The Chairman of the Union of Ukrainians in Poland Piotr Tyma said he understands the negative reaction of President Lech Kaczynski to the decision of honouring Stepan Bandera by President Viktor Yushchenko.
The Ukrainian head of state awarded Bandera with the Hero of Ukraine title and declared the soldiers of the Ukrainian Nationalist Partisan Army UPA as fighters for independence. Piotr Tyma underlined that Polish Ukrainian relations have been neglected for long while WWII brought tragedy to civilians in Poland and Ukraine.
“This dialogue on the past had its very good moments but in scertain areas was incomplete. Both sides seemed to forget that the victims were not only on part of Poland, but as has been proven by historians, the conflict had tragic ending for both sides.”
The official statement of the Presidential Chancellery condemns the decision to glorify Bandera and his soldiers. "An estimate of activities of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) is categorically negative in Poland," Kaczynski said in the statement.
The OUN and the UPA 'carried out large-scale massacres' of Polish people in eastern territories of Poland. Awarding Stepan Bandera with the title of Hero of Ukraine is a blow to the process of dialogue and reconciliation, underlined the Polish head of state.
Several dozen people protested at the Ukrainian Embassy in Warsaw against the glorification of Bandera and UPA .During WWII over 50 thousand Polish civilians were killed by UPA soldiers in the region of Volyn, now Ukraine. Similar protests were carried out in Krakow, Lublin and Poznan. The protesters underlined that it was not an anti Ukrainian demonstration or an attempt to interfere into internal matters of Ukraine, but the need to remember the victims of UPA. (ab)