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The state power in Ukraine went the way of police dictatorship, using the force to suppress civil demonstrations. The reaction of the world community turned out to be passive: international appeals and notes of warnings to Ukrainian President had the only effect: provocations of security services in order to discredit the peaceful protest. Сountry leaders declare their wish to punish those accountable for violence towards protesters, but in reality no one still received any punishment.
The real settlement of the protest is postponed for more than 80 days. And even if sometimes the micro-concessions are granted, the terror continued by security services and supporting gangsters does not promise any chance of democratic changes. People are disappearing on the streets, cars are being burnt at night, dead activists with signs of tortures are being found in suburbs. And the Feb’18 lightning-fast police attack of Maidan protesters’ camp have shown, that President Yanukovych spent all this time not for developing changes, but for strengthening pillars of dictatorship. If the protests will be suppressed this time, the apathy of the society and punitive measures will destroy the democracy for years.
The current situation heavily inflicted Ukrainian medical professionals. They are being beaten and shot during their medical volunteering. They are subject of administrative pressure: from supporting President by exhibitory demonstrations to neglecting the key medical values - confidentiality of the patients, availability of medical help to protesters, independence from political will when making diagnosis. The hospitals were turned from the place of peace and professional care into trap of security services, willing to hijack and torture (or kill).
It was thought in ancient times that a snake does not bite with its teeth, but stings with its tongue. “Sting.MD” is our appeal to the world medical and scientific community to show “advocacy” and “to sting” those who infringe civil and medical values with the help of the tongue (by convincing the influential patients and public). “Sting.MD” is a list of specific sanctions, without which the democratic changes in Ukraine are impossible.
Vadym Aristov, MD/MBA
medical profession ambassador, President of Ukrainian Medical Association
Victor Dosenko
professor of National Medical University, scientist at Institute of physiology of National Academy of sciences
Nikolay Plakhotnyuk
Dissident, doctor, ex-political-prisoner, victim of punitive psychiatry. CEO of Museum of Thaw writers
Maxim Ionov
Head of Independent Emergency Medicine trade union, medical coordinator of EuroMaidan protestor camp
Eugene Komarovskiy
Practicing pediatrician, writer, famous TV-host, independent expert in healthcare
and thousands of Ukrainian doctors who signed the petition
December 6, 2013
Updated: January 18, 2014
It defends the key medical values, as well as panhuman ones – humanism, democracy and civil liberties.
It is apolitical, contains no preferences to any parties or political leaders.
It creates conditions for integration of Ukraine with Europe and the world, without understating the importance of continuing to cooperate with Russia (first of all, in science and education).
It places an emphasis not on the words, but on actions, suggesting an effective plan for each level of the world medical community – from a simple doctor and scientist to the level of a university, a city and the whole country.
It is the only hope of intellectuals of Ukraine, as internal democratic leverages were ruined and replaced with dictatorial.
It is the only timely reply to the events, similar to Belorussian or Yugoslavian, before they gain their scale.
It is a matter of honour. The doctors must stand up for their colleagues, like journalists stand up for theirs.
Коллеги! В 4 утра 30.11.13 собственными глазами я видел зверства Беркута, а собственно - власти. У меня сотрясение мозга и 4 шва. Завтра я с женой буду на Майдане. Эта власть не должна нами руководить.
Ужас тоталитаризма продолжает висеть над значительной частью Европы. Медицинское сообщество сделало мало для противодействия советской гегемонии. Достойно уважения, что оно сейчас начало возвышать свой голос в поддержку коллег.
Отстаивание профессиональной независимости, права врача на медицинскую практику без вмешательства государства неизбежно выводит нас на конфликт с государством тоталитарным. И каждый врач в такой ситуации нуждается в общественной поддержке. Прежде всего - в поддержке своей профессиональной ассоциации.
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Medicine has always been and should remain apolitical. You and us came into this profession in order to bring help to people on any sides of any barricades. In order to cure, teach and research for good of all humanity without exception. However, over the latest days a challenge was made to everything we value. And now it is not any more a matter of politics. It is a matter of morality. It is a matter of humanism and of being able to protect it. For a long 80+ days it is not a question of integration either with Europe or Russia. It is a matter of beginning of police dictatorship in the biggest European country. Dictatorship on the blood of children, journalists and our colleagues-doctors…
With the help of this open letter, we appeal to the world community in the way once was made by academician Sakharov. We appeal, as for the first time it has become really frightful in the country. We appeal, as now your support, support of doctors and scientists of the world, is our only hope.
Freedom in our country is really under attack. These are not only the words. And it is already not a matter of general civil protests. It is now a matter of solidarity of the intellectuals of the world. Civil protests are being brutally suppressed on Ukrainian streets. Children and doctors rendering them aid are beaten and shot. Students are menaced with punitive measures of University administrations. In order to suppress expression of their position, the Minister of the Public Health personally visits the medical university and the Ministry of Education traces absence of students for prosecution office.
