Ukrainian Parliamentarian: The anti-human communist regime caused the deaths of millions

On January 25th 2006, The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), which brings together parliamentarians from 46 European countries, passed a resolution entitled “Need for international condemnation of crimes of totalitarian communist regimes” at its plenary session. The resolution was passed by 99 votes to 42, which caught the attention of countries all over the world. Europe is the place where the spectre of Communism was born. This resolution passed by PACE heralded a new beginning of an international condemnation of totalitarian communist regimes.

Before voting on the resolution, the plenary session held over two hours of intensive debates. Parliamentarians from different countries made speeches at the meeting, outlining their personal experiences and opinions of communist regimes. Clearharmony will publish these speeches to bring attention to the crimes of the world’s largest communist regime — the Chinese Communist Party — which has brutally oppressed Falun Gong practitioners for almost seven years resulting in almost three thousand deaths and at least 44,000 documented abuses of torture.

The following is a report on the speech by Mr Hladiy, a parliamentarian representing Ukraine:

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Mr Hladiy thanked his colleagues from the Political Affairs Committee for putting this item on the agenda of the Council of Europe and thanked those colleagues who had produced the report. He invited members to visit Ukraine to see wounds which were still open today. Coming to terms with the past crimes of the communist regime was an important problem for post-soviet states, which had been under the yoke of the soviet regime for decades. That anti-human regime had become embedded, causing the deaths of millions of people.

When Ukrainians learned of this debate at the Council of Europe, they asked their delegation to be brave enough to speak out and condemn the communist regime. They were children of the victims of the red terror, which reigned in Ukraine for more than 70 years. Those who fought against the regime were arrested. Representatives of the regime used the KGB to draw up lists of “enemies of the people”. That was the history of the communist system. Many of their crimes were known, but there were also many gaps in knowledge. The regime exterminated people and created “closed zones” so that, in the 1930s, nobody outside knew what was going on. There were many expropriations: property was abolished, and so were the proprietors. The resistance of the peasants turned into war against the peasants. Many were executed or exiled to Siberia, never to return.

The communist regime in Ukraine committed the most terrible crime of the 20th century. It created an artificial famine, causing the death by starvation of much of the population. Some 30% of those who died were children. That had to be condemned. In voting on behalf of the Ukrainian delegation, he hoped that national parliaments would also agree to condemn those crimes.

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More information on the resolution “Need for international condemnation of crimes of totalitarian communist regimes” can be found at http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200601/31217.html

Note: Founded on May 5th 1949, the Council of Europe (COE) has 46 member countries and has its headquarters in Strasbourg, France. The COE aims to defend human rights, parliamentary democracy and the rule of law, to develop continent-wide agreements to standardise member countries’ social and legal practices, and to promote awareness of a European identity based on shared values and cutting across different cultures. The highest decision-making body is the Committee of Ministers, composed of the 46 Foreign ministers or their Strasbourg-based deputies (ambassadors/permanent representatives). The European Human Rights Court is a body under the Council of Europe.