"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT"
In-Depth Ukrainian News, Analysis, and Commentary
"The Art of Ukrainian History, Culture, Arts, Business, Religion,
Sports, Government, and Politics, in Ukraine and Around the World"
"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT" Year 04, Number 105
Action Ukraine Coalition (AUC), Washington, D.C.
Ukrainian Federation of America (UFA), Huntingdon Valley, PA
morganw@patriot.net, ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net
Washington, D.C.; Kyiv, Ukraine, MONDAY, June 28, 2004
-----INDEX OF ARTICLES-----
"Major International News Headlines and Articles"
1.UKRAINIAN LEADER CALLS ON YOUNG PEOPLE OF UKRAINE,
RUSSIA AND BELARUS TO LIVE AND WORK AS ONE FAMILY
Putin says that value lies in our joint cultural and spiritual
space.
UT1, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian, 27 Jun 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, Sunday, Jun 27, 2004
2. PRESIDENTS OF UKRAINE, RUSSIA AND BELARUS ATTEND
INTERNATIONAL YOUTH FESTIVAL IN WESTERN UKRAINE
As many as 50,000 young people gathered at the festival
NTV Mir, Moscow, Russia, in Russian, 27 Jun 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Sunday, Jun 27, 2004
3. LEADERS OF UKRAINE, RUSSIA AND BELARUS PLEDGE TO
IMPROVE COOPERATION AND MAINTAIN UNITY OF
THE THREE NEIGHBORING SLAVIC NATIONS
AP Online, Chernihiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Jun 27, 2004
4. KUCHMA WANTS UKRAINIAN CONSTITUTION AMENDED
BEFORE THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN OCTOBER
UT1, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian, 25 Jun 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Friday, Jun 25, 2004
5. UKRAINIAN ANALYST THINKS CONSTITUTIONAL
REFORM BILL HAS A GOOD CHANCE OF PASSING THIS YEAR
UT1, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian, 25 Jun 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Saturday, Jun 26, 2004
6. UKRAINE DEFIES INTERNATIONAL PROTESTS TO RISK
'ECOLOGICAL DISASTER' ON DANUBE RIVER
Ukraine's Prime Minister Yanukovich Turns A Deaf Ear To All Protests
By Gabriel Ronay, Sunday Herald, Glasgow, Scotland, Sun, June 27, 2004
7. POLISH PRESIDENT ENCOURAGES UKRAINIAN INVESTORS
7th Ukraine-Poland Economic Forum in Yalta, Crimea, Ukraine
PAP News Agency, Warsaw, Poland, Friday, June 25, 2004
8. JACEK KURON WAS A GREAT MAN, A GREAT POLE AND A
GREAT UKRAINIAN SAYS FORMER UKRAINIAN PRIME MINISTER
VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO AT FUNERAL SERVICES IN WARSAW
PAP News Agency, Warsaw, Poland, Sunday, 27 June 2004
9. "OUR UKRAINE" BLOC LEADER VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO SAYS
GOVERNMENT TRYING TO DISRUPT HIS CAMPAIGN
ERA, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian, 27 Jun 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Sunday, Jun 27, 2004
10. KIEV DISPATCH: "DARK SIDE OF THE BOOM"
Ukraine's president is bowing out and as the race to replace him
begins, corruption could overshadow the country's economic success
By Ben Aris, Guardian Unlimited, London, UK, Wednesday, June 23, 2004
11. "HOW A HEADLESS CORPSE AND A DEAD WITNESS CAME
BACK TO HAUNT THE LEADER OF UKRAINE"
By Askold Krushelnycky in Prague
The Independent, London, UK, Saturday, 26 June 2004
12. UKRAINE TO ENFORCE EQUAL RIGHTS FOR TATARS
By Helen Fawkes, BBC correspondent in Kiev
BBC NEWS, Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, June 25, 2004
13. "WHO REALLY WEARS PAMPERS IN UKRAINIAN POLITICS?"
COMMENTARY by Taras Kuzio for UP
Professor, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
Ukrainska Pravda (UP), Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, 25.06.2004
14. "NOT WORTHY:
WALTER DURANTY'S PULITZER PRIZE AND THE NEW YORK TIMES"
An important new book related to the international campaign in 2003
By E. Morgan Williams, Publisher and Editor
"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT", Washington, D.C., June 28, 2004
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 105: ARTICLE NUMBER ONE
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1. UKRAINIAN LEADER CALLS ON YOUNG PEOPLE OF UKRAINE,
RUSSIA AND BELARUS TO LIVE AND WORK AS ONE FAMILY
Putin says that value lies in our joint cultural and spiritual
space.
UT1, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian, 27 Jun 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, Sunday, Jun 27, 2004
KIEV - [Presenter] The presidents of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus - Leonid
Kuchma, Vladimir Putin and Alyaksandr Lukashenka - today attended the
ceremonial opening of the international youth festival Friendship-2004,
which is traditionally held near the Friendship monument at the point where
the borders of the three countries meet in the village of Senkivka in
Chernihiv Region [Ukraine].
Kuchma called on the young people of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus to live
and work as a single family. He said that Ukrainians are proud that Kiev was
for centuries the spiritual patrimony of the Eastern Slavs and remains so.
Maksym Drabok has the details.
[Correspondent] To the sound of bells, Leonid Kuchma, Vladimir Putin and
Alyaksandr Lukashenka took the hands of children in the national costume of
their countries. In this way the leaders of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus
symbolically opened the traditional Friendship festival. It is dedicated to
Young People's Day, and for three decades it has been held near the
Friendship monument at the place where the borders of the three countries
meet. [Passage omitted: The leaders visit a market in Senkivka and listen to
a concert.]
[Correspondent] In his speech, Kuchma called on the young people of Ukraine,
Russia and Belarus to live and work as one family.
[Kuchma, in Russian] We have gathered here on this plot of land which is the
meeting point of three countries, three peoples and three languages in order
to affirm once again our common aspirations, our dedication to democratic
values, our commitment to the testament of our ancestors who called on all
Slavs to live together in peace and harmony. We grew up, lived, laboured in
one family of fraternal nations. And today we convey to you - the younger
generations of three countries - the need to live and work as one family in
the future.
