Ukrainian cardinal, bishop join others in urging action by Kuchma

UKRAINE-KUCHMA Dec-1-2004 (660 words) xxxi

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0406584.htm

By Catholic News Service

KIEV, Ukraine (CNS) -- A Catholic cardinal and bishop joined other church leaders in urging Ukraine's outgoing president to take action against government officials who falsified results of the recent presidential election.

"When the president does not fulfill his responsibilities as guarantor of the constitution, the guarantors become the people who go out onto the central squares to claim the truth," said an open letter to outgoing Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. The letter was signed by Catholic, Orthodox, Baptist, Pentecostal and evangelical leaders.

"The spread of popular protests testifies that the rights of people were truly brutally violated. It would be impossible for the people of Ukraine to take such action only for the personal interests of one presidential candidate, and the entire world has understood this," said the Nov. 30 letter, issued after a week in which tens of thousands of Ukrainians demonstrated daily in Kiev.

Among the letter's signers were Cardinal Lubomyr Husar of Lviv, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, an Eastern rite, and Bishop Markijan Trofimiak of Lutsk, vicar general of Ukraine's Latin-rite bishops' conference.

The letter was issued the same day Ukrainian legislators narrowly passed a motion of no confidence in the government of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, whom the Ukrainian election commission named as winner of the Nov. 21 election by a narrow margin.

Western governments and many Ukrainians said the election was marked by fraud.

On Dec. 1, Ukraine's opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, and Yanukovych agreed to pursue long-term changes on reducing the power of the president. Both sides also agreed to end a blockade of government offices.

Kuchma was involved in those agreements, worked out in talks with politicians from Poland, Lithuania, Russia and the European Union.

The church leaders' letter said Kuchma's authority had gained "decisive significance" and required him to examine his conscience. It said Ukrainians were "united in striving to defend the law, justice and the country's unity" and would not "return to their homes if their rights are not renewed and guaranteed."

"The people are justified in expecting from you those fateful decisions which only the president can make; delay in making decisions the constitution requires of you today is interpreted by the people as part of a consciously premeditated plan against their interests," continued the letter.

"It is in your power to dispel this distrust and confirm the supremacy of the law, even if this may compel you to some personal sacrifice. Your decisive action is needed immediately to bring to responsibility those to blame for falsifying the elections by misusing authority and also those who are insidiously forming plans to divide the country," it said.

In a separate statement Nov. 29, Cardinal Husar said he believed the mass protests showed Ukrainians had "ripened and grown to create a legal state, where all are equal before the law and where every person has the right to express their thoughts without fear."

However, he added that the crisis was being deepened by government leaders, who were relying on "the armed forces of the state rather than the people's support," and using "habits learned in Soviet times."

"In these conditions, the danger of the government using violence against peaceful citizens, and even spilling blood, grows," the cardinal said. "Before our very eyes, a united Ukrainian nation is being affirmed, going through a beautiful and inspired process of transfiguration in its true nature. It would be a great loss if we did not use this chance for the development of our people and drowned it instead in narrow group interests and a stubborn unyielding position."

In Canada, Archbishop Brendan O'Brien of St. John's, Newfoundland, wrote Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin to express complete support for the government's criticism of the election results.

The archbishop, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, said Canada should "continue urging Ukrainian authorities to ensure full recognition of the rights of the people in Ukraine to self-determination and religious freedom."

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