The situation touches the medical community the more, the longer it goes on and the weaker is reaction in the world. Hundreds of thousand people are not only living on the central squares and streets (while sometimes it is 20 degrees below zero). Many hundreds are heavily wounded day after day – and this mass of patients face the absence/delay of medical help. Police got used to make traps in hospitals, trying to arrest and hijack everyone with signs of protest. At least one of such hijacked patients was found dead with signs of tortures.
In this situation, upon day and night shifts our colleagues come to Maidan camp for medical volunteering, and buy the medicines at their own expense. But if their involvement was limited to delivering care on streets and workplace - it would be half of the problem. The meanest thing is that doctors are forced to obey pressure of the administration, and despite their unwillingness join empty lines of demonstrations supporting the ruling regime.
For the first time in 30 years, hopelessness hung up in the Ukrainian air. It became expressly clear that intellectuals are unable to defend their values. There is just no leverage left in the country to change something. After a number of reforms the Constitution, the elections law and judicial power became so distorted that even millions of people in the streets are unable to influence on resignation of the government and impeachment of the President.
Only the power of “the Family” is absolutized: the absolute power of relatives and close friends of the current President. The oppositionist Ms. Timoshenko is imprisoned. The key leader of the opposition - the boxer Klitchko is under the threat of losing the right to be elected due to law amendment. And if your representatives, members of parliament and state officials are tempted to attribute this to our internal issues, then Ukrainian doctors have a counter-question.
Do not the members of governments in your countries, observing our situation, see a connection between the situation in Ukraine and interests of their own peoples? Do they really expect that representative offices of their companies could feel comfortable in the country occupying the 144th place in corruption rating of Transparency International? Could it be so that they think that their representative offices can avoid pressure and involvement in illegal schemes, given that there are 780 policemen per 100 000 of Ukrainian population (in comparison, 356 in France, 143 in Finland) and police is deep into the corruption? Do they really expect that the law will really protect them, while 10450 court hearings were escalated of to the level of the European Court (and only 3100 - in Poland)? And finally, is it possible that they think that the biggest country in Europe, having flagrantly high levels of hepatitis, AIDS and tuberculosis morbidity, having huge problems in vaccination against diphtheria, measles and rubella does not deserve support of changes at least from the position of health of the European citizens?
And finally, could Ukraine count on anything but allegations of international representatives? Especially if this country made everything to show the best intentions towards global peace initiatives - have voluntarily given up nuclear weapons, have put under international control the virological bank of black smallpox, etc.? Is it really necessary to wait for creation of the history of the whole generation of repressed, for giving birth of another Solzhenitsyn and Shevchenko, for symbolical uglifying of a face of another Yuschchenko and for cutting off a head of another Gongadze? Is everything mentioned really needed in order to induce the world community to take action? Or do their politicians need a direct interest in form of access to oil?
We are tired of observing how international representatives substitute the needed actions with new and new appeals to the ruling power. The only thing that such appeals have given is that the police switched from direct suppression of protests to the strategy of terror and provocations. The history of protest is full with video-evidences of not only prohibited weapons (metal bullets, water cannons on below-zero weather, flash grenades muffled by sticky tape with nails), but also the provocative actions of special services agents. This policy leads to one thing: discrediting civil movement and liquidation of protest under the mask of extremism. This will be followed by years of social apathy, corruption and punitive measures.
That is why the time has come to take actions. We appeal to you, doctors and scientists of the world, because now the only our hope is you. There is no other profession on Earth, which would bind so tightly moral values and influence. Each of us cure politicians and celebrities, actors and opinion leaders. Advocate Ukraine, its doctors and intellectuals. Do the little that is available to you personally.
Make your step, show your professional position in support of medical profession in Ukraine!
Vadym Aristov, MD/MBA
Ukrainian Medical Association
Despite international treaties and ethical norms, medical professionals delivering care to protesters become the subject of directed violence and administrative pressure. We demand that Minister of the Interior, Prosecutor General and Minister of Health made official statement on inadmissibility of such actions. And we demand from them to create the Special commission on investigation of crimes and abuses of authority in regard of medical professionals and volunteers, and to introduce there independent medical leaders without conflict of interests.
Your signature on Sting.MD petition supports the official appeals applied by Vadym Aristov and cardiologist Kateryna Amosova (#КОЛ-291 – Ministry of the Interior, #10/05-02-14 – Office of Prosecutor General) and shows the international control of their implementation.
The country’s top leadership by taking inadequate power actions against civil protests has demonstrated its split-up with the people. The past of many state officials has facts of breach of the law and nontransparent accumulation of capital.
Please, appeal to your patients to influence assigning in your country the non-grata status for leading Ukrainian officials and members of their families.
As representatives of the current state power blurred themselves and appearance of new ones inside Ukraine by itself may take years, we demand to take all possible efforts to exclude personal participation of leading representatives of the current political regimen in official delegations representing Ukraine. We deem that appearance of new authorized representatives for communication with international organizations (the Council of Europe, European commissions, the UN, the WTO, the WHO, NATO etc.) will bring to the image of current officials the shadow necessary for changes inside the Ukraine, and will also bring up a new generation of politicians with international experience necessary for internal lustration.
