LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (07/25/99)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Thanks and credit to Canadian activists

Dear Editor:

My involvement in the effort to make the Canadian Press (CP) retract and correct a highly misleading headline ("Canadian Press retracts defamatory headline," July 18) was more followership than leadership.

I had been alerted to the CP headline's defamatory character by Volodymyr Halchuk, who was first made aware of it by Eugene Cholkan. I came in on the rebound as it were, distressed (like other Ukrainian Canadians who wrote to protest) by the online news story. By then Mr. Cholkan had already lodged a written complaint, alerted community leaders and kick-started a process that led to the formal retraction by the CP.

I was sorry Mr. Cholkan's name had gone unmentioned in Andrij Wynnyckyj's report, although I certainly accept that its omission was in no way intentional. I mention it now to give credit where credit's due.

I was, pleased, however, that Mr. Halchuk and Lubomyr Luciuk were hailed for their efforts. Their defense of the honor and interests of Canada's Ukrainian community has been ongoing for many years now, and we owe them both a debt of gratitude for their dedication.

Orest Slepokura
Strathmore, Alberta

UCSJ responds to Kuropas column

Dear Editor:

Myron Kuropas' commentary "Ukraine-bashing continues" (June 13) presents a skewed picture of the important work being done by Jewish organizations around the world and undermines efforts to work cooperatively to promote democracy, rule of law and human rights in Ukraine.

Dr. Kuropas' argument appears to be based on hostility to American Jewish organizations that he does not seem to know much about. For example, the proper names of the two main American Jewish organizations that he criticized - the National Conference on Soviet Jewry and the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) were misidentified in his article.

At the same time, Dr. Kuropas repeats the typical Soviet and post-Soviet claim that American Jewish organizations' "livelihood depends on perpetuating the notion that Jews are threatened. No threat, no organization, no jobs." This is an inaccurate description of the history and activities of these organizations.

The UCSJ is a grassroots American Jewish human rights organization, which has eight human rights and rule of law bureaus in the former Soviet Union, including a Ukrainian bureau in Lviv. Together with local groups, the UCSJ has monitored human rights, and inter-ethnic and interreligious relations for almost 30 years. Throughout its history the UCSJ has supported Ukrainian rights activists and struggled against the Soviet authorities on behalf of Lukianenko, Chornovil, Khmara, Stus, Plyushch, Marchenko and many other dissidents. These efforts were undertaken together with Ukrainian grassroots organizations and activists in Ukraine, as well as the United States.

The UCSJ certainly acknowledges that much has improved in Ukraine since the end of the Soviet period. New opportunities include the possibility for Jews to establish their own organizations, synagogues, schools, and other religious and cultural institutions. The national government has also ended most manifestations of state anti-Semitism.

However, the Council of Europe recently correctly concluded that the human rights situation is worsening when it compares today's human rights situation in Ukraine with how they should be in a democratic country, not with the Soviet past. Unfortunately, Ukraine continues to have many serious human rights problems that require the attention of the human rights community. The court system is ineffective and rule of law is largely absent in the country. Among other problem areas are: restrictions on the rights of minorities and religious organizations, expressions of anti-Semitism by chauvinistic groups such as UNA-UNSO and the Russian National Unity, desecration of Jewish cemeteries and other sites, and slow-paced restitution of Jewish communal property.

The UCSJ sees its work reporting on anti-Semitism and other human rights abuses in Ukraine as an effort to contribute to Ukraine's future as a democratic state that fully defends the rights of all its citizens, including its minority populations.

Our hope is that Dr. Kuropas and the readers of The Ukrainian Weekly will join with us in this crucial effort.

Dr. Leonid Stonov
Chicago

The writer is director, International Human Rights Bureaus in the FSU, Union of Councils for Soviet Jews.

Perhaps a Ukraine without Ukrainians?

Dear Editor:

There are a number of contentious insights offered by Mykola Ryabchuk in his presentation "A Future Ukraine: one nation, two languages, three cultures?" (June 6).

In one sense, he continues the process of dispelling our illusions by illustrating Ukraine as a predominantly Russophone state controlled by a Russophilic elite. His recommendation is for some amorphous form of "affirmative action," in favor of Ukrainianization, to be implemented by the government. This, in my view, is a pipe dream - witness the performance of so-called government in the so-called independent Ukraine for the past eight years.

What I find more troubling is Mr. Ryabchuk's identification of the Ukrainian nationalist position as "extreme." He also places Ukrainian "nationalist" (but not Russian nationalist) policies in quotation marks, implying them to be either bogus or ridiculous. But is it so ridiculous to claim that Ukraine is being run by an "anti-Ukrainian" government?

There is, of course, the Estonian model for Ukraine to emulate, but if Ukrainians are, as Mr. Ryabchuk claims, "terribly frightened by any confrontation," then the scenario of "Ukraine without Ukrainians" remains a distinct possibility.

Yuriy Hanas
Hamilton, Ontario

The Ukrainian Weekly welcomes letters to the editor and commentaries on a variety of topics of concern to the Ukrainian American and Ukrainian Canadian communities. Opinions expressed by columnists, commentators and letter-writers are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of either The Weekly editorial staff or its publisher, the Ukrainian National Association.

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