The rule of law is
indeed at stake in Ukraine, as are the the long-term prospects for peace and
stability in Eastern Europe, not to mention the aspirations of the Ukrainian
people for an independent and prosperous future.
In Ukraine, the rule of
law is manifestly represented by the people occupying Independence Square, not
the occupants of the government buildings they are besieging. We can be certain of this because Ukraine’s
most prominent opposition figure, Yulia Tymoshenko, is in prison, convicted of
the types of corruption that are standard operating procedure for the Yanukovych regime. Under Yanukovych’s leadership, Ukraine has
been ridiculed as a “kleptocracy” and has earned Ernst and Young’s ranking as one
of the most corrupt governments in the world.
The deficiencies in the legal and judicial system of Ukraine are
notorious, including selective prosecution, corruption and bribery, nepotism,
cronyism and an unacceptable lack of transparency. If the people of Ukraine
take defiant action against a corrupt government, they should be supported by
the international community, not discouraged.
But the last straw for
the Ukrainian people, and the imminent threat to the international community,
is that Yanukovych has proposed the ultimate corruption, selling
Ukraine’s European birthright to Russia for the Biblical “mess of pottage.” Rejecting the long-sought invitation to join
modern Europe – which was conditioned, of course, on the obligation to adhere
to the rule of law, starting with the release of Tymoshenko — Yanukovych seems
determined to turn instead toward the open arms of Russia, which is blackmailing
Ukraine to join an alternate “free trade” zone centered in Moscow. Who believes that those open arms portend a
warm embrace from Mother Russia?
Two decades ago, Ukrainians
brought an end to the Soviet Union by overwhelmingly voting for independence,
thereby opening the door to the possibility of an alternate future for Ukraine based
on reestablishing its historic ties to Europe and, yes, the rule of law. The
authors of this article, on an October 1991 visit to Kyiv to urge election
reform, were joyfully photographed in Independence Square in front of a
half-demolished statue of Lenin. That photograph is among our most cherished
possessions. If given the opportunity today, Ukrainians would again
overwhelmingly reaffirm those aspirations. Yet their corrupt President is on
the verge of delivering them back into the grip of a recrudescent evil empire which
they rejected so emphatically a generation earlier.
Why, one might ask, is
our own State Department so timid in the face of the overwhelming potential for
both good and evil in this current situation?
Rather than turning a blind eye toward corruption in Ukraine and
aggression in Moscow, now is the time for America to stand up for the rule of
law in Ukraine in a tangible and meaningful way, by unequivocally supporting not
only the protestors’ rights to speak and assemble but also the justice of their
cause.
In the U.S., it is often said that “freedom is
not free.” The 19th Century African-
American abolitionist Frederick Douglass responded to those who sought to
discourage his defiant actions against slavery as follows: “Those who profess
to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without
plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want
the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a
moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical;
but it must be a struggle.”
The Kyiv protesters are
paying the price of freedom in Ukraine. As our thoughts go out to the tens of
thousands of Ukrainian patriots camped in the cold streets, we are reminded of
a defining moment in American history, and we have to wonder – what would our
State Department have advised George Washington and his army, struggling
through the harsh winter of 1777 at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania? Hopefully, it
would not have been to refrain from defiant action
James R. and Patience T. Huntwork, both lawyers and graduates of Yale Law School, have worked extensively
on legal reform efforts in Ukraine since before the time of independence. Most
recently, they were delegates to the Oct. 16-18 Canadian Ukrainian
Parliamentary Program in Ottawa, Canada.
