Peace Quest Cape Breton Condemns Absurd and Sinister Prosecution of Ukrainian Pacifist Leader
On August 3, World BEYOND War – a global coalition to which Peace Quest Cape Breton belongs – announced the shocking news that Yurii Sheliazhenko, Executive Director of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, had been “formally charged by the Ukrainian government with the crime of justifying Russian aggression”. According to Sheliazhenko, speaking after his Kyiv apartment was raided and searched by security forces, the ‘basis’ for the prosecution is a statement issued by the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement on September 21, 2022 – UN International Day of Peace – calling for a ‘Peace Agenda for Ukraine and the World’: a statement unequivocally “condemning Russian aggression against Ukraine”!
In a written statement (August 3) to the Ukrainian investigator handling his ‘case,’ Sheliazhenko complained that “on the basis of conjectures – the alleged justification of Russian aggression (against which I constantly speak out when carrying out non-violent resistance) and the alleged obstruction of activities of The Armed Forces of Ukraine (although as a pacifist I criticize and loudly condemn all armed forces, starting with the Russian ones) – permission was granted to search me, seize documents, equipment, etc.” “During the search,” he added, “nothing even remotely similar to evidence of justification of Russian aggression was found.”
World BEYOND War is circulating a petition calling on the Ukrainian government “to drop any legal proceedings against Yurii Sheliazhenko, and to respect human rights, the right to conscientious objection, and the right to freedom of speech. The absurdity of prosecuting someone for justifying Russian warmaking on the basis of a statement in which he has explicitly condemned Russian warmaking, is matched by the absurdity of waging war in the name of freedom and democracy while engaging in this sort of harassment of citizens.” For its part, Peace Quest Cape Breton is writing to the Canadian government, urging an immediate intervention on Yurii’s behalf. We will also urge Ottawa to demand Kyiv ends the ongoing, widespread harassment, imprisonment, and forced conscription of conscientious objectors, a practice that is as heinous in Ukraine as it is in Russia, or anywhere else.
Peace Quest Campaign Coordinator Sean Howard commented: “Sheliazhenko is no more an apologist of Putin than Putin is an apostle of peace. The charges against him are absurd and sinister, showing the terrible danger to Ukrainian democracy and society of allowing this unwinnable war to drag on and potentially spread and go nuclear. As we stand on this brink, calls for peace and reconciliation, diplomacy and disarmament must be heard and heeded, not hounded and silenced.”
To sign the World BEYOND WAR petition, visit Tell the Ukrainian Government to Drop Prosecution of Peace Activist Yurii Sheliazhenko (actionnetwork.org)
For the full text of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement’s September 21, 2022 statement, see Peace Agenda for Ukraine and the World - World BEYOND War
