Kuchma, while on visit to United Nations, meets with Ukrainian diaspora leaders (09/28/03)

Kuchma, while on visit to United Nations, meets with Ukrainian diaspora leaders

by Andrew Nynka

NEW YORK - Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma met privately here with three representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora on September 24 - one month after he declined the opportunity to do so in Kyiv during the eighth Ukrainian World Congress.

It is not clear why President Kuchma, who was in New York City for the opening of the 58th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, requested the meeting with Askold Lozynskyj, president of the Ukrainian World Congress; Ihor Gawdiak, president of the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council; and Michael Sawkiw Jr., president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America.

There is speculation, however, that President Kuchma might try to use the meeting for political purposes: to show Ukrainians that he is actively involved in and cares about relations with the Ukrainian diaspora.

Officials from the presidential administration were not available to answer questions about why President Kuchma requested the meeting in New York City, why he chose the time he did for the meeting or what was discussed.

When asked the same questions, officials at Ukraine's Permanent Mission to the United Nations - who helped coordinate President Kuchma's trip to the United States - simply said the meeting in New York had been "convenient" for the Ukrainian president. They did not respond when asked if it had been inconvenient for the Ukrainian president to meet with members of the diaspora in Kyiv a month earlier.

Messrs. Lozynskyj, Gawdiak and Sawkiw said during a press conference later that same day that they presented the Ukrainian president with an open letter. Foremost among their concerns, they said, is Ukraine's recent entry into a common economic market with Russia, Kazakstan and Belarus.

According to the three diaspora leaders, President Kuchma said during the meeting that the agreement, signed in Yalta on September 18, does not interfere with Ukraine's goal of joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the European Union or the World Trade Organization.

According to the diaspora representatives, President Kuchma said the agreement would actually entice Europe to pull Ukraine toward Euro-Atlantic structures. However, it is widely feared that the agreement is the first in a series of steps intended to erode the country's sovereignty and pull it back toward some sort of Eurasian union.

President Kuchma believes Ukraine needed the economic agreement, saying it gives the country somewhere to sell its products, Mr. Lozynskyj said. The new trade zone in effect replaces the one once provided by the Soviet Union, President Kuchma said during the meeting.

Participants of the meeting also discussed the matter of a United Nations resolution marking the Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine and declaring it a genocide. However, the UWC president noted, Russia is strongly opposed to such a resolution, "and that means the United States also will not support a Famine resolution."

Mr. Lozynskyj said he expects the United States will side with Russia and oppose a Ukrainian Famine resolution in the United Nations in exchange for Russia's support in the U.N. of the U.S. war on terror. "Without the Russian and American votes in the United Nations Ukraine will not see a resolution regarding the Famine," Mr. Lozynskyj said.

Discussions with President Kuchma, which lasted an hour and 15 minutes, were characterized by the diaspora representatives as open and at times heated. Mr. Lozynskyj said the three leaders also raised issues involving the murder of journalists, politicians and other figures associated with the political opposition in Ukraine, language issues in the country, the role of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine, and the status of efforts to obtain official recognition of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

All three representatives agreed that President Kuchma spent a considerable amount of time on the subjects raised during the meeting and noted that the president did not appear disinterested and was genuinely engaged in the conversation.

President Kuchma often brought up Our Ukraine leader Viktor Yushchenko, Mr. Gawdiak said. At one point during the meeting, the UACC leader noted, the president said that if the situation at present in Ukraine is deemed bad, people should wait and see what it might be like if Mr. Yushchenko takes over as the country's next president.

The diaspora representatives also said Mr. Kuchma repeatedly turned to his relations with the Ukrainian diaspora, often asking: "Why doesn't the diaspora understand me? Why don't they support me?"

Future cooperation between the Ukrainian president and representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora were not talked about in specifics, Mr. Sawkiw said. Both sides agreed on future cooperation but left the matter open-ended.

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