UKRAINE: FM TARASYUK ON COALITION AGREEMENT,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KIEV 002526

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/27/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL AORC KCRM PINR IZ UP
SUBJECT: UKRAINE: FM TARASYUK ON COALITION AGREEMENT,
ANTI-SEMITISM

REF: A. KIEV 2503


B. KIEV 2500

Classified By: DCM Sheila S. Gwaltney for reasons 1.4 (b,d).


1. (SBU) Summary: In a June 23 meeting with the American
Jewish Committee (AJC),Acting Foreign Minister Tarasyuk said
Ukraine would not join moves against Israel in the new UN
Council for Human Rights and undertook to examine the
possibility of withdrawing Ukrainian membership in the UN
Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian
People. He also said he would pass on several of AJC's
suggestions regarding ways to counter anti-Semitic activities
of MAUP and to deal with anti-Semitic crimes. Tarasyuk said
the Orange Coalition agreement committed the next government
to maintain President Yushchenko's foreign policy goals and
to undertake sweeping reforms of Ukraine's law enforcement
bodies to bring Ukraine in line with European standards. End
summary.

Support to Israel
--------------


2. (U) Acting Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk had a cordial
meeting June 23 with an American Jewish Committee delegation
led by AJC Executive Director David Harris. Tarasyuk noted
the Ukrainian government planned to host an international
forum on the Holocaust on September 27, the 65th anniversary
of Babyn Yar. Harris said AJC was aware of the gathering and
planned to attend.


3. (SBU) After describing atmospherics at the delegation's
other stops on its trip, Harris appealed for Ukrainian
government help at the United Nations. Since 1965, the UN
Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People
had been part of a systematic attack by certain UN
member-states on the legitimacy of the state of Israel. Its
25 members included Ukraine. Harris encouraged Ukraine to
quit the committee. Harris also congratulated Ukraine for
its membership on the new UN Human Rights Council. AJC was
watching the Council's first meetings with interest, but its
hopes that the Council would be a marked improvement over its
predecessor organization were not materializing. The
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) had met and,
pushed particularly by Egypt, Iran, and Pakistan, was
advocating a separate discussion at the Human Rights Council
on the status of Israel. Harris encouraged Ukraine to oppose
negative developments that would mean the Human Rights
Council would fail to be an improvement over its predecessor,
the Human Rights Commission.


4. (SBU) Tarasyuk thanked Harris for drawing his attention to
the fact that Ukraine's membership on the UN Committee on the
Palestinian People was an irritant in AJC's relationship with
Ukraine. He promised to put the matter on the agenda for the
Ukrainian government's internal discussions. Tarasyuk said
Ukraine had begun to align itself with the U.S. and EU
positions in the earlier UN Commission on Human Rights and
planned to continue to do so in the new Council. Ukraine
would not participate in any campaign that was hostile to
Israel and would not support attempts such as the one Harris
described. Tarasyuk would send instructions to the Ukrainian
delegation not to side with countries attacking Israel.

Anti-Semitism and MAUP
--------------


5. (SBU) Harris said anti-Semitism was a global phenomenon
and not limited to Ukraine; every country should be vigilant
in countering manifestations of anti-Semitism. Law
enforcement and the judicial system had to prosecute hate
crimes aggressively, and the educational system needed to
promote tolerance. AJC would look to Tarasyuk and his
colleagues to do everything possible to combat anti-Semitism,
especially since the Orange Revolution had been partly a
struggle by defenders of pluralistic values. Tarasyuk agreed
with Harris but noted that he did not believe that
manifestations of anti-Semitism were systemic in Ukraine or
that Ukrainian law enforcement was lax. In fact, he could
cite several criminal cases in which perpetrators had been
punished. The Ukrainian government was also continuing to
take action against the anti-Semitic Inter-Regional Academy
of Personnel Management (known by its Ukrainian acronym MAUP)
and had withdrawn licenses for several of MAUP's regional
offices.


6. (SBU) Harris said AJC was aware that MAUP licenses had
been revoked, but stressed that MAUP's activities had become
a matter of high-level concern that had reached the ears of
some members of the U.S. Congress. He urged the Ukrainian
government to pursue revocation of additional licenses and

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suggested that it could also investigate MAUP's sources of
funding. Harris had heard, for example, that MAUP had
received financial and material support from the Palestinian
Embassy. While the question of whether Ukrainian laws had
been violated was an internal Ukrainian decision, Harris
hoped there might be grounds to prosecute if funds were
provided for the purpose of inciting racial hatred.


7. (SBU) Harris noted many countries preferred to prosecute
acts of anti-Semitism under "hooliganism" charges, since
proving intent or pre-meditation to establish a hate crime
was difficult. Nevertheless, more serious charges were
sometimes warranted. OSCE's Office of Democratic
Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) had developed a good
course directed to law enforcement personnel on procedures to
investigate and prosecute hate crimes. Harris said he was
pleased to inform Tarasyuk that Ukrainian law enforcement had
participated in the training. Tarasyuk undertook to relay
Harris' suggestions to the Ukrainian Prosecutor's General
Office (PGO) and the Ministry of Interior (MOI).

Coalition Agreement: European and Euro-Atlantic Course
-------------- --------------


8. (SBU) Responding to Harris' question, Tarasyuk said the
coalition agreement was important because it would define the
ruling coalition's future activity. The coalition agreement
would change the Ukrainian government's approach on many
issues, including law enforcement and the essential
activities of the PGO, MOI, and the judiciary. After a long
debate, the newly agreed-upon Orange Coalition (or "Coalition
of Democratic Forces") would make fundamental reforms.


9. Providing one example, Tarasyuk noted the responsibility
for carrying out criminal investigations was spread across
the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU),the PGO, and MOI. The
planned reform would concentrate the function in a new
investigative body, the National Bureau of Investigation
(NBI),which Tarasyuk expected would be stood up by the end
of the year. The reforms also envisioned transforming MOI
from a Soviet-style structure to a structure patterned after
Western European ministries. The judiciary would also be
reformed, so that it was a less corrupt institution. In this
regard, Tarasyuk was grateful for USG assistance provided
through the Millennium Challenge Corporation.


10. (C) After a hot debate, Orange Coalition members had also
agreed on an approach that would introduce market mechanisms
into sales of agricultural land, Tarasyuk continued.
Tarasyuk could not relate all the details, but the Orange
Coalition had also overcome resistance from the Socialists
(who, Tarasyuk commented wryly, were not socialists but
really communists). There would be no change of President
Yushchenko's foreign policy objectives under the second
Orange Coalition incarnation, Tarasyuk averred. Ukraine
would continue to pursue membership in both NATO and the EU,
as well as passing legislation in the fall necessary for WTO
membership. Orange Coalition members had agreed internally
and privately that the new prime minister would send a letter
to NATO expressing the Ukrainian government's continuing
interest in receiving a NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP).
Harris assured Tarasyuk that AJC, while an NGO and not a
governmental representative, remained an enthusiastic
supporter of Ukraine's NATO aspirations. It maintained
offices in Brussels, Rome, Berlin, and Warsaw and would
utilize its contacts to support Ukraine's push for NATO
membership.


11. (U) Visit Embassy Kiev's classified website:
www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/kiev.
Taylor