Rice attacks ‘reprehensible’ Putin warnings

Rice attacks ‘reprehensible’ Putin warnings
By Daniel Dombey in Washington
February 13 2008 20:23

Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, on Wednesday highlighted the tense relations between Moscow and Washington when she hit out at Russia’s “reprehensible” rhetoric and said she would appoint a special energy co-ordinator for central Asia, a region dominated to date by Russian energy interests.
Appearing at the Senate’s foreign relations committee, Ms Rice responded fiercely to questions about recent Russian behaviour, including President Vladimir Putin’s suggestion this week that Ukraine could be targeted with nuclear missiles and his warning of a new arms race with the west.

“The unhelpful and, really, I will use a different word, reprehensible rhetoric that is coming out of Moscow is unacceptable,” Ms Rice said.
Relations between Moscow and Washington have hardened in the wake of disputes over Russia’s objections to proposed US missile defence bases in Poland and the Czech Republic, as well as US concerns about what it sees as Mr Putin’s use of intimidation at home and abroad.
But the US secretary of state emphasised that she believed the principal areas of difficulty related to the post-cold war map of Europe – on issues such as North Korea and Iran, the two countries co-operated much more closely.

“The Soviet Union . . . is gone forever, and I hope that Russia understands that,” she said. “We are absolutely devoted to the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine and of other states that were once a part of the Soviet Union.”
Ms Rice was prodded by Richard Lugar, the committee’s ranking Republican, to respond to Russian initiatives with countries such as Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Serbia and Bulgaria that seem to have cemented Moscow’s position as gas supplier to the rest of Europe.

“I do intend to appoint, and we are looking for, a special energy co-ordinator who could especially spend time on the central Asian and Caspian region,” she replied. “It is a really important part of diplomacy. In fact, I think I would go so far as to say that some of the politics of energy is warping diplomacy in certain parts of the world.”
Privately, many US officials complain that the European Union has not made a more effective attempt to build relations with the central Asian countries that provide Russia with an increasingly important part of its gas supply, or to forge a common policy on Russia.

In other comments, Ms Rice said that the US and Nato’s development and counter-insurgency effort in Afghanistan, which has been widely criticised in recent weeks, was “not as good as it needs to be”. She emphasised the US’s call for other Nato countries to step up, both in providing troops and forging a more coherent development strategy.
Joseph Biden, committee chairman, praised Ms Rice’s promise that an agreement to be negotiated with Iraq would contain no security guarantees. He had previously said that it could “bind” the next administration into a large troop presence in the country.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

Survivor of Spirit Lake internment camp

Mary Manko Haskett, the last known survivor of the Spirit Lake internment camp in Northern Quebec where so-called enemy aliens were detained during the First World War, died in Mississauga, Ont. on July 14. She would have been 99 on Aug. 10.
Click here to read full story from Montreal Gazette, Saturday, July 21, 2007.

"He was innocent but it took more than a decade to confirm."

The Hill Times ran Lubomyr Luciuk's op ed (below) on the Wasyl Odynsky case in today's (4 June) issue. May I suggest that you write in with your views? The more letters they get the more likely it is that MPs of all persuasions will appreciate our point of view.
Thanks.Letters to the Editor of The Hill Times should be sent to: news@hilltimes.com

He was always innocent. But it took more than a decade to get that confirmed. Last month Cabinet ruled that Wasyl Odynsky will not be denaturalized and deported despite his having been demonized as a “Nazi” and a “collaborator” for over ten years.

Wasyl was just a teenager when the Second World War began. Press-ganged into a guard unit at the Trawniki labour camp he tried to escape. Recaptured he was told that if he attempted desertion again his entire family would be punished severely. Later he was transported to Germany, a slave labourer.

At war’s end Wasyl found shelter in a Displaced Persons camp, unwilling, like most political refugees, to return to the Soviet-dominated end of Europe. Eventually he was selected for resettlement in Canada. He swears he was never asked about his wartime service. That rings true. In the course of research on post-war immigration I interviewed dozens of DPs. Most reported being vetted primarily to determine if they were healthy and had useful skills.

