UCCLA – A recent statement by Ukraine's Prime Minister, the Honourable Viktor Yuschenko, in Stockholm, during the course of an International Forum on The Holocaust, has met with the approval of Canada's Ukrainian community.

Speaking on the 31 January, the Prime Minister noted that his own father, Andriy, was a Ukrainian prisoner at the notorious NAZI CONCENTRATION CAMP of AUSCHWITZ, tattoo #11367, and recalled that Ukraine's losses during the Second World War were catastrophic. Furthermore Mr Yuschenko pointed out that during the GENOCIDAL GREAT FAMINE of 1932-1933 in Soviet Ukraine several million Ukrainians perished. Accordingly, the Prime Minister noted, Ukraine is very supportive of the idea of remembering all of the victims of another genocide, the Holocaust, a point also made by the president of the WORLD JEWISH CONGRESS, Mr Edgar Bronfman at an earlier "Nazi gold" redress meeting in London. Mr Yuschenko also remarked on the fact that many Ukrainians who risked their lives saving Jews during the war years are remembered along the Avenue of the Righteous at YAD VASHEM and called for an international forum on the Great Famine in Ukraine as well as supporting a proposal for a Holocaust museum in the Ukrainian capital of KYIV.

Commenting, Dr Lubomyr Luciuk, director of research for the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said: "We wholeheartedly support Prime Minister Yuschenko's call for an international conference to deal with the politically engineered Great Famine of 1932-33 in Stalinist-era Ukraine. We hope the government of Ukraine will sooner rather than later dedicate significant resources toward the development of a national Famine-Genocide Memorial Museum in Kyiv. What happened to Ukrainians under Soviet rule, and who was responsible for the many horrors that befell Ukraine during the communist terror, should never be forgotten, even if there does not seem to be much political will for bringing those responsible and their collaborators to justice. We also welcome the Prime Minister's appreciation of the fact that many millions of Ukrainians suffered under Nazi oppression, including his own father, a victim of Auschwitz. Proposals for a Holocaust museum in Kyiv should be seriously considered but only if they are inclusive, recalling the many different peoples and nations who suffered during the Nazi terror. As for the Prime Minister's positive remarks about the hallowing of the memory of Righteous Gentiles, that statesmanlike acknowledgment is something we would hope he would further elaborate upon, perhaps by calling upon the righteous in Israel to finally honour the great Metropolitan Andriy Sheptytsky, of LVIV, a prince of the Ukrainian Catholic (Uniate) Church who personally rescued Ukrainian Jews during the war years when discovery carried a death sentence. His undeniable record of valour is, sadly and inexplicably, still not fully recognized in Israel or in institutions like the Washington Holocaust Memorial Museum. Comprehending the lessons of history requires remembering all of it."

For more information please contact: Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk, Director of Research, UCCLA, tel: (613) 546-8364 visit http://www.infoukes.com/uccla