UWC EXECUTIVE MEETS IN TORONTO

The UWC Executive Board convened in Toronto on Saturday, October 22, 2005. The following decisions were made:

• to communicate personally (by the UWC President) by telephone with the Мetropolitans of both the Ukrainian Orthodox and Ukrainian Catholic Churches in the United States and Canada setting up meetings for better communication and cooperation;
• to forward a letter (by the UWC General Secretary) to the President of Ukraine designating the UWC President as the Diaspora liaison to the President of Ukraine;
• that the UWC General Secretary and the Chair of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress represent the UWC at the November meeting of the Ukrainian World Coordinating Council; 
• to table the matter of establishing a UWC permanent office in Ukraine and to establish ad hoc offices when needed in the interim;
• to forward a letter to the President of the United States with copies to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the United Nations’ Human Rights Commission voicing our concern over the prolonged incarceration by U.S. authorities of Ukrainian-Americans who had been denaturalized under the U.S. Nazi persecution statute; 
• to set up an Election Committee consisting of First VP Eugene Czolij as Chair and the following members: President Askold Lozynskyj, Secretary General Victor Pedenko, World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations’ Chair Maria Szkambara, UCC Chair Orysia Sushko, Ukrainian Congress Committee of America President Michael Sawkiw and UWC Human and Civil Rights Commission Chair Jurko Darewych.

• to allocate seed money ($1,000) for the World Cultural Commission to prepare methodological material on community cultural events and a compendium of screenplays for such events;
• to ratify the personal composition of the Commission on aid to Ukrainian citizens abroad including representatives from Greece (membership from Spain, Italy and Portugal was ratified at the UWC Board of Directors meeting in August);
• and to remit seed money ($2,000) for the Commission to commence activity and include representatives from other Europeans countries;
• to establish a web page at the UWC website for the World Media Council with a listing of Ukrainian media outlets worldwide and future linkage;
• to utilize the UWC website in order to establish a line of communication for Ukrainian youth worldwide ($1,000) and to organize a Ukrainian youth congress during the upcoming 2006 World Cup in Berlin ($2,000);
• to reorganize the UWC United Nations Council (UWC President to submit proposed reorganization to Executive Committee for ratification);
• to allocate money ($3,000) for translation of English language material on human trafficking into Ukrainian;
• to designate $5,000 for a Diaspora sport tournament in Ukraine in 2006 celebrating Ukraine’s 15^th anniversary of independence;
• to allocate $2,000 for a conference on the Diaspora at the Ostroh Academy, $2,000 for the III International Conference of Ukrainian historians which would include a separate session on the OUN-UPA, $1,000 for the publication of material from the II International Conference, $1,000 to publish a compendium of Ukrainian scholars in the Diaspora, $1,000 to publish a history of the UWC World Scholarly Council, $1,000 for a monograph on Ivan Mazepa in the Russian language.

• 10^th anniversary of Ukraine’s Constitution;
  
• 15^th anniversary of independence of Ukraine;
  
• 20^th anniversary of the Chornobyl tragedy;
• 20^th anniversary of the death of Kateryna  Zarycka-Soroka;
• 80^th anniversary of the murder of Symon Petliura;
• 150^th anniversary of the birth of Ivan Franko;
• 140^th anniversary of the birth of Mykhaylo Hrushevsky and
• 450^th anniversary of the founding of the Zaporizka Sich.

UWC SEEKS EXPLANATION FOR ANTI-OUN-UPA EVENTS AND PRESIDENTIAL INTERVENTION

         The UWC has issued a statement decrying the anti-OUN-UPA events of October 14^th in Kyiv, seeking an explanation from Kyiv’s Mayor Omelchenko, urging prosecution of sedition and intervention by both Ukraine’s President Yushchenko and Verkhovna Rada Chair Lytvyn. A full text in Ukrainian is available at the UWC website: www.ukrainianworldcongress.org.          

