This was not the first time over the last few years
that the library had been assailed by the Russian authorities.
In fact
over the last decade Russia under then prime minister and now President
Vladimir Putin has not only attacked the territory of its neighbor Ukraine but
has persecuted its own citizens of Ukrainian ethnicity. Perhaps the most
egregious in the latter regard has been the liquidation of the only two
national coordinating Ukrainian non-governmental organizations operating in
Russia, the Union of Ukrainians in Russia formed in 1992 and the Federal
National Cultural Autonomy of Ukrainians in Russia formed in 1998. Both had
been formed prior to Putin’s rise to power initially as Yeltsin’s prime
minister. Russia’s treatment of its Ukrainian minority throughout history has
been significantly less than civilized international norms require. However,
over the last decade the mistreatment has been glaring.
What is Russia’s motive in abusing Ukrainians in
Russia? I would submit that suggesting a term such as “ethnic cleansing” would
not be hyperbolic.
Russia’s case against the union and the Federal National Cultural Autonomy of Ukrainians deserves
renewed attention and clearly provides motive as to Russia’s most recent
activity. Russian authorities acted “pro forma” through Russia’s Justice
Ministry and its pliable courts in dissolving the only two Ukrainian national
coordinating organizations in 2009-2011. Aside from minor violations such as
holding a convention a few weeks after the term set forth in the by-laws, the
allegations against the two institutions were political in nature.
The allegations read that on Oct. 29, 2009, one of
the Ukrainian community leaders in the name of the Ukrainian community,
participated in a public event of Radio Liberty; that on Nov. 11-12 2009,
the two co-chairs of the Federal National Cultural Autonomy of Ukrainians organized and hosted an educational
methodological conference in Moscow entitled “The history, status and future
development of Ukrainian studies in Russia; that on Nov. 26, 2009, one of
the leaders representing the Federal National Cultural Autonomy of Ukrainians, chaired an event commemorating the
“victims of the Holodomor and killings of Ukrainians in the 1930s” and that
this event was organized to support and honor the victims with an “eternal
flame” and an exhibit consisting of documents and art about the “Holodomor
1932-33 genocide of the Ukrainian nation”, which had opened in Kyiv on Nov. 25, 2009.
Not surprisingly, these allegations were adopted in
full by the Russian courts at several levels.
On Jan. 13, 2011, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov unabashedly declared that the liquidation of the Federal National Cultural Autonomy of Ukrainians was the
result of its alleged political activity.
In most civilized civil societies such activity by a nongovernmental organization would not only be deemed harmless, but, in fact, laudatory and in furtherance
of the institution’s mandate. Yet there was little outrage or even reaction
from the international community, perhaps because there was no serious
disapproval by the regime of Ukraine’s then president Yanukovich or its foreign
minister Hryshchenko or Ukraine’s ambassador in Moscow Yeltchenko. Still I had
raised this matter several times at the UN as an accredited representative of
the Ukrainian World Congress, an NGO at the UN Economic and Social Council.
There was little reaction except for a few words of sympathy from the
representative of the OHCHR in New York.
Emboldened by the international community’s lack of
interest or reluctance to take on a permanent member of the UN Security
Council, Russia declared war on Ukraine and Ukrainians. Despite procedural
constraints at the UN, the international community has manifested a measure of
opprobrium to the territorial invasion. The issue of “ethnic cleansing” of
Ukrainians in Russia, the prevention of which is at the heart of UN conventions
is exemplified by an attack upon a facility of books belonging to an ethnic
group. The international community needs to step up.
