Human Rights Committee meets with Sen. Byron Dorgan

WASHINGTON - The Ukrainian Human Rights Committee met with Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota to discuss the upcoming 75th anniversary of the Famine-Holodomor in Ukraine. Earlier, Sen. Dorgan, then a congressman, and Ulana Mazurkevich of the UHRC, had served together on the U.S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine.

In 1998 the U.S. Congress established the Commission on the Ukraine Famine. The commission comprised: two senators - Dennis DeConcini and Robert Kasten; four congressmen - Ben Gillman, Dennis Hertel, Mr. Dorgan and William Broomfield; five public members: Bohdan Fedorak, Oleh Weres, Daniel Marchishin, Myron Kuropas, Anastasia Volker and Ms. Mazurkevich. The purpose of the U.S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine was to "conduct a study of the 1932-1933 Ukraine Famine in order to expand the world's knowledge of the Famine and to provide the American public with a better understanding of the Soviet system."

The Commission on the Ukraine Famine held hearings throughout the United States and heard testimony from 57 eyewitnesses. The hearings collected an impressive body of material detailing the horror that befell Ukraine.

Full texts of the hearings have been published and are included together with over 200 in-depth interviews with eyewitnesses to this horrific man-made Famine. The full text of these interviews, some in Ukrainian, others in English, run over 2,000 pages and are all included in the commision's published report. The report of the U.S. Commission on Ukraine Famine was submitted and accepted by Congress and published by the U.S. Government Printing Office.

Sen. Dorgan said he felt it would be beneficial to reprint the testimony of the survivors of the Famine-Holodomor and to present copies of these eyewitness testimonies on the anniversary of the 75th anniversary of the Famine-Holodomor, as a gift to the people of Ukraine.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, August 20, 2006, No. 34, Vol. LXXIV

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