The Ukrainian Weekly 1984

Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profit association! rainian Weekly Vol. Lll No. 43 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1984 25 Ш. President Signs omnibus Spending bill Reagan administration, others react' With famine commission amendment to death of Valeriy Marchenko WASHINGTON - The Ukrainian wide group was aided by several Ukrai JERSEY CITY, N.J. - President damaged by the terrible conditions in a famine commission bill became law nian community organizations, most Ronald Reagan said on October 15 that special-regimen labor camp, the har when "President Ronald Reagan on notably the Ukrainian National Asso he was "deeply saddened and enraged" shest category of penal colony in the Friday, October 12. signed the S370 ciation. by the death of Valeriy Marchenko, a Soviet Union. billion omnibus spending bill to which The famine commission bill was Ukrainian dissident who died of kidney Asked if the United States endorsed the famine bill had been attached in the introduced in the Senate by Bill Bradley failure in a Leningrad prison hospital the view of Mr. Marchenko's friends, final days of the 98th Congress. and, in the House of Representatives by on October 7 at the age of 37. Mr. Hughes answered that what hap The famine bill provides for the James J. Florio, both Democrats from The president's remarks were con pened to the young activist spoke for creation of a I5-member commission New Jersey. The measure had 22 spon tained in a prepared statement on the itself. composed of two senators, four con sors in the Senate and 122 in the House. death released by the White House press "The death of Valeriy Marchenko is, gressmen, three government officials It was Sen. Bradley who had attached office in Greenville, S.C., where Mr. sadly, yet another example of the Soviet and six representatives of the Ukrainian the famine commission bill to the Reagan was campaigning. Union's callous disregard for human community. A sum of 5400,000 has federal spending measure in order to Calling Mr. Marchenko's death rights and human life," Mr. Hughes told been allocated for ihe commission's guarantee that it was acted on during "needless," Mr. Reagan went on to reporters, adding that the government work, which is expected to begin in the 98th Congress. His amendment. No. praise the Kiev journalist's "brave had received reports that Soviet autho early 1985. 118, was approved by House and Senate struggle for individual liberties." Earlier rities had refused requests by Mr. The commission's function is to study conferees. The amendment stated: in the statement, the president noted Marchenko's mother that her son be the causes and effects of the 1932-33 "Appropriate 5400,000 as proposed that Mr. Marchenko, who had been ill transferred to a hospital with a kidney Great Famine that occurred on Ukrai by the Senate, which would establish a for some time, was recently sentenced to dialysis machine. nian ethnographic terriroty as a result commission and provide funds to study 10 years in a labor camp for, in Mr. The Voice of America editorial, of policies deliberately pursued by the the causes of the famineintheUkrainein Reagan's words, "criticizing the harsh broadcast October 12, bluntly described Soviet government under the Stalin 1932 and 1933. The conferees agree ness of Soviet labor camps and the Mr. Marchenko's death as "the direct regime. that, before these funds may be obli violation of human and national rights result of hisTJrutal mistreatment at the The enactment of the famine bill gated, the operating budget of the in Ukraine." hands of Soviet authorities." marks the first time in U.S. history that commission shall be submitted to the The president's words echoed reac Noting that Mr. Marchenko was a commission has been created by the committees on appropriation of the tions to Mr. Marchenko's death by the subjected to a "debilitating 55-day train government to deal with a Ukrainian House and the Senate for review and State Department and the Voice of journey" from Ukraine to the labor issue. approval." America. camp in the Perm region of Siberia, the The drive for the passage of the The spending bill — with amendment VOA editorial said that Mr. Marchenko famine commission bill was initiated No. 118 - was then passed by both For complete text of statements, see was assigned a double work load despite and spearheaded by Americans for Houses and signed into law by the page 3. his poor health. Human Rights in Ukraine. This nation president. VOA also blamed the harsh condi John Hughes, a State Department tions at special-regimen camps, where spokesman, began the October 15 prisoners are often poorly fed and briefing session by asserting that Mr. housed in tiny cells in unheated barracks, Lithuanian political prisoner describes Marchenko died as the result of "insen for contributing to Mr. Marchenko's sitive and inhuman treatment" by the death. VOA editorials, it should be Soviet occupation and Russification Soviets. He noted that friends of Mr. noted, reflect the views of the U.S. Marchenko, had