INSIDE: l Tymoshenko’s imprisonment and Eurointegration – page 3 l Opening of internment camp interpretive center – page 9 l Immaculate Conception Schools’ diamond jubilee – page 15 THEPublished U by theKRAINIAN Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal W non-profit associationEEKLY Vol. LXXX No. 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JANUARY 8, 2012 $1/$2 in Ukraine Tymoshenko transferred to penal colony in Kharkiv PARSIPPANY, N.J. – Ukrainian opposition night, without any warning or explanation, leader and former Prime Minister Yulia and early in the morning, actually on a Tymoshenko was suddenly transferred from stretcher, she was loaded onto a truck and a pre-trial detention center in Kyiv to a penal driven in the direction of Kharkiv.” The colony in Kharkiv on December 30, 2011. Batkivschyna party leader had been held at Opposition activists said the move was the Lukianivska facility since August 5, 2011. made in order to cut off her contacts with In an essay titled “My Christmas in a Dark the public and the news media. Her backers Cell” that was published in The Moscow had repeatedly gathered outside the Times on December 27, Ms. Tymoshenko Lukianivska prison in Kyiv to demonstrate wrote: “As Anna Akhmatova, the great poetic their support and to draw media attention chronicler of Stalin’s terror, said, ‘I am alive to her plight. in this grave.’ Indeed, I am more alive than The New York Times quoted Oleksander the men who have imprisoned me here.” Turchynov, deputy leader of the Batkivschyna She underscored: “I take some comfort Party, as stating that Ms. Tymoshenko’s moth- this Christmas in knowing that the godless- er had arrived at the Kyiv jail early in the ness, inhumanity and criminality of the morning of December 30 only to be told that regime that is now ruling in Kyiv is, at long “there is no such prisoner in this detention last, being exposed to the world in a clear center.” light. Its democratic posturing has been According to Interfax-Ukraine, Mr. unmasked as cynical political theater, its Vladimir Andreev/UNIAN Turchynov said “Tymoshenko was taken at claim to desire a European future for Yulia Tymoshenko’s daughter, Yevhenia Tymoshenko Carr, speaks with journalists on January 3 outside the penal colony in Kharkiv where her mother is now imprisoned. Ukraine’s people revealed to be a lie, and the told journalists that “Video surveillance is rapaciousness of its kleptocrats has been not forbidden by law,” adding, “In order to laid bare. The regime’s contempt for the carry out permanent video monitoring, Constitution and rule of law is now undeni- there has to be sufficient light in the cells.” able, and that clarity is empowering.” Ms. Tymoshenko’s lawyer, Serhii Before being moved to Kharkiv, State Vlasenko, deplored what he described as Penitentiary Service officials said Ms. “inhumane conditions” in Ms. Tymoshenko’s Tymoshenko was examined by doctors who quarters. RFE/RL reported that he said “the came to the conclusion that her state of light is directed straight onto the bed where health permitted her to travel. A comfort- she is lying,” making it impossible for her to able minibus was provided for the transpor- sleep. As a result, he said, she is suffering tation of Ms. Tymoshenko, said the officials, from sleep deprivation and profound stress. who also denied reports the ex-prime minis- Mr. Vlasenko said this kind of treatment ter was allegedly moved in a wheelchair. – 24/7 camera surveillance under bright RFE/RL reported on January 3 on the lights – “will be the subject of an appeal to conditions in which the former prime min- the Council of Europe’s Committee for the ister is being held in Kharkiv, noting that Prevention of Torture.” “Prison officials say Ukraine’s jailed opposi- The next day, January 4, RFE/RL report- Aleksandr Prokopenko/UNIAN tion leader, Yulia Tymoshenko, is being held ed that prison officials offered a very differ- Oleksander Turchynov, first deputy chair of the Batkivschyna party headed by for- in a prison cell under 24-hour camera sur- ent report about the conditions in which mer Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, is interviewed on December 29, 2011, by jour- veillance with the lights permanently on.” Ms. Tymoshenko is imprisoned in Kharkiv. nalists outside the Kyiv prison where Ms. Tymoshenko was held until her transfer the Ivan Pervushkin, head of Kachanivska next day to a Kharkiv women’s penal colony. Women’s Penal Colony No. 54 in Kharkiv, (Continued on page 12) Experts from Ukraine discuss U.S. assistance on environmental issues by Yaro Bihun nizations on December 12, 2011, at the Embassy of Ukraine. Special to The Ukrainian Weekly As Dr. Demydenko pointed out in his WASHINGTON – Two leading environ- remarks, U.S.-Ukraine cooperation in the mental scientists from Ukraine came to environmental field began almost 20 years Washington in mid-December for talks ago, when the two countries signed their with their American professional col- first bilateral agreement with that intent in leagues as part of the ongoing U.S.