Ukrainian World Congress wraps up eighth conclave and elects Ukrainian National Association president to its board of directors (08/31/03)

Ukrainian World Congress wraps up eighth conclave
and elects Ukrainian National Association president to its board of directors

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukrainian World Congress delegates meeting in Kyiv on August 18-21 elected Ukrainian National Associa-tion President Stefan Kaczaraj to the board of directors. Mr. Kaczaraj, who has led the UNA since May 2002, was elected to the leadership position on the last day of the UWC's four-day conclave, the eighth of its 35-year history and the first ever in Ukraine.

The UWC board of directors saw a considerable expansion in representatives at this year's conclave as a reflection of the inroads the organization has made into the former territories of the Soviet Union and its former satellite countries in Eastern Europe. Dozens of Ukrainian organizations that have sprouted in those regions in the last decade have joined the UWC, most of them in the last five years.

The composition of the new board of directors, to which Mr. Kaczaraj now belongs, shows the extent to which the UWC has undergone change since its last conclave, held in Toronto in 1998. It has stridently moved from an organization focused on North America, Europe and Australia to one with a truly world wide breadth. For the first time it includes two representatives each from the Russian Federation, Georgia, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Kazakstan and Poland.

The changes underway also were reflected in the more than 100 delegates from the Eastern diaspora that took part in this conclave, a considerable increase over the Toronto conclave, where a single delegate was registered from the Eastern diaspora.

"Finally the Ukrainian World Congress is becoming representative of the distribution within the diaspora as a whole," noted Mr. Kaczaraj.

As was previously reported (see last week's issue of The Weekly), the 246 delegates from 28 countries re-elected Askold Lozynskyj to a second five-year term as president of the umbrella organization, which represents a considerable amount of the Ukrainian diaspora scattered across the globe. Mr. Lozynskyj ran unopposed. Also re-elected was Viktor Pedenko to the post of general secretary.

Maria Shkambara, previously first vice president, assumed the post of second vice president, while Yevhen Cholij filled her former slot. Olga Danylak, elected to the post of treasurer and Bohdan Fedorak, voted in as member-at-large, filled out the rest of the Executive Board.

Speaking at a press conference at the close of the conclave, Mr. Lozynskyj emphasized that while he and two other members of the executive body had been re-elected to second terms, the organization as a whole was undergoing "cardinal" changes.

"We want the UWC to become a truly global organization," explained Mr. Lozynskyj. "We are trying to establish ties in Azerbaijan and in Vietnam. We want to be everywhere where Ukrainians live."

It was under Mr. Lozynskyj's guidance during his first five-year term that the UWC brought the Eastern diaspora under its wing. Today the UWC numbers 230 organizations in 20 countries, accounting for more than 3 million of the 20 million strong Ukrainian diaspora. It has achieved recognition within the United Nations and recently became a member of the U.N. Economic and Social Council.

After the election of its new leadership, the UWC passed a deluge of resolutions, ranging from a demand to recall Russia's Ambassador to Ukraine Viktor Chernomyrdin to a call by the delegates to have the United Nations recognize the Great Famine of 1932-1933 as genocide against the Ukrainian nation.

As has happened previously whenever activists from the diaspora hit home soil, controversies simmered during the four days the UWC delegates were in Kyiv. First, there was the already widely publicized last minute change of venue the UWC had to undertake after the Ukrainian Home Exposition Center, which is owned by the presidential administration, decided it could not accommodate the conclave because of an unforeseen "renovation" project. The Ukrainian Home also failed to return a substantial deposit the UWC had made to hold the reservation.

Mr. Lozynskyj said that the UWC was considering legal action, but first would consult with lawyers on what legal recourse the UWC had available.

Many of the delegates, including Mr. Lozynskyj, said it was ironic destiny that the UWC conclave was refused use of a hall controlled by President Leonid Kuchma and his chief of staff, Viktor Medvedchuk, of whom many are critical, only to find shelter within the walls of the historic Kyiv Teachers' Building, where Professor Mykhailo Hrushevsky declared the first modern independent Ukrainian state in 1918.

Mr. Lozynskyj initiated a second round of controversy when he called Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs Anatolii Zlenko, "a coward," during the final press conference.

