Statement in Support of the Ukrainian People

STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF THE UKRAINIAN PEOPLE

The Board of Directors of the Participatory Democracy Cultural Initiative, Inc. (PDCI), and the Managing Team of ParticipatoryDemocracy.net (DP.net) express our deep concern over the escalating political crisis in Ukraine.

We strongly condemn Russia's assault on Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity leading up to a referendum in Crimea staged and rushed in two weeks under foreign occupation and held on March 16, which the international community has resolutely denounced as illegal. This referendum, organized under a pretension of a call for “independence”, provided the basis for Russia's annexation of Crimea under the “protection” of Russian troops and a Parliament forcefully controlled by ethnic Russians. We submit that the Parliament of Crimea soon "declared its independence from Ukraine" in a move clearly unconstitutional, allowing Russian President Putin to draft and immediately sign a treaty to annex Crimea to the Russian Federation.

We are particularly concerned that Russia's aggression in Crimea threatens to undermine Ukraine's democratic development and further dismantle its territorial integrity. We are particularly concerned that similar arguments can be used by the Russian government to proceed to further territorial annexations in Ukraine and other neighboring countries.

This intervention comes less than one month after President Yanukovych fled the country when he proceeded to violently suppress peaceful protests against his corrupt government after the people succeeded in their demand for his demise from power.

We believe in participatory democracy and the right of the people to decide peacefully their fate in a multiethnic environment united by democratic goals and practices. We believe in the territorial integrity of established states and have taken great interest in the potential of Ukraine's developing democracy since the Ukrainian people took to the streets to protest a corrupt presidential election in 2004, a peaceful movement that resulted in the inspirational Orange Revolution.

The PDCI and DP.net recognize the progress Ukraine made following the Orange Revolution, and how they addressed the serious challenges facing their country since. We understood consolidation of democracy in Ukraine could not happen quickly or easily, but we were hopeful that the process would be well underway six years later within a peaceful international environment. At this crucial time in Ukraine's democratic development, therefore, we stand in solidarity with the pro-democracy forces working in the country to call for legitimate elections and build popularly supported democratic processes and institutions. We are appalled and concerned by the actions being undertaken, both from within Ukraine and by Russia, to undermine these efforts.

The PDCI and DP.net call on the international community to stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian people's rights to follow their country's own democratic constitutional processes in addressing the challenges they face.

The PDCI and DP.net call on the international community to fully support their claim to territorial integrity by whatever means necessary.