[Putin, in Russian] We will speak in Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian, but
we don't need a translator. We will get by and understand each other. There
are things that you cannot touch with hands, but which are very precious and
valuable - and that value lies in our joint cultural and spiritual space.
[Correspondent] In Novhorod-Siverskyy, Kuchma, Putin and Lukashenka
viewed the restored Spasopreobrazhenskyy Monastery. There they attended
the consecration of the cathedral in its grounds. The presidents also
watched a dramatized performance of "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" [medieval
poem]. The show was quite realistic with all the paraphernalia of that time.
One of two concentration camps in Novhorod-Siverskyy was located in the
monastery. Almost 20,000 people died there. The leaders laid flowers at the
monument to the victims of fascism.
They also honoured the dead in Leonid Kuchma's home village of Chaykyno in
Novhorod-Siverskyy District. There they visited the church of the martyr
(?Paraskeviya). [Passage omitted: ecclesiastical history]
The church was built with the support of the Ukrainian president and was
consecrated three years ago. [Audio and video available. Please send queries
to kiev.bbcm@mon.bbc.co.uk] (END)
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 105: ARTICLE NUMBER TWO
Current Events Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/events/index.htm
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2. PRESIDENTS OF UKRAINE, RUSSIA AND BELARUS ATTEND
INTERNATIONAL YOUTH FESTIVAL IN WESTERN UKRAINE
As many as 50,000 young people gathered at the festival
NTV Mir, Moscow, Russia, in Russian, 27 Jun 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Sunday, Jun 27, 2004
MOSCOW - [Presenter] Vladimir Putin, Leonid Kuchma and Alyaksandr
Lukashenka today met in the Ukrainian village of Synkivka, where the heads
of state opened an international youth festival. The choice of the venue is
no accident. This is where the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian borders
meet. Our correspondent Vladimir Kondratyev is in the Chernihiv Region.
[To Kondratyev] Vladimir Petrovich, what can you say about the opening of
the festival? What did the leaders say? What did they tell the young people
there?
[Correspondent] The festival is now in its 30th year. On its 30th
anniversary, the event that has been staged is especially colourful and
spectacular, the likes of which have not been seen before, even in the
opinion of local Ukrainian journalists. As many as 50,000 young people have
gathered together here to take part, not only from Russia, Belarus and
Ukraine but also from Poland, the Dniester region and other countries.
It all began in a very lively fashion. In his address to the participants,
President Putin delivered an important message as regards the future
development of cooperation between the three states.
As we know, the friendship of the three nations has had its ups and downs.
Last year saw the Tuzla conflict, while a few days ago the Belarusian
president, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, surprised us all when he chided Russia to
the effect that it ought to be careful lest it should get a second Chechnya
on its western border, meaning Belarus, and that the knives were out in
Belarus. What the Belarusian president meant is not quite clear. But he
strongly criticized President Putin, who he said wanted to merge Russia and
Belarus in such a way as simply to absorb Belarus. This is what President
Putin, in his speech today, told those present:
[Putin] There is something that is not quite tangible but that is very dear
and valuable. Its value is in our common cultural and spiritual space. I am
absolutely convinced that no great power chauvinists or nationalists will
succeed in dragging us off to their musty loony bins.
[Correspondent] And as if to confirm what the president said about our
common cultural heritage, the three presidents are now together at the
Spaso-Preobrazhenskyy Monastery in the town of Novhorod-Siverskyy. There,
the visits of Presidents Putin and Lukashenka to Ukraine will culminate in a
theatrical show, due to begin any minute now, which will retell the events
portrayed in "The Lay of Igor's Campaign" [masterpiece of old Russian
literature]. I am, by the way, in front of a museum dedicated to that
ancient chronicle. You can now see a rehearsal. [Passage omitted]
The Russian and Polovets armies clash, which some of the journalists here
immediately likened to a counterterrorist operation, one commanded by Prince
Igor, with the Polovets army as a simulated terrorist given very short
shrift indeed by the Russians. [Passage omitted]
Then, in the final act, they struck up a tune, singing Long Live the Three
Presidents. This really is what was said: Long Live the Three Presidents,
Long Live Lukashenka, Putin and Kuchma.
This all is due to begin in the next few minutes now in the presence of the
three presidents who are at the moment on a tour of the
Spaso-Preobrazhenskyy Monastery and other attractions. The reconstruction
of the monastery, by the way, is being sponsored by Leonid Kuchma. He was
born not far from here, so it is possible that he will then invite his
guests to come to his native village. (END)
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 105: ARTICLE NUMBER THREE
Ukrainian Culture Gallery: http://www.ArtUkraine.com/cultgallery.htm
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3. LEADERS OF UKRAINE, RUSSIA AND BELARUS PLEDGE TO
IMPROVE COOPERATION AND MAINTAIN UNITY OF
THE THREE NEIGHBORING SLAVIC NATIONS
AP Online, Chernihiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Jun 27, 2004
CHERNIHIV, Ukraine - The presidents of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus
pledged Sunday to improve cooperation and maintain the unity of the three
neighboring Slavic nations. "We grew up, worked and lived as one family of
brotherly nations ... we must continue that in the future," Ukraine's
President Leonid Kuchma said at the opening of the Druzhba (Friendship)
2004 youth festival near the northern city of Chernihiv. More than 50,000
people gathered at the festival that is a part of festivities dedicated to
Ukraine's Day of Youth.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that "no chauvinists and nationalists"
will succeed in dividing three countries. "Young people, more than anyone
else, understand the need for economic, cultural and scientific
integration," Putin said.
After the Soviet collapse, Ukraine sought to boost ties with the West and
declared it wants to join EU and NATO. Russia is eager to retain influence
both in Ukraine and Belarus, which are both positioned between its borders
and the expanding Western alliances. Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, along with
Kazakhstan, recently agreed to speed up creation of a single economic
community tailored to improve growth and investments.
In a speech that reflected his isolationist policies, Belarus' authoritarian
leader Alexander Lukashenko said that the Slavic culture must retain its
position in "highly competitive world deformed by globalization tendencies."
"With the backing of common..defense and scientific cooperation we should
not allow Slavic culture and civilization to disappear," Lukashenko said.
