Search site
Action Ukraine Report
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT - AUR
An International Newsletter, The Latest, Up-To-Date
In-Depth Ukrainian News, Analysis and Commentary

Ukrainian History, Culture, Arts, Business, Religion, Economics,
Sports, Government, and Politics, in Ukraine and Around the World
PRESIDENT VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
Meets with President Bush and the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council

GREAT MARCH ON WASHINGTON, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1983
Twenty-five years ago 18,000 Ukrainians came to remember/protest
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT - AUR - Number 911
Mr. Morgan Williams, Publisher and Editor, SigmaBleyzer
WASHINGTON, D.C., TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2008
INDEX OF ARTICLES ------
Clicking on the title of any article takes you directly to the article.
Return to Index by clicking on Return to Index at the end of each article
U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC), Washington, D.C., Tue, Sep 30, 2008
Press office of President Victor Yushchenko, Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, September 29, 2008
The White House, Washington, D.C., Monday, September 29, 2008
Meets with Presidents of Lithuania and Ukraine
Olivier Knox, AFP, Washington, D.C., Monday, September 29, 2008
Marks, Sokolov & Burd, Philadelphia, PA, Monday, September 29, 2008
6. UKRAINE-U.S. BUSINESS FORUM TO BE HELD IN KYIV, UKRAINE
Friday, October 3, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with reception at 5:00 P.M., Kyiv
U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC), Washington, D.C., Monday, September 29, 2008
U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC), Washington, D.C., Tuesday, September 30, 2008
8. UKRAINIAN AMERICANS COMMEMORATE FAMINE IN HOMELAND 50 YEARS AGO
By Caryle Murphy, Washington Post Staff Writer, The Washington Post, Wash, D.C., Sat, Oct 1, 1983
9. GENOCIDE IN UKRAINE RECALLED WITH MARCH "FREEDOM FOR UKRAINE"
Ukrainian-Americans demonstrate against the Soviet Union
By Edmond Jacoby, Washington Times Staff, Washington Times, Wash, D.C., Oct 3, 1983
10. AN OPEN LETTER TO THE KREMLIN
The 1932-33 famine in Ukraine was a deliberate act of genocide
Letter From Americans of Ukrainian Descent, read by Orest Deychakiwsky, Beltsville, Maryland
Soviet Embassy, Washington,, D.C., Oct 2, 1983, The Ukrainian Weekly, Oct 9, 1983, No. 41, Vol. LI
11. 18,000 ATTEND UKRAINIAN FAMINE MEMORIAL EVENTS IN D.C.
Huge crowd rallies at Washington Monument
Roma Hadzewycz, The Ukrainian Weekly, Parsippany, NJ, Oct 9, 1983, No. 41, Vol. LI
To make others aware of the Soviets' horrible crime against humanity
By Marta Kolomayets, The Ukrainian Weekly, Parsippany, New Jersey, Sun, Oct 9, 1993.
By George B. Zarycky, The Ukrainian Weekly, Parsippinany, New Jersey, Sun, Oct 9, 1983
===================================================
1
. UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT YUSHCHENKO MEETS WITH MEMBERS
OF THE U.S.-UKRAINE BUSINESS COUNCIL (USUBC)
U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC), Washington, D.C., Tuesday, September 30, 2008
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC) hosted the President of Ukraine, Victor Yushchenko, at a breakfast meeting in Washington attended by 100 members of USUBC and special guests on Monday, September 29.
President Yushchenko spoke for almost an hour and addressed the main political and economic issues facing Ukraine. He outlined his vision for Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration, discussed the recent events in Georgia, spoke about Ukraine's business environment, thanked the U.S. companies for their investments in Ukraine and indicated there were many more investment projects in Ukraine that would be interest to American investors.
Yushchenko shared his optimism regarding the economic situation in Ukraine, mentioning that it had entered the World Trade Organization this year. He positively assessed the level of international investment in the Ukrainian economy. The president also shared his hope for an increase in U.S. investment to Ukraine.
In his opinion, high-tech projects could be of a special interest to American investors. He praised the high level of Ukrainian computer professionals and program assistants. Ukraine and the U.S. could also cooperate more in the area of space, the president stated. He also called for American businessmen to invest in the agricultural sector of the Ukrainian economy, noting that it has a great potential.
BUSINESS AND EURO-ATLANTIC INTEGRATION
The president was introduced by Morgan Williams, SigmaBleyzer, president of USUBC. Williams said in his opening remarks, "Mr. President, the businesses in attendance today have billions of dollars invested in Ukraine, have created thousands of jobs and are totally committed to an independent, strong, democratic, prosperous Ukraine, driven by an private, market-driven economic system, under the rule-of-law."
"Ukrainian and international businesses are the best friend and partner the Ukraine government has to help Ukraine reach its goals and is making Euro-Atlantic integration a reality," Williams continued. "For business to continue to move Ukraine forward a stable political and governmental environment is needed. The government also needs to view business as a partner and friend and pass the many reforms needed to bring about a much stronger, pro-business environment in Ukraine."
President Yushchenko stated the current political crisis in Ukraine is a "normal" democratic process. At the same time, he accused the "union", as he put it, comprised of the Block of Yulia Tymoshenko, the Party of Regions and the Communists of having another partner - Moscow.

President Yushchenko called the recent events in the Ukrainian parliament "Georgia II," the aim of which was to destabilize the situation in the country. Yushchenko also noted that he does not believe a coalition will appear among the Block of Yulia Tymoshenko, the Party of Regions and the Communists. In his opinion the situation is moving toward elections and is not, as some have described it, a political tragedy.
MEMBER OF NATO
Yushchenko also stated once again that Ukraine should become a member of NATO. The crisis in Georgia proved that NATO should expand to the east, he said. The president noted that a referendum would be held on NATO accession. This would be, he said, the most democratic way of solving such a difficult issue.
No one has invited Ukraine to join NATO so far, he said, but Ukraine should use this time to work on receiving such an invitation in the form of a Membership Action Plan (MAP). In President Yushchenko's opinion, there is no other alternative for Ukraine than entering a system of collective security. He said that the Black sea region has become the area of instability.
SPECIAL GUESTS AND U.S. AMBASSADOR'S TO UKRAINE
Special guests at the breakfast from the government of Ukraine included: Volodymyr Ogryzko, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Andriy Goncharuk, Deputy Head of the Secretariat of the President of Ukraine; Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, Acting Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Raisa Bohatyreva, Head of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and Dr. Oleh Shamshur, Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States.
Four of the six United States Ambassador's to Ukraine since independence in 1991 were at the presidential breakfast. They were: William Green Miller, Steven Pifer, John Herbst and William B. Taylor, who is now serving at the U.S. Ambassador in Ukraine.
ORIGINAL HOLODOMOR MARCH ON WASHINGTON POSTER FROM 1983
At the end of the breakfast USUBC presented President Yushchenko with a framed original copy of a poster used in the huge October 2, 1983 march on Washington, D.C. by the Ukrainian-American community to protest the Soviet occupation of Ukraine and to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the genocide against the Ukrainian people in 1932-1933 when millions were starved to death. The poster was designed by Roxolana Luczakowsky Armstrong.
(To see a copy of the poster click on http://www.artukraine.com/famineart.armstrong.htm.)
Approximately 18, 000 Ukrainians gathered in the shadow of the Washington Monument on Sunday morning, October 2, to mourn those of their kinsmen who had perished in the Great Famine of 1932-33 and to renew their pledge to always remember and to never allow the world to forget the holocaust inflicted upon the Ukrainian nation by the Soviet regime. The Ukrainians also protested the Soviet occupation of Ukraine in front of the Soviet Embassy.
COMPANIES/ORGANIZATIONS IN ATTENDANCE
Companies/organizations in attendance at the USUBC presidential breakfast included: 3M, AES, Aitken Berlin, American Continental Group, American Councils on International Education, Baker & McKenzie, BBC World Service/Ukrainian Service, Boeing, Bracewell & Giuliani, Bunge, Cargill, Chevron, Coca-Cola, ContourGlobal, Crumpton Group, DHL Express, DRS-Technical Services, Edelman, First International Resources, and Global Trade Development, Inc.
Also in attendance were Halliburton, Harris Corporation, Heller & Rosenblatt, IBM, Intercontinental Commerce Corporation, Kyiv Post, Kraft Foods, Kyiv-Atlantic, Lockheed Martin, Magisters, Marathon, Marks, Sokolov, & Burd, MaxWell Biocorporation, McDonald's, Merrill Lynch, Microsoft, Motorola, Nationwide Equipment, Northrop Grumman, Office of the Vice President, and Pratt & Whitney/United Technologies.
Also attending were: Procter & Gamble, Reservoir Capital, Salans, SigmaBleyzer, Squire Sanders & Dempsey, SE Raelin, Standard Chartered Bank, Sweet Analysis Services Inc., (SASI); TD International, The Heritage Foundation, The PBN Company, The Ukrainian Weekly, The Washington Group (TWG); The Washington Times, TNK-BP, Ukrainian American Bar Association, Ukrainian Development Company, Ukrainian Embassy/Trade and Economic Mission; Ukrainian International Airlines, Umbra, U.S. Civilian Research Defense Foundation (CRDF), U.S. Department of State, U.S.-Ukraine Foundation (USUF), Voice of America (VOA) and Westinghouse.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[return to index] [Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]
===================================================
2. MEMBERS OF THE U.S.-UKRAINE BUSINESS COUNCIL (USUBC) MEET
WITH UKRAINE PRESIDENT VICTOR YUSHCHENKO IN WASHINGTON
Press office of President Victor Yushchenko, Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, September 29, 2008

