quarta-feira, dezembro 15, 2004

UKRAINE’S FLEDGLING DEMOCRACY TAKES HUGE STEP BACK

NEWSLETTER OF THE UKRAINIAN WORLD CONGRESS
№ 12 (16) – December, 2004
145 EVANS AVENUE, SUITE 207 ● TORONTO, ON M8Z 5X8, CANADA ● TEL. (416) 323-3020 ● FAX (416) 323-3250, E-MAIL: congress@look.ca
203 SECOND AVENUE, NEW YORK, NY 10003 USA ● TEL. (212) 228-6840 ● FAX (212) 254-4721

As reported extensively, Ukraine’s presidential runoff held on November 21, 2004 was marred by widespread and flagrant violations. UWC president and secretary general together with numerous international observers from the Diaspora were in Ukraine for the elections. In fact over the course of the election process, the Ukrainian Diaspora through the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) with a substantial Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) contingency, and the UWC fielded more than four hundred international observers. On Monday, November 22, 2004 at a press conference held in Kyiv, the Diaspora observers issued a bilingual statement decrying the election process and concluding that fraud substantially affected the result, since Viktor Yushchenko would have been the winner had the election been fair.
Subsequently, over the course of a week, the UWC issued an appeal to the Ukrainian Diaspora to stage rallies throughout the world at Ukraine’s diplomatic missions, protests at Russian Federation venues and urging their governments to denounce the fraud, rebuke Russia and declare Mr. Yushchenko the winner. Sample letters to foreign governments, leaflets, a position paper and action item were prepared by the UWC. All material is bilingual and available from the UWC office in Toronto. Ukrainian communities from North and South America, Europe, the Russian Federation, Australia and even Mozambique in Africa are participating in this global effort.

Sem comentários: