A rchive Date
[ 28-11-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Ukraine ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/11/27/270410-ap.html
Thousands of Ukrainians protest against government economic policy
Thu, November 27, 2003
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) - Thousands of demonstrators rallied outside the Ukrainian legislature Thursday, protesting against a cut in the country's minimum wage and other economic policies.
Waving flags and chanting: "Down with the government!," supporters of the Our Ukraine and Yulia Tymoshenko blocs and the Socialist party demanded Prime Minster Viktor Yanukovych resign over the 2004 budget plan, which has been approved by the legislature.
On Tuesday, legislators cut the country's monthly minimum wage by 14 per cent, just seven months after the wage had been raised to the equivalent of about $58 Cdn. On Wednesday, President Leonid Kuchma signed a law introducing the new minimum wage of $50.
"We are witnesses of a social crime," said Viktor Yushchenko, a former prime minister who heads the Our Ukraine bloc.
The government tied the new lower minimum wage with a new flat income tax of 13 per cent, which was approved in May in a bid to end widespread tax-evasion that has bled the country of revenues. The new tax goes into effect in January.
Opposition leaders have also accused Yanukovych's government of appropriating state money for use in next year's presidential campaign.
Opposition representatives estimated the crowd Thursday at 10,000. Coal miners banged their helmets on the ground. Some of the protesters, frustrated by numerous attempts to oust Kuchma over the last few years, said they were inspired by Georgia's peaceful removal of President Eduard Shevardnadze.
The minimum wage was cut a few days after bread prices began rising, as Ukrainian bakeries began using higher-priced imported grain, following a shortage caused by a poor winter harvest and by alleged market manipulation that resulted in excessive exports of grain.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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