"THE ACTION UKRAINE REPORT"
An International Newsletter
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 159
The Action Ukraine Coalition (AUC), Washington, D.C.
Ukrainian Federation of America (UFA), Huntingdon Valley, PA
morganw@patriot.net, ArtUkraine.com@starpower.net (ARTUIS)
Washington, D.C.; Kyiv, Ukraine, FRIDAY, September 10, 2004
-----INDEX OF ARTICLES-----
"Major International News Headlines and Articles"
1. "PLOTTING EUROPE'S EASTERN BORDER: WHITHER UKRAINE"
COMMENTARY: By Viktor Yushchenko
International Herald Tribune (IHT)
Neuilly Cedex, France, Thursday, September 9, 2004
2. "UKRAINE CHANGES TACK WITH BRUSSELS"
By Chrystia Freeland, Stefan Wagstyl and Tom Warner in Kiev
Financial Times, London, UK, Friday, September 10, 2004
3. "POLAND'S LEADER CALLS FOR A PLURALISTIC, OPEN
AND NEW EUROPE...INCLUDING TURKEY AND UKRAINE"
By Judy Dempsey, International Herald Tribune (IHT)
Neuilly Cedex, France, Thursday, September 2, 2004
4. "TAKE FLEXIBLE STANCE, POLISH LEADER URGES USA"
A rare and impassioned plea from a close friend of the U.S.
Kwasniewski concerned about Russia and Ukraine
By Judy Dempsey, International Herald Tribune (IHT)
Neuilly Cedex, France, Thursday, September 2, 2004
5."WHY THE 'WAR ON TERROR' IS A DANGEROUS MISCONCEPTION"
False Comfort From Words of War
COMMENT & ANALYSIS: By Philip Stephens
Financial Times, London, UK, Friday, September 10, 2004
6. "GIVE THE CHECHENS A LAND OF THEIR OWN"
OP-ED By Richard Pipes, The New York Times
New York, New York, Thursday, September 9, 2004
7. TRANSDNIESTER SETTLEMENT: EU NEEDS TO JOIN HANDS
WITH RUSSIA, UKRAINE, USA, OSCE, STATES TOP EU OFFICIAL
RIA NOVISTI, Moscow, Russia, Thursday, September 9, 2004
8. DNIESTER REGION SITUATION REQUIRES IMMEDIATE
INTERVENTION OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
Proposes consultations with the participation of Ukraine
ITAR-TASS, Moscow, Russia, Thursday, September 9, 2004
9. CRIMEAN TATAR LEADER SAYS UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT
"MISINFORMED" ABOUT EXTREMISTS
Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian, 9 Sep 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Thursday, Sep 09, 2004
10. UKRAINE EXPECTS TO JOIN WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION
IN 2005 STATES MINISTER OF FINANCE MYKOLA AZAROV
ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in English, 9 Sep 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Thursday, Sep 09, 2004
11. "UKRAINE HONOURS CRIMEAN WAR DEAD"
The Charge of the Light Brigade has been immortalised in poetry and film
By Helen Fawkes in Ukraine, BBC NEWS, UK, Thur, September 9, 2004
12. FAMINE IN UKRAINE 1932-1933: "A HERO OF OUR TIME"
Gareth Jones, 20th-century truth-teller
By Andrew Stuttaford, The National Review
New York, New York, September 10, 2004
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.159 ARTICLE NUMBER ONE
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1. "PLOTTING EUROPE'S EASTERN BORDER: WHITHER UKRAINE"
COMMENTARY: By Viktor Yushchenko
International Herald Tribune (IHT)
Neuilly Cedex, France, Thursday, September 9, 2004
KIEV With this year's sizeable round of EU and NATO enlargement, the
issue of European reunification is far from final, and the reasons are far
from purely technical.
.
The social, political, and cultural gap between Western and Central Europe
on the one hand and Eastern Europe on the other is widening. The dividing
line established during the cold war has not totally vanished - it has only
shifted a few hundred kilometers to the east.
.
While welcoming the enlargement of the European Union, Ukrainians are
anxious about European integration halting at our western frontier and in
fact creating a new dividing line.
.
Our neighbors in Belarus, Moldova and Russia feel the same way. Our
anxiety is also shared by Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and the Baltic
states - neighbors who understand the gravity of problems resulting from the
incomplete unification of Europe and the emergence of a new phenomenon:
a bipolar Europe.
.
Although we all live in Europe, we sense changes in the linguistic nuances
and conceptual underpinnings of European politics. Countries to the east of
the EU are called "the former Soviet Union" or "newly independent states,"
but almost never "Europe" or even "Eastern Europe."
.
We in the East are subjects of a European policy the very jargon of which
jars our ears precisely because we always considered ourselves part of
Europe, and not just "neighbors."
.
We bear the blame for the failure of political and social reforms in Eastern
Europe, and in Ukraine in particular. We became fixed on the formal
attributes of statehood, neglecting the essence of the state we were
building. For too long, we reconciled ourselves with the overt defects in
our political and economic systems, emphasizing the institutionalization of
an independent state and the safeguarding of its stability and sovereignty.
.
We preserved stability, but veered off the path of European development,
which demands an unwavering commitment to the principles of democracy
and rule of law. As a result, we find ourselves outside the EU enlargement
process.
.
But today, from the ruins of ideological confrontation comes a new battle of
cynicism. The threat of a new bipolar Europe has arisen - with centers in
Brussels and Moscow. This polarization is much more acute than it first
appears. Throughout Eastern Europe rises the specter of rampant capitalism,
Soviet authoritarianism and even a dose of medieval feudalism. Instead of
the rule of law, puppet courts and puppet law enforcement agencies have
been revived. Instead of popular will, we have a controlled democracy,
with predictable electoral results. There is mass propaganda rather than
mass media.
.
Europe might well be pulled into a new confrontation. It may appear to be
minor compared to the war on international terrorism and other security
threats, but the prospect of having an entire bloc of authoritarian, corrupt
regimes on its borders should awaken the EU public and political elite.
.
Ukraine, a nation of 48 million, was always an organic participant in the
historical European journey. But today, there are ominous signs of a
neo-Soviet revival here. A new round in the struggle for Europe is taking
place in Ukraine, and both the people and the political elite have yet to
cast their final vote.
.
Nonetheless, there is a vibrant grassroots democratic opposition movement
that clearly embraces European values, and polls show that 60 percent of
Ukrainians support closer European ties. The presidential election this fall
will be the climax in the struggle between the European and non-European
choice for Ukraine.
