The Ukrainian Weekly 1985, No.50
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www.ukrweekly.com Publishtd by ttw Ufcrainian national Association inc.. a fraternal non-profit association! rainian Weekly vol. mi No. 50 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15,1985 25 cents Over 800 imprisoned in USSR Government lawyer: Liftman "duped" on world Human Rights Day Canadian Prime Minister Mulroney NEW YORK - At least 824 Soviet Soviet political prisoners whose names, by Michael B. Boclurkiw prisoners of conscience spent December biographies and places of incarceration 10, Human Rights Day, in prison, and are known, 77 are women. Forty-two JERSEY C1TY, N.J. - Nazi hunter almost one out of every 10 Soviet are religious believers, and 13 are in Sol Littman has been accused by a political prisoners is a woman, reported prison for various human-rights activi– Canadian government lawyer of using Freedom House. ties, such as distributing unauthorized "unfounded allegations" to convince More than half of the women'are literature, writing articles, making Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mul– incarcerated for religious beliefs, with statements critical of the Soviet regime, roney to set up the government's inquiry Baptists the predominant religious or joining human-rights organizations. into war criminals. group. Most women are confined with Six women were punished by being The accusation was made by veteran common criminals in labor camps committed to psychiatric hospitals Justice Department lawyer ivan White- strewn across the Soviet Union. Ten instead of prison. hall at a hearing on December 4. He told women are held in Mordovian Labor "Because the Soviet Union does not Justice Jules Deschenes, the head of the Camp No. 3-4, a women's strict-regi– provide statistics on its prisons, labor one-man commission of inquiry, that men labor camp 250 miles east of camps, and psychiatric hospitals, the 77 Mr. Littman misled the government Moscow, specifically set aside for documented cases represent only the tip about Auschwitz death camp doctor political prisoners. of the iceberg," the study points out. Josef Mengele to convince the prime These statistics were prepared by Dr. Strokata's article on the plight of minister to order an inquiry. Ludmilla Thorne, director of the Center Soviet women political prisoners and Mr. Littman, the Canadian represen– for Appeals for Freedom of Freedom additional statistics will appear in a tative of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, House, and Nina Strokata, a microbio– forthcoming issue of Freedom House's first raised concern about Dr. Mengele legist - who was-nHeading Ukrainian bimonthly magazine, Freedom at issue, in a December 20 letter to Prime human-rights advocate and spent four and in the Ukrainian Weekly. Minister Mulroney. The letter asserted Bociurkm years' imprisonment at the Mordovian Women imprisoned in both the Mor– that Dr. Mengele tried to enter Canada Prime Minister Brian Mulroney labor camp. After her release she dovian political camp and in criminal from Argentina in 1962. Mr. Littman became a founding member of the camps are forced to work eight hours a also called on the prime minister to Deschenes Commission lawyer Yves Ukrainian Helsinki Group. day, six days a week. Among the tasks establish "an immediate investigation, Fortier was quoted as saying that the Dr. Strokata is the wife of Svyatoslav they are assigned is construction and ordered at the highest level," to deter– Littman letter "culminated in setting up Karavansky, incarcerated in Soviet agricultural work, and sewing work mine what happed to the doctor's the inquiry." labor camps and prisons for 30 years for (Continued on page 12) immigration application. (Continued on page 15) his advocacy of greater national and human rights in Ukraine. The couple emigrated from the Soviet Union in November 1979, and now lives in the The Ukrainian Museum purchases new building United States. The New York-based Freedom House has been monitoring political rights and civil liberties around the world for 44 years. According to the study, out of 824 Senate resolution on asylum stalled WASHINGTON - The resolution initiated by Sen. Gordon Humphrey (R-N.H.) that would create a Special Panel, on Asylum composed of seven senators, was introduced in the Senate on Friday, December 6. The measure had 57 co-sponsors. Senate Resolution 267 would em- power the Senate panel to subpoena witnesses and evidence in its review of asylum procedures and recent asylum cases, including that of Ukrainian sailor Myroslav Medvid. Sen. Humphrey on December 10 attempted to attack the measure to an omnibus funding bill (continuing re- The Ukrainian Museum's future home as it appears in an artist's sketch. solution), but this was voted down on a technicality, losing by one vote, 47-46. NEW YORK - The Ukrainian Mu– This purchase was made necessary located in a neighborhood that is close Fifteen of the resolution's co-sponsors seum