KYIV - Within the framework of his working visit to the USA President Victor Yushchenko met with representatives of the US-Ukraine Business Council [USUBC]. At the meeting the President said that American investments are very important for Ukraine, and invited the investors to deeper cooperation.

According to him there are many projects that might be of interest for American investors, particularly in the field of high-tech, agriculture, energy, preparation to holding EURO 2012, etc. He assured American businessmen that Ukrainian authorities conduct a consistent policy in providing stable and beneficial working conditions to foreign investors.

Also President Yushchenko reminded that the ninth meeting of Consultative Council on Foreign Investments under the auspices of the President of Ukraine is about to take place soon. The meeting of the council, in which the American businessmen have the broadest representation, will be dedicated to problems and obstacles, foreign investors are facing in their work in Ukraine.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[return to index] [Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]
===================================================
3. U.S. PRESIDENT BUSH MEETS WITH PRESIDENT YUSHCHENKO OF UKRAINE
The White House, Washington, D.C., Monday, September 29, 2008

PRESIDENT BUSH: I was disappointed in the vote with the United States Congress on the economic rescue plan. We put forth a plan that was big because we got a big problem. I'm going to be talking to my economic advisors after my meeting here with the President, and we'll be working with members of Congress -- leaders of Congress on the way forward. Our strategy is to continue to address this economic situation head on. And we'll be working to develop a strategy that will enable us to continue to move forward.

Mr. President, welcome. I welcome you here to the Oval Office. I admire your steadfast support for democratic values and principles. A lot of Americans have watched with amazement how your country became a democracy. We strongly support your democracy. We look forward to working with you to strengthen that democracy.

You and I just had a good discussion about a variety of issues. We discussed, you know, the NATO and Membership Application Process. We discussed energy independence. We discussed ways that we can work together to bring stability and peace to parts of the world. And I thank you for joining us here in Washington in the Oval Office. And I send my respect to the people of Ukraine.

PRESIDENT YUSHCHENKO: (As translated.) First of all, Mr. President, I would like to thank you for the atmosphere that our negotiations were held in. We had our conversation in a very constructive manner.
We touched upon the range of issues, starting from our bilateral relations, and the implementation of U.S.-Ukraine action plan, and we consider this road map as being implemented in a successful way. A lot of attention was paid to the security component and security itself. And special attention was paid towards Ukraine integration into European and Euro-Atlantic structures.

We raised the issue of energy cooperation, which is a very urgent issue for us. And we believe that we've done excellent job on the adaptation of American nuclear fuel for our nuclear power units, and we intend to continue that.

We also discussed the domestic political situation in Ukraine, which in my opinion is far away from being tragic, and not dramatic. Ukraine has enough democratic resource and tools to give sufficient response to any crisis that may occur in the Ukrainian parliament. And this is probably where the Ukrainian strength and optimism is.

I also asked Mr. President to delegate the high-ranking delegation from the United States of America to participate in the commemorating event of the great famine in Ukraine of 1932 and 1933. The commemoration day will be on November the 22nd, and this will be the commemoration of the biggest humanitarian catastrophe in our country. And we need to do everything for that issue to be included in the UNGA agenda.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you, sir.
PRESIDENT YUSHCHENKO: Thank you.
PRESIDENT BUSH: You're welcome.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[return to index] [Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]
===================================================
4. BUSH WARNS MOSCOW AGAINST 'BULLYING' NEIGHBORS
Meets with Presidents of Lithuania and Ukraine

Olivier Knox, AFP, Washington, D.C., Monday, September 29, 2008
WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush met Monday with the leaders of Lithuania and Ukraine to discuss the fallout from Russia's war in Georgia and warned Moscow against "bullying" its democratic neighbors.

In separate White House talks, Bush sought to reassure the former Soviet republics of US support in the face of a newly assertive Kremlin, which some analysts warn may be sizing up other neighbors after the August conflict.

Bush, meeting with Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus, said they had "talked about Georgia-Russia, and the need for democracies to be able to stand on their own feet without fear of bullying."

Bush also pledged help for Lithuania, as the former Soviet republic and NATO member looks to diversify its sources of energy, and restated the US obligation under the NATO charter to come to the aid of an alliance member under attack.

"It's important for the people of Lithuania to know that when the United States makes a commitment through, for example, Article 5 of the treaty, we mean it," the US president assured his guest.

With Lithuania seeking greater energy independence, Bush pledged the United States will "try to help you as best as we can." And the US president expressed "hope" that, by mid-October, Lithuanians would be able to travel to the United States without first seeking a visa.

Adamkus thanked Bush for his support for Lithuania joining NATO, which it did in 2004, saying that would not have happened without US leadership "and the entire security question in the region would be in doubt."

The Lithuanian leader also appealed for a lasting US presence in Europe, implying such a presence might be necessary to dissuade a newly assertive Moscow from any designs on former Soviet republics. "I hope that United States will be visible ... just to show our neighbors that we're definitely not alone, and we are building the democracy together," said Adamkus.

In talks with Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko, Bush evoked US support for Kiev's accession to NATO over vehement objections from Russia, which has also denounced Washington's backing of alliance membership for Georgia.

"We discussed the NATO and membership application process. We discussed energy independence. We discussed ways that we can work together to bring stability and peace to parts of the world," said Bush.

Yushchenko sought to reassure his host about political turmoil in Ukraine, where the ruling post-Western alliance has collapsed and some officials warn that any snap elections could result in a victory for pro-Moscow forces.

The situation, "in my opinion, is far away from being tragic, and not dramatic. Ukraine has enough democratic resource and tools to give sufficient response to any crisis that may occur in the Ukrainian parliament," he said. "We raised the issue of energy cooperation, which is a very urgent issue for us," said the Ukrainian leader.

Moscow has seen relations with former Soviet republics and the West deteriorate sharply since its early August war with Georgia, after years of tensions over access to energy supplies controlled by Russia.

Russia has regularly been accused of using its control of a hefty slice of Europe's market for political ends, allegedly turning off the taps to punish governments in Moscow's communist-era stomping ground that are too critical of the Kremlin.