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 105: ARTICLE NUMBER FOUR
Current Events Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/events/index.htm
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4. KUCHMA WANTS UKRAINIAN CONSTITUTION AMENDED
BEFORE THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN OCTOBER
UT1, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian, 25 Jun 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Friday, Jun 25, 2004
KIEV - [Presenter] The Ukrainian president [Leonid Kuchma] has
welcomed the passage of the first reading of a constitutional reform bill
[in parliament], the deputy head of the presidential administration and
head of the administration's main analytical directorate, Vasyl Baziv, told
journalists today.
Baziv said the head of state reiterated that he wants constitutional
amendments to be approved before the [October presidential] election,
as it will be more difficult to do so after the election. Baziv said that
this process could only be initiated by the outgoing president rather than
the one who begins his term in office.
[Correspondent] Baziv has used the current public administration system in
Europe as an argument in favour of the need to carry out political reform
[in Ukraine].
[Baziv] Apart from leading Ukraine to a new quality of political existence
in line with the latest European fashion, the innovation of the Ukrainian
president and of the political forces who show solidarity with him is also
of international importance, as by taking this step the Ukrainian leader is
for the first time trying to bring the entire post-totalitarian space, which
is in a state of a permanent historical transition from communism to
democracy, into line with the pan-European context of building democratic
power.
Baziv has commented on the statement by the PACE Monitoring Committee
saying that political reform should be carried out in Ukraine after the
presidential election. Baziv said that the leadership of the Supreme Council
[parliament] should give additional explanations to the Council of Europe
about the political reform process in Ukraine so that our friends abroad
could assess it impartially.
Baziv said the PACE statement contains paragraphs sharing the position of
the presidential administration on the need for a fair and transparent
election. Baziv said that all candidates should comply with these
principles. [Audio and video available. Please send queries to
kiev.bbcm@mon.bbc.co.uk] (END)
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 105: ARTICLE NUMBER FIVE
Current Events Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/events/index.htm
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5. UKRAINIAN ANALYST THINKS CONSTITUTIONAL
REFORM BILL HAS A GOOD CHANCE OF PASSING THIS YEAR
UT1, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian, 25 Jun 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Saturday, Jun 26, 2004
KIEV - Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Malynkovych has said that the
controversial government-backed constitutional reform bill, which received
initial approval in parliament on 23 June, has a good chance of getting the
two-thirds majority needed for its final approval this autumn. Speaking in a
live talk show on the state-owned channel UT1, Malynkovych implied that
opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko may well support the bill, which cuts
the president's powers, if it becomes clear that his victory in the October
presidential election is far from certain.
Yushchenko's Our Ukraine bloc has been vehemently opposed to the bill,
saying that the proposed reform aims to prevent the opposition from gaining
real power even if it wins the October election. Supporters of the bill say
the reform is needed to redress the balance of powers now skewed in the
president's favour.
"I believe the final outcome of the vote on the constitutional reform bill
will largely depend on the ratings of leading [presidential] candidates,"
Malynkovych said.
"The choice, in fact, is clear - it is either [Prime Minister Viktor]
Yanukovych, or Yushchenko. Right now Yushchenko has an advantage of
several percentage points. But already in the pipeline is a social package
that Yanukovych will announce. Also in the pipeline, I suspect, are certain
measures on the part of Russia, which will support Yanukovych not because
Putin likes him, but because Moscow is interested in the implementation of
the Single Economic Space accord, which Our Ukraine opposes. And Putin
is very popular in Ukraine."
Following initial approval in parliament, the reform bill will now be
submitted to the Constitutional Court. If it passes the court's vetting, the
final vote will take place during the autumn parliamentary session, just
weeks before the 31 October election.
Malynkovych is the head of the Ukrainian branch of the International
Institute of Humanitarian and Political Studies. No further processing of
the interview is planned. [Audio and video available. Please send queries to
kiev.bbcm@mon.bbc.co.uk] (END)
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 105: ARTICLE NUMBER SIX
Check Out the News Media for the Latest News From and About Ukraine
Daily News Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/newsgallery.htm
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6. UKRAINE DEFIES INTERNATIONAL PROTESTS TO RISK
'ECOLOGICAL DISASTER' ON DANUBE RIVER
Ukraine's Prime Minister Yanukovich Turns A Deaf Ear To All Protests
>From Gabriel Ronay, Sunday Herald, Glasgow, Scotland, June 27, 2004
The Danube delta, Europe's last remaining wild wetland, is under threat and
facing an ecological disaster. The controversial construction of a huge new
navigable waterway for seagoing vessels in the Ukrainian section of the
river has upset Romania, the principal custodian of the Danube's Black Sea
flood plains, and is worrying Washington, which fears a diplomatic imbroglio
in the Balkans.
The illicit excavation and planned damming of the mouth of the Bastroe
channel of the Danube has alarmed ecologists, who fear it will drain the
estuary and put out of action the present navigable Chilia waterway.
Environment groups estimate the construction work will put at risk the
biosystem of the delta's two and a half million acres of wetlands,
stretching across Romania and part of Ukraine.
Conservation groups WWF, Wet lands International and Bird life International
have written to President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine urging him "to stop
forthwith the building of the new navigable canal because it endangers the
biosphere of the entire Danube delta".
But the appeal has been ignored and diplomatic trouble is brewing. The
motive for the Ukraine's action appears to be its determination to avoid
paying transit fees for its ships using the Chilia channel on the Romanian
side of the delta.
Washington, too, has joined the protests. Adam Ereli, a State Department
spokesman, voiced the US's "concern over the ecological consequences of
the building of the new canal on the biosystem of the Danube delta".
The Ukraine is not only ignoring the protests but has speeded up the work.
Sergey Grinevet ski, head of the Odessa regional administration, which
oversees the Danube gulf, confirmed last week that "the work in the Bastroe
channel is progressing well and the dredger [of the German firm] Josef
Moebius has excavated 300,000 cubic metres of silt on the perimeter of the
construction work." He added that work on the controversial new dam at the
mouth of the Bastroe channel would begin shortly.
Somewhat disingenuously, Ukrainian prime minister Viktor Yanukovich told
journalists in Kiev: "We're not building anything new in the Danube delta.
There has been a channel there for a long time and we are simply modernising
its entire infra structure. I'll repeat this and will keep repeating it as
many times as you journalists want it."
