aaus-list @ ukrainianstudies.org -- [aaus-list/a] Open Letter from Twelve Writers about the Elections

[Robert DeLossa <radelo@earthlink.net>]

[from Roman Senkus <r.senkus@utoronto.ca>; Roman has forwarded a 
number of important news items about the forthcoming Ukrainian 
election. My apologies to those for whom this will be a double 
post.--RD]

>From:   "Jaroslav Rozumnyj" <rozumnyj@Ms.UManitoba.CA>
>To:     r.senkus@utoronto.ca
>Date:   Sun, 24 Oct 2004 13:52:53 -0500


An Open Letter from Twelve Apolitical Writers about Choice and the Elections
http://postup.brama.com/dinamic/i_pub/usual.php?what=31831


We, the undersigned Ukrainian writers, do not belong to any political 
party. We are not involved in any party or ideological 
confrontations, and in this sense, we are completely apolitical. 
Above all, we prize human individuality, i.e., self-sufficiency and 
personal freedom. Moreover, since these very values are under threat 
today, as never before, we are taking advantage of our right to 
express ourselves publicly.

TODAY the Ukrainian (?) "prime minister" Yanukovych consented to the 
atypical fusion of the criminal Ukrainian government with Russia's 
neo-Chekist regime, and by TOMORROW every last trace of Ukrainian 
democracy will have disappeared, just as this has happened with 
Russian democracy.

TODAY the Ukrainian (?) "prime minister" Yanukovych is rejecting 
Ukraine's European future, and by TOMORROW every Ukrainian city may 
become a military base for Russia's armed forces. The only thing left 
of Ukraine will be its name, hymn, and national emblem (there is no 
certainty with regard to the latter two attributes, if you recall the 
example of Yanukovych's historical fatherland, Belarus).

TODAY the Ukrainian (?) "prime minister" Yanukovych is threatening us 
with dual citizenship, and by TOMORROW Ukrainians will again be 
foolishly sacrificing their lives for the sake of the "great empire." 
By TOMORROW armed fighters will be taking Ukrainian schools and 
hospitals hostage; by TOMORROW Moscow generals taken out of the deep 
freeze will be terrorizing Ukrainian civilians.

TODAY the Ukrainian (?) "prime minister" Yanukovych is handing out to 
his nephews and favored cronies the finest plots carved out of 
national preserves, palaces and villas, parts of coastlines and 
reservoirs, forests and mountains, and by TOMORROW for our survival 
(or extinction?) they will allot us something along the lines of a 
last reservation with a ruined, depressing landscape.

TODAY the Ukrainian (?) "prime minister" Yanukovych is promising to 
grant the language of pop music and Russian criminal slang the absurd 
status of "second state language," and by TOMORROW it will ultimately 
force out the "first state language," pushing it to the sidelines and 
margins. By TOMORROW the language of the semi-literate "Russian 
professor" and his pals will unconditionally reign over the entire 
"guelder rose and nightingale" territory of Ukraine.

TODAY the Kremlin spin-doctors, those unparalleled cynical managers 
of presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych are determining your 
future and ours, and by means of the blackest type of PR and 
primitive anti-Western rhetoric are, with no difficulty whatsoever, 
conducting their geo-strategic experiments with "a country that no 
one is sorry for." By TOMORROW Ukraine will be turned into a black 
hole in the center of Europe, where presidential candidates are 
poisoned with impunity, journalists are murdered, and an entire 
nation of people is kept in submission, apathy, and hopelessness.

Yes, we are truly in dangerUkraine and its independence, and the 
independence of each one of us. That is why we, the undersigned 
Ukrainian writers, are calling on Ukrainian electors to give their 
votes on Election Day to Viktor Yushchenko for President of Ukraine.

Yanukovych stands for the irrevocability of a puppet dictatorship. 
Yushchenko stands for the irrevocability of democracy.

Yanukovych stands for a corrupt, criminal, and degenerate government. 
Yushchenko stands for civic rights and freedoms.

Yanukovych is a Soviet-era man and a criminal, while Yushchenko means 
a chance for cultural diversity.

Yanukovych means isolation from Europe and the world. Yushchenko 
means the dismantling of borders, understanding.

A vote for Viktor Yushchenko is the European choice, not the Single 
Economic Space.

A vote for Viktor Yushchenko is a choice made free individuals, not 
frightened zombies.

So if THIS government hates THIS person SO MUCH, then our choice is 
the correct one.

Let us choose TODAY, because TOMORROW they may deprive us of the very 
chance to vote!

Yuri Andrukhovych
Andrii Bondar
Oleksandr Boichenko
Ivan Andrusiak
Natalka Bilotserkivets
Yuri Vynnychuk
Yuri Izdryk
Oleksandr Irvanets
Irena Karpa
Vasyl Kozhelianko
Taras Prokhasko
Mykola Riabchuk

Translated from the Ukrainian by Marta D. Olynyk