The Ukrainian Weekly 1989

І Hh |Published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc.. a fTaternal non-profit associationj UHiaPH V 50 cents Vol. LVII No. 29 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JULY 16,1989 Interviews at radiation medicine centerBisho p Michael Kuchmial( named exarch slied iig/it on 198B Chornoby/ disastero f Ukrainian Catholics in Great Britain On June 9-18, Dr. David Marples, were accompanied by another Yuriy, JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- Bishop author of two books on the Chornoby I who is a translator with the institute. He Michael Kuchmiak, auxiliary bishop of nuclear accident, visited the Chornobyl presented me with the newly released Archbishop Metropolitan Stephen area and Kiev, courtesy of the Ukrai book on the medical effects of Chor Sulyk of the Ukrainian Catholic Church nian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The nobyl, with contributions from Leonid in the United States, has been named by following is a four-part seriesabout this Ilyin, I.Likhtarevand Dr. Romanenko Pope John Paul II to be the new unique visit to Ukraine, and from various Western specialists. apostolic exarch for Ukrainian Ca The institute is a converted sanato tholics in Great Britain. by Dr. David Marples rium, located in a pleasant, wooded Bishop Kuchmiak, 66, will leave for area. We were greeted by three specia his new post at the end of the summer, PART III lists, under the chairmanship of Oles and his installation is expected to take Pyatak, a winner of a state prize, and a place when the Synod of Ukrainian My continuing research into Chor deputy director of the Institute of Catholic Bishops meets in Rome in late nobyl was not over, because on the Clinical Radiology. Both Mr. Likhtarev September and early October, reported following morning, June 15, I had an and B.C. Bebeshko were in Moscow,but The Star-Ledger of New Jersey. interview with the staff of the Institute Mr. Pyatak is certainly a senior and News of the appointment was con of Clinical Radiology at the Center for well-known figure. The other specialists firmed by the Archbishop's Chancery in Radiation Medicine, affiliated with the were I.P. Los, head of the laboratory of Philadelphia. Academy of Medical Sciences of the radio-ecology, and V.V. Chumak, head Last year in March he had been USSR. The center is under the director of the immunological laboratory. Our selected to serve as Metropolitan ship of Ukrainian Minister of Health meeting room was impressive, the table Sulyk's auxiliary. He was consecrated a Anatoliy Romanenko and is con being decorated with cookies, cherries bishop during a pontifical divine liturgy cerned with the monitoring of and a choice of drinks. Mr. Pyatak gave at Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Chornobyl victims (a more detailed a description of the center, noting the Catholic Cathedral in Philadelphia on account of these goals will appear in attention being paid to the welfare of April 27. interview). the 209 patients who were subjected to Prior to that. Bishop Kuchmiak had It is located in the northernmost part very high levels of radiation after Chor been pastor of Holy Family Ukrainian of Kiev. Valeriy Ingulsky of the Ukrai nobyl. Catholic National Shrine in Washing nian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and I (Continued on page 12) ton for one year, and had been pastor of St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic (Continued on page 5) Bisliop Micliael Kuchmiak Vinnytsla: another dark episode of Stalinist era is discussed by| Kathleen Mihalisko testimony of local residents had called in relatives to identify the bodies. Another dark episode of the Stalinist They also brought in an international era has been brought into the open by commission of forensic experts in July the Soviet press: the history behind 1943, to examine the exhumed corpses, Vinnytsia, a city some 200 kilometers and had the bodies reburied with southwest of Kiev, where in May 1943, religious rites in a common grave, where German occupation forces began to un a cross was erected "to the victims of earth the remains of almost 9,500 Stalin." people lying in three mass graves. It was established at the time that the Ukrainians in the West consider victims had been arrested and shot by Vinnytsia to be their equivalent of the the NKVD in 1937 and 1938, then Katyn Forest massacre of Polish officers buried in one of three NKVD-guarded although for a number of reasons the areas within the city limits of Vinnytsia: incident received far less attention than a pear orchard, a cemetery and a section the discovery in Katyn that the Ger of the municipal park. Of the 679 mans had announced at nearly the same corpses that were identified, the vast time. majority were of Ukrainian nationality, Indeed, with the notable exception of but there was also a substantial number Robert Conquest's "The Great Terror," of Poles, Russians and