Ukrainian World Congress sends letters to Kharkiv mayor and Ukrainian president to restore memorial plaque to Josyf Slipyj

On November 25, the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) sent a letter to Kharkiv Mayor Gennady Kernes and copies to President Viktor Yanukovych and Verkhovna Rada chair Volodymyr Lytvyn urging for the restoration of the memorial plaque honoring Patriarch Josyf Slipyj, which has been dismantled from the building of the former transit prison in Kharkiv, which now houses a police station, reports the UWC press service. The memorial plaque, which marked that Patriarch Josyf Slipyj of the UGCC was imprisoned in the transit prison in 1961, was legally unveiled in August 2005 on the initiative and financing of the UWC and by the support of local Ukrainian NGOs. Three years later in June 2008 the memorial plaque was destroyed by a group of 15-20 people and then shortly after its renewal was covered with red paint. New attacks on the plaque began in 2010, some of which were committed by local authorities: in a resolution from March 30, 2010, the city council’s commission on the toponymy and protection of the historical and cultural environment recommended the permit issued in 2005 by Kharkiv’s mayor for permission to establish this memorial plaque be annulled. The UWC announced that amongst other reasons the disappearance of the plaque was the result of improper activity of the local authorities. Not only did they not give adequate attention to this matter or protection for the cultural and historical marker, which has repeatedly been subjected to vandalism, but they also did not reject the above-mentioned commission’s recommendation. This fact is shameful not only for Kharkiv, but for all Ukrainians. "The Ukrainian World Congress insists that the Kharkiv City Council at their own expense and as soon as possible renews the memorial plaque of Patriarch Josyf and begins a thorough investigation of the incident keeping the WCU informed,” said the president of the UWC Eugene Czolij.

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