UOC-MP monks occupy Kyiv building rented by U.S.-Ukraine Foundation
Religious Information Service of Ukraine
KYIV - Monks of the Monastery of the Holy Presentation of the Lord, which is affiliated with the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) occupied the Kyiv building of the Pylyp Orlyk Institute of Democracy and the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation on March 5. They demanded that the building which once belonged to the monastery, be returned to the monastic community.
Though the foundation, which rents the building, has a lease until May 2004, foundation employees packed their things and left the building.
On March 11 UOC-MP leaders brought their religious and faithful out of the building thus ending the occupation. The U.S.-Ukraine Foundation (USUF) has filed a court case, claiming its rights have been violated. (See sidebar)
USUF Vice-President Markian Bilynskyi told TV channel 1+1 that "There were no civilized discussions with the monks. They addressed us in the form of an ultimatum, demanding that we leave the premises."
Until the foundation's court case has been decided, the premises are under police protection. Though the UOC-MP contigent has left the building, the employees of the foundation cannot return to work because the offices have been sealed shut.
According to National Deputy Pavlo Movchan of Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine faction, "the occupiers blocked the offices and demanded that employees of civic organizations leave the building."
Political pretext?
"The seizure [of the building by monks] has a clear political pretext, since it took place under anti-American slogans," said Mr. Movchan. "Numerous requests of national deputies to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to resolve this problem in accordance with current legislation didn't give any desired results, and the ministry has taken an exceptionally passive stand," he added soon after the occupation began.
According to the press service of the UOC-MP, on November 19, 2002, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine issued a decree to transfer the building to the Kyivan Monastery of the Holy Presentation of the Lord. The UOC-MP reported that monks had made numerous requests to Mykola Udovenko, director of the UkrAhroPromBud Corp., which rents the building out to the Pylyp Orlyk Institute, to return the building to its historical owner. In addition, the UOC-MP also accused the Pylyp Orlyk Institute of attempting to get around the government's decree and the law.
The press service of the UOC-MP reported that the Pylyp Orlyk Institute of Democracy was established by the wife of an American congressman, Nadia McConnell. In fact, Nadia Komarnyckyj McConnell, president of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation, is married to Robert McConnell, an attorney who is not a congressman.
Institute employees call police
Representatives of the UOC-MP maintain that the situation became aggravated when, at the monks' demand to leave the building, employees of the institute called the police.
The UOC-MP stressed that in accordance with the presidential decree "On Urgent Measures for Combating the Negative Consequences of Totalitarian Policies of the Former Soviet Union regarding Religion and Restoration of the Violated Rights of Churches and Religious Organizations," issued on March 21, 2002, the state should return the expropriated property to Churches.
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 30, 2003, No. 13, Vol. LXXI
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