Yushchenko's dioxin levels 6,000 times normal

Experts seek clues to aid probe into Ukraine candidate's poisoning
The Associated Press
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6697752/

Updated: 8:42 a.m. ET Dec. 15, 2004

LONDON - New tests reveal the level of dioxin in the blood of Ukrainian presidential candidate Victor Yushchenko is more than 6,000 times higher than normal, according to the expert analyzing the samples.

The concentration, about 100,000 units per gram of blood fat, is the second highest ever recorded in human history, said Abraham Brouwer, professor of environmental toxicology at the Free University in Amsterdam, where blood samples taken last weekend in Vienna were sent for analysis.

A normal level of dioxin is between 15 and 45 units. Almost everyone has some level of dioxins because the toxic chemical is widespread in the environment — mainly from its industrial usages — and accumulates in the food chain.

In the case of Yushchenko, Brouwer’s team has narrowed the search from more than 400 dioxins to about 29 and is confident they will identify the poison by week’s end. That, in turn, could provide clues for the investigation of the alleged poisoning.

“From a (chemical) fingerprint, at least you can deduce what kind of sources might have been involved,” Brouwer told The Associated Press. “The labs will ... try to find out whether it matches any of the batches of dioxins that are around, so that maybe you can trace it back to where it was ordered or where it came from.”

Gradual recovery
Experts say Yushchenko, whose face has been pockmarked and disfigured, has probably experienced the worst effects already and should gradually recover, with no impairment to his working ability.

The reformist candidate, who faces Kremlin-backed Viktor Yanukovych in a repeat runoff on Dec. 26, first fell ill in September. The repeat election was ordered by the Supreme Court after their earlier second-round election, which authorities awarded to Yanukovych, was ruled fraudulent.

Russian agents involved?
On Tuesday, pro-Yushchenko lawmaker Yuriy Pavlenko speculated that Russian agents may have been involved in the candidates poisoning — a popular local theory stemming from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s backing of Yanukovych.

Many of the ruling political and business elite faced the loss of lucrative contracts made possible by high level connections if Yanukovych — Kuchma’s hand-picked successor — lost the race, analysts said.

Many of those contracts involve Russia. All but one of Russia’s major infrastructure links and natural gas exports to Europe pass through Ukraine.

The Ukrainian port of Odessa is a key regional trading outlet to the Black Sea and Middle East, while the naval base in Sevastopol is Russia’s only deep-water port on the entire Black Sea coast. Russia also imports food from Ukraine and, in return, the country of 48 million is a key consumer of Russian goods.

Taras Chornovil, Yanukovych’s campaign manager, said it was possible that someone connected to Kuchma might have had a role. Or, it could have been someone from Yushchenko’s own entourage looking to manipulate a sick president, he said.

Lawmakers from Yushchenko’s party have said the Austrian clinic’s findings confirmed that his opponents wanted to assassinate him rather than take the risk he would defeat Yanukovych. But some analysts, such as Markian Bilynskyj, suggest that the point of the attack was to sideline Yushchenko just long enough for him to drop from the public eye and lose support.

“The idea wasn’t to kill him, to assassinate him,” Bilynskyj said. “That would have turned Kuchma into a pariah. That would have been too obvious.”

Suspicious deaths
Government opponents have faced attack before. More than two dozen Ukrainian politicians, high-ranking businessmen and journalists have died under suspicious circumstances during Kuchma’s decade in power. All investigations into the deaths have proved inconclusive.

For his part, Yanukovych said he sympathized with his rival and that he wished him “no evil.”

In an interview with The Associated Press, he demanded a thorough investigation and promised not to interfere in it. But he stressed that the impact of the dioxin could hamper Yushchenko’s performance should he be elected in this month’s rerun.

“The fact of the matter is that Yushchenko is seriously ill,” he said. “We can all see it.”

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the U.S. administration wanted “a full and complete transparent investigation into that matter, into how it happened, who did it, what the cause was.”

Preparing for new elections
Meanwhile, supporters of Yushchenko expanded their “Orange Revolution” beyond Ukraine’s capital on Tuesday, organizing a convoy that will visit 15 cities in the coming days — including in eastern provinces that have been hostile to the candidate.

More than 50 supporters of the Pora (It’s Time) youth movement will head to the pro-Russian eastern provinces, hoping to win over voters in areas where support for Yushchenko’s opponent Yanukovych has been strong.

Meantime, election officials are preparing for the third round of voting as state authorities allotted airtime to the candidates. Each candidate will receive two 30-minute segments in prime time on state-run UT1 TV between Dec. 21 and Dec. 24 to explain their platforms, Ukraine’s Central Election Commission said.

The two candidates have also each been allotted an entire page in two official newspapers.

Commission official Serhiy Dubovyk warned that the Dec. 26 election was in jeopardy because the only company licensed to print the ballots can’t produce them fast enough. The commission urged the parliament to either allow another company to print ballots or extend a Dec. 23 deadline set for when the printing must be completed.

© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.