Ukraine seeks commemoration of Great Famine of 1932-33

United Nations, Oct 31 (PTI) Ukraine has asked the
General Assembly to commemorate the 75th anniversary of
'Holodomor' or Great Famine of 1932-33, which it claimed had
been caused by "Joseph Stalin's agricultural collectivisation
policies" and is a reminder of the inhumanity of "totalitarian
regimes".

"The Holodomor, which literally meant killing by hunger,
had been caused by Joseph Stalin's agricultural
collectivisation policies, because human life (meant) nothing
compared to the gigantic economic and military plans of the
regime," Ukraine Ambassador to the U.N. Yuriy Sergeyev said.

Taking strong objection to Ukraine seeking commemoration
for its people, Russian U.N .ambassador Vitlay Churkin had
said earlier this week that the Ukrainian government should
not claim that the famine was directed at its people and had
called it a tactic to divert attention of the people from the
crisis it is facing at home.

But talking to reporters Friday, Sergeyev said it was
important to commemorate the event as a human rights issue and
as a reminder of the inhumanity of totalitarian regimes and to
prevent similar crimes in the future.

"It had not only affected people of Ukrainian ethnicity
but of the many ethnic groups who lived in Ukraine at that
time as well as in other areas of the former Soviet Union.
Upwards of 10 million people, one-third of Ukraine's
population, had died there," he added.

Stressing that the Holodomor was not only a Ukrainian
tragedy, he cited paragraph two of the proposed resolution,
which "also commemorates the memory of millions of Russians,
Kazakhs and representatives of other nationalities, who died
of starvation in the Volga region, Northern Caucasus,
Kazakhstan and in other parts of the former Soviet Union".

The purpose of the proposed resolution was "to attract
the attention of the world community to the greatest tragedy
of the twentieth century, caused by cruel actions and policies
of (Stalin's) totalitarian regime", he said.

Responding to questions, he noted that the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe had also recognized the
importance of memorializing the victims of totalitarian
regimes and had passed two resolutions to that end, one
condemning the crimes of totalitarian communist regimes and
the other relating to the Franco regime in Spain.

Each passed with only one negative vote.

He also urged Russia, on the National Day of Memory, to
return to the spirit of 1991, of the Gorbachev and Yeltsin
periods, "when there was an open and frank discussion of
history".