Lviv city officials look to rebury Bandera, Petliura and Konovalets in Ukraine (08/04/02)

Lviv city officials look to rebury Bandera, Petliura and Konovalets in Ukraine

by Ivan Poltavets

KYIV - A civic committee has been formed in Lviv to delve into the possibility of transferring the remains of Stepan Bandera and other prominent historical figures to Ukraine. Lviv Mayor Lubomyr Bunyak has agreed to head the committee, which will attempt to unite a variety of politicians, scientists and social activists in the effort, said Zoreslava Romovska, head of the Lviv branch of the Batkivschyna Party, which initiated the effort.

Newly-elected National Deputy Andrii Shkil, who until recently headed the UNA-UNSO political organization and today is associated with the Batkivschyna Party, officially announced the proposal on July 24, which includes the proposal to return to Ukraine the remains of Bandera, who headed the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists during and right after World War II, as well as Yevhen Konovalets, the founder of OUN and Ukrainian National Republic leader Symon Petliura.

Bandera, who was assassinated by a Soviet KGB agent in 1959 in Munich, where he was living in self-imposed exile, is buried there. Konovalets lies in a Rotterdam cemetery, the Dutch city where he was gunned down in 1938, also by a Soviet agent, while Petliura is buried in Paris, where he was assassinated in 1924.

"The nation's lands should be watered with the national spirit of these great figures," explained Mr. Shkil. "While not recognized in the countries they are buried in, these people are giants of Ukrainian history."

Mr. Shkil said he believed the effort could be realized in two to three years if a national expression of the will to do so developed.

"This idea has been around for a while, but before it was difficult to speak of seeing it become a reality. Now, it is possible to form an instrument for its implementation, to develop the national willingness to undertake the step, receive the consent of relatives, create the civic committee, work with archives and take care of the legal formalities," added Mr. Shkil.

The City of Lviv Commission for War Burials calls for burying Bandera, Konovalets and Petliura at Lychakiv cemetery in Lviv. But Stephen Bandera, the OUN leader's grandson, said that Kyiv is the most appropriate place for his grandfather's remains.

"There should be a reburial of other historical figures at a Pantheon of Ukrainian Heroes in Kyiv, which would help unite eastern and western Ukraine," he said.

Mr. Shkil also proposes Kyiv as the location for the reburial of the remains of the three legendary Ukrainians, as well, and believes constructing a Pantheon of Heroes would be appropriate. He explained that there are practical reasons in addition to political and cultural concerns to proceed with reburial of the 20th century Ukrainian legends in their homeland.

In Munich, he explained, there is evidence that Bandera's grave could be affected and even disturbed if authorities there implement a plan now being prepared to widen the road near the cemetery. The grave of Mr. Konovalets in Rotterdam could be torn down in several months, if rental payment for the land, which is designated a national park, is not made.

But dangers might be waiting in Ukraine as well, and it would still be necessary to ensure the safety of the graves should they be transferred to Ukraine. Bandera's surviving sister, Oksana, who currently lives in Stryi, fears possible acts of vandalism and desecration of the grave of her late brother, as the late Ukrainian hero's grandson, Stephen, told The Weekly.

Stephen Bandera is generally supportive of the idea of transferring the remains of his grandfather to Ukraine, but feels that there is a "logical progression of how things could be or should be," which includes first waiting for the necessary family decisions, full compliance with Christian reburial rites and, very importantly, full-scale restoration and recognition of the OUN-UPA.

The proposals to return home the remains of prominent Ukrainians of the past comes after the Ukrainian government at both the local and the national level has approved initial efforts to legitimize and recognize the OUN-UPA, which alternatively fought Polish, German and Soviet forces in its effort to free Ukraine of foreign hegemony in the 1930s, 1940s and into the early 1950s, when Soviet forces finally extinguished the movement, which was most active in western Ukraine. The UPA, which is the Ukrainian acronym for the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, was the military wing of OUN.

The Lviv city council, for example, stepped out with an initiative to posthumously confer the rank of the Hero of Ukraine upon Bandera, Konovalets, and UPA General Roman Shukhevych as well as three other outstanding OUN-UPA figures, Vasyl Kuk, Vasyl Levkovych and Vasyl Halas.

However, a statement signed by OUN-UPA veterans, including the latter three who are still alive, declared their unwillingness to accept any awards from current Ukrainian authorities until they officially recognize the OUN-UPA as a fighting force for the independence of Ukraine and accord its members status as war veterans.

The group also explained that the designation Hero of Ukraine has been besmirched because too often it is bestowed upon "anti-Ukrainian elements," according to Interfax-Ukraine.

Earlier this month a government Committee on OUN-UPA Activities, headed by the vice-Prime-Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Semynozhenko drafted a law "On restoration of historical justice regarding the fighters for freedom and independence of the Ukrainian state," which once adopted will officially acknowledge that OUN-UPA fought for freedom and independence of a united Ukrainian state. The bill, drafted by the Cabinet of Ministers, has not yet been made public or registered in Verkhovna Rada, where it must be approved. Once registered it will not be the only such bill. A group of lawmakers, headed by National Deputy Yaroslav Kendzior, a member of the Our Ukraine faction, registered an alternative draft law with a similar name on July 9.

Recognition of OUN-UPA 60 years after the inception of the movement cannot be limited to approved documents and politically expedient steps, explained Stephen Bandera.

"Recognizing OUN-UPA is not about passing laws or 'postanovas,' it is also about a certain public education campaign," he said.

Mr. Shkil and Mrs. Romovska also stressed the need for advocacy campaigns dealing with OUN-UPA activities targeted at wide audiences.

In its current initiatives the government and the civic committee could face internal as well as external opposition. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs protested the attempts to rehabilitate OUN-UPA veterans on July 15 and expressed dissatisfaction with such an effort receiving Ukrainian government support. Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Anatolii Zlenko expressed dissatisfaction with the Russian stand and retorted in an official statement that the matter of OUN-UPA is not a Russian affair.

"Our government considers this an internal Ukrainian affair," said Mr. Zlenko at the opening of the GUUAM information center on July 16.

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