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	UKRAINE DENIES PEACEKEEPERS VIOLATED ORDERS IN IRAQ
	ICTV television, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian, 8 Apr 04 BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Apr 08, 2004 KIEV -[Presenter] In Kiev today, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Hryshchenko and military personnel denied a report by British journalists [published by the Daily Telegraph on 8 April] that Ukrainian peacekeepers allegedly violated an order when they left [the Iraqi town of] Al Kut. Ukrainian servicemen are on a peacekeeping mission in Iraq, guarding civilians and representatives of international organizations. This mission does not envisage combat operations, which is why the Ukrainians have only light arms. The Ukrainian contingent is not based in the town itself but at the base Delta outside Al Kut. The Ukrainians guarded a bridge over the river Tigris, a TV centre and the mayor's office. For that reason, when the first attacks of rebels were repelled, the commanders decided to leave the town and to evacuate 37 civil administration staff. Ukrainian servicemen had no order to hold Al Kut. All of them are currently at places of their permanent deployment, that is, at the base camp at the Delta base in the town of Al Suwayrah and at the base of the Arafat check point on the Iranian border. Ukrainian man lights a candle under a portrait of killed in Iraq journalist Taras Protsyuk near the U.S. embassy in Kiev, April 8, 2004 REUTERS/Gleb Garanich (Click on image to enlarge it)   [Oleh Syvushenko, captioned as deputy chief of the General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces] There was no order for the Ukrainian contingent to hold the town. How can one violate something that did not exist? An incompetent individual who is not familiar with military terms wrote that.

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