Canada's Governor General in Ukraine Demjanjuk
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INSIDE: • The European Union’s accidental sphere of influence – page 3. • Ukrainian Cultural Institute receives N.D. Governor’s Award – page 4. • Carpathian Music Ensemble at U. of Pittsburgh – page 11. THEPublished U byKRAINIAN the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profitW associationEEKLY Vol. LXXVII No.20 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MAY 17, 2009 $1/$2 in Ukraine “Diplomacy with a human heart”: Ukraine’s Constitutional Court says no Canada’s governor general in Ukraine to presidential election on October 25 by Zenon Zawada all.” Kyiv Press Bureau A January 17 election day is also sup- ported by Viktor Yanukovych, leader of KYIV – Ukraine’s Constitutional Court Ukraine’s largest political party, the Party of ruled on May 13 that the parliamentary vote Regions of Ukraine, and the most popular to set presidential election day for October presidential candidate, according to polls. 25 was unconstitutional, yet it didn’t set a The party’s lawyers recommended two dates replacement date and returned the decision – December 6 and January 17, Mr. to the Verkhovna Rada. Yanukovych told reporters on May 14. When Ukraine’s Parliament voted on “From purely human considerations, my April 1 to set October 25 as election day, it internal condition tells me that we can’t be incorrectly based its decision on the old ver- so cynical in relations with people as to sion of the Ukrainian Constitution of chase them to elections during New Year’s Ukraine, which stipulated that the vote must Day and Christmas,” he said. “I believe we be held on the last Sunday in October, the need to celebrate the New Year holidays and court ruled. Amendments to the Constitution then have elections.” went into effect January 1, 2006. In fact, the Party of Regions likely sup- Instead, the presidential election day must ports a January election because its mem- occur on the last Sunday of the last month of bers anticipate that economic conditions will the president’s five-year term, as stipulated worsen through the winter, for which voters MCpl Jean-François Néron, Rideau Hall in the amended Constitution, the court ruled. Canada’s Governor General Michaelle Jean is officially welcomed by President will blame Prime Minister Yulia President Viktor Yushchenko was inaugurat- Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine during a ceremony with military honors. Tymoshenko, said Dr. Oleh Soskin, director ed on January 23, 2005, and he wants of the Institute of Society Transformation in by Jurij Klufas meeting with the press. Parliament to approve January 17 as elec- Kyiv. tion day. Special to The Ukrainian Weekly Judging by Russian behavior at recent Mr. Lytvyn is thinking along the same international events, Canada’s support for the “It is my deep conviction that the lines, he said, holding out hope that he may TORONTO – “Support for democracy in development of democratic infrastructures in Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine should desig- somehow qualify for the second round of Ukraine and its territorial integrity” were the Ukraine came at a very opportune time. nate January 17, 2010, as the date,” said the election. main reasons for the four-day state visit of Russia has protested the European Union’s Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn in support of Following the court’s ruling, Ms. the president’s proposal. “If it doesn’t do Governor General of Canada Michaelle Jean Eastern Partnership proposal to no avail, Tymoshenko appeared disappointed, recog- that, then I believe on the whole that such an to Ukraine in late April, as she stated at the kicked out two NATO-attached Canadian nizing that Parliament will vote again to start of a joint press conference in Kyiv with diplomats from Moscow and pulled out of a institution confirms that it doesn’t have a right to exist. This position is obvious to (Continued on page 17) the President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine. recent meeting with NATO leaders. “It is at events such as these that a The governor-general’s visit to Kyiv on nation’s self-determination is forged for the bright, sunny, spring morning of April 2 years in advance,” are the words with which the president of Ukraine started off the joint (Continued on page 13) Tarnished internal affairs minister likely to remain in his position Demjanjuk deported to Germany At issue is altercation PARSIPPANY, N.J. – John Demjanjuk, 1993 pointing to another man, Ivan at Frankfurt airport 89, was deported from the United States Marchenko, as the sadistic “Ivan,” the and arrived on the morning of May 12 in Israeli Supreme Court overturned the con- by Zenon Zawada Germany, where he faces charges that he viction and Mr. Demjanjuk returned to the Kyiv Press Bureau was complicit in the deaths of 29,000 peo- United States and eventually had his U.S. ple