Polish Delegation Arrives in Kyiv to Discuss the Past and Future

On February 25, Kyiv hosted a Polish delegation, headed by National Security Bureau Director Marek Siwiec. The delegation met with Ukraine’s topmost leadership, including President Leonid Kuchma, Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, National Security and Defense Council Secretary Yevhen Marchuk, and Vice- Premier Dmytro Tabachnyk. High on the agenda of the talks is the forthcoming 60th anniversary of the tragic events in Volyn. The two sides also discussed Polish proposals on the enlarged EU’s Eastern policies and the establishment of a Ukrainian-Polish interparliamentary assembly. These negotiations came in the wake of an unofficial visit by Mr. Siwiec to Kyiv, when the above-mentioned problem was raised, and the recent Huta agreement between Presidents Kuchma and Kwasniewski. This way of discussing the problem — i.e., involving Poland’s topmost political leadership, raising the issue to the level of interstate relations— shows Warsaw’s desire to give this matter the highest possible profile. Diplomatic sources told The Day that the Polish delegation led by Mr. Siwiec had brought along rather tough (from Ukraine’s viewpoint) proposals suggesting that President Kuchma take part in the Volyn tragedy memorial ceremony on conditions set by Warsaw. The President of Ukraine was even supposed to apologize to the Polish people, which is highly questionable considering that those events occurred during the war (1943-1944) when there was no Ukrainian state as such. The Polish side rejects the Ukrainian viewpoint that the Volyn events were not in the least provoked by Poland’s prewar policies and, hence, that responsibility does not lie with OUN-UPA alone. Yet, Mr. Siwiec noted he was aware of differences in the Polish and Ukrainian approaches.

Mr. Siwiec keeps saying that, since Polish President Kwasniewski has apologized for the Wisla Action (forced deportation of ethnic Ukrainians from Poland’s eastern frontier after the war), Warsaw would wholeheartedly welcome the President of Ukraine’s apology to the victims of the Volyn events. However, the plain truth is that the Polish president in fact never apologized. Last year, Mr. Kwasniewski signed a letter reading: “The Wisla Action and all instances of the inhuman official attitude to the Ukrainians are to be unequivocally condemned. I want to say, on behalf of Poland, the words of sorrow to all those who bore suffering as a result of shameful actions .”

Various Ukrainian circles took a dim view of this proposal for other reasons. One such reason is that the Volyn events occurred 60 years ago during the war and thus cannot be considered official policy of the Ukrainian state which only emerged at the end of the 20th century. Diplomatic sources told The Day it still remains unclear after the visit of the Siwiec-led delegation (which included some hard-liners) whether the two presidents will make a joint statement and, if so, what this statement will look like.

In addition, it is not yet clear what attitude the two parliaments will assume with respect to this problem. After meeting Mr. Siwiec, Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn said it should be decided whether the two parliaments’ joint statement will be made at the level of heads of parliament or at that of the interparliamentary assembly.

It is also known that, after meeting Presidential Administration chairman Viktor Medvedchuk, Marek Siwiec expressed a wish to visit Volyn next month in order to see the situation with his own eyes, speak to the people, “feel the situation,” and only then take further steps. The above-mentioned sources added that, as the dispute over the Lviv cemetery was successfully settled, they hope the two countries will do their best not to let the Volyn problem mar existing relations. Both diplomats and analysts believe this could exacerbate the situation even more than during the Lviv Young Eagles Cemetery dispute, the more so that Warsaw clearly wants the local Volyn authorities to be barred from the decision-making process.

In general, the situation is all too familiar. Unlike Ukraine, Poland can produce a consolidated standpoint of researchers, parliament members, and political leadership. It seizes every opportunity to spread the required information on this subject, has sufficient resources to fund expert research, and created a political body called Council for Honoring the Memory of Victims and Martyrs. In contrast with Ukraine, Poland has always paid great attention — even in the years of socialism — to the role of history in the making of the national idea. Obviously, the Polish leadership wishes to take advantage of a situation that would justify the idea of making their country the regional leader. This position-of-strength attitude attaches political coloring to an existing problem that must in fact be tackled by historians.

Although Ukraine is taking an obviously weaker position, it is still possible — within a short time period before July, when the tragic date is scheduled to be remembered — at least to try to keep the radical elements in both Ukraine and Poland from upsetting the situation. The problems of memory and complex historical legacies must be resolved in the spirit of the declaration on reconciliation between the two peoples proclaimed by the presidents back in May 1997. Not on the spur of the political moment or via confrontation, as it was in Lviv. It is also important that another tragic date will be observed in four years — the 60th anniversary of the Wisla Action, a mass-scale forced deportation of Ukrainians from the Pidliashshia and Lemkiv regions to northern and western Poland. The situation demands that Ukrainian and Polish politicians show well- balanced behavior.

There also is another common political dimension. It is about the fledgling interparliamentary assembly and discussion of the Poland- proposed “Eastern dimension” of European Union policies after its enlargement in 2004. As to the Ukrainian-Polish interparliamentary assembly, its Ukrainian part, with Vice Speaker Oleksandr Zinchenko as cochairman, will be reportedly formed in the near future. As Mr. Siwiec noted, the Sejm will approve the Polish part in early March.

Mr. Siwiec also said Poland supported the idea of sending a Ukrainian chemical, biological, and nuclear warfare battalion to the Gulf area and Ukraine’s intention to join NATO and the EU. As it follows from the speech of Polish President Kwasniewski at the recent Warsaw international conference, nothing so far forebodes any changes in the overall climate of bilateral relations. Mr. Kwasniewski said that EU enlargement should not create a new, “even velvet,” curtain. Instead of being forgotten and fenced off, neighbors should be supported on their way forward, which is even more difficult that the path Poland has traveled. It can be concluded today that Kyiv takes a generally fair view of Warsaw’s EU “Eastern dimension” proposals that are expected to be taken into account by Brussels.