EDITORIAL: Language politics, again (07/02/00)

EDITORIAL

Language politics, again

The language question has suddenly become a hot issue again in Ukraine. This in the wake of the killing of the popular composer Ihor Bilozir in Lviv by two young thugs who apparently objected to the fact that he and his friends were singing Ukrainian songs in a Lviv cafe. According to Ukrainian news media reports, the two men had heckled the Bilozir party and, later that night, assaulted Mr. Bilozir in a nearby square. As a result, the composer languished in a coma for several weeks before dying of his injuries.

There was outrage in Lviv and across Ukraine over the beating. Why should anyone be assaulted for using the Ukrainian language? Or any language for that matter?

Then, when Mr. Bilozir died on May 28, there were outbursts of violence and demands that the Russian language be banned.

And then came reaction from Russia. Interfax reported on June 7 that Russia's Foreign Ministry had sent a note to Ukraine's Embassy in Moscow, expressing concern over "the continued anti-Russian escapades of radical right-wing forces in Ukraine" and charging that radical nationalists in Lviv organize rallies under slogan such as "Beat the Muscovites."

However, other sources told The Weekly that reports of rampages and mass protests in Lviv were way overblown. That, yes, there was civil unrest in Lviv - some of it indeed anti-Russian - and that there was a mass demonstration of 3,000 persons who marched in Lviv, but that violence and vandalism was the work of small bands acting independently and was not in any way an organized citywide action. In fact, tens of thousands of Lviv residents participated in Mr. Bilozir's funeral on May 30, and as RFE/RL reported, "the ceremony was well-organized and passed without incident."

Several weeks later, on June 19 and 20, Lviv city and oblast officials issued rulings that limit the use of the Russian language. The Lviv Oblast Council passed a resolution re-affirming Ukrainian as the national language of the region, and issued a directive that mandates the use of the Ukrainian language in all business documents and states that the language is to be used in public catering, trade, transport and public recreation. The City Council placed a temporary moratorium on the broadcasting and playing of Russian-language songs on Lviv's streets and squares, as well as on public transportation.

Both the murder and the language bans are inconceivable. Both are wrong.

That today someone should die over the language issue is not acceptable. The persons responsible for the murder of Ihor Bilozir must be tried and punished.

That Ukrainian authorities in independent, democratically inclined Ukraine would issue any ban on the use of the Russian language is unconstitutional.

After all, the Constitution of Ukraine adopted on June 28, 1996, was designed to transform Ukraine into a democratic, law-governed state and to build a new post-Soviet social order in which human rights and civil liberties are guaranteed to all. Furthermore, although the Constitution states that the official language is Ukrainian and stipulates that "The state ensures the comprehensive development of and use of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of social life on the entire territory of Ukraine," the fundamental law also guarantees the "free development" of the Russian language and other languages spoken by Ukraine's citizens.

To be sure, the Ukrainian language has not exactly been reborn in independent Ukraine and the Ukrainian government has not done all it could have/should have to support the state language. The Ukrainian market is full of Russian-language books, videos and recordings; newspaper kiosks abound with Russian newspapers; and Ukrainian television is largely filled with Russian TV programs.

Ivan Drach, Ukraine's minister of communications, told the Christian Science Monitor this week that "Ukrainian is a dying language in its own motherland. ...The saturation of media from Russia leads to the domination of the Russian political mentality here, and this undermines Ukraine's independence." He said he is supporting tax breaks for Ukrainian publishing, imposition of content quotas for broadcasters, and a requirement that civil servants speak Ukrainian. "What we seek is only fairness, to even the playing field," Mr. Drach explained.

What Ukraine must do at this time of increased tension over the language issue is, first of all, reaffirm and defend the freedoms and rights of all its citizens, put a stop to any manifestations of ethnic enmity, and push ahead with a program that supports the Ukrainian language while not curtailing the rights constitutionally guaranteed to all ethnic groups and languages. Then it will succeed in maintaining its record as a state that nurtures and protects all its people.

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