2A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, January 24, 2005 NATION/WORLD Ukraine swears in new president KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Before a vast crowd of supporters celebrating with a burst of orange balloons, doves and chants, newly inaugurated President Viktor Yushchenko promised yester- day to steer a new course for Ukraine - away from corruption and political cronyism and into the European Union. "Ukraine will stand against all evil," Yushchenko told the crowd on Kiev's Independence Square, where weeks earlier demonstrators cried out that he'd been robbed of the presidency by fraud in a campaign laced with intrigue that even saw the pro-Western reformer poi- soned by a huge dose of dioxin. Yushchenko, his face still pock- marked from the near-fatal poisoning in September, called his inauguration ear- lier in the day a victory of freedom over tyranny and said the former Soviet state is "now in the center of Europe." Many in the crowd, estimated at more than 100,000, had tears in their eyes. They sang the national anthem and repeatedly interrupted the new president's speech with chants of "Yu- shchen-ko" and "Hurrah." "My heart is filled with the brightest feelings, my soul is rejoicing," said Nadia Levok, a 42-year-old doctor in the crowd. The inauguration caps a two-month political crisis in Ukraine, during which hundreds of thousands protested in Kiev's streets for weeks against a fraud-tainted Nov. 21 election that offi- cials said Yushchenko lost. That vote was overturned by the Supreme Court, and Yuschenko won a Dec. 26 repeat, defeating the pro-Moscow prime minis- ter, Viktor Yanukovych. But the deep political divide the new president will continue to face was vis- ible during the swearing in at a solemn ceremony in the Verkhovna Rada parlia- ment. After Yushchenko took the oath - placing his hand on a copy of the con- stitution and on an antique Bible - some deputies cheered and chanted his name, but others stood stonily, not applauding. Even in Independence Square, where many chanted and rejoiced, some expressed fear that Yushchenko may face difficulties in fulfilling his electoral promises. "Yushchenko has yet to score his main victory in the east of Ukraine," said Andriy Koloto, a 29-year-old teacher who came to Kiev from the mostly Rus- sian-speaking east where Yanukovych received the most support. Supporters of Yanukovych, who was backed by the Kremlin, grouped togeth- er on the square to wave white-and-blue flags, the candidate's campaign colors. They chanted "Shame! Shame!" as Yushchenko spoke. Nestor Shufrich, a prominent Yanu- kovych ally, was attacked on the square, the Ukrainian news agency reported, adding that one person was arrested. Yushchenko insisted that Ukraine's place "is in the European Union. My goal is Ukraine in a united Europe. Our road into the future is the road on which a united Europe is headed." The 25-nation bloc has made clear that membership for Ukraine is not yet on the agenda, saying the country should instead settle for closer ties. INEWS IN BRIEF GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Palestinian militants calls for truce A militant group linked to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas' ruling Fatah faction announced Saturday it is ready to stop violence if Israel halts military oper- ations, and Israeli officials indicated that they are considering the idea. The armed groups want Israel to stop arrest raids and targeted killings of wanted Palestinians in exchange for a truce. In the past, Israel refused to promise the mili- tants amnesty, despite requests by Egyptian mediators who have said they could not seal a truce deal without such Israeli guarantees. However, two advisers to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Saturday that a halt in Palestinian attacks could prompt the Israeli military to hold back. "If there will be quiet on the Palestinian side, then there will be quiet on our side, because all of our military operations are only meant to stop terrorism," said Zal- man Shoval, a Sharon adviser. Brig. Gen. Giora Eiland, head of Israel's National Security Council, told Israel Radio that quiet would be met by quiet. The latest statements indicate Abbas is making progress in his attempt to per- suade armed groups to halt attacks on Israel, a first step toward ending more than four years of bloodshed. WASHINGTON Iraqi vote first hurdle to democracy@0 President Bush had barely put away his tuxedo from the inaugural festivities when deadly bombings in Baghdad presented a stark reminder of the grim back- drop against which Iraq will hold a national election. The vote this coming Sunday to pick a 275-member National Assembly is an important test for Bush's mission to spread democracy through the Middle East. Even if the elections take place with a minimum of violence, however, military and diplomatic headaches are ahead for the Bush administration and for the fledg- ling Iraqi government. The national assembly has to take office, elect a prime minister and form a gov- ernment and field a police force able to maintain security. Then it must write a constitution that will facilitate more elections, either in late 2005 or in 2006. The United States must think about when it can begin to bring home some of the 150,000 troops now in Iraq and, ultimately, withdraw from the country. "Simply having a vote by itself is relatively meaningless. The question is wheth- er the people who are elected can do the job," said Anthony Cordesman, a military analyst and Iraq expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. WASH INGTON Report: Nixon formed panel to fight terrorism Nearly three decades before the Sept. 11 attacks, a high-level government panel developed plans to protect the nation against terrorist acts ranging from radiologi- cal "dirty bombs" to airline missile attacks, according to declassified documents obtained by The Associated Press. "Unless governments take basic precautions, we will continue to stand at the edge of an awful abyss," Robert Kupperman, chief scientist for the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, wrote in a 1977 report that summarized nearly five years of work by the Cabinet Committee to Combat Terrorism. The group was formed in September 1972 by President Nixon after Palestinian commandos slaughtered 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. The committee involved people as diverse as Henry Kissinger to a young Rudolph Giu- liani, the once-secret documents show. BOSTON Winter storm snarls eastern airports, highways A howling blizzard slammed the Northeast yesterday with more than 2 feet of snow and hurricane-strength wind gusts, halting air travel for thousands of people, keeping others off slippery highways and burying parked cars under deep drifts. Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri both declared states of emergency. Up to 29 inches of snow fell north of Boston parts of New Hampshire got-2 feet, New York's Catskills collected at least 20 inches, and 18 inches fell on parts of Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island and the eastern tip of New York's Long Island. The weather system had earlier piled a foot of snow across parts of Wiscon- sin, Michigan, Indiana and northern Ohio. At least six deaths were linked to the weather, three in Ohio, two in Wisconsin and one in Pennsylvania. Viktor Yushchenko holds the presidential mace during his inauguration ceremony in the Verkhovna Rada parliament In Kiev yesterday. Yushchenko's victory in last month's repeat election ended over a month of political turmoil. Auschwitz liberator to mark anniversary MOSCOW (AP) - On Jan. 27, 1945, Yakov Vinnichenko walked through the gates of Auschwitz into a netherworld of ghostly, emaciated women huddled together in dark barracks to prop one another up. "Some tried to kiss us, but it was uncomfortable - you didn't want to get infected," the one-time Soviet infantryman recalls. Vinnichenko was among the first outsiders to glimpse the horror of the concentration camp in southern Poland as the troops of the Soviet 322nd infan- try division cut the surrounding barbed wire and swept through. This week, he and a handful of comrades-in-arms return to Aus- chwitz to join Vice President Dick Cheney, Russian President Vladi- mir Putin and other world leaders in honoring the 60th anniversary of the camp's liberation. It will be his second trip to Auschwitz since the liberation; he traveled there in 2000 to mark the 55th anniversary. Up to 1.5 million prisoners, most of them Jews, perished in gas chambers or died of starvation and disease at Aus- chwitz. In all, some 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. By the time Vinnichenko's unit arrived, most of the prisoners had been evacuated by the Nazis on death march- es as they fled toward Germany. About 7,000 were left - "those who couldn't move," as Vinnichenko put it. "They were skin and bones, could hardly stand on their feet.... It's impos- sible to describe," he said. "They were holding each other up, they couldn't walk. The Germans just left them behind. They didn't have time to burn them up, to shoot them." He said his regiment was rushing "Sixty years have passed, you forget a lot - and for 30 years, no one showed interest or cared to ask." - Yakov Vinnichenko, Former Soviet infantryman to the next battle and spent only a few hours in the camp, but he did duck into one barracks. "There was filth, and blood. It was a women's barracks," he said, recalling the sight of hard, three-level bunks cov- ered with straw mattresses. Of the inmates he said, "Some were crying, some were laughing." Vinnichenko, a trim-looking man in a tweed jacket decorated with military medals, acknowledged in an interview with The Associated Press that his rec- ollections are cloudy; one of the clearest memories is leaving the camp and pick- ing up two bottles of port wine found abandoned in a basement. "Sixty years have passed, you forget a lot - and for 30 years, no one showed interest or cared to ask," he said. Under communist rule, the Soviet narrative of World War II avoided men- tion of the Holocaust - a theme that could raise questions about the state's demonizing of Jews at home and its hos- tile relations with Israel. - Compiled from Daily wire reports aily.com ough Friday during the fall and winter terms le free of charge to all readers. Additional lions for fall term, starting in September, via 10, yearlong (September through April) is on rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term s a member of The Associated Press and The 20 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109- m. www.michigand The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday thrt by students at the University of Michigan. One copy is availab copies may be picked up at the Daily's office for $2. Subscript U.S. mail are $105. Winter term (January through April) is $11 $190. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscripti are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is Associated Collegiate Press. 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