Vice Prime Minister for Humanitarian Affairs Mykola Zhulynskyi visits North America (07/16/00)

Vice Prime Minister for Humanitarian Affairs Mykola Zhulynskyi visits North America

by Irene Jarosewich

NEW YORK - Visiting four cities in seven days, Mykola Zhulynskyi, Ukraine's vice prime minister for humanitarian affairs, traveled to Washington, Philadelphia, New York and Toronto on June 30 - July 7 for meetings with government officials and Ukrainian American and Ukrainian Canadian representatives and communities.

Traveling with the vice prime minister was his wife, Halyna Zhulynskyi, head of the largest credit union association in Ukraine, who was in the United States to participate in the Ukrainian National Credit Union Association's annual meeting on June 29-July 1 in Philadelphia.

Officially a guest of the Toronto-based Ukrainian World Congress, Dr. Zhulynskyi met with U.S. legislators in Washington on June 30 and with Ukrainian Embassy officials, was the featured speaker on July 1 at a banquet in Philadelphia held in conjunction with the Ukrainian Diaspora Olympiad, and in New York on July 5 met with the officers and crew of the Ukrainian naval ship Slavutych, which was docked in New York harbor after participating in the July 4 International Naval Review 2000. Dr. Zhulynskyi also dined aboard the ship with a U.S. delegation, headed by Jerry MacArthur Hultin, undersecretary of the Navy, and Rear Admiral Henry G. Ulrich III, who came aboard the Ukrainian ship with an official visit.

Also in New York, Dr. Zhulynskyi met with a small group of people at the Consulate General of Ukraine and that evening spoke before a community gathering at the Ukrainian National Home.

In Toronto on July 6-7, Dr. Zhulynskyi also met with members of the Ukrainian community, as well as with Canadian government officials, representatives of the Ukrainian World Congress and Ukrainian Canadian Congress, officials from the Ukrainian Embassy and Consulate, and members of the board of directors of the Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Center.

In his presentation before the community in New York, which was organized by the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) and the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council (UACC), Dr. Zhulynskyi, who was on his fifth trip to the United States, noted his feelings of deep gratitude to America for its support for Ukraine in general and, in particular, for being a generous second homeland to his father (Dr. Zhulynskyi's father, now 93, has lived in upstate New York for many years).

"I also feel an enormous sense of responsibility before the diaspora," he noted, "that has worked so long and hard for a successful, independent Ukraine and greeted independence with joy and high expectations." It is the frustration of unfulfilled expectations that has fueled much criticism of Ukraine, he added, criticism that, he feels, has become one-sided.

"At the time of independence, not everyone could judge the situation realistically," he said, " and I, too, belong to those who believed that we could, and would, easily make changes. But reality was, and is, more complex and I realize that many have become disappointed. ... In fact, we have today that which we did not, but should have, expected - a disorderly democracy (neoporiadkovana demokratiia), a defunct economy, a citizenry that is not united and immense ecological problems, Chornobyl notwithstanding. ... The question should not be, 'Why hasn't this and this happened?' but should be 'How does this country hang on?'" he continued. He added that, despite enormous problems, Ukraine has accomplished a great deal.

Citing growing cooperation between the government and Parliament, as well as increasing trust by Ukraine's population in the government of Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko, Dr. Zhulynskyi outlined positive changes in the economy, the banking system and agriculture. Ukraine's current energy crisis is the country's worst problem, he said, and he criticized Minister of Energy Serhii Tulub, who recently resigned, for opposing reforms proposed by Vice Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, commenting that "there are strong forces behind Tulub who oppose transparency and openness in the energy sector, since they will lose control and money."

Dr. Zhulynskyi spoke briefly about the new proposed law on language that the government developed and approved on June 21 and that now needs to be considered by the Parliament. The proposed law specifically outlines mechanisms for enforcing the use of Ukrainian as the official language, including at all government levels and functions, and the requirement that final exams for university degrees must be taken in Ukrainian.

In early June Dr. Zhulynskyi had traveled with a small delegation of Ukrainian national deputies and government officials to Constantinople for a meeting with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (Dr. Zhulynskyi held his first meeting with the ecumenical patriarch in 1993). According to Dr. Zhulynskyi, the desire to meet was mutual on the part of the government of Ukraine and the ecumenical patriarch; the major topic of discussion was the granting of recognition to an autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The patriarch indicated that he is willing to mediate discussions among the three Orthodox Churches in Ukraine in an effort to unite them into one, and supports an autocephalous Ukrainian Church with its own patriarch.

Among the items that Dr. Zhulynskyi stated that he planned to discuss with representatives of Ukrainian organizations while in North America was a memorandum of understanding concerning relations between the diaspora and the government of Ukraine, a topic, he noted, that he has already discussed with Askold Lozynskyj, president of both the Ukrainian World Congress and the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America.

Other points of discussion included plans for celebrating the 10th anniversary of Ukraine's independence. Among the ideas that have been proposed and are under review are the "first world festival of Ukrainians in the diaspora," a monument to independence in Independence Square in Kyiv, a monument to victims of political repression and an international conference on the ethnocide of Ukrainians.

Andrew Lastowecky, an officer of the UACC and one of the evening's co-chairs, thanked Dr. Zhulynskyi on behalf of the sponsoring organizations. Then, speaking on behalf of himself, Mr. Lastowecky expressed support for many of the proposed ideas, noting, however, that these ideas, as well as any memorandum of understanding, could have been more widely discussed, for greater input from a broad spectrum of the diaspora, during the recent meeting of the Ukrainian World Coordinating Council in Kyiv in May, during which Mykhailo Horyn was elected the new UWCC president (see story on page 1), and at which representatives from diaspora organizations and communities worldwide were present.

During the evening Dr. Zhulynskyi presented awards issued by the Cabinet of Ministers and signed by Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko to Mr. Lozynskyj, Walter Baranetsky and Roman Voronka for their "many years of selfless work on behalf of the Ukrainian community in America and for the good of an independent Ukraine."

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