Ukrainians Meet Cold Shoulder Abroad

The Day has on more than one occasion raised the subject of Ukrainian nationals being mistreated by foreign law enforcement authorities. In fact, the death of Serhiy Kudria at the hands of a Polish traffic policeman would have never occurred, making headlines across the world, but for such an attitude toward visiting Ukrainians among the local law enforcement in Western Europe and elsewhere in the civilized world. The following letter shows that the trend is commonplace, affecting not only shuttle merchants and other Ukrainians traveling abroad in search of jobs, but also every visiting Ukrainian. Because in this case the point is the humiliation suffered by a Ukrainian heading a powerful bank — in other words, one of the nation’s business elite. It shows Ukraine’s negative international image (formed not without help from our media) which far from always corresponds to reality. As it is, such attitudes damage the reputation of the state and its citizens.

The Editors hope that this letter will be followed by an extensive discussion, for the topic has long deserved the broadest possible coverage, especially in light of the European Home idea, and that this publication will prompt the Foreign Ministry to be more active in protecting the human rights of Ukrainians traveling abroad.

The Editors will be happy to allocate room for any such commentaries as may be forthcoming from the Croatian Embassy in Ukraine.

Open Letter

C/O Ambassador of the Republic of Croatia in Ukraine

Mr. Ambassador:

I am compelled to address this message to you, having experienced utmost humiliation when crossing the Croatian border at Zagreb Airport on June 6, 2001.

Another reason is my intention to draw your attention to such incidents, so as to perhaps protect my fellow countrymen traveling to Croatia from similarly arbitrary and insulting acts by local officials.

The Croatian Embassy issued me with a single entry visa on June 5, 2001 (No. 0258984) for the purpose of visiting Zagreb on business. The visa was valid for three months. I was traveling on an invitation from the well-known Croatian firm Ingra with branches in many countries. My visit to Zagreb had been preceded by numerous arrangements made in Moscow and Kyiv over the [previous] year, after signing a contract between the NRB (Moscow) and Ingra, concerning project documentation for a top class recreational complex in the Crimea.

The contract was to be signed in Zagreb on June 6, the ceremony drawing the line under the first stage in our joint project, offering our Croatian partners fair opportunities to work out a supply contract worth several hundred thousand dollars.

The receiving side requested and had my visa executed in record time, within one workday, for which I thank you, Mr. Ambassador, from the bottom of my heart.

On June 6 I boarded an Amsterdam flight and landed in Zagreb. A pretty girl wearing a regulations shirt and police ID card pinned to the pocket saw my Ukrainian passport and proceeded to scrutinize it. She asked me whether I had a return ticket. It took me several seconds to find it, rummaging in my traveler’s bag. This must have made her suspicious. She examined my return ticket as though expecting it to be a fake. The girl asked me about the purpose of my trip. After hearing my reply she asked what hotel I was headed for. I could not answer that question; all hotel accommodation and payment arrangements had been undertaken by the receiving side. And I had not even dreamed of asking the name of the hotel; what did it matter after all? Her next question nonplused me. I had to produce the [formal] invitation. I told her that the invitation and the questionnaire had been submitted to the Croatian Embassy. This left her unimpressed. The young policewoman was apparently convinced that the foreigner facing her was trying to penetrate her country with highly dubious intentions. My passport and return tickets were unceremoniously withdrawn and put aside. Meekly I asked to please have my [return] ticket back, saying it was my property after all (private property is supposed to be sacred in the West). This made the young policewoman act even tougher. Peremptorily, she declared that my rights were limited on the border, whereupon she gestured me to return to the waiting hall, and I did, without my passport and ticket.

She was apparently in no hurry to cope with my problem. Flights landed one after the next, passengers from different countries emerged, quickly passing immigration, none being asked to produce the return ticket or invitation — and none being inquired about their destination, I suspected.

I had to wait restlessly for half an hour. Finally, I was summoned by another young policewoman. I had no chance whatsoever to learn the identity or rank of those holding me at the air terminal; they wore badges but there was no information to identify them, contrary to what is practiced by most countries. I had to rely on my intuition. I assumed the new policewoman was of superior rank and I hoped that common sense would eventually triumph.

Once again I was questioned. There was nothing I could add [to my answers]. The senior policewoman asked how much money I had. I said 200 dollars and she laughed. “This won’t be enough to live in Zagreb,” she told me. I said it was enough to pay for my hotel per diem and that I had a Visa card; that the receiving side was supposed to pay for my stay in Zagreb. This left my female interlocutors totally unimpressed. After a brief exchange in Croatian they asked another question that left me baffled: “What is your father’s name?” I think it was their last question, whereupon they realized that something had to be done about the situation.

