As we write, our students and professors are demonstrating in the streets of Kyiv and of most university cities. Their fight in favour of President Victor Yushchenko has been ours for the past 13 years, in the name of freedom, truth and Human Rights. This is why we support them openly and strongly. What is at stake in Ukraine’s current events is the will of the Ukrainian nation to have at last a dignified and uncorrupted State, respectful of the will of the people as well as of democratic principles.
The Ukraine is a Slavic and European nation with an ancient and multifaceted history. Yet in its diversity it has one heart and one head. Ukraine is not radically divided, as some media appear to believe, in two between East and West, between Russophones and Ukainophones, between the Orthodox and Catholic Chruches. Should there be any difference – as in any country – between the different regions of Ukraine, those must not be exploited for political ends. The present moment is far too serious for that indeed. The country is divided between a corrupted minority and a majority looking towards a lawful State, fighting election falsifications and defending respect for their country’s territorial integrity.
Examples of intimidation in western Ukraine, in Lviv or Ternopil, from the police or the finance inspection service, has been widely broadcast on TV on Channel Five, which is the only channel free from the control of the Ukrainian state. Meanwhile, in such eastern cities as Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk, over 50,000 students are permanently in the streets. In Donetsk and Luhansk, Orthodox priests have publically announced their support, in their names and that of millions Orthodox people, to Yushchenko.
As you know, all exit polls made after the first as well as the second election have shown the candidate of the opposition as the winner; over 11,000 cases of falsifications have been encountered during the second election, and according to Bruce George, chief of the observation mission for the Organisation of Safety and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Kyiv, “the second round of presidential elections on November 21 in Ukraine fails to correspond either to the OSCE criteria, or to those of the European Council, or to any European norms for democratic elections.”
Therefore, Mr. President, on the eve of the meeting in the Hague between the European Union and the Russian Republic, we solemnly address you in the hope that the French government will vigorously condemn the massive fraud organised in Ukraine and will support President Yushchenko, democratically elected by the Ukrainian people. As regards relations between the European Union and Russia, please allow me to suggest that the current democratisation that is taking place in Ukraine will have positive effects on the entire post-Soviet territory.
Your support is crucial to the whole Ukrainian nation, of whose interest, respect and knowledge of France you are familiar with. Of this we will, when the time comes, be personally grateful to you, and through you, to the whole French nation. We assure you, Mr. President, of our most profound esteem.
Sincerely and Respectfully,
Viacheslav Briukhovetsky, President of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
Reverend Borys Gudziak, Rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University, Lviv
Ivan Vakarchuk, Rector of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and President of the Rectors’ Council of Lviv Region.
Contact
Ukrainian Catholic University
vul. Ilariona Sventsitskoho, 17
Lviv, 79011, UKRAINE
