Ukraine's parliament has voted to recognize the 1932/1933 forced famine as genocide, in a move that could pave the way for compensation claims by the familes of victims of the man-made disaster that claimed up to 15 million lives.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and his wife Kateryna attended a ceremony in Kiev last Saturday to commemorate the victims of the Great Famine.
Ukraine's parliament has voted to recognize the famine in which millions died in 1932-33 as an act of genocide by the Russian government under Josef Stalin, paving the way for possible compensation claims against Russia.
A total of 233 members in the 450-seat assembly approved a bill sought by President Viktor Yushchenko to press for world recognition of the Great Famine, as a deliberate policy to exterminate the freedom-loving Ukrainian people.
Some estimates put the death toll as high as 15 million, or over one-third of the population at the time. The Holocaust is also known in Ukraine as "Holodomor" or "Death by Hunger."
The vote opens the door to potential recognition of the famine by the United Nations as genocide against Ukrainian people. Ten countries, including the United States, have already recognized the famine as genocide but not as a Holocaust.
During the height of the famine, thousands of people died each day and entire villages were devastated. Cannibalism became widespread. Those who resisted were shot or shipped off to Siberia.
The Ukraininian Holocaust, never recognised by Russia, was only commemorated after the end of Russian occupation of Ukraine in 1991.
Bureau reports
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