at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi- citizenship restored. KYIV – Ukraine’s disgraced internal occupied Poland. In 1999 the U.S. again filed a case affairs minister, Yurii Lutsenko, will like- He arrived in Munich aboard a private against him, alleging that he had concealed ly remain in his post, political observers jet, which taxied directly into a hanger his service as a guard at the Sobibor, said, because Prime Minister Yulia under police escort, and was then taken by Majdanek and Flossenberg concentration Tymoshenko needs his influence in the ambulance to the medical unit at Stadelheim camps. He was once again stripped of his upcoming presidential election. prison. citizenship in 2002, and in 2005 he was More than a week after German police It was the second time Mr. Demjanjuk ordered deported. Four years of legal argu- accused him of drunkenly brawling with was removed from the United States to ments followed before Mr. Demjanjuk was them and injuring four officers, Mr. stand trial abroad for crimes he allegedly ultimately deported to Germany. Lutsenko acknowledged at a May 12 committed while purportedly a guard at a Now Mr. Demjanjuk is accused of press conference in Kyiv that he got into Nazi death camp. being a guard at Sobibor, with one survi- a physical altercation at the airport in Frankfurt and was arrested, but denied The case dates back to 1977, when the vor referring to him as the “Angel of Yaro Bihun U.S. first accused him of concealing his Death.” (That appellation has been drunkenness, claiming he drank only a Yurii Lutsenko during a visit to wartime service at the time he applied for applied to Nazi doctor Josef Mengele of mug of beer. Washington in 2006. entry into this country. Auschwitz-Birkenau.) At the heart of the He submitted a resignation letter to the Back in 1986 he was extradited to Israel case, once again, is the Trawniki ID card, Verkhovna Rada that day, in what observ- Ukraine called for Mr. Lutsenko’s ouster. to stand trial on charges that he was the which was presented as evidence during ers said was a carefully manipulated gam- “He had lots of consultations and held a notorious guard at the Treblinka death camp Mr. Demjanjuk’s Israeli trial. bit in which Mr. Lutsenko knew that his late press conference,” said Ivan Lozowy, know as “Ivan the Terrible.” He was found The Israeli news site Haaretz.com on opponents didn’t have enough votes in president of the Institute of Statehood and guilty and sentenced to death in 1988. Parliament for a dismissal. Of the five However, after new evidence emerged in (Continued on page 3) factions, only the Party of Regions of (Continued on page 17) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, MAY 17, 2009 No. 20 ANALYSIS NEWSBRIEFS Moscow plays hard-ball 4.5 M Ukrainians work abroad European unification, the spread of democ- racy and the enhancement of security,” he KYIV – The number of Ukrainian citi- said. In this context Mr. Yushchenko in quasi-partnership with NATO zens working abroad is 4.5 million, accord- recalled Ukraine’s introduction, together ing to Ihor Markov, an expert at the by Pavel K. Baev asymmetric character. with Poland, Lithuania, Azerbaijan and Ukrainian Social Studies Center. Speaking At a special ceremony at the Kremlin, Georgia, of a common Baltic-Black Sea- Eurasia Daily Monitor on May 8, Mr. Markov said that as of the Mr. Medvedev signed agreements with Caspian energy space, and the recent The last thing that NATO needed on the leaders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia end of 2008, 1.7 million Ukrainian migrants Brussels international investment confer- the eve of its controversial military exer- on “delegating” to Russia the responsibil- were in countries of the European Union; ence on modernization of Ukraine’s gas cises in Georgia was a mutiny, and that is ity for protecting their borders (Vremya some 2 million to 3 million in Russia; and transportation system. He said it was exactly what happened on May 5. The Novostei, May 5). Protestations from the the rest in the United States, Canada and “important to the whole of Europe” for the details are still scarce and rumors run rife, U.S. and NATO were firmly dismissed, Australia. He noted that the majority of the project on the Eurasian oil transportation as they always do in the South Caucasus, and Russian border troops swiftly moved Ukrainians are abroad on an illegal basis corridor on the basis of Ukraine’s Odesa- but perhaps the only definite conclusion to establish checkpoints and set up per- and 30 to 35 percent of migrants have legal Brody oil pipeline to proceed. The president is that Russia’s warnings about the “desta- manent quarters. status. Mr. Markov added that it is not proposed holding a presentation of the proj- bilizing character” of such exercises in This step directly violates what expected that these guest workers will ect sometime soon at the European Georgia – still in shock and denial after remains of Georgia’s territorial integrity, return to their homeland.