[Joint House and Senate Hearing, 113 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
UKRAINE'S LEADERSHIP OF THE OSCE
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND
COOPERATION IN EUROPE
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
MAY 8, 2013
__________
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Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
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COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH COMMISSIONERS
SENATE HOUSE
BENJAMIN CARDIN, Maryland, CHRISTOPHER SMITH, New Jersey,
Chairman Co-Chairman
SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island JOSEPH PITTS, Pennsylvania
TOM UDALL, New Mexico ROBERT ADERHOLT, Alabama
JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire PHIL GINGREY, Georgia
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut MICHAEL BURGESS, Texas
ROGER WICKER, Mississippi ALCEE HASTINGS, Florida
SAXBY CHAMBLISS, Georgia LOUISE McINTOSH SLAUGHTER,
JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas New York
MIKE McINTYRE, North Carolina
STEVE COHEN, Tennessee
UKRAINE'S LEADERSHIP OF THE OSCE
----------
MAY 8, 2013
COMMISSIONERS
Page
Hon. Benjamin Cardin, Chairman, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.......................................... 1
Hon. Christopher Smith, Co-Chairman, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.......................................... 3
Hon. Stephen Cohen, Commissioner, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.......................................... 5
Hon. Michael Burgess, Commissioner, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.......................................... 5
WITNESSES
Leonid Kozhara, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.......... 6
APPENDICES
Prepared Statement of Hon. Benjamin Cardin....................... 23
Prepared Statement of Hon. Christopher Smith..................... 24
Prepared Statement of Leonid Kozhara............................. 25
Materials for the Record......................................... 28
.
UKRAINE'S LEADERSHIP OF THE OSCE
----------
MAY 8, 2013
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe,
Washington, DC.
The hearing was held from 2:05 p.m. to 3:31 p.m. EST in
Room 562 of the the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington,
D.C., Senator Benjamin Cardin, Chairman of the Commission on
Security and Cooperation in Europe, presiding.
Commissioners present: Hon. Benjamin Cardin, Chairman,
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe; Hon.
Christopher Smith, Co-Chairman, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe; Hon. Michael Burgess, Commissioner,
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe; and Hon.
Stephen Cohen, Commissioner, Commission on Security and
Cooperation in Europe.
Witnesses present: Leonid Kozhara, Minister for Foreign
Affairs of Ukraine.
HON. BENJAMIN CARDIN, CHAIRMAN, COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND
COOPERATION IN EUROPE
Mr. Cardin. Well, let me welcome Minister Kozhara to our
commission, the Helsinki Commission. It's a pleasure to have
you here. Mr. Kozhara is the president, or the chair-in-office,
of the OSCE. The Helsinki Commission has always hosted the
chair-in-office, and we thank you, Mr. Minister, for carrying
out that tradition of coming to the United States, visiting the
Helsinki Commission during the year of your chair-in-office. We
know this has been an extremely busy year, with many matters of
particular concern within the OSCE region, as well as the
continuation of the agenda that's so important to the member
states.
I'm joined by the co-chair of the commission, Commissioner
Smith, who I think you know very well, and Commissioner
Burgess, Dr. Burgess, a member from Texas. So we expect to be
joined by other members of the commission. But let me welcome
you here to the United States.
The 1975 Helsinki Final Act and process it initiated, with
its focus on human rights and fundamental freedom, played an
important role in the achievement of your country's
independence. As you know, the Helsinki Commission has had a
long history of support for Ukraine's independence and
democratic development. We want Ukraine to succeed.
I recall my visit to Ukraine, both to Kyiv in early 2005,
shortly following the Orange Revolution, a time of great
promise. And I will always remember that first visit and seeing
just the energy among the people of the Ukraine and how they
were able to reclaim their country and establish democratic
institutions that represent the will of the people. I returned
in 2007, where you hosted the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's
annual meeting. And it was one of the more interesting
Parliamentary Assembly meetings that we've had. I had the
opportunity during that visit to visit Chernobyl, the site of
the worst nuclear power plant disaster in history, which for
nearly three decades has had such a profound impact on the
Ukraine and her neighbors.
Like any chair-in-office, Ukraine faces formidable tasks in
leading this multilateral organization that operates on the
basis of consensus and includes 57 countries ranging from
democracy to dictatorship. As I said to you before this hearing
started, you have to be an incredible diplomat to deal with the
different types of issues represented by the 57 participating
states. And we thank you for being willing to step forward to
serve in that leadership position.
As chair-in-office, you also must display strong democratic
credentials in order to be the example for the other states
that need to do better in their adherence to OSCE obligations.
It's incumbent upon Ukraine to lead by example in upholding the
OSCE human rights and rule of law commitments.
I welcome the recent pardons of former high-ranking
officials and believe that they are a good first step. I trust
that you will build on your promise of further judicial and
electoral reforms. And we hope that last week's European Court
on Human Rights' ruling that the detention of former Prime
Minister Yulia Tymoshenko before and during her trial was
arbitrary and a violation of rights will provide further
impetus for her release. Mr. Minister, your appearance here
allows us to hear your reflections on your achievements and
challenges to date, and how your priorities are being executed
and the plans for the remainder of your tenure. We all must do
what we can to insure security and economic cooperation and to
safeguard not only democracy's progress, but its preservation.
That is why strengthening the implementation of the human
dimension commitments by all participating states is so
important. We're for strengthening all three baskets. All three
baskets are important. We don't want to weaken any of the
baskets. The human dimension is extremely important, as is the
economic, environmental and the security baskets. I had the
opportunity to chair the second committee of the Parliamentary
Assembly and worked on the economic and environmental. So all
three baskets are critically important. The U.S. Helsinki
Commission has, in recent years, made priorities many of the
issues that you're dealing with today: the tolerance agenda and
the establishments of the special representatives. We take
particular pride in having the first hearings dealing with the
problems of bigotry.
The human trafficking issues: Congressman Smith has been a
world leader on promoting greater accountability, not just by
the destination countries but by the origin countries and the
transit countries. We all have responsibility. And we're proud
of the report that we issued, the TIP Report, which reflects
how well a country is doing in meeting its international
commitments against human trafficking.
In the area of transparency and fighting corruption, the
commission has taken a very strong position for greater
transparency, particularly with the extractive industries. And
as I told you in our private discussion, we are very much
concerned about strengthening the election monitoring process
and resolving any conflicts that might exist between ODIHR and
the Parliamentary Assembly to make sure that there's an
effective mechanism in place for that critically important role
that the OSCE plays in monitoring to make sure elections are
free and fair. And then let me mention we have many dispute
areas of borders that we want to see resolved in a peaceful
way. And these conflicts in many cases have been frozen for way
too long, and we welcome your assessment as to how progress is
being made on all these fronts. The bottom line is that we want
to thank you for your leadership in the OSCE, and we wish you
continued success as you have completed about the one-third
mark of your chairmanship presidency and have two-thirds to go.
We want you to know that this commission wants to work with you
to accomplish our mutual objectives within the OSCE.
As I explained to you and my colleagues a little bit
earlier, this is a bicameral body, with House members and
Senate members. The Senate is in the process right now of two
votes on a water resource bill. I'm going to be leaving and
turning the gavel over to Chairman Smith, but I expect to be
back in about 15 minutes. I know the House has scheduled votes
around 3:00 this afternoon, so the members may be coming in and
out during the course of the hearing. But that's not a
reflection of the importance of the subject, and we certainly
want to extend to you the greatest courtesies. Thank you.
HON. CHRISTOPHER SMITH, CO-CHAIRMAN, COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND
COOPERATION IN EUROPE
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman--Chairman
Cardin. And, Mr. Foreign Minister, welcome, and your leaders
from Ukraine who are here with you today. I'd like to join my
colleagues in officially welcoming you, along with the co-
chair, and of course welcome everyone who's in the room, many
of whom have labored long and hard for many years on behalf of
human rights, democracy and freedom in the Ukraine.
Ukraine has come certainly a long way since I first joined
the Helsinki Commission 30 years ago. At that time it was a
great nation suffering under Soviet oppression, and
independence and freedom seemed like a distant dream. Even in
those days, however, Ukraine distinguished itself by the number
of courageous men and women who fought for human rights and
freedom.
When the Helsinki monitoring groups were formed in the
Soviet Union to call on the dictatorship to live up to its
Helsinki human rights commitments, the Ukrainian monitoring
group was the largest and the most harshly repressed of them
all, and in the early 1990s played a leading role in
establishing democracy in an independent Ukraine. In many ways
Ukrainians were at the forefront of the struggle to replace the
old Soviet Union with governments that respected human rights,
a great honor to Ukraine.
So it is a special privilege to have you here today, Mr.
Foreign Minister. And it is a fitting and long-awaited
distinction for Ukraine to lead the OSCE this year. You and
your country will face many challenges and opportunities this
year in your role as chair-in-office, and I look forward to
hearing, as well as my colleagues, you present your ongoing
plans for the remaining, as Ben Cardin said, two-thirds of you
tenure in office at the OSCE.
