Parliaments of Ukraine and Poland pass resolution on painful events of 1943-1944 (07/13/03)

Parliaments of Ukraine and Poland pass resolution on painful events of 1943-1944

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - As the presidents of Poland and Ukraine prepared to fly to the Volyn Oblast of Ukraine on July 11 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of a series of bloody massacres in the region by antagonistic armed groups representing the two nations, their respective Parliaments passed identical resolutions in which they condemned the events, but refrained from assessing blame to either side.

The joint resolutions came after weeks of public and media debate within both countries, which at times had reached heated intensity - especially in western Ukraine and eastern Poland, where ethnic friction is still easily stoked - on who was to blame for the tragic events and how to properly commemorate them.

On July 10, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada and Poland's Sejm approved carefully crafted documents commemorating the violent bloodshed of 1943-1944, during which tens of thousands of innocent ethnic Ukrainians and Poles were killed by armed groups, actions believed to have involved members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the Polish Armija Krajowa (AK), two bitterly rival partisan groups active in the region during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine and the period after the German retreat. The documents call the period tragic for both the Ukrainian and Polish nations.

"There is no excuse for terror, violence and cruelty," reads the document. "The truth regarding those dramatic years is painful for everybody, but Poles and Ukrainians must recognize this. Let the ability to forgive become the foundation of our future good-neighborly relations and Ukrainian-Polish friendship."

The Verkhovna Rada passed the resolution first by a vote of 227-25, with 423 lawmakers registered for the session.

An inter-parliamentary committee consisting of representatives of both countries' legislatures painfully pieced together the document on the Volyn tragedy, as the events of that time are commonly called. The two sides gave up strongly held convictions to find wording that would be amenable to both, explained Ukrainian National Deputy Serhii Bychkov, vice-chairman of the Ukrainian-Polish Inter-parliamentary Assembly.

"At the beginning there were many proposals that were obviously not acceptable to the other side," Mr. Bychkov told the newspaper Den in an interview on how agreement on the resolution evolved. "For example, at first the Polish side insisted that UPA fighters take the majority of the blame for the Volyn tragedy. It is important to note that during negotiations the Polish side held the more inflexible attitudes."

Mr. Bychkov also noted that initially the Polish legislators wanted to include provocative terminology such as "ethnic cleansing" and "genocide" in addressing the actions by Ukrainian freedom fighters. For their part, the Ukrainian delegation demanded removal of terminology referring to the UPA as "Ukrainian military formations" as the UPA was not a government sanctioned unit.

With time, both sides began to bend toward common understanding and language. In what is undoubtedly a crucial part of the resolution they agreed on wording that states: "The tragedy of the Poles, who were killed and forced from their homes by armed Ukrainian formations, was accompanied by similar suffering by the peaceful Ukrainian population, who were victims of actions by armed Poles."

The unusual agreement to synchronize approval of the two resolutions on the same day came from an agreement by the chairmen of the two parliaments, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn and Sejm Marshall Marek Borowski. The final wording could be approved only after the two Parliament leaders held an unplanned noontime telephone conversation during a break in the sessions of both legislatures. The need for further conferencing came after fiery debate in both Parliaments gave reason to believe the resolution might not hold up to a vote.

Afterwards, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Lytvyn extolled his colleagues to throw aside proposals by some lawmakers to further tweak the language.

"Mr. Borowski just told me that the Polish lawmakers have concluded their debate and will vote on the resolution as it currently reads," explained Mr. Lytvyn. "He said they had many more proposals to change the wording than we have had, and they were much more radical."

Pope John Paul II, who was born in Poland, also got involved by sending greetings to the Ukrainian and Polish nations on their effort to resolve the historic issue. The message was sent through Papal Nuncio Mykola Eterovych, who forwarded it to the Ukrainian and Polish Ministries of Foreign Affairs. In it the pope encouraged "the two nations in seeking cooperation and peace."

"I sincerely greet all the bishops, the priesthood and believers of Ukraine and Poland and, with due respect to the presidents and state authorities of the two countries and the Polish and Ukrainian people, wish ongoing progress in attaining peace and harmony," stated Pope John Paul II in his message.

The presidents of the two countries were to commemorate the tragedy on July 11 in the Volyn region. That day Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine and Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland were to take part in prayer services in the Catholic and Orthodox churches of the village of Pavlivka (formerly Porytsk), before unveiling a memorial to the victims of the Volyn tragedy and issuing their own joint statement on the matter.

In their remarks, both leaders planned to state that the number of deaths on each side was much less important than the need to forgive and ask forgiveness, reported the newspaper Den.

Most experts agree that in 1943-1944 rival Ukrainian and Polish paramilitary groupings massacred each other's ethnic populations en masse, with Polish forces accounting for around 20,000 Ukrainian deaths and Ukrainian formations taking up to 100,000 Polish lives.

The actions were the culmination of long-held antagonisms in an area that is historically overwhelmingly Ukrainian in ethnic composition but for decades remained under the iron-fisted rule of the Polish state. Many historians argue that the Nazis, who occupied the area, or the Soviet underground, which remained active there, had a decidedly destabilizing influence in spurring the sides to bloodletting.

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