 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| ORGANIZERS | ||
|
|
“Requiem-2002: Face the Truth” is an event initiated by the Forum of Ukrainian Students in America; organized and executed by the Forum together with the Gongadze Foundation.
Coordinators:
Regional coordinators: Bohdan Pechenyak (Philadelphia) - danco81@yahoo.com Oleh Kyriyenko (Brussels) - gongadze@poczta.fm Yurko Pylyp (New York) - outhere3GP@excite.com Oleksandr Zlenko (Prague) - zlenkoo@ukrainians.cz, tel. +420-604-377-116 Dmytro Yuhymenko (Lisbon) - rog19p@gala.net Simon Pirani (London) - smpirani@compuserve.com
The Organizing committee of the event includes the students, members of the Forum.
Contact us:
By phone 1-202-413-5613 |
|
| ABOUT FORUM | ||
|
The Forum of Ukrainian Students in America is a
non-governmental organization that brings together Ukrainian youth
studying in the United States. Established in December 2000, the Forum’s
first initiative was sending an open letter to Ukraine’s President Leonid
Kuchma, demanding his resignation. This letter was signed by 60 students
in America and Europe, and released by Ukrainian media on December 27,
2000 (review
the letter here). The President has yet to respond to this letter.
Other public acts of the Forum include addresses to Ukraine’s students and
businessmen urging the support of democratic forces during 2002
parliamentary elections. The Forum’s goals are:
The Forum has a mailing list for distribution of news, messages and discussions on Stanford University’s server. Students and interested Ukrainian youth in both America and Europe subscribe to this list. You may subscribe by sending an e-mail request to majordomo@list.stanford.edu with “subscribe Ukrainians” in the body of the message. The Forum’s web-site is currently under construction. Its address is: |
||
| ABOUT FOUNDATION | ||
The Gongadze Foundation is a non-governmental
organization, working:
Gongadze Foundation was established in 2001. At this point its primary goal is to seek a logical conclusion to the investigation of kidnapping and murder of the Ukrainian journalist Georgiy Gongadze; to create a legal precedent that would prevent further crimes against Ukrainian reporters and political activists. The case of opposition reporter Georgiy Gongadze’s murder became the most groundbreaking crime in Ukraine over the last decade. The investigation led to a serious political crisis. It exposed all social-political problems: limited freedom of speech, little regard for human rights, flaws in the court system, dependent and non-transparent law enforcement; imperfect legislation. As a result, multiple crimes against reporters and politicians remain unsolved. The Gongadze Foundation started its international activities at the the Parliamentary Assembly of Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Parliamentay Assembly of the Council of Europe in July - September 2001. In September 2001, as a result of the efforts of the founder and leader of the Gongadze Foundation, Myroslava Gongadze, and representatives of international organization “Reporters without Borders,” together with the President of the Institute of Mass Information, Alla Lazareva, the European Parliament has passed a special resolution setting up an international investigative committee into the Gongadze case. This initiative was supported by OSCE’s freedom of speech representative, Freimund Duve, during OSCE’s Warsaw session in September 2001. American OSCE delegation also supported the establishment of the investigative committee. Between the sessions of European Parliament’s assembly, “Reporters without Borders,” and namely its European division’s director, Jan Christof Menet, Media Institute’s President, Alla Lazareva, and Myroslava Gongadze led active negotiations with representatives of the Committee of Ministers at the Council of Europe. The need of foreign investigators’ involvement into Georgiy Gongadze’s murder case was discussed during the meeting. In March 2002 the founder of the Gongadze Foundation, Myroslava Gongadze, negotiated with French and British Ministries of Foreign Affairs the possibility of establishing an international investigative committee into the Gongadze case. Also in March, the Paris office of “Reporters without Borders” held a roundtable discussion aimed at supporting an effective investigation of the murder case of Georgiy Gongadze. European journalists’ organizations who participated in this discussion included the International Federation of Journalists (Brussels), National Society of British Journalists (London) and “Reporters without Borders”. This roundtable resulted in an address from four European journalists’ organizations to the head of each EU member-country. They were urged to assist in setting up an international investigative committee and to offer help of their country’s investigators. In June 2002, a representative of the Foundation attended the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and met with the Secretary General of the PACE. Myroslava Gongadze spoke at the Media Committee of the PACE, focusing on the violations of the journalists’ rights and freedom of speech in Ukraine. The Gongadze Foundation together with the Ukrainian Gold Cross raised funds to provide financial aid for the family of Ukrainian reporter Ihor Aleksandrov, murdered in July 2002. The vigil “Requiem-2002: Face the Truth” is an attempt to attract public attention on pressure and crimes committed against Ukrainian journalists and politicians. It is also aimed at focusing attention on numerous violations of human rights and freedoms. For more information about the activities of the
Gongadze Foundation please send e-mail to: myroslava@gongadze.org. |
||
|
Copyright ©
2002 Forum of Ukrainian Students in America |