Of course it is good news that your priorities as chairman-
in-office include an emphasis on the human dimension issues,
especially human trafficking, media freedom, tolerance and
nondiscrimination in democratic elections. As author of the
Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and it's 2003 and
'05 reauthorizations, I especially applaud the leadership, the
energy and the vision which you have shown in taking on the
fight to combat the scourge of modern-day slavery, human
trafficking.
All of us in the fight against trafficking appreciate the
special trafficking conference that Ukraine is convening in
Kyiv this June in order to look closely at overlooked aspects
of human trafficking and, most importantly, the strengthening,
the coherence of the OSCE's response, including international
law enforcement response to trafficking in persons.
I also want to commend Ukraine for the work it has done
already to focus attention on the hundreds of thousands of
trafficking victims who are moved across borders each year who
could be rescued in transit if airline and other transportation
personnel were appropriately trained and law enforcement ready
to intervene. Last month Ambassador Motsyk took the lead in
spearheading the Airline Ambassadors airline initiative, with
other ambassadors here in Washington, and other diplomats from
OSCE countries, as well as with representatives of airlines in
the United States. This training will create the situational
awareness in the transportation industry that will make it much
harder to traffic women.
At the event at the Ukrainian Embassy--and I was very
privileged to have been invited and to join you there--
Ambassador Motsyk introduced Nancy Rivard, the founder and
president of Airline Ambassadors, who demonstrated that
transportation personnel, once trained, can rescue people in
flight, of course by contacting law enforcement, so when that
flight lands they can be protected and the perpetrators
arrested. They have rescued more than a hundred victims
already. And of course the Ukrainian government has taken the
lead in organizing another major trafficking event to be held
later this summer in Kyiv. So, Mr. Foreign Minister, your
government's efforts will ensure that thousands of women and
girls will be rescued from the horrors of trafficking and will
impede the traffickers so that many other women and children
will never undergo it. It will have a chilling effect.
Your commitment to introducing this program in the 57 OSCE
participating states will ensure that we can rescue thousands
more. And I know I speak for everyone in this fight in thanking
you for that extraordinary leadership.
I also want to mention one of the remaining problems in
Ukraine, probably the chief symbol of problems touching on
human rights, and that is our ongoing concern for former Prime
Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. As Ben Cardin mentioned, you know
that that is of deep concern to each and every one of us, and I
do hope that you and your government will do all that it can to
release her. The recent release of opposition leader Yuri
Lutsenko was a great step. It sent a message to each and every
one of us of progress, and we are all very grateful for that.
So again, Mr. Foreign Minister, Mr. Chairman, thank you for
being here and we look forward to your testimony. But I'd like
to now yield to Mr. Cohen for any opening comments that he
might have.
HON. STEPHEN COHEN, COMMISSIONER, COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND
COOPERATION IN EUROPE
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And to our guest, I
appreciate your capacities that you are engaged in, in
government and in the OSCE. I am concerned about these issues.
And some of the issues concerning the Ukraine that have come to
my attention concern some attacks when, I believe it was Mr.
Kuchma was the president. And at that time there was a
journalist, Yeliashkevich, who was a party official, and he was
beaten badly.
And it's my understanding that the perpetrators of that
action have not been brought to justice, and that some, I
understand, in the Ukraine feel that the perpetrators have
since been identified. There was some issue about the proof,
but the proof is--I think it's a judgment call.
There was a journalist killed, Mr. Gongadze. And two others
at the same time were terribly beaten. I do know, as I
understand, one of the perpetrators there was sentenced to
life, but others have not been. And there was involvement
expected through the government, and they have not been brought
to justice. And Mr. Podolsky, a journalist who survived a
beating at the same time. In all those cases, justice does not
seem to have been carried out to the extent that it might have
been to bring all the parties responsible to justice. And my
questions to you will be, what is being done to see that
justice, even if it goes to the highest levels in your
government, is meted out so that these atrocious murders and
beatings, which were political in nature and against the civil
rights of these individuals, and against the Ukrainian
government, in essence, will be brought to justice?
And with that, I look forward to your remarks and
appreciate your service.
Mr. Cardin. Thank you, Mr. Cohen. I now yield to Dr.
Burgess.
HON. MICHAEL BURGESS, COMMISSIONER, COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND
COOPERATION IN EUROPE
Mr. Burgess. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I
appreciate you having the hearing on Ukraine's leadership of
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, indeed
the world's largest regional security organization.
The OSCE is well known for promoting human rights,
democracy and the rule of law. Ukraine, through the leadership
of the chairman-in-office, has assumed the highest political
position in the OSCE during an important and challenging time.
Over the past several years, participating states have tasked
OSCE with an increasingly long list of issues, from poor
compliance with the OSCE's democratic commitments by some
participating states to consistent efforts by Russia and its
allies to undercut the work on human rights. The OSCE is in
need of Ukraine's strong leadership and continued commitment to
doing good work.
And I believe that Ukraine is capable and rising to the
challenge one-third of its way through this year. In your
tenure as chair, the priorities during that time remain
attainable. Ukraine's focus on human trafficking, media
freedom, energy security and a new framework for increasing
work on good governance are worthwhile and achievable through
steadfast leadership.
I also want to join with Commissioner Cardin, Chairman
Cardin and Chairman Smith--and, Chairman, thank you for having
that hearing in the last Congress on Yulia Tymoshenko, and
certainly we do need to remain focused on the difficulties that
she and her family have faced during this prolonged
incarceration. The Helsinki Commission has a strong working
relationship with the Ukrainian chairmanship. Foreign Minister
Kozhara is familiar with the work of the commission from the
mid-'90s when he was the Ukrainian Embassy's congressional
liaison here in Washington. Today the commission continues to
work with the Ukrainian Embassy on many issues. And I thank you
for being here, and welcome back to Washington.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing. And
certainly we share common goals and look forward to your
testimony. Thank you.
Mr. Cardin. Mr. Foreign Minister, Mr. Chair-in-Office, the
floor is yours.
LEONID KOZHARA, MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF UKRAINE
Mr. Kozhara. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen,
I am extremely pleased and honored to be here with you today as
a chairperson-in-office of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe.
It's a great responsibility for me personally, and for
Ukraine, to lead the world's largest regional security
organization throughout this year. With 57 participating
states, stretching from Vancouver to Vladivostok, the OSCE is
uniquely designed as a comprehensive and inclusive platform for
security dialogue in the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian area. We
strongly believe that the OSCE is well suited to address the
changing security challenges in its area, and that we need to
continue strengthening its toolbox and improving its coherence.
Ukraine, as the chairmanship-in-office, is a consistent
advocate of the OSCE concept of comprehensive cooperative,
equal and indivisible security. We take the view that lasting
and sustainable peace and security can only be achieved by
pursuing a balanced approach across all three dimensions: the
political and military, the environmental and economic, as well
as the human dimensions.
As we approach the 40th anniversary of the Helsinki Final
Act, the Helsinki-plus-40 process launched in Dublin last year
should serve in our understanding as a catalyst for re-
energizing the entire organization. A strong engagement from
the United States will be of a great importance for success of
this effort.
Distinguished audience, we are convinced that the human
dimension belongs to the core of the concept of comprehensive
security. The Ukrainian chairmanship outlined the over-reaching
goal of promoting full implementation of the existing human
dimension commitments by all participating states.
The fight against trafficking in persons remains one of the
key issues that are being addressed by the OSCE under the
Ukrainian chairmanship. It's a plague that many OSCE countries,
including Ukraine, have been suffering for many years. We need
to combine all possible instruments to meet this challenge. A
set of public events has been organized to this end, one of
them being the international conference on strengthening the
OSCE response to trafficking in human beings, to be held in
Kyiv this June. And in this regard, I would like to use this
opportunity to invite members of the Helsinki Commission to
attend this important event in my home country and in the city
of Kyiv. Fostering the freedom of the media is also among our
priorities in this dimension. A human rights seminar in Warsaw
is planned to address the media freedom legislation issues. It
would result in developing relevant recommendations for the
participating states.
We will also strive to achieve progress in the areas of
free movement of people, promotion of tolerance and
nondiscrimination, freedom of association and assembly, inter-
religious dialogue in promoting freedom of religion or belief,
as well as democratic elections and election observation.
Attaching great importance to the promotion of tolerance and
nondiscrimination through youth education, the chairmanship is
preparing to host the OSCE youth summit in July-August this
year in Crimea, Ukraine.
We also believe in the importance of constructive
engagement of civil society in achieving the OSCE goals.
Election monitoring is one of the hallmarks of the OSCE. A
smooth cooperation between the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and
the ODIHR is essential. The OSCE must speak in one voice. It is
for the benefit of all the OSCE participating states to take
recommendations made by the international observation missions
seriously. For instance, following the October 2012
parliamentary elections in Ukraine, its government approved a
relevant action plan on priority measures to improve the
electoral legislation. At the same time, to ensure compliance
in election observation, it is important to safeguard
independence, impartiality and professionalism of observers in
line with the OSCE decisions.
