Rep. Rinaldo to Kirkpatrick: U.N. should replace Soviet-picked delegates from Ukraine (10/23/83)

Rep. Rinaldo to Kirkpatrick: U.N. should replace

Soviet-picked delegates from Ukraine

WASHINGTON - Rep. Matthew J. Rinaldo (R-N.J.), recently sent U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick a letter which urged the ambassador to introduce a resolution seeking to replace the Soviet-picked delegates from Ukraine with delegates selected by Ukrainian nationalists, the congressman's office reported.

In a release dated October 10, he stated that the Ukrainian delegation to the United Nations should be blocked from participating in the General Assembly because it does not represent the Ukrainian people.

Bob DeLazaro, special assistant to the congressman, reported that, to date, Mrs. Kirkpatrick has not responded to the request.

The New Jersey Republican said that 37 members of the Ukrainian Public Group to Promote the Implementation of the Helsinki Accords are either in prison, Soviet labor camps, internal exile, or have been deported by the Soviets for their support for human rights for the Ukrainians. He said the group has a legitimate right to represent the Ukrainian people at the United Nations.

Following a September 30 visit to his offices in Washington by a Ukrainian American delegation composed of members and friends of Americans for Human Rights in Ukraine, Rep. Rinaldo also included a mention of the tragedy of the Great Famine in Ukraine in his letter to Ambassador Kirkpatrick. He wrote:

"Seven million Ukrainians were starved to death by Stalin's forced agricultural collectivization in one of the most brutal chapters in human history, and on this 50th anniversary of their deaths, the Moscow puppets in the Ukrainian delegation at the U.N. totally ignored it."

"The horror of 7 million people dying of forced starvation and malnutrition while available food was being taken away and exported from Ukraine should not be forgotten," Rep. Rinaldo said. "It was nothing short of a holocaust."

Rep. Rinaldo said the U.N. Charter provides that delegates may be challenged if they have no valid claim in representing the people of their country. He said the Soviets installed Communist rule in Ukraine and have exiled Ukrainian nationalists.

He stated that a Soviet-imposed blackout on news about Ukraine has prevented it from coming to the attention of the United Nations delegates. He is co-sponsoring a bill in Congress to establish a special commission to study the causes and effects of the great famine in the Ukraine in 1933 to increase public knowledge of Soviet repression.

In a separate letter dated October 6, Rep. Rinaldo wrote to President Ronald Reagan on behalf of the persecuted Ukrainian political prisoners and members of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group.

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