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YUSHCHENKO THINKS THERE SHOULD BE A MORATORIUM ON THE SALE OF UKRAINIAN LAND UNTIL HONEST AND TRANSPARENT PRIVATIZATION CAN BE ENSURED
  

"Our Ukraine" Press,  www.razom.org.ua
Kyiv, Ukraine, February 18, 2004

KYIV...... Victor Yushchenko reported in an interview that "Our Ukraine" would fight for implementing a moratorium on the privatization of land because the government nowadays is not ready to ensure transparent and honest privatization on the land market. He also reminded about the mistakes of voucher privatization.

Yushchenko thinks that if privatization is undertaken under the current unclear conditions, planters will appear in Ukraine in the nearest future. "Personification of land, i.e. providing official acts to rural citizens, needs to be completed before any privatization is to be undertaken. Only 51 percent of such acts have been distributed over the past three years.

A system for registering real estate, the so-called government cadastre has not been established yet either: it is still under review and appears rather fragmentary. Furthermore, there is still no established system of institutions to serve the land market," stressed Yushchenko.

"Privatization either must be honest or it must not be carried out at all," thinks Yushchenko. He is skeptical of government promises to develop a state land register within a year. "Nowadays, the government is incapable of ensuring honest privatization on the land market. It is impossible to by buy a hectare of marsh near Kyiv for a few thousand dollars today while the same money buys half a village in Sumy region. Such disparity proves the underdevelopment of land market," noted the leader of "Our Ukraine."

"A moratorium on land privatization is the only way to prevent manipulation and theft today. This issue needs to be raised again when Ukraine has an honest and responsible government. The actions of the current government - whether dealing with pension reform or with the state budget - provide only negative influence on the well-being of the people," declared Victor Yushchenko.

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