How Walesa Mediated
Piotr Dzieduszycki, former protocol chief of ex-president Lech Walesa, who accompanied him on his trip to Kyiv last Thursday and participated in all his talks there, describes what happened.
I experienced something similar when I accompanied Walesa on his trip to Fatima. When we arrived at the place we suddenly encountered a crowd of some three hundred thousand pilgrims. Walesa was recognized, and cheering began in his honor. When he turned to greet them he had tears in his eyes. Please believe me, on Independence Square his emotion was even greater...
He had no problems with Victor Yushchenko. We talked in Yushchenko's office. Yushchenko gave us to understand that he opposed any subjection of Ukraine - to Russia or the EU. He was very moved by what was going on in Independence Square. He feared provocation. He talked about pressure from Moscow, and also about his rival - Yanukovich, he didn't talk badly about him, and if he criticized, then it was only his HQ. Walesa proposed that the two men should meet that day. Yushchenko didn't raise any objection.
It went worse with Yanukovich. We went straight to him from Independence Square. Walesa - and all of us - were greatly moved when "Polsha, Polsha..." [Poland, Poland] chanted by tens of thousands of people, was heard.
What surprised me most was his security. Yanukhovich's HQ was full of uniformed functionaries. They stood everywhere, on every floor. All of them were clad in brand-new battledress which had been brought from a warehouse, and all were speaking Russian. I didn't hear even one Ukrainian word. Before we entered, "bodyguards" checked our IDs. "We know you, so no ID is needed," they told Walesa, but the rest were checked.
To begin with, Yanukovich told us that he already had the official results of the election and it was clear from them that he'd got one million votes more. Our president was warning him about responsibility in the case of an explosion. In the end he proposed a direct meeting with Yushchenko.
Yanukovich had almost agreed to this when suddenly a secretary came in with information that Putin was on the phone. After ten minutes our collocutor came back totally changed. There was no more talk about a meeting with Yuschchenko, but he warned us that thousands of miners were coming to Kiev, to make a stand against the opposition. He said one more strange thing: "I'm against using any force, but I don't have control of my HQ," and he gave his rival 24 hrs to fulfill the set conditions - the post of prime minister, but not before his supporters are called off from Independence Square.
We returned to Yushchenko and Independence Square full of gloomy thoughts. When information arrived that a group of "miners" was coming towards the Square, we feared that it would come to an explosion and the slaughter would begin....
[passage omitted]
(Via Marius - his tr., my minor editing)
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