoshenko symbolized their revolution, a charismatic orator with charm and appealing ethnic symbolism. She rallied hundreds of thousands who massed in Kiev last year to denounce fraud by the former government in the presidential election and force a new vote, which Yushchenko won.

But since her dismissal, Yushchenko has accused her of abusing her office to cancel the debt owed by a company she once headed. The Prosecutor General's office on Wednesday appealed earlier court rulings that had annulled the $1.3 billion debt of the now-defunct United Energy Systems.

Authorities loyal to former President Leonid Kuchma jailed Tymoshenko after her 2000 ouster on embezzlement charges stemming from her running of UES.

Source: AP