Kwasniewski to meet with Ukrainian counterpart amid public protests

President Aleksander Kwasniewski and his Ukrainian counterpart Leonid Kuchma are to meet on Thursday in the Polish town of Kazimierz Dolny. The occasion marks Kuchma’s first official visit since November of last year, when Ukraine’s head of state drew fire at home and abroad for alleged links to the murder of journalist Georgy Gongadze. In past weeks, Ukrainian protesters, demanding that Kuchma step down, have clashed with police, increasing worries in the international community about human rights violations in Ukraine. A senior deputy from Poland’s ruling right-wing Solidarity Election Action bloc, Stefan Niesiolowski, asked President Kwasniewski not to meet with Kuchma, who he said was looking for foreign support abroad at a time of increasing domestic crisis. President Kwasniewski said he would urge President Kuchma to seek dialogue to resolve his country’s current internal problems. (Reuters, Gazeta Wyborcza, p.6) A.D.