COMMENTARY: Time for romanticism is over (10/17/04)

COMMENTARY

Time for romanticism is over

by Taras Kuzio

The election campaign in Ukraine can only lead to one conclusion: this is not an election and the authorities (i.e., President Leonid Kuchma) never intended to hold free and fair elections. This conclusion is now being reached by the United States, Canada, Western Europe and international organizations such as the European Union, NATO and the Council of Europe.

What now appears to be a bio-terrorist assassination attempt directed against Viktor Yushchenko represents proof, if any was still needed, that the Ukrainian authorities never had any intention of holding a free election. Violations are too numerous to list here, but readers can find them in my articles re-printed regularly by The Ukrainian Weekly.

We should not only be concerned by gross election violations and the threats still hanging over Mr. Yushchenko's life. The Ukrainian authorities are seemingly willing to sell anything - Sevastopol, factories, Ukraine's sovereignty - to obtain Russian support for Viktor Yanukovych's election.

As American Ukrainians, shouldn't you be angry at the sale of Ukrainian arms to Cuba and Venezuela? Sending these on the eve of the elections is a calculated and direct snub to the Bush administration.

You should be even more aghast at the unrelenting anti-American campaign under way in Ukraine. Only in the last week millions of leaflets and posters have been found in Kyiv that portray President George W. Bush in a disgusting manner and Mr. Yushchenko depicted as Uncle Sam. If I was an American Ukrainian I would be very perturbed at these developments (putting it diplomatically).

The vociferous and violent anti-American campaign has been initiated by the authorities in an attempt to undermine Mr. Yushchenko. Mr. Yushchenko's wife is constantly attacked on television for being American. Secret instructions (temnyky) sent by the presidential administration advise editors to ignore articles published in the U.S. media on Ukraine, such as recent ones by Anders Aslund and Richard Holbrooke, Jan Kalicki and Mark Brzezinski (see http://www2.pravda.com.ua/archive/2004/october/1/2.shtm).

Nevertheless, American and Canadian Ukrainians have not reached a conclusion that should arise from the above. Namely, that they need to change their views about Ukrainian diplomatic representatives abroad. U.S. and Canadian Ukrainians have until now looked upon Ukrainian diplomats merely as representatives of Ukraine.

It is this view that now needs to change. Ambassadors are appointed by presidents and, therefore, are directly linked to the regime that the president rules over.

American and Canadian Ukrainians failed to draw the necessary conclusions from Anton Buteiko, who as Ukraine's ambassador to the U.S. refused to do Mr. Kuchma's bidding and was sent home. Other former ambassadors are also highly displeased with current policies. Long-time ambassador to Israel, the U.S. and Canada Yuri Scherbak is now a critic of President Kuchma's policies.

Currently, American and Canadian Ukrainians are following a contradictory policy. On the one hand, apart from a nationalist fringe, they are highly critical of developments in Ukraine. On the other hand, they continue to hold events in Ukrainian embassies and to invite Ukrainian ambassadors to give talks at their functions. American and Canadian-Ukrainians fail to see how the latter policy undermines the former.

It is time for American and Canadian Ukrainians to go beyond seeing Ukrainian ambassadors as representatives of a mythical, romantic Ukraine and to recognize them for what they are: representatives of President Kuchma (and Mr. Yanukovych if he wins, most likely by fraud). Instead of maintaining contacts with Mr. Kuchma's representatives abroad, American and Canadian Ukrainians should stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukrainian voters, only 12 percent of whom believe there will be free elections; with Mr. Yushchenko, who has experienced an assassination attempt organized by the "vlada," and with the Ukrainian Parliament, which took the unprecedented step of creating a committee to seek free and fair elections.

American and Canadian Ukrainians should now bring their attitudes toward diplomatic representatives of President Kuchma in line with their natural disgust at what his regime is doing during these so-called elections.

Dr. Taras Kuzio is visiting professor at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University.

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