-Ukrainian the new Ukrainian Embassy building in bilateral program of cooperation in this field. May of 1992. Dr. Mark Zhelezniak, who heads the This cooperation, as Dr. Zhelezniak indi- Department of Environmental Modeling at cated, has helped solve many problem the National Academy of Sciences of areas, among them those dealing with Ukraine, and its senior researcher, Dr. emergency response, water management and climate change adaptations that Andriy Demydenko, also discussed Yaro Bihun Ukraine’s water resource problems in the Ukraine could not solve alone for the Ukrainian part of the Dnipro basin. And this Ambassador Olexander Motsyk welcomes two leading scientists from the Department of aftermath of the Chornobyl nuclear disas- Environmental Modeling at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Dr. Andriy ter and those resulting from climate change cooperation with the United States will give Ukraine access to important technologies, Demydenko and Dr. Mark Zhelezniak (seated first and second from right), during a discus- with representatives of the Ukrainian sion of Ukraine’s water resource problems. Sitting next to the ambassador is the discussion American scientific and professional orga- (Continued on page 12) moderator, Eugene Stakhiv of the Ukrainian Engineers’ Society of America. 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JANUARY 8, 2012 No. 2 ANALYSIS Russia reluctantly enters Klitschko condemns Yulia’s treatment tion. The UWC added that it concurs with the statements made on the subject by lead- KYIV – Vitali Klitschko, the WBC heavy- ing nations and highlevel international insti- weight world boxing champion and leader tutions that highlight the political motiva- into a new revolution of the Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for tion behind the Appeal Court decision, Reform (UDAR) party, on December 30, by Pavel K. Baev top managers of Gazprom (RBC Daily, express concern about the state of democra- December 30). 2011, criticized the “sudden” dispatch of Eurasia Daily Monitor cy and rule of law in Ukraine, and confirm Protesters are not impressed with this Yulia Tymoshenko to a penal colony in the idea that Ukraine is drifting away from Russia has sunk into the usual hiberna- maneuvering, but Mr. Putin’s core support Kharkiv. He said this was yet another European values. “The Ukrainian World tion of long seasonal holidays, but quite base in the state bureaucracy is upset and attempt by the authorities to humiliate the unusually it now lives simultaneously in disheartened. The legion of obedient ser- opposition politician. The authorities Congress calls upon Ukrainian authorities to two very different new years. vants has grave doubts about his idea of decided to once again “demonstrate the adhere to fundamental European democrat- The first one was planned very carefully winning the presidential elections cleanly power of the repressive machinery,” Mr. ic values and to cease the political persecu- by the prime minister, Vladimir Putin, and and convincingly, assuming that the boss Klitschko said in an interview with tion of opposition leader Yulia it started on September 24, 2011, with his overestimates his support among the LIGABusinessInform. “It seems so to the Tymoshenko,” stated UWC President long-expected announcement of the deci- masses and underestimates the pressure organizers of the prosecution. But such Eugene Czolij. (Ukrainian World Congress) sion to return to the position of supreme on governors to deliver the right results actions do not cause anything but indigna- Analyst comments on Yulia and politics power and stay in it for the next six years, that would push them to crude tampering tion,” he said. “The day before, representa- or maybe 12 (Vedomosti, Nezavisimaya (Moskovskie Novosti, December 30). tives of law enforcement bodies and the KYIV – Well-known Ukrainian political They also try to look one step ahead to Gazeta, December 30). government assured that, until the comple- analyst Vadym Karasyov stated on the second half of 2012, when a barely The second one arrived without any plan tion of the investigation, Ms. Tymoshenko December 31, 2011, that “it’s already with the big rally on Bolotnaya Square in elected Preident Putin stripped of his invin- cibility would have to execute painful cuts in would remain in Kyiv. All of these were impossible to remove from Ukrainian poli- Moscow on December 10, 2011, and con- lies,” Mr. Klitschko said. “Fussiness and vin- tics” former Prime Minister Yulia firmed its real strength with the twice larger budget give-aways. The warnings about the dictiveness, with which the authorities are Tymoshenko, who was moved from a pre- rally on Sakharov Avenue on December 24. extra-tough times ahead from former trying to deal with the leader of an opposi- trial detention center in Kyiv to a penal colo- There is one political preference that Mr.