Ukrainian President Calls on Premier to Refrain From Using Force

Text of report by Ukrainian news agency UNIAN

Kiev, 5 April: Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has called on Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych not to appeal to representatives of uniformed and law-enforcement agencies when solving the political crisis.

Yushchenko was speaking at a meeting with the commander of the Ukrainian Interior Troops, Oleksandr Kikhtenko, and the head of the State Border Service, Mykola Lytvyn, the presidential press service has said. Yushchenko pointed out that the political crisis in Ukraine should be solved only in a legal and democratic way. “I am addressing you as members of the National Security and Defence Council, as the people representing uniformed law-enforcement agencies, with the only appeal – we should look for a political answer. You should have a very clear stance in this matter,” he said.

Calls for strikes, street actions, disobedience and so on are not democratic means to solve the problem, the president said. “These are steps by the people who don’t care about stability,” the president said.

“I have called and am calling on all the sides, including the prime minister, not to appeal to the population now. On the contrary, we should use political means to look for a democratic solution,” Yushchenko said.

Yushchenko recalled that the foundation of the present political conflict is the unconstitutional formation of the parliamentary coalition. “It (conflict) can be solved only in a legal plane. Nobody will remain indifferent that anyone will amnesty this way of forming the majority, agree to its existence and so on. Nobody will agree to that today. I will not cancel the presidential decree, because it is strictly in line with the constitution,” Yushchenko said.

[Yushchenko also called on political parties to refrain from bringing people to the streets, UNIAN reported on 1224 gmt today. Mass protests is a chaotic process which could "bring many nuances which you don't even plan", he said. "The public should give politicians a few days to reach a decision," the agency quoted Yushchenko as saying.]

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