Ukraine PM drops legal challenge to election defeat [Article]

From the Associated Press:

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Saturday dropped her legal challenge to her rival’s presidential election victory, saying she had lost faith in the country’s courts.

Her dramatic backdown after a pledge just the day before to fight till the end was the latest twist in Tymoshenko’s tortuous struggle to hold on to power and sent rivals and observers guessing what her next move will be.

“It has become obvious that it is not a court and it is not justice,” said the flamboyant premier, wearing a grey dress, her trademark golden braid wrapped around her head.

“We are withdrawing our suit,” Tymoshenko told the court as it reconvened to hear her case.

The premier had called for the court proceedings to be televised, a request the authorities denied.

On Friday she wore a funereal black dress in the court as she appealed for justice in an emotional hour-long speech.

Judges withdrew Saturday to deliberate following her suit withdrawal, but after some two hours waiting for a decision Tymoshenko left the courtroom.

Andriy Kozhemyakin, a top official with Tymoshenko’s party, said the party would soon convene to decide on her next move but said she was unlikely to turn to the courts again.

In parliament, Yanukovych’s party has launched an official motion to throw out Tymoshenko and her government.

Read the rest of the article

Responses to ‘Irvington students ditch communist theme’

A few worth while responses have been posted in the same publication that broke the story on ‘Irvington students ditch communist theme’. In the article, a student who’s grandparents survived the Holodomor appealed to his classmates not to use a communist-themed t-shirt and they agreed to scrap the idea. Some very positive feedback resulted:

Can you imagine this happening with swastikas? I doubt it. That is because our educational system has done an excellent job in teaching about the horrors of Nazism. It has, however, failed to teach about the atrocities suffered under communist regimes.

There are currently two bills in the Legislature that would amend the New York State Education Law to include other genocides: Bill S3356 in the Senate and Bill A6690 in the Assembly. Unfortunately, Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer, D-Mamaroneck, chair of the Education Committee in the Senate, is blocking their passage. The incident in Irvington is a glaring example of precisely why the passage of these bills is so important. Our government representatives and our school officials need to be held accountable in making sure that our children learn about the true nature of communism. Contact your representatives at www.nysenate.gov and www.assembly.state.ny.us and urge them to support passage of these bills.

Oksana Kulynych, committee chair of Educators for the Study of the Ukrainian Genocide-Holodomor.

Read the rest of the article

As well as:

The principal of Irvington High School is to be commended for not allowing students to use a pro-communist slogan and picture of a hammer and sickle for their Color Wars competition. In all likelihood the students had no intention of offending anyone and cannot be blamed. However, simply telling the students to change the theme is completely insufficient. It is our educational system that must be held accountable for teaching about the reality of communism.

I call upon the Board of Regents, superintendents of school districts as well as our government officials to ensure that our students learn about the devastating role communism has played in the lives of so many people. It is only through education that we can work to erase the indifference that allowed the atrocities of communism, such as the Ukrainian Genocide-Holodomor of 1932-1933, to occur.

Read the rest of the article

Very good stuff!

Yushchenko, Ukraine’s only president to recognize the Holodomor as genocide – bullied by the ADL not to compare with Holocaust

I tweeted about this earlier today and posted a clip from the 2009 documentary Defamation in which an Israeli-Jew discusses the politicization of the Holocaust and Anti-Semitism in modern times.

Abe Foxman the head of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the world’s largest advocate for Israel and fighting Anti-Semitism meets with Yushchenko’s advisors and warns them not to compare the two genocides – the Holodomor and the Holocaust:

Abe Foxman (head of the ADL): But one thing that you need to be sensitive about is not to link it (the Holodomor) with the Holocaust. Be careful that it not be linked as ‘your genocide’ and ‘our genocide’, because that would be counter-productive.

Israel has still yet to recognize the Holodomor as genocide.

Ukraine election results put on hold [Article]

From CNN:

A Ukranian (sic) court on Wednesday put on hold the results of presidential elections that declared Viktor Yanukovych winner pending an appeal from his rival, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Tymoshenko lodged an appeal with Ukraine’s Higher Administrative Court to contest the official results of the February 10 run-off. The court partially granted her appeal and stopped the Central Election Commission’s decision on the outcome of the vote.

Tymoshenko had fought a close race with former prime minister Yanukovich. He was due to be inaugurated February 25, the Ukrainian parliament said this week.

Read the rest of the article

It IS deja-vu from 2004! Not so fast Stephen Harper, don’t you have enough on your plate?

Departing president warns Ukraine is turning East [Article]

From the Associated Press:

Departing Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko says the policies of his newly elected successor risk turning Ukraine back into a Kremlin vassal state.

Yushchenko made some of his harshest statements at a news conference Tuesday against President-elect Viktor Yanukovych, nine days before he is due to leave office.

He says Yanukovych’s plans are degrading to the nation and the European course it has pursued since Yushchenko took office in 2005.

He lambasted Yanukovych’s plans to give Russia a stake in Ukraine’s natural gas pipelines and to extend the lease Russia has on a Black Sea naval base.

Read the rest of the article