A call to commemorate Holodomor victims

Addressing Ukrainians the world over, and the whole of the international community on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the 1932 - 1933 Great Famine (Holodomor) in Ukraine, President Viktor Yushchenko called on everybody to join in the mourning events and light a candle of memory on November 22. In Yushchenko’s words, truth about the Holodomor is becoming known to the broad public in the whole of the world.

“It cannot be concealed any longer. The darkness of the Stalin-time night of 1932 - 1933 is at last being dissipated. The Holodomor has already been recognized a crime, and condemned by many states and international organizations, regional governments and parliaments, municipal councils all over the world,” the President emphasized. The parliaments of 14 countries of the world have already acknowledged Holodomor as genocide.

The head of state expressed confidence that the international community must realize that it will be impossible to prevent crimes against humanity in the future before crimes of the past are condemned. “We are not talking about what the world could do 75 years ago if it knew the truth. We are talking about what it should do now as a token of respect to those who perished and who survived the hell of the Holodomor,” the President emphasised.

President Yuschenko has recently addressed letters to the Vatican and Istanbul to ask Pope Benedict XVI and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I to remind in their prayers of the innocent people who perished during the Great Famine in Ukraine. A memorial week on 75th anniversary of Holodomor 1932-33 that started in Ukraine on November 17 will be crowned on November 24 by the International Forum “My People Will Live Forever” with participation of the Ukrainian President, Presidents of Poland, Latvia, Lithu ania, Georgia, representatives of gove rnments, members of foreign parliaments and international organisations.

Vice President of the European Parliament Adam Bielan has also confirmed his participation. The Forum is expected to see about 20 foreign delegations. After the For um, a memorial to the victims will be unveiled and sanctified. Viktor Yushchenko will address the opening ceremony, following which a minute of silence will be observed, and the all-Ukraine Light the Candle march will begin. In 1932-1933 during six months according to different estimations between three to seven million Ukrainians innocently perished in what is now know as the Great Famine (Holodomor) artificially engineered by the Stalinist regime.

A number of countries, parliaments, international organizations (UNESCO, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly) recognised and condemned Holodomor, being the European Parliament one of them. On October 23, 2008 the European Parliament adopted a resolution on the commemoration of the Holodomor, the Ukraine artificial famine (1932-1933), calling it a crime against humanity.

Source of information: New Europe
http://www.neurope.eu/articles/90785.php