Ladies and gentlemen, progress in finding a sustainable and
long-term solution to the protracted conflicts in the OSCE area
is on top of our agenda. My visit in the capacity of the OSCE
chairperson-in-office in January was to Moldova. I encouraged
the leadership in Chisinau and Tiraspol to engage
constructively into the negotiations process.
The political will for mutual rapprochement at both banks
of the Dniester River is a key to finding compromise solutions.
We hope that the results of current political process in
Moldova will give a new impetus to further development of
dialect between Chisinau and Tiraspol, to which Ukraine remains
ready to contribute. We remain convinced the success of the
Geneva process is crucial for improving the security and
humanitarian situation in the conflict areas in Georgia. The
chairmanship welcomes and supports the efforts of the Minsk
Group co-chairs directed at promoting dialogue between
Azerbaijan and Armenia on the settlement of the Nagorno-
Karabakh conflict.
During my upcoming visit to the South Caucasus on June
17th-20th, I intend to outline the need for a strict
implementation of ceasefire and to support the call of the
Minsk Group co-chairs for a more active engagement in the
negotiations over the basic principles of the settlement.
Within the political and military dimension, we aim at
modernizing the OSCE political military instruments. As a
strong advocate of nonproliferation, Ukraine attaches special
importance to enhancing the OSCE's profile in countering the
threat of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
We appreciate the high level of cooperation between Ukraine
and the United States on updating the 1994 OSCE principles
governing nonproliferation. We expect that, in close
collaboration with the United States and other key
stakeholders, we will be able to finalize this work prior to
the key OSCE Ministerial Council in December this year.
Combating cybercrime remains of paramount importance. To
this end, Ukraine will contribute to provide support to the
OSCE open-ended informal working group. We will also work
together with this chair, the permanent representative of the
USA to the OSCE, and all participating states to achieve
progress on the initial set of confidence-building measures to
reduce the risks on conflicts stemming from the use of
information and communication technologies.
Distinguished audience, it would be hardly possible to
promote a comprehensive and lasting security in the OSCE region
without properly addressing challenges in the economic and
environmental sphere. We have proposed to explore whether the
OSCE could provide an added value and play a role in the
development of the new trade and transport corridors. The core
theme here is also increasing stability and security by
improving the environmental footprint of energy-related
activities. In this context, we came out with the initiative to
hold a high-level international conference on energy security
under the auspices of the OSCE chairmanship in Ashgabat,
Turkmenistan in October this year. We count on active U.S.
engagement in implementing this initiative.
Ladies and gentlemen, the withdrawal of international
security forces from Afghanistan in 2013 will have considerable
security implications for the OSCE area. As the OSCE
chairmanship, we will further explore areas that require
enhanced interaction with Afghanistan, as well as synergy in
activities of relevant international actors to effectively
address challenges arising from transition of responsibility in
the country. The OSCE has regular dialogue with partners in the
Middle East. It also promotes and creates projects which can
offer the best practices of the OSCE, together with lessons
learned on the challenges of democratic change upon request by
partners in the region. The number of the requests is growing,
and the scope of interest is increasing in all three OSCE
dimensions. We remain fully committed to this process.
Ladies and gentlemen, now, as I have dwelt enough upon the
OSCE chairmanship agenda, let me put on the toga of the foreign
minister of Ukraine and say some words about my country's
foreign and internal policies. They are of obvious interest to
this distinguished audience.
The Ukrainian politics are currently streamlined by two
processes, perfectly complimentary to each other. The first is
the ambitious program of internal reforms that the government
is deliberately implementing under the clear mandate by the
citizens that have elected it. The second is the process of the
European integration of Ukraine, and in particular the
preparation for signing of the association agreement with the
European Union November this year.
Ukraine is focused at conducting successful reforms in
budget, financing, electoral, legislation, rule of law sphere,
administrative governance, fight against corruption, and public
policy. There are several reforms currently ongoing in Ukraine,
but I would like to underline our actions in reforming our
judiciary system, the adoption of a new criminal procedure
code, and laws on cornerstones of this judiciary reform.
At the same time, a special constitutional assembly has
been established to elaborate approaches of visions for
reforming the constitution of Ukraine. While reforming the
judicial system, we followed direct consultation and expert
advice from the Council of Europe and the Venice Commission.
Many of the EU's requirements regarding legal reform have
already been implemented.
Numerous Ukrainian reforms have been praised
internationally; for instance, the pension reform was estimated
as one of the most socially balanced reforms in Europe by the
World Bank. The World Custom Organization has commended the new
Custom Code for its compliance with the international and
European standards. And the Danish Helsinki Committee for Human
Rights, together with the Council of Europe experts, regards
the new Criminal Procedure Code as, indeed, one of the best in
Europe. The Ukrainian leadership is truly committed to doing
everything in its power to ensure the signing of their
association agreement with the European Union during the
Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius in November this year.
The Ukrainian leadership is truly committed to--
nevertheless, in the end, we are determined to implement all
the declared reforms, not so much to report good news to the
European Union and other Ukrainian partners, but to ensure
democratic and pro-European development of Ukraine from within.
Let me finally say some words about Ukraine's relations
with Russia. No country can obviously change its geography.
This means there is no other option for Ukraine but to strive
to maintain good, neighborly and partnership relations with
Russia. There is an intensive public debate in Ukraine about
its relations with the Custom Union of Russia, Belarus and
Kazakhstan. Let me be absolutely clear on this matter: Russia
and the Custom Union as a whole are key trade partners of
Ukraine. Should Ukraine not aim at the most favorable trade
regime with the Custom Union? Of course it should.
Just two examples: The European Free Trade Association that
unites four wealthy European countries has already held eight
rounds of talks about a free trade area with the Custom Union.
New Zealand is currently doing exactly the same.
Ukraine has asked for an observer status in the Custom
Union. We consider that it would serve Ukraine's interests in
its trade with the Union and, at the same time, it would
correspond to Kyiv's commitments within the WTO and with the
European Union. Ukraine's proposal is currently under
consideration. And we hope for a prompt positive result.
Ladies and gentlemen, much speech is one thing; well-timed
speech is another said the great Sophocles two and a half
thousand years ago. As I do not believe either in the
effectiveness of sterile monologues or flamboyant speeches, I
stand ready in my both current capacities to be engaged with
you and in an informal yet substantial discussion.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Cardin. Well, let me thank you for that very
comprehensive testimony. I'm going to recognize the House
members first in the event that there is a vote that takes
place on the House side. So let me call upon Congressman Smith
first and then we'll--others may have questions also.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. And thank
you, Mr. Chairman, for your very comprehensive look at the huge
challenges that you face as the chair in office. You know, your
trip to Moldova, I'm wondering, whether or not--what the fall
of the--of the government, if that now portends new challenges
that weren't even something that you had on the plate when you
were there.
But the issue of the Azerbaijan and Armenian casualties in
Nagorno-Karabakh is obviously a huge issue. They are both
building up their military capabilities and many of us are very
concerned where that might all lead to. So we wish you well on
that trip, especially well, in trying to bring peace to that
frozen conflict that has been with us for so long. And if you
might want to elaborate on that, that would be great.
And if I could also--just a couple of questions as well--
you know, the OSCE does pass a number of very important action
plans. In 2004, we passed the Berlin Declaration on Anti-
Semitism and all of us were very much involved with that very
important declaration, the Roma declaration in 2003. But part
of the problem that we all have--and I think we all suffer from
this--is that we put on paper something that looks very good
but then when it comes to implementation time, we all fall far
short. And that has been the experience on all of these issues.
So--and I'm just hoping that--if during your chairmanship in
office, the emphasis can be put on concrete deeds. Words are
important, but we do need those deeds. Anti-Semitism--I just
chaired a hearing on combating anti-Semitism just several weeks
ago--it is bad and it's getting worse and particularly in
certain parts of Europe and the United States. So I would hope
that you would--you would all that you could possibly do in
combating anti-Semitism.
On trafficking, again, as I said in my opening,
congratulations for the extraordinary leadership you are
demonstrating. It is a breath of fresh air. And it will mean
that women who otherwise would have been exploited and raped
will evade that horrible cruelty because of your work. We all
need laws. We pass trafficking laws, you pass them. But
frankly, we need more public-private and public faith-based
cooperatives. And I know that as--the one that you've taken up
with the airlines and the hotels and all will have a--make a
huge difference.
You might want to speak to that, if you--if you would. And
the ambassador, again, is doing a wonderful job on that. If we
have people who are situationally aware that a trafficking
situation is occurring right in front of their eyes and have a
way of getting it to proper law enforcement. It will mitigate
the instances of trafficking. And it will certainly help rescue
that woman as she's being trafficked.
And finally, I would just say, Ms. Tymoshenko, we are very
concerned about her. I chaired a hearing a year ago. We heard
from her daughter via Skype, but she made an impassioned plea
on behalf of her mother. So you know, friends encourage and
appeal. I make an encouragement and an appeal to you to
finally, at long last, resolve that case.
