| |
-
U.S. Senate resolution introduced by Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell
(R-CO), Co-Chairman, U.S. Helsinki Commission, on Monday, July 28,
2003 in the United States Senate and the floor statement made by Senator
Campbell in support of his resolution:
-
108TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION S. RES. 202
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
Mr. CAMPBELL submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the
Committee on Foreign Relations
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the genocidal Ukraine Famine
of 1932-33.
Whereas 2003 marks the 70th anniversary of the Ukraine Famine, a manmade
disaster that resulted in the deaths of millions of innocent Ukrainian men,
women, and children and annihilated an estimated 25 percent of the rural
population of that country;
Whereas it has been documented that large numbers of inhabitants of Ukraine
and the then largely ethnically Ukrainian North Caucasus Territory starved
to death in the famine of 1932-33, which was caused by forced
collectivization and grain seizures by the Soviet regime;
Whereas the United States Government's Commission on the Ukraine Famine
concluded that former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and his associates
committed genocide against Ukrainians in 1932-33, using food as a political
weapon to achieve the aim of suppressing any Ukrainian expression of
political and cultural identity and self-determination;
Whereas, as a result, millions of rural Ukrainians starved amid some of the
world's most fertile farmland, while Soviet authorities prevented them from
traveling to areas where food was more available;
Whereas requisition brigades, acting on Stalin's orders to fulfill the
impossibly high grain quotas, seized the 1932 crop, often taking away the
last scraps of food from starving families and children and killing those
who resisted;
Whereas Stalin, knowing of the resulting starvation, intensified the
extraction from Ukraine of agricultural produce, worsening the situation and
deepening the loss of life;
Whereas, during the Ukraine Famine, the Soviet Government exported grain
to western countries and rejected international offers to assist the
starving population;
Whereas the Ukraine Famine was not a result of natural causes, but was
instead the consequence of calculated, ruthless policies that were designed
to destroy the political, cultural, and human rights of the Ukrainian
people;
Whereas the Soviet Union engaged in a massive coverup of the Ukraine
Famine, and journalists, including some foreign correspondents, cooperated
with the campaign of denial and deception; and
Whereas, 70 years later, much of the world is still unaware of the genocidal
Ukraine Famine:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that-
(1) the millions of innocent victims of the Soviet-engineered Ukraine Famine
of 1932-33 should be solemnly remembered and honored on the 70th
anniversary of the famine;
(2) the 70th anniversary of the Ukraine Famine should serve as a stark
reminder of the brutality of the totalitarian, imperialistic Soviet regime
under which respect for human rights was a mockery and the rule of law a
sham;
(3) the Senate condemns the callous disregard for human life, human rights,
and manifestations of national identity that characterized the Stalinist
policies that caused the Ukrainian Famine;
(4) the manmade Ukraine famine of 1932-33 was an act of genocide as
defined by the United Nations Genocide Convention;
(5) the Senate supports the efforts of the Government of Ukraine and the
Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) to publicly acknowledge and call
greater international attention to the Ukraine Famine; and
(6) an independent, democratic Ukraine, in which respect for the dignity of
human beings is the cornerstone, offers the best guarantee that atrocities
such as the Ukraine Famine never beset the Ukrainian people again.
|
Floor Statement by U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO)
Co-Chairman, U.S. Helsinki Commission, U.S. Senate, Washington,
D.C., Monday, July 28, 2003, in Support of His Resolution:
|
Photograph of U.S. Senator Campbell in front of
the U.S. Capitol with motorcycle painted as the
American flag
(Click on images to enlarge them)
|
THE GENOCIDAL UKRAINE FAMINE OF 1932-1933
Mr. President. I rise to introduce a Senate Resolution regarding the
genocidal Ukraine Famine of 1932-33. The resolution commemorates the
millions of innocent victims of this Soviet-engineered famine and support
the efforts of the Ukrainian Government and Parliament to publicly
acknowledge and call greater international attention to one of the 20th
century's most appalling atrocities.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of Stalin's man-made famine, one of the
most heinous crimes in a century notable for events that demonstrated the
cruelty of totalitarian regimes. Seventy years ago, a famine in
Soviet-dominated Ukraine, and bordering ethnically-Ukrainian territory in
Russia, resulted in the deaths of millions of Ukrainians - estimates range
from between four and ten million. In his seminal book on the Ukraine
Famine, Harvest of Sorrow, British historian Robert Conquest writes, "A
quarter of the rural population, men, women, and children, lay dead or
dying, the rest in various stages of debilitation with no strength to bury
their families or neighbors." Conquest and many others, including
eyewitnesses and recently opened archives, chronicle the devastating
human suffering of this man-made famine.
The Ukraine Famine was not the result of drought or some other natural
calamity, but of Soviet dictator Stalin's utterly inhumane, coldly
calculated policy to suppress the Ukrainian people and destroy their human,
cultural and political rights. It was the result of purposeful starvation.
Communist requisition brigades, acting on Stalin's orders to fulfill
impossibly high grain quotas, took away the last scraps of food from
starving families, including children, often killing those who resisted.
Millions of rural Ukrainians slowly starved amid some of the world's most
fertile farmland, while stockpiles of expropriated grain rotted by the tons.
Meanwhile, the Soviet Government was exporting grain to the West, rejecting
international offers to assist the starving population, and preventing
starving Ukrainians from leaving the affected areas in search of food
elsewhere. The Stalinist regime -- and, for that matter, subsequent Soviet
leaders -- engaged in a massive coverup of denying the Ukraine Famine.
Regrettably, they were aided and abetted in this campaign of denial and
deception by some Western journalists, including Americans.
|
The final report of the Congressionally-created Commission on the Ukraine
Famine concluded in 1988 that "Joseph Stalin and those around him committed
genocide against Ukrainians in 1932-33." James Mace, who was staff director
of the Commission, recently wrote: "For Stalin to have completely
centralized power in his hands, he found it necessary to physically destroy
the second largest Soviet republic, meaning the annihilation of the
Ukrainian peasantry, Ukrainian intelligentsia, Ukrainian language, and
history as understood by the people; to do away with Ukraine and things
Ukrainian as such. The calculation was very simple, very primitive: no
people, therefore, no separate country, and thus no problem. Such a
policy is genocide in the classic sense of the work."
|
|
Mr. President. It is vital that the world not forget the Ukraine Famine,
honor its victims, and reiterate our support for Ukraine's independence and
democratic development as the best assurance that atrocities such as the
famine become truly unimaginable. I urge colleagues to join me in
commemorating this genocide perpetrated against the Ukrainian people.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the full text of the resolution
be included in the Record at this time.
Thank you, Mr. President.
For more information, call Orest Deychakiwsky, Helsinki Commission,
at 202-225-3964 or e-mail: orest.deychak@mail.house.gov, Commission
website; http://www.csce.gov, U.S. Congress, Washington, D.C.
NOTE: We urge the citizens of the United States to contact their
Congressmen and Senators and ask them to support this important
resolution introduced by U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell.
E. Morgan Williams, President, Ukraine Market Reform Group,
Publisher and Editor, www.ArtUkraine.com Information Service (ARTUIS).
|
|
back
)
)
