Turning the pages back... November 14-17, 1988 (11/15/98)

Turning the pages back...

November 14-17, 1988

Ten years ago in November, Ukrainian and other political dissidents, many of them already veterans of the Soviet gulag, were invited by a U.S. congressional delegation to Moscow. This historic event was covered on the pages of The Weekly by Roma Hadzewycz, who had the good fortune of being in the Russian capital at precisely that time along with a frequent contributor to the newspaper, Dr. David Marples, as part of a delegation of journalists and scholars visiting the USSR.

Following are excerpts of Ms. Hadzewycz's account of those historic days in 1988.

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MOSCOW - In what many observers both in the USSR and the United States described as an unprecedented series of meetings, a 14-member delegation representing the U.S. Congressional Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe and members of the USSR Supreme Soviet met here for four days on November 14-17 to discuss a variety of human rights concerns.

The Moscow session, which culminated on Friday, November 18, with a press conference featuring U.S. and Soviet officials, was noteworthy also for the participation of approximately 100 human, national and religious rights activists, as well as refuseniks - a group representing all shades of dissent in the Soviet Union.

Among the rights activists present were 15 Ukrainians involved in the struggle for national and religious rights, including a delegation headed by Bishop Pavlo Vasylyk representing the still outlawed Ukrainian Catholic Church.

The U.S. delegation, headed by the chairman of the Helsinki Commission, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), sought the release of all Soviet political prisoners - 179 cases were cited by the Americans - and the resolution of 600 refuseniks' cases. ...

Ukrainian rights activists who participated at various times in formal and informal meetings with U.S. officials, luncheons with U.S. and Soviet delegates, and a reception at Spaso House, the official residence of the U.S. ambassador to the USSR, were: Mykhailo and Bohdan Horyn, Mykola Horbal, Vyacheslav Chornovil, Stepan Khmara, Oles Shevchenko, Serhiy Naboka, Yevhen Sverstiuk, Ivan and Maria Hel, Bishop Vasylyk, the Revs. Mykhailo Havryliv and Hryhoriy Simkailo, Mykhailo Osadchy and Mykola Muratov. ...

According to participants, many substantive issues were raised in these sessions, among them the legalization of the Ukrainian Catholic Church and the release of the two Helsinki monitors still serving sentences for their rights activity, Lev Lukianenko and Mykola Matusevych of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union, who are both serving exile sentences. ...

According to Mr. Chornovil, a long-time human and national rights activist and veteran political prisoner, exchanges at the luncheons were forthright and substantive. Mr. Chornovil told The Weekly that Soviet officials and rights activists engaged in an unprecedented face-to-face discussion on human rights and reforms in the USSR.

... Additionally, other meetings held outside the scope of official sessions took place between U.S. officials and Soviet dissenters. One such meeting brought several Ukrainian rights activists together with Rep. Ritter of the Helsinki Commission and Orest Deychakiwsky, a commission staffer.

A reception for members of the U.S. delegation, deputies of the USSR Supreme Soviet, rights activists and invited guests - several hundred persons in all - was held Thursday evening, November 17, at Spaso House. (Ms. Hadzewycz and Dr. Marples were able to attend thanks to Mr. Deychakiwsky.) Here one saw Ukrainian human rights activists, leaders of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Estonian national rights activists, members of the Hare Krishna sect, refuseniks and other dissidents mingling with American and Soviet officials, and speaking a variety of languages. ...

Asked to sum up the feelings of the U.S. delegation at the conclusion of their meetings in Moscow, Mr. Deychakiwsky, a staffer of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, said, "for members of our delegation it was an unforgettable week - in particular our meetings with Soviet dissidents."

"Many members of our delegation," he continued, "were genuinely moved by their personal meetings with Soviet rights activists on whose behalf many of them had spoken out."

Source: "U.S., Soviet officials address human rights in Moscow talks; Dissidents participate in historic meetings, voice concerns" by Roma Hadzewycz, The Ukrainian Weekly, November 27, 1988, Vol. LVI, No. 48.

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