www.ukrweekly.com ^ - - Published by the Ukrainian National Association inc., a fraternal non-profit association! C-i CO -c ЗГ X - о о "n О Z Pi rainian Weekly о a vol. LI No. 31 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JULY ЗІ, і9вз, 25 cents Rep. Smith seeks co-signers for Reagan, Bush, Kirkpatrick address letter to Andropov concerning Meshko Captive Nations Week observance WASHINGTON - Responding to concern for the condition of a 78-year- the news about the tragic condition of old Ukrainian woman, Oksana Yakivna Oksana Meshko, the 78-year-old found– Meshko, who was sentenced on Jan– ing member of the Ukrainian Helsinki uary 6, 1981, to six months in a labor Monitoring Group, New Jersey Rep. camp and five years of "internal exile." Christopher Smith is circulating a letter The charges against Oksana, a found– to Soviet leader Yuri Andropov among ing member of the Ukrainian Public his colleagues in the U.S. Congress and Group to Promote the implementation asking them to co-sign the appeal. of the Helsinki Accords (November 9, Americans for Human Rights in 1976), were "anti-Soviet agitation and Ukraine, a New Jersey-based group, propaganda." She is now in her second reported that the letter, dated July 22. year of exile in Ayan, a remote village of asks that Ms. Meshko be freed from her 1,700 people located on the sea of exile terrrsin keeping with Article 100 of Okhotsk near the Chinese border. the Russian SFSR Corrective Labor Life in Ayan has been very difficult Code, which stipulates that persons for Oksana, especially during the long suffering from chronic ilncsses may be winter months. She suffered a heart released before completing the full attack during a police search of her terms of their sentences, "in considera– apartment in 1976, and continues to be tion of Oksana's health, and because her troubled by severe hypertension, glau– only crime was to defend her son and to coma and arthritis. No rnedical care is speak as a member of the Ukrainian available in Ayan, and her heart condi– Helsinki Group, we ask that Oksana tion prevents her from flying to the Meshko be allowed to return with her nearest medical center. Food is in short son and his family to Kiev," the letter supply and is often heavily salted, thus states. aggravating her health problems. Wood Rep. Smith attained prominence in for heating is difficult to obtain, and the Ukrainian American community by severe storms have kept this old woman vice President George Bush and State Department counselor Edward J. Derwinski being the original sponsor together with isolated from all human contact for at the Captive Nations Week banquet held in Washington. another N.J. congressman, Bernard J. days at a time. She is also denied visits who are captives, not because of the Dwyer, of House Concurrent Rcsolu– from friends and family members. WASHINGTON - President Ro– crimes that they have committed, but tion 205, which was passed by both Oksana's son, Oleksander Serhi– nald Reagan, speaking at a White because of crimes commuted against houses of the U.S. Congress in 1982. yenko, who is also exiled in Ayan, will House ceremony commemorating Cap– them by dictators and tyrants." Heeding the request of this resolution. complete his 10-year sentence on tive Nations Week, assured the nations He then went on to stress that the President Ronald Reagan issued a August 4, 1983. Like his mother, Ser– of Eastern Europe and other captive U.S. does not recognize Soviet domina– proclamation designating November 9, hiyenko is hoping that he will soon nations throughout the world: "Your tion of the Baltic states "as a permanent 1982, as a day honoring the Ukrainian return to Kiev with his wife and their struggle is our struggle." condition," and assured "every person Public Group to Promote the lmple– two children, in this !ate period of her The president spoke on Tuesday, July trapped in tyranny, whether in Ukraine. mentation of the Helsinki Accords. life, it is Oksana's greatest wish that she 19. on the occasion of the 25th obser– could be spared her final years in exile, vance of Captive Nations Week, before Hungary, Czechoslovakia. Cuba or As a result of his efforts in the field of some 100 persons, including many East vietnam" that they arc not alone in their .human rights. Rep. Smith was appoint– and be allowed to return with her son European ethnic leaders. struggle. ed by the House leadership to serve as and his family to Kiev. Article 100 of the RSFSR Corrective The White House ceremony, how– Continuing. President Reagan posed one of the commissioners of the Con– a question to Communist rulers: "if gressional Helsinki Commission. Labor Code provides that convicted ever, was only one of four CN Week