Lithuania, which broke free from the crumbling Soviet bloc in 1991 and joined the EU and NATO in 2004, has been sparring with Russia since August 2006, when the Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft cut supplies to the country's only refinery. And supplies to Europe were briefly disrupted in January 2006 as a consequence of a gas price dispute between Russia and Ukraine.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[return to index] [Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]
==============================================================
U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC): http://www.usubc.org
Promoting U.S.-Ukraine business relations & investment since 1995.
==============================================================
5. UKRAINE PRESIDENT YUSHCHENKO TO SIGN JOINT STOCK COMPANY LAW
Marks, Sokolov & Burd, Philadelphia, PA, Monday, September 29, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In a private conversation today President Yushchenko confirmed that he will sign the Joint Stock Companies Law. President Yushchenko was in Washington with the official visit to meet with President Bush.
In the morning President Yushchenko attended a breakfast organized by the U.S. -Ukraine Business Council (USUBC) after which Gene Burd, managing partner of the firm's Kyiv's office discussed with him situation with the new Joint Stock Companies Law.
The President confirmed to Mr. Burd that he will sign the law, which will apparently take place after the President’s return to Kyiv tomorrow. The deadline for the President to sign the law is October 2.

The new law has been approved by the Supreme Rada amid political reshuffling on September 17 by over 80% vote. Comparing to the old 1991 law, the new one provides significantly more detailed framework for organization, management and dissolution of the companies including clarifications of provisions governing Supervisory Boards, Auditing Committees, exclusive competence and procedures governing shareholders meetings, and simplification of procedures for companies with a sole shareholder.

While the existing law may not be a panacea for issues facing foreign companies in Ukraine, it clearly moves Ukraine closer to the European legal standards, improving the overall investment climate.
According to USUBC President Morgan Williams, "It is hard to overestimate the relevance and importance of this piece of legislation for the improvement of the investment climate and the general economic situation in Ukraine. Adoption of this law is a significant step forward in bringing Ukraine to world standards in the sphere of corporate governance and ownership issues."

For the text of the law "On Joint Stock Companies" click on http://www.marks-sokolov.com/documents/Joint_Stock_Company_Law.pdf.

Marks, Sokolov & Burd is an international law firm with offices in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Moscow, Russia, and Kyiv, Ukraine. The firm is known for its substantial experience in handling matters for Western clients doing business in Russia and Ukraine and Russian/Ukrainian clients doing business internationally.

For more information about the firm, visit firm’s web site at www.marks-sokolov.com. For more information about firm’s Ukrainian practice, please contact Gene M. Burd, managing director of the Kiev office at email: gburd@mslegal.com; tel. +1 215 569 8901 (US) or +380 (44) 235-68-66 ( Ukraine ).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[return to index] [Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]
===================================================
6. UKRAINE-U.S. BUSINESS FORUM TO BE HELD IN KYIV, UKRAINE
Friday, October 3, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with reception at 5:00 P.M., Kyiv
U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC), Washington, D.C., Monday, September 29, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC), in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, is sponsoring a Ukraine-U.S. Business Forum in Kyiv in conjunction with the first meeting of the Ukraine -U.S. Council on Trade and Investments. The Council is a new intergovernmental commission to promote bilateral business relations and was established during U.S. President George Bush's recent trip to Ukraine.

This first meeting of the new Council and the Ukraine-U.S. Business Forum was initially going to be held in Washington but was recently moved to Kyiv. The Council meeting will be held on Thursday, October 2nd followed by the Ukraine-U.S. Business Forum on Friday, October 3rd.

YOU ARE INVITED TO PARTICIPATE
You are invited to attend and participate in the Ukraine-U.S. Business Forum on Friday, October, 3, 2008 from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., to be held at the offices of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 33 Velyka Zhytomyrska St., Kyiv, followed by a reception at 5 p.m.

The co-chairmen of the Ukraine-U.S. Council on Trade and Investments, Minister of Economy of Ukraine Bohdan Danylyshyn and Deputy U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Ambassador John K. Veroneau, will address the Business Forum. They will present information about the key bilateral business and economic issues and trends between the two countries.

KEY ISSUES TO BE RAISED
Since the Business Forum will follow the government-to-government meeting, USUBC expects Minister Danylyshyn and Ambassador Veroneau to give an update regarding some of the key issues of concern to USUBC members such as OPIC, vat tax refunds, corporate raidership, customs clearances, air safety legislation, reforms to allow private land purchases, inflation and other issues.

Representatives of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Ukrainian Union of Entrepreneurs and Industrialists, the Ukrainian National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce, as well as officials from the State Tax Administration of Ukraine, State Customs Service and the National Bank of Ukraine. The InvestUkraine/Ukrainian Center for Foreign Investment Promotion will speak about the investment climate in Ukraine.

EXPANDING EXPORT OPPORTUNITIES
From the U.S. side a member of the USTR delegation, Madieth Sandler, GSP Program Director, USTR will make the presentation entitled "Expanding Ukraine’s Export Opportunities through the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) Program." Representatives of USUBC and U.S. businesses will also make presentations on the program.

The main session of the Forum will be followed by a networking session where those attending will be able to dialogue with each other and meet Ukrainian business leaders, Ukrainian officials, members of the USTR delegation and others.

RECEPTION
After the Business Forum program finishes there will be a reception in honor of the Ukraine-U.S. Council on Trade and Investments delegations and Business Forum participants. The reception will be from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the SigmaBleyzer offices (4-A Baseyna St., Mandarin Plaza, 8th Floor).
The reception is sponsored by the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC) with USUBC member, SigmaBleyzer, as co-sponsor.

You are urged to attend the Ukraine -U.S. Business Forum and reception this Friday. If you are not able to attend please USUBC would appreciate you making arrangements for someone else to represent your company/organization. If you have any questions please contact us.

RSVP PLEASE
Please RSVP YES or NO as soon as possible to Ludmyla Dudnyk, USUBC program manager in Kyiv, at: ldudnyk@usubc.org

Sincerely,

Morgan Williams, SigmaBleyzer
President, U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC)

Ukraine-U.S. Business Forum
Offices of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Friday, October 3, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., reception at 5 p.m.
33 Velyka Zhytomyrska St., Kyiv, Ukraine
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[return to index] [Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]
===================================================
7. U.S. EMBASSY ISSUES STATEMENT REGARDING BORCHAGIVSKY PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY
U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC), Washington, D.C., Tuesday, September 30, 2008
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC) has been informed by Edward Kaska, Economic Counselor, U.S. Embassy Kyiv that the following press release was issued by the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv on Friday, September 26, 2008.
Mr. Kaska said the U.S. Embassy press release was given wide dissemination among the media in Ukraine and was in response to articles indicating the Borchagivsky Pharmaceutical Company may be sold.
USUBC notes that the Borchagivsky Pharmaceutical Company has been the subject of a long standing expropriation claim by R & J Trading, a United States company, which alleges that the Borchagivsky Pharmaceutical Company was established entirely with assets which were stolen from a Ukrainian company in which R & J Trading owned a 50% interest. R & J Trading, mentioned in the U.S. Embassy press release, is a member of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC).
The complete text of the U.S. Embassy press release follows:
PRESS RELEASE

"Press reports have been brought to the attention of the U.S. Embassy regarding the possible pending sale of the Borchagivsky Pharmaceutical Company. R&J Trading, a U.S. firm, was an original investor in 1993 in this company, having entered into a joint venture in which it held 50 percent ownership in a local pharmaceutical plant.

R&J Trading has stated that the joint venture managers in 1995 issued new stock and diluted R&J Trading’s stake in the enterprise to 37.5 percent. The managers then declared the joint venture bankrupt and fraudulently transferred its assets to another firm. In September 2001, the City of Kyiv bought 30 percent of the Borchagivsky enterprise.

