Viktor Tkachuk is the director-general of the Ukrainian Foundation for Democracy 'People First'. He has over 20 years of experience working in governmental bodies at the highest levels including the administrations of three presidents since Ukraine's independence.
"Urging the Ukrainian president to ensure the rule of law in Ukraine, the West focused its attention on Tymoshenko's case one-dimensionally. Consequently, Ukraine's presidential administration got the wrong idea that the process against the opposition politician is the only obstacle on the Ukraine's way to the signing of an Association Agreement with the EU.
In response to the West's appeal to release Tymoshenko and allow her to run in parliamentary elections, the Ukrainian government has started a second criminal case against the former prime minister. By this gesture the presidential administration tries to convince the world community of the idea that Tymoshenko is a criminal who does not deserve political support.
However, the West itself knows Tymoshenko's true worth. This is, in particular, convincingly evidenced by Matthew Kaminski's article 'The Rise and Fall of Yulia Tymoshenko' in The Wall Street Journal. Yanukovich, obviously, has appeared unwilling to understand that, firstly, it is all about principle.
By the specific resonant example of Tymoshenko's case, Europe and the USA only gave him a chance to demonstrate his readiness to improve a general situation with regard to the observance of human rights and democratic standards in Ukraine.
Yanukovich's thirst for personal and political revenge and his aspirations to provide himself the most comfortable conditions for his time in office can put the brakes on the process of Ukraine approaching Europe for an uncertain period.
Ordinary people have a different position. Despite the fact that the majority of Ukrainians (46%) considered Tymoshenko to be rather guilty of the alleged crimes (against 34% thinking the opposite), her imprisonment was supported only by 24% of Ukrainians. The majority of those polled considered that the criminal case against the former prime minister should be stopped (42%) or that the sentence should be mitigated (11%).
Some people simply humanly sympathised with her, others were ashamed of their country which once again had disgraced itself in the eyes of the world, and others clearly realised how fatal can be the consequences of Tymoshenko's case for the dialogue between Ukraine and Europe. Let us add that 54% of those polled were sure that the case against the former prime minister was a politically-motivated prosecution of opponents by the government.
No objections can be made to the statement of the High Representative Catherine Ashton who says that in Ukraine justice is being applied selectively in politically motivated prosecutions of the leaders of the opposition and members of the former government.
Thus, Europe should choose such a formula of relations with Ukraine which would foresee "cutting Ukrainian officials down to size" without betraying the European aspirations of ordinary citizens. EU leaders have refused to communicate with Yanukovich.
We hope they will be consistent in their adherence to principles and be able to differentiate cynicism of the government from aspirations of the people and thus sign an association agreement."
COMMENTS
These points are invaluable on all counts; I hope you and your readers see the consistency between this article and my own:
http://www.watsoninstitute.org/news_detail.cfm?id=1580
Dear Michael,
Thank you for your attention to the position of the Ukrainian Foundation for Democracy “People First”!
It is a pleasure to us that many issues get crossed and are similar in our position and in your material. A present position of the government regarding the case of Y.Tymoshenko is going to damage not only the authority of the ruling administration, but also an investment image of the country and democracy in Ukraine. In order to change the situation, Ukrainians have to change themselves. First of all, we need other political players and a professional opposition. We should start with ourselves and finish with governmental representatives. Anyways, a target pressure of the western political community upon Ukrainian officials and trainings of active Ukrainian citizens wouldn't be out of place in the course of the transformation of Ukraine.
General director of the “People First” Foundation
Viktor Tkachuk
The idea of prosecuting former prime ministers and ministers is abhorrent regardless of any mistakes that they may have made while doing their job. While Yanukovich is representing the process as weeding out corruption, his own crime of rigging an election has not been pursued and is left unpunished. It seems obvious that corruption is being pursued selectively only against opposition members.
EurActiv reserves its right to remove comments regarded as offensive, racist, or homophobic as well as hate-speech in general. Spamming or posts with an obvious commercial character will be removed as well. Thank you for your understanding.