Certainly no one disputes that Mr Odynsky has lived an exemplary life in Canada, raising a family, being a faithful churchgoer and active member of his community. He has no criminal record here. And in a 2001 ruling, federal court Judge Andrew MacKay found that Mr Odynsky served involuntarily throughout the war, had never been a Nazi, and that there was no evidence of any wartime wrongdoing on his part. Yet Mr Justice MacKay did accept Ottawa’s assertion that all DPs were screened thoroughly. And so he found that Odynsky may have lied to secure Canadian citizenship. It bears noting that all relevant screening documents were long ago destroyed, so there is no actual proof of what Mr Odynsky was asked, or answered. Thus the case boiled down to Wasyl’s word against the government’s claim that their officials perfectly screened each of the many hundreds of thousands of DPs they dealt with in the chaos of post-war Europe. Given that Ottawa’s men can’t seem to do that in peacetime this boast strains credibility, but I don’t claim a federal judge’s acumen.

Why Cabinet has decided not to expel Odynsky is unknown. Perhaps they recognized the simple truth that stripping someone of Canadian citizenship should be a serious matter, to be contemplated only when there is credible evidence of criminal wrongdoing. There isn’t any in Odynsky’s file.

Unfounded allegations did expose Odynsky, his family, and even his community, to many indignities. Unfortunately, Ottawa is unlikely to offer Wasyl an apology, or compensation for what he endured, unless he and his buddies get their hands on an old school bus and blockade a railway line somewhere soon. Given that we are dealing with a law-abiding 83 year old, whose community never gets federal grants that can then be applied for the purpose of undermining the national economy, that too seems unlikely. All one can hope for is that Mr Harper’s government will recognize that the process of denaturalization and deportation is critically flawed and will do away with what is, after all, a Liberal legacy. Whether someone is guilty of being a war criminal should be determined in our criminal courts, nowhere else.

If, however, advocates of denaturalization and deportation get their way, and this illiberal method continues to be applied, at least it should be used without prejudice. There are self-confessed veterans of the notorious Soviet secret police, the NKVD, SMERSH and KGB, enjoying pensions here. Some arrived just after the war, just like Wasyl. Were they screened as carefully as he allegedly was? If so they must have lied about their wartime activities. Since, by their own published accounts, their service to Stalin included torturing and murdering, one must ask - what are they still doing here?

As I have never met a Canadian who wants this country to house any war criminals, particularly real ones, the RCMP should be investigating how Communist killers came to be living amongst us. I, for one, would be happy to see them all rounded up and expelled, whence they came. They were killers. Wasyl wasn’t. That’s why he can stay.


Professor Lubomyr Luciuk wrote Searching for Place: Ukrainian Displaced Persons, Canada, and the Migration of Memory (University of Toronto Press, 2001) and is co-author of Their Just War: Images of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (Kashtan Press, 2007).

Some Canadians don't care about their own history

A very sad commentary by someone who knows very little about Ukrainian Internment. Here is a post by Paulette MacQuarrie and her comments to this story in the National Post.
Click here.

'Enemy aliens' remembered

Quebec's ukrainian community honours the hundreds of people who were detained and forced to do hard time in harsh conditions in places like the Valcartier military base during the First World War. Click here to read complete article.

Ukraine goes home proud after reaching last eight

HAMBURG, Germany -- Debutants Ukraine bowed out of the World Cup proud of reaching the quarter-finals although their style has won them few admirers.
Coach Oleg Blokhin's side exited the tournament after a 3-0 defeat by Italy on Friday but they had already surpassed their aim of qualifying from Group H and return home satisfied.
Among the dark horses after an impressive qualifying campaign in which they became the first European team to clinch a place at the finals, Ukraine never really sparkled on the pitch but they nevertheless managed to grind out results.
"We are completely happy with our performance," said Blokhin. "We did very well for the first time.
"We made it to last 16, to the quarter finals. As a coach I'm really happy with their performance."
Click here to read complete story.

Story courtesy of:
http://worldcup.reuters.co.uk/ukraine/news/usnL0128453.html

Ukraine toasts its World Cup heroes

The victory over Switzerland was all the more sweet because it was largely unexpected from a team that is making its first-ever appearance at the World Cup.
"I don't think that anyone really believed in us," head coach Oleg Blokhin said in a post-match interview, according to the Interfax news agency. "Many had long ago written us off, thinking that debutants can't be competitive against experienced teams."

