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Taras Kuzio    Ukrainian Weekly   03-Oct-1993   Larger crimes committed by NKVD and KGB
And what about Soviet war crimes?

Dear Editor:

Last summer I read a report in the Ukrainian parliamentary newspaper Holos Ukrainy that Britain and Ukraine had signed an agreement to jointly investigate Nazi war crimes, specifically those allegedly committed by Ukrainians in World War II.  Now, ITAR-TASS reported on August 27 that the U.S. and Ukraine have also signed an agreement "on cooperation in the investigation of Nazi war crimes committed during the second world war."  The report went on to state that, "The agreement replaces the previous similar Soviet-American agreement."

The readers of The Ukrainian Weekly will, of course, not be at all surprised to learn that the main vehicle in Ukraine that will cooperate in these "investigations" will be the Security Service.  Yet is it not repulsive that the Security Service, the successor to the former Ukrainian KGB, will be the vehicle used in this work?

Before looking for alleged Ukrainian "Nazi war criminals," should the Security Service not be opening its files on the far larger crimes committed by the NKVD and even the KGB itself?  Finally, why cannot the government of an independent Ukraine be balanced in its approach to "crimes against humanity" and search for both Soviet and Nazi war criminals?  Is it because some of these Soviet war criminals may still be working within the successor to the Ukrainian KGB or living off KGB pensions in either Ukraine or Russia?

Coming on top of the suggestion by Dr. Yuriy Shcherbak, Ukraine's ambassador to Israel, that John Demjanjuk be prosecuted in Ukraine, should we in the Ukrainian diaspora not protest loud and clear about this disgraceful affair?  At the very least, we should make our protests known to Ukrainian embassies and the Foreign Ministry and request that democratic members of the Ukrainian parliament raise the issue in Kyyiv.


Taras Kuzio
London

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