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www.ArtUkraine.com Information Service (ARTUIS)
Kyiv, Ukraine, May 19, 2003
Kyiv, Ukraine, May 19---The Parliament of Ukraine (RADA) declared
the 1932-1933 famine in Ukraine "an act of genocide," a "deliberate
terrorist act of the Stalinist political system," an as "one of the
important factors for the gaining of Ukraine's Independence," and also
stated, "Let us not forget the past in the name of the future!" in an
important, historic resolution passed by the RADA on May 15, 2003.
The resolution passed with 226 members voting in favor, the minimum
required for its adoption, out of the 410 members attending the
session.
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The resolution as passed by the Parliament of Ukraine is in Ukrainian.
The following English translation of the resolution is by ArtUkraine
Information Service in Kyiv, Ukraine:
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RESOLUTION: TO THE PEOPLE OF UKRAINE BY THE
PARTICIPANTS IN THE SPECIAL SITTING OF THE VERKHOVNA
RADA ON COMMEMORATING VICTIMS OF FAMINE 1932-1933
Submitted by I. Spodarenko, Socialist Party of Ukraine Faction
Human Rights, National Minorities and Relations Between
Nationalities Committee, #3451-1
Verkhovna Rada, Kyiv, Ukraine, May 14, 2003
We, the participants in the special sitting of the Verkhovna Rada of
Ukraine, guided by the ideals of humanism and social justice, defending
the rights of a human and a citizen from the position of Universal values,
address the people of Ukraine, and Ukrainian citizens of all nationalities,
on the year of a tragic date in our history, the 70th anniversary of the
famine organized by Stalin's totalitarian regime.
The Ukrainian and International public are marking the 70th anniversary of
the Ukrainian National catastrophe, when, perhaps for the first time in the
history of humankind, food confiscation was used by the state as a weapon
of the mass destruction of its own population for political reasons. The
famine of 1932-1933, which was the inhuman means for the liquidation
of millions of Ukrainians, is proof of the criminal nature of the regime at
that time.
The cruel confiscation of the 1932 harvest, taking it out of Ukraine,
the confiscation of all food products from every single peasant family,
destruction of temples and sacred places, mass repressions of Ukrainian
intelligentsia and clergymen, all of this was targeted to undermine the
national spirit of Ukrainians, to root out its elite, and for the
liquidation of the economic independence of peasants.
The total destruction of millions of Ukrainian bread-producers, by means
of the artificial famine, was a deliberate terrorist act of the Stalinist
political system. The social grounds of the Ukrainian nation and its
centuries-old traditions were destroyed, its spiritual culture and unique
ethical identity were undermined.
The tragedy of 1932-1933 famine in Ukraine, during many decades, was
not just kept silent but officially denied by the top rulers of the USSR.
Its reasons, character, mechanism of organization, and scale were carefully
hidden not only from the international community, but also from several
generations of our compatriots. But attempts to silence it forever and
to bury in the course of history the truth about the famine of 1932-1933
all turned out to be in vain.
They have known since 1933 in the west and have written about this
Catastrophe of Ukraine. In 1988 the U.S. Congress officially recognized the
famine of 1932-1933 as genocide of the Ukrainian people. The International
Jurists Commission did this also then.
As for the citizens of Ukraine, the truth about the events of 1932-1933
started to become available to them on the eve of the break up of the USSR.
It was then when the official silencing of these tragic facts of history was
first broken through.
Today, one can assuredly state that the first words of truth about the
famine of 1932-1933 played a distinctive role in the national rebirth, and
became one of the important factors for the gaining of Ukraine's
Independence.
At the same time we consider that in the realities of an independent Ukraine
it is the state that has to officially make public the horrifying truth
about those years since the famine of 1932-1933 was deliberately organized
by Stalin's regime and has to be publicly condemned by Ukrainian society and
the international community as one of the largest, in number of victims, of
any genocide in the history of the world.
We, the participants in the special sitting of the Verkhovna Rada on May 14,
2003, do that today, recognizing the famine of 1932-1933 the act of
genocide of the Ukrainian people by the devilish plan of Stalin's regime.
We consider that the qualification of this Catastrophe of the Ukrainian
nation as a genocide has a principal significance for stabilizing social and
political relationships in Ukraine, is an important factor in
re-establishing historical justice, in the moral healing of several
generations from terrifying social stress, and serves as an irrefutable
proof of the irreversibility of the democratization processes in our
society, and as a severe warning to any attempts of establishing a new
rule of dictatorship in Ukraine and ignoring the major right of a human
--the right to live.
Having considered the issue of famine as of the act of genocide, during this
special sitting of the Verkhovna Rada, we have fulfilled to some extent our
citizen and patriotic duty to the memory of the millions of people and to
the generation now growing up.
At the same time we are deeply certain that only after giving the official
(on the highest state level, and on behalf of all the branches of power in
Ukraine) appropriate political and legal assessment of the social
Catastrophe that the famine of 1932-1933 was in the history of our State,
and only after a worthy annual commemoration of its innumerable victims,
and only after informing the world community of the fact of the famine as
genocide against the people of Ukraine--only after all this can we call
ourselves a wholesome civilized Nation.
Let us not forget the past in the name of the future!
[English translation by www.ArtUkraine.com Information Service]
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