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| Monday, 13 December 2004 |
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Ukraine election heats up with poison report KIEV, Sunday (AFP) Ukraine's presidential election lit up with a doctor's report that opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko was likely poisoned, in a stunning disclosure two weeks before a rerun vote that he is increasingly likely to win. The news drew no immediate reaction from Yushchenko's rival Viktor Yanukovich, who was on a campaign stump in pro-Russian regions of southeastern Ukraine ahead of the December 26 vote. But analysts said the report could help Yushchenko claim power, finally resolving this former Soviet republic's worst political crisis since its independence in 1991. Western-leaning Yushchenko has alleged repeatedly that he was poisoned ahead of the first round of voting on October 31. His face became disfigured and he was forced into an Austrian hospital in critical condition with internal bleeding. The medical chief of the Rudolfinerhaus clinic in Vienna said that tests showed Yushchenko had suffered from dioxin poisoning - a toxin in the Agent Orange defoliant widely used by the United States during the Vietnam war. "There is no doubt about the fact that the disease has been caused by a case of poisoning by dioxin," said Michael Zimpfer. "We have found levels of dioxin in the body caused by oral ingestion," he told a news conference at the private clinic. "We suspect a cause triggered by a third party." Zimpfer said the clinic's conclusion was based on skin changes and tests on blood and tissue samples. The report met with silence from Yanukovich's camp and drew no comment from outgoing President Leonid Kuchma, who had initially groomed his prime minister for power. But in Washington, a State Department spokeswoman said the United States was "deeply concerned about these findings" and urged Ukrainian authorities to investigate. Ukraine's public prosecutors office reopened its investigation following the announcement by Yushchenko's doctors in Vienna, Interfax news agency reported. |
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