Mr. Kozhara: Thank you, Mr. Co-chairman.
And yes, indeed, the day after I opened our presidency in
the OSCE in Vienna, I traveled to Moldova and I visited both
sides of the Dniester River. I started from Chisinau and next
day, I traveled to Tiraspol. And for Ukraine, it's quite
natural to strive for peace and quietness in Moldova, because
we have 1,000-miles border with Moldova. And I remember 22
years ago, when the military confrontation happened in Moldova,
thousands of refugees fled from Moldova to Ukraine. And we
experienced a terrific humanitarian tragedy that time. That is
why maybe for no other country but Ukraine, we want peace in
that region.
I found all support in Chisinau and I think I also found a
constructive response in Tiraspol from the local leadership.
And it seemed that we agreed on three important matters: number
one, that the negotiation should not stop and go on; number
two, that the two leaders of Moldova, top negotiators on
Moldova in Tiraspol, should meet on a regular basis. And we
suggested the Ukrainian territory as a place to meet for them.
And number three, negotiations should also contain talks on the
political status of Transdniestria, because the unclear
political status is a problem not only for Moldova, but for
Transdniestria as well.
With regards Azerbaijan and Armenia--yes, Mr. Co-chairman,
I agree. The situation is extremely difficult and we are
watching--the tension is rising and because of the--some
political statements from both sides. And for Ukraine, all two
countries, Azerbaijan and Armenia, are very close countries
from the historical humanitarian people-to-people point of
view. We have in Ukraine big diasporas of Azeri people and of
Armenian people. That's why we cannot stand the sight from that
conflict.
But I also understand that in the last 20--more than 20
years, when the war happened between these two countries, so
many checks and balances were created and my task as I can see
it, not to break those checks and balances, but to push a
progressive negotiation.
So it would be for me much easier to talk to you and to say
what happened, because the situation is really, really
complicated. But I think the Ukrainian leadership in the OSCE
can be the most effective in settling all the problems in that
area.
Regarding anti-Semitism--for Ukraine is a mother place for
many religions and many nations, so it's quite natural to have
a big Jewish community. And yesterday, when I came to New York
on my first day in the United States, I met with the Jewish
community there. And I think Ukraine today is one of the best
examples of interethnic and interreligious tolerance. And under
our leadership in the OSCE, we are going to hold several events
on tolerance and interethnic peace. And one we have already had
in Kiev, a conference on interreligious communications and I
was speaking before that conference. And by the way, that
conference was arranged by the prominent leaders of the
Ukrainian Jewish community. And another one will be arranged
under our presidency in Vienna this summer, very soon.
Human trafficking is also an extremely important question
and problem for Ukraine. Unfortunately, Co-chairman, Ukraine
has not a good record in this sphere, because Ukraine as a
modern country is a young democracy. And we accept that
sometimes, we lack some democratic procedures, which are quite
common to developed democracies. That's why our chairmanship
will be focusing on human trafficking. And in this regard, we
also are going to hold a few events to combat these
unacceptable practices and unacceptable activities. The issue
of Roma rights was also mentioned. And just recently, the
president of Ukraine signed a special decree which provides for
protection of Roma ethnic groups in Ukraine.
And regarding your last point, Mr. Co-chairman, regarding
Mrs. Tymoshenko, we accept that the former Prime Minister
Tymoshenko's case is a problem in relations of Ukraine with the
European Union. And believe me, Mr. Co-Chair, no one is happy
that she is in jail today. But at the same time, millions of
people in Ukraine believe that Mrs. Tymoshenko was convicted
rightfully by the Ukrainian criminal court. Her deliberate
illegal actions caused a huge damage to the Ukrainian society
and Ukrainian state and now our national economy.
Ukraine is losing not less than 6 billion U.S. dollars
because of the contract promoted by Mrs. Tymoshenko in 2009.
And that contract, as widely known, was consented from former
prime minister, without any consent from the government, as the
law in Ukraine demands. And Mrs. Tymoshenko promoted the
contract while having strong personal conflicts of interest.
One is a huge corporate debt of her company, United Energy
Systems of Ukraine, before the Russia defense ministry, and
another one she was campaigning for the presidency in Ukraine.
And it would be even stronger motive for former prime minister
to consult with the government, as the constitution and the law
in Ukraine say. She didn't do that. So that's why, while we are
not so much happy, we want that this issue would be resolved
soon.
At the same time, it is extremely important that everything
related to Mrs. Tymoshenko should be done in full compliance
with the Ukrainian law. Otherwise, we often hear from the West
some statements on the so-called selective justice in Ukraine.
If Tymoshenko would be released, out of legal frameworks in
Ukraine. So it would be a strong blow on the Ukrainian justice
system. That's why everything should be done according to the
law in Ukraine. Thank you very much.
Mr. Cardin. Before I turn to Congressman Cohen, let me just
follow-up on that one point with the former Prime Minister
Tymoshenko. And I couldn't agree with you more; we want to make
sure that the rule of law is the rule of law and that decisions
are made based upon a fair application of laws without
discrimination. And that's a very important principle in a
democracy.
But I'd just make an observation--two observations in this
case. One is that we've seen in too many cases where young
democracies have done very well in their first and second
elections, but then we see that the opposition usually ends up
in jail. Without, again, trying to judge the manner in which
the Tymoshenko trials were handled, it seems to be following a
pattern that's not healthy as democracies change by the ballot
box from one government to another government.
And this view in regards to the Tymoshenko case is further
bolstered by the human rights court of Europe in their findings
suggesting that there was too much politics played in this
case. Our plea is that this appears to have been politically
motivated. And that is presenting problems with Europe and it
does, I think, require some additional attention by the
Ukrainian legal system. And we hope this will be resolved in a
satisfactory manner consistent with your laws.
Congressman Cohen.
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Senator. Mr. Chair, I talked about
three gentlemen who have been the victims of political attacks
in your country. And while your country has indeed made great
strides, and I commend you for the strides you've made to
perfect your justice system, it seems that in these cases
justice has yet to be carried out. There was a conviction, a
perpetrator of the assassination of the journalist Gongadze.
But there were apparently--he has implicated, I believe--or
President Kuchma--former president Kuchma in ordering that
attack.
And there were two other people attacked who were seriously
hurt. Perpetrators of that act have not been, I believe,
arrested or brought to justice. The very brutal attack on the
politician Elyashkevich has not been brought to justice. And he
did seek and received asylum here because of threats from the
previous president. He is, I believe, living in Ukraine now,
but yet that crime has not been satisfactorily resolved, I
think, to the credit of the Ukrainian government. And the other
journalist who was attacked, Podolsky, his perpetrators have
not been brought to justice.
And so my question to you is, do you know of any actions
that are being brought or any actions that we can foresee where
possibly the perpetrators will be brought to justice, and if it
reaches to the level of the former president, that he would be
brought to justice? That's the end of the question. There may
be more.
Mr. Kozhara. Should I respond?
Mr. Cohen. Please.
Mr. Kozhara. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cohen. And I
appreciate your awareness of so many very famous criminal cases
in Ukraine. And you know that investigation on the late
journalist, Mr. Gongadze, is going on. And I'm here not in a
position to comment on the investigation. But what I can say
here before the commission, that there is a common feeling that
the investigation is going on and getting close--closing closer
to the resolution of this very topical case for Ukraine.
I cannot reply specifically on Mr. Elyashkevich because I
don't know that case. Mr. Elyashkevich is my former colleague
by the Ukrainian Rada, by the parliament. And I saw him a few
months ago in Kiev. And he looks OK. But I don't know
specifically what happened to him. Mr. Podolsky and--so
unfortunately I don't have this name in my files, my talking
points. And you also mentioned Mr. Chornovil. Who died in the
car accident more than 10 years ago. And he was a leading
opposition leader in Ukraine.
But what I can tell the commission for sure, that Ukraine
is doing a lot in this sphere over the justice reform. And
three years ago when, after the presidential elections in
Ukraine, we started immediately with reforming of the judiciary
and reforming the police and the prosecutor's offices. As a
result, last year a new criminal proceeding code was put into
effect. And this code was adopted after a previous old criminal
proceeding code which was adopted, can you imagine, Mr. Cohen,
in 1961, when Mr. Khrushchev was in charge from the Kremlin at
that time.
So we consider that the adoption of the criminal proceeding
code is a big step forward for Ukrainian criminal justice
system. And it's worth mentioning that the new criminal
proceeding code was elaborated along with the Venice Commission
of the Council of Europe, a professional body of the Council of
Europe, where lots of lawyers and professionals were helping us
deliberate this code. And there is another important reform on
the parliamentary floor in Ukraine today, the reform of the
police and the reform of the prosecutor's office.
And we hope that the Ukrainian Rada, the parliament, which
was elected at the end of last year, will be effectively
adopting legislation necessary for Ukraine to comply with the
requirements of the European Union to sign the association
agreement with the European Union. And the only problem we have
here, Mr. Cohen, that the deep reform of the judiciary and of
the police and of the prosecutor's office is possible only
within the constitutional reform because to reform completely
those offices, we need to change the constitution adopted in
1996.
