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Voting in Lukyanivka As we were walking up a flight of worn stone steps we were greeted with curious looks and tentative smiles by a line of women - the cleaning crew, I supposed - who stepped aside to let us pass. It was only later that I learned that they were the “residents” of one of the cell blocks in the prison. At the time of our visit, there were 250 women out of a total prison population of about 3000. The first order of business was a meeting with the prison officials and the district election commis sion members who would be manning the eight voting stations within the prison. As we learned, 90% of the inmates held in Lukyanivka are awaiting sentencing or are in pre-trial detention. That is why they are allowed to vote in both the Parliamentary as well as local elections and for the mayor of the city of Kyiv. Had they been serving sentences in regular prisons, they would be allowed to vote only for the Parliament. Lukyanivka is a maze of cold, clammy stone corridors, painted a sickly green color, lit by weak bulbs, which cast ominous shadows. It was clean, but to me, it smelled of centuries of oppression, which hung in the thick, moist air. Compared to Lukyanivka, U.S. prisons must seem like virtual country clubs. There prisoners often sleep eight to a single cell; such luxuries as physical fitness room, libraries, and com mon rooms with TV’s are non-existent. We were shown the cells where the model prisoners live and even those couldn’t even begin to compare with western prisons. I can only imagine what the others look like. The prisoners we saw, mostly young men with shaved heads, dressed in a hodgepodge of clothing (no uniforms), socks and what looked like flip-flops, were somewhat taken aback by the presence of a large delegation. They had to be nudged forward repeatedly to step up to the tables the election officials had set up. They shrugged apathetically when we asked if we could photograph them in the act of voting yet turned away when we actually raised our cameras. The voting process mirrored that which we saw in civilian polling stations with the obvious difference that it was much more regimented and orderly than on the outside. Mrs. Karpachova seemed very concerned that the prisoners had been given access to information on parties and candidates, so that they - like everyone else - could make an informed decision as to how to cast their votes. She was reassured to see huge posters listing all candidates and short biographies pasted on the walls of the corridors between the hulking, iron cell doors. She even stopped one of the prisoners who was mopping the floor and in a gentle, motherly tone, asked if he had voted. When he replied that he had, she asked whether anyone had pressured him to vote a certain way. To no one’s surprise, he answered with an emphatic “No." And indeed, the vote tabulation information, which we received the following day at OSCE headquarters, seemed to confirm that. The vote was split among most of the parties, with the ruling “Za Yedynu Ukrainu” receiving a slight majority. That moment for me was quite surreal. Here I was, a Ukrainian American employee of the State Department working for an international European organization, listening to the ombudswoman of the Verkhovna Rada of an independent Ukraine asking a prisoner serving in the infamous Lukyanivka prison whether anyone had pressured him into voting for the ruling party. I could not help thinking back to the 1960’s when no one expressed any concern about the human rights violations of the Ukrainian dissidents who were being brutally interrogated in this prison. The director of the prison kept steering us away from the cell areas and insisted on showing us the minimum-security area of the prison as well as the chapel. A young Orthodox priest, with two prisoners in attendance, was just finishing up a church service when we entered. They broke off their service and the priest warmly greeted Mrs. Karpachova with the traditional three kisses. We learned that Lukyanivka prison inmates who are awaiting sentencing have to ask permission to attend church services; those who have already started serving their sentences are free to attend anytime. The priest blessed us all and in beautiful Ukrainian urged us to light candles “so that our elections go well and that we stay on the right path, a path towards Europe”. I lit two candles. The first was, as the priest asked, for successful elections. As I lit the second one I said a prayer for all those who had ended up in this prison on false or trumped-up charges, all those who had been persecuted for political reasons, all those who had been interrogated and tortured simply for expres sing their patriotic feeling towards Ukraine. Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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