persons suffering from chronic illnesses events held in the nation's capital during communism is the wave of the future, Below is the full text of Rep. Smith's why do you still need walls to keep letter to Mr. Andropov. may be freed from serving the full terms the two-day period of July 18-19. of their sentences. Therefore, in consi– The other Captive Nations Week people in. and armies of secret police to deration of Oksana's health and be– events, all held on Monday, July 18. keep them quiet?" cause her only crime was to defend her were a banquet featuring vice President Turning to U.S. policy vis a vis its George Bush as the keynote speaker, a own hemisphere. President Reagan Dear Mr. Secretary: son and to speak as a member of the (Continued on page 12) Capitol Hill luncheon addressed by noted that "for the first time in memory We are writing to you to express our Jeanc J. Kirkpatrick, U.S. rcpresenta– we face real dangers on our own tive to the United Nations, and a borders... We must not permit outsiders conference featuring a panel of captive to threaten,thc United States. We must nations representatives. not permit dictators to ram com– munism down the throats of one Cen– White House ceremony tral American country after another." "Let us resolve todaj: there must be in his address at the afternoon White no more captive nations in this hemi– House ceremony, President Reagan sphere." he underlined. told his audience: "we come to show in addition to President Reagan's solidarity with our brothers and sisters address, participants had the opportu– nity to be briefed by several U.S. government officials. They were: Ken For full lexis of the Captive Na– Tomlinson. director of the voice of tions Week addresses delivered by America, who spoke on communicating President Reagan and vice President with the Captive Nations: Col. Law– Bush, as well as the text of the rence Tracy of the Department of Captive Sations Week Proclamation Defense, who discussed Central Amcri– issued by the president, sec page 4. can issuer: and Paula Dobriansky. a (Continued on page 13) Hep. Christopher Smith na Meshko 2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, JULY ЗІ, 1983 No. ЗІ An analysis Dissident profile Recently received samizdat documents lryna Senyk: detail activity of Ukrainian Catholics exiled Helsinki monitor by ivan Hvat worldwide, public scrutiny. Catholics the world over must know and remember JERSEY C1TY. N.J. - Poet A number of documents relating to under what conditions we exist. We lryna Senyk, 57, a former member of efforts by Ukrainian Catholics to have have a single goal - legalization." the Organization of Ukrainian Na– their church registered and recognized The same desire for legalization is tionalists. is currently serving the last by the Soviet authorities have been expressed in the appeal by members of year of a five-year exile term in published in Arkhiv Samizdata. One of the Action Group to the Ukrainian SSR Kazakhstan. She is an invalid of the the documents is a letter from the government. The appeal emphasizes second category, having undergone a Ukrainian human rights activist Yosyp that the liquidation of the Ukrainian serious spinal operation while serv– Terelia to the Central Committee of the Catholic Church at the Lviv "Synod" in ing a 10-year labor-camp term from Communist. Party of the Ukrainian 1946 was an illegal act in which repre– 1944 to 1954 for her nationalist SSR. The letter announces the forma– sentatives not only of the Russian activities. tion of an "Action Group for the Orthodox Church but also of the Soviet lryna Mikhailivna Senyk was born Defense of the Rights of Believers and authorities were actively involved. But on June 8, 1926, in Lviv. With the the Church" in Ukraine, specifies the even after its liquidation, the activities outbreak of World War 11, shejoined number of members in the group, and of the Ukrainian Catholic Church did the Ukrainian liberation struggle states that Mr. Terelia has been elected not cease but continued underground. against Nazi and Soviet oppression, its leader. "But we survived the evil years of for which she was later imprisoned. A second document is an appeal by Stalinism. Even today, after the denun– After her release from the labor members of the group to the Ukrainian ciation of the crimesof the tyrant Stalin, camp in 1954, she worked for a time government with proposals for the a part of the Ukrainian people and the as a nurse and eventually settled in legalization of the Ukrainian Catholic Church of its ancestors exist in far from lvano-Frankivske. in the mid-1960s, Church, in his capacity as leader of the normal circumstances, it is strange that she became associated with several group, Mr.