Adrian Nastase, Romania's prime minister, has written to his Ukrainian
counterpart urging an immediate cessation of the construction work, which,
he maintains, contravenes the Helsinki Convention of 1992, the Sofia accord
of 1994 and the Galati agreement of 1997, all duly signed by Ukraine. He has
reiterated Romania's fears, quoting the opinions of independent experts.
But Yanukovich has not, so far, answered.
Ninel Petra, vice-president of the Romanian Ecology Party, has drawn
Ukraine's attention to the fact that "the new deep Bastroe channel will cut
in half the delta's ecosystem". This will spell disaster for Europe's only
breeding colony of pelicans, at Merheiu in the north of the delta.
She believes the consequences will be equally catastrophic for scores of
species of wading birds whose habitat will be disturbed. "Many indigenous
bird species of the delta will perish because they require hundreds of acres
of undisturbed wetlands to survive," she said. "Some 300 migratory bird
species will also be affected."
The delta's internal lakes and reed beds, teeming with fish, waders, otters
and a wealth of aquatic life, are imperilled. Petra's list of rare birds and
fish to be found only in the Danube delta is long.
In an attempt to defuse the situation, Washington has called on the Ukraine
"to respect its international obligations" and urged "an urgent evaluation
of the effects of the proposed new channel on the environment in order to
minimise its destructive impact".
Yanukovich is, however, turning a deaf ear to Washington's pleas, Romania's
complaints and the concerns of inter national environmental protection
groups. (END)
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 105: ARTICLE NUMBER SEVEN
The Genocidal Famine in Ukraine 1932-1933, HOLODOMOR
Genocide Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/famineart/index.htm
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7. POLISH PRESIDENT ENCOURAGES UKRAINIAN INVESTORS
7th Ukraine-Poland Economic Forum in Yalta, Crimea, Ukraine
PAP News Aency, Warsaw, Poland, Friday, June 25, 2004
YALTA - Poland is glad to welcome Ukrainian investors and will pose them no
requirements above those generally imposed upon investors, Polish President
Aleksander Kwasniewski said on Friday [25 June] at the 7th Ukraine-Poland
Economic Forum in Yalta.
Kwasniewski's statement referred to the privatization of Poland's Huta
Czestochowa steelworks, currently tendered by Ukraine's Donbas Industrial
Union and LNM Holdings from India.
An earlier tender lost by Donbas to LNM Holdings despite an admittedly
better offer was annulled last April after a government audit uncovered
irregularities in the procedure. Polish Deputy Treasury Minister Tadeusz
Soroka announced recently that both companies would re-tender [for]
the plant. (END)
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 105: ARTICLE NUMBER EIGHT
Historical Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/histgallery.htm
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8. JACEK KURON WAS A GREAT MAN, A GREAT POLE AND A
GREAT UKRAINIAN SAYS FORMER UKRAINIAN PRIME MINISTER
VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO AT FUNERAL SERVICES IN WARSAW
PAP News Agency, Warsaw, Poland, Sunday, 27 June 2004
WARSAW- Family members, friends and the highest state officials took part
Saturday [26 June] in funeral ceremonies for Jacek Kuron, a leading
anticommunist opposition figure of the 1960s and 1970s, Solidarity activist,
two-time labour minister after the breakthrough of 1989, historian and great
social activist. He died on the previous Thursday at the age of 70.
An open-air mass was held in a square near the house where Kuron had lived
for over half a century, attended by Lech Walesa, Freedom Union leaders,
priests of the Evangelical-Reformed and Orthodox Churches, Solidarity union
activists and nearby dwellers.
A solemn funeral procession of some 2,000 people then accompanied Kuron's
coffin to the Powazki Cemetery, where it was buried near the graves of other
prominent Poles.
Parallely, a solemn funeral meeting was held in parliament buildings,
attended by president Aleksander Kwasniewski, Sejm speaker Jozef Oleksy,
former Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek, former Czech foreign minister
Jiri Dienstbier, and other officials.
Poland is grateful to you and will preserve the memory of you, Kwasniewski
declared in his speech. Through his life and work Kuron negated the saying
that there were no irreplaceable people, he added. "He was and will remain
irreplaceable."
In Powazki Cemetery Kwasniewski laid a wreath from the nation on Kuron's
grave. Kuron's friends and collaborators who spoke at the cemetery described
him as someone unique, exceptional, great, an authority, friend. Former
Ukrainian prime minister Viktor Yushchenko called him a great man, a great
Pole and a great Ukrainian, referring to the fact that Kuron was born in
Lvov, now in Ukraine. (END)
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 105: ARTICLE NUMBER NINE
http://www.artukraine.com/buildukraine/index.htm
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9. "OUR UKRAINE" BLOC LEADER VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO SAYS
GOVERNMENT TRYING TO DISRUPT HIS CAMPAIGN
ERA, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian, 27 Jun 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Sunday, Jun 27, 2004
KIEV - The spokesman of Ukraine's opposition leader and presidential race
favourite Viktor Yushchenko has said the government is trying to disrupt his
campaign ahead of the October elections. The following is the text of report
by Ukrainian private radio Era on 27 June:
[Presenter] The Our Ukraine bloc [led by reformist former prime minister and
opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko] is on a campaign trip to Kryvyy Rih [a
large industrial city in Dnipropetrovsk Region, eastern Ukraine].
Allegations were made in the run-up to the trip that the authorities were
planning dirty tricks against the opposition leader. We have spoken to
Yushchenko's aide Iryna Herashchenko by phone. She has just returned from
Kryvyy Rih.
[Herashchenko] Over the past few weeks, in the run-up to the election
campaign [ahead of the 31 October presidential elections] Viktor Yushchenko
has been touring Ukrainian regions, as a member of parliament and as the
leader of the biggest parliamentary faction. These trips help us determine
whether the government is going to stick to its promises to guarantee a fair
election and equal opportunities for all candidates.
Unfortunately, there have been lots of incidents during our trips which show
that the government is not prepared to fulfil its promises. A week ago, we
were told that the airport in Kherson was shut down due to snow and our
plane could not land. And now, ahead of the Kryvyy Rih trip, we sent a
request to the local authorities, asking them to let us use one of the city
squares to meet the electorate. But we were told that the square outside the
community centre of the ore enrichment factory would be urgently closed
down for renovation.