The U.S. investors since 1995 have sought to recover their loss, which they consider an expropriation. R&J also has advised the Embassy it is determined to recover its lost assets, and will continue to make its claim known to any prospective buyers of the Borchagivsky Pharmaceutical Company.

The Embassy has followed this matter since the late 1990s. Over this period, including recent months, U.S. State Department and Embassy officials have met with city of Kyiv and National Government officials at the highest levels to urge an equitable resolution of this case. The Embassy will continue to remind prospective buyers of the Borchagivsky firm, as well as Ukrainian authorities, of the legitimacy of R&J Trading’s claim.

The Embassy urges a rapid resolution of this matter in a way that fairly addresses R&J Trading’s loss of assets. Such a resolution would signal a commitment on the part of Ukrainian officials to the rule of law and the fostering of a business climate in which foreign investors in Ukraine’s economy can be assured of fair and equitable treatment."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[return to index] [Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]

===================================================
9. UKRAINIAN AMERICANS COMMEMORATE FAMINE IN HOMELAND 50 YEARS AGO

By Caryle Murphy, Washington Post Staff Writer, The Washington Post, Wash, D.C., Sat, Oct 1, 1983

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Hundreds of Ukrainian Americans are in Washington this week to commemorate a famine in their homeland 50 years ago in which millions died and to protest what they say is the Soviet Union's continued refusal to acknowledge the breadth of the famine on the part of Soviet policies played in causing it.

The gathering will be the first national commemoration of the so-called "Great Famine" of 50 years ago, a crisis that is now a rallying point for anti-Soviet Ukrainians.

"We believe it was a genocide," said Andrij Bilyk, one of the spokesman for the National Committee to Commemorate Genocide Victims in Ukraine 1932-33, a coalition of about 70 Ukrainian organizations that organized this week's events.

"It's a very important moment in Ukrainian history--an important as the Holocaust is in the history of the Jews," said Omeljan Pritsak, director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, the largest center for Ukrainian studies in the United States.

Last Sunday [September 25, 1983], Ukrainian churches across the country held services inaugurating the commemoration, which also has included nightly candlelight vigils outside the Soviet Embassy and a panel discussion of the famine at the American Enterprise Institute. Organizers say they expect up to 5,000 people Sunday for the final event--a march from the Washington Monument to the Soviet Embassy.

In literature, Ukrainians have called their fertile homeland, now one of the 15 republics in the Soviet Union, "the second-largest European country." There are hundreds of Ukrainian organizations among the estimated 1 million Ukrainian Americans and many of the younger ones still speak the language of their parents and grandparents.

Pritsak said that demographic studies have shown that between 5 and 6 million Ukrainians died in the famine that resulted from Stalin's drive to collectivize agriculture. In his determination to crush Ukrainian peasant resistance to the collectivization and to break their anti-Russian nationalistic spirit, he ordered harsh measures by government troops against farmers.

Despite a drop in food production, harvests continued to be exported, food was confiscated from granaries and homes, there was a physical "blockade" on food imports to the Ukraine and the death penalty for "hoarding" food, according to academicians taking part in this week's panel at the American Enterprise Institute. New internal controls on travel kept peasants from going to cities to search for food or from leaving the Ukraine. Resisting peasants were deported to Siberia. The result was widespread death by starvation.

Although Stalin's policies affected all regions and were anti-peasant, not specifically anti-Ukrainian, they caused the most suffering in the Ukraine and were seen by its inhabitants as a policy of genocide to subjugate the Ukraine to communist rule. "There is no debate that this famine was manmade and encouraged by the authorities," said Vojtech Mastny, a specialist in Soviet and East European affairs at Boston University.

"It was a major outrage and a major tragedy." Soviet historical literature on the Ukrainian famine is almost nonexistent and there is nothing that approximates admission of government errors during that period according to James E. Mace and Robert Conquest, two experts on the famine who took part in the AEI panel.

The only admission they have found in any Soviet publication was in 1975 when V. I. Kozlov, writing on mortality rates in various parts of the Soviet Union in a book titled "Nationalities of the U.S.S.R.," noted that " a crop failure in 1932 in the Ukraine probably even led to a temporary increase in mortality."
It is this failure to speak about the famine that angers many Ukrainians and has brought many of them to this week's commemoration.

"It's completely hushed up, it's as if nothing happened." said Jaroslawa Francozenko of Rockville, a Kiev-born woman who was at the candlelight vigil outside the embassy Wednesday night. She said she wants the Soviets "just to make a mention of it."

Others, like Bilijk, however, demand more. Asked what he wants from the Soviets, Biljyk answered with one word: "Independence."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[return to index] [Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]
============================================================
NOTE: Send in a letter-to-the-editor today. Let us hear from you.
============================================================
8. GENOCIDE IN UKRAINE RECALLED WITH MARCH "FREEDOM FOR UKRAINE"
Ukrainian-Americans demonstrate against the Soviet Union


By Edmond Jacoby, Washington Times Staff, Washington Times, Wash, D.C., Oct 3, 1983

Thousands of Ukrainian-Americans from more than 50 American cities trekked to within a few hundred feet of the Soviet Embassy yesterday afternoon to read a "Letter to the Kremlin" accusing the Soviet Union of murdering 7 million of their fellow Ukrainians 50 years ago.

The demonstration timed to coincide with a similar march on the Soviet Embassy in Paris, was the culmination of a nine-month organizational effort by the National Committee to Commemorate Genocide in Ukraine.

Although yesterday's march was without incident and no effort was made by marchers to breach police lines around the embassy, some of the demonstrators were openly angered at being prohibited from carrying their letter to the embassy itself. Instead, the statement was read through a bullhorn at 16th and K street NW by Orest Deychakiwsky of Beltsville.

More than 1,000 of the protesters were teens enrolled in one of three organizations that fielded uniformed marching units, the Ukrainian Scouts (boys and girls) and the Ukrainian Democratic Youth. They were kept on the periphery of the crowd during the confrontation at the barricades, one organizer said, "because there are some hotheads there."

Most of the crowd was unable to hear Deychakiwsky read the letter over the public-address system set up for the purpose, and began chanting, "Svoboda Ukraini! Svoboda Ukraini!---Freedom for Ukraine!"

Metropolitan Police Capt. Louis Widawski said the official estimate of the crowd at the embassy was 8,000. March organizers claimed 15,000 to 20,000 at the Sylvan Theater on the grounds of the Washington Monument earlier in the day. They said they thought as many as 12,000 were at the embassy.

The march, and a concert at the Kennedy Center afterward, marked the end of a week of events in Washington commemorating the 50th anniversary of a devastating famine that Ukrainians have called "the forgotten holocaust."

That famine was brought about largely by policies of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin--policies that led to collection of virtually the entire farm output of food and seed grain in the Ukraine, leaving the farmers who opposed communist collectivization of their farms, to starve.

Oscar Kain, chairman of the book of Monarch Mirror Door Co. of Chatsworth, Calif., a guest at the Capital Hilton were many of the marchers massed, said he was impressed with the turnout.

'I've got two Russians who work for me." Kain said. "They told me what happened to them when they tried to leave the Soviet Union. It makes me believe every word the Ukrainians say, America needs to remember this.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[return to index] [Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]
===================================================
10. AN OPEN LETTER TO THE KREMLIN
The 1932-33 famine in Ukraine was a deliberate act of genocide

Letter From Americans of Ukrainian Descent, Read by Orest Deychakiwsky, Beltsville, Maryland
Soviet Embassy, Washington,, D.C., October 2, 1983, The Ukrainian Weekly, October 9, 1983, No. 41, Vol. LI

The following letter to the Kremlin from Americans of Ukrainian descent was read in front of the Soviet Embassy at the demonstration on October 2 [1983].
The statement was read by Orest Deychakiwsky, 27, of Beltsville, Md., a staff member of the Congressional Helsinki Commission.

