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September 15, 2002 Meeting-Requiem, Washington, DC:
Photo-Report on the Meeting-Requiem
Additional Photos from the Meeting-Requiem
September 16, 2002 Pickets of Ukraine's Embassy and Consulates in the US:
Press-Release and Photo-Report on the Picket of the Embassy of Ukraine in the USA
Press-Release and Photo-Report on the Picket of Ukraine's Consulate in New York
Photo-report from the Picket of Ukraine's Consulate in Chicago
Pickets of Ukraine's Embassies in Europe:
Press-Release and Photo-Report on the Picket of Ukraine's Embassy in the UK
Press-Release and Photo-Report on the Picket of the Ukraine's Mission to the EU
Photo-report from the Picket of Ukraine's Embassy in Prague, Czech Republic
Photo-report from the picket of Ukraine's Embassy in Helsinki, Finland
Pickets also took place in Paris and Budapest.
Mass-Media Reports on "REQUIEM-2002":
TV Report - "Window on America," First Ukrainian National Channel "UT-1"
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Report on the Meeting
Archive of the Action
Open Letter to the President of the U.S.A. George W. Bush (submitted to the US National Security Council on September 16, 2002)
Statement by Rep. Christopher H. Smith
(R-NJ)
Statement by Rep. Bob Schaffer (R-CO) Statement by Rep. Joseph Hoeffel (D-PA), member of the House International Relations Committee
Press Release on the Letter to President Bush Flyer on Gongadze Case
Press Release: Light a Candle to Remember
Press Release - Announcing the Event
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The commemorative events “Requiem-2002: Face the Truth!” are scheduled to take place on September 15-16, 2002, in Washington, DC and other cities across the US and Europe. They are organized by the Gongadze Foundation and the Forum of Ukrainian Students in America, with the support of the Ukrainian student organizations in Western and Central Europe. Requiem-2002 will commemorate two years since the disappearance and murder of the Ukrainian journalist Georgiy Gongadze. It is also a tribute to the Ukrainian journalists and political activists, who perished over the last decade while performing their professional activities. The goal of the events is to draw public attention to the suppression of freedom and democracy in Ukraine, and to the reluctance of the Ukrainian authorities to investigate crimes against the independent political activists. The events will include memorial services in Ukrainian Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, and Ukrainian Catholic churches across the United States on the morning of September 15th; meeting-requiem and candlelight vigil at Taras Shevchenko’s National Park (22nd and P streets) in Washington, DC, on September 15th from 6 to 9 p.m.; an open letter to the President of the United States George W. Bush, and student rallies in front of Ukrainian Embassies and Consulates in Washington, DC, New York, Chicago, London, Paris, Berlin, Prague on September 16th. Meeting-requiem is supported by the Freedom House and the Committee to Protect Journalists. Its expected participants include representatives of the U.S. Congress, the international human rights organizations, and American and Ukrainian political and civic activists. Please join us to make these commemorative events possible. Your participation and contribution is critical and will be sincerely appreciated. Only together we are able to protect democratic freedoms in Ukraine. In such a way we will fulfill our obligation to those, who gave their lives trying to make Ukraine free. On behalf of the
organizing committee, Washington, DC |
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"Requiem 2002: Face the Truth" has a double meaning for me. On one hand it is an attempt to commemorate and bow our heads to those who died for the freedom of Ukraine during the years of its independence, those who had their own convictions and stood by them till the very end. On the other hand it is an opportunity to unite all those who feel themselves strong and ready to stand up and defend the ideals. I want us all to stand up together side by side, feel each other’s shoulders and energy, and understand that together we can be a power to force the changes. Once Georgiy said in one of his broadcasts at Radio Kontinet: "I am a Georgian, but I am ready to give my life for Ukraine". Notions of Truth, Freedom, and Motherland had a deep meaning for him. I believe that those notions were as important for the dozens of journalists and politicians, who had been striving to a Democratic Ukraine, for they believed it to be part of their professional vocation or personal conviction. Death of each one of them was a personal pain for a family and a tragedy for Ukraine. And even greater ordeal were hours, days, months, and years of the unknown as practically none of those high-profile crimes has ever been uncovered. Everyone lives through the moment in life when one has to make a choice. For me such a moment came when I realized that I would never ever see Georgiy alive. I then understood that if those who perpetrated his death were not brought to justice, assassinations, murders and terror against those who are deemed “inconvenient” in Ukraine would continue until all who are not afraid to think are completely wiped out. At that moment Ukraine became a country without heroes. The heroes are being killed there, and the memory about them is being eradicated from the people’s minds. I often think that had the Ukrainian society reacted immediately to the death of Vadym Boyko under suspicious circumstances or the disappearance of Mykhailo Boychyshyn in the distant 1992 and 1994, perhaps the horrible list of the dead would have been much shorter. I do not want for the death of Georgiy to go in vain; I want the Ukrainian society to learn at least from its own mistakes. We are carrying out the “Requiem 2002: Face the Truth” events because we want to encourage people to pause, think, and realize that until every single crime against a human being in Ukraine is brought to justice, we will not be able to bring others to respect us as a nation. |
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Copyright ©
2002 Forum of Ukrainian Students in America |