.
The Ukraine that we strive to create will be an integral part of a truly
united Europe - a Europe without any divisive lines. This Ukraine will not
only propagate European values, but transmit them beyond its borders. It
would halt attempts at creating an "alternative Europe" in the East.
.
What do we expect from our partners in the West? First of all, a clear
position regarding Ukraine as a participant in the pan-European social,
political, and economic process, including full membership in the European
Union on the basis of established criteria for membership.
.
At the end of the 1990s, it was precisely such a clear European position
that helped the democratic forces in Slovakia defeat an authoritarian regime
in free, democratic elections. Currently, however, statements from European
politicians to the effect that it is not possible to consider Ukraine as a
potential EU member only undermine the position of democratic forces and
strengthen the protagonists of the status quo and the neo-Soviet "revival."
.
Ukraine is the next test for Europe and for us as Europeans. Ukrainians
must demonstrate that a system of democratic values is not only the most
appealing, but the most unyielding.
.
Despite the probability of massive election law violations and intense
coercion by those now in power, on Oct. 31 there will be a chance to
peacefully extend the democratic transformation which began in Europe 15
years ago, and to take a decisive step towards a unified, stable and common
European home. (END)
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Viktor Yushchenko, a former prime minister of Ukraine, is a candidate
for the presidency of the country.
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IHT LINK: http://www.iht.com/articles/538044.html
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.159: ARTICLE NUMBER TWO
=======================================================
2. "UKRAINE CHANGES TACK WITH BRUSSELS"
By Chrystia Freeland, Stefan Wagstyl and Tom Warner in Kiev
Financial Times, London, UK, Friday, September 10 2004
KIEV - Ukraine's prime minister has retreated from his country's
controversial demands for an early promise of future European Union
membership and proposed instead to develop ties through short-term
practical co-operation agreements.
Viktor Yanukovich told the FT Ukraine had been "humiliated" by the EU's
rejections of Kiev's bids to be accepted as a potential EU member and
intended to build its relationship with Brussels through concrete two- or
three-year agreements covering specific issues such as trade and the free
movement of people.
"In the past the idea of Ukraine's entry into the EU was declared but
nothing concrete was done. Sometimes the impression was created that
Ukraine is breaking down the door to Europe but the EU is holding it shut,"
said Mr Yanukovich, who is running for the presidency in elections due
next month with the support of the outgoing incumbent, Leonid Kuchma.
Mr Yanukovich said he hoped the new step-by-step approach would still
lead to Ukraine "one day becoming a European Union member". His positive
attitude to the EU is significant because he is widely seen as less
pro-western and more pro-Russian than his chief electoral rival, Viktor
Yushchenko.
Mr Yanukovich's comments come at a time of intense debate in the EU over
enlargement. Following the accession of 10 new members in May, the EU is
likely to admit Bulgaria and Romania in 2007 and will begin membership talks
with Croatia next year. It is also set to decide in December whether to open
negotiations over Turkey's membership.
The official EU position is that Ukraine has no prospect of joining in the
medium term and that Kiev is right to concentrate on reaching a more limited
agreement with the Union. The EU hopes to conclude a series of such deals
with its neighbours next month, to encourage economic and political reform
through greater access to its single market.
Some Commission officials are sceptical about the merits of this
"neighbourhood" policy and believe the door to membership should be kept
open for Ukraine if it makes sufficient reforms. This month, Aleksander
Kwasniewski, Polish president, said Ukraine merited a place in the EU.
Ukraine considered rejecting the neighbourhood programme but has since
indicated that it will co-operate. Mr Yanukovich's remarks confirm this
commitment.
Ukraine's economy is recording some of the world's fastest growth rates,
with gross domestic product up 13.5 per cent in January-July.
Mykola Azarov, finance minister, said the government would improve
conditions for foreign investment by lowering profit taxes and joining the
World Trade Organisation next year. [Additional reporting by Daniel
Dombey in Brussels] (END)
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.159: ARTICLE NUMBER THREE
=======================================================
3. "POLAND'S LEADER CALLS FOR A PLURALISTIC, OPEN
AND NEW EUROPE...INCLUDING TURKEY AND UKRAINE"
By Judy Dempsey, International Herald Tribune (IHT)
Neuilly Cedex, France, Thursday, September 2, 2004
WARSAW - Poland, fresh from joining the European Union four months ago,
is going to campaign hard to bring Turkey - and then Ukraine - into the EU
as partners of what President Aleksander Kwasniewski calls "a pluralistic,
open and new Europe."
.
The Polish policy, outlined by Kwasniewski in a one-hour interview with the
International Herald Tribune, seems certain to stir up European allies and
bureaucrats in Brussels, as well as Poland's eastern neighbor, Russia.
.
“The very important question is how we see the future of Europe and who
are going to be our partners in the coming years,” Kwasniewski said as he
relaxed in his palatial offices in the center of Warsaw after a long day of
meetings.
.
Poland's push to support Ukraine, which under President Leonid Kuchma is
regarded by many Western officials as a corrupt and far from democratic
country, is seen by EU diplomats as a bid to shift the European agenda
eastward.
.
The 25 member states are already gearing up for a long, intense - if not
bitter - debate over the EU's new budget in which Poland says it is
determined to fight hard for a big share of the regional funds earmarked for
modernizing the infrastructure.
.
But then, Poland is no stranger to differences with EU members. It had no
qualms in joining the U.S.-led war against Iraq, which earned it blistering
criticism from France and Germany.
.
It opted to buy Boeing airliners instead of Europe's Airbus, which France
regarded as ingratitude and a lack of solidarity. Last December, Poland and
Spain teamed up to block an agreement on a new constitution for Europe, a
document eventually agreed to in June.
.
Kwasniewski clearly signaled that he intended to use his remaining time to
fulfill what he termed the last of the grand ambitions he took office with.
He is now 49 and will reach the end of his second five-year term in 2005
.
“I got a new constitution passed that established very serious fundamentals
and institutions for political democracy,” he said. Under that constitution,
the president of Poland has considerable political power.
.
In 1999, he said, Poland joined NATO, and, as a result, for “the first time
since World War II we feel secure." "And now that we are in the EU," he
added, "there is a chance to go forward. Today, the question is how we see
the future of Europe and who will be our partners during the next few years.
We will have very difficult discussions on front of us, with the first being
Turkey and the second, Ukraine. It will be a struggle.”
.