Jews. Vinnytsia has been largely forgotten by Silski Visti correspondent H. Drob- all but the Ukrainian community in chak had a personal interest in revealing diaspora. Rather unexpectedly, the the facts about Vinnytsia because, he story appeared not in a daring literary writes, having been a schoolboy in the newspaper but in Silski Visti, an organ area during the years of the Stalinist of the Central Committee of the Ukrai terror, he recalls the disappearance of nian Community Party. teachers and acquaintances. The background to Vinnytsia as The official Soviet explanation for explained in the emigre literature is as the existence of the graves was first set follows. The Nazis, who were anxious down in a bulletin published in the Tlie grounds of the Institute of Clinical Radiology. Center for Radiation Medicine to reap the propaganda benefits of their summer of 1943 by the Soviet Informa- in Kiev. discovery, extensively documented the (Continued on page 5) THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JULY 16, 1989 No. 29 A GLIMPSE OF SOVIET REALITY FOR THE RECORD: Chornov/Ts appeal to Conference on the Human Dimension Shevchenko Ukrainian Language Society: Following is the full text of an appeal Commission on Security and Coopera to the recently concluded Conference tion in Europe of the U.S. Congress an interview with Dmytro Pavlychko on the Human Dimension, held as part supposedly told the correspondent from of the Helsinki Accords review process by Dr. David Marples pulsory. We are not talking in terms of "Pravda" that the list of American some sort of universal language, simply in Paris, from Vyasheslav Chornovilof complaints to the USSR on the topic of Dmytro Pavlychko, a well-known the language for those who live here. the Ukrainian Helsinki Union. The human rights includes only 13 cases poet and secretary of the board of the appeal, dated July 6, was disseminated compared with 11,000 at the congress of Ukrainian Writers' Union, is chairman In February, you met with Mikhail in English translation by the Ukrainian Bern in 1986. of the Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian Gorbachev. How did he react to the Press Agency based in London, If I could travel to Paris I would Language Socief^. The following intergoals of the society? complete DeConcini's list, which I had view took place on June 12 at the With forced delay, I would like to the honor of seeing in November of last Ukrainian Writers' Union in Kiev, The details of that meeting might be thank those defenders of human rights year during the U.S. Helsinki Com of some interest, but they are not of in democratic countries, especially mission's visit to Moscow, with hun What is the current state of the prime importance. What is significant is those in Canada, who made attempts at dreds of cases from the White Book of Shevchenko Ukrainian Language So that Gorbachev agreed completely with inviting me, a long-time participant of Administrative Terror in Ukraine, ciety? ^ all our initiatives, even though to date the Helsinki movement and a Ukrainian which the Ukrainian Helsinki Union is there is no law in the country stating dissident who has been fighting for in the process of compiling. The book At present, we have 70,000 members, that Ukrainian should be the state human and national rights, to your documents gross violations of the most and the number is rising. The society language of our republic. conference. Unfortunately, even if the elementary forms of human rights, has been officially registered with the However, our main exchange con invitation had arrived on time, I would which the USSR agreed to honor in authorities and has its own bank ac cerned the draft program of the Ukrai have been unable to accept it. One week Helsinki and Ukraine. In the mean counts in both rubles and hard cur nian Popular Movement, which had before the opening of the conference, I time, please add to the list of 30 names rency. We have begun to hold some just been published (Literaturna U- was seized from the street and secretly, three more cases: the name of Stepan major events, including a conference on kraina, February 16), because some without even relatives knowing and Khmara, who is also familiar with Sen. the present status of the Ukrainian people had informed Gorbachev that without even basic semblance of justice DeConcini, Stepan Hura from Kher language. we were trying to establish an alterna- (witnesses, a lawyer, the opportunity to son, who is a Ukrainian Helsinki Union present evidence) thrown in a prison cell activist imprisoned in May in a psychia for 15 days. tric hospital for attempting to travel to ... priorify should be given to fhe Ukrainian language. The reason for my imprisonment was Kiev to attend a meeting of the Ukrai that I had addressed a crowd at a pre nian Helsinki Union, and finally the If should be faughi and used by fhe eniire populafion election rally.

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