The Ukrainian Weekly 2005, No.19

www.ukrweekly.com INSIDE:• Panel of experts analyzes Yushchenko’s first 100 days — page 3. • Lidia Krushelnytsky honored in New York City — pages 10-11. • Your chance to choose Ukraine’s best stamp of 2004 — pages 12-15. Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profit association Vol. LXXIII HE KRAINIANNo. 19 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MAY 8, 2005 EEKLY$1/$2 in Ukraine YushchenkoT administration’sUUPA veterans fight for recognitionW in Ukraine first 100 days incorporate by Zenon Zawada should rule Ukraine. Mr. Viatrovych said. Kyiv Press Bureau UPA veterans seek two specific forms of So far, Mr. Yushchenko and his recognition, said Orest Vaskul, the head of Cabinet Ministers have been treading promises made on maidan KYIV – For his service in the Ukrainian the Kyiv Regional Brotherhood of OUN- very delicately around UPA recognition Insurgent Army (UPA), Soviet authorities UPA that includes the eastern oblasts. and have yet to declare outright support. by Zenon Zawada imprisoned Mykhailo Stus, 78, in a Siberian Mr. Vaskul served three separate UPA recognition is a legislative matter Kyiv Press Bureau concentration camp for eight years. Soviet prison terms for his UPA involve- for the Verkhovna Rada to resolve, Vice They dragged him through prisons in KYIV – During their first 100 days, ment – the last one as late as the 1980s. Prime Minister for Humanitarian Affairs Krasnoyarsk and Kazakstan for another The government should grant UPA an Mykola Tomenko said at an April 25 President Viktor Yushchenko and his two years before releasing him to return Cabinet of Ministers wasted no time in official status as a fighting army during press conference, where he discussed to Ivano-Frankivsk in 1957. World War II, Mr. Vaskul said. Secondly, it preparations for the 60th anniversary of demonstrating to the Ukrainian people He reunited with his parents and his that they are intent on delivering on the should designate their fight as a national-lib- Victory Day on May 9. brother, a prisoner of German concentra- eration struggle for Ukraine’s independence. “The problem is more political than Orange Revolution’s promises of build- tion camps whom he hadn’t seen for 17 ing a more prosperous and Western- Only 10,000 or so veterans are still social-economic, so there aren’t any years. The reunion didn’t last long. alive in Ukraine, according to Volodymyr problems for the government to resolve if based society. “They told me to be out of western Arrests of men involved in Heorhii Viatrovych, the director of the Liberation the Verkhovna Rada reached a decision, Ukraine by the month’s end,” Mr. Stus Gongadze’s murder, as well as the deten- Movement Research Center. apart from the social components of this said of the Soviets. He went east to look tion of Donetsk businessman Boris Unlike their counterparts who served question,” Mr. Tomenko said. for work in the mines. Kolesnykov, proved effective symbols in in the Soviet Red Army, UPA veterans “In discussions in city organs, particu- As most of Ukraine prepares itself for demonstrating that Mr. Yushchenko was are not recognized by the Ukrainian gov- larly in western Ukraine, I know there are May 9 festivities to honor those who fought serious about tackling corruption and ernment and do not receive any benefits ideas, in the social sense, of honoring all for the Soviet Union during the second crime, experts said. from the federal government. those who fought during the second world world war, UPA veterans such as Mr. Stus Though widely criticized as a populist Eight Ukrainian oblasts offer benefits war, and that is a way out of the situation.” once again face obscurity as the Ukrainian tactic to win votes for next year’s parlia- to UPA veterans Mr. Viatrovych said. President Yushchenko, whose father mentary elections, the 2005 budget government has yet to recognize them. They are Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, was a Red Army veteran, has devoted assembled by Prime Minister Yulia With a Ukraine-oriented leader at the Ternopil, Volyn, Rivne, Zakarpattia, most of his efforts so far to encouraging Tymoshenko and her fellow ministers nation’s helm, UPA veterans and their Khmelnytskyi and Chernivtsi. nationwide reconciliation efforts between fulfilled Mr. Yushchenko’s campaign supporters anticipate that President In these oblasts, veterans receive 100 the Red Army and UPA veterans, particu- promise that it would be the most social- Viktor Yushchenko will muster the politi- hrv ($20) a month, a 50 percent discount larly on the local level. ly-oriented in independent Ukraine’s his- cal will to recognize those who fought off their utility bills and free transporta- tory. for the simple belief that Ukrainians tion within cities, but not between cities, (Continued on page 22) “We haven’t betrayed any of the maidan’s slogans,” Mr. Yushchenko said in assessing his first 100 days. “Today I can approach any member of society – the Orange Revolution’s heroic sign-language