Letter from Philadelphia-based Ukrainian Human Rights Committee (11/06/94)

CONTINUING REACTION TO "60 MINUTES" REPORT

Letter from Philadelphia-based Ukrainian Human Rights Committee

Following is the text of a letter sent to Don Hewitt, executive producer of "60 Minutes," by the Ulana Baluch Mazurkevich, president of the Ukrainian Human Right Committee based in Philadelphia.

Thank you for your prompt response to the pain and dismay caused the Ukrainian community by the airing of the October 23, segment of "60 Minutes" titled "The Ugly Face of Democracy." We think it is appropriate that you will be meeting with us so that we may resolve this matter expeditiously and correct the wrongs done to the Ukrainian American community and Ukraine. You must realize that the public sentiment generated by your segment cast Ukrainians, and by indirection, Ukrainian Americans and Ukrainian Canadians, as hateful, backward and indeed, barbaric.

The numerous factual and historical inaccuracies and distortions presented by the interplay of your video footage and commentary put modern-day Ukraine in a completely false light, leaving the viewer with the impression that this new nation is on the very verge of Nazism.

The examples of gross distortions in your piece are legion, as would be borne out by a frame-by-frame analysis. We have in fact performed a line-by-line analysis of your transcript and have comment on virtually every statement made. However, let us point out just a few of the inaccuracies and/or questionable items and techniques used in your presentation, which we can use as initial discussion points:

You identified Symon Petliura as an arch anti-Semite, when in fact in 1919 Mr. Petliura issued a decree making anti-Semitism a capital crime in then independent Ukraine. In fact, at least two of Mr. Petliura's Cabinet Ministers ([Solomon] Goldleman and [Arnold] Margolin) were Jewish, and Ukrainian currency of that era was imprinted with Hebrew characters. Your attacks on Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych are equally unjustified and can only be interpreted as an attempt to smear prominent 20th century advocates of Ukrainian independence with an anti-Semitic brush. Two of Bandera's brothers, in fact, were killed at Auschwitz, and Mr. Bandera himself was a German prisoner.
Your reference to a bishop who 50 year ago prayed for Ukrainian troops in the SS could only be interpreted as a reference to Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky, the only Catholic bishop anywhere to issue a plea to occupying German forces not to take Ukrainians into their service, as it was against Christian moral principles to participate in atrocities. Metropolitan Sheptytsky has been recognized in many circles as a strong advocate for human rights and decency at a time of extreme horror in Ukraine. In fact, Metropolitan Sheptytsky himself sheltered Jewish children and as such, ranks among the righteous.
Your report was rife with statements so defamatory that they almost seem absurdly funny. To wit, Safer: "Independence only underlined its backwardness; uneducated peasants, deeply superstitious, in possession of this bizarre anomaly: nuclear weapons capable of mass destruction thousands of miles away, the Soviet legacy." Your characterization of a population, which is in fact highly educated, brings back images of medieval serfdom. Assuming your absurd characterization to he true, surely you know who has control of the nuclear button, and it is not any villager in Ukraine!
In terms of video time, you gave short shrift to the points of view of Cardinal Myroslav Lubachivsky and the Rev. Ivan Dacko, while devoting most of your footage to a melange of shots and interviews to perpetuate the view of an anti-Semitic Ukraine, both as a contemporary nation and historically.
Your historical footage was unidentified: there was no disclosure of the source of the same or the dates on which it was allegedly taken.
Your presentation about wartime Ukraine presented absolutely no historical context about the previous Polish and Russian occupations of Ukraine, and facts of immediate and tremendous psychological and historical import, such as the Great Famine of 1932-1933, during which 7 million Ukrainians were forcibly starved to death during the process of Soviet collectivization.

In fact, the UNA/UNSO, the ultraright-wing group on which you focused, represents the viewpoint of a tiny minority of the Ukrainian population. As a human rights monitoring organization, we would be aware of any significant "Ukraine for Ukrainians" movement. The group you presented is as much a fringe element as the American Nazi Party (which we note is legal in this country and is guaranteed free speech rights) and the white supremacist movement in the United States.

Your piece ignored the fact that in report after report (of which we will provide you copies), the CSCE [U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe] has noted Ukraine as one of the few nations to rise from the ashes of the former Soviet Union in which there are no noteworthy inter-ethnic or inter-confessional disputes. Your report ignored that one of the first international acts of the Ukrainian government was the erection of a memorial at Babyn Yar in 1991, and the tremendous positive impact this, among other acts, had on Ukrainian-Israeli relations. Finally, your report totally ignored the fact that under Ukrainian law, the equal rights of all citizens are guaranteed regardless of ethnic origin or religious persuasion. You also ignored that Jews have been welcomed into and are in the forefront of the Ukrainian independence movement, by such parties as Rukh, and that a number have been elected to the Ukrainian Parliament.

The false light in which you have depicted Ukraine is inexcusable; similarly, you have used the same brush to paint Americans of Ukrainian descent. To remedy this situation, we look forward to our upcoming meeting to further air our concerns and to discuss appropriate remedial action.

Ulana Baluch Mazurkevich
President

| Home Page |