So that's why last year President Yanukovych called for the
Constitutional Assembly. And we all want very much that both
Ukrainian ruling parties and Ukrainian opposition would take an
active part in drafting the new constitution. Thank you.
Mr. Cohen. Mr. Chair--I might not have heard you correctly.
I believe you said that you recalled serving with Mr.
Elyashkevich who you saw recently. And are you--did you say you
were not aware of the fact that he was attacked--brutally
attacked, and that there was a special commission of the
Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, of the 3rd and 4th convocations that
unanimously came to a conclusion that Ukrainian President
Kuchma and then-chairman of the security service of Ukraine,
Derkach are accomplices in attempts on the life of people's
deputy of Ukraine, Elyashkevich? That this was public--you're
not aware of this? This is a colleague?
Mr. Kozhara. May I reply?
Mr. Cohen. Please, sir, yes.
Mr. Kozhara: Thank you. I became a member of the Ukrainian
parliament in 2006. And Mr. Elyashkevich finished his
parliamentary job in 2002, I think. And, yes, indeed, I heard
of that case. And as far as I remember, a special parliamentary
commission was established to investigate that case.
Unfortunately, Mr. Cohen, I cannot tell you specific points of
that case because I'm not prepared to testify on that now.
Mr. Cohen. I appreciate that. And I appreciate----
Mr. Kozhara. But what I promise that some additional
information will be addressed to you from--through our embassy
in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Cohen. Thank you. That's all we can ask for. And I
appreciate your assurances that you're improving your systems
and that you'll get us that information. And one last thing, on
anti-Semitism, what Mr. Smith asked about was: How is that
being dealt with throughout the OSCE? You mentioned, I think
some things in Ukraine that you were doing about anti-Semitism.
Where is anti-Semitism the most rampant, in your opinion, in
the OSCE? And what is the OSCE doing to see to it that there is
some type of action taken in those areas?
Mr. Kozhara. Thank you, Mr. Cohen. And I cannot say
official things on the question you asked because I don't have
them on my talking points. But as a Ukrainian politician and
representative of the ruling party, I can say that indeed in
the last years when Europe and other regions of the world
started to experience hardships of the financial and economic
crisis, and this is a substance where this is a time when
radical thoughts and simple slogans are easy to say to the
people.
And unfortunately, we are watching today that some radical
parties in Europe have more popularity in their societies. I
won't be naming those countries. I think you know all of them.
And I can say about my country--and in the course of last
elections, last October, radical nationalistic party has won
popular vote and got into the Ukrainian parliament. They
received more than 10 percent of popular vote. And it testifies
that simple slogans and simple antagonistic ideology during the
hard times of the financial and economic crisis gained some
popularity in many societies, unfortunately.
With regards to Ukraine, anti-Semitic, Nazi or fascist
ideology is prohibited by the criminal law in Ukraine. And my
government and my party which is in charge in Ukraine today, we
are watching very carefully that those radical movements in the
party do not cross the border of the law. Thank you.
Mr. Cardin. Let me interrupt at that point and let Dr.
Burgess have a chance here.
Mr. Burgess. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm up
against some time constraints, so I'm not going to be terribly
long. And I do appreciate you being here and sharing this with
us. I was particularly encouraged to hear you talk about
cybersecurity and energy security. I serve on another committee
in the House that deals with that, and I know the importance
in, certainly, your part of the world.
Let me just go back to Yulia Tymoshenko for just a moment.
Congressman Smith, when he held that hearing last--in the last
Congress and had--through the miracle of some technology, had
her family members to testify--I'm not a lawyer, I'm a
physician and what I got from the family was, here is a woman
who has--it sounded like some pretty acute medical problems,
some back injuries that needed treatment. And I would just ask
you if nothing else, if there were a humanitarian basis for a
release or a change in custody to allow this individual to have
those injuries treated effectively and properly. And you may
not be able to comment on that, but that was my takeaway from
that hearing. It was pretty compelling testimony by your
family. I realize the rule of law must be adhered to, and
certainly, again, I'm not a lawyer and I can't advise on that.
But from a physician's perspective, it seems like this might
be--from a humanitarian basis, this might be the correct course
of action. And thank you for your testimony today.
Mr. Kozhara. Thank you. So maybe you know that the European
Court on Human Rights ruled over the--Tymoshenko's case just
recently--on April 30th. And I would cite some comments from
the European Court of Human Rights ruling. I cite, I quote:
``On 30th of April 2013, the court delivered the judgment on
this case in which it declared inadmissible for the reason of
their obvious groundless complaints raised by Mrs. Tymoshenko
concerning the conditions of her pretrial detention and alleged
lack of appropriate medical treatment. Her complaints on
alleged round-the-clock surveillance in the hospital were
declared inadmissible, as not all the domestic remedies were
exhaustive. Mrs. Tymoshenko did not file an appeal on the
national court decision according to the set her--to the set
procedure.'' So sorry for reading that. So that's all I can
comment on the case. Thank you.
Mr. Cardin. Let me first compliment you for your statement,
where you say right in the beginning that you are convinced
that the human dimension belongs to the core of the concept of
comprehensive security. To me, that's the hallmark of the OSCE,
the recognition that if we're going to have secure countries,
the countries need to deal with the human dimension as well as
the economic dimension. And I applaud you for putting that in
the spotlight and just urge you, as I said in my opening
statement, that we strengthen all three baskets. And as we move
the strength in a basket, we certainly don't do it at the cost
of particularly the human dimension, but of any of the three
baskets. We've already commented that we're celebrating the
10th anniversary of the OSCE Roma Action Plan, and next year we
will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Berlin Declaration.
Congressman Smith and I participated in the Berlin Declaration.
So we've seen the progress that's been made over the years, and
we are very proud of the role that the OSCE has played on the
Roma issue, on anti-Semitism, on xenophobia and anti-Muslim
activities. As special representatives, we are proud of the
role that they play. We meet with them regularly and get
updates. Congressman Cohen asked a question, what's the status
of anti-Semitism. We've worked with Rabbi Baker to find out
which countries could benefit from best practices in other
countries. And OSCE has been in the forefront on that.
I guess my question to you is, these issues, as Congressman
Smith points out, are still very much in the need for
improvement. I have visited Roma communities regularly in
Europe and know that they are still a very persecuted group and
need the attention of the OSCE. Anti-Semitism is still too
prevalent in Europe, and we need to deal with that. The same
thing is true with anti-Muslim activities and xenophobia.
So I guess my question to you is, during your chairmanship,
how do you intend to keep active these areas of protecting
minority communities such as the Roma population, to deal with
the broad issues of tolerance so that countries don't become
complacent, that we continue to showcase best practices in an
effort to help countries understand what they need to do in
order to be in compliance not only with the letter but the
spirit of the OSCE?
Mr. Kozhara. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So for centuries,
Ukraine has been a sort of crossroads for many civilizations,
and Ukraine is a multinational community today where we have
many different religious, national, linguistic and other
communities. And in 20 years with independence, Ukraine has
adopted a comprehensive legislation on ethnic minorities,
language minorities. Just recently, as an example, I can say
that the Verkhovna Radam the parliament of Ukraine, adopted a
law on languages in Ukraine and to allow--actually, this law is
a Ukrainian national legislation to implement the European
Charter on regional languages and national minorities
languages. And today on the local level, some foreign languages
are adopted as regional ones. For examples, in the regions--in
the region of Transcarpathia, on the border with Romania,
Hungary and Slovakia some local communities adopted Hungarian
language as a regional language, which allows those national
minorities to use Hungarian as a second to the official
Ukrainian language in Ukraine.
So as I have already mentioned, just recently the president
of Ukraine adopted a decree to secure the rights of the Roma
community in Ukraine. And Ukraine for centuries also has been a
homeland for many Roma people. With regards to anti-Semitism,
also for centuries Ukrainians, other nationalities and Jews
lived together in peace. And Kyiv has been recognized as number
three city in Europe, after Paris and London, by the Jewish
population, and Ukraine also is a country of many Jewish holy
places. And annually, the small city of Uman, where the tomb of
Nachman is, one of the Hassid community clerics. So for
example, last year we had 37,000 pilgrims, and many of them
came from the United States.
Mr. Cardin. I guess my point would be, what you're doing,
the right thing, you need to showcase to other countries within
the OSCE that are not doing as much as they should. I think
sharing best practices, we help countries improve their
records. And political leadership, to me, is the key. If you
have political leadership that wants to work on these issues,
it works. And sharing that with other countries, I think, would
make additional progress. And I thank you for your commitment
there.
I want to get to the issue of election monitoring. You and
I had a chance to talk about that before the hearing. It is one
of the most important functions of the OSCE, is monitoring
elections, to give an objective account as to--whether these
elections are open, free and fair, and then as you pointed out
in your testimony about the Ukraine election, giving good
information on how to improve the election procedures. We had
an election observation team here in the United States during
our past election. We know that there were certain
misunderstandings between the parliamentary assembly and ODHIR.
