Prime Minister Harper’s Visit to Ukraine

Sending Harper to Ukraine Sends Message of Concern

By David Marples

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit to Ukraine [October 25-26] has offered some clear signals that Canada is concerned about recent developments in Ukrainian politics, particularly violations of human rights, a pro-Russian orientation, and the growing accumulation of power in the hands of President Viktor Yanukovych.

In taking such a clear stance, Harper’s position departs from that of countries of the European Union, which appear to be concerned primarily about regional stability and favour warmer relations with Russia. The EU’s motivation, ostensibly, is the need for reliable imports of Russian gas and oil, which were disrupted frequently during the administration of Yanukovych’s predecessor, Viktor Yushchenko.

The Canadian Prime Minister seemed more at ease during his visit to L’viv on the second day of his tour than during official meetings in Kyiv. At the latter, he was addressed in Russian by Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov. During an emotional visit to the memorial to the Famine-Holodomor of 1932-33, Harper referred to the horrors of that event without using the word genocide. Yanukovych, perhaps relieved, acknowledged the enormity of the famine, but referred to it as a crime that also affected Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. In short, the Ukrainian leader repeated the perspective offered regularly by the Russian leadership.

In L’viv, however, Harper could be more forthright. In the largest city of Western Ukraine there is little affection for the Yanukovych government. The Prime Minister made a point of visiting those directly affected by the authorities’ clampdown, including historian Ruslan Zabilyi, an employee of the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), who works at the Lonsky Prison, now SBU property, which was used both by the Soviet NKVD and Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Harper also met with Borys Gudziak, Rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University of L’viv, who was also approached by the SBU last May and warned that students taking part in protests against the government would be prosecuted. In his talk at the university, Harper did describe the Famine of 1932-33 as genocide.

Yanukovych claims to be open to [democratic] reforms and supportive of Euro-Atlantic structures, but has rejected NATO membership and accepted a proposed renovation of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

Moreover, the attitude of some of his team - most notably Azarov and Education Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk - is closer to a Soviet than a democratic mentality. The irascible Tabachnyk in particular does not consider the western regions part of Ukraine and denies that the famine was genocide.

Thus it is to be hoped that Ukraine heard Canada’s message loud and clear. It was one of concern for a formerly close friend that seems to have taken some very wrong steps indeed.

Excerpts taken from The Edmonton Journal, October 27, 2010

The Message to Mr. Yanukovych

Winnipeg Free Press, Editorial, October 27, 2010

 Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych Monday [October 25] declined to join Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper when Harper used the occasion of his visit to Ukraine to talk about the Ukrainian Famine - the Holodomor, as it is called. The Holodomor was one of the greatest genocides of the 20th century. As many as 10 million Ukrainians died of starvation and disease as the result of the calculated policy of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. Many Western leftists continue to deny this genocide took place and many Russians remain unapologetic in their defence of Stalin’s monstrous tyranny. Mr. Yanukovych stands proudly among them. As an unreconstructed Soviet-style Communist, he maintains the famine was a natural event affecting the entire Soviet Union, rather than the result of Stalin’s deliberate decision to destroy the Ukrainian nation.

After Ukraine declared its independence from Russia [The Soviet Union] in 1991, Canada was the first nation to recognize the declaration. Canada also was one of the first nations to recognize the Ukrainian Famine as an act of genocide, a fact of which all Canadians rightly should be proud. Mr. Yanukovych is not nearly as forthright as Mr. Harper, which perhaps was why he did not choose to share the stage with him. The famine, he said later, was a “horrible event in the history of the Ukrainian people and in the history of our neighbouring peoples,” echoing the Stalinist line the famine was a natural phenomenon rather than an act of government policy.

The Ukrainian Famine needs to be remembered as one of the worst acts of genocide in the 20th century, a century that was scarred by genocides. Mr. Harper made that point this week. He and Mr. Yanukovych did agree to facilitate the movement of young Canadians and Ukrainians between the two countries.

Mr. Harper, however, also reminded Canadians and Ukrainians -- after Ukraine and Russia, Canada is home to the largest Ukrainian population in the world -- of a more immediate threat.

That is the fact that after almost 20 years of independence, Ukraine’s democracy remains fragile and Mr. Yanukovych’s government does nothing to make it more sturdy.

Canada and Ukraine have mutual interests in trade and cultural relations that can benefit both nations, but those interests can only prosper between two democracies, as Mr. Harper has now.

PHOTO

L. to R.: Paul Grod, National President, Ukrainian Canadian Congress, Prime Minister of Canada, The Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper, Eugene Czolij, President, Ukrainian World Congress