AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

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AAAS Human Rights Action Network

FACTS OF THE CASE:

World-renowned marine biologist Dr. Sergey Piontkovski of the Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas (IBSS), Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Sevastopol, Crimea, Ukraine, was arrested on 17 October 1999 by the Ukrainian Intelligence Security Service (SBU). His former wife Galina Piontkovskaya, also a scientist at IBSS, and IBSS deputy director Yuri Tokarev are under investigation as well. The specific accusations against the three researchers include shipping sensitive data out of the country and illegally accepting Western currency for research. The latter charge stems from grants received from well-established Western organizations. Dr. Piontkovski was released after questioning.

Security agents raided the homes and offices of the three researchers, confiscating computers, scientific papers, money, and passports. The three are accused of crimes against the State based on a number of international collaborations on marine ecology. If convicted, they face up to eight year's imprisonment and heavy fines. Yuri Tokarev has also reportedly been accused of passing Soviet-era data to the West. Some of their Western collaborators have expressed deep concern, stating that the data were not classified in any way. The investigation has been extended to scientists at the Marine Hydrophysical Institute in Sevastopol.

The data considered "top secret" by the SBU include:

• surface and upper 100m layer chlorophyll-a concentration;
• plankton bioluminescence intensity;
• surface and upper layer zooplankton concentrations;
• temperature and salinity of the water; and
• phytoplankton species distribution

The data were collected from 1960 to 1990 in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean and Black Seas, Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean. The Institutes involved in the data collection include the IBSS, the Marine Hydrophysical Institute, the Institute of Biophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and P.P. Shirshon Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The arrest of Sergey Piontkovski and the investigations against him, Galina Piontkovskaya, and Yuri Tokarev, based solely on scientific collaborations that they have undertaken with Western partners and grants received to undertake such projects, constitutes serious interference with scientific freedom and could seriously jeopardize scientific collaborations with the West. These actions are also contrary to human rights provisions enumerated in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to which the Ukraine is legally bound as a State Party. They include:

Under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ratified by the Ukraine on 12 November 1973):

• No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile (Article 9); and
• everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression . . . (Article 19).

Under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ratified by the Ukraine on 12 November 1973):

• the right of everyone to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications and to benefit from the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author (Article 15,1,a,b);
• to achieve full realization of this right States Parties shall include those necessary for the conservation, the development and the diffusion of science and culture (Article 15,2);
• States Parties undertake to respect the freedom indispensable for scientific research and creative activity (Article 15,3); and
• States Parties recognize the benefits to be derived from the encouragement and development of international contacts and co-operation in the scientific and cultural fields (Article 15,4).

(Sources of information for this alert include, Science and the following Website established to cover the case: www.geocities.com/sep_case/index.html.)

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Please send telexes, telegrams, faxes, or airmail letters:

• Urging Ukrainian officials to see to it that the investigation against Sergey Piontkovski, Galina Piontkovskaya, and Yuri Tokarev are dropped immediately and unconditionally;
• calling on the Ukrainian Intelligence Security Service to return computers, documents, money, and passports confiscated from the homes and offices of the three scientists so they can continue their work; and
• requesting Ukrainian officials to assure that scientific collaborations with Western partners will be allowed to proceed.

APPEAL AND INQUIRY MESSAGES SHOULD BE SENT TO:

Leonid Kuchma
President of the Ukraine
Office of the Ukrainian President
Mr. Evgen Kushnariov
Chief of Ukrainian President Administration
Fax: 380 44 291 5686


Mr. Dmytro Markov
Ukrainian President Press Secretary
Fax: 380 44 226 2872


Mr.Volodymyr Ogryzko
Head, International Affairs Dept.
Fax 380-44-291-5715


Dr. Leonid Vasilievitch
Head of Security Service of Ukraine
Fax: 380 44 246 3909


Academician Boris Paton
President
Ukrainian National Academy of Science
Fax: 380-44-268-0486

COPIES SENT TO:

Prof. Viktor Zaika, Director
Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas
2 Nakhimova Ave.
Sevastopol
Crimea, Ukraine 335011
Fax: 380 692 557813

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