Ukrainian World Congress meets in Kyiv (08/24/03)

Ukrainian World Congress meets in Kyiv

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Under the banner, "Where Ukrainians Live, There Lives Ukraine," the Ukrainian World Congress re-elected Askold Lozynskyj as its president on August 21 in the culmination of its eighth congress - the first one held in the capital of Ukraine.

The vote by the more than 350 delegates from 20 countries to retain their chosen leader for a second five-year term came on the fourth and last day of the meeting. The convention was unexpectedly moved to the Teacher's Building after the original convention hall revoked the agreement weeks before the scheduled start date.

"When I say that this congress is a turning point, I will not be exaggerating," explained Mr. Lozynskyj. "I call it a turning point because whereas we had one delegate from the Eastern diaspora at the Toronto convention [in 1998], this time there are more than 100."

The UWC serves as the highest umbrella organization for Ukrainians living in the diaspora. It consists of more than 100 organizations in 25 countries, whose combined memberships, the UWC says, total close to 20 million people. The UWC does not offer membership to political organizations.

Mr. Lozynskyj explained that the convention motto alludes to the similarities Ukrainians retain even though they are scattered across the globe. He said he had observed that phenomenon first hand as he traveled to 26 countries in the last five years while representing the UWC.

"Whether we live in the U.S., Canada, Omsk or Tomsk, we tend to differ from the surrounding communities and to have specific similarities to one another," explained Mr. Lozynskyj.

The first UWC convention in Ukraine got off to a bad start when, two weeks prior to its onset, organizing committee leaders were told that the Ukrainian Home Exposition Hall, which the UWC had originally booked for its gathering, would be undergoing remodeling. Things got worse after the Ukrainian Home, which is owned by the presidential administration, did not return the down payment.

While the UWC leadership tried at first to play down any political root to the unexpected problems and change of venue, Mr. Lozynskyj started to sound like he was preparing for more verbal sparring with the Ukrainian government.

At an initial press conference on August 15, three days before the convention opened, the New York attorney told The Weekly, "We do not want to make a big deal about this." By Wednesday, however, the UWC president was telling some news agencies he was ready to go to court to get back the UWC's, deposit which amounted to 37,000 hrv. (about $7,000).

UWC Vice-President Maria Shkambara said that organizing the Kyiv congress was the most difficult of the three with which she had been involved. She explained that she was informed by Ukrainian Home officials of the decision to nullify the contract after she returned to Canada from Kyiv.

"I can't comprehend how the manager could have taken the money from me, if the renovations were to start so soon," Shkambara commented.

The last time Mr. Lozynskyj and Ukraine's leadership butted heads was prior to and during the Third World Forum of Ukrainians, and the leader of the UWC seemed to come out on top in that one. It began with President Leonid Kuchma making an off-the-cuff rhetorical observation that the diaspora had not contributed anything to the development of the Ukrainian nation. At the World Forum, Mr. Lozynskyj used his presentation as an opportunity to retort and presented a list of the diaspora's contributions and achievements in that sphere to huge applause.

A suitable, albeit cramped, site for the UWC conclave was quickly found at the Teacher's Building, which is owned by the city of Kyiv. Leading Ukrainian political and cultural leaders attended the gala opening on August 18, including National Deputies Viktor Yushchenko, Borys Tarasyuk and Ivan Drach, singer and National Deputy Oksana Bilozir, Ukrainian World Coordinating Council President Mykhailo Horyn and political activist Ivan Hel. The Ukrainian government was represented by Vice Prime Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Dmytro Tabachnyk.

President Kuchma, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn received invitations but did not find the time to attend.

The delegates and 200 guests then spent four days deliberating pertinent issues, such as the development of the Eastern diaspora, the emigration from Ukraine and the large numbers of dislocated new immigrants scattered around the world; the role of the Ukrainian language in communities outside of Ukraine; and the participation and role of diaspora youth in community life.

On August 20 more than 1,000 delegates, guests and Kyivans dedicated an evening to commemorating the victims of the Great Famine-Genocide of 1932-1933. Under threatening clouds they took part in a solemn procession along historic Volodymyrska Street from the Teacher's Building past St. Sophia Sobor and the Golden Gates to St. Michael's Golden-Domed Sobor, at the foot of which stands a small monument to the victims - the only such memorial in Kyiv.

There, under a steady drizzle, the leader of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, Archbishop Major and Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, and Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate officiated at a panakhyda (requiem service).

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