FOR THE RECORD: Sen. Campbell's "Dear Colleague" letter (08/10/03)

FOR THE RECORD

Sen. Campbell's "Dear Colleague" letter

The following "Dear Colleague" letter, regarding Senate Resolution 202 on the Ukrainian Famine-Genocide, was written on July 29 by Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) and is now circulating in the Senate.

Dear Colleague:

Yesterday, I introduced S. Res. 202, regarding the genocidal Ukraine Famine of 1932-1933. The resolution would commemorate 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 heinous crimes. The 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 1932-1933."

Seventy years ago, a man-made famine in Soviet-dominated Ukraine and bordering ethnically Ukrainian territory resulted in the deaths of millions of Ukrainians - estimates range from between 7 and 10 million. In his seminal book on the Ukraine Famine, "Harvest of Sorrow," renowned 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." The Stalinist regime - and, for that matter, subsequent Soviet leaders - engaged in a massive cover-up of denying the Famine.

This Famine was not the result of drought or some other natural calamity, but of Soviet dictator Stalin's inhumane, coldly calculated policy to suppress the Ukrainian people and destroy their human, cultural and political rights. It was the result of purposeful starvation. 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 ton.

Please join me in remembering the innocent victims of the Ukraine Famine. It is important that the world not forget this genocidal Famine and that we support Ukraine's independence and democratic development as the best assurance that such atrocities become truly unimaginable.

If you are interested in becoming a co-sponsor of the Ukraine Famine resolution, please have your staff contact Orest Deychakiwsky (orest.deychak@ mail.house.gov) or Mike Peterson at the Helsinki Commission at 5-1901.

Sincerely,
Ben Nighthorse Campbell, U.S.S.
Co-Chairman
Helsinki Commission

| Home Page |