Polish, Ukrainian presidents sign concord declaration (05/25/97)

Polish, Ukrainian presidents sign concord declaration

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Poland's President Alexander Kwasniewski spent three days in Ukraine on May 20-22 on an official state visit during which he signed a document with President Leonid Kuchma to put aside historical animosities and conflicts between the two neighboring countries.

Poland and Ukraine have had amiable relations since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but in the years surrounding World War II strained relations existed. Wars and land grabs have marked their co-existence for centuries.

On May 21, in a move to alleviate past misunderstandings and differences, the two presidents signed a Declaration on Concord and Unity.

The declaration addresses the two major points of contention between the countries in the 20th century: Operation Vistula (Akcja Wisla) of 1947, in which 150,000 ethnic Ukrainians were forcibly moved from homes in southeastern Poland to the northwest by the Polish Communist government, and others killed for refusing to do so; and the killing of Poles in the Volyn region in the Ukrainian struggle for independence during World War II.

"We pay tribute to the innocent Ukrainians and Poles - the tormented, the dead and the forcibly uprooted," read a joint statement released by the presidents at the Institute of International Relations in Kyiv.

The purpose of Mr. Kwasniewski's visit, as Anatolii Ponomarenko, chief of the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry's Department of Europe and America, put it, was "to continue to move for the political reconciliation of the peoples of Poland and Ukraine in the present-day context."

Speaking before Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada on May 21, President Kwasniewski expressed his sympathy for the "tragic destiny of Ukrainians who suffered because of Operation Vistula."

"The profoundly human formula 'we forgive and ask for forgiveness' is meaningful even when people are not under the pressure of responsibility for what happened in the past," said the Polish president.

In Mr. Kwasniewski's statement before the Verkhovna Rada, as in the joint presidential Declaration on Concord and Unity, blame was ascribed to third parties - Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union - for the conflicts that have marked relations between the neighboring countries in the 20th century.

"We recognize that no objective can justify a crime, violence or application of the collective responsibility principle," stated the statement released by the presidents. "We remember that the source of those conflicts was often outside Poland and Ukraine and at times due to circumstances over which neither Ukrainians nor Poles had control, as well as undemocratic political systems imposed upon our peoples in defiance of their wills."

The previous day three additional agreements were signed between the two countries: on cooperation in the fields of science, culture and education; on cooperation in developing the coal industry between the Ukrainian Coal Industry Ministry and the Polish Economics Ministry; and on cooperation between the finance ministries of both countries.

The issue of NATO enlargement was never far from the surface in Mr. Kwasniewski's meetings with Ukrainian leaders. Poland is expected to be approved in July for full membership in NATO and Ukraine is looking to sign a charter of cooperation with the military alliance. (Ukrainian government officials are speculating that an agreement may be ready for initialing by May 30).

Immediately after his arrival at Boryspil Airport in Kyiv, Mr. Kwasniewski said he was 100 percent behind a Ukraine-NATO document. He said also statements made by Russia's President Boris Yeltsin that any move by NATO to bring in post-Soviet countries would be grounds for Russia to change its stance towards NATO were meant for internal Russian consumption.

At the Institute of International Relations, where the NATO representation to Ukraine has its offices, President Kuchma declared before students of the institute that NATO's expansion depends on Russia. "It largely depends on Russia, on whether Russia becomes a democratic, stable society, or whether it pushes countries to search for somebody's protection."

Before the Verkhovna Rada, President Kwasniewski called NATO expansion "the eastward advance of stability and security," and said that Poland's inclusion into NATO can only enhance Ukraine's security by way of close military cooperation with its western neighbor.

Although the Polish president's visit may have helped to finally put aside historic antagonisms between Ukraine and Poland, it only caused tempers to flare for Kyiv's commuters. As the presidential motorcades raced along streets lined with Polish and Ukrainian flags from the Verkhovna Rada to the Institute of International Relations, from the Mariinsky Palace to the Cabinet of Ministers building, or before Kyiv City Hall on the Khreschatyk, where Mr. Kwasniewski arrived to accept an award as an honorary resident of Kyiv just as rush hour was to begin - it caused major traffic snarls and headaches.

But with Russia's leaders due here next week, Kyiv's commuters might as well get ready for more, and probably worse.

President Kuchma's busy month of May continued with President Kwasniewski's visit. So far this month the Ukrainian president has hosted Belarus' President Alaksyander Lukashenka and traveled to the U.S., where he met with President Bill Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore. Due on May 28 is Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin followed two days later by his boss, President Boris Yeltsin.

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