LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (12/22/96)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Congratulations are in order

Dear Editor:

Now that the polemics and writing campaigns in The Ukrainian Weekly having to do with the presidential election have come to an end, it is appropriate to congratulate President Bill Clinton and all of his supporters. He ran a superb campaign. (I believe the best since the Johnson-Goldwater landslide of 1964.)

However, more to the point, President Clinton ran an especially important campaign with regard to Ukraine. He fostered and sought our vote, something I was amazed to see was totally forgotten on the Republican side. Given his track record with Ukraine, which is commendable in anybody's good book, Mr. Clinton won many votes from Ukrainian Americans. These are voters who historically viewed Republican presidential candidates as traditionally anti-Communist and "pro-Ukraine." Clearly, this was not an easy choice for many Ukrainian Americans. No doubt this sense of torn allegiance contributed in part to the heated debate evidenced in your letters to the editor during the campaign.

I know that we, as Ukrainian Americans, respect our president and, second, understand that the opposition's turn will come in a future election.

As the Democratic Party has taken account of its disenfranchisement in the southern states of the U.S., I believe the Republican Party must look at its relationship with what used to be called the "Captive Nations" and especially Ukraine.

It was unfortunate that the debate was reduced to charges and counter-charges that one political party was "more for Ukraine" than the other. There should be no U.S. political party for Ukraine any more than there is a U.S. party for Israel, Russia or Egypt, the other large recipients of U.S. aid. As they say in Washington: "You need to have friends on both sides of the aisle."

Stated differently, our voice should be heard not because we are Democrats or Republicans who may be in power, but because of the truth and strength of our belief and this belief should hold true in Kyiv, as well as in Washington:

We will not stand for or allow another Soviet or Communist regime to occupy and control Ukraine, ever again, because it is not in the interest of the Ukrainian people or the United States of America.

If we can all agree on the above premise, then we are getting that much closer to working together, regardless of political affiliation.

Bohdan D. Shandor
North Brunswick, N.J.

Ukraine must stop death penalty

Dear Editor:

In spite of an agreement to implement an immediate moratorium on the death penalty as a condition for entry into the Council of Europe, Ukraine has been executing hundreds of individuals during the past several years. Amnesty International has uncovered numerous names (Vedmedenko, Ogoltsov, Vysochansky, Markitan, Alkhimov, Skarabagatov, Gumenyuk, Tekuchev, Chernitsa, etc.) of individuals who were executed or are on death row and has appealed to officials in Ukraine to halt the executions forthwith.

For more than a year, Americans for Human Rights in Ukraine (AHRU) also has been writing protests against the death penalty and executions in Ukraine. Letters from AHRU to members of various branches of government in Ukraine have been met with a wall of silence. Letters were sent to President Leonid Kuchma, Minister of Justice Serhii Holovatyi, Chairman of the Presidential Clemency Commission Pyotr Andreychenko, Procurator General of Ukraine Hryhorii Vorsinov, Chairman of the Supreme Court of Ukraine Vitalii Boyko, Chairman of the Parliament's Committee on Legal Affairs Leonid Borodych, Foreign Minister of Ukraine Hennadii Udovenko, Chairman of the Commission for Legal Policy and Court and Legal Reform Volodymyr Stretovych, Ambassador Dr. Yuri Shcherbak, wardens of prisons and others. The letters sent were in both English and Ukrainian.

The Ukrainian Weekly and Svoboda have reported that the issue of the death penalty is finally being discussed in Ukraine after prodding from the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly. However, it has been repeatedly reiterated by governmental officials that the people of Ukraine overwhelmingly support the death penalty. Even a prominent official such as Borys Oliynyk had flippantly commented that if murders at the airports were to cease he, too, would support termination of the death sentence.

The death penalty and executions have not slowed down murders and crime in Ukraine. In fact, criminal activity has taken a sharp turn upward. As a consequence, many individuals are repeatedly victimized by organized crime. The harsh and swift so-called justice meted out is reminiscent of the justice system in the former Soviet Union and other totalitarian regimes.

AHRU feels that public pressure is the only recourse left to individuals who sincerely care about the future of Ukraine. The issue of terminating the death penalty and instituting an immediate moratorium on executions has been a cause for serious concern by members of the Council of Europe. Since Ukraine agreed to this precondition upon acceptance into the Council of Europe 11 months ago, Ukraine will have to live up to its word if it is to be taken seriously by European countries and function as a civil society.

AHRU is calling upon interested and concerned individuals to respond in a joint effort to bring to the attention of the Ukrainian government the need for an immediate moratorium on the death penalty and executions.

For further information please write or call: AHRU, 43 Midland Place, Newark, N.J. 07106; telephone, (201) 373-9729; fax, (201) 373-4755.

Walter Bodnar
Newark, N.J.

The letter writer is vice-president of Americans for Human Rights in Ukraine.