KGB Blackmails Parents of Young Political Prisoner (12/31/77)

KGB Blackmails Parents of Young Political Prisoner

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Repressions against members of the opposition movement behind the Iron Curtain do not end with the arrest of these individuals. Oftentimes, harassment continues inside the prisons or concentration camps, while the KGB inveighs repressive tactics against the dissidents' families.

Recently the press service of the Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council (abroad) received a letter written by Stepan Sapelak, a 27-year-old Ukrainian political prisoner, to Yuri Andropov, KGB chief, protesting secret police harassment of his mother, Hanna.

Sapelak was born in the village of Rosokhach in the Chortkiv region of the Ternopil oblast. He was arrested in 1973 for allegedly tearing down Soviet flags and raising blue and yellow Ukrainian flags. Sapelak was also accused of collecting Ukrainian folk songs whose themes glorified the Ukrainian national movement. He was sentenced to five years incarceration and three years exile.

The press service said that probable harassment of Sapelak's mother was suggested in the July 1977, no. 31 edition of "News from Ukraine," which carried a letter from Mrs. Sapelak to Ursula Dorman of West Germany. It seems that Mrs. Dorman wanted to help the young Sapelak, but his mother refused all aid, saying that he is being "justly punished for a grave crime."

The press service said that Mrs. Sapelak's letter resembled a letter allegedly written by the mother of the late Ukrainian poet, Vasyl Symonenko, protesting against Western interest in her son's case.

Sapelak, in his letter, denied all KGB attempts to implicate his parents in his case.

He said that it is absurd to think that his parents are interested in politics.

"My mother is 48 years old, and completed two grades of schooling. She works on a collective farm raising sugar beets. Her monthly salary is 42 rubles. My father is a common laborer, and his monthly salary is 50 rubles. He is illiterate. The most elementary provisions have been denied my parents," wrote Sapelak on June 8, 1977. "My parents' sole goal in life is a slice of bread."

He said that his parents were obsolved of all complicity in his case by the initial investigation, but nonetheless, "immediately following my arrest, repressions began against them and have continued until this day."

Sapelak said that the KGB began harassing his mother after the Ternopil KGB agents discovered that he is greatly concerned about his mother's well being.

In March 1973, a Col. Smirnov interrogated Mrs. Sapelak, wrote her son, and he suggested to her that she renounce her son. They threatened to exile her to Siberia if she did not comply.

Sapelak wrote that letters he sent to his mother have been intercepted and correspondence from his mother was delayed by camp officials.

One letter from his mother, which was dated June 28, 1976, and given to him on August 4, 1976, she advised her son not to use the word "Ukraine" on the envelope.

"My dear son, do not write on the envelope the word Ukraine! Glory to Jesus Christ (Slava Isusu Khrystu). Because letters will not be forwarded to us," wrote his mother.

Sapelak said that he had heard previously of this warning not to use Ukraine on the envelopes.

In May 1977, his mother was again interrogated by the KGB. This time they threatened her with imprisonment if she does not cease corresponding with people in the West who sympathize with his family.

"Frightened and terrorized, my mother now lives in utter fear, not only for me, but also for herself," wrote Sapelak. "The Ternopil KGB continues to scare the illiterate old woman only because her son was arrested for his political convictions".

Sapelak said that harassment is receiving approval from the Moscow KGB and he requested that Andropov instruct his agents in Ternopil to cease this activity.

A day before writing to Andropov, Sapelak addressed a letter to the prosecutor-general of the Soviet Union, accusing the camp officials of not sending his protest to Leonid Brezhnev.

Sapelak also protested against harassment by Major Fedorov. The young prisoner of conscience wrote that Fedorov, in a loud and vulgar tone, ordered Sapelak to do work which he is not able to because of his illness. Sapelak refused to heed the order, and Fedorov warned him that he can be denied all of his rights.

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