UCCLA reacts to Koziy developments (02/18/96)

UCCLA reacts to Koziy developments

TORONTO - Ukraine's Security Service announced on February 2 that it would be collaborating with the Wiesenthal Center in tracking down Ukrainians who allegedly helped the Nazis devastate Ukraine during World War II. A spokesperson for Ukraine's Security Service, Anatoly Sakhno, indicated that the government is closely studying the case of alleged Nazi war criminal Bohdan Koziy.

Apparently, Efraim Zuroff, a director of the Wiesenthal Center in Israel, recently visited Costa Rica, where Mr. Koziy, now 73, fled with his wife from the U.S. in 1984, rather than face an Office of Special Investigations deportation order to the USSR. Mr. Zuroff wants the government of Costa Rica to declare Mr. Koziy an undesirable alien and for Ukraine to demand his extradition.

Noted Ukrainian political activist and writer Ivan Drach condemned the proposed collaboration between Ukraine's Security Service and the Wiesenthal Center, noting that "this is an old story...dating from the time when the Soviet secret services, especially the KGB, tried to make scapegoats out of [the Ukrainian nationalists]...by tarring Ukrainian nationalists as Nazi collaborators." But the government in Kyiv seems intent on pursing this case and perhaps others.

Speaking out on this issue, John B. Gregorovich, chairman of the UCCLA, said:

"It is most regrettable that the government of Ukraine, which has never established a Commission of Inquiry into Soviet war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine, despite our formal request, in 1992, that they do so and our offer of assistance, would now be collaborating with the Wiesenthal Center and the OSI. Neither has a particularly objective attitude on the issue of bringing alleged Nazis to justice, and both seem utterly indifferent to tracking down and punishing Soviet war criminals."

He added: "The government of Ukraine, if it wishes to continue enjoying the support of our diaspora, should concentrate its limited resources on finding the Soviet villains who remain alive in today's Ukraine or hiding amongst us in the West, be it in Canada, the U.S.A., Western Europe or Israel. There are plenty of self-styled 'Nazi-hunters' around, even if there aren't many, if any, actual Nazis left unpunished. Astoundingly, there are no governments or institutions tracking down the Soviet mass murderers."

The Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association said it intends to meet with Ukraine's new ambassador to Canada, Volodymyr Furkalo, to protest against the apparent selectivity of Ukraine's interest in bringing only Nazi war criminals to justice and to brief the ambassador on the Ukrainian community's concern.

The UCCLA's chairman said he also hopes to meet with Ukraine's Minister of Justice Serhiy Holovaty, when the latter visits Canada in April of this year.

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