I believe very strongly in the role of the parliamentarians in
the process. I believe very strongly in the ODHIR, in the role
that it plays in giving us the continuity of election
monitoring. Can you just give us a brief status report as to
how you have been able to work as the president of the OSCE to
marshal our forces within the parliamentary assembly and ODHIR
to have the most effective election-monitoring capacity?
Mr. Kozhara. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ukraine, in the last
years, has had many different elections--presidential, local,
parliamentary elections. And all elections we welcome, OSCE/
ODHIR monitoring missions. For example, during the last
parliamentary elections, Ukraine had a record number of
international observers; 4,000 people came to observe elections
in Ukraine. This is a record number for the entire OSCE area.
And we also watched a conflict between the OSCE
parliamentary assembly and the ODHIR office. I'm happy to say,
Mr. Chairman, that today this conflict has been resolved, and I
personally put my efforts into the resolution of this conflict.
I met with the acting president of the OSCE parliamentary
assembly. I visited the ODHIR office in Warsaw. And as far as I
understand, today all very sharp issues are not so sharp. But
at the same time, I think that ODHIR, being a professional
organization, should care about professionalism of her own
missions. That's why we think, as presidency in the OSCE, that
first of all, we need to secure election standards which are
used by ODHIR missions, and those standards should be common
for all observation missions provided by OSCE.
And another comment. I think we are all applauding this
compromise between the OSCE parliamentary assembly and ODHIR.
But at the same time, I think it would not be easy to combine
professional activities by ODHIR missions and political
activities by OSCE parliamentary assembly, because
parliamentary assembly consists of members of parliaments
representing different parties. And, for example, in Europe--
there is a trend that parties from single countries join bigger
political groups. And it means--for example, if an observation
mission consists of one political group of parties, and they
observe a country, for example, where their political opponents
are in power, it may cause a problem, Mr. Chairman.
So we need to take balanced approaches in this matter. But
as I said, we applaud to the compromise between OSCE and ODHIR.
Mr. Cardin. Well, that's good news. Thank you very much.
Mr. Smith.
Mr. Smith. Mr. Foreign Minister, thank you again for your
testimony. You know, I just would like to ask you, if you
would, one takeback for your conference in June. Last week we
had another--yet another hearing on human trafficking, and the
efficacy of having a phone hotline was underscored by the
Polaris Project, which does it here in the United States.
And it would be a great advance in combating human
trafficking if there were a Europe-wide hotline so that
wherever a victim might be he or she--and most of the victims
are women--or someone who sees a trafficking situation could
call into that main number and help--hopefully a police would
be on their way to rescue. So it's something that could work.
It is not very expensive, it's just a matter of having the will
to do it. And it's something that might be considered by your
conference.
Secondly, talking about Mediterranean partners, last
Congress I chaired three hearings on what is happening in
Egypt. And one of--the focus of two of them was almost
exclusively on a barbaric policy--more of a phenomenon, but
it's certainly a policy, because it was not in any way objected
to by the government in Egypt, and that is of allowing young
teenage girls--encouraging it, even, to be abducted, given over
to Muslim men--they call it ``Islamicizing the womb''--there is
even a name for it. And at two of those hearings, the former
deputy of the trafficking unit at the OSCE, Michele Clark, who
is an adjunct professor now here in Washington at George
Washington University, testified, and she did much of the
reporting herself.
And the numbers are in the thousands of these young Coptic
Christian girls who are abducted as teenagers, and some even as
young mothers, and then forced into these marriages. I've been
trying to get our own administration to raise this issue and to
do so robustly, with very little success. But it seems to me
that as chair in office--and you will have, I'm sure,
opportunities to talk to President Morsi, to raise this
horrible exploitation of little girls and young women who are
then forced into a faith, that if they go back to their
Christian faith, they will be accused of apostasy and maybe
even killed.
And meanwhile, they have been trafficked in a terrible,
terrible situation. And Michele Clark would be available to you
if you would like or for your embassy to fully brief you. We'll
provide you with the hearing records, but it is a very serious
problem. It's not unique to Egypt, but it is going on in a very
terrible way in Egypt.
And finally, you may not want to elaborate this, but if you
could--you talked about--with the security implications of our
exiting Afghanistan, that the OSCE chairmanship would have to
further explore areas that require enhanced interaction with
Afghanistan. I thought that was a very profound statement,
because there are challenges that I think not enough of us are
thinking about, and it was reassuring to know that you're
thinking about it. So if you wanted to speak to that or perhaps
get back to us later on that.
Mr. Kozhara. Thank you. Responding to first question, we
intend to review the existing OSCE plan on trafficking in human
beings adopted in 2003. The introduction of the all-European
hotline could be a part of this revised plan, and we'll take a
note of that. With regards Mediterranean partners, thank you,
Mr. Co-Chairman, for your comments. And we'll also take a note.
And this problem is quite new for me, but in our negotiations
and talks with Egypt on bilateral basis and within the OSCE, we
can raise also this matter with the Egypt leadership. And
Ukraine has long-time and deep relations with Egypt. Thank you.
And yes, on Afghanistan, Ukraine is actively supporting the
discussion on Afghanistan and, some years ago, Ukraine lost
3,000 Ukrainians in the war in Afghanistan. So for us, this
country is quite known, and we have a strong sentiment about
Afghanistan as well. So we'll be supporting the dialogue on it.
Mr. Cardin. Mr. Cohen has one last question.
Mr. Cohen. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Azerbaijan government
is advocating downgrading the OSCE mission in Baku to the level
of project coordinator. It's my understanding that your
chairmanship team has convened a working group on this matter,
and I wanted to know what your position was on the Azerbaijani
proposal, and how can your chairmanship team ensure that the
OSCE remains actively engaged through the field operations of
the--at the appropriate level, where support is still needed to
implement OSCE commitments?
Mr. Kozhara. Thank you, Mr. Cohen. Yes, indeed, Azerbaijan
suggest to downgrade the OSCE mission there, and as a member
state, Azerbaijan has a right to ask for downgrading. So we are
actively working with Azerbaijan, and I am in constant
communication with Azerbaijani-Azeri foreign minister, Mr.
Mammadyarov, on that. We asked Azerbaijan not to block all
other OSCE activities using this Baku OSCE office problem. We
also understand that no change is possible this year, but
again, I stress that it's a sovereign matter of Azerbaijan as
an OSCE member state to identify the status of the OSCE office
in Baku. Thank you.
Mr. Cardin. One last point I want to put into the record
and get your response on on behalf of Senator Wicker--Senator
Wicker is the ranking Republican member of the Helsinki
Commission and has been very actively engaged in the
international adoption issue. And your commissioner of
children's rights was recently here in Washington to talk about
the issues of inter-country adoptions.
Within the OSCE region, we've had historic issues on tragic
circumstances on denial of access to adoption. We saw that in
Romania some years back, and we've addressed that with a
hearing. More recently, we've had a serious problem with the
Russian federation on inter-country adoptions, where Russia has
made certain decisions to stop inter-country adoptions,
particularly with children with special needs. These are
children that have very difficult times finding permanent
placement, and some of these procedures were in the process--I
believe some of this has been resolved by bilaterals between
Russia and the United States. My question to you is, this is an
issue that cries out for some standards on how countries should
deal with the issue of adoption, and would ask your support to
see whether we cannot get some activity within OSCE dealing
with this basic right as to what children should have that are
being adopted by parents in other countries.
And I would ask your personal attention to that, and if you
would have your staff look into whether there is a role for
OSCE to play here, and particularly getting back to Senator
Wicker on that point.
Mr. Kozhara. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I am deeply
convinced that when we are talking on children their future
should be more important than politics. Yesterday, when I was
visiting New York, I met with American families who adopted
Ukrainian children, and it was a very sensitive meeting. And
Ukraine also has a conflict of law with the American law,
because according to the Ukrainian law, American families or
other foreign families which adopted Ukrainian children should
report to Ukrainian embassies, and Mr. Chairman, unfortunately,
only 45 percent of the American families which adopted
Ukrainian children report to the Ukrainian diplomatic
representations. But we also understand this reality, and as I
said, the future not of Ukrainian or American or any other--of
our human children--kids should be more important than any
politics, and I think it is worth that. Thank you.
Mr. Cardin. Well, I certainly--we all agree with you on
that statement. I think you said that very well, and I
appreciate your candor in answering the questions here and very
much appreciate the willingness of your country and you
personally to step forward in leadership within the OSCE during
these, as I said earlier, very, very challenging times. And I
look forward to continuing to work with you on behalf of the
Helsinki Commission of the United States, and we wish you well.
Thank you very much; the hearing stands adjourned.
A P P E N D I X
=======================================================================
Prepared Statements
----------
Prepared Statement of Hon. Benjamin Cardin, Chairman, Commission on
Security and Cooperation in Europe
Today, I am pleased to welcome Foreign Minister Kozhara (Ko-ZHA-ra)
to share his views with us one-third of the way into Ukraine's 2013
OSCE Chairmanship. A lot of hard work has already been done by your
Chairmanship, and we appreciate it.
