November 9, 1986 - 10th anniversary of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group
We rise in tribute...
November 9, 1986, is the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Ukrainian Public Group to Promote the Implementation of the Helsinki Accords. From its very inception, group members have been persecuted, imprisoned, sent to psychiatric institutions, internally exiled and expelled from the USSR. And yet, the group exists, for as the founding members pledged in the Ukrainian Helsinki Group's Memorandum No. 1: "...the struggle for human rights will not cease until these rights become the everyday standard in social life." They asserted, also, that "...prisons, camps and psychiatric hospitals are incapable of serving as dams against a movement in defense of rights."
To these courageous individuals - 39 of whom are known to us in the West - we dedicate this special issue of The Ukrainian Weekly. (A special 12-page pull-out section begins on page 3.)
We salute them all.
We bow our heads...
At the same time, we bow our heads in memory of the four Ukrainian Helsinki Group members who gave their lives for the cause of human and national rights.
Yuriy Lytvyn, Mykhailo Melnyk, Vasyl Stus and Oleksiy Tykhy.
We pledge our support...
We Ukrainians living outside the borders of Ukraine in the free countries of the world, see it as our sacred duty to uphold the movement for human and national rights in Ukraine. It is in our power to help our brothers - the Ukrainian Helsinki monitors and the countless others who have spoken and will speak - by pressing their cause with our governments, our elected officials. As long as the Helsinki process continues, we can be sure that our rights defenders will not be alone in their noble struggle.
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, November 9, 1986, No. 45, Vol. LIV
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