My time at the checkpoint was running short. Another brief exchange followed and another question: “Is anyone supposed to be meeting you?” I replied in the affirmative and again they wanted to know names. “How am I supposed to know who the receiving party has appointed to meet me at the airport and then take me to the hotel?” I asked in return, but that was weak defense. I added that a driver is usually sent on a mission like this. This made the young policewomen even more suspicious. Both were obviously imagining themselves involved in international espionage. This inspired them to engineer new trials for me. I was escorted to the waiting hall by the first policewoman, still without passport and ticket. There I was instructed to point out whoever was supposed to be waiting for me, among hundreds of people moving back and forth. This was the only way I could ascertain my identity.

Quite frankly, Mr. Ambassador, I was then considering the worst options. Back in Moscow and Kyiv, the negotiations with Ingra had been conducted by я Zelimir Vlajni я c, head of the Croatian office in Russia. He had insisted on my visiting Zagreb but had not been able to fly to Zagreb due to urgent business matters. He had stayed in Moscow and I had been notified in advance.

At the time the three Croatian architects I had received in Kyiv and accompanied to future construction sites at Alushta in the Crimea could well be busy with other tasks, planning to meet me that night or the next morning.

Daniel, the man initiating our contacts with Ingra, was no longer with the company, from what I knew, so he could not have been possibly at the airport to meet me.

There was nothing I could do but obey orders and so I walked through the Zagreb Airport, staring at faces.

Lady Luck must have not totally averted her face from me that day. I spotted a familiar face in the crowd. The chief architect of the project. He had visited with me in Alushta and Kyiv. Mr. T. Petrinjak, a person well known in Croatia.

The second man meeting me at the air terminal was Mr. T. Kova я ci я c, Ingra’s executive manager, and we had never met, unfortunately.

My partners, worrying about my absence and then seeing me under police escort, did not know what to think.

I looked at Mr. Petrinjak hopefully, for he was the only person to attest to my identity. My police escort, however, was in no hurry. After hearing my excited partners’ assurances that I was in Zagreb on their invitation and the firm would foot the bills, hotel and all, the policewoman demanded their ID papers and proceeded to scrutinize them. I felt like boarding the nearest flight, any flight anywhere, just to be away from Croatia. Why should the business partners meeting me suffer?

Meanwhile their dialogue with the policewoman continued. They told me later that, when they asked why I had been detained and interrogated at the airport, the policewoman explained that I came from a country on the high risk list and I had been allegedly unable to give straight answers to straight questions.

We returned to the immigration checkpoint and there I was told I was cleared. Leaving, I was strongly tempted to pose them one question. I wanted to know their names. I did and it was not without difficulty that I obtained the information. I was detained and questioned by Petra Petranovi я c and Snjezana Peji я c, but they refused to specify their rank and position.

In the recent past, the Western media has considered (with reason) the Iron Curtain firmly isolating the Soviet Union from the rest of the world. Now there is no Soviet Union, the Iron Curtain has been lifted, every Ukrainian national was free to travel to any country. Indeed, we could leave Ukraine, but entering other countries appeared to be an altogether different story.

It appears that no one is expecting us anywhere. They may not state the fact in the open, fearing others will condemn them as weak democracies, so they build artificial barriers.

I do not know why Croatia has Ukraine on the high risk list and is enhancing the visa barrier for visiting Ukrainians, while Russians are free to visit, no visas required. Let the diplomats and politicians rack their brains solving this problem. There is one thing I would like to know, Mr. Ambassador, namely how reasonable and lawful were the actions of the policewomen detaining me for an hour, impounding my passport and [return] ticket, and refusing to apologize after it had transpired that I was no Ukrainian spy and intended to do nothing illegal while in Croatia.

Assuming that the policewomen acted in keeping with regulations, why is it that no one warns any of the Ukrainians visiting Croatia that they will be questioned like this? Perhaps Ukraine should also treat Croatia as a high-risk country?

Our business talks were successful and we signed the contract. My Croatian partners have traveled to Ukraine on more than one occasion and have never experienced any problems being cleared through immigration. They were sincerely sorry about what had happened to me and tried their best to make up for the unpleasant experience.

In my closing address, after signing the contract, I made a special point of our desire to build the resort complex also because we wanted more Ukrainians to be able to use our own resorts and enjoy amenities matching the best Western standards, meaning that less and less would fall prey to bureaucratic arbitrariness.

Vyacheslav YUTKIN is deputy chairman of the board, National Reserve Bank, and National Reserve Bank general agent in Ukraine