Now Ukraine will face Italy on Friday, while Gemany plays Argentina. If Ukraine and Germany meet, this will bring much inspiration to the Ukrainian side... especially if they recall that the last time Ukraine's Dynamo team played Germany was during WWII, when they won the game but lost their lives.

Recalling the Dynamo versus Germany: Soccer Match of Death would bring much attention to Ukraine's turbulent history, and hopefully undo many wrongs that have been put upon the Ukrainian nation.
Babi Yar “”Cossacks”

Good luck to Ukraine and see you in the finals!

hat-tip to CyberCossack http://www.cybercossack.com/

Shevchenko restores Ukraine’s equilibrium

When Shevchenko scored with a header in the first minute of the second half, it looked as though a rout of 2002 proportions, when the Germans put eight past them, might be on the cards for the outclassed Saudis. But they rolled up their sleeves, kept plugging away and even fashioned some half-chances of their own as the Ukrainians took their foot off the accelerator. Even so, Kalinichenko nearly added a fourth with an exquisite 66th-minute strike on to the top of the crossbar.
The good news for Ukraine was that Shevchenko, who played 85 minutes and eventually did lay on a fourth for man-of-the-match Kalinichenko, moved sweetly throughout and appears to be over his injury, as Ukraine football supremo Grygori Surkis said before the match that he was.
Click here to read full story.

UKRAINE: Coaches' Quotes

Oleg BLOKHIN (UKR) I’m extremely disappointed. We weren’t disciplined at all and the players failed to follow the instructions the coaching team gave them. We’ll have to analyse our mistakes very closely and lift the players for next game. We’ll also need to rebuild the defence completely. After all, though, this is our very first World Cup finals and we need to pick up some experience.
I’m not so much disappointed about the result as the attitude of the players. It’s embarrassing for all of us and I want to apologise to the Ukraine fans for the performance we put in. We can’t play like that again. We just crumbled.
Spain played a very complete game, they were solid and fully deserved to win. Xabi Alonso also had a terrific game. Sadly, we’ve been the worst European team in the competition so far.

Ukraine Out To Garner Respect In Its First Cup Appearance

Joanna Wypior - All Headline News Staff Reporter
Frankfurt, Germany (AHN) - Ukraine's Anatolii Tymoschuk reveals that his side will be able to garner well-deserved respect in his country's debut appearance at the World Cup tournament.
Ukraine face Spain, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia in the first round of matches, and are already predicted to be come out of the group with a strong effort.
"During the last qualifiers, we can make the conclusion that some of our rivals didn't expect our kind of style and level of playing football," Tymoschuk tells Sky Sports. "They didn't appreciate us.
"Since we won the group stage for the 2006 World Cup, the situation has changed. I think that now, every rival appreciates us as a very strong team.
"We have won a very strong group with Greece, Turkey and Denmark, so we are ready to fight during the World Cup.
"We have to prove to everybody our level of playing football. We are ready to fight in every match with every rival.
"Some people tell us that we don't play extra attractive football. They are right, we don't express 'show' on the field, but we can fight and compensate for it by our character and we have to prove our level of playing."
Ukraine face Spain in their first match on Wednesday, June 14th at Zentralstadion in Germany.

World-Shevchenko scores on Ukraine return

LUXEMBOURG, June 8 (Reuters) - Ukraine captain Andriy Shevchenko gave his side a huge World Cup boost on Thursday, scoring as a second-half substitute in his first game for a month out with a knee injury.
Shevchenko, the 2004 European Player of the Year, featured for 30 minutes as Ukraine defeated Luxembourg 3-0 in their final warm-up.
The 29-year-old, one of the most feared strikers in world football, appeared to show no ill effects from the injury, sustained while playing for AC Milan, which has forced him to miss friendlies against Costa Rica, Italy and Libya.
He tapped in the easiest of chances from a deflected pass as Ukraine scored twice in the final seven minutes for a somewhat flattering victory against a team ranked 152nd in the world.
Shevchenko entered the fray just minutes after pony-tailed striker Andriy Voronin, also a substitute, had broken the deadlock after an insipid first half at the Stade Jose Barthel.
Voronin despatched a clinical right-foot shot past Jonathan Joubert to cheer a 100-strong band of Ukraine fans who had grown frustrated by their side's lacklustre opening 45 minutes.
Another substitute, Maxim Kalinichenko, added a third goal as Luxembourg tired. World Cup debutants Ukraine open their Group H campaign on June 14 against Spain in Leipzig. Ukraine, the first European side to secure qualification for Germany, are based in Potsdam, near Berlin, for the opening stage of the month-long tournament. Tunisia and Saudi Arabia make up Group H.

