Poland's Ukrainians have few expectations regarding second World Forum of Ukrainians (08/24/97)

Poland's Ukrainians have few expectations regarding second World Forum of Ukrainians

by Khristina Lew
Kyiv Press Bureau

WARSAW, Poland - Ukrainians in Poland confront grave problems as a national minority daily, and they will attend the second World Forum of Ukrainians being held in Kyiv under the Ukrainian government's sponsorship on August 21-24 with few expectations.

The Association of Ukrainians in Poland (AUP), which unites 7,500 Ukrainians in 25 of Poland's 49 "voivodships," or regions, views the convocation of the second World Forum of Ukrainians from a unique perspective. The largest organization of Ukrainians in Poland, its leadership maintains that Ukrainians in Poland are not diaspora, but indigenous - their ethnic lands are now found on Polish territory, and they have the same rights and responsibilities as other Polish citizens.

"We do not believe that someone will do our work for us. We receive very little support, yet we have a Ukrainian in the Polish Sejm, our Ukrainian schools have new buildings, we are represented in the mass media, we are a part of the social and political reality of Poland. We are here whether Poles like it or not, but we demand something from Poland and in terms of Polish-Ukrainian relations," said Jurij Rejt, chairman of the AUP's head council.

The Warsaw-based AUP unites some 20 Ukrainian organizations in Poland. It publishes the 10-page Ukrainian-language weekly newspaper Nashe Slovo, which boasts a circulation of 5,000, the children's newspaper Svitanok and the Ukrainian Almanac. The association works primarily with youth and churches (half of Poland's Ukrainians worship in the Ukrainian Catholic Church, the other half in the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church).

The association has its own budget, and gets support from the Polish ministries of culture and education, and European organizations that sponsor minority groups.

In 1990, the Polish government gave the AUP a building in the suburbs of Warsaw. The building houses the association's publishing house Tyrsa; the offices of Miroslaw Czech, a posol (deputy) to the Polish Sejm who is a member of the presidium of the AUP's general council; the youth organization Plast; the leadership of the Union of Ukrainian Women; and the European Congress of Ukrainians, which is headed by Mr. Rejt.

While Poland has laws protecting the rights of national minorities, according to Mr. Rejt the government is passive in enforcing them. He cited as examples local interference in the last two Ukrainian festivals held in Peremyshl and a Polish group's attempt to disband the Association of Ukrainians in Poland via the court system. The court case, which claimed that the AUP was anti-Polish, was thrown out.

"The negative stereotype of Ukrainians created during Soviet times still exists in Poland. Ukrainians exist lower on the scale than Gypsies and Jews," he said.

Poland's national minorities make up 3 percent of the Polish population. Germans are the largest minority group, numbering 500,000, followed by Ukrainians, 250,000-300,000; Belarusians, 250,000; Lithuanians, 30,000; Slovaks, 15,000; and Jews, 5,000-10,000.

The Association of Ukrainians in Poland sees its mandate as three fold: to force the Polish government to acknowledge past atrocities committed against Ukrainians and rectify them, i.e. Operation Wisla (Akcja Wisla), the 1947 military operation that deported 150,000 Ukrainians from their ethnic lands in southern Poland to northern and northwestern Poland; to ensure that Poland's laws on national minorities are enforced; and to facilitate Ukrainian-Polish relations based on the May 21 Ukrainian-Polish Declaration on Concord and Unity signed by Presidents Leonid Kuchma and Alexander Kwasniewski.

The issue of Akcja Wisla has been repeatedly brought up in the Polish Sejm by Mr. Czech, who represents the Koszalin district in northern Poland where some 15,000 Ukrainians reside. Tied to that issue is the return of Ukrainian property. According to Ihor Szczerba, editor-in-chief of Nashe Slovo and a member of the AUP's general council, the return of property affects not only individuals, but Ukrainian churches and organizations as well.

The AUP organized a petition signed by 5,000-10,000 people urging the Sejm to resolve issues connected with Akcja Wisla. Mr. Reyt said that one-fifth of the Polish Sejm is willing to consider the proposal; the remaining four-fifths ignore it.

In April, the first Congress of Ukrainians in Poland held since the World War II submitted petitions to Presidents Kwasniewski and Kuchma to rectify problems stemming from Operation Wisla. As of the end of August, the AUP still awaits a response.

The Congress of Ukrainians in Poland was significant in that it was a predecessor to the second World Forum of Ukrainians. The April convocation was attended by 300 delegates, including Ivan Drach, head of the Ukrainian World Coordinating Council; Askold Lozynskyj, president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America; Volodymyr Procyk of the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council; and hierarchs of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Poland and the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church. Delegates met with Polish President Kwasniewski and received greetings from Ukrainian President Kuchma.

When the AUP's 25 delegates and guests arrive for the second World Forum of Ukrainians in Kyiv, they plan to discuss how a worldwide body of Ukrainians should be structured. Mr. Rejt opposes the idea of building an "artificial worldwide organization full of bureaucracy. The Ukrainian World Coordinating Council should be a coordinating body only."

The AUP leadership believes that the coordinating council should function as a clearinghouse of information on the activities of Ukrainian organizations throughout the world. Mr. Szczerba pointed out that, despite the fact that the diaspora "has lost its concept of what to do and needs to strengthen itself internally, Ukrainians in the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, in Poland and Romania are not aware of each other's problems and activities."

Mr. Rejt contends that Ukrainians beyond Ukraine "don't need to be taught how to be Ukrainian." The structure of the Ukrainian World Coordinating Council needs to be elastic, he said, adding that, "The structure is the least important aspect. What's important is to continue the process of nation-building."

"We need to be realistic, do what we do best, and not destroy what we already have," he concluded.

| Home Page |