in New York City announced that due to severe space limitations at the to The Cooper Union and New York's voted against the attachment. it jias purchased a building on Sixth museum's current location and the need "Little Ukraine" area. Several new art As The Weekly was going to press, -"Street between Second and Third ave– to provide improved exhibition facili– galleries and boutiques have recently Sen. Humphrey and others were still nues. The museum plans to refurbish ties for the museum's growing collec– opened in this revitalized area, known trying to attach the resolution toanother the building into a modern museum tion. as the East village. (Continued on page 16) facilitv. The newly purchased building is (Continued on page 14) THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, DECEMBER IS. 1985 No. 50 Sentenced for statement on Ukraine Famine commission gets funding MUN1CH - Lt. Hryhory Kutsenko. rature," most notably Alexander Sol– WASH1NGTON - Congress has nated for the year 1984-85. a Ukrainian Red Army officer, has been zhenitsyn's Gulag Archipalago. Of– passed an appropriations bill that The commission will conduct a study sentenced to four years in a labor camp ficials also found letters of protest includes funding for the U.S. Commis– of the Great Famine of 1932-33 that for saying that Ukraine could survive against the imprisonment of Anatoly sion on the Ukraine Famine, thus killed some7 millioa'personsin Ukraine, independent of the Soviet Union during Scharansky and Yuri Orlov in his diary. paving the way for the commission to it is composed of two members of the a political discussion, reported USSR formally begin its work. Senate, four members of the House of News Briefs. Twenty eight witnesses testified at The appropriation of MOO,OOO to be Representatives, three executive branch He was sentenced on these grounds Mr. Kutsenko's trial, most of them used until expended, was attached to an representatives and six public members and for spreading "anti-Soviet lite– soldiers. appropriations bill funding the Justice, selected from the Ukrainian commu– State and Commerce Departments. nity. Last year, the Congress had approved The congressional and executive Nobel Peace Prize laureate the 5400,000 funding for the famine branch appointments were announced commission, but, due to an error in the earlier this year. Rep. Dan Mica (D– becomes subject of controversy wording, the appropriation was desig– Fla.) is chairman of the commission. JERSEY C1TY, N.J. - The Nobel is also the deputy health minister, it is Peace Prize has once again emerged as reported that he follows Moscow's the subject of controversy because one policy views. Rumania's trade status is threatened of this year's recipients participated in a Dr. Chazov had recently written an WASHINGTON - The-Heagan when it differed with the Soviet Union crusade against dissident physicist article in the Communist Party daily administration has threatened to stop on foreign policy matters and when it Andrei Sakharov, a past laureate. Pravda, blaming the U.S. for the arms trade benefits for Rumania unless the eased restrictions on immigration. But The committee's decision to invite race because it "chooses to accumulate government improves its human-rights it has come under increasing attack Yevgeni Chazov, a co-chairman of the most death-dealing arms in a futile record. State Department officials have from U.S. religious groups for harass– international Physicians For The Pre– attempt to gain a one-sided military said. ing Christian faiths which are not vention of Nuclear War to the awards advantage." Post reporter William According to The New York Times, sanctioned by the state. ceremony December 10, sparked con– Drozdiak wrote that Dr. Chazov has Secretary of State George P. Shultz, The Senate on November 1 passed also been accused of promoting Soviet troversy among its members. Dr. when visiting Bucharest on December without dissent a sense-of-the-Senate Chazov, along with 21 other Soviet anti-nuclear policy through the medical resolution which accused Rumania of profession, most notably in the organi– 15, will tell Rumanian officials that doctors, had signed a letter in 1973, unless they address the U.S. govern– "contempt of the religious freedom and published in the government newspaper zation of which he is co-founder, known the repression of national minorities." as Doctors Against Nuclear War. ment's concerns, it would be difficult, if lzvestia, which attacked Dr. Sakharov, not impossible, to extend Rumania's Two bills are still pending, one in the saying he had slandered his country and Two months ago, the group's 135,000 most-favored-nation (MFN) trade sta– House and the other in the Senate, to "grossly distort(ed) the realities of doctors and health professionals from tus. suspend the tariff benefits until Ru– (Soviet) life," according to The Wash– the U.S. and the USSR were awarded Mr. Shultz was also to visit Hungary mania improves its human-rights re- ington Post.