No ethnic enmity in Ukraine, but conflict continues
Over the first six months of 2006 no crimes based on ethnic antagonism were recorded in Ukraine, the public liaison centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs informed Korrespondent.net today.
According to lawyer from the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress Mariya Shvets, speaking about the situation with anti-Semitism in Ukraine, one cannot be guided only by statistics.
“There is no real problem as far as everyday anti-Semitism is concerned in Ukraine, however unfortunately it would be too early to speak of a complete lack of any anti-Semitism. For example, we are continuing to attempt through the courts to demonstrate that the material which is put out with enviable regularity by the International Academy of Personnel Management (MAUP in Ukrainian) is of an overtly xenophobic nature. Incidentally the danger of such publications has been stressed on a number of occasions by the President and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Boris Tarasyuk, yet thus far the struggle has not achieved any results. All our appeals to the Prosecutor General have resulted in an acknowledgement of the presence in these articles of some bias in their coverage of the Jewish question, however the courts do not find grounds for bringing charges against the authors under Article 101 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine”, Ms Shvets stated.
Meanwhile, just today (27 September) information appeared on MAUP’s official site claiming that on 26 September members of the State Accreditation Commission had refused to issue diplomas to graduates of MAUP who had passed state examinations, and had also decided to close around 30 regional institutes and colleges of the Academy. The author of the article, posted on the MAUP site calls this an entirely political action. Among the interested parties, the article mentions the President of Ukraine and his “thoroughly Zionist circle”.
On these two days Ukraine is honouring the memory of those murdered at Babi Yar. The Presidents of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, Israel Moshe Katsav, Croatia Stepan Mesych and Montenegro Philip Vuyakovych placed flowers at the Memorial to the Victims of the Holocaust at Babi Yar.