[Ukrainian opposition parties have often complained that the authorities
under various pretexts deny them the use of premises to meet the electorate
and access to the local media. Our Ukraine's campaign chief told the
opposition web site Ukrayinska Pravda last week that the government was
planning dirty tricks against Our Ukraine, such as video reports on the
leading One Plus One and Inter TV channels on 26 June about a far-right
party coming out in support of Yushchenko - see UT1, Kiev, in Ukrainian
1800 gmt 26 Jun 04][Audio available. Please send queries to
kiev.bbcm@mon.bbc.co.uk] (END)
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 105: ARTICLE NUMBER TEN
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10. KIEV DISPATCH: "DARK SIDE OF THE BOOM"
Ukraine's president is bowing out and as the race to replace him
begins, corruption could overshadow the country's economic success
By Ben Aris, Guardian Unlimited, London, UK, Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Ukraine is the paradox of the east. The economy is booming, but the
government remains riddled with corruption and permeated by business
interests. The official campaign for the presidential elections kicks off
next week and the population will choose between two starkly different
paths. In the murky world of Ukrainian politics the outcome is far from
certain.
An economic basket case for most of the last decade, Ukraine has surprised
everyone by suddenly booming as limited reforms begin to take effect. It is
now the fastest growing country in the east, reaching a whopping 11.8% GDP
growth over the first three months of this year.
Corruption and prosperity make strange bedfellows. After a decade of misery,
the reconstructed Kreshatik, the main thoroughfare in the capital Kiev, is
full of people strolling among the street musicians and cafes and enjoying
the summer afternoon.
Personal incomes are rocketing and spending in the new boutiques and
restaurants that line streets such as Kreshatik is taking over as the
economic driver. But the average income is still stuck at 564 Ukrainian
hryvni (£60) a month , one of the lowest in the region, while a few
well-connected businessmen (and politicians) have become multimillionaires.
"Political risks exist here as in any other country, but I think foreign
investors overestimate them," says Serhiy Tihipko, the governor the National
Bank of Ukraine, which has almost completed a successful reform of the
banking sector. "The economics of Ukraine are liberal. The private sector is
strong. There is still need for structural reform and there is corruption.
We still need tougher laws to enforce property rights and we need to
deregulate our economy. But if we are successful in dealing with all these
problems then this will be to our benefit."
After the initial smash and grab privatisation in the early 90s, Ukraine's
wealth is now divided between three business "clans" based in Kiev, the
coal-producing region of Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk, the heart of the
Soviet-era military industrial complex.
The line between business and politics is blurred. The head of the
presidential administration also controls the largest TV station. The
president's son-in-law, Viktor Pinchuk, is one of the two richest men in the
country. Pinchuk's company Interpipe was one of the winners of the
controversial privatisation tender for Krivorozhstal, the country's largest
steel mill, on June 14.
Interpipe, along with the Industrial Union of Donbass, an industrial
conglomerate based in the Donetsk region, will pay $800m (£440m) for the
mill - by far the lowest bid of the three main contenders. Two foreign firms
were exempted because the government made it a condition of the tender that
the successful bidder had to have produced a million tonnes of coke in the
last year.
The foreign bidders claim the auction was fixed and outgoing president
Leonid Kuchma is under fire both from the Ukrainian opposition, which is
trying to annul the result of the auction, and international investors.
Even prime minister Viktor Yanukovych is closely associated with the Donetsk
clan, while Kuchma, elected in 1994, maintains a delicate balance between
the groups.
But Ukraine is reaching a turning point. The country boasts the region's
only vocal grassroots opposition movement, which is rallying behind Viktor
Yushchenko, the leader of the Our Ukraine parliamentary faction and prime
minister from 2000-01. October's elections are a make or break test for the
opposition. Hugely unpopular, Kuchma has promised not to stand for a third
term and is promoting Yanukovych in his place.
"Kuchma is the choreographer. He holds the balance between the clans and
when he goes they want to create a collective Kuchma, but they have failed
to strike a deal among themselves," says Oleh Rybachuk, a member of
parliament and the head of Yushchenko's presidential campaign.
To add to their problems Yanukovych is not very popular and has been dogged
by a controversy over his criminal record. It recently emerged that he was
jailed twice as a teenager on charges of armed robbery and battery, although
his record was wiped clean in 1978.
Yanukovych draws on his native Donetsk region for his power base, but has
failed to win over the residents of other regions, despite the state's
almost complete control over Ukraine's media. "Yanukovych has a 16% rating
in the polls, but a monkey prime minister could get 12% with all the state
TV resources behind him. The other 4% is from his loyal supporters in the
Donetsk region," says Rybachuk.
Earlier this month Pavlo Lazarenko, prime minister of Ukraine from 1996-97,
was convicted of corruption by a San Francisco court. Like Yushchenko, he
was a one-time Kuchma ally, but fled Ukraine in 1999 to the USA asking for
political asylum. They arrested him instead.
Lazarenko, who became a multimillionaire during his term in office, was
convicted on all 29 charges against him including money laundering,
conspiracy to launder money and fraud, as well as transportation of stolen
property. He has also been convicted in absentia by a Swiss court on similar
charges and is wanted in Ukraine over allegations of murder. Lazarenko
maintains he is the victim of a political vendetta by Kuchma.
Yushchenko was leading opinion polls in May with 25.7% to Yanukovych's
16.7%, but the opposition is battling against voter cynicism: half the
population said they would not vote for Yanukovych, but 35% said they
thought he would win anyway.
Even the opposition is well aware that victory will be hard, after a dry run
in May during local elections for the post of mayor in Mukacheve. "The
abuses were blatant," says Olesya Oleshko, an election observer for the
non-government organisation Committee of Voters of Ukraine. "There were
thugs in black leather jackets standing outside the polling stations
intimidating people as they went in and in some cases these men simply
walked off with the ballot boxes."
The authorities announced that the pro-government candidate Ernest Nuser
had won despite both local and internationally run exit polls showing a
landslide victory for the opposition. Following a howl of protest from the
likes of the Council of Europe monitors, Nuser resigned at the end of May
claiming he had received death threats.
