Speech of the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the UAE H.E. Dr. Sergiy Pasko at the press-conference on occasion of the 75^th anniversary of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am glad to see you here. I would like to thank everyone who has come to today's event. The issue we are discussing today is very significant for Ukraine and for the world community. 75 years ago a horrible tragedy took place on our land. Holodomor – death by starvation. Millions of innocent men, including children, had fallen victim to the tyrannical machine of Joseph Stalin and his henchmen. It is our sacred duty to rectify injustice and to pay tribute to perished people. On the 22^nd of November we will commemorate these tragic pages of our history.

Recent archival discoveries and researches by prominent scholars all around the world have shed new light on the motives of the perpetrators and the cruel mechanisms of implementing their genocidal policy. Stalin conducted it in several phases, first killing the Ukrainian intellectual elite in the cities, followed by extermination of wealthy peasants as carriers of a distinct Ukrainian rural culture and private entrepreneurship, culminating with the actual man-made famine and following his horrendous crime by resettling population from other parts of the Soviet Union. All food was confiscated, people were denied all means of existence and survival. Witnesses’ testimonies, archival findings, specific decrees and laws of Stalin, the isolation of borders to prevent escape of starving Ukrainians, the summary executions, the confessions of individual party members, the secret instructions and letters, the troop raids, the banishment of everything Ukrainian, the reports of foreign diplomats, the research of prominent scholars – all that combined shows in full clarity that the Holodomor was Genocide of the Ukrainian people, indeed death by starvation. Starving regions of Ukraine and the Kuban were surrounded by armed forces; the borders of Ukraine were closed so that no one could escape and so no aid could enter. This was a true war of the communist regime against the Ukrainian nation; a terror famine was the chief weapon.

Most experts confirm that more than 7.5 million people died during the Holodomor. Some use even higher figures.  But all researchers agree that millions were murdered during this 1930s crime.

Imagine this figure - it is the population of an entire country that ceased its existence in more than a year... Each Ukrainian family lost relatives, loved ones and friends.

The truth about this crime, its extent and its reasons were hidden for more than 50 years from people, and from the world community. During Soviet times, even mention of the Holodomor could mean being put behind bars.

Experts have researched a huge amount of information. We are constantly opening up and making public new facts that prove that the Holodomor was part of a criminal policy of the Soviet leadership to destroy the Ukrainian nation. Thanks to a great deal of research and educational work over the last years, attitudes in Ukraine toward the Holodomor have changed significantly.

When the Verhovna Rada (parliament) of Ukraine in 2006 approved a law recognizing the Holodomor as an act of genocide, majority of the population of Ukraine supported the decision. This was a very positive signal, since despite regional, language and political differences, the Ukrainian people reached an internal consensus. East, west, south and north united together around a common emotion of pain.

Today we wish once again to address the world community.

Ukraine survived a tragedy of world proportions. We have looked it in the eyes and have made conclusions. The Bible says "Know the truth and the truth will set you free." We hope that our knowledge will help humanity to avoid similar tragedy in the future. We do not want the Holodomor to ever be repeated anywhere in any form.

To achieve this, it is necessary that the world learns the truth about the Holodomor, and that it recognizes it as an act of genocide.

Our joint mission today and in the future is to show this evidence to other nations, to disseminate it in schools and colleges, to raise awareness through TV and newspapers, until those millions of victims can finally rest in peace. Here, in our Embassy, you can see the exhibition “Execution by hunger. The unknown Genocide of Ukrainians”. I hope that today's presentations will help you to know more about the events of 1932-33 and make your own conclusions, to understand the scale of the tragedy of millions of Ukrainians.

It is our duty before them and before the coming generations of Ukrainians. I am certain that if the world community reacted adequately to the Holodomor 75 years ago, humanity would have been able to avoid this catastrophe that took the lives of tens of millions of people on various continents. It is our responsibility before humankind, because denial of the Holodomor in 1930s by all Western governments eventually led to many other crimes of the Communist regime, it led also to the rise of Nazis and the Holocaust, to Rwanda, Srebrenica and Darfur.

Parliaments of 14 countries (Australia, Georgia, Estonia, Ecuador, Canada, Columbia, Lithuania, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, the USA, Hungary, Mexico, Latvia) as well as Vatican acknowledged the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as the genocide against Ukrainian people and expressed in such a way their political and legal assessment of this crime. The Joint Statement of the 58th UN Session of the General Assembly supported by 63 countries, including many Arab countries - the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria, for the first time inscribed the term “famine genocide” into international political dictionary, and it became the evidence of the historical fact of national tragedy of Ukrainian people.

On November 1, 2007, the 34th session of UNESCO General Conference, which consists of 193 countries, unanimously adopted a Resolution on “Commemoration of victims of Holodomor - Great Famine - in Ukraine”.  The UNESCO General Conference, recalling Holodomor - the Great Famine – in 1932-33, which caused death of millions of innocent Ukrainians, expressed its confidence that the tragedy of the Great Famine, which was prepared by cruel activities and policy of totalitarian Stalin’s regime, should become a message of warning to current and future generations to ensure respect of democratic values, human rights and rule of law. In the Resolution’s text the UNESCO General Conference honored memory of the perished and expressed sympathy to victims of the Great Famine in 1932-33 in Ukraine as well as to victims of the famine, which took place in Russia, Kazakhstan and other parts of the ex-USSR.

The General Conference welcomed an initiative of Ukraine concerning organization of solemnity on the occasion of 75th anniversary of the Famine 1932-33 years and invited member countries of UNESCO to consider an issue of its participation in memorial events, which will start in Ukrainian capital on the 22^nd of November 2008. Besides that the General Conference appealed to UNESCO member states to disseminate the information about the Great Famine through its inclusion to educative, scientific and research programs aimed at learning of lessons of this tragic history by future generations.

In 2007 the Baltic Assembly named the Holodomor as genocide. In July 2008 the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE approved a resolution, which commemorated victims of the tragedy and voiced support to Ukraine in its efforts to bring truth to the world community. On the 23^rd of October 2008 the European Parliament adopted a resolution, which claimed that the Holodomor, described as an artificial hunger in Ukraine in 1932-1933, was a crime against humanity.

I would like to emphasize that we do not direct our efforts in finding of the truth against any countries. It means that Ukraine does not seek any compensation except of moral tribute and commemoration to the dead.

We all carry the memory of the Holodomor in our hearts. We erect monuments to its victims so that the world should know about this tragedy. However, I strongly believe that the best monument to our perished fellow Ukrainians is the new independent, democratic and prosperous Ukraine and unconquerable people.

The famine and other calamities showed high resilience of the Ukrainian people, their capability for survival and creation, for progress and success. We remained standing after the threat of totalitarian extermination. Ukrainian nation has prevailed because its state has appeared.

We remained standing thanks to millions of honest people, who fought for Ukraine and were building it with their everyday work. We remained standing because freedom, truth and life were fought for by all Ukrainians. We won our victory in a final battle against evil.

2008 was proclaimed The Year of Commemoration of Holodomor victims. But it is not a commemorative process. Rather it is a resurrection of memory, purification from lies and filth. This is to be pure and honest work. Only such work may help to bring true national and living order to Ukraine.

This way we shall strengthen our future, our democratic Constitution, our freedom, our justice, our love towards each other, towards mother tongue, towards native land and common destiny. Ukraine today is an advocate of democracy in Eastern Europe, and it will remain as such for many decades ahead.

Thank you.