Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-10-22-Speech-3-454"
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"en.20081022.24.3-454"2
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"Madam President, the European Union, together with numerous other countries, has recognised the catastrophe known as the Holodomor which took place in Ukraine in 1932-1933 as a crime against the Ukrainian people. Even the United Nations passed a resolution at its General Assembly in 2007 commemorating the victims of the Holodomor and condemning the regime.
The Stalinist regime in the Soviet Union artificially provoked a food shortage to force Ukraine – but not only Ukraine – into its planned agricultural economy. This objective was prized more highly in the eyes of the rulers of the time than preserving human life. No consideration whatsoever was given to the people and millions suffered an agonising death. This means that the Holodomor was not a natural disaster; it was planned by man and executed in cold blood.
I welcome today’s debate. Consistent rehabilitation and the publicising of crimes are the only way to come to terms with the past. Opening up archives is a first, important step in the right direction. This applies not only to Ukraine, but to all other countries which lived under Soviet communist rule and, of course, to Russia itself.
As experience from dealing with archives has shown, general and public access alone does not suffice. On the contrary, support needs to be provided during the search for information. This can be achieved, for example, by opening documentation centres and employing historians.
Crimes cannot be undone, but they – and more importantly their victims – should never be forgotten. The worldwide recognition of the Holodomor as mass murder of the people of Ukraine and elsewhere is of huge significance to world politics. This could create a precedent for many other nations in whose past mass murder was committed.
In all events, the European Union is sending Russia a clear message by recalling the crime committed and deeply condemning it, thus making it perfectly clear for the forthcoming partnership and association negotiations that one of the basic pillars of the EU, namely respect for human rights, is non-negotiable."@en1
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