The Mukacheve mayoral race is both worrying and encouraging. The ruling
clans believed they could blatantly ignore the popular will, but despite the
intimidation, Ukrainians still voted for the opposition candidate and the
popular protest was sufficiently loud that the government had to back down.
At the end of the day it may not matter who wins the presidential election
as business is already distancing itself from politics. The economy is
booming and the local oligarchs are starting to realise that there is more
money to be made from investing than stealing. Moreover, with most of the
best assets already in the hands of one of the big groups they are becoming
more concerned about hanging on to what they already have.
"It is difficult to say who will be elected, but there will be no
fundamental change regardless of who is elected president. It is not a
choice between the communists and the liberals," says Alexander Dubilet, the
chairman of Privatbank, one of two biggest banks in the country. "We need to
distance ourselves from politics, which is why we are concentrating on
retail banking. It is still possible for politics to interfere with the
decisions of big companies but no government can tell our 7 million retail
customers which bank to use." (END)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail Ben Aris: ben.aris@guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,1245663,00.html
=========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 105: ARTICLE NUMBER ELEVEN
=========================================================
11. "HOW A HEADLESS CORPSE AND A DEAD WITNESS CAME
BACK TO HAUNT THE LEADER OF UKRAINE"
By Askold Krushelnycky in Prague, Czech Republic
The Independent, London, UK, Saturday, 26 June 2004
Revelations about a high level cover up in the murder of a campaigning
journalist have rocked the regime of Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine's President.
The Independent has obtained more than 200 pages of confidential documents
from disaffected senior law enforcement officials angry that their
investigations into the September 2000 murder and beheading of Heorhiy
Gongadze have been suppressed. The documents show that the
prosecutor-general's office had evidence that secret police teams from the
Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVS) had mounted a surveillance operation
against Mr Gongadze from July 2000 until the day of his disappearance.
Mr Gongadze, the editor of an internet newspaper, Ukrayinsk Pravda, angered
the President and his associates by accusing them of financial corruption.
Mr Gongadze's headless corpse was discovered in November 2000. A few
weeks later a former bodyguard of the President fled the country and
revealed he had secretly recorded Mr Kuchma's conversations, including one
in which he angrily told subordinates to "take care" of Mr Gongadze. Despite
more than three years of investigations, nobody has been charged with the
killing.
Most of the documents consist of interviews with MVS personnel. The
Independent also has a copy of a secret autopsy performed on a witness who
died in MVS custody last August. In interview notes, Ihor Honcharov, a
former MVS officer, said he knew who killed Mr Gongadze and where his head
was hidden. He claimed General Oleksiy Pukach, an MVS police commander,
arranged to hand the journalist over to criminals who murdered him and that
the general was following orders from Yuriy Kravchenko, the then MVS
minister, who was following orders from Mr Kuchma.
Mr Honcharov's death was attributed to illness, but the autopsy shows he was
murdered. Ukrainian authorities branded the documents as fake. Later they
admitted the papers were authentic and said they were launching criminal
inquiries to discover who leaked them, and who killed Mr Honcharov.
Yesterday, the President's spokesman told journalists Mr Kuchma would not
sue The Independent over suggestions he was involved in Mr Gongadze's death,
but compared the author of the articles to a necrophiliac. A pro-government
website said that the newspaper paid $10,000 (£5,500) for the documents. No
money was paid by The Independent or the author.
One internal memorandum from the prosecutor-general's office says General
Pukach was in charge of the surveillance operation on Mr Gongadze and that
he illegally destroyed documents and actively hindered the investigation.
It also states that MVS personnel were illegally monitoring politicians and
journalists, selling information and carrying out surveillance on a
pay-as-we-spy basis, as well as selling secret agency identifications and
credentials to criminals.
The previous prosecutor-general had ordered the general's arrest. A week
later, the President dismissed him and appointed Hennadiy Vasilyev, who
freed General Pukach. If President Kuchma orders new proceedings, the
possibility is that the general will talk about who gave him his orders.
The perception by Western governments that Mr Kuchma's administration
was hindering the investigation has led to the President's isolation on the
international stage. But Britain and the US have softened their stance
because Ukraine provides a large military contingent for Iraq. And he has
been invited to attend next Monday's Nato summit in Istanbul.
Meanwhile, the Council of Europe has asked for copies of the documents in
the newspaper's possession. The Brussels-based International Federation of
Journalists and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists want a
new inquiry into the murder and Ben Campbell, a US Senator, cited The
Independent's report when he called for a new investigation in Congress last
Thursday.
Some MVS personnel cited in the documents, many labelled No.60-1241, the
murder case number, believe the last MVS surveillance team watched Mr
Gongadze's abduction or carried it out themselves and handed him over to
gangsters. Although General Pukach destroyed records to prevent
identification of that team, they could be identified by a process of
elimination. MVS officers allege that two colleagues, Oleksandr Bernak and
Oleksandr Muzyka, along with General Pukach, played key roles in the
abduction. Other papers show the investigation by the then prosecutor for
Kiev, Volodymyr Babenko, was conducted in a way intended to prevent the
killers being arrested and that Mr Babenko tried to eliminate the body after
its discovery.
It is unclear how long Mr Gongadze lived after his abduction. At some point
he was killed by a shot or blow to his head. His body was then stored
somewhere, possibly as an anonymous corpse at an official mortuary. Some
time later his head was removed and the body was transported to the woods
outside Kiev, where it was found in November 2000.
The documents suggest the cover-up goes all the way to the President, but
the irony is that in the secret recordings Mr Kuchma never actually gives
orders to kill the journalist.
Some say Mr Gongadze was kidnapped on the orders of over-zealous figures
in Mr Kuchma's administration who wanted to please the President. Others
believe the murder was part of a sophisticated plot by the Russian
intelligence services to discredit or blackmail Mr Kuchma and to thwart his
aim to align with the West or by some of his closest crooked cronies who
feared he was about to ditch them.
