1981: an overview: Political scene (12/27/81)

1981: an overview

Political scene

Ukrainians continued to make their concerns known on all levels of government and politics, and apparently they were heard as seen from the following.

On March 12, 68 congressmen signed a letter to Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin initiated by New Jersey Rep. Millicent Fenwick in which they called for the immediate release of Mykola Rudenko, the first chairman of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group.

In the spring, the Ad Hoc Committee on the Baltic States and Ukraine was formed by a group of congressmen who identify with issues of concern to the Baltic and Ukrainian communities.

On September 21, the House of Representatives passed three separate resolutions urging intervention of the U.S. government in the cases of Ukrainians Yuriy Shukhevych and Yuriy Badzio, and Jew Anatoly Shcharansky.

On November 16, the Congressional Helsinki Commission (CSCE) heard testimony by Gen. Petro Grigorenko, Nina Strokata and Volodymyr Malynkovych at a special hearing held on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the Ukrainiasian Yuriy Orlov. The anniversary observances continued the next day with a special order of the House sponsored by Pennsylvania Rep. Charles Dougherty, and at a reception in tribute to the 37 members of the Kiev group.

Later in November, over 100 U.S. senators and representatives joined Rep. Fenwick in a letter of protest to Mr. Dobrynin. The topic: Soviet persecution ot Ukrainian Helsinki monitors.

By the end of 1981, over 60 congressmen had joined New Jersey Reps. Bernard Dwyer and Christopher Smith as co-sponsors of House Concurrent Resolution 205 which calls on President Ronald Reagan to proclaim a day in honor of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group and seek the release of its members.

In state politics, New Jersey Ukrainians and other ethnics made their mark. As Republican Tom Kean and Democrat James Florio scrambled for the ethnic vote in the squeaker of a gubernatorial election, the state's party platforms recognized ethnic concerns.

The Democrats pledged to be "sensitive to the differing cultures and languages which must be taken into consideration in the provision of services to the people of New Jersey," to strengthen the ethnic advisory council and to continue to plan and develop the activities of the New Jersey Ethnic Center.

The Republicans came out in support of "review by educators of historical texts and curricula with the aim of improving the accuracy with which peoples of foreign lands are described and depicted."

Ukrainians and other ethnics were concerned about the new Reagan administration's policies. Ethnics expressed their disenchantment with the administration's lack of responsiveness to ethnics and pointed to the fact that an office of ethnic affairs like the one that had existed under Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, had not been set up. In its stead, the Reagan administration tapped Jack Burgess, who holds the position of special assistant to the president - office of public liaison, to serve also as "liaison to the ethnic and Catholic communities."

An assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs was finally named and confirmed in mid-November in the person of Elliot Abrams.

The previous nominee, Ernest Lefever had been forced to withdraw his name from consideration after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in June voted 13-4 against Dr. Lefever because of his controversial writings, some of which advocated dumping human-rights laws.

Talk then began of reorganization, and of changing the rights bureau's name and functions; some administration officials even said that the position might be scrapped altogether.

But, human rights concerns, thanks to the furor raised by human rights groups and ethnics, prevailed and the was post was filled.

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