1986: A LOOK BACK

Soviet defectors in Afghanistan

Most Canadians were startled that their government had risked damaging relations with the Soviet Union by secretly spiriting five Red Army defectors out of Afghanistan in November.

To many, the extraordinary foreign policy decision was reminiscent of the role Canada played in surreptitiously getting a group of American diplomats out of Iran during the hostage crisis.

The group defected to Afghan guerrilla forces in 1983, and for more than three years, External Affairs officials refused to bend immigration rules to allow them to enter Canada.

But after a series of embarrassing reports on the defectors written by Globe and Mail reporter Victor Malarek, the government, in what it called a "humanitarian act," brought five of the six soldiers to Canada. The sixth was left behind because he was too far inside Afghanistan.

After a series of medical examinations and debriefing sessions, the five appeared November 25 at a Toronto news conference organized by their sponsors, the Canadian Ukrainian Immigrant Aid Society.

Earlier, the defectors met with Soviet Embassy officials and told them that they have no desire to return to their homeland.

One of the five, Ihor Kovalchuk - a 25-year-old factory worker from Kharkiv - was said to be of Ukrainian and Byelorussian origin. CUIAS has offered to pay his expenses while he lives with a Ukrainian family.

Canadian officials will not say whether additional rescue efforts are planned. But Ludmilla Thorne, director of Freedom House's Center for Appeals for Freedom, a New York-based human-rights organization that helped publicize the defectors' plight, said additional rescue missions will be difficult because of publicity surrounding the escape route used by Canada.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, December 28, 1986, No. 52, Vol. LIV

| Home Page |