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By Natalie Gawdiak, Journalist, Action Ukraine Coalition (AUC)
Washington, D.C., Tuesday, April 6, 2004
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WASHINGTON, D.C. - On Tuesday, March 30, participants in the third of a
series of meetings held in Washington by the Action Ukraine Coalition (AUC)
heard from two Members of the Verkhovna Rada [parliament] of Ukraine, the
Honorable Borys Tarasyuk, the featured speaker, and his colleague, the
Honorable Roman Zvarych.
While the previous meeting featured remarks about Ukrainian-U.S. relations
from various representatives of the U.S. executive branch, Tuesday's meeting
explored the same subject from the viewpoint of two men from the ranks of
the democratic opposition faction, "Our Ukraine."
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Major General (ret.) Nicholas Krawciw poses a question during the AUC breakfast meeting with Ukrainian Rada Member Borys Tarasyuk
© NGawdiak/AUC
(Click on images to enlarge them)
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The AUC, which is composed of the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council
(UACC), the Ukrainian Federation of America (UFA), and the U.S.-Ukraine
Foundation (USUF), hosted some 50 attendees, in a conference room provided
by the Citizens Network for Foreign Affairs. Morgan Williams, AUC
Coordinator and Editor of AUC's "The Action Ukraine Report"-2004,
organized the event.
THE GENERATIONS OF UKRAINIAN FREEDOM FIGHTERS WERE
NOT DREAMING ABOUT THE UKRAINE WE HAVE RIGHT NOW
In his introduction, Ihor Gawdiak, AUC moderator and president of UACC,
reminded listeners that Mr. Tarasyuk is not only a member of the Rada, head
of Rukh, and one of prominent leaders of "Our Ukraine," but also a former
Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs in Ukraine. Gawdiak noted that
throughout Tarasyuk's career he has promoted democratic policies in Ukraine,
closer ties with the United States, and membership in NATO and European
Union.
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Mr. Tarasyuk thanked all those who have worked in Ukraine and in the United
States for better relations between the two countries. He noted that the
activities of the Action Ukraine Coalition are of "great importance to all
of us in Ukraine," but, he continued, "I must say that in spite of our
combined efforts, both in Ukraine and the United States, unfortunately we
cannot be pleased about the development of events in Ukraine. The
generations of Ukrainian freedom fighters were not dreaming about the
Ukraine we have right now."
Mr. Tarasyuk nevertheless expressed his sincere gratitude to all
representatives of the Ukrainian community in the United States for their "
tireless efforts to help us in Ukraine, especially in helping to develop
Ukrainian-U.S. relations." Mr. Tarasyuk noted that few Americans-despite
all their efforts--had the degree of commitment displayed by his colleague
at the table, Mr. Roman Zvarych, who gave up his U.S. citizenship and moved
to Ukraine to take up Ukrainian citizenship.
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[l to r] Vera Andreczyk and Dr. Zenovia Chernyk of the Ukrainian Federation of America, Honorable Roman Zvarych, Moderator Ihor Gawdiak, Honorable Borys Tarasyuk, a representative of RAND Corporation, US Army General (ret.) Nicholas Krawciw
© NGawdiak/AUC
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NOT A PRIORITY FOR THIS ADMINISTRATION UNLIKE THE
PREVIOUS DEMOCRATIC ADMINISTRATION"
Posing the question of "how we see the development of Ukrainian-American
relations under the current [Bush] administration," Mr. Tarasyuk began by
observing that "To my mind the atmosphere in which Ukraine and the United
States [has been] developing has been rather unfavorable." On the one hand,
he noted the U.S. administration was busy from the very beginning with the
process of establishing itself.
At the same time, the U.S. Administration was very busy with fighting
terrorism and fighting in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and certainly Ukraine "was
not a priority for this administration and is not [now] a priority for this
administration, unlike the case, if one wants to compare, with the previous
Democratic administration."
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LOST YEARS
At the same time, Mr. Tarasyuk continued, "I. feel sorry.that it was the
fault of the leadership of my country which led to this situation of 'no
interest' on the part of the U.S. administration towards Ukraine. Because I
think that due to the deeds and misdeeds of our leadership in Ukraine, we
may consider the recent three to four years as lost years in the
Ukraine-U.S. relationship."
The beginning of Ukraine's "deep internal crisis," Mr. Tarasyuk avowed,
started immediately after the reelection of Leonid Kuchma as president for
his second term in 1999 and the beginning of 2000, when he made his first
attempt to undermine Ukraine's Constitution by initiating a referendum to
change it.
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The Honorable Borys Tarasyuk (R), Ambassador William Green Miller (L)
© NGawdiak/AUC
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"Ukraine lost its position as a leader in the region in the late 1990's when
it entered the current period of international isolation. The murder of
Georgi Gongadze, the Melnychenko tapes scandal, the deviation from a
strategic foreign policy course, the mass falsification of the 2002 election
results, the attack against the opposition, and against everything
affiliated with it-all have created an atmosphere which in Ukraine has the
tendency of creating an authoritarian regime,' Tarasyuk said.
