MEPs propose Holodomor declaration

MEP Konrad Szymanski, member of Poland’s Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, MEP Charles Tannock, member of Britain’s Conservative and Unionist Party, and MEP Marek Siwiec, member of Poland’s Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej - Unia Pracy, have proposed a Declaration on International Recognition of the Great Famine in Ukraine (1932-33) as Genocide in the European Parliament, according to the President`s press-office.

 The European Parliament,

- having regard to Rule 116 of its Rules of Procedure,

whereas the Soviet Government controlled by Josef Stalin conducted a policy of forced removal of crops from Ukrainian farmers, exporting these crops, and finally enforced a policy of brutal relocation of around 10 million people to the north of the Soviet Union and to Gulags,

whereas that policy was intentionally designed to create a famine amongst the Ukrainian population and to put down any potential resistance to collectivization or Sovietization of the country,

whereas between 4 and 6 million people are estimated to have perished in Ukraine from starvation in the years 1932-1933,

whereas the President of Ukraine, Victor Yushchenko, has called the famine a crime of “genocide” and has called on the international community to recognize the famine in Ukraine as such,

1. Expresses its conviction that the famine in Ukraine is one of the cruelest crimes to have taken place in Europe in the 20th century and should be labeled and recognized internationally as genocide;

2. Condemns all those forces in ex-Soviet states which deny Communism`s crimes and praise Stalin and his deeds as an example to be imitated;

3. Instructs its President to forward this declaration, together with the names of the signatories, to the Council and the Commission.