The challenges of new times, of the new millennium, have made it necessary for every state to reconsider its concept of national security, Yevhen Marchuk, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC), said addressing a Ukrainian press club session. According to him, none of the states and the international community as a whole, including such powerful interstate institutions as NATO, OSCE, and the UN, have remained unprepared to thwart such global- scale phenomena as the world financial crisis of 1998, global warming, the threat of international terrorism, etc.
“New players, a terrorist International, have mounted the world stage, as have the new wars, wars of a special type dominated by communicative and humane interventions and manipulative technologies rather than by military factors. What is being targeted in such wars is not material objects but symbols, social consciousness and mass psychology,” Mr. Marchuk stated. That is why, in his opinion, “the situation of today needs bold and adequate political initiatives... The obsolescence of approaches to and stereotypes of national security is evident today as never before.”
In his opinion, it is necessary now to specify the concept of state sovereignty and the way it is interpreted by the international community at the level of international legal standards. Being aware of some people for whom the issue is a taboo and trying to avoid misunderstandings Mr. Marchuk explained, “If a sovereign state pursues an internal policy leading to genocide on the political and ethnic basis as in Kosovo, if state sovereignty allows large international terrorist groups to function, if state sovereignty makes it possible to commercially produce hundreds of thousands of tons of dangerous drugs, then can such sovereignty be approved by international law?” According to him, “International law must be adjusted to meet the contemporary demands and challenges of civilization.”
It is also necessary, the NSDC secretary considers, “to overcome stereotypes in the idea of international cooperation in the fight against international terrorism, drop pseudo-patriotic innocence, and cooperate with everybody... The security of a specific citizen in Ukraine cannot be protected in the contemporary world by means of state efforts alone.”
Marchuk announced that Ukraine has already begun to take part as an observer in the activities under the Collective Security Treaty of some CIS states. “We cannot fence ourselves off what a powerful institution is doing”, Mr. Marchuk stated. In his opinion, the concept of national security must be altered and a law on national security must be adopted.
Commenting on reports that Ukrainians have been receiving letters with an unknown white powder, the NSDC secretary emphasized that Ukraine had already taken measures to forestall the proliferation of biological weapons.
According to Mr. Marchuk, “Ukrposhta (Ukrainian postal service — Ed.) is also doing something.” At the same time he stressed that “the measures taken are not sufficient,” particularly, as far as the secrecy of correspondence is concerned, “it is not clear who has the right to open a letter if suspicion arises.” As Mr. Marchuk thinks, people “themselves must be more careful.” He also expressed doubt that “a biological war is going to break out in the world,” because the international community has a sufficient arsenal to contain the epidemic of not only anthrax.
The NSDC secretary reassured his audience that Ukrainians were not going to participate in the Afghanistan hostilities, and they can take part in peacekeeping operations only by decision of parliament. But he stressed that this was not the only problem Ukraine could face in connection with the antiterrorist operation in that country. According to Mr. Marchuk, “The humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan has already produced a great number of refugees.” And this might aggravate the crime situation, exacerbate the problem of employment, and of the repatriation of the refugees. However, in an attempt to calm the audience, Mr. Marchuk quoted the Ukrainian border security chief as saying that about 300 various guarding facilities have been set up on the eastern border in the past eight to nine months. “The Russian-Ukrainian border,” the NSDC secretary said, “is no longer transparent. The Russian side is also aware of this problem.” He also noted, “Today, in terms of security, the EU boundary runs along the Russian-Ukrainian border.”
Answering the numerous questions of journalists about the Tu-154 crash over the Black Sea, the NSDC secretary declared that final decisions would be made on the basis of official expert conclusions, although “the military have no doubt that the airplane was hit by a S-200 missile”. Moreover, Mr. Marchuk disclosed that, while modeling (putting together the fragments of) the destroyed Tu-154 plane, experts found 350 holes in the plane’s airframe and five missile elements, now under final expert examination in Russia. The explosion occurred fifteen meters above the plane’s wing trailing edge.
The journalists were very much interested in the further destiny of Defense Minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk. According to the Security Council secretary, General Kuzmuk has again tendered in his resignation and the president “is now considering the issue.” Mr. Marchuk also noted that “on the one hand, nobody can be dismissed before the investigation into the Tu-154 plane crash is over and the official conclusions are announced.” On the other hand, to quote him, “there is a political side of the matter.” Mr. Marchuk believes that if Gen. Kuzmuk “is responsible for the Ministry of Defense, he must resign in this case, which he in fact did.” According to Mr. Marchuk, the decision on this matter “is to be announced in the immediate future.”
A lady journalist, alluding to the fact that the Security Council secretary was the first to clearly spell out the official version that the Tu-154 might have been hit by a Ukrainian missile, asked in a “patriotic” vein whether his “KGB past” helped him clarify the situation with the plane. This mothball-type thinking was rejected even by her journalist colleagues. And Mr. Marchuk, supported by the audience, showed an absolutely adequate reaction. “Yes,” he replied, “my KGB past helped me very much to clarify this situation — much more than those who don’t have this kind of past.”
