Maidan

(Earlier parts of this story are at http://eng.maidanua.org/node/581


I had hoped to avoid overt politics in the course of this effort. Given the current reality, that now seems unavoidable. This effort can stop and wait for politics in Kyiv to mature, while allowing millions of people to suffer poverty and thousands of children suffering and dying in state institutions assigned to care for them, but who know no better than to bed them down until death. Or, it can possibly bypass those politics and put citizens in charge of their own lives while Kyiv politicos slowly come to represent the clear, pro-democracy mandate willed by voters across Ukraine.

The proposal for orphanage reform and emergency measures for death camps is substantially complete. It is a proposed joint project between Kyiv and Washington. Due to proposed sources of funding, both governments must agree at national level. In that there is at this time no functioning government in Kyiv, we (collective community and allies behind this project) face two options.

Option one is to wait for government in Kyiv to coalesce in the midst of treachery and outright criminal activity on the part of two of five parties now represented in Verkhovna Rada, the combination of which is attempting to appoint the leader of a demonstrably criminal party to the position of Prime Minister.

Option two is for Ukrainian citizens to take over management and implementation of the proposal, and negotiate directly regarding funding and resources needed to serve the needs of millions of Ukrainians living in poverty and tens of thousands of children abandoned to inhumane state care. This method would bypass an ongoing dysfunctional, and partially criminal, formal government and place responsibility where it belongs, in the hands and judgements of ordinary Ukrainian citizens. Elected government cannot at this time fulfill the function of serving the needs and interests of ordinary citizens. Given overt interference now centuries old from a certain neighbor to Ukraine’s north and east, and which has historically proved to be lethal for Ukrainians, it becomes several orders of magnitude more difficult for said neighbor to carry out their policies if Ukrainian citizens take charge. It is far more difficult to bribe tens of millions of people than it is to bribe key players in a group of 450. Toward this end, the US and all other countries claiming to support democracy have difficult, but inevitable, moral, ethical, and legal obligations to stand by the majority of Ukrainian citizens who peacefully and unquestionably claimed their place in democratic society.

Option two represents a seemingly radical, but perhaps unavoidable, methodology. Technically, funding approval from the US side requires direct agreement with formal government officials in Kyiv. Certainly, it is hoped that this route will soon become feasible. However, in the meantime, suffering continues across Ukraine in the aftermath of centuries of abuse and seventy years of Soviet Communist brutality that wiped out as many as one third of Ukrainians. The descendants of those sent by the Kremlin to replace exterminated Ukrainians are by and large the same supporters and voters who now remain loyal to the Kremlin, and to the Kremlin-controlled parties who are attempting to undermine and wreck Ukraine’s democracy just as was the case via rigged elections that set off the Orange Revolution. Neither the Kremlin nor the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada parties they control have expressed one coherent word of concern for ordinary Ukrainian citizens, much less any sort of comprehensive assistance and development strategy aimed at helping – instead of destroying – Ukraine and Ukrainians. Nor have such words or strategies ever been the case under long-standing Kremlin barrage aimed at subduing, rather than uplifting, Ukrainian people.

They now infect Ukraine’s parliament, and need only to continue to pay off morally weak members of parliament to pull off one more coup d’etat aimed at ripping Ukraine apart for her audacious move away from tyranny and to democracy.

We have innocent children, long neglected by willful ignorance perpetrated from Soviet times, continuing to suffer and die while vicious efforts once again play out in Kyiv under Kremlin and Chekist direction. It would be morally remiss, if not repugnant, to fail to mention and fully understand the dynamics at play that are now the final, ultimate barrier in saving the lives of children in Ukraine’s death camps. They turn out to be precisely emblematic of ALL that has been wrong in Ukraine, and symbolic of what must be made right, first. Aside from this, they have no voice, no champions, no one to place their peril and fate in honest context such that we can all understand why they are there and how it came about.

I regret that so many people who have contacted me privately with detailed information remain afraid to make public statements. However, in the proposal itself, I am not sworn to secrecy because it is not public. All information will be included as anecdotal evidence aiming for a case made for reality of death camps based on preponderance of evidence rather than hard empirical evidence. I believe that will be enough to convince any serious concern of the reality of death camps for children.


I will refrain from belaboring political vicissitudes any further for now. I expect there will some discussion of this in ongoing comments, and I will take up reasonable questions in that context.


It is relevant to point out that this project now represents a US$1.5 billion effort over five years – and that measures are available within Ukraine’s Citizens Action Network to keep it free and clear of corruption. Otherwise, it’s my work, my proposal, my copyright, and I’ll shut it down on intellectual property grounds rather than submitting to corruption in any form. It’s also worth mentioning that US Ambassador to Ukraine knows (or certainly should know) my reputation and absolute stance against corruption, as does his office in general regardless of current occupant. Furthermore, given that US government has recently allocated US$45 million for anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine, we are all clearly on the same page and on point, as are Kyiv’s pro-democratic leaders. This is a good time for teamwork and absolute solidarity, considering the prospects of Ukraine’s and her children’s fates if we don’t fight to win, even at the expense of modifying conventional formalities and reverting to government at citizen level in Ukraine if hired representatives in Kyiv prove to be unable to fulfill their most fundamental constitutional imperative – to serve, protect, and defend all citizens in the democratic nation of Ukraine.

Terry Hallman