Syndicate: fwd: repression against ukrainian scientist

[Inke Arns <inke@berlin.snafu.de>]

Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 13:52:11 +0200 (CEST)
From: "f," <ft@forum.kfunigraz.ac.at>
To: Undisclosed recipients: ;
Subject: fwd: repression against ukrainian scientist


A disturbing report from the Ukraine (dates 17 October) has
reached many eminent scientists all over the world; and several
Oceansp@ce readers have, in turn forwarded it to us.  Although
it is long, we reprint it in full just as it reached us: 

"This urgent message comes out of the scientists of the Institute
of Biology of the Southern Seas - IBSS (Sevastopol, Ukraine).
Today, Dr. Sergey Piontkovski, our colleague, was repressed
(arrested) by the Ukrainian KGB  (i.e. Ukrainian Intelligence
Security Service). He is accused in criminal links with the West
(countries of the Western Europe, United Kingdom and USA). 

"Projects of international scientific cooperation in marine ecology
that he worked out in the past 5 years were acknowledged by
KGB (i.e. SBU) as the criminal ones. He is accused in transfer of
scientific information of Ukraine to the West, which caused harm
to Ukraine. He is also accused in currency operations because he
paid salary to the project participants in hard currency. This was
acknowledged as a crime. The following projects that Dr.
Piontkovski worked out for our Institute with a help of his foreign
colleagues, were treated as the criminal ones:

1. Project INTAS UA 95-80, funded by European Union. The
goal was to set up a joint database on marine ecosystems.
Participants: Ukraine, U.K., Netherlands, Russia.

2. Project of biodiversity of the tropical plankton, funded by
"Darwin Initiative" (DETR, U.K.).  Participants: Ukraine, U.K.,
Kenya, Panama.

3. Studies of bioluminescence of the ocean (joint program
between Ukraine - U.K. - USA, funded by office of Naval
Research, USA).

4. He is accused in transfer of biological (physical data of
Ukrainian expeditions to the ocean to: Plymouth Marine
Laboratory (U.K.), Amsterdam University (Netherlands), INTAS
(EU), ONR (USA), Smithsonian Institution (USA), Royal Society
(U.K.), Free University of Brussels (Belgium), ETI (Netherlands).

"We know: this is  false. Dr. Piontkovski is one of the leading and
known marine biologists in the world. He is the author and
co-author of over  60 papers, 3 monographs, 20 conference talks
in over 15 countries. He is a member of International Steering
committee of the GLOBEC program. He is an honest man. We all
treat the KGB action as a press on the democracy started with the
science. We beg you to undertake all immediate possible actions
to rescue Dr. Piontkovski. Similar accusations were undertaken by
SBU against 3 other scientists in Sevastopol.

"Phone to your government!  Rise up newspapers, broadcast,
public opinion!  Please act!   Disseminate this message! He will
be jailed! "

The message is signed: 
Scientists of the Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas (IBSS,
2 Nakhimov Ave. 99011 Sevastopol, Ukraine)
Director, Prof. V. Zaika
Deputy director, Dr. Yu. Tokarev
Scientists of IBSS
Scientists of Marine Hydrophysical Institute (Sevastopol)
Tel. (380)692 - 544110, IBSS, director secretary (speaks Russian)
Tel. (380)692 - 410513, Inna Korshak (Dr. Piontkovski's wife,
speaks English a little)
Fax: (380)692 - 557813 (IBSS)
IBSS home page: ibss.iuf.net
e-mail: zoo@ibss.iuf.net, plankton@ibss.iuf.net,
zalex@ibss.iuf.net

´

i n k e . a r n s __________________________ b e r l i n ___
49.(0)30.3136678 | inke@berlin.snafu.de | http://www.v2.nl/~arns/
mikro: http://www.mikro.org | Syndicate: http://www.v2.nl/syndicate

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