Keeping democracy alive in Ukraine

"Recent events in Ukraine confirm that the transition to a more democratic society is extremely difficult and that the campaign for the parliamentary elections will be highly charged and competitive," saidFreedom House executive director Jennifer Windsor in a commentary on the survey. The poll's findings, she added, "underscore the importance of further engaging citizens and ensuring they understand and remain committed to the ongoing democratization process."

The sunny Lutsenko, who earned a reputation as an optimistic jokester during the frigid 2004 pro-democracy vigil, says he understands if there is fatigue with political tumult. "To be frank, we are tired of passing new exams every year," he says, referring to repeated elections.

But he agrees that the public must be engaged, and says the best way he can help to encourage that as interior minister is by reforming the national police. "People are feeling more like they are safe at home and on the street, but they also feel they can... come to us and report problems or suggest things, so that means there is more trust."

Ukraine's first civilian interior minister, Lutsenko rattles off statistics to demonstrate how crime is down over the last year - and to underscore his drive to rid the national police of corruption. He has fired 2,500 police, while 1,200 ministry officials are facing criminal charges - ranging from bribery to fraud and kidnapping. The state has been losing billions of dollars a year to corruption, he says.

"I think we are succeeding in building a new image for the national police," he says. Yet a concern for image does not prompt him to shy away when asked about human trafficking, an issue that rates high with US officials and rights groups dealing with Ukraine. "We know there have been and are a great number of Ukrainian women and even children sold into sexual slavery," Lutsenko says.

But recent revelations of a case where police officers joined with criminal organizations to sell children from small border towns is prompting Ukrainians to act on the issue, as is a new ministry office focused on human trafficking, created last year at the US ambassador's recommendation.

Lutsenko says one key to addressing that problem will be getting tighter control of Ukraine's borders, something that requires cooperation from neighbors. To that end, he's hoping for a "trilateral" meeting in May of Ukraine, Russia, and the US.

By then, the March elections will have delivered a fresh reading of Ukraine's political mood, and Lutsenko could find himself in different circumstances - even a different post (though presumably not pitching a protest tent again in Maidan. Surveys regularly show him to be among the five most popular political leaders, though Ukrainian bloggers say he appears to have retreated from the limelight).

But come what may, tilt East or West, Lutsenko says he is confident democratization will continue. "Ukraine" he says, "has passed the point of no return from which it could ever fall back."

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