Indeed, it can only be such, given that public opinion across Europe was
even skeptical over last May's expansion of the EU from 15 to 25 countries.
EU diplomats complain that the latest round of enlargement will do little to
further political integration, despite the new constitution, which has yet
to be ratified by all member states.
.
Moreover, the prospect of starting accession talks with Turkey - let alone
Ukraine, which is not even on the back burner for membership now - has
already been criticized by several conservative political parties, including
the opposition Christian Democrats in Germany.
.
Kwasniewski, president of a staunchly Roman Catholic country that is one
of the most Christian in Europe, says some EU countries “have a lot of fears
about Turkey," a predominantly Muslim nation, although a secular one. "But
many countries in Europe have fears about Ukraine,” he added.
.
“Some see Ukraine much more on the side of Russian influence than as a part
of a European structure," he said. "In my opinion, an independent Ukraine,
and a country with such a deep sense of self identity, is a good partner for
Europe,” he said.
.
Barring any major setback to planned changes in Turkey, EU leaders are
expected to support opening accession negotiations with Turkey at their
December summit meeting in Brussels. The exact date for starting those
talks, which could take up to 10 years, has yet to be agreed to. Kwasniewski
insists enlargement should not stop with Turkey.
.
"I am absolutely in favor of Turkey's membership to the EU," he said. "We
will support it. But it is necessary to say that the issue of Turkey is an
open question for all of us. We have to discuss the future of Europe because
if we say 'yes' to Turkey, which I think is important to say so, it is a
question then what we will say to Ukraine.”
.
Diplomats in Brussels have been loath to even mention the prospect of EU
membership for Ukraine, although there have been suggestions of an economic
relationship if changes are introduced to make Ukraine a more transparently
governed country.
.
Kuchma faces elections next spring and the opposition is seeking a viable
candidate. Kwasniewski said the EU had fallen short of offering any
incentives to the opposition in Ukraine. “The approach from Brussels is the
wrong one," he said. "It says, 'Please do some reforms and then we will
support you.'
.
"In my opinion it is necessary to give support and then some effort will be
made. If you have a passive approach, how can you find new people, new
projects, a new mentality?”
.
The president also made clear that Poland, which fought for its own
independence during decades in the Soviet bloc and centuries of outside
domination, would support Ukraine's own struggle, particularly at a time
when Russia's economic influence over this large Slavic country of 50
million people remains as strong as ever.
.
This support for Ukraine finds broad resonance in Poland. As Polish
diplomats explained, Poles remain deeply suspicious over Moscow's
economic hold on Ukraine as well as its political influence in Belarus. They
say it shows Russia's ambitions to try to rebuild part of the empire that
collapsed in 1991.
.
At the same time, few Poles relish the thought of a new Iron Curtain cast
down on the EU's new eastern borders. “That would only lead to insecurity,”
said a senior Polish diplomat, quickly dismissing suggestions that Poland
wants Ukraine as a buffer between it and Russia. President Kwasniewski
himself says that Russia has yet to come to terms with the collapse of its
empire.
.
The issue of Ukraine will be brought up at the so-called Weimar Triangle
meeting of Polish, French and German leaders next month in France, one
of a series of summit meetings being held among European leaders as they
sketch the face of a new Europe.
.
President Jacques Chirac of France and Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of
Germany met President Vladimir Putin of Russia this week in Sochi, the
Russian resort on the Black Sea. Next week, the French and German
leaders are to meet in Madrid with Spain's prime minister, José Luis
Rodríguez Zapatero.
.
At the summit meeting in France, Kwasniewski said he hoped to discuss
Russia, Iraq and the trans-Atlantic relationship. “In my opinion, and it is
a very personal opinion, Russia has problems with all former Soviet
countries, not only in the framework of the U.S.S.R., but with us,” he said,
referring to the former East European satellites. “Russia is not ready to
propose a new chapter in its relations with all of us - the Czech Republic,
Slovakia, Poland, Romania. The relationship needs changing. I think Putin
realizes this.”
.
Kwasniewski, who is due to visit Moscow in the coming weeks, is not
willing to put Ukraine on the back burner until Putin changes track. (END)
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IHT LINK: http://www.iht.com/articles/536936.html
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.159: ARTICLE NUMBER FOUR
=======================================================
4. "TAKE FLEXIBLE STANCE, POLISH LEADER URGES USA"
A rare and impassioned plea from a close friend of the U.S.
Kwasniewski concerned about Russia and Ukraine
By Judy Dempsey, International Herald Tribune (IHT)
Neuilly Cedex, France, Thursday, September 2, 2004
WARSAW - The president of Poland, one of America's closest European
allies, has made a rare and impassioned plea to Washington to be “flexible,
open and gracious.”
.
In a veiled criticism of U.S. foreign policy, the president, Aleksander
Kwasniewski, said he did not want to see “America take the ideas of the
neoconservatives of isolationism, to have full dominance in the world and
to play a divide-and-rule policy - it is a mistake.”
.
The president's remarks were made after a long interview in which he set
out Poland's role in Europe and its relations with its eastern neighbors,
particularly Ukraine and Russia.
When asked about Iraq and the United States, the president switched to a
more reflective and personal mood. The decision to support the U.S.-led
war against Iraq, was, he says, one of the most difficult in his life. "But
I am sure it was the right decision,” he said. Asked if he has any regrets
over it, he replied: “Next question, please.”
.
With 70 per cent of Polish public opinion calling for its troops to be
brought home, Kwasniewski said he preferred to wait until Iraq had a new
government installed. “That will change the role of the troops, from
occupation to peacekeeping,” he said, implying it could be easier for other
countries to contribute soldiers while some of the Polish contingent could
come home.
.
However much the president continues to support U.S. policy, the past few
months have apparently weighed heavily on a popular public figure whose
former career as a Communist youth leader and minister took place when
Poland was sandwiched between two superpowers.
.
“America is not the first superpower we have known,” he noted. “But
sometimes, the character of a superpower is a problem, not so much for us
but for the Americans to understand they are strong enough, clever enough,
have enough influence and are creative enough to be accepted as a
superpower. But please, don't use bureaucracy to support the position of a
superpower.”
.
The criticism, however mild, was extremely rare for a country that has been
a staunch ally of the United States. Two acts - Poland's joining the EU and
the United States' imposing visa requirements on Poles - have led to some
soul-searching inside the presidential palace over the future of the
trans-Atlantic relationship.
.
Kwasniewski said that he felt hurt by the visa decision. “Of course, as a
realistic politician I understand the situation," he said. "But as a man, a
human being, a friend of America, I do not understand it. In my opinion, a
big country should be open, and sometimes more flexible, more gracious.”
.
Now that Poland is inside the EU, it sees how Europe must and should play
a greater role in trans-Atlantic security and military matters.
.
Kwasniewski apparently sees the recent decision by the United States to
withdraw tens of thousands of troops from Europe not only as signaling the
end of the cold war, but also as forcing Europe to spend more on defending
its own interests.
.
“Europe has the full right to have its own foreign and security policy,” he
said. “This policy means that it is necessary to spend more money to solve
Europe's problems, not to wait for the Americans in the Balkans, or in
Moldova, or for bringing democracy to Belarus. This is our task.”
.
He insists, however, that a more assertive Europe will not weaken the
trans-Atlantic relationship because both need each other. Referring to the
recent EU expansion to include eight formerly Communist countries, he
said, “The chances that the EU will have a more trans-Atlantic policy at 25
countries will be much stronger than at 15.” (END)
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IHT LINK: http://www.iht.com/articles/536957.html
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.159: ARTICLE NUMBER FIVE
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5. "WHY THE 'WAR ON TERROR' IS A DANGEROUS MISCONCEPTION"
False Comfort From Words of War
COMMENT & ANALYSIS: By Philip Stephens
Financial Times, London, UK, Friday, September 9, 2004
The language of politics is too often the enemy of intelligent judgment. The
simple slogan obscures more than it illuminates. Three years on from the
horrors of September 11 2001 and a week after the murderous attack on the
schoolchildren of Beslan, everyone knows what the politicians mean when
they talk about the war on terrorism. Yet for all its apparent clarity, the
phrase is a dangerous mis-description, a source of convenient self-delusion
for political leaders and of false comfort for the rest of us.
Part of the confusion arises because the word terrorism describes a tactic
rather than an enemy. The problem, though, runs deeper than this obvious
linguistic imprecision. A declaration of war invites the conclusion that it
is the sole legitimate response. Everything else has been tried and failed;
to suggest otherwise is appeasement.
Terrorists, this characterisation continues, are all the same. Eta in Spain,
Hamas on the West Bank, dissident Republicans in Northern Ireland, militants
in Kashmir and Chechen separatists in the Caucasus - all must be lumped
together with the al-Qaeda jihadists who brought down New York's twin
towers. There is good and evil, and nothing in between; no place for careful
calibrations or for political engagement.
Thus Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, declared this week that critics
of Moscow's repression in Chechnya might as well suggest Osama bin
Laden be invited for a cosy chat at the White House, asked for his demands
and then handed them: "No one has the moral right to tell us to talk to
childkillers." Instead, Mr Putin has joined America's George W. Bush in
asserting the right to launch pre-emptive attacks against the terrorists at
any time and anywhere.
At this point, I suspect that one or two of my regular correspondents will
be reaching for their keyboards . . . You Europeans have always been soft
on terrorism; you have suffered nothing like the attacks on New York and
Washington; you have never understood the difference between principle
and pragmatism; and, past experience tells me, worse.
So before I am deluged with criticism, let me be clear. The destruction of
al-Qaeda bases and the removal of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan were
necessary and right. The mistake made in that country has been a failure to
commit sufficient resources, military and financial, to complete the task
(and, incidentally, find Mr bin Laden) and to assure Afghanistan of a stable
future.
Military force, sometimes massive force, is a vital part of the struggle
against those Islamist extremists whose ambition is the destruction of
civilised values; and, yes, the aims and psychology of many of these people
put them beyond reasoned dialogue. But to say that is not to escape the
less palatable truth that terrorists are not all the same, that their
objectives differ and, unforgiveable as their tactics are, their support is
sometimes rooted in legitimate political grievance. History is a guide here.
Look around the world and people who were once labelled terrorists have
become respected political leaders in places as far apart as South Africa,
Ireland and Israel.
Mr Putin, of course, is not alone in dismissing such obvious realities.
Having coined the phrase after September 11 2001, Mr Bush has made the
war on terrorism the central plank of his campaign for re-election. With
truly breathtaking cynicism, Dick Cheney, the vice-president, has gone many
steps further. To Mr Cheney's mind, John Kerry's advocacy of a broader
strategy to fight the terrorists is tantamount to treason. If the Democratic
contender wins the November election, the vice-president said this week:
"The danger is we'll get hit again."
The truth is probably the opposite. There have been important military
victories over al-Qaeda. The combination of aggressive use of force,
improved intelligence and tighter domestic security has undoubtedly thwarted
many attacks. But in the medium to long term, such victories will dissolve
into defeats for as long as the jihadists find fertile recruiting grounds in
the Islamic world.
Emotionally, Mr Putin's words struck a chord. Who could contemplate trying
to reason with the wickedness of the terrorists in Beslan? This, though, is
a diversion. Douglas Hurd, a former British foreign secretary, explained why
in a lecture last night dedicated to the memory of Stephen Lawn, one of the
British victims of September 11 2001. "Hard power is needed to deal with
those who have already turned to murder. But soft power is essential to
prevent fresh recruits to murder . . . No steps could do more to outwit
today's terrorists than serious efforts to establish in Chechnya, Palestine
and Iraq governments which are supported, or at least accepted by, the
bulk of the population." I would add Afghanistan to that list.
This is what Mr Cheney calls treachery. But even as the death toll of
American soldiers killed in Iraq rises above 1,000, the US administration
has yet to learn the simple lesson of Falluja. That city was never a centre
of Islamist extremism. It became one because the US followed faithfully
the vice-president's dictum that force is the only answer.
I have struggled and failed to find a slogan to replace the war on
terrorism. That is because the real world demands all those challenging,
complex things - nation-building, brokering peace deals, listening and
learning, talking to past enemies, compromising - that politicians find too
difficult and voters puzzle to understand. But if we keep on talking about
a war, we are destined to lose it. (END) (philip.stephens@ft.com)
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Philip Stephens is associate editor of the Financial Times and a senior
commentator. His column appears on Tuesdays and Fridays.
He joined the newspaper in 1983 and has been the FT's economics editor,
political editor and editor of the UK edition. He is a well-known author,
commentator and broadcaster. Before joining the FT he was a correspondent
for Reuters in London and Brussels. He is the author of Politics and the
Pound (MacMillan), a study of the British government's exchange rate
management and its relations with Europe since 1979, and of Tony Blair
(Viking/Politico's), a biography of the British prime minister.
