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NEWSLETTER

UKRAINIAN WORLD CONGRESS

№ 2 (42) – February, 2007

UWC EXECUTIVE TO CONVENE IN TORONTO
The next session of the UWC Executive will convene at the UWC main office in Toronto on Saturday, March 3, 2007 at 9:30 AM and conclude no later than that same day at 5PM. In addition to reports by Executive Committee members, reports by  council and commission chairs as well as inquiries and a discussion, agenda items include planning and implementing the UWC’s course of action on the 75th anniversary of the Great Famine 1932-33 and the 60th anniversary of Akcija Wisla.

UWC 40TH ANNIVERSARY OBSERVANCES
     The UWC will kick off its 40th anniversary observances on Saturday, March 3, 2007 at 6:30 with a banquet at the Dormition of the Mother of God Ukrainian Catholic Church (St. Mary’s) hall at 3625 Cawthra Rd., Mississauga, Ontario. The keynote speaker will be Ukraine’s former Minister of the Interior and current presidential adviser Yuriy Lutsenko. Mr. Lutsenko is euphemistically referred to as the Commander of the Majdan and should prove to be very informative and interesting. Tickets at 65$CAN are available through the UWC office in Toronto.

UWC INTERNATIONAL FAMINE COORDINATING COMMITTEE TO MEET IN TORONTO
      The UWC’s International Famine Coordinating Committee will meet in Toronto at the Ukrainian World Congress office, Sunday, March 4, 2007 from 10AM to 6PM. In addition to Committee members, Iwan Vasyunyk, deputy chair of Ukraine’s Presidential  Secretariat will attend. At this point the Committee is quite complete with representatives from the United States, Canada and Australia, but needs representatives from Europe, Asia or Africa. Our member organizations, in particular our national central representations are urged to designate representatives immediately. Please remit your nominations and suggestions directly to the Committee’s chair, Stefan Romaniw: sromaniw@bigpond.net.au.   
UWC URGES VIGOROUS PROSECUTION OF ASSAULT ON MELNYCHUK
     In letters addressed separately to the President of Ukraine as the guarantor of Ukraine’s constitutional rights and the Luhansk Oblast Procurator as the person responsible for criminal prosecutions in Luhansk, the UWC has urged vigorous prosecution of the perpetrator of the assault against Serhij Melnychuk. Mr. Melnychuk is the Ukrainian student who sued to permit studies in Ukrainian at the Dali Eastern Ukrainian University in Luhansk and was assaulted by a deputy of the Luhansk City Council during a television interview. In its letters the UWC urges both criminal and civil rights considerations in preparing the prosecution. The UWC intends to monitor this matter closely and has invited Serhij Melnychuk to be a guest of the UWC’s Board of Directors meeting in Donetsk, August 20-21, 2007.    
UWC APPEAL ON AKCIJA WISLA STIRS INTEREST IN POLISH PRESS AND IN UKRAINE
     Several widely read Polish newspapers (Dziennyk and Gazeta Wyborcza) have reported on the UWC’s Akcija Wisla Appeal which urges the Polish parliament (Sejm) to condemn the notorious anti-Ukrainian military action of the Polish government from 60 years back and to provide rehabilitation and compensation. The UWC’s Appeal goes  on to say that the current Polish parliament’s avowed refusal to condemn, redress and compensate, is being addressed by the UWC to the Council of Europe, the organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the European Union and the United Nations. Additionally, the Appeal urges the President of Ukraine to make this issue a component of contemporary Ukrainian-Polish relations.  The UWC’s Appeal and course of activity have been the subject of some discussion on Ukrainian television (Channel 5) as well.
     To set the record straight: there is no rift between the UWC and the Association of Ukrainians in Poland (AUP). There is a difference of opinion in that we suggested that the central observances take place in Warsaw while the AUP and the Ukrainian Catholic Church opted for Peremyshl. We will participate in the Peremyshl observances on April 28, 2007. In addition, we intend to put pressure independently through the Council of Europe, the European Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the United Nations upon the Polish Sejm, seeking the following remedies:
  • the return of all church and community property;
  • relocation assistance for those who wish to return to their ancestral lands;
  • prosecution of those who initiated, planned or implemented Akcija Wisla, in particular, commandants and collaborators at the labor camp in Jawozno;
  • compensation of Ukrainians interned in Jawozno; 
  • abrogation of all laws, decrees, etc. connected with Akcija Wisla as well as others which discriminate against Ukrainians in Poland;
  • an Act of the Polish Sejm unequivocally condemning Akcija Wisla and apologizing to its victims and their descendants;
  • including Akcija Wisla in the educational curriculum throughout Poland;
  • formation of a separate Polish State Fund to assist in the development of Ukrainian communities in Poland as minimal compensation for Akcija Wisla; 
  • arranging for Ukrainian political representation  in both the Sejm and the Senate of Poland to  remedy the dispersal in non-concentrated numbers thrust of Akcija Wisla;
  • the formation of a separate Commission consisting of Poland’s government, the Ukrainian community in Poland, the Council of Europe and the Ukrainian World Congress to monitor the above.


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