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Doctor: Yushchenko poisoned with dioxin
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-12-12 08:47
Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko was
poisoned with dioxin, doctors said Saturday, adding that the highly toxic
chemical could have been put in the opposition leader's soup, producing the
severe disfigurement and partial paralysis of his face.
Ukrainian
opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko answers
journalists'questions as he arrives at Vienna's Rudolfinerhaus hospital
for medical treatment, December 10, 2004.
[Reuters] |
Yushchenko was in satisfactory condition and was expected to be released from
Vienna's private Rudolfinerhaus clinic Sunday or Monday to return to the
campaign trail in Ukraine, said hospital director Dr. Michael Zimpfer.
Yushchenko, who faces Viktor Yanukovych in a rerun of a disputed
presidential runoff on Dec. 26, has claimed that he was poisoned by Ukrainian
authorities, who deny the charges. His supporters at home expressed little
surprise over the doctors' conclusion.
"Everybody knew he was poisoned so we didn't really need official tests,"
said Anatoly Klotchyk, 19, standing in the sleet outside his tent near Kiev's
Independence Square, where supporters have conducted a blockaded of government
buildings since the dispute flared, grabbing international attention after the
runoff last month.
Campaigners for his opponent, Viktor Yanukovych, meanwhile, again
rejected suggestions that the prime minister was involved in the poisoning.
There is "no logic in such an accusation," said Taras Chornovyl,
Yanukovych's campaign manager.
Yanukovych was declared the winner of the Nov. 21 presidential runoff,
but the results were annulled by the Ukrainian Supreme Court, which cited
massive fraud and ordered a new vote.
Yushchenko fell ill in early September and had been treated at the Vienna
clinic twice before. But it was the tests run since he checked in Friday night
that provided conclusive evidence of the poisoning, Zimpfer said.
The 50-year-old politician also has suffered from back pain and acute
pancreatitis.
"There is no doubt about the fact that Mr. Yushchenko's disease —
especially following the results of the blood work — has been caused by a case
of poisoning by dioxin," Zimpfer said.
"We suspect involvement of an external party, but we cannot answer as to
who cooked what or who was with him while he ate," Zimpfer said, adding that
tests showed the dioxin was taken orally.
Zimpfer said Yushchenko's blood and tissue registered concentrations of
dioxin — one of the most toxic chemicals — that were 1,000 times above normal
levels.
"It would be quite easy to administer this amount in a soup," Zimpfer
said.
The substance containing the dioxin would most likely have been consumed
the day Yushchenko fell ill, as dioxin is rapidly absorbed, Zimpfer said.
"This substance led to quite a significant increase in the (dioxin) level
within just a few hours and this intake then led to the quite devastating
effects that we have seen," he said. "The substance started to wreak havoc in
the body."
A parliamentary commission that investigated Yushchenko's mysterious
illness in October said he complained of pains after meeting with Ihor Smeshko,
the head of Ukraine's Secret Service, but it lists other places he ate or drank
that day. Smeshko promised the secret service would investigate.
The massive quantities of dioxin in Yushchenko's system caused chloracne,
a type of adult acne produced by exposure to toxic chemicals that left his
once-handsome face badly disfigured, hospital dermatologist Hubert Pehmberger
told The Associated Press.
Chloracne can take up to two to three years to heal, but Dr. Nikolai Korpan,
the physician who oversaw the Ukrainian politician's treatment, said Yushchenko
is "fully capable of working."
Unlike earlier blood tests, the latest were sent to a laboratory in Amsterdam
that uses a new analysis method that could test it for dioxin, Korpan said.
When first seen by the Austrian doctors Sept. 10, Yushchenko was in a
critical stage but was "not on the verge of dying," Zimpfer said.
"If this dose had been higher, it may have caused death," he said.
Dioxin — a contaminant found in Agent Orange — is a byproduct of industrial
processes such as waste incineration and chemical and pesticide manufacturing.
It is a normal contaminant in many foods, but a single high dose, usually in
food, can trigger illness, London-based toxicologist John Henry said last month.
"We've never had a case like this — a known case of large, severe dioxin
poisoning," Henry said, leaving it unclear whether the dosage of dioxin
administered to Yushchenko was meant only to make him ill or to kill him.
Tension in Ukraine's political crisis has abated with parliament's adoption
of the electoral changes aimed at preventing fraud in return for handing over
some presidential powers to the parliament.
Yushchenko wants to move his former Soviet republic
closer to the West politically and is largely backed by the Ukrainian-speakers
who want to end what they say has been mass corruption during the previous
decade. The pro-Kremlin Yanukovych, who had the backing of outgoing President
Leonid Kuchma and Russian leader Vladimir Putin (news - web sites), draws his
strength from the Russian-speaking, industrial east, which accounts for
one-sixth of Ukraine's population of 48 million.
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