Mr. Lozynskyj's remark came as he discussed the tragic lack of Ukrainian schools in Russia and the little effort Ukraine has made to pressure Moscow to change the situation, given that Russian-language schools are abundantly found throughout most of Ukraine.

"Minister of Foreign Affairs Anatolii Zlenko is a friend of mine - we have drunk vodka together - but he is, with all due apologies, a coward. He never raised these concerns [with Russia]."

Despite the several controversies, the delegates decided in a resolution to hold all future congresses in Ukraine, mostly because of the advantage such a location offers members of the Eastern diaspora, who have a difficult time obtaining visas to Western countries and can ill afford the more expensive costs associated with visiting the West.

The highlight of the four-day conclave was the appearance of Our Ukraine leader Viktor Yuschenko, whose mere arrival in the cramped amphitheater of the Teachers' Building during the opening ceremony held on the first evening brought a rousing round of applause.

When he got up to speak, he received a standing ovation. The delegates, many of whom waited to hear Ukraine's most popular politician dispense oppositionist rhetoric, received an earful. The future presidential candidate directed a slashing rhetoric at those who hold the reigns of power in Ukraine today.

"This regime killed the Ukrainian idea, so as to announce afterwards that it had not developed," said Mr. Yuschenko.

He added, "The tragedy in the current situation is that the regime did not Ukrainianize, but became more nondescript. Poverty and unemployment destroyed in many any faith in a Ukrainian state."

And in another biting comment he noted: "While patriots fought for an independent Ukraine, behind their backs a pseudo-elite was forming, for which Ukraine is simply a territory for doing business."

Most of Ukraine's state and government leadership, many of whom were extended personal invitations, were no-shows at the congress, among them President Leonid Kuchma and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Vice Prime Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Dmytro Tabachnyk represented both of them on opening night and was greeted with tepid applause by the delegates and guests, who numbered some 500 in all.

Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Lytvyn later met with the delegates - those who had not yet dispersed to be precise - on August 22, a day after the conclave had ended. Mr. Yanukovych met privately with Mr. Lozynskyj on August 19.

A solemn march along Volodymyrska Street, where many of Ukraine's oldest historic sites are situated, in commemoration of the Great Famine of 1932-33, with the participation of more than 1,000 delegates, visitors and Kyivans, also proved a memorable if somber moment during the four day-gathering. It ended beneath a steady drizzle at the foot of the bell tower of St. Michael's Golden-Domed Sobor, where the Great Famine memorial stands. There Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Archbishop Lubomyr Husar of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church concelebrated a panakhyda in memory of the 7 million-10 million that Stalin's regime artificially starved to death.

The following day the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, in conjunction with the UWC conclave, held a round table on the 70th anniversary of the tragic event and heard remarks by such disperse personalities as Natalia Zarudna, deputy state secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Archbishop Husar and National Deputy Ivan Pliusch, former chairman of the Verkhovna Rada.

While Ms. Zarudna informed those in attendance that the Ukrainian delegation at the U.N. was preparing to table a resolution in the General Assembly to have the Great Famine officially recognized as genocide, Archbishop Husar noted that recognition of the famine for what it was would only work if true repentance "within the heart" took place. Finally Mr. Pliusch noted that in Ukraine too many are still not cognizant of what happened in Ukraine's eastern and southern regions in 1932-1933, for which the current regime should hold blame.

Mr. Kaczaraj noted another, more upbeat highlight: the unique and interesting country reports given on the second day by representatives of each of the country delegations present at the conclave.

"What really impressed me were the reports - for example the one by the Italian representative," explained Mr. Kaczaraj. "I did not realize that there was such a heavy concentration of Ukrainians - half a million, I think - in Italy, mostly of the fourth emigration."

Mr. Kaczaraj said he believed it was the responsibility of the new leadership of the UWC to help nurture the new émigré Ukrainian communities, especially in Eastern diaspora regions - whether in Russia or Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan - to coalesce, to develop and to retain their identities.

"We need to help them organize their communities, so that they will grow and Ukrainianize. There are so many Ukrainians out there who do not know who they are," explained Mr. Kaczaraj.

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