We Ukrainian-Americans are 1 million strong, living in cities and towns throughout this great land of the United States of America. There are two additional millions of us living in other countries of the free world. You have enslaved 50 million of our brothers and sisters in Ukraine and countless millions more who live in daily terror of your dictatorship.

You hide behind a constitution that promises all freedoms, including independence for Ukraine, yet in the past 14 years your tanks have rolled across Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan. You continue to threaten Poland. One month ago you shot a Korean airliner out of the sky, cutting short 269 innocent lives.

Whenever the world questions your actions, your great propaganda machine is mobilized to twist the truth and to lie. Unfortunately, many people believe those lies. And among them are innocent children, like Samantha Smith, who says that she still trusts you.

We don't trust you. We Americans of Ukrainian descent who survived your 1932-33 manufactured famine which destroyed 20 percent of the people of Ukraine; we Americans of Ukrainian descent whose forebearers immigrated to these shores, like millions of Americans before them, to enjoy the freedoms not available elsewhere; and, we Americans of Ukrainian descent who were born in Rochester, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, New York and the other great cities and towns of America - we want you to know that this is just the beginning.

We who have lived in Ukraine or learned about our heritage from our parents and grandparents, we want you to know that we have come of age in America. We have come of age as Americans and as communicators. Utilizing all of the forums available to us in this land of liberty, we are going to tell our fellow Americans about the real Soviet Union.

And we are ready to meet head on the propaganda machine that we know you will launch against us. We know you want to discredit us. But you will not succeed. For when you shot down the Korean airliner, and lied about it, the world finally understood what you really are.

We have come here from more than 50 cities, more than 5,000 strong to remind the world that 50 years ago you murdered 7 million Ukrainians by purposely starving them to death.

Almost half - 3 million - were little innocent children, many of whom died alone, without their mothers and fathers, in mass camps. Their bodies have long since decayed in mass graves in the black earth of Ukraine. You took the breadbasket of Europe and you laid it to waste. And then you lied about it.

You refused international aid to the starving masses of Ukraine. You shot people who tried to find food You erected watchtowers across Ukraine to better be able to spot people fleeing the villages. You turned them back to starve.

We have come here to tell the world that this assault on the Ukrainian nation - its people, its language, its culture and its religions - continues today. You liquidated the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church headed by Metropolitan Vasyl Lypkivsky, and you liquidated the Ukrainian Catholic Church headed by Patriarch Josyf Slipyj. Many of Ukraine's finest writers, and the flower of its cultural elite languish in the gulag and psychiatric prisons in internal exile far from Ukraine.

The 1932-33 famine in Ukraine was a deliberate act of genocide - the only man-made famine in the history of the world. Although today your methods are different, your goal remains the same - you want to destroy the Ukrainian identity.

Your current leadership is aware of the genocidal famine and today's Russification policies. But they continue to deny them. Your history books make no mention of them. The Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33 has not entered into Western consciousness as it should have. It became the "forgotten holocaust." But it is forgotten no longer. In the tragic death of the 269 aboard the Korean airliner, there is a new awareness of what you are.

We, Americans of Ukrainian descent, together with all Americans and people of the world who respect human life, and value human liberty, will see to it that those who died in your man-made famine in Ukraine; that those who died aboard the Korean airliner, that those who continue to suffer under your dictatorship - we will see to it that they did not die, nor will they suffer, in vain.

LINK: The Ukrainian Weekly, Parsippany, NJ, October 9, 1983, http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/1983/418313.shtml
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[return to index] [Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]
=============================================================
U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC) www.usubc.org.
Promoting U.S.-Ukraine business & investment relations since 1995.
=============================================================
11. 18,000 ATTEND UKRAINIAN FAMINE MEMORIAL EVENTS IN D.C.
Huge crowd rallies at Washington Monument


By Roma Hadzewycz, The Ukrainian Weekly, Ukrainian National Association, Parsippany, NJ, Oct 9, 1983, No. 41, Vol. LI

WASHINGTON - Thousands of Ukrainians gathered in the shadow of the Washington Monument on Sunday morning, October 2, to mourn those of their kinsmen who had perished in the Great Famine of 1932-33 and to renew their pledge to always remember and to never allow the world to forget the holocaust inflicted upon the Ukrainian nation by the Soviet regime.

They began arriving shortly after 9 a.m. in preparation for the 10 a.m. rally. By the time the program began, the grounds near the Sylvan Theater were filled with a sea of placards and banners, some identifying the hometowns of the groups in attendance or the organizations present, others scoring the USSR for crimes against humanity such as the artificially created famine, and still others warning the free world to beware of the ever-present Soviet threat.

During the two-and-a-half-hour rally, the participants heard speakers - including a representative of President Ronald Reagan and Rep. Don Ritter of Pennsylvania - expressing sympathy for the loss of 7 million lives and lauding the Ukrainian nation's courage and continued resistance to Soviet Communist subjugation.

As the rally progressed and buses carrying Ukrainians from throughout the United States continued to arrive, the crowd of 6,000 tripled in size to an estimated 18,000, according to Washington police.

The rally and the subsequent march, demonstration and memorial concert at the Kennedy Center, were the culmination of a series of events held during the Great Famine Memorial Week in the nation's capital.

The rally got under way with the singing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" by Jarema Cisaruk, a member of the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus of Detroit, and brief welcoming remarks by Dr. Peter G. Stercho, chairman of the National Committee to Commemorate Genocide Victims in Ukraine, a community organization that sponsored the week's events.

Invocations were then delivered in Ukrainian by Metropolitan Mstyslav of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and in English by Pastor Wladimir Borowsky of the Ukrainian Evangelical Alliance of North America.

Metropolitan Mstyslav was accompanied that day by three other Ukrainian Orthodox hierarchs: Archbishop Mark of New York, Archbishop Constantine of Chicago and Bishop Wolodymyr Didowycz of Germany.

Metropolitan Mstyslav noted in his prayer that the purpose of the rally was "to bow our heads before the known and unknown graves of the millions of Ukrainian martyrs who died 50 years ago in the agony of death by starvation."

Three symbolic black coffins, each marked "7,000,000 Ukrainians murdered," were carried onto the stage, as members of the Plast and ODUM Ukrainian youth organizations formed an honor guard. Pastor Borowsky then delivered the English-language invocation, stating: "we are here to redeem from oblivion" the 7 million who died in the Great Famine.

Conduct of the rally program was then assumed by Dr. Myron B. Kuropas, former special assistant for ethnic affairs to President Gerald R. Ford.
Dr. Kuropas welcomed the representative of President Reagan, Morton Blackwell, special assistant for public liaison.
Mr. Blackwell proceeded to read a message from the president, the full text of which follows.

PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN' MESSAGE
"I am pleased to join those gathered for this ceremony honoring the memory of the millions who died in the Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33.

"This event provides an opportunity to remember those who suffered and died during the farm collectivization and subsequent forced famine and period of severe repression. That attempt to crush the life, will and spirit of a people by a totalitarian government holds important meaning for us today.

"In a time when the entire world is outraged by the senseless murder of 269 passengers on Korean Airlines Flight 007, we must not forget that this kind of action is not new to the Soviet Union.

"That the dream of freedom lives on in the hearts of Ukrainians everywhere is an inspiration to each of us.

"I commend your participation in this special observance and the moral vision it represents. May it be a reminder to all of us of how fortunate we are to live in a land of freedom."

U.S. CONGRESSMAN RITTER'S ADDRESS
Next to address the rally was Rep. Ritter, who is chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Baltic States and Ukraine and a member of the Congressional Helsinki Commission.

