Ukrainian cardinal, bishop join others in urging action by Kuchma

Published: 2004-12-01

KIEV, Ukraine (CNS) -- A Catholic cardinal and bishop joined other church leaders in urging Ukraine's outgoing president to take action against government officials who falsified results of the recent presidential election. "When the president does not fulfill his responsibilities as guarantor of the constitution, the guarantors become the people who go out onto the central squares to claim the truth," said an open letter to outgoing Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. The letter was signed by Catholic, Orthodox, Baptist, Pentecostal and evangelical leaders. "The spread of popular protests testifies that the rights of people were truly brutally violated. It would be impossible for the people of Ukraine to take such action only for the personal interests of one presidential candidate, and the entire world has understood this," said the Nov. 30 letter, issued after a week in which tens of thousands of Ukrainians demonstrated daily in Kiev.

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