"Now, it seems to me, Mr. Tarasyuk continued," the situation is becoming
better in our bilateral relationship. This is not because the United States
has reconsidered its position to my mind [nor] because Kuchma and the clans
surrounding him have changed their attitudes. It is not because they
started to respect human rights, to respect democratic values and standards,
but this is because of a very pragmatic reason.
After the United States started its operation in Iraq, you will remember
that Ukraine agreed to join this operation by sending a battalion to
neighboring Kuwait and later sending 1,600 military to Iraq. Ukraine is
having the fourth largest military contingent in Iraq. Certainly this
gesture was noticed by the U.S. administration, and this led to the
improvement of our bilateral relationship."
Mr. Tarasyuk described the dismay felt by Ukraine's opposition forces who
are concerned that this somewhat improved relationship may be interpreted by
the Ukrainian regime as a license for the Kuchma regime to continue its
oppression of democratic forces, of the opposition, of its attack against
democracy and civil society in Ukraine.
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He noted that the American side protested against this viewpoint during the
recent visit of Deputy Secretary of State Armitage to Kyiv and during
Tarasyuk's own meeting the previous day (March 29) in the State Department.
"But at the same time," he continued. "I would like to urge all of you who
are trying to help Ukraine, please do not let these steps of the Ukrainian
authorities be interpreted as an honest activity. They are just trying to
break [through] the international isolationism in which they have found
themselves."
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At the table left to right: Myroslava Gongadze, Steven Nix of IRI, Ambassador William G. Miller, Major General (ret.) Nicholas Krawciw
© NGawdiak/AUC
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"This is a similar story to [Ukraine's] announcing NATO membership as their
objective. They are not behaving like any other democratic country which
has joined or is in the process of joining NATO," he said.
Having witnessed the previous day's installation of seven new member
countries into NATO, Tarasyuk said, " I had a dream that Ukraine would
join these nations as soon as possible, but unfortunately, while this regime
is still in power it is useless to talk about Ukraine's membership. But we
have to do our best to prepare Ukraine for the period after this regime in
order to expedite our early membership in NATO and association agreement
with the European Union."
U.S. ADMINISTRATION NOT DOING ENOUGH TO PERSUADE
UKRAINE TO COME BACK TO.DEMOCRACY
" [T]he European Union has sent very negative signals to Ukrainian
authorities. in connection with the so-called political 'reforms' [and] the
undemocratic behavior of the current regime, especially against free media,
against freedom of enterprise. The European Union was rather unequivocally
speaking against those undemocratic moves from the Ukrainian president and
from the government and from the majority which has been created by the
president and his clans."
"Unlike the statements we heard from the European Union and the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, we have not heard similar
statements from Washington and that's a pity. I think that Kuchma and his
clans are receptive to the criticism [if it were to be] sent from the
highest authorities here in Washington, and in this regard I think that the
United States administration is not doing enough to persuade Ukraine to come
back to the road of democracy," Tarasyuk concluded.
Mr. Tarasyuk went on to discuss the negative developments in Ukraine's
relationship with Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. He
termed Kuchma's signing of the agreement on the Single Economic Space as a
first instance since 1991 in which Ukraine was put into a position which may
result in the loss of its economic independence.
"Never before has Ukraine been so close to losing part of its sovereignty as
it is currently with Kuchma pushing the ratification of this agreement with
Russia, which actually would subordinate Ukraine's economy to the economy
of Russia," Tarasyuk noted.
"Recently, Kuchma made another concession to Russia and signed an agreement
on the so-called "common use" of the Kerch Strait and the Azov Sea, which is
absolutely contrary to the national interests of Ukraine and which puts in
doubt the existing borderlines between our countries," he added.
Ending on an upbeat note, Mr. Tarasyuk said that "not everything is that
bad. Today we have the 'Year of Poland in Ukraine,' officially started and
inaugurated in Kyiv during the visit of the Polish President to Ukraine.
Hopefully this will be much more successful than the past 'Year of Russia in
Ukraine,' which some people refer to as the last 350 years of Russia in
Ukraine!"
Although Ukraine is not a democracy by Western European standards, Mr.
Tarasyuk said that if one were to compare his country with Belarus, Central
Asian and the Caucasus nations, Ukraine does have a democracy because, "we
have a strong opposition," he said. "Our Ukraine is the largest faction out
of 450 seats--we have 100. Our leader Viktor Yushchenko is the most popular
political figure in Ukraine," he said, with 24% of support, far more than
the next closest candidates.
He felt very confident that "if we are going to have fair and democratic
elections October 31st, Victor Yuschenko has a chance to become the next
president of Ukraine, despite all efforts to undermine the credentials and
powers of the future president of Ukraine, but this is another subject."
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 Nicholas Krawciw poses a question during the AUC','breakfast meeting with Ukrainian Rada Member Borys Tarasyuk','© NGawdiak/AUC'))
 Nicholas Krawciw','© NGawdiak/AUC'))
, Ambassador William Green Miller (L)','© NGawdiak/AUC'))
 Nicholas Krawciw','© NGawdiak/AUC'))
