Dobriansky honored with Lifetime Achievement Award and Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom (08/14/05)

Dobriansky honored with Lifetime Achievement Award and Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom

by Roman Kashuba
Ukrainian National Information Service

WASHINGTON - The 47th annual Captive Nations Week meeting was held at the Heritage Foundation headquarters here on July 20. Conceived as a platform for raising awareness of oppressed peoples throughout the world while putting political pressure on their oppressors, the first Captive Nations Week was enacted in a 1959 resolution written by Dr. Lev E. Dobriansky and proclaimed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Since that time, every American president through George W. Bush has reaffirmed President Eisenhower's proclamation.

Dr. Dobriansky, the founder of this expression of commitment to justice, liberty and self-determination, was honored at the 2005 Captive Nations Week meeting with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Captive Nations Committee (NCNC) and the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) for his "inspiring leadership and unwavering commitment to the liberation of all Captive Nations and the national independence of all peoples."

In his opening remarks Dr. Dobriansky emphasized that, despite the end of the Cold War and the break-up of the Soviet Union, empires still exist and still hold nations captive. "There is enough evidence in Moscow that [President Vladimir] Putin intends to maintain the first ring, what used to be the R[ussian] SFSR and that there continues to be pressure on imperial holdings," Dr. Dobriansky commented.

He lauded what he called the "spectaculars" of the Orange and Rose revolutions as official and popular reawakenings that disrupted Russia's near aboard policy of dominant influence in countries of the former Soviet Union.

At the same time, Dr. Dobriansky urged the United States not to become complacent as a result of these democratic advances and to support the westernization of these nations. Dr. Dobriansky concluded by placing captive nations within the context of the major issues of today. "Our perspective," he said, "has to be the forest and not the trees. Captive nations continue to be tied up with the issues of today - terrorism for one."

Following the official opening of Captive Nations Week, Michael Sawkiw Jr., UCCA president, presented the UCCA and NCNC Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Dobriansky. He stated that Dr. Dobriansky has been "a fixture for nations in Central and Eastern Europe" and that he "understood the need for ethnic politics like no one else."

Lee Edwards, the chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, added the honor of the Truman-Regan Medal of Freedom and called Dr. Dobriansky "a true hero of the Cold War."

Lastly, a letter was read from President George W. Bush, who praised Dr. Dobriansky for his great contribution to the plight of captive nations and affirmed the "transformational ability of freedom."

Dr. Dobriansky thanked everyone involved in Captive Nations Week and encouraged others by quoting William James: "the greatest use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts it."

Following the presentation of Dr. Dobriansky's awards there were country reports by regional representatives. The first report was on Ukraine's advancement following the Orange Revolution. Mr. Sawkiw called the Orange Revolution "the reawakening of a suppressed and dejected civil society in Ukraine and a rude awakening for the corrupt elite who thought they had killed Ukraine's democratic spirit."

Mr. Sawkiw emphasized that corruption and Russian attempts at retaining Moscow's influence in the region were the largest challenges to Ukraine's Westward orientation and democratization. He expressed hope that the U.S. would engage Ukraine in continued NATO and WTO talks and offer support and guidance in overcoming obstacles toward Western democratization.

Paul Goble, a longtime analyst of Soviet affairs who currently is a professor at Tartu University's EuroCollege, spoke to the group about the Central Asian region and outlying areas of the Russian Federation. According to Mr. Goble, 59 percent of the population in the Russian Federation is nominally non-Russian; at the same time 67 percent of ethnic Russians believe that the true borders of Russia are those of Imperial Russia. These two facts, he said, make the Russian federation a revisionist oppressor of nations that actively follows a "policy of subversion" in nations that were within its Soviet borders including bribing foreign politicians.

Mr. Goble concluded his report by stating that in 1991 most Muslims in Central Asia viewed the U.S. positively and that recent U.S. policy has pushed these peoples away and instead radicalized these Muslim populations.

Steve Johnson, senior policy analyst, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies, spoke of the atrocities of the Castro regime in Cuba. "In the 1970s, 40,000 people were tortured in Cuba with electroshock and psychotropic drugs and these behaviors have not ceased," he said.

Mr. Johnson explained that the trade embargo on Cuba is more to protect the U.S. than it is to affect change in Cuba, as all of Cuba's previous trading partners are still awaiting payment for their goods. Thus, he advised that the U.S. should maintain its embargo and convince other nations to do so also.

Karl Altau, managing director of the Joint Baltic American National Committee Inc., discussed the current situation in the Baltic region. He agreed with Mr. Sawkiw that Russian influence continues to be the gravest challenge to these newly independent states, but that membership in NATO has helped many draw closer to the U.S.

He commented favorably on the historic trip of President Bush to Latvia, where he atoned for the "Yalta legacy" of conceding much of Eastern Europe to the Soviet Union following World War II. But, Mr. Altau said that the prevailing Russian view is that incorporation of those nations into the Soviet Union was done in a completely legal fashion.

The final speaker, John Tkacik, senior research fellow, Asian Studies Center, discussed the suppression of democratic forces in China. He asserted that China was and continues to be a totalitarian regime that dominates all aspects of people's lives. In fact, the Internet, which President Bush believed would be the democratic savior of China, has instead been exactly the opposite.

The government of China mandates that everyone in the country must sign onto the Internet using their true identity, thereby enabling the 30,000 Internet police to monitor all of their activities. Technology, Mr. Tkacik said, has helped the Chinese government to monitor its people and not brought them increased freedoms.

Captive Nations Week 2005 was proclaimed by President Bush for July 17-23. As stated in the official 2005 proclamation, "During Captive Nations Week, we reaffirm our commitment to advancing democracy, defending liberty, and protecting human rights around the world."

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