29 October 2007
The Ukrainian Security Service has announced that it will set up a division to combat xenophobia and ethnic intolerance. Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko ordered the establishment of the special department, according to the press secretary for the head of the security service. Ukraine has seen a series of anti-Semitic incidents in the past two months but there were no organized extremist groups promoting racism and intolerance in Ukraine, Valentin Nalyvaichenko, the acting head of the Ukranian Security Service, told representatives of Jewish organizations at a meeting last week.
Meanwhile, president Yushchenko has signed a presidential order to return an estimated 700 Torah scrolls confiscated from Jewish communities during communist rule. The decision is seen as an attempt to mollify Jewish and Israeli opinion in advance of a visit to Israel by Yushchenko next week. The issue of state-held Torah scrolls has touched many nerves over the last year. The Jewish communities in Kiev and Zhitomir have been using scrolls on loan from the government, but a few months ago the state archive in Kiev demanded the return of the scrolls citing misuse.
