Ukrainian Helsinki Group representatives appeal to Vienna conference delegates (11/09/86)

Ukrainian Helsinki Group representatives appeal to Vienna conference delegates

NEW YORK - In an appeal issued by the External Representation of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group to the signatory states of the 1975 Helsinki Accords now meeting in Vienna at the follow-up Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, three former Ukrainian political prisoners call for a thorough review of human-rights abuses, "beginning with those reported in the documents of the public Helsinki monitoring groups."

The trio - Gen. Petro Grigorenko, Leonid Plyushch and Nadia Svitlychna - also urge that freedom of religion be guaranteed, and that censorship and other ideological restrictions be abolished.

They also demand that Ukraine be included as a full and equal participant in the Helsinki process, that Ukraine be represented as an independent party in all international bodies concerned with disarmament and nuclear energy, and that embassies and consulates of the Helsinki Accords' signatories be opened in Ukraine and foreign journalists be accredited to Ukraine.

The lengthy appeal also pointed out that the opening of the Vienna Conference "coincides with the 10th anniversary of the formation of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group - one of the most tragic victims of the Helsinki movement." The group was founded in Kiev on November 9, 1976.

It goes on to point out: "The Ukrainian Helsinki Group did not have time to report even a small percentage of human-rights abuses in Ukraine. From the very first day of its existence, the group itself became the object of harsh repressions and human-rights violations."

Four of the group's members, the External Representation noted, have died in harsh conditions of imprisonment or were driven to suicide; 16 are currently incarcerated and "serving hopelessly long terms."

"As a result, they regard themselves as doomed and are similarly perceived by their families and friends. 'They have been buried alive,' wrote Lidia Ruban earlier this year about her husband and his fellow prisoners, Mykola Horbal, Levko Lukianenko and others," the External Representation stated.

The appeal also lists 21 Ukrainian Helsinki Group members and sympathizers whose fates are "especially precarious."

[For full text of appeal, see page 6.]

The External Representation, which was formed in 1978 to represent the interests of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group abroad, quoted a 1981 statement by imprisoned human-rights activists Yuriy Badzio and Robert Nazaryan, "Today everyone must realize that a relaxation of tensions is inseparable from the question of human rights."

The three former political prisoners also pointed to the disparity between words and deeds in the Soviet Union:

"...human rights, democracy, openness, publicity, ... these words, until recently semi-banned in the Soviet Union, have become very fashionable today. But only the words have come into vogue; the concepts that they convey remained proscribed.

"No matter how you juggle the term 'openness,' the concept remains a sham as long as people are held in prison specifically for attempting to avail themselves of openness."

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