Rep. Ritter began his remarks in Ukrainian, saying: "Today, my dear friends, I honor the 7 million who died in the famine/holocaust and the millions who lived through those terrible years. But that is not enough. Today, I devote myself with all my heart and soul to the cause of freedom for our oppressed brothers and sisters living in Ukraine."

"We are here to tell the story to the world of the people who suffered, the victims, the survivors," he said. "Yes, we want the world to know about this crime against humanity, not that they may feel sympathy towards the victims. That is given. But, even more important is that the world better understand that the disease of totalitarian control over people longing to be free is what creates holocausts."

He concluded his speech, too, in Ukrainian. "May the memory of those who died live on in our hearts and in the hearts of all Americans so that the flame of freedom for Ukraine will never die. Long live the flame of freedom. Glory to Ukraine," he said. (The full text of Rep. Ritter's address appears on page 6.,

A message of sympathy was delivered by Rabbi Andrew Baker, Mid-Atlantic regional chairman of the American Jewish Committee. "We share memories of suffering in the Soviet Union. We also share the hope that our brethren, locked behind an iron curtain, will one day be free," he said.

He continued: "We are, of course, gathered here to recall a very specific event of unspeakable horror - the enforced famine and the intentional death of millions of Ukrainians. As one reads the first-person historical accounts, as one examines the photographic evidence, the shock and revulsion are nearly overwhelming. But it is not only the monstrous crime at which one recoils. It is the willingness of so many to look the other way, of governments to carry on with 'business as usual,' and of people quick to relegate such events to the dusty corners of distant history.

"We Jews share with you the experience of such horrors in our own recent history and the experience of a world quick to close its eyes, quick to forget what had taken place. We join with you in the firm belief that only through remembering can we hope to ensure that such evil deeds will not recur."
Rabbi Baker then noted: "We share in your memories on this day and in your hopes that we all may learn from them. For our sake and the sake of our children we can do nothing less."

KEYNOTE ADDRESS
The keynote Ukrainian-language speaker was John O. Flis, newly re-elected chairman of the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council and supreme president of the Ukrainian National Association.

"When they were dying - the bells did not toll. And no one wept over them ... And there were millions of them. At least 7 million, but there may have been 10 million or more. Millions of children, women and men, our sisters and brothers by blood - Ukrainians.

That is why, he said, "it is our sacred duty to ourselves remember and to make others aware of history's greatest crime, its perpetrators and its victims."
He then went on to point out that Ukrainians should recall "this dark night" of Ukrainian history with the hope that "a new morn" will bring with it a better fate for the Ukrainian nation.

In the memory of those millions of Ukrainian martyrs of the Great Famine, Mr. Flis urged, "let us pledge that we will do all that is possible to see to it that Ukraine does indeed get its own Washington with his righteous law."

Former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky and Marek Czyselczyk, a representative of the Solidarity trade union, also spoke at the rally.

The KAL incident represents "just a drop of blood into the ocean of misery caused by the Soviets," said Mr. Bukovsky, referring to the recent downing of a Korean passenger jet. Millions of others died in the collectivization campaign during the famine, the purges, the show trials, he noted, adding to this list of Soviet horrors the tragedies of the Baltic States, Ukraine, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Afghanistan and Nicaragua.

The Solidarity representative expressed his sympathy for the famine victims, and, speaking as a Pole, noted that it is his sincere hope that both the Ukrainian and Polish nations will one day live in democracy.

"May the free flag of Poland fly over Warsaw, and may the free flag of Ukraine fly over Kiev," he said. "Long live free Poland, long live free Ukraine."

Other speakers who addressed the rally participants were: Chris Gersten, chairman of the Freedom Federation, a coalition of 19 ethnic organizations; Dr. Mario Lopez Escobar, Paraguayan ambassador to the United States and chairman of the Organization of American States; Maj. Gen. (ret.) George Keegan, former chief of intelligence of the U.S. Air Force and current chairman of the Congressional Advisory Board; Mykola Plawiuk of the World Congress of Free Ukrainians; Ulana Mazurkevich of the Ukrainian Human Rights Committee of Philadelphia; and Stephen Procyk, executive member of the National Committee to Commemorate Genocide Victims in Ukraine and chairman of its Washington branch.

Messages were received from many members of Congress, among them the following senators: Rudy Boschwitz (R-Minn.), Dave Durenberger (R-Minn.), John Glenn (D-Ohio), Mark O. Hatfield (R-Ore.), John Heinz (R-Pa.), Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Charles McC. Mathias Jr. (R-Md.), Daniel P. Moynihan (D-N.Y.), Charles H. Percy (R-Ill.), Donald W. Riegle Jr. (D-Mich.), Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Edward Zorinsky (D-Neb.).
The following representatives also sent messages: Glenn M. Anderson (D-Calif.), Frank Annunzio (D-Ill.), Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-N.Y.), Philip M. Crane (R-Ill.), Brian J. Donnelly (D-Mass.), Hamilton Fish Jr. (R-N.Y.), Bill McCollum (R-Fla.), Henry J. Nowak (D-N.Y.), Mary Rose Oakar (D-Ohio), Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) and Gus Yatron (D-Pa.).

Messages were later received from Reps. Joseph P. Addabbo (D-N.Y.), Mario Biaggi (D-N.Y.), Edward F. Feighan (D-Ohio) and Samuel S. Stratton (D-N.Y.).

In addition, Gov. Dick Thornburgh of Pennsylvania, and Canadian Member of Parliament Jesse P. Flis sent greetings to the rally participants.

At the conclusion of the rally Dr. Stercho once again took the podium, this time to thank all the participants. Msgr. Walter Paska, who appeared at the rally in the name of Archbishop-Metropolitan Stephen Sulyk who is in Rome at the World Bishops Synod, offered the benediction.

The program concluded with a performance by the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus directed by Hryhory Kytasty, which presented two selections, a Ukrainian patriotic song and "God Bless America." The rally was formally closed with the singing by all present of the Ukrainian national anthem.

NOTE: http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/1983/418301.shtml; Check out The Ukrainian Weekly's extensive famine archives: http://www.ukrweekly.com; (To see a copy of the official march poster click on http://www.artukraine.com/famineart.armstrong.htm.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[return to index] [Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]
=========================================================
Receiving more than one copy of the AUR please contact us.
=========================================================
12. THEY CAME FROM NEAR AND FAR TO COMMEMORATE THE
VICTIMS OF THE GREAT FAMINE IN UKRAINE 1932-1933
To make others aware of the Soviets' horrible crime against humanity

By Marta Kolomayets, The Ukrainian Weekly, Parsippany, New Jersey, Sunday, October 9, 1993.

WASHINGTON - They came from all over the United States; they came by bus, by car, by train and by plane. They all converged upon the nation's capital. Some 18,000 Ukrainian Americans gathered at the Washington Monument on Sunday, October 2, for one reason: they came to commemorate the millions of victims of the Great Famine in Ukraine 1932-33.

Some had carried the memory of the tragedy in their hearts and in their minds for 50 years. Some knew only of the genocide through stories told by parents and relatives. Still others, second- and third-generation Ukrainians learned of the holocaust through English-language accounts in the Ukrainian press and through word of mouth. They all came to honor the memory of innocent victims - Ukrainian brothers and sisters - and to make others aware of the Soviets' horrible crime against humanity.

Pawlo Malar, of Syracuse, N.Y., was an eyewitness to the famine in the Poltava region. He, along with a full bus of Plast members and parishioners of St. John's Ukrainian Catholic and St. Luke's Ukrainian Orthodox churches, traveled to Washington to rightfully commemorate the great tragedy.

"As a 22-year-old student in the city, I saw the trucks coming around to pick up the corpses, I saw death all around me," he stated, recalling the famine years. "And through the years I have tried to spread the word about the famine," he added. Mr. Malar said he participated in the 15th, 25th and 40th year commemorations of the famine held in the diaspora. He is the author of a trilogy "Zolotyi Doshch," in which he devotes several chapters to the famine.

