LETTER TO THE EDITOR (01/11/04)

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Some good news about Ukraine

Dear Editor:

Yesterday, on the first day of 2004, I heard two nice things being said about Ukraine and Ukrainians on television. Now, that does not happen very often, so I found it rather remarkable.

Both stories were about the earthquake in Iran and about the various countries that are helping out over there. The first mention was on PBS, on the Jim Lehrer Newshour. As an American doctor described the medical assistance in Iran, the footage showed a tiny little girl being born in a field hospital (actually two infant girls were being born right after the quake) - in the first and only hospital in the ruined Iranian city. It was in a Ukrainian field hospital.

Later in the program, it was also mentioned that the Ukrainian rescue team was the first one to arrive at the earthquake site in Iran and that the Ukrainians were the first ones to set up shop and start helping people out. The BBC News also mentioned that the Ukrainians were the first ones to reach the place of the disaster and that they "saved many lives."

From Kyiv I heard the following news.

A plane with a crack team of rescue workers left Kyiv (Boryspil) for Kerman, Iran, on December 27, at 5 p.m., right after the earthquake. The first aircraft to fly out was a Yak-42 of the Lviv Avialines. On board were four rescue-workers and a search unit with trained search dogs.

The next day a Ukrainian mobile hospital was sent to Iran, with about 100 doctors, nurses and support personnel, as well as medical gear and supplies. ("Tsentralnyi Avariino-Riatuvalnyi Zahin"). This unit can service over 300 wounded and traumatized people in 24 hours, and can operate independently without support for 30 days. The mobile hospital arrived on an Il-76 aircraft belonging to the Ukrainian armed forces.

As you can see, this was not by any means "token" assistance. This was a real professional rescue mission, which was trained first in Chornobyl and later took part in rescue operations in Bosnia and Kosovo, during the Turkish earthquakes, in Iraq and Kuwait, and many other missions.

As a Ukrainian, I am very proud that my mother country can bring help and succor to unfortunate people around the world in their hours of need. Maybe Ukraine is not capable of toppling statues of fallen dictators and occupying foreign lands, but Ukraine is capable of saving lives and bringing tiny little girls to this world. And that is what counts, isn't it?

Glory to our land. Good fortune, happiness and success in 2004.

Lubomyr S. Onyshkevych
Lawrenceville, N.J.

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