[COMMITTEE PRINT] 99TH CONGRESS 2d Session I HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE NINETY-NINTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION DOCUMENTS OF THE HELSINKI MONITORING GROUPS IN THE U.S.S.R. AND LITHUANIA (1976-1986) Volume 3 UKRAINE Printed for the use of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 64-846 0 WASHINGTON: 1987 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402 CONTENTS I-To the History of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group (Document) Page Declaration of the Ukrainian Public Group to Promote the Observance of the Helsinki Accords ........................................................... 1 Notice of the formation of the Ukrainian Public Group to Promote the Imple- mentation of the Helsinki Accords ............................................................ 4 Announcement of the formation of the Ukrainian Public Group to promote Observance of the Helsinki Agreements in the USSR ...................... ................... 5 An open letter concerning the participation of Ukraine in the Belgrade Con- ference and the creation of the Ukrainian Group to promote (the Imple- mentation of the Helsinki Accords) ............................................................ 6 A petition to the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR ................................. 10 11-Memoranda Memorandum No. 1-The effects of the European Conference on the develop- ment of legal consciousness in Ukraine ........................................................... 15 Memorandum No. 2-Concerning the participation of Ukraine in the Bel- grade Conference, 1977 ........................................................... 35 Memorandum No. 4-On new repressions in Ukraine against members of the Helsinki Grou ... ......................................... 39 Memorandum No.o.5-To the countries participating in the Belgrade Confer- ence in the summer of 1977 ................. ........................................... 42 Memorandum No. 6-Concerning the so-called "Internal Affairs" of a state ..... 54 Memorandum No. 7-The Ukrainian Group to Promote: The First Four Months........................................................................................................................... 57 Supplement to Memorandum No. 7 ............................ ................................ 64 Memorandum No. 8-Concerning the persecution of V. Lisova, wife of a political prisoner.......................................................................................................... 66 Memorandum No. 9-Concerning the gross violations of law in the investiga- tive "Case" of M. Rudenko ........................................................... 69 Memorandum No. 11-On the fate of Nadiya Svitlychna ....................................... 71 Memorandum No. 18-On discrimination against Ukrainians who wish to emigrate from the USSR ........................................................... 76 Memorandum-Fall, 1979 ........................................................... 82 111-A Manifesto Of the Ukrainian Human Rights Movement, 1977 ................................................... 93 IV-Information Bulletins No. 1 ........................................................... 115 No. 2 ........................................................... 124 V-Statements, Appeals, and Open Letters A statement concerning the arrest of members of the Ukrainian Group to Promote.......................................................................................................................... 213 Statement on the fate of Bohdan Chuiko ........................................................... 219 Letter No. 2-To the Governments of the UkrSSR and the USSR; to the Governments of countries that signed the Helsinki Accords .............................. 223 An open letter to the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Com- munist Party of Ukraine, V.V. Shcherbytsky ........................................................ 230 (III) Iv An appeal to the Governments of states signatory to the Helsinki Final Act; the U.N. Human Rights Commission; World Council of Churches; Amnesty Page International; and all Christians of the World ...................................................... 233 Statement of the trials of Helsinki Monitors ........................................................... 235 An appeal to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms; the governments and parliaments of states that signed the Helsinki Accords; the world's democratic men and women; and the citizenry of all countries .... 241 VI-The Verdict and Additional Materials Pertaining to the case of Mykola Rudenko and Oleksiy Tykhy ............................. 253 An open letter to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR; Moscow and the Congress of the United States of America, Washington ........................ 306 An open letter to the participants of the Belgrade Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe and Amnesty International .............................................. 309 An open letter to United Nations, New York; U.N. Human Rights Commis- sion; Amnesty International; and L. Brezhnev, Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the USSR ................................. .......................... 311 VII-The Helsinki Movement in Ukraine-New Directions Declaration........................................................................................................................ 315 Statement.......................................................................................................................... 316 H. Con. Res. 332 ........................................................... 317 Ukrainian Helsinki Group: Ten Years Later November 9, 1986, marked the 10th anniversary of the largest and, in terms of prison sentences, the most repressed of the Soviet Helsinki Groups--the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. Founded by Ukrainian writer and World War II veteran Mykola Rudenko, the group produced extensive documentation on violations of the Helsinki Accords in Ukraine, such as persecution of individual dissent, suppression of the Ukrainian language and culture, and religious persecution. The Soviet Government was determined to deny this group any public voice. Of the 38 members of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, all but one have been imprisoned at one time or another. Fourteen Ukrainian Helsinki Monitors and one Estonian human rights activist who joined the group while in a labor camp, are currently serving lengthly sentences. Since May 1984, three members have died in camps. All three men had been ill and denied adequate medical care. Oleksa Tykhy, Yuriy Lytvyn and Vasyl Stus all died for their beliefs. Prior to his death, Stus had written "Moscow has given the camp authorities complete power, and anyone harboring the illusion that our relations with /the camp authorities/ are regulated by some sort of law is sadly mistaken." His words were tragically prophetic. We are concerned that the same fate awaits others, including Lev Lukianenko, Mykola Horbal, Ivan Kandyba, Vasyl Ovsienko and Vitaly Kalynychenko. It is vital that we remember the courageous members of the Ukrainian Monitoring Group and their eloquent call for compliance with the ideals of Helsinki. In fact, the Congress recently passed a resolution commemorating the anniversary of the founding of the Ukrainian Helsinki group and honoring the members of all the Soviet Helsinki Monitoring Groups. At the ongoing Vienna CSCE Follow-up Meeting, the United States and other Western delegations are speaking out on behalf of the imprisoned members of the Ukrainian and other Helsinki Groups. We hope that the documents contained in this volume will help to ensure that the Ukrainian Group and its message are not forgotten. C' ol A60A4A DENNIS DeCONCINI Co-Chairman (V) THE COMMISSION WOULD LIKE TO ACKNOWLEDGE MS. NINA STROKATA, A FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE UKRAINIAN HELSINKI GROUP FOR HER VALUABLE ASSISTANCE IN EDITING AND COMPILING THE DOCUIMENTS IN THIS VOLUME. THE COMMISSION ALSO EXPRESSES ITS APPRECIATION TO SMOLOSKYP INFORMATION SERVICE, WHO PROVIDED US WITH M4ANY OF THE D-OCUMETS FOUND IN THIS VOLUME. (VI) The Ukrainian Helsinki Group: Ten Years of Repressions by Nina Strokata (founding member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group) August 1975 marked the tenth anniversary of the signing of the Helsinki Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe by the leaders of the 35 European nations and the United States and Canada. November 1986 marked the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group for the Implementation of the Helsinki Accords. Let us look at the recent past and let us also try to look at the future, which, although it may depend, in part, on the movement of processes and events, is nevertheless linked to the Helsinki Accords. In 1975, on the first day of the Helsinki conference, the prisoners of the Perm labor camp carried out a one-day hunger strike and announced their reservations as to whether the Soviet Government would abide by the Accords. From another prison camp in Mordovia, Ukrainian dissident Vyacheslav Chornovil, wrote to the President Gerald Ford on August 1, 1975, and stated that the Soviet leaders would turn detente into a process which would occur at the same time that opposition is stifled in the USSR. The following year, a group of prisoners undertook a hunger strike to call attention to their doubts