SOME RECENT CORRESPONCENCE OF THE UWC COMMISSION ON HUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS (CHCR)

        Earlier this year, in April and June of 2005, the CHCR wrote to President Yushchenko suggesting that the commemoration of Ukrainian civilians, victims of Polish armed groups in Kholmshchyna, Pidliashshia, Lemkivshchyna and Nadsiannia in the 1939-47 period be held as a sequel and in a manner similar to the commemoration in 2003 of Polish civilians, victims of Ukrainian armed groups in Volyn’ in 1943, that is with the participation of the Presidents of Ukraine and Poland. No reply was received to these letters, or to a subsequent letter of August 2005, copies of which were sent also to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.  From correspondence with the Lviv Oblast Administration in September and October this year, the CHCR has learned that an agreement has allegedly been reached between representatives of the Polish and Ukrainian Governments regarding the establishment of a monument in the village of Pavlokoma near Peremyshl’ in Poland in memory of 366 Ukrainian men, women and children killed by Polish armed groups on March 3, 1945. According to the Lviv Oblast’ Administration the blessing of the monument is to take place in the second part of November and the presence of the Presidents of Ukraine and Poland is anticipated. However, there have been no official announcements of such a ceremony.  The CHCR is concerned that the negotiations and preparations on the commemoration are taking place without participation of the people most involved, namely the Ukrainian citizens of Poland and their representative organization the Association of Ukrainians in Poland and the Ukrainian World Congress. The CHCR is concerned that the commemoration of Ukrainian victims in Poland will not be held at par with the 2003 commemoration of Polish victims in Ukraine.          
    In May of 2005 the CHCR wrote to Marek Belka, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Poland expressing concern about discriminatory treatment by the Government of Poland of Polish citizens of Ukrainian nationality, former inmates of the Polish “Central Labour Camp” in Jaworzno, who were incarcerated there from May 1947 to March 1949.  Copies of the letter were sent to Andrzej Zoll, Ombudsman of the Polish Republic, and the OSCE High Commission on National Minorities, the Council of Europe, and Secretariat of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affair of Ukraine and the Association of Ukrainians in Poland. The CHCR received a reply, dated 27 Oct. 2005, from Mr. Piotr Ogrodzinski, Polish Ambassador in Ottawa, in which he states that “We find no grounds for the claim that under the Polish legal framework citizens of Ukrainian nationality, who had suffered in Stalinist times, face discrimination as opposed to other people”. However, the letter goes on to state that “a persecuted person is one who was imprisoned in 1944-56 for political or religious activities related to the struggle for an independent and sovereign Poland” and “individuals who were subject to harassment by state security organs before 1956 for reasons other than pro-independence activities are also denied the compensation”, thus “Polish citizens of Ukrainian nationality, who were incarcerated in the COP in Jaworzno have also been excluded from provisions of the law [on victims of wartime and post-war oppression]”.  The lengthy (5 page) reply has other statements that, far from alleviating the concerns of the CHCR, only heighten them, and will evidently require further correspondence. The Ambassador’s letter also includes the following passage: “In our view the sentences handed out against the individuals who fought in the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) organization or who assisted it are treated differently and justifiably so. There is no doubt that the political aims of this organization were in direct opposition to the interests of the Polish state and especially, its territorial integrity (notwithstanding the political system then in place). Because of this, those who were involved in the UPA have been denied compensation.”  

REPRESENTATIVE OF UKRAINIANS IN RUSSIA VISITS U.S.A.

          The Ukrainian community in the Russian Federation functions through a structure named the Association of Ukrainians in Russia. Alexandr Rudenko-Desniak, its former president (since 1993), currently its honorary president and editor of its only federation-wide periodical and contracted (by a Russian publishing house) author of the Mazepa book recently visited the United States with a dual purpose: inform about and receive donations for both projects. Much of his time was spent doing research at various repositories of Ukrainian material, the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI) and the Shevchenko Scientific Society library in New York. He visited several Ukrainian financial institutions in the cities of New York and Philadelphia. In New York he was received generously by the Ukrainian Free University Foundation and Self Reliance (N.Y.) Federal Credit Union. In Philadelphia he was welcomed by the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee and the Providence Association of Ukrainian Catholics. In addition, HURI provided an expense stipend. Our gratitude goes out to these institutions for their understanding.

GREAT FAMINE PUBLICATION IN ITALIAN

         Our contact organizations in Italy have advised us of the publication in Italian of a book entitled, Death of the Land. The Famine-Genocide of 1932-33, authored by Italian historians.  An effort is underway currently to translate this publication into Ukrainian. We will advise when the Italian language publication becomes available to us.  

XI COVENTION OF ECU AND UWCC MEETING

          The European Congress of Ukrainians (ECU) will hold its convention in Kosice, Slovak Republic, on November 11-13, 2005. The Ukrainian World Coordinating Council is planning to hold a meeting on November 19, 2005 in Kyiv. The Secretary General V. Pedenko will represent UWC at the ECU Congress, while the Chair of UCC O.Sushko and V.Pedenko will attend UWCC meeting as UWC representatives.