KIEV CRITICIZES DRAFT CRIMEAN CONSTITUTION.

Ukrainian parliament chairman Oleksandr Moroz and justice minister Serhii Holovaty, in separate statements to the press, sharply criticized the draft Crimean constitution recently adopted by that region’s Supreme Soviet. The draft is subject to approval by the Ukrainian parliament. Moroz and Holovaty objected to provisions in the draft which they claimed ran counter to Ukraine’s constitution as well as to generally accepted standards of regional autonomy. Both officials targeted articles referring to Crimean "internal" citizenship, state symbols, Crimean ownership of resources in Black Sea territorial waters, and the proposed delimitation of executive powers between the peninsular authorities and Kiev. (12)

The Crimean Supreme Soviet adopted the draft constitution in November 1995 and followed up with another unprovoked challenge to Kiev by dismissing Prime Minister Anatoly Franchuk in December. The Ukrainian parliament is due to examine the draft Crimean constitution this month. The convergence of views on the subject between the socialist Moroz and the western-oriented Holovaty, who speak for different constituencies and generations and sharply disagree on other issues, reflects a broad-based political consensus in Kiev on the Crimea problem. The Ukrainian government and the Crimean Supreme Soviet were moving toward a modus vivendi in the second half of last year, but recent communist gains in Russia may encourage Crimean Russian irredentism and derail a compromise between Simferopol and Kiev.

Shevardnadze Warns Abkhazia.