www.ukrweekly.com INSIDE: • Pulitzer Prize Board statement on Duranty’s prize — page 3. • Ukrainian American officer sends a message home from Iraq — page 4. • Special section on the Famine-Genocide of 1932-1933 — pages 8-14. Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profit association Vol. LXXI HE No.KRAINIAN 48 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2003 EEKLY$1/$2 in Ukraine PulitzerT Board declinesUKyiv remembers 1932-1933W Famine-Genocide to revoke Duranty’s prize by Andrew Nynka PARSIPPANY, N.J. – In response to an international campaign which asked that the 1932 Pulitzer Prize awarded to Walter Duranty of The New York Times be revoked, the Pulitzer Prize Board announced on November 21 that, “after more than six months of study and delib- eration,” it would not posthumously take away Mr. Duranty’s award. According to a statement issued by the Pulitzer Board that same day, the portfo- lio of 13 articles for which Mr. Duranty won the Pulitzer Prize, “measured by today’s standards for foreign reporting, falls seriously short.” The statement also said that the board’s view in the matter “is similar to that of The New York Times itself and of some scholars who have examined [Duranty’s] 1931 reports.” The New York Times recently charac- terized Mr. Duranty’s work as “sloven- ly,” and Dr. Mark von Hagen, a Columbia University history professor hired by The New York Times to exam- ine Mr. Duranty’s dispatches from the Roman Woronowycz former Soviet Union, characterized Mr. The scene at Kyiv’s memorial to the Famine-Genocide of 1932-1933, located in Mykhailivsky Square, where a public com- Duranty’s Pulitzer Prize-winning articles memoration of the Holodomor’s 70th anniversary was held on November 22. as “cynical in tone and apologist in pur- by Roman Woronowycz pose and effect in terms of justifying what the Stalinist regime was up to.” Kyiv Press Bureau However, in explaining the decision KYIV – Candlelight filled the evening Statement from the UNA: not to revoke Mr. Duranty’s award, the on one of Kyiv’s main squares on board said “there was not clear and con- November 22 where earlier in the day vincing evidence of deliberate deception, thousands of people held a peaceful rally Let the healing begin the relevant standard in this case.” and commemorative march as Ukraine Following is the text of a statement America (UCCA) on the same basis “Revoking a prize 71 years after it remembered the victims of the Famine. issued by the Ukrainian National and status as had been established dur- was awarded under different circum- Observations of the 70th anniversary Association’s Executive Committee on ing its original membership. It is our stances, when all principals are dead and of the artificially created famine November 25. sincere hope that this step will serve as unable to respond, would be a momen- occurred in Kyiv in splintered fashion. It an incentive for others to seek com- tous step and therefore would have to was far from the atmosphere of solidarity At the annual UNA General mon ground on which to build mutual rise to that threshold,” the Pulitzer Board and unity that its leaders had called upon Assembly meeting, held November cooperation for the good of our com- statement said. to remember the 7 million to 10 million 21-23, 2003 at Soyuzivka, the General munity. For let us remember, only with The Ukrainian Canadian Civil victims of Stalin’s genocide of the Assembly members came to a historic unity comes strength. Liberties Association, which initiated the Ukrainian population in 1932-1933. decision in passing the following reso- UNA President Stefan Kaczaraj, international campaign to have Mr. Official celebrations were simple, lution. commenting on this decision, which Duranty’s Pulitzer Prize revoked or consisting of a wreath-laying ceremony The Ukrainian National Association, was unanimous, stated, “Recent events returned, responded to the Pulitzer deci- by government leaders at the Great Inc. recognizes the pressing need of regarding the unsuccessful campaign sion in a statement issued on November Famine Memorial that stands before St. our Ukrainian-American community to to revoke Walter Duranty’s Pulitzer stand strong and united. Only from a 21. Michael’s Golden-Domed Cathedral on Prize highlights this need of our com- position of strength and cooperation According to that statement, Dr. Mykhailivskyi Square and a requiem munity to continue working together can we, as a community have a power- Lubomyr Luciuk, research director at the concert attended by hundreds of school- for the good of the community and ful, united voice in the public arena. UCCLA, said: “It is a documented fact age children – but nearly no government Ukraine. How much more can be that Duranty was Stalin’s apologist, a officials. As such, the Ukrainian National Association, mindful of the