April 26, 2012
PRESS RELEASE
APPEAL TO INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY ON THE INHUMAN TREATMENT BY UKRAINIAN AUTHORITIES OF FORMER PRIME MINISTER YULIA TYMOSHENKO
On April 25, 2012, Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) President Eugene Czolij sent an appeal to international leaders on the inhuman treatment by Ukraine’s governing authorities of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
Referring to a written statement by Yulia Tymoshenko, UWC expressed its disgust about the use of brute force and a beating on April 20, 2012 by co-workers of a convoy while she was being forcibly transferred from the colony to a hospital. UWC added that on April 20, 2012 Yulia Tymoshenko began a hunger strike to protest what is happening in Ukraine and the treatment she has been receiving in prison.
In addition, UWC quoted a statement made by the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Nina Karpachova, demanding that the Prosecutor General open criminal proceedings against those who were involved in the incident and suspend them from service, and that the Head of the State Penitentiary Service of Ukraine urgently provide all the required medical treatment according to the decision of the European Court of Human Rights and the conclusions of the Ukrainian and independent foreign doctors.
UWC called upon the international community to:
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demand that Ms. Tymoshenko be provided with immediate treatment by independent medical experts in a specialized clinic; -
remind Ukraine’s governing authorities of the resolutions and policies passed by international institutions and the demands by individual nation states (i) that Ms. Tymoshenko be properly treated and (ii) that opposition members (including Ms. Tymoshenko) be freed and allowed to participate in Ukraine’s October 2012 Parliamentary elections; and -
warn Ukraine’s governing authorities that there will be personal consequences to them (e.g. denial of entry visas for individuals and their families) of ignoring the aforementioned resolutions, policies and demands of international institutions and individual nation states.
Copies of this letter were sent to the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych and Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Nina Karpachova.
The UWC is an international coordinating body for Ukrainian communities in the diaspora representing the interests of over 20 million Ukrainians. The UWC has member organizations in 32 countries and ties with Ukrainians in 14 additional countries. Founded in 1967 as a non-profit corporation, the UWC was recognized in 2003 as a non-governmental organization (NGO) by the United Nations Economic and Social Council with special consultative status.