He was educated at Wimbledon College and at Oxford University, where
he took an honours degree in modern history. He is a Fulbright Fellow and
winner of the 2002 David Watt Prize for outstanding political journalism.
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.159: ARTICLE NUMBER SIX
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6. "GIVE THE CHECHENS A LAND OF THEIR OWN"
OP-ED By Richard Pipes, The New York Times
New York, New York, Thursday, September 9, 2004
The terrorist attack in Beslan in Russia's North Caucasus was not only
bloody but viciously sadistic: the children taken hostage by pro-Chechen
terrorists were denied food and drink and even forbidden to go to the
bathroom, then massacred when the siege was broken. It is proper for the
civilized world to express outrage and feel solidarity with the Russian
people. But to say this is not necessarily to agree with those - including
President Bush and President Vladimir Putin of Russia - who would equate
the massacre with the 9/11 attacks and Islamic terrorism in general.
In his post-Beslan speech, Mr. Putin all but linked the attack to global
Islam: "We have to admit that we have failed to recognize the complexity and
dangerous nature of the processes taking place in our own country and the
world in general." Reports that some of the terrorists were Arabs reinforce
that line of thinking. But the fact is, the Chechen cause and that of Al
Qaeda are quite different, and demand very different approaches in
combating them.
Terrorism is a means to an end: it can be employed for limited ends as well
as for unlimited destructiveness. The terrorists who blew up the train
station in Madrid just before the Spanish election this year had a specific
goal in mind: to compel the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq. The
Chechen case is, in some respects, analogous. A small group of Muslim
people, the Chechens have been battling their Russian conquerors for
centuries.
At the close of World War II, Stalin had the entire Chechen nation exiled to
Kazakhstan for alleged collaboration with the Nazis. Khrushchev allowed them
to return to their homeland but they continued to chafe under Russian rule.
Because Chechnya, unlike the Ukraine or Georgia, had never enjoyed the
status of a nominally independent republic under the Communists, the
Chechens were denied the right to secede from the Russian Federation after
the collapse of the Soviet Union. And so they eventually resorted to
terrorism for the limited objective of independence.
A clever arrangement secured by the Russian security chief, Gen. Alexander
Lebed, in 1996 granted the Chechens de facto sovereignty while officially
they remained Russian citizens. Peace ensued. It was broken by several
terrorist attacks on Russian soil, which the authorities blamed on the
Chechens (although many skeptics attributed them to Russian security
agencies eager to create a pretext to bring Chechnya back into the fold). A
second Chechen war began in 1999, of which there seems no end in sight.
This history makes clear how the events in Russia differ from 9/11. The
attacks on New York and the Pentagon were unprovoked and had no specific
objective. Rather, they were part of a general assault of Islamic extremists
bent on destroying non-Islamic civilizations. As such, America's war with Al
Qaeda is non-negotiable. But the Chechens do not seek to destroy Russia -
thus there is always an opportunity for compromise.
Unfortunately, Russia's leaders, and to some extent the populace, are loath
to grant them independence - in part because of a patrimonial mentality that
inhibits them from surrendering any territory that was ever part of the
Russian homeland, and in part because they fear that granting the Chechens
sovereignty would lead to a greater unraveling of their federation. The
Kremlin also does not want to lose face by capitulating to force.
The Russians ought to learn from the French. France, too, was once involved
in a bloody colonial war in which thousands fell victim of terrorist
violence. The Algerian war began in 1954 and dragged on without an end in
sight, until Charles de Gaulle courageously solved the conflict by granting
Algeria independence in 1962. This decision may have been even harder than
the choice confronting President Putin, because Algeria was much larger and
contributed more to the French economy than Chechnya does to Russia's,
and hundreds of thousands of French citizens lived there.
Until and unless Moscow follows the French example, the terrorist menace
will not be alleviated. It is as impossible to track Chechens scattered
throughout Russia as it is to intimidate the suicidal fanatics among them.
Worse, the continuation of Chechen terrorism threatens to undermine the
authority of Mr. Putin, whose landslide victory in last spring's
presidential election was in good measure due to the voters' belief that he
could contain the Chechen threat. Russians respect strong authority, and
there are new signs that Mr. Putin's inability to wield it over Chechnya
makes them wonder whether he is fit to rule them. After the school siege,
there was much muttering in the streets that under Stalin such atrocities
would not have occurred.
Unfortunately, he seems determined not to yield an inch. "We showed
weakness, and the weak are trampled upon," he said on Saturday. This
may seem like a truism to Russians, but in this case it is wrong. Russia,
the largest country on earth, can surely afford to let go of a tiny colonial
dependency, and ought to do so without delay. (END)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Richard Pipes is an emeritus professor of history at Harvard and the author
of "A Concise History of the Russian Revolution" and, most recently, of
"Vixi: The Memoirs of a Non-Belonger."
=======================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No. 159: ARTICLE NUMBER SEVEN
=======================================================
7. TRANSDNIESTER SETTLEMENT: EU NEEDS TO JOIN HANDS
WITH RUSSIA, UKRAINE, USA, OSCE, STATES TOP EU OFFICIAL
RIA NOVISTI, Moscow, Russia, Thur, September 9, 2004
BRUSSELS/CHISINAU - To promote Transdniester settlement, the
European Union needs smooth teamwork with Russia, Ukraine, the USA
and the OSCE, insists Javier Solana, CFSP-EU High Representative for
the Common Foreign and Security Policy. He made the point during a
bilateral conference in Brussels with Andrei Stratan, Moldova's Minister
of Foreign Affairs.
Current Transdniester developments are suspense-laden. It takes urgent
international efforts to retain local stability, said Petr Stoyanov, the
OSCE acting chair's ad hoc envoy, while in conference with Vasile Sova,
Moldova's Reintegration Minister, reports Mr. Sova's press service.
As the minister sees it, an international conference is necessary to
stabilise the Dniester's left bank and prevent conflict escalation. A
Moldovan stability and security pact is to be signed as soon as possible.
Consultations are to take an urgent start for a monitoring mandate of the
Moldovan-Ukrainian frontier. They are to involve Moldova, Ukraine, the
OSCE-Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe-and the
European Union.
