The Ukrainian Weekly 1984
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Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc., a fraternal non-profit association! -z. о -I 3 О ft Z Ї" о О о - rainian Weekly о z Vol. Lll No. 47 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKl!Y SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1984 25 cents Soviet deserters Stolcotelnyj ends United Nations hunger strike living in Britain return to USSR LONDON - Two Soviet soldiers who came to Britain after deserting their military unit in Afghanistan returned to the Soviet Union on No vember -11, reported the Associated Press. British officials who interviewed the soldiers said they were satisfied the two were returning of their own free will. Friends reported them missing on November 10, a day after they said they were going to the Soviet Embassy. The soldiers arrived in Britain in June and had permission to stay for a year. The two men, Sgt. Igor Rykhov, 22, and Pvt. Oleg Khlan, 21. had been staying in London with a Ukrainian family. They were both born in U- kraine. "We are going back because of our families," Sgt. Rykhov said ih.-ough an. interpreter as he and Pvt. Khlan were escorted by Soviet officials to a Lenin grad-bound flight from London's Heathrow Airport. But a British lawmaker who found .ABjtnjtit the two when they were being held by Hunger striker Pavlo Stokotelnyj, seated, with supporters singing "Oy u luzi chervona kalyna" at Monday's demonstration. Afghan guerrillas and who sponsored their stay in Britain said he feared the by Natalia Dmytrijuk fast by a representative of the U.S. Mis thing in his power to help the two rights two had been "cajoled, persuaded or sion to the United Nations. activists. pressured" to go home through emo NEW YORK - Almost two weeks "I told him that his conscience should tional blackmail by Moscow. after beginning a hunger strike to be clear because he tried everything 200 at demonstration The legislator. Lord Bethcll, a Con protest Soviet human-rights violations, humanly possible to help his friends," servative member of the European Pavlo Stokotelnyj. the husband of said Louis Segesvary, deputy counsel Mr. Segesvary spoke to the hunger Parliament, said on November 8 that former Soviet political prisoner Nadia for public affairs at the U.S. Mission, on striker shortly after an afternoon de Sgt. Rykhov had received a letter from Svitlychna, was persuaded to end his November 13, one day after Mr. Stoko monstration was staged by some 200 his mother. telnyj ended his 12-day strike. supporters of Mr. Stokotelnyj's strike. "It was the first contact he'd had from He ended the strike the same day Speakers at the demonstration in them for probably some years," Lord some 200 Ukrainians of the New York- cluded: Herbert Rickman, representing Bethell said. "It put them into a state of Afghanistan's children New Jersey metropolitan area gathered Mayor Ed Koch's office; Ludmilla considerable despair. I'm sure the letter at Ralph Bunche Park to stand by him Thorne of Freedom House; Ms. Svitly was sent with the knowledge of the face indoctrination and express their support. chna, whose remarks were translated secret police." The 41-year-old father of two stopped from the Ukrainian by Adrian Karatny- Lord Bethell said the two wandered NEW DELHI, India - Western eating on November I in an act of cky; Zinaida Grigorenko, wife of the London's streets all day in tears, finally diplomats said on November 14 that the solidarity with Ukrainian Helsinki ailing head of the External Representa going to the Soviet Embassy "in a Soviet authorities' in Afghanistan had Group members Mykola Horbal and tion of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, desperate attempt to try to establish a begun a program to send thousands of Yosyf Zisels, who are already in prisons Petro Grigorenko; Nestor Olesnycky, link with their families." primary-school Afghan children to the and facing new anti-Soviet activity who read statements issued by Peter Lord Bethell said the two had hoped Soviet Union for at least 10 years of charges. At this writing, Mr. Stokotelnyj Savaryn, president of the World Con to settle eventually in Canada, which indoctrination intocommunismand the was under medical observation at gress of Free Ukrainians; and Dr. has a large Ukrainian population. Soviet way of life, reported the Asso Irvington General Hospital in Irving- Bohdar Woroch, branch president of the ciated Press. ton, N.J. of the Ukrainian Medical Association On November 11, the Soviet Em The diplomats said 870 Afghan Mr. Segesvary said he first learned of of North America which monitored bassy acknowledged the two men were children, age 7 to 9. left for Soviet Mr. Stokotelnyj's intentions when, on Mr. Stokotelnyj's condition daily. A with Soviet officials. A statement said Central Asia in the first such flight on his way to work, he passed the handful of policemen looked on. they had requested