Mr. Minister, the 1975 Helsinki Final Act and process it initiated,
with its focus on human rights and fundamental freedoms, played an
important role in the achievement of your country's independence. And,
as you know, the Helsinki Commission has a long history of support for
Ukraine's independence and democratic development. We want Ukraine to
succeed. I recall my visits to Ukraine, both to Kyiv in early 2005
shortly following the Orange Revolution, a time of great promise, and
again in 2007 for the Annual Session of the OSCE Parliamentary
Assembly. I also had the opportunity to visit Chernobyl, site of the
worst nuclear power plant disaster in history, which for nearly three
decades has had such a profound impact on Ukraine and her neighbors.
Like any Chair-in-Office, Ukraine faces formidable tasks in leading
this multilateral organization that operates on the basis of consensus,
and includes 57 countries ranging from democracies to dictatorships. A
Chair-in-Office must itself display strong democratic credentials if it
is to succeed in encouraging compliance with OSCE obligations in other
countries. It is incumbent upon Ukraine to lead by example in upholding
its OSCE human rights and rule of law commitments. I welcome the recent
pardons of former high ranking officials and believe that they are a
good first step. I trust that you will build on your promise of further
judicial and electoral reforms, and we hope that last week's European
Court of Human Rights ruling that the detention of former Prime
Minister Yulia Tymoshenko before and during her trial was arbitrary and
a violation of her rights will provide further impetus for her release.
Mr. Minister, your appearance here allows us to hear your
reflections on your achievements and challenges to date, and to how
your priorities are being executed and plans for the remainder of your
tenure. We all must do what we can to ensure security and economic
cooperation, and to safeguard not only democracy's progress, but its
preservation. That is why strengthening the implementation of human
dimension commitments by all participating States is so important.
I want to thank you for taking on the leadership of the OSCE and
wish you continued success in your remaining 8 months. I'm hopeful that
Ukraine's chairmanship of this important organization will enrich both
Ukraine and the entire OSCE.
Prepared Statement of Hon. Christopher Smith, Co-Chairman, Commission
on Security and Cooperation in Europe
I'd like to join my colleagues in welcoming Foreign Minister
Kozhara, the Chair-in-Office of the OSCE for 2013, and, of course, in
welcoming everyone who is joining us this afternoon.
Ukraine has come a long way since I first joined the Helsinki
Commission three decades ago--at that time it was a country suffering
under Soviet oppression, and its independence seemed like a distant
dream.
Even in those days, Ukraine distinguished itself by the number of
courageous men and women who fought for human rights and freedom. When
Helsinki Monitoring Groups were formed in the Soviet Union, to call on
the dictatorship to live up to its Helsinki human rights commitments,
the Ukrainian Monitoring Group was the largest and the most harshly
repressed of them all--and in the early 1990s played a leading role in
establishing democracy in independent Ukraine. In many ways, Ukrainians
were at the forefront of the struggle to replace the old Soviet Union
with governments that respected human rights--a great honor to Ukraine.
So it is a special pleasure to have you here today, Mr. Foreign
Minister, and it is a fitting and long-awaited distinction for Ukraine
to lead the OSCE this year. You and your country will face many
challenges and opportunities this year in your role as Chair-in-Office,
and I look forward to hearing you present on your on-going work and
plans.
Of course it is good news that your priorities as Chairman-in-
Office include an emphasis on human dimension issues, such as human
trafficking, media freedom, tolerance and non-discrimination and
democratic elections.
As author of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and its 2003
and 2005 reauthorizations, I especially applaud the energy which you've
shown in taking on the fight against human trafficking. All of us in
the fight against trafficking appreciate the special trafficking
conference that Ukraine is convening in Kyiv this June in order to look
closely at overlooked aspects of human trafficking, and most
importantly, to strengthen the coherence of the OSCE response--
including international law enforcement response--to trafficking in
persons.
I also want to commend Ukraine for the work it has done already to
focus attention on the hundreds of thousands of trafficking victims who
are moved across borders each year and who could be rescued in transit
if airline and other transportation personnel were appropriately
trained and law enforcement ready to intervene. Last month, Ambassador
Motsyk took the lead in sharing the Airline Ambassadors airline
initiative with other Ambassadors and Diplomats from OSCE countries as
well as with representatives of airlines in the United States. This
training will create the situational awareness in the transportation
industry that will make it much harder to traffic women. At the event
at the Ukrainian embassy, here in Washington, Ambassador Motsyk
introduced Nancy Rivard, founder and president of Airline Ambassadors,
who demonstrated the transportation personnel training that has already
been used to rescue more than 100 victims. And of course the Ukrainian
government has taken the lead in organizing another major anti-
trafficking event, to be held later this summer in Kyiv. Mr. Foreign
Minister, your government's efforts will ensure that thousands of women
and girls will be rescued from the horrors of trafficking, and will
impede the traffickers so that many other women and children will never
undergo it. Your commitment to introducing this program in the 57 OSCE
participating states will ensure that we can rescue thousands more--I'm
sure that I speak for everyone active in fighting human trafficking in
thanking you for that.
Mr. Foreign Minister, I must also mention one of the problems
remaining in Ukraine--probably the chief symbol of problems touching on
human rights, rule-of-law, and democracy, that is, the continued
imprisonment of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
This is a serious injustice--and it can be corrected by Prime
Minister Yanukovych. It was exactly twelve months ago that I chaired a
hearing of this Commission on Ukraine, at which one of the key
witnesses was Ms. Tymoshenko's daughter, Yevgeniya, testifying via
Skype. I welcome the recent release of opposition leader Yuri Lutsenko
as a positive step, and appreciate the other positive gestures of the
current government--at the same time I strongly urge the Ukrainian
government to enhance its Chairmanship of the OSCE by releasing Ms.
Tymoshenko.
Prepared Statement of Leonid Kozhara, Minister for Foreign Affairs of
Ukraine
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am pleased and honoured to be
here with you today as Chairperson-in-Office of the Organization for
Security and Co-operation in Europe. It is a great responsibility for
me personally and for Ukraine to lead the world's largest regional
security organization throughout this year. With 57 participating
States stretching from Vancouver to Vladivostok, the OSCE is uniquely
designed as a comprehensive and an inclusive platform for security
dialogue in the Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian area. We strongly believe
that the OSCE is well suited to address the changing security
challenges in its area and that we need to continue strengthening its
tool box and improving its coherence.
Ukraine, as the Chairmanship-in-Office, is a consistent advocate of
the OSCE concept of comprehensive, cooperative, equal and indivisible
security. We take the view that lasting and sustainable peace and
security can only be achieved by pursuing a balanced approach across
all three dimensions--the political and military, the environmental and
economic as well as the human dimension. As we approach the 40th
anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act, the ``Helsinki+40 process'',
launched in Dublin last year, should serve, in our understanding, as a
catalyst for re-energizing the Organization. A strong engagement from
the United States will be of great importance for success of the
effort.
Distinguished audience, we are convinced that the Human Dimension
belongs to the core of the concept of comprehensive security. The
Ukrainian Chairmanship outlined the overarching goal of promoting full
implementation of the existing human dimension commitments by all
participating States. The fight against trafficking in persons remains
one of the key issues that are being addressed by the OSCE under the
Ukrainian Chairmanship. It is a plague that many OSCE countries,
including Ukraine, have been suffering from for many years. We need to
combine all possible instruments to meet this challenge.
A set of public events has been organised to this end, one of them
being the international conference on strengthening of the OSCE
response to trafficking in human beings, to be held in Kyiv in June.
Fostering the freedom of the media is also among our priorities in this
dimension. A Human Rights Seminar in Warsaw is planned to address the
media freedom legislation issues. It would result in developing
relevant recommendations for participating States. We will also strive
to achieve progress in the areas of free movement of people, promotion
of tolerance and non-discrimination, freedom of association and
assembly, inter-religious dialogue, in promoting freedom of religion or
belief, as well as democratic elections and election observation.
Attaching great importance to the promotion of tolerance and non-
discrimination through youth education, the Chairmanship is preparing
to host the OSCE Youth Summit in July--August 2013 in Crimea, Ukraine.
We also believe in the importance of constructive engagement of civil
society in achieving the OSCE goals. Election monitoring is one of the
hallmarks of the OSCE. A smooth co-operation between the OSCE
Parliamentary Assembly and ODIHR is essential. The OSCE must speak in
one voice. It is for the benefit of all the OSCE participating States
to take recommendations made by international observation missions
seriously. For instance, following the October 2012 parliamentary
elections in Ukraine, its Government approved a relevant Action Plan on
priority measures to improve the electoral legislation. At the same
time, to ensure compliance in election observation, it is important to
safeguard independence, impartiality and professionalism of observers
in line with OSCE decisions.