The OSCE and the Council of Europe also ought to take part in an
international mission to appear in Moldova for Transdniester monitoring,
with special attention for the security belt. Moldova will quite soon appeal
on that score to the OSCE and the CE, added the minister. (END)
=======================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.159: ARTICLE NUMBER EIGHT
=======================================================
8. DNIESTER REGION SITUATION REQUIRES IMMEDIATE
INTERVENTION OF INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
Proposes consultations with the participation of Ukraine
ITAR-TASS, Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Sep 9, 2004
CHISINAU - The situation in the Dniester region requires the immediate
intervention of the international community, special envoy of the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Piotr Stoyanov
said in Chisinau at the meeting with Moldovan reintegration minister Vasile
Sova. The ex-Bulgarian president arrived in Moldova at the initiative of the
OSCE chairman in office, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Pasy, in order
to persuade Chisinau and Tiraspol to resume the talks on the Dniester
settlement.
The Moldovan side suggested at the meeting with the Bulgarian diplomat to
hold an international conference on the Dnieter problems and to send to
Moldova an international mission with the participation of representatives
of the OSCE and the Council of Europe to monitor the situation in the
Dniester region, reporters learned from the office of the reintegration
minister.
Chisinau also proposes consultations with the participation of Ukraine,
the OSCE and the Council of Europe to monitor the Moldovan-Ukrainian
border.
On his part, Stoyanov said he can see the reason for Chisinau’s distrust
for the present format of the talks and the hopes Chisinau links in this
connection with the United States and the European Union. He also
urges the Moldovan leadership for closer contacts with Brussels.
The situation in the Dniester region aggravated after the decision of the
Tiraspol authorities to close four Moldovan schools. Moldovan President
Vladimir Voronin then suspended Moldova’s participation in the talks on
the Dniester settlement, blaming Russia and Ukraine for supporting the
separatists. In this connection Chisinau stated the intention to invite the
European Union and the United States to act as mediators at the talks.
Russia, Ukraine and the OSCE - the mediators at the talks – condemned
Tiraspol’s for closing schools and urged the sides to settle the arising
tension at the negotiating table. The same stand is expressed in this
connection by the leaders of the United States and the EU. (END)
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ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.159: ARTICLE NUMBER NINE
=======================================================
9. CRIMEAN TATAR LEADER SAYS UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT
"MISINFORMED" ABOUT EXTREMISTS
Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian, 9 Sep 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Thursday, Sep 09, 2004
KIEV - Ukraine's Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzemilyev has denied that
radical Muslim groups are active in Crimea. Ukrainian President Leonid
Kuchma was misinformed about that, Dzemilyev added. He said that radical
Islamic groups have up to 700 supporters in Crimea but there have been no
signs of Muslim-related extremist activities in Crimea so far. The following
is the text of report by Interfax-Ukraine news agency on 9 September:
Kiev, 9 September: The leader of the Crimean Tatar Majlis [self-styled
assembly], Mustafa Dzemilyev, has denied the information about the
activities of extremist Islamic organizations in Crimea and said that
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma commented on Dzemilyev statement
to this effect because he [Kuchma] had been misinformed.
Interfax-Ukraine reported that during his visit to Crimea on Tuesday [7
September], Kuchma was asked which measures the state was taking in
connection with Dzemilyev's statement on the authorities' failure to react
to the recent arrival in Crimean of representatives of radical and extremist
Islamist groups and organizations. Kuchma said that law-enforcement agencies
were following the situation. "We are following this situation very closely
and if there is anything of this sort, which poses a threat to Ukraine,
we'll definitely take appropriate measures," Kuchma said.
On Thursday [9 September] the press service of the central headquarters of
[opposition] presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko quoted Dzemilyev as
saying that the Majlis discussed the serious situation which emerged as
supporters of non-traditional forms of Islam were trying to depose the imam
of the central mosque and appoint their own representative in defiance of
the order issued by the chairman of the spiritual directorate of Crimean
Muslims.
Dzemilyev said that he did not make such a statement. Actually, he said that
there are some 600-700 supporters of forms of Islam that do not recognize
the spiritual directorate and the leadership elected by a congress of
Crimean Muslims. "In this context, we talked about some measures that should
be taken to prevent a split in the Muslim community. In particular, it was
suggested that we should take control of mosques and bar various sectarians
from there. It was the context of our discussion. However, the media that
were present at a Majlis meeting reported this in a rather different light,"
Dzemilyev said.
"As for Leonid Kuchma's comments on my words, he had simply been
misinformed that the Majlis head talked of the existence of extremist Muslim
organizations - what do you think? My words were a bit distorted and there
was an appropriate reaction [from Kuchma]. So far, there have not been any
extremist acts on the part of non-traditional forms of Islam. But, of
course, the fact that they [Muslims] find themselves in various sorts of
sects that are not subordinated to the mufti causes us concern," Dzemilyev
said. (END)
=======================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.159: ARTICLE NUMBER TEN
=======================================================
10. UKRAINE EXPECTS TO JOIN WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION
IN 2005 STATES MINISTER OF FINANCE MYKOLA AZAROV
ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow, in English, 9 Sep 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Thursday, Sep 09, 2004
KIEV - Ukraine expects to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) in
2005. "This meets our requirements," Mykola Azarov, Ukraine's first deputy
prime minister and minister of finance, told journalists in Kiev on
Thursday [9 September].
Azarov said Russia and Kazakhstan also conduct negotiations so as to
become WTO members in 2005. Besides, Azarov pointed out, the Russian
Federation "wants to create a common economic space with the European
Union".
In view of this, "the establishment of a common economic space by Ukraine,
Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus does not run counter to the European
integration process", Azarov said
According to the data of the Ministry of the Economy and European
Integration, Ukraine has fixed more than 95 per cent of tariff items through
bilateral negotiations with the WTO member states. (END)
=======================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.159: ARTICLE NUMBER ELEVEN
=======================================================
11. "UKRAINE HONOURS CRIMEAN WAR DEAD"
The Charge of the Light Brigade has been immortalised in poetry and film
By Helen Fawkes in Ukraine, BBC NEWS, UK, Thur, September 9, 2004
CRIMEA - Events to mark the 150th anniversary of the Crimean War are
getting under way in Ukraine. The conflict, which lasted more than two
years, claimed a huge death toll. It began when Russia sent troops to the
Ottoman Empire, now Turkey.
In September 1854, Britain and France invaded the Crimea, which was then
part of Russia. This week, each of the countries involved in the war will
pay tribute to those who died. More than a million people were killed in the
war. But many of those victims died as a result of sickness and disease
rather than on the battlefield.
The poor conditions that soldiers had to put up, with as well as military
incompetence, like the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade, led to
significant changes in the way future wars were fought.
