LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (11/26/06)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Re: Ukrainians at Auschwitz

Dear Editor:

Re: "Ukrainian World Congress appeal to Yushchenko regarding the museum at Auschwitz-Birkenau" (October 22), we are very pleased to see the World Congress of Ukrainians following in the footsteps of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

On November 6, 2002, the UCCLA asked Poland's State Museum of Auschwitz-Birkenau to allow us to unveil a commemorative plaque there, hallowing the memory of the thousands of Ukrainians interned in the Nazi concentration camps.

Unfortunately, the museum's administration has not evidenced much sympathy for this proposal, although we did learn from the head of the archives, Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz, that a study on the "story of the so-called 'Bandera group' prisoners who were deported to Auschwitz for their activity for an independent Ukrainian state" was being prepared by Dr. Adam Cyra.

Unfortunately, we have never been able to locate a copy of that report. Perhaps one can be secured through the good offices of the president of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko?

Lubomyr Luciuk, Ph.D.
Kingston, Ontario

The letter-writer is director of research for the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

Kuropas: there he goes again

Dear Editor:

Once again, your veteran columnist Myron Kuropas indulges in his slippery stuff. In the October 29 issue he took on Yaro Bihun's alarm about the current U.S. administration's botched job of governing. At the same time Dr. Kuropas also takes on George Soros.

For Dr. Kuropas, Mr. Soros' whole role in current events is that of some rich leftist who invested considerable funds for the opposition in our 2004 presidential election. Mr. Soros, let me remind Dr. Kuropas is a richer personality than that. Compounding his ignorance, Dr. Kuropas embarrassingly characterizes the Open Society Institute (OSI) as some "anti-Bush organization." Good grief.

That that might be the defining feature of OSI would surprise many valiant non-Americans whose democracy-building free-market-dedicated NGOs were able to get organized, registered and operating in their native lands because of workshops and funding grants from this very Soros organization. When the post-Communist government of Uzbekistan began clamping down on all progressive activity having to do with women's legal rights, religious freedom, English-language instruction, independent media outlets, economic opportunity for the marginalized, one of the first organizations that regime targeted was Mr. Soros' OSI. Since, they've been banished from Uzbekistan. And the people who undertook those brave initiatives suffer.

That Dr. Kuropas would seem to be ignorant of the real nature of the Open Society Institute is appalling. Does his anti-communism stop where his Republican tribe faces challenge? I'd suggest he try googling "OSI, Uzbekistan" before dashing off such provocative less-than-half-truths.

Then, we get another of Dr. Kuropas' carefully crafted but slippery moments. "Personally, I have no problem with the way we treat terrorists captured in battle or while in the process of committing crimes against humanity." This comes as a response in large part to Mr. Bihun's concerns about what's going on with the Guantanamo detainees. Does your columnist willfully ignore substantial findings that significant numbers of those detained were indiscriminately scooped up in Afghanistan and Pakistan by bounty hunters; that for real numbers among the Gitmo detainees even the authorities admit they now have no indictable evidence; that the possibilities of the U.S.A.'s mistakenly keeping and torturing individuals there are greater than Ukraine's soon becoming a truly European country?

Dr. Kuropas wails: "Should these murderers now be read their Miranda rights on the battlefield?" Why would such a bright Ukrainian American utter such mob-inciting stupidity? Why would The Ukrainian Weekly editors not finally ask this senior columnist to dedicate the rest of his production to output he really shines at: great reviews of movies like "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," and nifty reminiscences of old Soyuzivka, and of wooing his wife. No joke. Those were great.

Matthew-Daniel Stremba
Baltimore, Md.

Kupchinsky's view most enjoyable

Dear Editor:

I thoroughly enjoyed Roman Kupchinsky's "pessimistic view" of the Ukraine-NATO saga (News and Views, November 12 perhaps because his take on the issue also reflects, for the most part, my own views. Besides, there is great entertainment value in the piece.

Mr. Kupchinsky may well be right in his estimation of NATO as a collective defense organization; it may well be, as Paris Hilton might say, like so 10 years ago.

However, NATO may have some redeeming features insofar as Ukraine is concerned.

First, being accepted into the alliance may do something for Ukraine's self-esteem, given that NATO membership is viewed by former members of the so-called Socialist Commonwealth like Poland or Hungary as a form of recognition and acceptance by the "civilized" West. I suspect that when the former East European countries were falling over each other to join the alliance in the 1990s they were doing so in no small measure in order to distance themselves from Moscow and forcefully declare to anyone who would listen that they were not "Soviet people," but Europeans.

A second plus is that NATO demands the fulfillment of certain preconditions from prospective members - let's call them democratic values for lack of a better term. Heaven knows Ukraine could use some of that.

And, finally, if the pursuit of NATO membership does little else other than to demonstrate a foreign and security policy that is independent of that other "unmentionable" strategic partner - who, by the way, has a more robust program of cooperation with NATO than does Ukraine - then all the better.

Roman Solchanyk
Santa Monica, Calif.

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