Two-day conference in Washington focuses on civil society in Ukraine (04/20/03)

Two-day conference in Washington focuses on civil society in Ukraine

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - The "multi-vector" foreign policy of Ukraine proclaimed just a few years ago is dead, according to Zbigniew Brzezinski. The question now is not "whether" Ukraine will integrate itself with the West, but the speed of the process, he said.

While normalization of relations with Russia "makes sense," President Jimmy Carter's national security advisor told the participants of a recent conference on Ukraine, "movement towards Russia in any serious fashion makes no serious sense whatsoever - socially, economically, technologically."

"There may be some misguided individuals, very often connected with somewhat dogmatic parties that have some nostalgia of that sort," he said, but added, "anyone whose IQ is above average doesn't entertain that point of view."

Dr. Brzezinski, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, was the featured dinner speaker during a two-day conference on April 7-8 on civil society in Ukraine, sponsored by the George Washington University and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

He told the gathering that Russia is now facing some "truly enormous problems" - a demographic catastrophe; massive de-industrialization, "obscured only by the fact that it is a petro-state"; and a population shift from the east to central Russia because the government can no longer subsidize it there.

In addition, to its east it now faces a state with a population nine times larger and an economy six times larger than that of Russia; and to the west it faces "an economic entity that is beginning to acquire political identity." In addition to some 20 experts discussing problems in the various areas of Ukrainian civil society - media, business, political parties and non-governmental organizations - conference participants also heard from Adam Michnik, a long-time human rights activist in Poland and editor of Gazeta Wyborcza, and Paula Dobriansky, undersecretary of state for global affairs.

Discussing the evolution of U.S. policy toward Ukraine since his service at the White House, Dr. Brzezinski said it evolved "from ignorance, through arrogance, to perseverance."

He cited as examples of "fundamental ignorance," how, as the Soviet Union was breaking apart, Ukrainians "were publicly warned to beware of excessive nationalism" (without mentioning that this was stated by President George Bush in his speech in Kyiv); U.S. doubts that Ukrainians felt themselves to be European; and predictions that it would split apart along linguistic and ethnic lines.

As ignorance faded, it was followed by an arrogant approach to Ukraine, with claims that it was an economic "basketcase," when its neighbor Russia "was very much a petro-state." It was also said to be corrupt, but, Dr. Brzezinski asked, "Corrupt as compared to whom?"

And the comparison, he said, would not have to be with a foreign capital close to Kyiv, but could well be one on this continent as well. And there was a tendency to politically ostracize Ukraine for shortcomings, "which in the case of analogous shortcomings elsewhere did not lead to similar ostracism," Dr. Brzezinski said, comparing, among other things, the killing of one individual in Ukraine with the "mass killings in Chechnya."

This arrogant phase passed as well, Dr. Brzezinski said, and now there is growing awareness within the American elite, government and public that Ukraine, indeed, "has been successful in overcoming enormous historical handicaps that it confronted when it became independent."

Internally, Ukraine's potential linguistic and ethnic confrontations were diffused, and in its foreign policy, "despite some zig-zags over the last several years, the general trend is towards the West." There is a "lingering ambivalence" about this within the top leadership and vested interests, but not within the younger generation, he said.

"Ukraine, naturally, by history, by culture, is European; it is not Eurasian; and that makes for a fundamental difference," Dr. Brzezinski said.

The Polish view

Speaking at the opening session of the conference, Mr. Michnik presented a Polish perspective on what is occurring in Ukraine and how Warsaw would like to see its internal and external developments proceed. He prefaced his remarks by admitting that, as the occupier of Ukrainian lands and people, Poland is burdened with some sins with respect to Ukraine.

Mr. Michnik recalled how he concluded his address to the first Rukh congress in Kyiv in 1989 with a call for an independent and democratic Ukraine. The first of those wishes has been fulfilled, he added, but the other remains to be determined.

Poland would like to see a "free, stable and sovereign" Ukraine, not necessarily because of any special affinity for Ukraine, but because it serves Polish interests. And the same applies to Russia, he added.

Poland is very much interested in how Ukrainian-Russian relations develop, whether along the old imperial lines or as between two democratic countries, Mr. Michnik said. Warsaw also would rather not see Ukraine develop internally according to the Russian example, where government, business and mass media are intertwined. And it is concerned about Ukraine's post-Kuchma future.

Mr. Michnik said recent developments allow him to be somewhat optimistic, and he called on the United States and the West to be more active in their support of Ukraine.

Asked about how U.S. support for Poland and Ukraine differed, he said that, in Poland, the United States supported democratic development. In Russia, it supported Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin - its leaders. As for Ukraine, he added, "so far there hasn't been any clear, comprehensive strategy."

When President Bush looked into President Putin's eyes, he said, he didn't see Ukraine.

The U.S. view

Undersecretary of State Dobriansky, the highest-ranking Ukrainian American in the U.S. government, reiterated the Bush administration's commitment to the "development of an independent, democratic and market-oriented Ukraine," and underscored its determination to make that vision a reality.

"It is our desire to see Ukraine deeply ensconced in the partnership between the U.S. and its European allies," she said in her luncheon address on April 8.

This will require a commitment "at the most senior levels" and concrete steps to adopt the laws, develop the practices and create the institutions of a truly democratic state, she said.

A "façade of institutions or going through the motions" will not suffice, Ms. Dobriansky said. It will require the immersing of Ukraine in a "culture of democracy."

There has been progress in some areas, she said, but there are still areas "of continuing concern," dealing with media, civil society, political opposition, and the judiciary.

She said the U.S. government has decided "to place a special emphasis on promoting the forces of democratic change in Ukraine," particularly focusing on the preparations for the 2004 presidential election, "to ensure that the playing field is level and that the election is free and fair."

Among the more than 100 conference participants were a number of exchange students, scholars and officials from Ukraine, including such prominent figures as former Foreign Affairs Minister Borys Tarasyuk, National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy President Viacheslav Briukhovetsky and Verkhovna Rada Deputy Serhii Holovatyi.

Also attending some of the conference sessions were Steven Pifer, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs and former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, his predecessor in Kyiv, Ambassador William Green Miller, and U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio).

In the morning of the second day of the conference, April 8, news came from Iraq about the death of Taras Protsyuk, a Ukrainian TV cameraman for the Reuters news agency killed when an American tank fired on a Baghdad hotel in which foreign journalists were staying. At the request of Mr. Tarasyuk, conference participants stood to honor him with a moment of silence.

Funding for the conference was provided by the William and Helen Petrach Endowment for Ukrainian Exchanges and Programs at George Washington University and the International Renaissance Foundation. The U.S. Department of State brought together some 20 Ukrainian Muskie and Fulbright scholars to attend the conference.

The Petrach Endowment at GWU supports a faculty and graduate student exchange program with Lviv University, lectureships, adjunct professorships, seminars, workshops, colloquia and, as of this year, a Ukrainian language course at GWU and a graduate class on "Geopolitics of Ukraine."

Mr. Petrach, a Washington-area Ukrainian American, created the endowment in 1996 with a donation of $400,000 worth of stocks to GWU. He died in 1998.

| Home Page |