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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

National-Patriots Did Not Meet Honorary Citizen of Lviv Zbigniew Brzezinski With Pickets

13 November, 2012 - 00:00
Polish graves in Lviv

The representatives of a block of national-patriotic forces of Lviv oblast after having a meeting with Lviv Mayor Vasyl Kuibida gave up the idea of picketing the Lviv City Council during Zbigniew Brzezinski’s visit to the city.

In exchange, the City Council promised not to permit a Polish pantheon to be built on a city cemetery.

There has long been a tense situation concerning Polish graves in the Lychakiv cemetery. The national-patriotic organizations think that the Poles want to question Lviv’s territorial status and insult Ukrainians. At the same time, according to them, the local authorities do not act properly to stop such things. The protocol of a meeting between Polish and Ukrainian delegations that took place in Lviv on July 28, 1998 was shown as an evidence of this. Mayor Kuibida with his signature on the document agreed such inscriptions to be made on grave tiles: “To you, Poland” and “To unknown Polish soldiers died fighting for independence of the Republic of Poland.” In exchange for this, the Polish side promised to put in order Ukrainian military burials in Poland, namely those in Bielcz, Monaster, Kalisz-Szczypiorna, Krakow-Rakowice. A brochure printed in Poland on the occasion of putting in order a Ukrainian cemetery in Jaworzno was also represented. There is President Leonid Kuchma’s photo on the cover page was placed against the background of an upside-down Ukrainian flag. National-patriots are not prone to deem this mere coincidence, and stress a number of other “omissions” that indicate a trend and the tendentiousness of the Polish side.

Meanwhile Ihor Havryshkevych, Director of the Lychakiv museum-cemetery told The Day that a number of works, namely restoration of grave tiles and inscriptions has been suspended because the Polish side represented by the Council to Protect the Memory of Struggle and Martyrdom still has not submitted a work schedule. To all appearances, the national-patriots do not have much trust in assurances from the authorities.

One can notice another quite interesting though not very appreciable detail in this international conflict. While the Polish side acts monolithically, the Ukrainian one is splintered by different political sympathies. While the block of national-patriotic forces of the Lviv oblast unites Congress of the Ukrainian Nationalists, the Ukrainian Republican Party, and other non-governmental organizations close to them, five out of nine participants in the Ukrainian delegation on the talks with the Polish side, from Lviv’s Mayor to the director of the museum, are Rukh members.

 

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