Those who died will be remembered over the next two days in Ukraine. On
Thursday, flowers will be laid on a communal grave in Sevastopol. Then on
Friday, the official memorial day dedicated to the victims of the Crimean
War, there will be a series of events.
Separate services of remembrance will be held in the Black Sea resort by
each of the countries involved in the conflict. Britain will also unveil a
new monument to its war dead in the area once used as the base camp for the
Light Brigade. Later on Friday, representatives from Britain, France, Turkey
and Russia will come together for a ceremony of reconciliation. Each country
will then lay wreaths at a monument dedicated to peace. (END)
=======================================================
ACTION UKRAINE REPORT-04, No.159: ARTICLE NUMBER TWELVE
=======================================================
12. FAMINE IN UKRAINE 1932-1933: "A HERO OF OUR TIME"
Gareth Jones, 20th-century truth-teller
By Andrew Stuttaford, The National Review
New York, New York, September 10, 2004
The notebooks - worn, creased, and drab, but haunting nonetheless - lay
carefully set out on a table in the lobby of a New York hotel. Their pages
were filled with notes, comments, and calculations, jotted and scribbled in
the cursive, spiky script once a hallmark of pre-war Britain's educated
classes.
Their author had, it seems, wandered through a dying village deep within
Stalin's gargoyle empire. "Woman came out and started crying. 'They're
killing us. In my village there used to be 300 cows and now we only have 30.
The horses have died. How can I feed us all?'" It was the Ukraine, March
1933, a land in the throes of a man-made famine, the latest murderous
chapter in Soviet social engineering. Five, six, seven million had died,
maybe more. As Khrushchev later explained, "No one was counting."
But how had these notebooks found their way to a Hilton in Manhattan?
Some years ago, in a town in Wales, an old, old lady, older than the century
in which she lived, was burgled. As a result, she moved out of her home.
When her niece, Siriol, came to clear up whatever was left, she found a
brown leather suitcase monogrammed "G.V.R.J." and, lying under a thick
layer of dust, a black tin box. Inside them were papers, letters, and, yes,
those notebooks ("nothing had been thrown away"), the last records of
Gareth Jones - "G.V.R.J." - Siriol's "jolly," brilliant Uncle Gareth, a
polyglot traveler and journalist. In 1935 he had been killed by bandits in
Manchuria, or so it was said. All that was left was grief, his writings, and
the memory of a talented man cut down far, far too soon.
Seven decades later, as I sat talking to Siriol Colley in that midtown
hotel, looking through Jones's papers, his press clippings, even his
passport, it was not difficult to get a sense of the uncle she still
mourned. Welsh to his core, he was typical of those clever, energetic
Celts who did so well in the British Empire, restless (all those visa
stamps, Warsaw, Berlin, Riga .), ambitious, and enterprising. Despite his
youth, Jones seemed to get everywhere, Zelig with a typewriter. On New
Year's Day 1935, for instance, he was in San Simeon, Kane's Xanadu itself,
side by side with William Randolph Hearst. Earlier, we find him on a plane
with Hitler ("looks like a middle-class grocer"), and, why, there he is,
smiling on the White House lawn in April 1931, standing just behind a
hopeless, hapless Herbert Hoover.
Above all, this man who reportedly charmed his captors in Manchuria by
singing them hymns, was what the Welsh call "chapel": pious, hardworking,
teetotal, a little priggish, and armed with a sense of right and wrong so
fierce that it gave him the strength to report the truth of what he saw, at
the cost, if need be, of his career and, some would say, his life. Jones's
politics were typically chapel too, steeped as they were in the Liberal
traditions of Welsh Nonconformism. Ornery, high-minded, pacifist,
egalitarian, a touch goofy, a little bit utopian, Jones was just the sort of
Westerner who might have been attracted to the Soviet experiment. And
so he was - initially. In a 1933 article for the London Daily Express, Jones
recalled how "the idealism of the Bolsheviks impressed me . . . the courage
of the Bolsheviks impressed me . . . the internationalism of the Bolsheviks
impressed me," but "then," he added, "I went to Russia."
A WITNESS
And there, for Jones, everything changed. His accounts of his visits to the
USSR (the first was in 1930) are a chronicle of mounting disillusion.
Reading them now, particularly the occasional attempts to highlight some
Soviet achievement or other, it's easy to see that this young Welsh liberal,
this believer, wanted to trust in Moscow's promise of a radiant future, but
Communist reality - dismal, savage, and hopeless - kept intruding. Unlike
many who came to inspect the people's paradise, he reported on its dark
side too. For Jones, there was no choice. It was the truth, you see.
By the autumn of 1932, Jones was sounding the alarm ("Will There Be Soup?"
and "Russia Famished Under the Five-Year Plan") about the catastrophe to
come: "The food is not there." Early the next year, he returned to Moscow to
check the situation for himself, took a train to the Ukraine, and then
walked out into the wrecked, desperate countryside. Once back in the West,
he wasted no time, not even waiting to get back home before telling an
American journalist in Berlin what he had seen: Millions were dying.
Soviet denials were to be expected. That they were supported by the New
York Times was not. The newspaper's Moscow correspondent, Walter
Duranty, reassured his readers that Jones had been exaggerating. The
Welshman was, he condescended, "a man of a keen and active mind . . .
but [his] judgment was somewhat hasty . . . It appeared that he had made
a forty-mile walk through villages in the neighborhood of Kharkhov and
found conditions sad." Sad -not much of an adjective, really, to describe
genocide.
The Times's man, who had won a Pulitzer the previous year for "the
scholarship, profundity, impartiality, sound judgment and exceptional
clarity" of his reporting from the Soviet Union, did not share Jones's sense
of "impending doom." Yes, "to put it brutally," omelettes could not be made
without breaking eggs, but there had been "no actual starvation or deaths
from starvation." Duranty came, he claimed, to this conclusion only after
"exhaustive enquiries about this alleged famine situation," but other
discussions probably influenced him more.
The big story in Moscow in the spring of 1933 - bigger by far than the death
of a few million unfortunate peasants - was the pending show trial of six
British engineers. Courtroom access and other cooperation from Soviet
officialdom would be essential for any foreign journalist wanting to satisfy
the news desk back home. That would come at a price. The price was Jones.
