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February 3, 2012
The Honorable Jeanne Shaheen
Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
The Honorable John Barrasso
Ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Dear Senators:
We are in possession of a copy of the February 1, 2012 letter addressed to you by Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United States. We are certain of your capacity to scrutinize the contents of that letter critically and independently. However, some of the statements made therein were replete with such egregious untruths and half truths, primarily in the area of democracy building and human rights, that we feel compelled to respond, least you mistakenly assume that the Ukrainian American community is unaware or, even worse, is indifferent to such assertions by the Ambassador.
It is our position that under the regime of President Victor Yanukovych the situation in Ukraine has deteriorated to a point where the rule of law and civil society is undermined .
Even in the area of energy independence Ukraine has regressed under Yanukovych by actually increasing its dependence on Russian gas, suggesting an increase in the gas quota in return for a minor price discount.
In the economic sphere Ukraine essentially hit bottom in 2010 under Yanukovych and in the midst of the global economic crisis. Its somewhat ambiguous, certainly negligible economic growth in 2011 was largely inevitable and the result not of economic reforms but due to the global demand for aluminum and other metal resources, but certainly, not any manufactured products. Ukraine’s exclusion from the Financial Action Task Force’s Blacklist is not an achievement. The Blacklist has become defunct.
Nevertheless what should concern you most is Ukraine’s record in democracy and human rights. It’s improvement on the World Press Freedom Index for 2011 is specious at best, as it ranks 116 out of 179 countries just ahead of such human rights pariahs as Venezuela.
An important, objective and authoritative analysis that addresses many of the Ukrainian Ambassador’s assertions can be found in a resolution on Ukraine passed only a few days ago by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Allow us to submit for your consideration several pertinent excerpts:
“The Assembly expresses its concern with regard to the criminal proceedings initiated under Articles 364 (abuse of office) and 365(exceeding official powers) of the Criminal Code o Ukraine against a number of former government members…The Assembly considers that Articles 364 and 365 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code are overly broad in application and effectively allow of post facto criminalization of normal political decision-making. This runs counter to the principle of the rule of law and is unacceptable…The Assembly regrets the numerous shortcomings noted in the trials against former government members and considers that they may have undermined the possibility for the defendants to obtain a fair trial within the meaning of Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights…the Assembly takes note of the fact that the European Court of Human Rights decided to fast track an application of Ms. Tymoshenko concerning her detention in which she alleges violations of Articles 3,5 and 18 of the Convention…the Assembly reaffirms its deep concern about the lack of independence of the judiciary…the Assembly regrets that the reform of the Prosecutor’s office in line with Council of Europe standards, which is one of Ukraine’s accession commitments, has yet to be carried out. As a result, the Prokuratura remains an excessive centralized institution with excessive powers…The Assembly welcomes the systematic requests by the authorities for the opinion of the Venice Commission on draft laws which they prepare. However, it notes that, on several occasions, the draft laws on which opinions have been asked are subsequently withdrawn and that the recommendations of the Venice Commission are not taken into account in the laws ultimately adopted by the Verkhovna Rada…the Assembly regrets that its main recommendations, namely the adoption of a Unified Electoral Code, and the adoption of a regional proportional election system, were not implemented…”
These alarming findings are particularly important since the Ambassador’s letter concludes with the assertion of seeming confidence in U.S. support of Ukraine’s European aspirations. We too support Ukraine’s European aspirations. However, to this end, ultimately we support regime change in Ukraine as the only viable way for Ukraine to return to its democratic course that is severely undermined by the Yanukovych regime.
Thank you for your kind consideration of our comments.
Respectfully,
For the International Conference in Support ofUkraine
AskoldS. Lozynskyj Borys Potapenko
Chair Secretary
it was the Committee on Foreign Relations who were called upon four years ago, to support a democracy and human rights initiative in Ukraine. At this time Barack Obama was an member and Joe Biden its chairman.
The final paragraph of the letter read:
“Thank you for your time and attention to this. I and others will look forward to hearing from you. I hope we continue to realize ever more fully that outside the box and inside the box have only a box in the way. We outside the box know quite a bit of what’s going on, many times in exquisite detail, perhaps in ways that those inside the box can’t quite as easily access if at all. We are grossly underfunded in favor of missiles, bombs, and ordnance, which is about 100% backwards. Now, with even the US Pentagon stating that they’ve learned their lesson in Iraq and realize (so says top US general in Iraq ten days or so ago) that winning hearts and minds is the best option, I and others shall continue to think positive and look for aid budgets and funding spigots to be opened much more for people and NGOs in silos, foxholes and trenches, insisting on better than ordnance, and who understand things and how to fix them. We can do that. We can even do it cost-effectively and with far better efficiency than the ordnance route. Welcome to our brave new world. Except it’s not so new: learn to love and respect each other first, especially the weakest, most defenseless, most voiceless among us, then figure out the rest. There aren’t other more important things to do first. This message has been around for at least two thousand years. How difficult is it for us to understand?”
With the death of its author it’s now possible to reveal more of what was going on at the time. Recently I raised a petition to remind the Senate and USAID what had been asked of them in 2008.
http://www.change.org/petitions/the-senate-committee-on-foreign-relations-support-an-alternative-to-capitalism-based-on-love-and-respect