Ukraine's Century-Long Quest

Ukraine will finally get the chance to appear in a World Cup for the first time, in Germany, despite a proud footballing history that stretches back over a century.The first documented evidence of introduction to the game comes from the western Ukrainian city Lviv, where the first football match between the hosts and the visitors Krakow was held on July 14, 1894.It was a sudden-death match, held at a newly built 7,000-seat stadium in Stryisky Park, which ended in the sixth minute when Wlodzimierz Gatynsky of the host team netted the winning goal.By the beginning of the 20th century, football was rapidly becoming popular in most regions of Ukraine, which was then part of the Russian empire.Dozens of teams and leagues were established in almost every Ukrainian city due in large part to the influence of the British companies which were doing business in the region and are credited with popularising the game.The visit of Turkish side Fenerbahce to Odessa just before the outbreak of World War I opened the international football era at Ukraine. Click here to read full story.

Ukraine have reached the UEFA European Under-21 Championship final after defeating Serbia and Montenegro 5-4 on penalties following a thrilling 0-0 draw. Milan Purović's miss proved costly as the shoot-out ended in a sudden-death situation. Olexiy Mykhaylychenko's men, whose national anthem translates as 'Ukraine is not yet dead', lived to fight another day. To read more click here.

Ukraine preparing to play in its first ever World Cup

A lack of World Cup experience isn't going to stop Ukraine from dreaming big.The former Soviet republic proved it was a threat to challenge for the title when it became the first European team to qualify for the final tournament. Ukraine beat out Turkey, which reached the semifinals at the last World Cup, European champion Greece and Denmark for the coveted slot.At the World Cup, the Ukrainian team will face Spain, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia in Group H.Led by one of the world's top strikers, AC Milan's Andriy Shevchenko, Ukraine also has a top-notch goalkeeper in Oleksandr Shovkovskiy and solid defenders. Click here to read more.

A changing world

The CIA spent hundreds of millions of dollars in Italy in the 1950's and '60's to thwart a Communist takeover and now, ironically, in comes a Communist president.
No protests came from Washington. Communists today are U.S. allies. Muslims have become the "Principal Adversary".
President Napolitano's presence will be a daily reminder that Stalin's monstrous crimes still go largely unrecognized and unpunished. Families of the six to eight million victims of Ukraine's holocaust should lead protests against Italy being led by an ideological offspring of Stalin's empire of murder.
Click here to read the rest of this article.

President of Ukraine remembers Bykivnya victims

President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko and his wife, Kateryna, have honored the victims of the totalitarian regime in Bykivnya. The President placed flowers on the Bykivnya Monument and then attended a service for the dead.
In his speech, the Head of State said the tragedy in Bykivnya was similar to the atrocities committed at Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Dachau.
“It is impossible to imagine how one could slaughter one hundred thousand people in Bykivnya. What is really terrible is that nobody will tell us why these people were killed. What was their fault? They must have refused to betray their motherland, language, church and their national roots,” he said.
Yushchenko pledged to spare no effort to find out actual causes of the massacre and prevent genocide in the future. He said this tragedy affected the whole nation. “The Bykivnya tragedy is not the tragedy of the Kyiv region alone, for today we are speaking about the affiliates of the Bykivnya mass grave in Vinnytsya, Kharkiv, Sumy, and Lviv,” he metaphorically explained.
The President said the government of Ukraine would soon found a national memory institute: “We must stop being afraid of our history. We must re-write some of its pages.”
The institute is intent to preserve national memory by holding events to honor those who fell prey to genocide famines, exploring the tragic period of totalitarian repressions in Ukraine and making these facts known. The President appointed Ihor Yukhnovsky the head of this establishment.
Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov, Humanitarian Premier Vyacheslav Kyrylenko, Culture Minister Ihor Likhovy, Defense Minister Anatoly Hrytsenko and Kyiv Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky took part in the memorial ceremony.