The Ukrainian authorities said this week they have a confession to Mr
Gongadze's murder from a man they called "Mister K". His widow, Myroslava
Gongadze, told The Independent: "This shows the cover up is continuing."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
LINK: http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=535304
=======================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 105: ARTICLE NUMBER TWELVE
Historical Gallery: http://www.artukraine.com/histgallery.htm
=======================================================
12. UKRAINE TO ENFORCE EQUAL RIGHTS FOR TATARS
By Helen Fawkes, BBC correspondent in Kiev
BBC NEWS, Kiev, Ukraine, Friday, June 25, 2004
KYIV - Ukraine is to introduce a law to restore full rights to Crimean
Tatars and other groups exiled by the former Soviet Union because of their
ethnic origins. The new law aims to redress years of discrimination.
More than 200,000 Tatars were deported in 1944 to Uzbekistan, falsely
accused of collaborating with Nazi troops. On returning to the Crimea, many
Tatars have found it hard to find jobs and homes. The new legislation will
give deportees and their families the same rights as Ukrainian citizens.
HOMEWARD BOUND
Almost the entire population of Crimean Tatars was exiled to central Asia by
the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin 60 years ago. The Tatars have been fighting
for equal rights ever since. They were allowed to return home during the
last years of communism and now more than 250,000 Tatars live in the Crimea
again. The mass deportation was one of the crimes of World War II which has
largely been forgotten, but the repercussions are still felt today.
Tatars - who make up about 12% of the population of the Black Sea
peninsula - suffer high unemployment and poor housing. Ukrainian MPs
overwhelmingly supported the bill, which will come into effect after it has
been signed by President Leonid Kuchma.
The new law will also apply to other groups of people, including Greeks and
Germans, who were exiled by the Soviet authorities at the same time as the
Tatars. This legislation will mean that deportees and their children will
now have identical rights to other Ukrainian citizens over the provision of
land, housing and work. And it will also ban discrimination in education,
religion and culture. (END)
LINK: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3839803.stm
========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 105: ARTICLE NUMBER THIRTEEN
Your financial support for The Action Ukraine Report is needed.
========================================================
13. "WHO REALLY WEARS PAMPERS IN UKRAINIAN POLITICS?"
COMMENTARY by Taras Kuzio for UP
Visiting Professor, Elliot School of International Affairs
George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
Ukrainska Pravda (UP), Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, 25.06.2004
Recent changes in Ukrainian politics reinforce the view about the virtuality
of the Ukrainian state. Ukraine's ruling elites live in their own isolated
worlds where they are divorced from reality, either at home or abroad.
ARE UKRAINIAN ELITES BECOMING "NORMAL"
Recent months have provided mixed signals as to whether Ukraine's elites
really understand what is taking place in Ukraine and abroad. On the surface
it looks as though some important sections of the Ukrainian elite understand
that the "wild capitalism" of the 1990s are over.
At least, that is what we are meant to believe. Viktor Pinchuk has led the
way by distancing himself from politics by arguing in favour of maintaining
a distance between business and politics. Such a step - which, of course,
should be welcomed - has been endorsed by Rada speaker Volodymyr
Lytvyn and First Deputy Speaker Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Pinchuk has attempted to improve his image externally by inviting to Ukraine
former NATO Commander-in-Chief Wellesley Clark and former President
George Bush senior. Pinchuk has also attempted to establish ties with George
Soros and Zbigniew Brzezinski who traveled to Ukraine on private visits.
Last week Pinchuk had the honour of being invited to Bush's Texas ranch.
"---------------------------------------------------"
NOTE: To read the entire article by Taras Kuzio click on the following
link: http://www2.pravda.com.ua/en/archive/2004/june/25/1.shtml
========================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 105: ARTICLE NUMBER FOURTEEN
Your financial support for The Action Ukraine Report is needed.
========================================================
14. "NOT WORTHY:
WALTER DURANTY'S PULITZER PRIZE AND THE NEW YORK TIMES"
An important new book related to the international campaign in 2003
By E. Morgan Williams, Publisher and Editor
"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT", Washington, D.C., June 28, 2004
A major international campaign/crusade was launched in 2003 to have
the 1932 Pulitzer Prize of Walter Duranty revoked by the Pulitzer Prize
Committee or returned by "The New York Times."
The campaign was created and implemented under the leadership of
Professor Lubomyr Luciuk, a Canadian academic, of Canada's Royal
Military College. The campaign failed to achieve its specific goal but
did achieve its larger goal which was to significantly increase the
international awareness and knowledge about the millions who died in
Soviet Ukraine during the early 1930's in a massive genocidal famine
"Holodomor" that was the result of policies created and implemented
by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union under the direction and
leadership of Joseph Stalin.
A new book of important articles about the genocidal famine "Holodomor"
and the 2003 international campaign about Walter Duranty's 1932 Pulitzer
Prize for "foreign reporting" has recently been published. The book is
entitled, "Not Worthy: Walter Duranty's Pulitzer Prize and The New York
Times." The forty articles featured in the book were selected by the
editor Professor Lubomyr Luciuk
Many of the articles were published in various media outlets during the
2003 campaign. As Roger Daniels says in his Foreword to the book,
"In the process more was published about the sufferings of the Ukrainian
people in the early 1930s then in seventy years since they should have
been, but were not, front page news in those outlets."
"The Action Ukraine Report" distributed the many news articles, as they
were published in 2003, to thousands of individuals around the world.
Articles about the genocidal famine and the Walter Duranty campaign
appeared in many of the 125 "Action Ukraine Reports" issued in 2003.
Most of the relevant articles were posted on the www.ArtUkraine.com
website so they would easily be available in one place for use by
researchers, scholars, historians, students and other interested parties.
The book contains articles by Myron B. Kuropas, Marco Carynnyk,
Ian Hunter, Yaroslav Bilinsky, Robert Conquest, David D. Engerman,
Victor Malarek, The Ukrainian Weekly, Andrew Nynka, Canadian
Senator Raynell Andreychuk, James Mace, Mark von Hagen, The
U.S. House of Representatives, The National Post, Lubomyr Luciuk,
The Globe and Mail, David Matas, Douglas McCollam, Valeriy P.
Kuchinsky, Margaret Siriol Colley, Eric Margolis, Pulitzer Prize Board,
Anna Melnichuk, Andrew Stuttaford, Robert Fulford, Carol Sanders,
John Gleeson, Duncan M. Currie, The New York Times, Rogers
Daniels, James Crowl, Gareth Jones, A. W. Kliefoth, William
Strang and William Henry Chamberlin.
