The Committee of the Legislative Initiative "Stop Banderism" announces a collection of signatures under a task which penalises the promotion of the OUN-UPA ideology and denying the crimes of Ukrainian nationalists in Poles. This is an effort to transfer the work to remember from solemn declarations to Polish law.
Citizens' Memory Initiative
The "Stop Banderism" Committee announces the start of a collection of signatures under a civilian bill. According to “Our Journal” and Radio Maryja, the proposed provisions are intended to penalize the promotion of the ideology of the Organizations of Ukrainian Nationalists and Ukrainian Insurgency Army and the denial of crimes committed on the Polish population by Ukrainian nationalists.
On the initiative website, the Committee points out that it aims to collect 100,000 citizens' signatures. It besides informs that the appropriate collection is to take 90 days from the authoritative registration of the initiative and that support will be hand-written on paper lists. The detailed scope of criminal work will be assessed reasonably on the basis of the full content of the draft and the follow-up of legislative work.
It's an crucial distinction. present we have the announcement of a circumstantial legal tool, not a passed bill. The final wording of the provisions, their precision and compliance with constitutional guarantees of freedom of investigation and expression will be essential.
Memory requires state protection
The dispute does not concern resentment towards Ukrainians as a nation. It concerns the evaluation of ideology, organization and historical acts. This line must stay clear. At the same time, Poland can support Ukraine against Russian aggression and powerfully defend the fact about the genocide committed in Poles. A liable national policy does not make a choice between modern safety and the memory of its victims.
The Institute of National Memory describes the anti-Polish action OUN-B and UPA as an organized genocide aimed at destroying the Polish population in Volyn and east Małopolska. The Polish State established on 11 July the National Day of Memory about Poles, Victims of Genocide made by the CNS and UPA on the east lands of the Second Republic of Poland. The memory is so based on the laws and arrangements of the state institution. The committee's initiative goes on: it wants to make sanctions for the public promotion of ideology related to perpetrators and for denying their crimes.
Criminal law cannot be password-written. It must precisely separate informed propaganda and negationism from historical research, technological debate or critical analysis of sources. If the task meets this condition, it can become a real instrument for protecting the Polish state and dignity of families of victims. If he leaves out of focus, he'll exposure the case to legal disputes. Therefore, patriotic intention requires equally solid legislative craftsmanship.
Historical fact is not the price of an alliance
Poles have the right to anticipate that symbols and ideologies associated with organizers of anti-Polish panic will not be presented as innocent political signs in Poland. Silence in this substance does not build good Polish-Ukrainian relations. It builds the sense that the memory of the victims can be postponed erstwhile it becomes uncomfortable for current diplomacy.
The mature vicinity is based on truth. Not in silence. The defence against Russian imperialism remains a Polish safety interest, but does not give anyone the right to anticipate historical amnesia from Warsaw. Ukraine should realize why Poland defends its memory with the same firmness.
The stakes for Poles are specific. The question is whether the state can defend its own public memory and at the same time make rules that are resistant to political abuse. The collection of signatures will be the first test of public support. The next 1 will take place in the Sejm, where emotions should give way to precision, and the party's interest of work towards victims and surviving citizens.
Source: Radio Maryja