On Sunday he came to Washington because he feels the Reagan administration is not apathetic to the politics of the Soviet Union, as administrations in the past were.

He was one of many demonstrators who arrived as early as 9:30 a.m. The chartered buses from various cities kept pulling up near the Washington Monument to let rally-goers off. The dark sky, scattered with rain clouds, seemed almost appropriate for the somber event.

By 10:30 a.m. the masses extended to either side of the stage and stretched way back to the Washington Monument, a distance of several hundred feet. The sun started breaking through the clouds and the umbrellas were folded and put away.

The people still kept coming; chartered buses from all parts of the United States - the Rochestarians carried their symbolic coffins, imprinted with the words "7,000,000 Ukrainians Murdered"; the Plast members assembled, staking out a good piece of land to accommodate 1,000 uniformed members of all ages.

Women in embroidered blouses and dark skirts, members of the Ukrainian National Women's League of America and the Ukrainian Gold Cross listened attentively to the speakers on the stage. Eleven full buses from the Philadelphia area carried both young and old to the commemorations in Washington.

Among the sea of faces, signs proclaiming all the cities and towns represented emerged. They read San Diego; Los Angeles; Chicago; Dayton, Solon, Youngstown (Ohio); Pittsburgh, Monessen (Pa.); Buffalo (N.Y.); Hartford (Conn.); Detroit; Richmond (Va.); Trenton (N.J.); Boston; New York and Baltimore. The list of cities grew longer and longer as the rally continued past noon. Ukrainians from Texas, Florida, Rhode Island, and Washington made their way through the crowds.

Signs, some meticulously printed and others scrawled in a hurried fashion, were carried by many of the demonstrators. They carried such slogans as "The West Must Not Forget," "Whole Ukrainian History is Holocaust," "7,000,269 Murdered - 1933 Soviet Genocide in Ukraine, 1983 Soviet Attack on KAL 007."

As the solemn march to the Soviet Embassy began the demonstration took on a somber tone. The uniformed members of Plast and ODUM gave the march a formal air, followed by representatives of women's organizations and communities.

The Ukrainian Orthodox League, numbering over 200 from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Illinois, marched together, caught up in the spirit of unity which, their president Dr. Gayle Woloschak remarked, has prevailed since their summer convention.

Marching the mile-long route from the Washington Monument to the Soviet Embassy, the Ukrainian Americans conscientiously informed passers-by of the great tragedy perpetrated upon the Ukrainian people by the Soviet regime.

A young marcher from St. Mary's parish in Solon, Ohio, remarked "I'll bet you could not even find a handful of people on the street who know about this tragedy," and continued marching on proudly with his group, which had traveled 10 hours to get to Washington.

"We're a small community in Richmond, Va.," remarked Ihor Taran in a southern drawl, "but we're aware of the famine and we came here today to commemorate the memory of the victims. My parents came from Zaporizhzhia and Kiev and I've grown up being aware of the tragedy of the genocide," he said.

A handful of marchers from Kentucky, representing the cities of Louisville and Lexington, were organized by the local UNA branch and had traveled to Washington to commemorate the event on a national level. "We've had local television and press coverage in Kentucky," Oksana Mostovych stated.

Road-weary Chicagoans who spent 17 hours on a chartered bus, their travels extended due to bad weather in Pennsylvania, arrived in Washington on Friday. Many of them spent the day visiting U.S. senators and congressmen with fellow members of Americans for Human Rights in Ukraine.

The first-, second- and third-generation Ukrainian Americans who have never experienced the tyranny of the Soviet system took part in the commemorations. So did newly arrived Soviet emigres. Former dissident Nadia Svitlychna and her entire family showed up in Washington, as did former political prisoner Valentyn Moroz, who now resides in Toronto with his wife, and recent defector Victor Kovalenko, presently a Plast member in Philadelphia.

The United States Ukrainian community was not the only Ukrainian community represented. Torontonians came down by bus to observe U.S. national famine commemorations. One Canadian student remarked that he thought it was important for Canadians also to take part in one of the largest commemorations of the 50th anniversary of this holocaust. Ukrainians from Australia and Europe took part in the commemorations as did many non-Ukrainian friends of Ukrainians.

Maria Petrauskas - dressed in traditional Lithuanian garb - and her daughter Solamaja, joined the masses of Ukrainians at the Washington Monument. "We have always known about the famine, today we come out to the demonstration in solidarity with our oppressed brothers," Solamaja said.

Some of the marchers, too old to walk the route of the march, were driven to the embassy to watch the crowds assemble and hear the statement addressed to the Kremlin. Hlib Naumenko of St. George's Church in Yardville, N.J., who was 23 at the time of the famine, said that his family in Poltava was saved by eating gruel even dogs refused to eat. "Today, I come to remind myself of those days and to make others aware," he said, slowly making his way to a bench.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[return to index] [Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]
===================================================
13. 18,000 UKRAINIANS PROTEST NEAR SOVIET EMBASSY IN WASHINGTON

By George B. Zarycky, The Ukrainian Weekly, Parsippinany, New Jersey, Sunday, October 9, 1983

WASHINGTON, D.C. - An estimated 18,000 Ukrainians, marching in a phalanx that at one point stretched nearly a mile, assembled within 500 feet of the Soviet Embassy here on Sunday afternoon, October 2, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the artificial famine in Ukraine which killed 7 million people in 1932-33.

As the marchers moved down 16th Street toward the embassy, many carrying colorful banners castigating the Soviet regime, they were met by a large contingent of uniformed police, who had cordoned off the block between K and L streets near the embassy, which is between L and M streets. Over 15 blue Metro Police cruisers lined the street, while others were parked bumper to bumper sealing off both ends of the block.

Police had expected a group of some 5,000 people, but as row after row of demonstrators continued to stream down 16th Street, it soon became clear that at least three times as many were at the rally. The first to arrive at the police barricades were members of the Plast Ukrainian Youth Organization - 1,000 strong - who marched in uniformed formations behind a large banner. It took another 40 minutes for the rest of the huge crowd to make its way from the Washington Monument.

As the crowd continued to swell, many groups were forced to fan out on either side of K Street to keep the intersection clear.

At about 2 p.m., Orest Deychakiwsky, a 27-year-old staff member of the Congressional Helsinki Commission, read an open letter to the Kremlin.
Surrounded by a sea of demonstrators and reporters, Mr. Deychakiwsky called the Soviet-engineered famine "a deliberate act of genocide" against the Ukrainian people, and warned the Kremlin that the Ukrainian community in the United States would continue to "tell our fellow Americans about the real Soviet Union." (For the full text of Mr. Deychakiwsky's remarks, see page 6.)

Chastising the Soviets for the invasion of Afghanistan, the shooting down of Korean Airlines Flight 007 and the continuing policies of Russification in the non-Russian republics, Mr. Deychakiwsky said that the world is finally becoming more aware of the nature of the Soviet system.

"We Americans of Ukrainian descent, together with all Americans and people of the world who respect human life - and value human liberty - will see to it that those who died in your man-made famine in Ukraine, that those who died aboard the Korean airliner, that those who continue to suffer under your dictatorship - we will see to it that they did not die, nor will they suffer, in vain," he said.

The march itself began at the Washington Monument following a special famine commemorative program. With parade marshals wearing blue-and-gold armbands issuing instructions, the demonstrators marched north up 15th Street, the southbound lanes of which were closed to traffic. As motorists looked on, marchers made their way past government buildings for several blocks before turning left onto Pennsylvania Avenue.

While the demonstrators filed past Presidential Park directly across the avenue from the White House, curious onlookers came forward to ask what the march was all about or to take famine literature being distributed by several parade marshals.

From the White House, the marchers snaked through tree-lined residential streets with elegant brownstones before turning north again on 16th Street.