Please, appeal to your patients to influence the absence of leading state officials of the current political regime among internationally acceptable name lists of delegations representing Ukraine.
According to Ukrainian legislation, Ukrainian citizens are banned from having bank accounts outside Ukraine without a special permit. Respectively, activity consisting in placing financial assets from Ukraine to outside - is mostly illegal. Also financial monitoring is required for financial results of legal entities that are owned by the state officials or that are directed to funding political parties in Ukraine.
Please, appeal to your patients to influence freezing of illegal banking accounts of Ukrainian state officials, to disclose their non-public banking information via WikiLeaks (if transparency of information is required under the laws of Ukraine or is supportive in crime investigations). Please, influence the initiation of international investigations on potential money laundering by Ukrainian state officials and on acquisition of property using illegal capital.
Demands contained on clauses 1-3 were supported in general terms by more than 100 000 of Ukrainian citizens via petition mechanism on the site of White House. The appeals with similar positions were made by Freedom House and each opposition leader.
The experts say the one of the main reasons Ukrainian government cancelled the eurointegration is severe control on spending of the IMF credits and donations of the European Union in comparison with the weakly-controlled credits from the Russian Federation. Presidential elections are planned in Ukraine on 2015 and the public concern is that the common scenario will be repeated again: the external debt will be used for social payments and filling-in budget of the current regime’s election campaign. Without external financial sources, the low effectiveness of the current government will become apparent even for the least educated population strata, and their unprejudiced evaluation during the elections will become possible.
On the reasons mentioned in pp.1 and 4, International “Renaissance” Foundation (founded by George Soros) announced termination of funding of the programs being connected with current political regime.
Please, appeal to your patients to influence termination or reduction of the volume of any kind of funding or crediting of programs, in which the government or a state official takes part. There is high extent of probability that effectiveness of these programs is miserable while the funding is simply being stolen. Please, influence the beginning of strict external audit of the whole history of such programs and control the maximal disclosure of any negative findings.
Another point of disagreement having influenced abrupt cancellation of association of Ukraine and the EU - a question on possibility of receiving treatment by imprisoned oppositionist Yulia Tymoshenko in a clinic abroad. At the same time, there is an opposite tendency among state officials to receive treatment exclusively in foreign medical institutions.
We will omit analysis of a story of specific patient and will focus on the whole picture: for medical professionals in Ukraine unbearable conditions of work are created. Ineffective reform of the public health is being carried out. Modern medical equipment and medical goods are supplied to hospitals at prices sometimes exceeding the world-wide prices by 7- 8 times, and for modern pharmaceuticals, beurocratic registration and import mechanisms are created.
Given all the above mentioned factors, we deem that receiving by Ukrainian state officials the planned treatment in abroad is discrimination of Ukrainian people and in particular the medical community.
Please, turn down personally and ask your colleagues to do the same with any applying of the state officials and their family members for non-urgent medical help. Only finding itself in one medical space with its officials, Ukraine will get fair medical reforms and Ukrainian doctors will get fair conditions of work for their medical practice.
Scandals related to plagiarism in articles and dissertations of political leaders (as well as scientists representing Ukraine) receive too low weight and are quoted too little in Ukraine due to weak resonance in the world. Ukrainian community needs to know more about such findings and see a more distinct reaction of the world community to such incidents.
Please, ask your colleagues to disclose to maximum extent to journalists and Ukrainian non-governmental organizations any findings in articles and dissertations, connected with plagiarism, framing-up facts and undue statistic analysis. Block Ukrainian specialists, whose fraud was found out once, from entering international scientific bodies and participation in educational events.
The main part of conflicts taking place in Ukraine around eurointegration and openness for the world trends happen due to weak penetration of such processes into Ukraine. The more people are able to touch cultural, scientific and educational achievements of Europe, the more young people return from different educational exchange programs - the more ignorance and groundless fears will be forced out of general strata of people.
Please, ask your patients to influence increase of visits of foreign culture and education bearers to Ukraine. Influence start of trainings and exchange programs in your clinic or university. Evaluate possibility of your visit to Ukraine with the aim of teaching.
(The experience of conducting international medical congresses shows, that the main constraining factor of making it of the appropriate teaching level is expenses for flights of international speakers. Please think, if you can yourself find the sources of financing the trip to the place of your educational mission).
Supply of the end consumer (a hospital) with of medical appliances (equipment, vascular stents, consumable materials etc.) at prices higher than the average world prices is a source of corruption, bringing to current regime the profit higher than narcotrafficking.
Expenses for promotion of pharmaceuticals with unproved effectiveness is a source of financing the unethical marketing activities, a part of which is corruption.
Donations to NGOs and Foundations that do not have a history of real public activities apart the promotion of donation projects, is a hidden corruption.
Please, appeal to your patients to influence conduction of internal and external audits of companies, whose activity may directly or indirectly assist development of corruption in Ukraine. Bring up an issue of existence and the extent of compliance with ethical norms, when promoting and selling medical goods and pharmaceuticals in Eastern Europe (in particular in Ukraine).
Take your step, show your professional position in support of medical profession in Ukraine!
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