served an eight-year government. WASHINGTON - A lengthy article term in a labor camp from 1973 to 1981, In the House of Representatives, describing the Soviet occupation of said that his health was irreparably Rep. Dante Fascell (D-Fla.), chairman Lithuania written by a Lithuanian of the Foreign Affairs Committee and nationalist who has spent over 30 years the Congressional Commission on in Soviet labor camps has recently Security and Cooperation in Europe, reached the West, reported ELTA, the VOA Ukrainian broadcast said on October 9 that Mr. Marchenko information bulletin of the Lithuanian. was "the victim of callous indifference National Foundation based here. reaches Soviet Far East to his fate by Soviet authorities." The article was written in 1982 by Rep. Fascell also mentioned the Balys Gajauskas, a 58-year-old electri WASHINGTON - The Voice of death in May of Ukrainian dissident cian who was sentenced in 1978 to 10 America, the global radio network of Oleksiy Tykhy. who died at age 57 from years in a labor camp and five years' the United States Information Agency, untreated ulcers, and noted that at least internal exile for "anti-Soviet agitation recently began broadcasting to Ukrai two other imprisoned activists, Ukrai and propaganda." He was accused of nians in the Soviet Far East, Diane nian poet Vasyl Stus and Lithuanian circulating underground literature, Conclin of the VOA Office of Public Viktoras Petkus. are reportedly seriously collecting materials on the Lithuanian Liaison reported. ill. He also referred to exiled Ukrainian liberation movement and translating The one-hour broadcasts in the activist Yuriy Shukhevych, who is Alexander Solzhenitsyn's book, "The Ukrainian language are taped from 3 to totally blind after over 30 years of Gulag Archipelago," which chronicles 4 p.m. in Washington and heard in the imprisonment and exile, and to Dr. life in the Soviet penal system. Zelenyi Klyn, Khabarovsk and Vla Andrei Sakharov and his wife, Yelena Mr. Gajauskas, who previously was divostok regions from 6 to 7 a.m. daily. Bonner. whose exact whereabouts are imprisoned for treason in 1948-73 and is Balys Gajauskas Although the VOA has no way of not known. currently in labor camp No. 36-1 located measuring how many Ukrainians listen Overseas, the three largest Dutch in the Ural Mountains near Perm, said occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, to these broadcasts, the agency esti political parties asked the government in his article that the struggle for an 22 years after it declared its indepen mates that it reaches about 5 million on October 12 to demand an explana independent Lithuania continues today dence from Russia. Ukrainians in that area. tion from the Soviet Union for Mr. despite persistent attempts by Soviet However, recently, all broadcasts to Marchenko's death. The Liberal, Chris authorities to impose the Russian Russification the Soviet Union have been subjected to tian Democrat and Labor parties con culture and language on the people. a large amount of jamming by the tended in a letter that Mr. Marchenko Lithuania, a largely Roman Catholic Mr. Gajauskas wrote that what he Soviets. was denied proper medical treatment by nation of some 3.1 million people, was (Continued on page 11) (Continued on page II) the Soviet authorities. 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1984 No. 43 Soviets bomb Afghan refugees JERSEY CITY, N.J. - The Soviet appear to be part of a systematic effort Films attacking Ukrainian nationalists terror campaign against Afghan civi by the Soviet occupation forces to lians now includes attacks on refugees inflict damage on noncombatants. strengthen Soviet propaganda arsenal trying to flee the country, according to a "Soviet tactics are now aimed at journalist who has made six trips into totally destroying the civilian infra nationalists in the post-war Car the country since the Soviet invasion in structure - farms, houses, bazaars, JERSEY CITY, N.J. - Films 1979. mosques, schools and clinics — in zones attacking Ukrainian nationalists, pathians." where resistance fronts have been emigres and Uniate Catholics have Other films mentioned were Volo- Edward Girardet, writing in the become an important weapon in the dymyr Denysenko's "High Pass," a October 10 issue of The Christian particularly well-organized," wrote Mr. Girardet. ideological struggle against "im film the author believes "impas- Science Monitor, described witnessing perialism and its fiunkies,"according sionately affirms the theme of friend an August 18 attack by a pair of MIG- Whole villages' have been transform to a recent article in Radianska ship of peoples and Soviet interna 27 fighters on a caravan of refugees ed into ghost towns through the bomb Ukraina, the official organ of the tionalism," and a film called "Up to making their way through the the ing and looting of houses, the burning Communist Party of the Ukrainian the Last Moment," which was made mountains overlooking the Pashal of crops and the cutting off of valuable SSR.

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