Although the march was called to commemorate the Great Famine, many of the demonstrators carried placards denouncing Soviet aggression, calling for freedom of religion in Ukraine or protesting the downing of the Korean passenger plane.
One sign read "Koreans and Ukrainians united against the USSR," while another said "Stop KGB infiltration in U.S. courts," a reference to the government's use of Soviet-supplied evidence in denaturalization proceedings against East Europeans suspected of collaborating with the Germans during World War II.

Most, however, dealt with the anniversary of the famine and its 7 million victims, with inscriptions such as "The West must not forget" and "Moscow before tribunal of justice." One group, from Rochester, N.Y., carried three makeshift black coffins inscribed with white lettering which read "7,000,000 Ukrainians murdered."

While the vast majority of the demonstrators were Ukrainian Americans, some from as far away as Chicago, Ohio and upstate New York, there was a large contingent from Canada. A few of the protesters were non-Ukrainians including a Lithuanian mother and daughter who carried a sign, complete with a hammer and sickle, that read "Wanted for murder."

Although the over-all tone of many of the signs was one of anger and outrage, the pervasive mood of the demonstration was one of seriousness and restraint in deference to the somber anniversary of what many demonstrators called the "unknown holocaust." Although there were intermittent chants of "Freedom for Ukraine," most of the demonstrators marched in silence or talked quietly among themselves in keeping with the wishes of rally organizers.

Once assembled at the intersection of K and 16th streets, about one and a half blocks from the Soviet Embassy, the demonstrators presented an impressive sight, with marchers massed against the police line and on K Street on both sides of the intersection. Several, including eyewitnesses who had survived the famine, clustered around reporters and photographers from the news media.

After Mr. Deychakiwsky read the open letter to the Kremlin, rally participants sang the Ukrainian national anthem, "Shche ne vmerla Ukraina," and scores released the black balloons they had been carrying as mournful symbols of the famine and its victims. As the ballons drifted gently into the clear Washington sky, the demonstrators began to disperse, many to get ready for a 3 p.m. memorial concert at the Kennedy Center. Most seemed to conclude that the rally had been orderly, dignified and an unequivocal success.
LINK: http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/1983/418302.shtml; to see a copy of the official poster created for the freedom march click on http://www.artukraine.com/famineart.armstrong.htm.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[return to index] [Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]
========================================================
"ACTION UKRAINE REPORT - AUR"
A Free, Private, Not-For-Profit, Independent, Public Service Newsletter
With major support from The Bleyzer Foundation, Kyiv, Ukraine
Articles are Distributed For Information, Research, Education, Academic,
Discussion and Personal Purposes Only. Additional Readers are Welcome.
LINK TO THE AUR 2008 ARCHIVE: http://www.usubc.org/AUR/

SigmaBleyzer/The Bleyzer Foundation Economic Reports
"SigmaBleyzer - Where Opportunities Emerge"
The SigmaBleyzer Emerging Markets Private Equity Investment Group and The Bleyzer Foundation offers a comprehensive collection of documents, reports and presentations published by its business units and organizations.
All publications are grouped by categories: Marketing; Economic Country Reports; Presentations; Ukrainian Equity Guide; Monthly Macroeconomic
Situation Reports (Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine).
You can be on an e-mail distribution list to receive automatically, on a monthly basis, any or all of the Macroeconomic Situation Reports (Romania,
Bulgaria, Ukraine) by sending an e-mail to mwilliams@SigmaBleyzer.com.
"UKRAINE - A COUNTRY OF NEW OPPORTUNITIES"
TO BE ON OR OFF THE FREE AUR DISTRIBUTION LIST
If you would like to read the ACTION UKRAINE REPORT- AUR, several times a month, please send your name, country of residence, and e-mail contact information to morganw@patriot.net. Information about your occupation and your interest in Ukraine is also appreciated.
If you do not wish to read the ACTION UKRAINE REPORT please contact us immediately by e-mail to morganw@patriot.net. If you are receiving more than one copy please let us know so this can be corrected.
SPAM & BULK MAIL BLOCKERS ARE A REAL PROBLEM
If you do not receive a copy of the AUR it is probably because of a SPAM OR BULK MAIL BLOCKER maintained by your server or by yourself on your computer. Spam and bulk mail blockers are set in very arbitrary and impersonal ways and block out e-mails because of words found in many news stories or the way the subject line is organized or the header or who know what.
Spam blockers also sometimes reject the AUR for other arbitrary reasons we have not been able to identify. If you do not receive some of the AUR numbers please let us know and we will send you the missing issues. Please make sure the spam blocker used by your server and also the one on your personal computer, if you use a spam blocker, is set properly to receive the Action Ukraine Report (AUR).
HOTMAIL.COM AND YAHOO.COM
We are also having serious problems with hotmail and yahoo servers not delivering the AUR and other such newsletters. If you have an e-mail address other than hotmail or yahoo it is better to use that one for the AUR.
ACTION UKRAINE PROGRAM - SPONSORS
"Working to Secure & Enhance Ukraine's Democratic Future"
1. THE BLEYZER FOUNDATION, Dr. Edilberto Segura,
Chairman; Victor Gekker, Executive Director, Kyiv, Ukraine;
Additional supporting sponsors for the Action Ukraine Program are:
2. UKRAINIAN FEDERATION OF AMERICA (UFA), Zenia Chernyk,
Vera M. Andryczyk, President; Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania
3. KIEV-ATLANTIC GROUP, David and Tamara Sweere, Daniel
Sweere, Kyiv and Myronivka, Ukraine, kau@ukrnet.net
4. RULG - UKRAINIAN LEGAL GROUP, Irina Paliashvili,
President; Kyiv and Washington, general@rulg.com, www.rulg.com.
5. VOLIA SOFTWARE, Software to Fit Your Business, Source your
IT work in Ukraine. Contact: Yuriy Sivitsky, Vice President, Marketing,
Kyiv, Ukraine, yuriy.sivitsky@softline.kiev.ua; Volia Software website:
http://www.volia-software.com/ or Bill Hunter, CEO Volia Software,
Houston, TX 77024; bill.hunter@volia-software.com.
6. U.S.-UKRAINE BUSINESS COUNCIL (USUBC), Washington,
D.C., Promoting U.S.-Ukraine business investments since 1995.
7. UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH OF THE USA, Archbishop
Antony, South Bound Brook, New Jersey, http://www.uocofusa.org
8. UKRAINIAN AMERICAN COORDINATING COUNCIL (UACC),
Ihor Gawdiak, President, Washington, D.C., New York, New York
9. U.S.-UKRAINE FOUNDATION (USUF), Nadia McConnell, President;
John Kun, Vice President/COO; http://www.USUkraine.org
10. WJ GROUP of Ag Companies, Kyiv, Ukraine, David Holpert, Chief
Financial Officer, Chicago, IL; http://www.wjgrain.com/en/links/index.html
11. EUGENIA SAKEVYCH DALLAS, Author, "One Woman, Five
Lives, Five Countries," 'Her life's journey begins with the 1932-1933
genocidal famine in Ukraine.' Hollywood, CA, www.eugeniadallas.com.
12. ALEX AND HELEN WOSKOB, College Station, Pennsylvania
13. SWIFT FOUNDATION, San Luis Obispo, California
14. DAAR FOUNDATION, Houston, Texas, Kyiv, Ukraine.
PUBLISHER AND EDITOR - AUR
Mr. E. Morgan Williams, Director, Government Affairs
Washington Office, SigmaBleyzer, The Bleyzer Foundation
Emerging Markets Private Equity Investment Group;
President, U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC)
1701 K Street, NW, Suite 903, Washington, D.C. 20006
Tel: 202 437 4707; Fax 202 223 1224
Power Corrupts and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.
========================================================
return to index [Action Ukraine Report (AUR) Monitoring Service]
========================================================