Plast fights for recognition from world scouting movement (04/24/05)

Plast fights for recognition from world scouting movement

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Plast, Ukraine's largest scouting organization, is engaged in one of the most significant struggles in its 84-year-history: fighting for recognition by the Geneva-based World Organi-zation of the Scout Movement (WOSM).

Recognition would enable Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization to represent Ukraine on the world arena as the nation's premier scouting organization. WOSM allows only one scouting organization from each nation to send delegates to its World Scout Conference, and Ukraine currently has no representative.

WOSM is on the verge of designating a group called SPOK (Spilka Pionerskykh Orhanizatzii Kyieva) as Ukraine's representative, despite objections from Ukraine's leading political and spiritual authorities.

President Viktor Yushchenko, Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate and Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, primate of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, have each written letters to the WSOM asking that it reconsider SPOK's membership in the 154-member conference.

"I am not indifferent to the fate of Ukrainian scouting organizations that act according to WOSM principles," President Yushchenko stated in his letter.

He concluded the letter: "I express deep respect to the political independence of WSOM, and turn to you with the proposition of making an objective decision. From my end, in the future, my government and I will assist the development of the national scouting movement in Ukraine that truly represents the goals and principles of the WOSM constitution,"

According to that constitution, if SPOK's membership is unopposed or opposed by 5 percent or less of World Scout Conference members, the organization will be declared a member of the WOSM, as the national scout organization of Ukraine, as of May 1.

Nachalnyi Plastun (Chief Scout) Lubomyr Romankiw arrived in Kyiv on April 18 in order to rally support for Plast and to meet with lawyers.

He said eight votes out of 154 are needed to break the 5 percent barrier. Dr. Romankiw has already recruited Poland, Argentina and Germany to oppose SPOK's entry. The United States delegate also will write a letter in opposition, he said.

Since Ukraine's independence in 1991, Plast has swelled to 10,000 members, said Serhii Letenko, the organization's spokesman.

Plast is already playing a leading role in developing the nation's youth and producing positive leaders in society, Mr. Letenko said.

Oleh Klymchuk, First Lady Kateryna Yushchenko's press secretary, is a Ukrainian-born Plast member, as is Evhen Hlibovytskyi, a news director at Channel 5, Ukraine's 24-hour news channel.

Plast encompasses Ukraine's diversity, and includes scouts who are Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant and Muslim, Dr. Romankiw said. Ethnic Russians and Crimean Tatars have also become members of Plast, he said. In fact, two Tatar troops are active in Crimea, he added.

In official letters to WOSM, SPOK claims to have 3,500 members. Plast leaders firmly dispute that estimate, and Mr. Letenko said the group has about 350 members.

SPOK violates numerous WOSM conditions, Dr. Romankiw said, most significantly that it is supported with funding from the Ukrainian government. As a result of this funding, SPOK acted in support of the former party in power, he said. In fact, SPOK's official address is that of the Ministry of Family, Children and Youth.

Plast has written to Dr. Eduardo Missoni, the secretary general of WOSM, in order to inform him of these violations, but has received no response.

In a letter addressed to Dr. Missoni, Ukraine's current minister of family, children and youth, Yurii Pavlenko, also pointed out that SPOK has no religious or spiritual program. One of WOSM's fundamental principles is "duty to God and respect for individual beliefs."

SPOK doesn't have a consistent education or training program, no regular weekly activities and its scouting program takes place only at its summer camps, Mr. Pavlenko wrote in his letter.

The Weekly's attempts to reach SPOK were unsuccessful, and the organization has no apparent website. The Mangup Tourist Club, which identifies itself as a member organization of SPOK, has a website but no contact telephone numbers.

Attempts were also unsuccessful in trying to reach Oleksander Bondar, the head of WOSM's Eurasia Scout Region, which is headquartered in Yalta According to Plast officials, Mr. Bondar submitted SPOK's application to join WOSM.

Unfortunately, Plast is in this position because Mr. Bondar never allowed the organization to attempt entry into WOSM on its own, Dr. Romankiw said.

Plast's leadership had decided to try to work with Mr. Bondar and cooperate with other scouting groups, he said.

Plast agreed to work with SPOK because its leaders thought that they could easily win the SPOK scouts over, Dr. Romankiw said. They were convinced of the superiority of the Plast program, which had been developed and refined for decades, he said.

But it's precisely for that reason that SPOK entered into partnership: to access superior methodology and experience, Mr. Pavlenko wrote in his letter.

Mr. Bondar stands to lose a comfortable salary and generous traveling perks from WOSM if he loses his control over scouting in Ukraine, which is why he is fighting Plast, Dr. Romankiw commented.

The chief scout said he hopes to resolve the situation positively, or Plast may resort to legal action against the World Scout Bureau - the secretariat that carries out the instructions of the World Scout Conference and the World Scout Committee, the conference's executive body - for not upholding its own rules and requirements.

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