EDITORIAL: Sen. Lugar speaks (09/12/04)

EDITORIAL

Sen. Lugar speaks

Last week's issue carried a front-page story which informed readers that our correspondent in Kyiv had an opportunity to ask Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) about Senate Resolution 202, or as it's officially titled, "A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the genocidal Ukraine Famine of 1932-1933." The senator's press conference in Kyiv, where we have had a full-time press office since January 1991, was the first opportunity to question Mr. Lugar directly about the fate of this resolution, which puts the U.S. Senate on record as calling the Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine an act of genocide as defined by the United Nations Convention on Genocide. (Previously our editors have been referred to the senator's press people.)

Sen. Lugar, as our readers no doubt recall, is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where the Famine-Genocide resolution has been stalled for more than 13 months.

Amazingly, the senator tried to get off the hook by saying that the resolution, which was introduced way back on July 28, 2003, had not moved from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee because it lacks sufficient support among committee members. "We have many resolutions that we must address. I would say that this one specifically is one that has not found widespread support among the committee members," Sen. Lugar responded to Editor Roman Woronowycz. He added: "It has not made it to the business committee yet, which is one of the first steps. It would probably not receive a majority for passage in any event."

Luckily, Mr. Woronowycz was armed with the facts.

And those include the fact that of the 19 members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 10 are co-sponsors. Furthermore, the resolution, which is sponsored by Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.), co-chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, has 32 co-sponsors. That's fully one-third of the Senate. And, it has bipartisan support: 21 Democrats and 12 Republicans have signed on as supporters.

Lack of sufficient support? According to congressional observers, many bills make it out of committee and on to the full Senate for action with far fewer co-sponsors.

Confronted by the facts, Sen. Lugar told our man in Kyiv that he "did not know" that a majority of his committee has signed on in support of S. Res. 202. "I'll have to review that to be sure," he added somewhat disingenuously.

Sen. Lugar apparently plans to sit on the resolution, to keep it stalled in his committee. Whether he is doing so out of his own political beliefs or at the express behest of the Bush administration is a matter open to discussion (we've gotten some mixed answers about that, but we suspect there is opposition from both quarters). Nonetheless, the fact is that Sen. Lugar, as the powerful chairman of the powerful Foreign Relations Committee, has the muscle to act.

Once again we call on our readers and members of the Ukrainian American community to do their part to secure passage of S. Res. 202. Contact Sen. Lugar by phoning (202) 224-4814, by faxing (202) 228-0360, or by e-mailing [email protected].

Surely, by now, Sen. Lugar has had a chance to "review" the level of support for the Famine-Genocide resolution. Let's let him know that we are expecting that his "review" will lead to some positive action.

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