"Not Worthy" is dedicated to the memory of Dr. James Mace, a top
international "Holodomor" scholar from the United States who recently
died in Kyiv, Ukraine. Dr. Mace spent many years researching and writing
about the genocidal famine in Ukraine. There are two articles in the book
by Dr. James Mace.
The entire text of the introduction by Professor Lubomyr Luciuk to
the new book follows:
INTRODUCTION - NOT WORTHY?
by Lubomyr Luciuk
Presented here is an admittedly incomplete record of an international
campaign symbolically launched on May Day 2003, whose aim was to have
the 1932 Pulitzer Prize of Walter Duranty revoked by the Pulitzer Prize
Committee or returned by "The New York Times." (1)
That did not happen. The Committee did not rescind the award and "The
Times" continues to associate its name with the much-discredited Duranty,
(2) even though the evidence shows he shilled for the Soviets, before,
during, and after the Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Soviet Ukraine.
As troubling as what happened in the early decades of the last century
is what went on early in this one, behind the closed doors of the Pulitzer
Prize Committee and "The New York Times." How was the decision not
to revoke Duranty's Pulitzer made? Was this conclusion reached unanimously,
or were there, as is rumoured, dissenters who urged the Board to restore the
reputation of the Pulitzer Prize by disassociating it from a man who
prostituted the fundamental principles of journalism? Who were the women
and men who finally decided this issue? Answers to these questions remain
secreted and so the seeds of future controversy are already germinating.
This should leave those who hold, or have yet to achieve, the distinction of
a Pulitzer to consider whether being in the company of Mr. Duranty is
salutary or soiling.
This project was launched with very modest resources by a small group of
activists who were able to remind the world of what arguable was the single
greatest act of mass murder to take place in Europe during the 20th century.
Even the administrator of the Pulitzer Prize Board, Sig Gissler, would
write, "While you are disappointed in the Board's decision, I think you are
correct in saying that you have significantly increased the awareness of the
famine of 1932-1933." (3) That alone helped hallow the memory of the
murdered millions, the very same men, women and children whom Walter
Duranty considered not worthy of his sympathy, not worthy even to be
described as who they truly were - Ukrainians and not Russians. (4)
Whether one considers the Great Famine ("Holodomor") to have been an
act of genocide or an instrument of terror deployed to impose
collectivization on a resisting population - and there is legitimate debate
on such issues, appropriately reflected in the scholarly contributions
reprinted here - no serious student of European history would not dispute
that many millions of Ukrainians were deliberately starved to death in
1932-1933. (5) Exactly how many no one is certain, but the losses were
certainly on a scale comparable to, perhaps even surpassing, those of the
Holocaust. (6)
Yet Ukraine's "Holodomor" remains relatively unknown, whereas few have
not heard of the Holocaust. That is a testament to the considerable success
of the Soviet disinformation campaign ratcheted into place in 1932-1933,
whose dean was none other than Walter Duranty. Awarded a prestigious
Pulitzer Prize he would use that status it brought to traduce and try to
mute those journalists who dared to expose the Stalinist regime for what it
was.
Duranty was neither the only, nor the last, of his ilk. His legacy is
detectable among those who still strive to deny or dismiss all accounts of
the Great Famine as "anti-Soviet propaganda," (7) or who marginalize the
victims of this politically engineered human catastrophe by suggesting that
how they were killed was somehow less horrific than how death subsequently
came to the unfortunates shot or gassed by the Nazi during the Second World
War. (8)
Whatever the intent of their tormentors may have been, it is indisputable
that many millions of Ukrainians and other perished during the "Holodomor."
Their needless deaths represent no less a crime against humanity that what
the Nazis did to millions of Jews and others. Yet while questioning the
Holocaust is denounced as a hate crime, "Holodomor" denial is regarded as
an acceptable form of historical revisionism.
The contributors to this volume certainly do suggest differing
interpretations of what happened in Soviet Ukraine in 1932-1933, and their
contrasting opinions assuredly will precipitate serious debate. Even so
they all agree that millions of Ukrainian died as a consequence of a
deliberate policy put into place by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
under the leadership of Joseph Stalin. Given what we now know about the
nature of the Soviet experiment one might well ask whether all those lives
taken, or sacrificed, were given up in vain. Whatever one's answer might
be, it is certain that they died, horribly.
What made the "Holodomor" unique, however, is not so much the number of
those who died, or the continuing debate among historians and demographers
over how large that number might be, or the exchanges about who was
responsible or the intent of the Soviet leadership. Not even the continuing
nay-saying of famine-deniers is as puzzling as the fact that while the
civilized world brought those who engineered the Holocaust to justice, those
who harvested Ukrainians during the Great Famine have never been pursued,
even though some live amongst us. (9) That Walter Duranty was not worthy
of his Pulitzer Prize is certain. Why the "Holodomor's" murdered millions
are not worthy of justice remains unexplained.
Lubomyr Y Luciuk
May 1, 2004, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOOTNOTES - The nine footnotes to the article above are three pages
long. They can be found on pages vii-x in the book.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lubomyr Luciuk is a professor of political geography at the Royal Military
College of Canada and director of research for the Ukrainian Canadian
Civil Liberties Association.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
INFORMATION ABOUT HOW TO ORDER THE NEW BOOK
"Not Worthy: Walter Duranty's Pulitzer Prize and The New York Times"
Compiled by Lubomyr Y Luciuk, with a foreword by Roger Daniels
Published for the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association by
The Kashtan Press, 2004, paperback, 275 pp, select bibliography, index,
appendix, about the contributors, dedication, ISBN 1-896354-34-3.
The cost is $25 US (includes shipping and handling). Order by international
cheque or money order, made payable to The Kashtan Press. Mail the
order to The Kashtan Press, 22 Gretna Green, Kingston, Ontario,
Canada, K7M 3J2.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDITOR: Over 250 of the news articles that appeared during year 2003
related to the Soviet Ukraine genocidal famine in 1932-1933 and/or
Walter Duranty can be found in the Genocide Gallery of the ArtUkraine.com
website at: http://www.artukraine.com/famineart/index.htm.
==========================================================
ARTICLES ARE FOR PERSONAL AND ACADEMIC USE ONLY
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