Ukraine to mark 80th anniversary of Petlyura's death

KYIV. May 15 (Interfax) - Ceremonies commemorating the 80th anniversary of the death of Symon Petlyura are to be held in Ukraine at the end of May, Ukrainian Culture and Tourism Minister Ihor Likhovyy told reporters in Kyiv on Monday. "Regrettably, Petlyura's personality is yet to find its properplace, which would match his contribution to the building of a Ukrainian nation and statehood. A political decision has been made atthe highest level in an attempt to reverse the widespread custom ofscaring little children with Symon Petlyura," the minister said "We mustbreak this stereotype," he added. An organizing committee, to be headed by Likhovyy, has been set upand an action plan has been worked out in cooperation with the Academyof Sciences to immortalize the memory of outstanding Ukrainian figures, Deputy Culture and Tourism Minister Olha Shokalo-Bench said. The anniversary ceremonies will include a film about Petlyura, a photo exhibition called "The Knight of the Ukrainian Revolution" at the National History Museum, a roundtable on the theme "Symon Petlyura - APublic, Political and Military Figure of Ukraine" and a memorial plaqueat a site where a monument to Petlyura is to be unveiled on December 1,2006. A number of books devoted to his life and work will also bereleased. The city of Poltava will host a series of events dedicated toPetlyura. Petlyura, a Ukrainian Central Rada deputy, chief military commanderof the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1917-1918 and head of theUkrainian People's Republic Directorate in 1919-1920, led the Ukrainian government in exile after emigrating in November 1920. In 1923 he moved to Austria, and then to Hungary and Switzerland. In 1924, he settled in Paris where he was assassinated two years later by a Ukrainian-born Jewish anarchist Sholom Schwartzbard. Petlyura is buried at the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris.

c/o http://www.interfax.com/3/156395/news.aspx

Yuschenko Urges To Continue Historical Research Of Ukrainians' Participation In First And Second World Wars

President Viktor Yuscenko urged historians to continue research of the participation of Ukrainians in the First and the Second World Wars, military conflicts of the Soviet Union times and international peacemaking missions.
The president told this in his speech on the Victory Day celebration in the Memorial Complex of the National Museum of the Second World War.
«We have to generate the civilized culture of the attitude to our own history and memory. The time has come to speak about all-embracing academic research work concerning the participation of Ukrainian people in the First and the Second World Wars, the conflicts of the Soviet times and participation in the international peacemaking. We have to know by names all the heroes and all our losses,» Yuschenko said.
He urged to standardize the symbols of respect of the war victims throughout the country and to revive the historical commemorative symbols.
«We have to reduce to a common denominator the symbols of commemoration of the war victims throughout the country. We have to get rid of the totalitarian attributes and artificial pathos that are alien to Ukrainians. We have to revive historically significant commemorative tokens, the destruction of which means the destruction of ourselves,» emphasized the president.
Yushcenko believes that the social movement of national memory revival will be organized for this purpose.
He holds that the search of historical truth should be devoid of emotions and division into fronts, and should bring the unifying issues instead of the separating ones.
Yuschenko considers that the Ukrainian mutual understanding forum should be founded by the business, political and social circles.
«It is symbolic that the Europe day is celebrated these days, when we talk with all the European peoples about our common values, about common history and, of course, we talk about our common future. Ukraine accepts the symbol of this day as its own,» said Yuschenko.
He congratulated the veterans with the Victory Day.
«I congratulate you heartily, my dear compatriots with the Day of the Great Victory, the day of glory and the day of memory. Glory to you, dear veterans, glory to your feat and long live Ukraine,» said the president.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, May 9 Ukraine is marking the 61st anniversary of victory in WW-II.

Ukrainian President Calls For Reconciliation Of Veterans

President Viktor Yushchenko today called for a reconciliation between Ukrainian veterans of the Soviet Army and nationalist militias who at one point fought the Soviets during World War II.
The role of the nationalist Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) -- who at various times fought Polish, Soviet, and Nazi forces -- remains a divisive issue in Ukraine.
In comments made as Ukraine marked the 61st anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany, Yushchenko said UPA veterans should enjoy the same social benefits as veterans from the Soviet Army.
He also expressed his certainty that "there will come a day when Ukrainian veterans will extend a hand to each other in the name of Ukraine's future. I am certain that we will witness a time when reconciliation will become reality for the Ukrainian nation."