Tykhy attempts self-immolation (12/30/79)

Tykhy attempts self-immolation

MOSCOW, USSR. - Oleksa Tykhy, a founding member of the Kiev Helsinki monitoring group, attempted to commit suicide on Wednesday, December 19, by setting himself on fire, Reuters reported.

Dr. Andrei Sakharov told foreign correspondents over the telephone that it is not known whether Tykhy, 50, is still alive.

He said the attempt at self-immolation apparently took place in a isolation cell in the Mordovian labor camp where Tykhy is serving a 10-year sentence.

The "Smoloskyp" Ukrainian Information Service reported that Tykhy tried to set himself on fire in protest to conditions in the camp and the medical treatment he was receiving from the camp "doctors."

Tykhy, a teacher, was arrested February 5, 1977, and sentenced July 1 of that year to 10 years' imprisonment and five years' exile for "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda."

Since February 1978 he has been confined in Mordovian Camp No. 1, where he has staged several hunger strikes in protest to conditions there.

He announced his latest hunger strike in April. In the fall it was learned that his state of health had deteriorated markedly, and he was transferred to the camp hospital. Tykhy is suffering from stomach ulcers.

Tykhy had served a sentence for his alleged anti-Soviet activities prior to his 1977 arrest.

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