Eugene Lyons, another American journalist in Moscow at the time, later
explained that "throwing down Jones was as unpleasant a chore as fell to any
of us in years of juggling facts to please dictatorial regimes - but throw
him down we did, unanimously and in almost identical formulas of
equivocation. Poor Gareth Jones must have been the most surprised human
being alive when the facts he so painstakingly garnered . . . were snowed
under by our denials." According to Lyons (not always, admittedly, the most
reliable of witnesses, but the essence of his tale rings true), a deal was
struck at a meeting between members of the American press corps and
Konstantin Umansky, the chief Soviet censor. "There was much bargaining
in a spirit of gentlemanly give-and-take . . . before a formula of denial
was worked out. We admitted enough to soothe our consciences, but in
round-about phrases that damned Jones as a liar. The filthy business having
been disposed of, someone ordered vodka and zakuski." Spinning a famine
was, apparently, thirsty work.
Undaunted by the attacks on his accuracy, Jones intensified his efforts.
There were articles in the Daily Express, the Financial Times, the Western
Mail, the London Evening Standard, the Berliner Tageblatt, as well as a
lengthy letter to the Manchester Guardian in support of Malcolm Muggeridge,
who had, like Jones, told the truth about the famine and, like Jones, been
vilified in return (suggestions that there was starvation in the USSR were,
said George Bernard Shaw, "offensive and ridiculous"). In a letter published
by the New York Times in May 1933, Jones hit back at Walter Duranty. The
reports of widespread famine were, he wrote, based not only on what he had
seen in the villages of the Ukraine, but also on extensive conversations
with other eyewitnesses, diplomats, and journalists.
After a few polite remarks about Duranty's "kindness and helpfulness," the
tone turned contemptuous. Directly quoting from Duranty's own dispatches,
Jones charged that censorship had turned some journalists into "masters of
euphemism and understatement . . . [They] give 'famine' the polite name of
'food shortage' and 'starving to death' is softened down to read as
'widespread mortality from diseases due to malnutrition.' . . . Mr. Duranty
says that I saw in the villages no dead human beings nor animals. That is
true, but one does not need a particularly nimble brain to grasp that even
in the Russian famine districts the dead are buried . . . [T]he dead animals
are devoured."
Moscow responded by barring Jones from the USSR. He was cut off for
good from the site of the story he had made his own. Duranty received a
rather different reward. Some months later he accompanied the Soviet
foreign minister on a trip to America, a journey that was to culminate in
FDR's decision to extend diplomatic recognition to the Communist regime,
a decision that was fêted, fêted in that famine year, with a celebration
dinner at New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel, at which Duranty was
honored with cheers and a standing ovation. On Christmas Day 1933
came the greatest prize of all - an interview with Stalin himself. Well, of
course. It was a reward for work well done. Duranty had, said the dictator,
"done a good job in . . . reporting the USSR."
INTO ASIA
But history had not yet finished with Gareth Jones. The young Welshman
possessed, explained David Lloyd George, the former prime minister for whom
Jones had, some years before, worked as an aide, "a passion for finding out
what was happening in foreign lands wherever there was trouble, and in
pursuit of his investigations he shrank from no risk." So, it's no surprise
to find him in Japan in early 1935, interviewing, questioning, snooping, and
perhaps attracting the sort of attention that could turn out to be fatal. By
July that year he was heading through the increasing chaos of northern China
toward Japanese-controlled Manchuria (Manchukuo).
On July 26, Jones updated the narrative he was writing for the last time. He
was, he wrote, "witnessing the changeover of a big district from China to
Manchukuo. There are barbed-wire entanglements just outside the hotel.
There are two roads . . . [O]ver one 200 Japanese lorries have traveled; the
other is infested by bad bandits." Two days later, the bandits struck. Jones
was kidnapped. He was murdered two weeks later. It was the eve of his
30th birthday.
We will probably never know who was ultimately responsible for Jones's
death. There had been a ransom demand, and so, perhaps, this was just a
kidnapping that went horribly wrong. There are, however, other
possibilities. The Japanese would certainly not have welcomed a Westerner
watching the takeover of yet another Chinese province, and there is some
evidence that the kidnappers were under their control. It's also intriguing
to discover that one of Jones's contacts in those final days was linked to a
company now known to have been a front for the NKVD, Stalin's secret police.
To Lloyd George, only one thing was clear: "Gareth Jones knew too much."
And if he knew too much, the rest of the world understood too little. For
decades, like the dead whose story he told, this lost witness to a genocide
seemed doomed to be forgotten, a family tragedy, a footnote, but now that's
changing. Jones is at last returning to view, thanks in no small part to the
efforts of the indefatigable Siriol Colley, the author of a book about her
uncle - and a second is on the way. (Colley's son Nigel has also set up a
website: www.colley.co.uk/garethjones/index.html.)
One thing, however, has not changed. On December 4 last year, not long after
the Pulitzer committee decided that Duranty should retain his prize, Colley
wrote to the New York Times asking whether the paper could at least issue a
public apology for the way in which its Moscow correspondent had smeared
Jones. She's still waiting. (END)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Stuttaford is a contributing editor of National Review Online.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOOTNOTE: I discovered the new website about Gareth Jones, created
by his relatives Siriol Colley and her son Nigel Colley, over three years
ago. I was looking for material about the 1932-1933 genocidal famine in
Soviet Ukraine to post on my website http://www.ArtUkraine.com. Being
100% Welch myself and being totally involved with Ukrainian matters I
immediately contacted Siriol and Nigel Colley in the UK. I then started
spreading the word throughout the Ukrainian community about the
outstanding historical work being done by the Colley's.
It has been a pleasure working with the Colley's, James Mace, Russ
Chelak (who contacted The National Review), Cheryl Madden, and
others these past three years. We have worked together to provide
information about the horrible events in Soviet Ukraine in the early
1930's and the very important role Gareth Jones played in the spring
of 1933 in exposing the genocidal famine, which murdered millions of
Ukrainians, and providing the real truth to the world through his writings
and speeches. The Colley's are now writing a major biography of Gareth
Jones which is expected to be published in 2005. Stay tuned. (EDITOR)
========================================================
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Discussion and Personal Purposes Only
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PUBLISHER AND EDITOR
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(UFA); Coordinator, The Action Ukraine Coalition (AUC);
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"POWER TENDS TO CORRUPT,
ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY"
An observation that a person's sense of morality lessens as his or
her power increases. The statement was made by Lord Acton, British
historian of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
True then, true today, true always.
========================================================
THE ACTION UKRAINE COALITION
"Working to Secure Ukraine's Future"
========================================================