aaus-list @ ukrainianstudies.org -- [aaus-list] [Fwd: Daily Press Briefing for Dec. 28 -- Transcript]

["Max Pyziur" <pyz@brama.com>]

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Daily Press Briefing for Dec. 28 -- Transcript
From:    statelists@STATE.GOV
Date:    Tue, December 28, 2004 4:03 pm
To:      DOSBRIEF@LISTS.STATE.GOV
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Daily Press Briefing                                                    
               Adam Ereli, Deputy Spokesman                             
                              Washington, DC                            
                                             December 28, 2004

  INDEX:

  ASIA
               Update on U.S. Aid to Asian Countries and Tsunami Victims  
               DART Team Deployment                        
                              Monetary Contributions       
                                             Coordination
With Defense Department                                    
  $20 Million Increase in Aid                              
                 Consular Services Hotline                 
                                Response to Criticism of
U.S. Initial U.S. Aid Levels                     
Disbursement of Aid Funds                                  
               Private Charitable Contributions to NGOs    
                              Numbers of Americans Abroad
Possibly Affected

  IRAQ
               Update on Iraqi Elections and Broad Political Party
Participation

  MIDDLE EAST
               Travel of Deputy Secretary Armitage and Ambassador Burns

  TURKEY/SYRIA
               Turkey-Syria Bilateral Relations

  SYRIA
               Border Security and Support for Iraqi Insurgency

  UKRAINE
               Update on Elections

  DEPARTMENT/ASIA
               Consular Affairs Update on American Tsunami Victims



[...]

  QUESTION: Change of subject? Ukraine?

  MR. ERELI: Change of -- I'm sorry.

  QUESTION: Is Ambassador Burns going with Mr. Armitage?

  MR. ERELI: On the stops in the Middle East, yes.

  QUESTION: Ukraine?

  MR. ERELI: Ukraine?

  QUESTION: Yeah. Yanukovich -- anything new on Yanukovich not accepting
election         results? Not that they're final yet, but anyway, saying
he won't?

  MR. ERELI: Mr. Yanukovich, as we understand it, has said that he plans
to               challenge the results of the December 26th election in
court. That's his                prerogative under Ukrainian law. We
certainly believe the appropriate Ukrainian         electoral and
judicial authorities are competent to hear this, hear these             
 complaints. We would expect that they would conduct a fair, transparent
and             legal review that results in an outcome that reflects
the will of the Ukrainian         people.

  As we've consistently said, we do not have a preferred candidate in this
               process; rather, we want to see a process that is
credible and that results in          the will of the people being
freely expressed and duly respected. I would note          that in the
aftermath of the latest vote on Sunday, most observers, both            
   Ukrainian and foreign, assessed the election to be considerably more
--                 assessed this election far more favorably than the
previous two rounds, and             they concluded that any violations
that did occur would not have affected the           outcome, the final
outcome of the vote.

  But as you mentioned, the final outcome has not yet been officially
announced           or declared by the Ukrainian authorities empowered
to do so. And until it is            we're not going to, I think,
pronounce on -- or have any pronouncements to              make.

  QUESTION: Okay. Thank you, I guess.

  MR. ERELI: Thank you.

[...]

************************************************************
See http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/ for all daily press briefings
************************************************************
To change your subscription, go to
http://www.state.gov/www/listservs_cms.html