STATEMENTS ON THE FAMINE-GENOCIDE

President Viktor Yushchenko

Following is the message by President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine to the participants of the ceremonies to honor the victims of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in New York's St. Patrick's Cathedral on November 19.

I am wholeheartedly grateful to the participants of the ceremony to honor the victims of Holodomor of 1932-33 for their concern and sympathy that unite us in this time of sorrow.

Today we are bowing our heads before the deep tragedy of a loss of loved ones, remembering both the tyranny of the totalitarian system and the historic lie of concealing the crimes against humankind and humanity.

The Ukrainian people survived this ordeal by the too high price of millions of lives.

I would like to express my special words of gratitude to the American nation, which was the first to recognize the terrible consequences of the Holodomor of 1932-1933. I hope that this tragedy of a European scale will be recognized also by the whole international community. Truth and remembrance are needed to make sure that the horrors of the past will not be repeated in the future.

In Ukraine, honoring the fallen and supporting those affected by famines, as well as study of hidden-for-decades pages of the Ukrainian history, are matters of high priority for state policy. We are in the process of establishing the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, building new memorials and restoring burial sites. Soon, there will be a guelder rose ("kalyna") park on the hilly banks of Dnipro River to pay tribute to every village that had suffered the effects of the Holodomor.

I believe that the words of common prayer in memory of the victims of the Holodomor that will resound in many places around the world will bring peace and solace to the souls of the innocently perished [and] will unite us in the common striving to build a just world with its highest value - that of human life.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, December 4, 2005, No. 49, Vol. LXXIII

| Home Page |