Ukraine prosecutors reopen investigation

VIENNA, Austria -- Ukrainian prosecutors reopened their investigation into allegations Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned after doctors who treated the opposition leader confirmed he had been slipped the toxic chemical dioxin, as Yushchenko returned home Sunday to campaign for this month's presidential run-off vote.\nYushchenko said he didn't want the poisoning issue to overshadow the Dec. 26 vote, but the director of Vienna's elite Rudolfiner clinic said that a potential criminal case could be involved.\n"We are not dealing with simple pimples, we are dealing with a poisoning and the suspicion of third party involvement," Dr. Michalel Zimpfer said.\nDoctors at the Rudolfiner clinic said it took a newly developed test, conducted by a lab in Amsterdam where Yushchenko's blood samples were sent, to determine beyond doubt that it was dioxin poisoning that caused a mystery illness in September that left Yushchenko disfigured and in pain.\nWhoever was responsible might have thought dioxin was untraceable, Zimpfer said. \n"Until recently, there has been no (blood) testing available" for dioxin, Zimpfer said. "This may be one of the reasons that this kind of poisoning, if it was a criminal act, was chosen."\nTests showed the toxin was taken orally, and was likely slipped into something that Yushchenko ate or drank. "This is the first case internationally where the intake has been oral, usually it's inhaled, it's very different," he said. The Amsterdam tests found Yushchenko's blood contained more than 1,000 times the normal amount of dioxin.\nUkraine's prosecutor general's office said it had reopened the criminal investigation that it closed in November for lack of evidence of poisoning.\nLawmakers from Yushchenko's party said the clinic's findings confirmed that his opponents wanted to assassinate or disable him rather than take the risk he would defeat Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych in the presidential election.\nYanukovych campaigners rejected suggestions that the prime minister could have been involved in any poisoning attempt. There is "no logic in such an accusation," said Taras Chornovyl, Yanukovych's campaign manager.\nYushchenko agreed on the need for an investigation but said the focus should now be on the rerun of the runoff vote the Supreme Court ordered after ruling fraud in the Nov. 21 runoff gave the election to Yanukovych, hand-picked candidate of outgoing President Leonid Kuchma.\n"I don't want this factor to influence the election in some way -- either as a plus or a minus," Yuschenko said as he headed back to Kiev. "This question will require a great deal of time and serious investigation. Let us do it after the election -- today is not the moment."\nWhile high concentrations of dioxin remain in his blood, doctors said Yushchenko's organs have not been damaged and he is fit for the campaign trail.\n"He has almost made a complete recovery," hospital director Zimpfer told The Associated Press. "His liver is fine, his pancreas is fine, but he still has residual pain" and is taking painkillers.\nThe 50-year-old opposition leader thanked the medical staff as he checked out of the clinic. Doctors said that if the dose of dioxin had been greater, it could have been fatal.\n"They've spent many days and nights with me and I am very happy to be alive in this world today," Yushchenko said, with his American-born wife, Kateryna Chumachenko, translating. "I thank these people for this."\nYushchenko praised the thousands in Ukraine who staged street protests against the outcome of the Nov. 21 runoff.\n"We haven't seen anything like that for the past 100 years," he said. "I think it would be appropriate to compare this to the fall of the Soviet Union or the fall of the Berlin Wall."\nYushchenko fell ill Sept. 5 and has been treated at the Vienna clinic twice before, but it was tests performed since he checked in Friday night that provided conclusive evidence of the poisoning, Zimpfer said.\nDioxin is a byproduct of industrial processes such as waste incineration and chemical and pesticide manufacturing.\nThe massive quantities of it found in Yushchenko's system caused chloracne, a type of adult acne caused by exposure to toxic chemicals. The condition is treatable, but can take two to three years to heal.\nZimpfer said Yushchenko's treatment will now be "very difficult and long."\nAmong other things, dioxin is known to cause cancer, and Dr. Nikolai Korpan, the physician who has been treating Yushchenko, said it was too early to tell what other problems might develop.\nFor now, he said, "we can confirm that his health is very good at this moment and he can do his job," Korpan said.\nParliament has adopted electoral changes aimed at preventing fraud in return for handing over some presidential powers to the parliament, easing the tension in Ukraine.\nYushchenko 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.\nThe pro-Kremlin Yanukovych draws his strength from the Russian-speaking, industrial east, which accounts for one-sixth of Ukraine's population of 48 million.