OP-ED, Kyiv Post, Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 22, 2004

H.L. Mencken wrote that in the United States, all things happen that defy the probabilities and the decencies. Mencken was lucky he never had a chance to visit contemporary Ukraine, which might have proven too much for even his cynicism and sent him running for the lunatic asylum.

The latest nastiness in the run-up to this autumn's crucial election comes from the western Ukrainian city of Mukachevo, where the authorities are allegedly stealing a mayoral election from the opposition the old-fashioned way: with burglary of polling sites, brownshirt-style violence, brazen lying, and leering defiance of parliament observers. They're not even trying to be subtle about it.

The full-on effort to make sure Our Ukraine's candidate, who credible accounts say won more votes, falls before the candidate of Presidential Administration head Viktor Medvedchuk's Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united) should be considered a dress rehearsal for the presidential vote.

This week, thugs moved about the city in organized packs, smashing polling place doors to steal ballots and beating up at least six deputies from a large parliament contingent who had come to observe the balloting. Imagine the international sensation that would develop if a group from the U.S. Congress or the House of Commons were beaten and denied their mandate by a Nazi-style rabble, in their own country.

Nor was this even the first time the authorities have destructively romped through Mukachevo. In a mayoral election there last year, the victory of another Our Ukraine candidate prompted President Kuchma to disband the local courts and election commission and stock them with his own allies.

Unfortunately, the West can't or won't do enough to improve this situation. U.S. diplomacy toward Kyiv seems now predicated on ignoring Ukrainian misbehavior in return for Bankova's participation in the war effort. A cynical Europe, it seems, would rather have a stable Ukraine than a democratic one, and doesn't want to impose more sanctions that might drive Ukraine further into the Russians' arms.

Faced with what could be another political disaster in its backyard, Europe keeps issuing condemnations and statements, as if the men organizing political violence in Ukraine care about the moral sensibilities of what they must consider effete bureaucrats in Brussels. Maybe a Europe that couldn't summon the will to deal with problems like Belarus and the Balkans shouldn't be expected to do anything about Ukraine, either.

One small thing it can do, however, if it wants to chip away at its reputation for fecklessless is send lots of election observers here: for the October presidential election and for every contest until then. There should be teams at every polling place located in a significant population center, in sufficient numbers that they can neither be hoodwinked nor intimidated. The usual arrangement whereby observers shuttle between polling places by car is obviously no longer tenable.

Europe should live up to its responsibilities in its own backyard; it has to try harder to make its work in Ukraine effective, rather than use it as an opportunity to issue pompous announcements that Ukraine's power class holds in contempt. Taking a hands-on approach to elections in this crucial year would be one good way to do it.