ГУЛаг Палестины

identify their son only on the following day, even though it was only a

five-minute walk from the apartment where Volodya lived to the morgue;

and the identification was conducted with gross violations of law. The

father was allowed to view the body only after he repeatedly telephoned

the Oblast Procurator threatening to send a telegram of complaint to

the General Procurator of Ukraine. The local authorities eventually

gave in with the exasperated reply: "Take your son home, and look at

him there at least a hundred years!" His death certificate reported

that he died 24-27 April 1979 at the age of 30. The cause of death:

mechanical asphyxiation. Hanging from a noose - suicide. The death

certificate was issued on May 21, 1979, and even back then, a mere

three days after the body had been discovered, without any evidence or

investigation it had been written in black and white that Volodymyr

Ivasiuk had committed suicide.

There immediately arises the question that if the composer had indeed

hung himself on 24-27 April, and was not found until 18 May, whether he

could have remained hanging from a tree for 21-24 days. Volodya

weighed 80 kg (176 lb), such that hanging for so long, the noose would

have cut into his neck to the depth of the bones. Also during May the

weather was warm and dry. The body would have decomposed during this

interval, and from it would have emanated an intolerable odour. All

these substantiating signs were missing, and missing too were the

autopsy photographs.

On May 22 of every year let us remember that Volodymyr Ivasiuk became

another innocent victim of a totalitarian regime.

M. Masly, Volodymyr Ivasiuk: Light and Shadow of a Legend, Halas

(Clamor), 3Jun97, pp. 11-12, as translated by Lubomyr Prytulak.

Halas is a Ukrainian-language magazine which reviews popular music and

is published in Kyiv. The section commemorating Volodymyr Ivasiuk in

the 3Jun97 issue was sponsored and supported by Coca Cola Ukraine.

And truly, the administration hated him while he was alive, and feared

him once he was dead. Volodya's mother, Sophia Ivanivna Ivasiuk met

with the first secretary of the Lviv administration, V. Dobryk to plead

with him to permit a monument to be placed on the grave of her son.

"The war took from me my father and three brothers. My sister's

husband did not return from the front," wept the woman, "and now my son

too has been lost. Do I not after all that have the right to

consecrate his memory?" In reply, Dobryk (what evil irony that such a

soulless individual should have a name denoting goodness) pressed a

concealed button and said in Russian to the lackey who entered, "Take

that lady out." Following this visit, Sophia Ivanivna Ivasiuk received

the "insult in the name of Dobryk." She has been in ill health ever

since.

Sooner or later will arrive the day when truth will emerge victorious.

But in the meantime, those who come too near to the truth concerning

what happened to Volodymyr Ivasiuk find themselves the victims of an

unusual number of accidents. One man's wife unexpectedly hangs

herself, another man throws himself from a balcony, still another

drowns, yet another falls under the wheels of a car.... But remember,

butchers, God's punishment will descend even upon you!

M. Masly, Volodymyr Ivasiuk: Light and Shadow of a Legend, Halas

(Clamor), 3Jun97, p. 12, as translated by Lubomyr Prytulak.

Mr. Safer, you went to Ukraine determined to come back with a story of Ukrainians

persecuting Russians and Jews. You failed to find any substantiation for such a story.

You failed to find any Russian composer and poet who had been found hanging in a forest

under mysterious circumstances. You failed to find any Jewish composer and poet who had

been found hanging in a forest under mysterious circumstances. And you were not

interested in a Ukrainian composer and poet who had indeed been found hanging in a

forest under mysterious circumstances. You went to Ukraine determined to prove that

Ukrainians persecute Russians and Jews, and you reported that story to tens of millions

of 60 Minutes viewers despite a lack of evidence, and despite plentiful evidence that it

is Russians and Jews who persecute Ukrainians, as they have done throughout history.

In your 23Oct94 60 Minutes broadcast The Ugly Face of Freedom, then, you sided with the

strong against the weak. You sided with the oppressors against the oppressed. You

sided with the butchers against the butchered. You sided with those who hang composers

and poets and against Volodymyr Ivasiuk.

Lubomyr Prytulak

cc: Yaakov Bleich, Ed Bradley, Jeffrey Fager, Don Hewitt, Steve Kroft, Andy Rooney,

Lesley Stahl, Mike Wallace, Simon Wiesenthal.

Morley Safer Letter 10 17May99 Who murdered Volodymyr Katelnytsky?

It is conceivable that had you not broadcast The Ugly Face of Freedom, Volodymyr

Katelnytsky would be alive today. And it is all the more conceivable that had you used

the opportunity of your broadcast to defend Ukrainians against their oppressors,

Volodymyr Katelnytsky would be alive today.

May 17, 1999

Morley Safer