The campaign for Yuriy Shukhevych, "the eternal prisoner" (11/09/86)

10th ANNIVERSARY OF THE UKRAINIAN HELSINKI GROUP

The campaign for Yuriy Shukhevych, "the eternal prisoner"

by Myron Wasylyk

In July 1985, Visti z Ukrainy (News From Ukraine), a Kiev-based publication distributed to Ukrainians abroad, published a lengthy article with excerpts from an alleged letter of recantation written to the editors by Yuriy Shukhevych.

Yuriy Shukhevych, a prominent Ukrainian prisoner of conscience and member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Monitoring Group, has spent 34 of his 53 years in labor camps or internal exile. Mr. Shukhevych was first arrested at the age of 14 because he refused to renounce his father, the late Roman Shukhevych, leader of the independence-seeking Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). Since his initial imprisonment in 1948, the KGB has been unsuccessful in persuading Mr. Shukhevych to recant his support of Ukraine's aspirations for national independence and renounce the UPA's struggle against Nazi and Soviet-Russian instigated tyranny.

Mr. Shukhevych's whereabouts and fate, like that of other prominent political prisoners, has received particular attention and monitoring by several Western-based governmental and non-governmental organizations. His plight has been articulated in countless Western publications and the efforts to secure his freedom have been discussed in virtually every U.S. congressional office.

A major boost in the campaign to publicize Mr. Shukhevych's case came in July 1984 when President Ronald Reagan specifically stated that, "During Captive Nations Week we must take time to remember both the countless victims and lonely heroes...such as imprisoned Ukrainian patriot Yuriy Shukhevych." Again in January 1985, Mr. Reagan told Ukrainian American students that "prisoners such as Yuriy Shukhevych, reaffirm our confidence in the ultimate triumph of the free human spirit over tyranny."

President Reagan's commitment to Mr. Shukhevych was taken several steps further by a White House assistant, who joined several hundred student demonstrators at the United Nations in 1984 and again in Washington in 1985, where 10 Ukrainian students were arrested outside the Soviet Embassy in protest of Mr. Shukhevych's incarceration. Mr. Shukhevych's plight was further articulated within the Reagan administration by Vice-President George Bush who said of Mr. Shukhevych, "that he has survived is a testament to his courage and endurance, and to his indomitable Ukrainian spirit."

While the Kremlin has never truly mastered the West's game of public relations, as evidenced by General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's recent fall from grace with the Western media, it has, however, outflanked the U.S. and the West in general on disinformation tactics and the use of what has currently become known as "active measures." The success of KGB disinformation measures is highly reliant upon proper timing and the selection of an appropriate targeted audience.

Such was the case in the alleged recantation of Yuriy Shukhevych, which conveniently occurred after the White House, several U.S. congressmen, and the Ukrainian diaspora were waging a campaign highlighting the Shukhevych case. However, after careful examination of the July 1985 article in Visti z Ukrainy, several psychologists and handwriting experts concluded that the "confession of Yuriy Shukhevych is a forgery of the Soviet authorities."

Furthermore, former Soviet political prisoners Sviatoslav Karavansky and Nina Strokata stated on August 2, 1985, that the alleged recantation "is a maneuver to bring to a halt the campaign in defense of Yuriy Shukhevych in the West."

Moreover, the forgery was confirmed by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Intelligence and Research which wrote, "graphological analysis and internal evidence indicate that the letter was a total fabrication designed to demoralize Ukrainian nationalists abroad and undercut American support for human rights in the Ukraine itself."

Today there is no doubt that the Visti z Ukrainy article was intended to quiet the campaign to free Yuriy Shukhevych. Despite the KGB's disinformation tactics, the campaign to heighten awareness about Mr. Shukhevych is currently gaining greater momentum.

In a letter personally presented to Mr. Gorbachev on March 26 by the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, Dante Fascell (D-Fla.), and the ranking minority member, William Broomfield (R-Mich.), Mr. Shukhevych was mentioned along with several other Ukrainian political prisoners. In their letter, the senior congressmen stated, "there are many in the U.S. who have asked us and other members of Congress to assist individuals in their efforts to emigrate" to the West. Concluding their "request of a humanitarian nature," the congressmen assured Mr. Gorbachev of their "continual personal interest in this matter."

In addition to the March 26 letter to Mr. Gorbachev, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus initiated a letter to the general secretary co-signed by 127 members of Congress urging that Mr. Shukhevych be released from internal exile. Likewise, a similar letter was signed by 41 United States senators which prominently included Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kansas) and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.).

With the Review Meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe commencing on November 4 in Vienna, it can be expected that the Shukhevych case will receive greater attention, this time with a captive audience that will include top Kremlin officials. The significance of the Vienna Review Meeting is such that not only will it provide a chance to raise many issues concerning Ukrainians' rights, but will also coincide with the 10th anniversary of the formation of the Ukrainian Helsinki Monitoring Group, an association whose members, including Mr. Shukhevych, were rewarded with only the harshest treatment and longest terms of imprisonment.

Mr. Shukhevych's term is due to end in March 1987. The need to continue publicizing his story is of prime importance not only due to the underlying symbolism of honor and resolve, which Mr. Shukhevych so greatly personifies, but also as a pressure tactic designed to keep international attention on the Kremlin with regard to the Shukhevych case. If Mr. Shukhevych's freedom is our community's goal for 1987, then our organizations, and especially individuals, need to continue intensifying their efforts in Washington and in the local media to keep the pressure and the media's eye on the Kremlin.

On the national level, every concerned member of our community needs to write to the president and the secretary of state urging that Mr. Shukhevych's name be continually raised at any U.S.-Soviet meetings. As a reinforcement letters should be consistently flowing to our congressmen and senators urging them to follow up and insist that the Shukhevych case be raised at all bilateral and multilateral forums at which the USSR is represented.

Let no stone be unturned in our efforts. We need only refer to the Jewish community's resolve in obtaining the release of Anatoly Shcharansky to set an example of the action that needs to be taken on Yuriy Shukhevych's behalf.

Myron Wasylyk is director of the Ukrainian National Information Service in Washington.

Shukhevych in exile: an update on his condition

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