СВІТОВИЙ КОНҐРЕС УКРАЇНЦІВ UKRAINIAN WORLD CONGRESS
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Petition

of the Participants of the IV World Forum of Ukrainians to the International Community, Governments and Parliamentarians of the World and to International Organizations
(Kyiv, September 20, 2006)

Topeninghe Holodomor of the 1932-1933 in Ukraine is not a historical past, but a global terrorist action of the communist regime against peaceful population, which neither has a term of limitation nor can be forgotten. It has been and remains an unhealed wound in the genetic memory of the Ukrainian people. Ten million Ukrainians were starved to death in an artificial famine in order to reach a criminal political goal of weakening and eradicating the freedom-loving Ukrainian peasants who were the social basis of the nation.


In the picture:
Participants of the IV Forum of Ukrainians

This tragedy astonishes not only by the number of its victims, especially children, but also by its the long-term concealment and political and ideological confrontation. The murdered Ukrainian bread farmers have not been officially recognized as victims of political terror. The amnesia of morality intrinsic to certain political forces that inherited the criminal communist ideology slows down the official recognition of Holodomor of 1932-22 as an act of genocide. Witnesses of this crime are departing forever, leaving written proofs; the historic memory is fading away, leaving only nameless tombstones and wooden crosses. The words of President Yuschenko spoken at the UN in September, 2005 remain true, that “the world must know the truth about all crimes against humanity. Only this way we can all be sure that indifference will never encourage the criminals”.

Soon 75 years will have passed since the Holodomor tragedy. During these years, beginning from the petition of the head of the Ukrainian National Republic in exile Olexander Shulgin to the League of Nations in the summer of 1933, the world Ukrainian community has been calling for the proper political and legal construal. In 1988, upon the initiative of the World Congress of Free Ukrainians first put forward in 1984, the International commission on the investigation of the causes and consequences of the 1932-33 Famine in Ukraine began its work. It was headed by Stockholm university professor Jacob Sundberg – one of the participants of the round table “Holodomor in Ukraine 1932-33 – a tragedy of the global scale” conducted in the framework of the IV World Forum of Ukrainians. 

The declaration of Ukraine’s independence, the 15th anniversary of which we are celebrating now, has given an impetus not only to the studies of Holodomor but also to its political and legal interpretation. Parliaments of ten countries (U.S.A., Canada, Estonia, Argentina, Australia, Italy, Hungary, Lithuania, Georgia, Poland) have recognized the Holodomor of 1932-33 as genocide against Ukrainian people, having rendered their political and legal opinion on this infamous crime. The Joint Statement of the 58th session of the United Nations General Assembly supported by 68 countries for the first time included the term Holodomor into the international political vocabulary, thereby acknowledging the historical fact of the national tragedy of the Ukrainian people. In April, 2006 the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine B. Tarasyuk has called upon his colleagues from the CIS nation-states to recognize Holodomor in Ukraine as an act of genocide.

The historical fact of the happening of the genocide of Holodomor has been proven, based on archive documents, by Ukrainian and foreign historians. It was also confirmed by the participants of the round table, with due account to different viewpoints and interpretations. 

We are calling upon all people of good will, wherever they live, to preserve and honor the memory of Holodomor, and to contribute to the spreading of the truth about this tragedy!

We are calling upon the President of Ukraine, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Supreme Council of Ukraine with the request to put on the agenda the issue of recognition of the Holodomor of 1932-33 as an act of genocide against Ukrainian people, and to hear reports of scientific experts and witnesses of this tragedy, as well as to allocate the funds to create a Memorial in Kyiv dedicated to the Holodomor of 1932-33. We ask the President of Ukraine to set a permanent date as the day of sorrow and remembrance of the victims of the Holodomor of 1932-33. 

We call upon the Governments and Parliaments of the world, central and local authorities, civic organizations, all good people on Earth to take part in annual remembrances of the victims of the 1932-33 Holodomor in Ukraine and to contribute to the dissemination of the truth about the Holodomor in mass media and of its recognition as an act of genocide against Ukrainian people!

Let’s rise to jointly fight any manifestations of totalitarian, despotic ideologies and regimes and any disregard of human rights and freedoms! 

Eternal memory to the Ukrainian peasants who fell victims of the Holodomor!

 
 




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