Senate subcommittee hearing focuses on Famine memorial (03/05/06)

Senate subcommittee hearing focuses on Famine memorial

by Serhiy Zhykharev
Ukrainian National Information Service

WASHINGTON - After the successful unanimous passage last year by the House of Representatives of a bill providing for construction of a monument on federal land in Washington to honor the victims of the Ukrainian Famine Genocide of 1932-1933, the Senate Subcommittee on National Parks of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on the bill on Thursday, February 16.

Chairing the hearing was Sen. Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.), and oral testimony was provided by John Parsons, associate regional director for lands, resources and planning for the National Park Service (NPS). Written testimony was submitted to the subcommittee by Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), co-chair of the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus and sponsor of HR 562; Dr. Oleh Shamshur, ambassador of Ukraine to the United States; and, Michael Sawkiw Jr., president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA).

Mr. Parsons commenced his testimony by stating that H.R. 562 would "duplicate the efforts of the Victims of Communism (VOC) memorial," which is to be built by the end of 2006 in Washington. The VOC monument will be a generalized memorial and will not specify the atrocities endured by various nations under the yoke of communism.

When questioned by the chairman about how other groups feel about the general VOC monument, Mr. Parsons accurately portrayed the sentiments: "I don't think it [the VOC memorial] represents what they [the Ukrainians] are trying to tell."

Other testimony provided to the subcommittee elaborated on the necessity to build such a monument to the victims of the Ukrainian Genocide. Rep. Levin, sponsor of the bill, enumerated the enormous sacrifice the Ukrainian people made during the Ukrainian Genocide and noted that "this memorial will not only honor the victims of this horrible period of history, but also serve as a reminder to all of us that we must work together to prevent such tragedies in the future. This reminder is particularly poignant given the renewed commitment of Ukraine to freedom and democracy during last year's Orange Revolution."

Ambassador Shamshur, Ukraine's newly appointed envoy to the United States, presented written testimony in which he highlighted the sheer brutality of the 1932-1933 Ukrainian Genocide. Referring to the genocide by the Ukrainian term "Holodomor," Dr. Shamshur stated that this "unparalleled disaster in the history of my nation, [is] similar to the Holocaust in scale, cruelty and cynicism of its perpetrators."

The ambassador's testimony noted that "the pain and bitter memory of the Holodomor are alive in practically every Ukrainian family; they make our hearts ache."

In his written remarks, UCCA President Sawkiw quoted the 1986 U.S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine, which concluded in its findings that "Joseph Stalin and those around him committed genocide against the Ukrainians in 1932-1933."

Mr. Sawkiw reiterated that a monument in Washington would enhance the scope and message of victims of communism. "Their ultimate sacrifice was as a result of an inhumane ideology - food as a weapon ... Though other atrocities have afflicted many nations of the world, the sheer magnitude and gravity of the Ukrainian Genocide remains little known to the world," he explained.

The next step towards final passage of HR 562 is to bring it to a vote in the U.S. Senate during the second session of the 109th Congress.

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