fact it rep- accomplished if we can put the argu- shill for the Soviets before, during and The most extensive and most widely ments and divisions of the past behind after 1932-1933. For the Pulitzer Prize attended memorial event occurred at the resents a body of over 45,000 mem- bers of diverse and varied viewpoints, us? It is time for the healing process to Committee to render this tartuffish deci- same Great Famine Memorial after gov- begin and divisions among us to sion and announce it on the eve of the ernment leaders had left, where one reli- believes it is essential to foster a coop- erative and unifying spirit within our cease.” fourth Saturday in November, a day offi- gious leader stated that a lack of historic “ This action in no way impacts our cially set aside in Ukraine for national unity by the Ukrainian nation – in addi- community. present memberships and relations mourning, is base.” tion to the brutal and murderous policy The UNA, as a co-founder of the with any other community organiza- The board has repeatedly stated that a towards the Ukrainian nation by the Ukrainian Congress Committee of tion, “ Mr. Kaczaraj underscored. Pulitzer Prize for reporting is awarded Soviet leadership in Moscow – was a America, at its annual general assem- Further details of the General not for an author’s body of work or for reason for the nation’s tragic plight. bly meeting which was held at the author’s character, but for the specif- “Something is missing here,” noted Soyuzivka votes to restore their Assembly meeting will follow in the ic pieces entered into the competition. Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, head of the decades-long relationship with the next issues of the UNA’s official pub- Ukrainian Congress Committee of lications. (Continued on page 3) (Continued on page 4) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2003 No. 48 ANALYSIS NEWSBRIEFSNEWSBRIEFS Who is in charge of Ukraine? Rada sets new minimum wage police source. The attackers reportedly by Taras Kuzio bership, which has strong support only beat the journalist and told him that he KYIV – The Verkhovna Rada voted 237- RFE/RL Newsline from the opposition national democrats. will be killed if he continues to write There is broader political support for 46 to approve a new minimum monthly “critical materials.” (RFE/RL Newsline) Recent contradictory events in joining the EU, but membership in that wage at 205 hrv ($38.50) as of December Ukraine force us to choose between two organization is seen as far more unrealis- 2003, 237 hrv as of November 2004, and Kyiv might turn to Hague re Tuzla conclusions. The first is that President tic than of NATO. 262 hrv as of January 2005, Ukrainian news Leonid Kuchma is no longer in control of agencies reported. Some 161 opposition KYIV – Ukrainian Foreign Affairs The pro-presidential center is either Minister Kostyantyn Gryshchenko told political life in Ukraine and has become ambivalent or, in the case of Mr. lawmakers ignored the vote. Deputies from a puppet of presidential administration the Our Ukraine, Socialist Party and Yulia journalists on November 19 that Kyiv Medvedchuk, even hostile to NATO might ask the International Court of chief Viktor Medvedchuk, who is chair- membership, something that gives him Tymoshenko Bloc caucuses blocked the man of the oligarchic Social Democratic parliamentary rostrum before and after the Justice in The Hague to resolve the added incentive to undermine Ukraine’s Ukrainian-Russian dispute over Tuzla Party-united (SDPU). Mr. Medvedchuk drive toward NATO. Support for NATO vote as a means of protesting this new mini- reportedly relishes playing the same mum wage, which they consider too low. Island in the Kerch Strait if bilateral talks membership is low within the pro-presi- with Moscow prove unsatisfactory, behind-the-scenes role that former dential oligarchic parties. Parliament Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn Russian oligarch Boris Berezovskii did closed the session over the tumult. The cur- Interfax reported. “However, we of The shared preoccupation of Mr. course prefer to find a solution in a bilat- in the last years of Boris Yeltsin’s presi- Kuchma and the pro-presidential center rent minimum monthly wage in Ukraine is dency in Russia. 185 hrv. (RFE/RL Newsline) eral format, which can allow us [to put with blocking a victory by Our Ukraine the issue behind us] much sooner than The second option is to conclude that leader Viktor Yushchenko in the 2004 Kuchma remains in charge of daily polit- Kuchma urges commemoration of Famine any court examination or hearing,” Mr. presidential election could present another Gryshchenko added. (RFE/RL Newsline) ical life in Ukraine, but is simply playing obstacle to Ukraine’s NATO aspirations. A KYIV – President Leonid Kuchma has a game of deception in league with Mr.