Turning the pages back... September 22, 1991 (09/22/96)

Turning the pages back...

September 22, 1991

On September 22, 1991, tens of thousands of Ukrainians around the United States gathered at rallies in Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles to demand that the United States recognize the independence of Ukraine that had been proclaimed by Parliament just one month earlier.

The rallies were organized by the National Committee for U.S. Recognition of Ukraine, an ad-hoc committee comprising the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council and the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America in association with various other community organizations.

Following are excerpts of The Weekly's story about the Washington demonstration filed by Assistant Editor Khristina Lew.

* * *

Five thousand demonstrators, bearing a 25-foot banner stating "Independence Means Freedom and Democracy" and waving hundreds of Ukrainian national flags, rallied for U.S. recognition of Ukraine's independence on September 22 in Lafayette Park, across from the White House.

The rally's first speaker was Dr. Gregory Stanton, human rights advocate and professor of law currently affiliated with The American University in Washington, who spoke of the demise of communism.

Taras Petrynenko and Hrono, Ukraine's leading rock band, then took the stage to sing "Hospody Pomyluy" (Lord Have Mercy).

"Recognize Ukraine now to avoid American agony later!" declared the rally's second speaker, Dr. Lev Dobriansky, former ambassador to the Bahamas under the Reagan administration, Georgetown University professor, former president of the UCCA and current chairman of the National Captive Nations Committee.

Other speakers included representatives of the UACC and UCCA, a representative of Sen. Al D'Amato and former Soviet political prisoner Stefania Shabatura, now a deputy of the Lviv City Council and president of the lay Catholic society Compassion. Numerous members of Congress sent messages to the rally, as did Lane Kirkland, president of the AFL-CIO.

The demonstrators listened also to a taped message from Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter. In his message Dr. Brzezinski stated:

"As an American, I rejoice at Ukraine's liberation. As an American of Polish origin, I salute the courage of the tens of thousands of Ukrainians who suffered and died so that Ukraine would live. Your devotion to liberty is not 'suicidal nationalism based on ethnic hatred.' It represents a historically rooted and internationally legitimate desire for national independence. The time has come for America and the world to recognize that a free and democratic Ukraine is as essential to a stable Europe as a free and democratic Russia or as free and democratic Baltic states."

Source: The Ukrainian Weekly, September 19, 1991 (Vol. LIX, No. 39).