Ukraine leader diverts plane, fights raging Wildfire
Pastor Dale Morgan
Ukraine leader diverts plane, fights raging Wildfire*
Reuters
Wednesday, August 22, 2007; 4:54 AM
KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko diverted his
plane to join crews battling a forest fire that has been raging for
three days and demanded the resignation of the minister responsible for
public safety.
Television footage showed Yushchenko, gearing up for a parliamentary
election next month, picking up a shovel on Tuesday, heaving sand on
onto smoldering woodland and straining to help firefighters push a
vehicle out of a bog.
The president, long at odds with a government led by his arch rival,
Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, was returning to Kiev from southern
Ukraine when he spotted a long plume of smoke. He ordered the pilot to
change course and land.
A statement from the president's office said Yushchenko had "personally
taken control of firefighting and rescue efforts" and accused
Emergencies Minister Nestor Shufrych of misleading the public on efforts
to bring the fire under control.
"The minister has displayed total incompetence and is completely
uninformed," presidential chief of staff Viktor Baloga said.
"The president demands that the prime minister review whether N.
Shufrych should remain in his job. Incompetent and unprofessional
individuals have no place in government."
Officials said more than 600 people, including residents, were still
battling the blaze in Kherson region on Wednesday.
The president has been critical of the government's handling of a series
of emergencies, including the derailment last month of a train carrying
phosphorus, which sparked a fire and prompted the evacuation of hundreds
of residents.
Yushchenko beat Yanukovich in the rerun of a rigged 2004 election after
weeks of "Orange Revolution" rallies, but Yanukovich made a comeback and
became prime minister last year.
A long struggle for power prompted the president to dissolve parliament
and call a new parliamentary election. Polls show the contest is
unlikely to produce much change with Yanukovich's Regions Party leading
but allies of the president close behind.