interpreter honored in D.C. veteran, the child, anybody – and say by Yaro Bihun that we worked for you,” Mr. Special to The Ukrainian Weekly Yushchenko said in a statement. WASHINGTON – For years Natalia Crime and corruption Dmytruk was seen and not heard, attract- It was no coincidence that among the ing little attention, except from the hear- first achievements of the Yushchenko ing-impaired, as the sign-language inter- administration was Procurator General preter in the corner of Ukraine’s official Sviatoslav Piskun’s announcement that UT-1 television news broadcasts. his office had arrested two police On November 25, 2004, however, when colonels who are suspected of murdering the results of the second round of Ukraine’s Heorhii Gongadze. presidential election were being announced The September 2000 disappearance of in favor of Prime Minister Viktor the Ukrayinska Pravda journalist served Yanukovych, she signed a personal message as the catalyst for wide scale protests of protest that reverberated around the world against former President Leonid and drew even more attention to what came Kuchma’s government, culminating sev- to be known as the Orange Revolution. eral years later in the Orange Revolution. Five months later, she and three fellow representatives of the women of Just as he announced the arrests, Mr. Yaro Bihun Piskun said his office would question Ukraine were honored in Washington Natalia Dmytruk (left), the sign-language interpreter who signed her election former Internal Affairs Minister Yurii “for their unyielding spirit and commit- ment to changing their country – and the protest on a Ukrainian government-controlled TV news program, and other Kravchenko. The morning of his sched- Ukrainian women activists were honored for their role in the Orange Revolution by uled questioning, police found Mr. world – for the better.” The honors were presented April 26 by Vital Voices Vital Voices at the Kennedy Center in Washington. Joining them onstage and hold- Kravchenko dead in his dacha outside of ing a Yushchenko election banner was Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (third from Kyiv, with two gunshot wounds to his Global Partnership, a non-profit, biparti- san American organization dedicated to left). The other activists standing with them are (from left): Oksana Yarosh, Yana head. Dieringer, Kateryna Horbunova, Oksana Horbunova and Lyudmila Merlyan. An arrest far more controversial increasing the rights and leadership role occurred on April 6 when the Procurator of women around the world. Also receiving the fifth annual Global women, actress Sally Field called Ms. dent. Good-bye. You will probably never General’s Office cited extortion and Dmytruk “one of the most courageous see me here again.” racketeering as reasons to arrest Boris Leadership Awards during the ceremony at the Terrace Theater of the John F. Kennedy women of the Orange Revolution.” She Receiving the award with Ms. Kolesnykov, the head of the Donetsk recalled how during that fateful news- Oblast Council who had very close ties Center for the Performing Arts were Dmytruk were: cast, Ms. Dmytruk revealed an orange to Donetsk oligarch Rynat Akhmetov. women activists from three other countries, • Oksana Horbunova, the head of the ribbon on her sleeve as she signed: Mr. Kolesnykov allegedly was behind honored for their work on behalf of Ukraine office of the International organi- “Everything you’ve heard so far in the a series of violent threats against a women’s rights, for economic empower- zation for Migration (who was honored by ment and against human trafficking. news was a total lie. I am ashamed to (Continued on page 20) Introducing the four Ukrainian translate these lies. Yushchenko is presi- (Continued on page 23) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MAY 8, 2005 No. 19 ANALYSIS Ukraine moves closer NEWSBRIEFSNEWSBRIEFS Yushchenko upbeat on election coalition Viktor Yushchenko was accompanied by a media revolution that may or may not to membership in NATO KYIV – President Viktor Yushchenko be sustained.” (RFE/RL Newsline) said in an interview with the UT-1 television by Taras Kuzio standards can be much more easily ful- channel on May 3 that he is sure that the U.S. backs Yushchenko’s peace plan Eurasia Daily Monitor filled by the Yushchenko government Our Ukraine People’s Union, which was than by the former Kuchma govern- created earlier this year to support him, will WASHINGTON – The U.S. permanent ganization for At the April 20-21 summit of NATO ment,” the secretary-general added. form a coalition for the 2006 parliamentary representative to the Or Security and Cooperation in Europe foreign ministers in Vilnius, Ukraine was Intensified Dialogue, rather than an elections with the eponymous bloc led by (OSCE), Paul Jones, said in a statement dis- invited to begin an Intensified Dialogue MAP, suits President Viktor Yushchenko Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and the tributed by the U.S.

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