Pro-Kuchma meetings: in the Crimea

The meetings were organized by the Sevastopol organization of the all-Ukrainian union ’Zlagoda’. The social-democratic party (united), party ’Democratic Union’ and People-Democratic party supported the initiative. About 10 000 people took part in the meeting. Being asked by a ’Prava ludyny’ correspondent, many participants said that they were workers of state communal services. They got oral orders of their bosses to finish the working day at 15:30 to be present at the meeting at 16:00. The bosses threatened to those, who would not come to the meeting, with various punishments, including dismissal. A worker of the Sevastopol communal enterprise ’Gorvodkanal’, who asked not to mention her name, told our correspondent the above-mentioned details. Heads of the state city administration were present at the meeting and vigilantly surveyed how their subordinates came to the meeting. Representatives of labor collectives and political parties declared in speeches about how good the life in the country became, about their support of President Kuchma’s course, they also disrobed ’the destructive forces’ in the Parliament. In spite of the fact that the meeting was officially called ’In defense of the Constitution’, the participants in their speeches and resolutions demanded from the President and people’s deputies to implement as soon as possible the results of the April referendum, that is the radical change of the existing Constitution in favor of increasing the President’s power. Leonid Zhunko, the head of the state city administration, finished the meeting.

On 10 January in Simferopol, on Lenin Square, a meeting in defense of the Ukrainian Constitution was held in the framework of the all-Ukrainian action. About 8 000 people participated in the meeting. The participants in their speeches declared their support of President Kuchma. The meeting was organized by People-Democratic party, party ’Democratic Union’, Agrarian party and Social-Democratic party (united). A. Korneychuk, the President’s representative in the Crimea, who heads the Crimean branch of the Agrarian party, and S. Kunitsyn, the heads of the People-Democratic party in the Crimea, made speeches at the meeting. The told about the improvement of the living standard in the country, about the growth of the GNP and appealed to support President Kuchma. Similar meetings were held in Yalta and other Crimean towns.