Thursday, July 3, 2008

Contention Over 1932-33 Ukrainian Famine

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) ended its session in the Kazakh capital of Astana. It made surprisingly biased and ill-grounded decisions and hurled undeserved accusations at Russia.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE called for national and worldwide concentration on what it described as a tragedy of the Ukrainian people. What did it mean by that? It agreed with certain Ukrainian factions that the famine of 1932 and 1933 was, obviously, the result of Moscow’s deliberate policy against the Ukraine. The Russian and Kazakh delegations raised objections to that version of the past. The Russian delegates accused the Parliamentary Assembly of twisting facts. They reminded the assembly that people of all ethnic backgrounds suffered in those difficult. To tell the truth, they said, many parts of the Soviet Union were hit by famine in the early 1930’s. The Russian delegates called for an objective approach to history and denied that the events were a purposeful and planned attempt to exterminate the Ukrainians.

Another resolution of the Parliamentary assembly of the OSCE urged Russia to refrain from moves that question the sovereignty of Georgia.

Read it all here.

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