Ladies and Gentlemen. Progress in finding sustainable and long-term
solution to the protracted conflicts in the OSCE area is on top of our
agenda. My first visit in the capacity of the OSCE Chairperson-in-
Office in January was to Moldova. I encouraged the leadership in
Chisinau and Tiraspol to engage constructively into the negotiation
process. The political will for mutual rapprochement at both banks of
Dniester is a key to finding compromise solutions. We hope that the
results of current political process in Moldova will give a new impetus
to further development of dialogue between Chisinau and Tiraspol, to
which Ukraine remains ready to contribute. We remain convinced that
success of the Geneva process is crucial for improving the security and
humanitarian situation in the conflict areas in Georgia.
The Chairmanship welcomes and supports the efforts of the Minsk
Group Co-Chairs directed at promoting dialogue between Azerbaijan and
Armenia on the settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. During my
upcoming visit to the South Caucasus on 17-20 June I intend to
underline the need for a strict implementation of ceasefire, and to
support the call of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs for a more active
engagement in the negotiations over the Basic principles of the
settlement. Within the political and military dimension, we aim at
modernizing the OSCE politico-military instruments. As a strong
advocate of non-proliferation, Ukraine attaches special importance to
enhancing the OSCE's profile in countering the threat of proliferation
of weapons of mass destruction. We appreciate the high level of
cooperation between Ukraine and the United States on updating the 1994
OSCE Principles Governing Non-Proliferation. We expect that in close
collaboration with the United States and other key stakeholders we will
be able to finalize this work prior to the Kyiv OSCE Ministerial
Council in December this year. Combating cybercrime remains of
paramount importance. To this end, Ukraine will continue to provide
support to the OSCE Open-ended Informal Working Group. We will also
work together with its Chair, the Permanent Representative of the USA
to the OSCE and all participating States to achieve progress on the
initial set of confidence building measures to reduce the risks of
conflicts stemming from the use of information and communication
technologies.
Distinguished audience, it would hardly be possible to promote a
comprehensive and lasting security in the OSCE region without properly
addressing challenges in the economic and environmental sphere. We have
proposed to explore whether the OSCE could provide an added value and
play a role in the development of the new trade and transport
corridors. The core theme here is also increasing stability and
security by improving the environmental footprint of energy-related
activities. In this context we came out with the initiative to hold a
High Level International Conference on energy security under the
auspice of the OSCE Chairmanship in Ashgabat in October this year. We
count on active U.S. engagement in implementing this initiative. Ladies
and Gentlemen, the withdrawal of international security forces from
Afghanistan in 2014 will have considerable security implications for
the OSCE area.
As the OSCE Chairmanship we will further explore areas that require
enhanced interaction with Afghanistan, as well as synergy in activities
of relevant international actors, to effectively address challenges
arising from transition of responsibility in the country. The OSCE has
regular dialogue with Partners in the Middle East. It also promotes
concrete projects which can offer the best practices of the OSCE,
together with lessons learned, on the challenges of democratic change,
upon request by Partners in the region. The number of the requests is
growing, and the scope of interest is increasing in all three OSCE
dimensions. We remain fully committed to this process.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Now, as I have dwelt enough
upon the OSCE Chairmanship agenda, let me put on the toga of the
Foreign Minister of Ukraine and say some words about my country's
foreign and internal politics, as they are of obvious interest to this
distinguished audience. The Ukrainian politics are currently
streamlined by two processes, perfectly complementary to each other.
The first is the ambitious programme of internal reforms that the
Government is deliberately implementing under the clear mandate by the
citizens that have elected it. The second is the process of the
European integration of Ukraine and, in particular, the preparation for
signing of the Association agreement with the European Union in
November this year. Ukraine is focused at conducting successful reforms
in budget financing, electoral legislation, rule of law sphere,
administrative governance, fight against corruption and public policy.
There are several reforms currently ongoing in Ukraine, but I would
like to underline our actions in reforming our judiciary system. The
adoption of a new Criminal Procedure Code and laws on Bar became
cornerstones of this judiciary reform.
At the same time a special Constitutional Assembly has been
established to elaborate approaches and visions for reforming the
Constitution of Ukraine. While reforming the judicial system, we
followed direct consultation and expert advice from the Council of
Europe and the Venice Commission. Many of the EU's requirements
regarding legal reform have already been implemented. Numerous
Ukrainian reforms have beenpraised internationally. For instance, the
pension reform was estimated as one of the most socially balanced
reforms in Europe by the World Bank. The World Customs Organisation has
commended the new Customs Code for its compliance with international
and European standards. And the Danish Helsinki Committee for Human
Rights together with the Council of Europe experts regards the new
Criminal Procedure Code as indeed one of the best in Europe.The
Ukrainian leadership is truly committed to doing everything in its
power to ensure the signing of the Association Agreement with the
European Union during the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius in
November this year. Nevertheless, in the end we are determined to
implement all the declared reforms not so much to report good news to
the EU, but to ensure democratic and pro-European development of
Ukraine from within.
Let me finally say some words about Ukraine's relations with
Russia. No country can obviously change its geography. This means
there's no other option for Ukraine but to strive to maintain good-
neighborly and partnership relations with Russia. There is an intensive
public debate in Ukraine about its relations with the Customs Union of
Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Let me be absolutely clear on that.
Russia and the Customs Union as a whole are key trade partners of
Ukraine. Should Ukraine not aim at the most favorable trade regime with
the Customs Union? Of course it should.
Just two examples: the European Free Trade Association that unites
four wealthy European countries has already held eight rounds of talks
about a free trade area with the Customs Union. The New Zealand is
currently doing exactly the same. Ukraine has asked for an observer
status in the Customs Union. We consider that it would serve Ukraine's
interests in its trade with the Union and at the same time would
correspond to Kiev's commitments within the WTO and with the European
Union. Ukraine's proposal is currently under consideration and we hope
for a prompt positive result.
Ladies and gentlemen! Much speech is one thing, well-timed speech
is another, said the great Sophocles two and a half thousand years ago
As I do not believe either in the effectiveness of sterile monologues
or flamboyant speeches, I stand ready, in my both current capacities,
to be engaged with you in an informal yet substantial discussion. I
thank you!
Senate Congressional Record: Political Imprisonment in Ukraine, Hon.
Benjamin Cardin, Chairman, Commission on Security and Cooperation in
Europe
Mr. Cardin. Madam President. I would like to address the current
situation in Ukraine, an important country in the heart of Europe, a
bellwether for democratic development in the region, and the current
Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE.
Let me first welcome the release from prison Sunday of former
Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs and leading opposition figure
Yuri Lutsenko. Mr. Lutsenko had been convicted on politically motivated
charges and incarcerated since December 2010. President Yanukovych's
pardon of Mr. Lutsenko is an encouraging step in the right direction. I
also welcome the pardon of former Environment Minister Heorhiy
Filipchuk, who also served as a member of Ms. Tymoshenko's Cabinet and
had been released last year after his sentence was suspended. By
pardoning Mr. Lutsenko and Mr. Filipchuk, President Yanukovych is
indicating not only a willingness to resolve what has been a major
irritant in Ukraine's relations with the United States and the EU, but
also a stain on Ukraine's democratic credentials.
At the same time, I remain deeply concerned about the politically
motivated imprisonment of Ukrainian opposition figure and former Prime
Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who has been incarcerated since August 2011.
Mrs. Tymoshenko's case stands out as a significant illustration of
Ukraine's backsliding with respect to human rights, democracy, and the
rule of law since she was defeated by President Yanukovych in February
2010. The United States, EU, and Canada have repeatedly expressed
concerns about the application of selective justice against political
opponents, their flawed trials, conditions of detention, and the denial
of their ability to participate in last October's parliamentary
elections.
As Chairman of the Helsinki Commission, which has long been
committed to Ukraine's independence and democratic development, I am
especially mindful of Ukraine's 2013 OSCE chairmanship. Like any Chair-
in-Office, Ukraine faces formidable tasks in leading a multilateral
organization that operates on the basis of consensus, which includes 57
countries ranging from mature democracies to oppressive dictatorships.
The United States wants Ukraine to succeed, but the reality is that the
politically motivated imprisonment of Ms. Tymoshenko casts a cloud over
its chairmanship. A Chair-in-Office must itself have strong democratic
credentials if it is to succeed in encouraging reform in other
countries.
Furthermore, democratic regression in Ukraine has harmed U.S.-
Ukrainian bilateral relations, preventing a traditionally strong
partnership from realizing its full potential. It has also slowed down
the process of Ukraine's drawing closer to the EU, which is that
country's stated foreign policy priority, manifested in the still-
delayed signing of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. More than half
a year has gone by since the unanimous adoption of S. Res. 466, calling
for the release of Yulia Tymoshenko.
The Ukrainian authorities now need to follow up on the important
step they have taken in freeing Yuri Lutsenko. They need to free Ms.
Tymoshenko and restore her civil and political rights. By demonstrating
commitment to the rule of law and human rights principles embodied by
the OSCE, Ukraine will strengthen the credibility of its chairmanship
and show it is serious about being a full-fledged member of the
democratic community of nations.
I strongly urge the Ukrainian government to resolve the case of Ms.
Tymoshenko.
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