assistance "in their November 5. Weeping parents and the protester sitting in the park across from return to their motherland" and said wife of Babrak Karmal, the Afghan the United Nations complex. He de Other organizations represented at they did so "of their own free will.". leader, reportedly saw them off at cided to intervene on behalf of Messrs. the demonstration included: Americans Before British authorities allowed Kabul airport. The reports could not be Horbal and Zisels when he was ap for Human Rights in Ukraine, the them to leave, however, the soldiers independently verified. proached with appeals from Mr. Ukrainian Human Rights Committee in were driven to the Home Office, which Diplomats also said they had received Stokotelnyj, Americans for Human Philadelphia, Plast, SUM-A and local supervises immigration. reports that Sovief troops and their Rights in Ukraine and Amnesty Inter student and cultural groups. British officials were satisfied that the Afghan allies killed 450 anti-govern national. In order to publicize Mr. Stoko soldiers were not acting out of duress, a ment guerrillas after they had surren Although he admitted he was not sure telnyj's demands, AHRU had arranged spokesman said, and the embassy car dered and handed over their arms after what his next step would be because he interviews with the Associated Press, was allowed to drive to Heathrow. Both a battle in the mountains of north had never done anything like this Radio Liberty and ' New Jersey's soldiers could be seen smiling through western Afghanistan. The diplomats before, Mr. Segesvary promised to largest newspaper. The Star Ledger. the car's rear window, the AP said. said the killings occurred in October. explore every possibility and do every (Continued on page 4) 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1984 No. 47 Groups to investigate police brutality Valentin Sokolov dead at 58; formed in several Polish cities spent 32 years in Soviet detention WARSAW - A group of Warsaw civil rights. "We cannot subscribe to the FRANKFURT, West Germany - dissidents announced on November 12 illusion that the reconstruction of Valentin Sokolov, a dissident poet who that they had formed a committee to Poland lies merely in the social control had been imprisoned for all but four investigate and publicize instances of over the police and security forces," he years since 1947, died earlier this month lawless behavior by police, reported said. "Solidarity's concerns deal with in a Soviet psychiatric clinic, the Inter The New York Times. the whole problem of rebuilding social national Society for Human Rights The appearance of the group, the and national life." reported on November 8. Warsaw Committee Against Oppres The formation of the Warsaw group M r. Sokolov, 58, who was nominated sion, follows the establishment of was announced at a news conference on earlier this year for the Nobel Litera similar groups in Wroclaw and Cracow November 12 at the home of Edward ture Prize, died in the Chernyakhovsk after the Rev. Jerzy Popieluszko, a pro- Lipinski, a 96-year-old economist and special psychiatric hospital in the Solidarity priest, was killed by three activist, and its aims were outlined in a northwest Soviet Union, according to members of the security forces last declaration. Reuters news service. month. "Shaken by the murder of the Rev. News of Mr. Sokolov's death was (The Associated Press reported on Popieluszko by agents of the security relayed to Frankfurt by dissident sources November that 22 people signed a apparatus and remembering well similar in the Soviet Union, the society said. statement in Cracow calling for reforms mysterious murders, muggings and The cause of death was not given, in Poland's legal system.) abductions reported in the under though Mr. Sokolov was known to After the killing, authorities an ground press, we are establishing the suffer from asthma. nounced that, in addition to the three civic committee against oppression," In 1972, Mr. Sokolov was arrested security personnel, two other Interior said the statement, which was distri and subsequently sentenced to five Ministry security men had been de buted to Western correspondents. years for "hooliganism." But just prior tained and a general suspended in It was signed by 14 people, including to his scheduled release in 1977, he was connection with the killing. Mr. Lipinski and such well-known ruled not responsible for his actions and Valentin Sokolov According to the Times, the new activists as Anka Kowalska, a writer; placed in Chernyakhovsk for writing to 10 years' imprisonment. Released in committees are spreading. Within the Janusz Onyszkiewicz, a mathematician; poems in the labor camp under the 1968, he was taken into custody again in dissident movement the cry for investi Scweryn Jaworski, a steel worker; and pseudonym Valentin Zeka. 1970 and sentenced to one year in a gating ancr curbing police excesses Jan Jozef Lipski, a historian.