[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 202 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 202

  Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the genocidal Ukraine 
                           Famine of 1932-33.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                July 28 (legislative day, July 21), 2003

Mr. Campbell submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
                   the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the genocidal Ukraine 
                           Famine of 1932-33.

Whereas 2003 marks the 70th anniversary of the Ukraine Famine, a manmade 
        disaster that resulted in the deaths of millions of innocent Ukrainian 
        men, women, and children and annihilated an estimated 25 percent of the 
        rural population of that country;
Whereas it has been documented that large numbers of inhabitants of Ukraine and 
        the then largely ethnically Ukrainian North Caucasus Territory starved 
        to death in the famine of 1932-33, which was caused by forced 
        collectivization and grain seizures by the Soviet regime;
Whereas the United States Government's Commission on the Ukraine Famine 
        concluded that former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and his associates 
        committed genocide against Ukrainians in 1932-33, using food as a 
        political weapon to achieve the aim of suppressing any Ukrainian 
        expression of political and cultural identity and self-determination;
Whereas, as a result, millions of rural Ukrainians starved amid some of the 
        world's most fertile farmland, while Soviet authorities prevented them 
        from traveling to areas where food was more available;
Whereas requisition brigades, acting on Stalin's orders to fulfill the 
        impossibly high grain quotas, seized the 1932 crop, often taking away 
        the last scraps of food from starving families and children and killing 
        those who resisted;
Whereas Stalin, knowing of the resulting starvation, intensified the extraction 
        from Ukraine of agricultural produce, worsening the situation and 
        deepening the loss of life;
Whereas, during the Ukraine Famine, the Soviet Government exported grain to 
        western countries and rejected international offers to assist the 
        starving population;
Whereas the Ukraine Famine was not a result of natural causes, but was instead 
        the consequence of calculated, ruthless policies that were designed to 
        destroy the political, cultural, and human rights of the Ukrainian 
        people;
Whereas the Soviet Union engaged in a massive coverup of the Ukraine Famine, and 
        journalists, including some foreign correspondents, cooperated with the 
        campaign of denial and deception; and
Whereas, 70 years later, much of the world is still unaware of the genocidal 
        Ukraine Famine: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
            (1) the millions of innocent victims of the Soviet-
        engineered Ukraine Famine of 1932-33 should be solemnly 
        remembered and honored on the 70th anniversary of the famine;
            (2) the 70th anniversary of the Ukraine Famine should serve 
        as a stark reminder of the brutality of the totalitarian, 
        imperialistic Soviet regime under which respect for human 
        rights was a mockery and the rule of law a sham;
            (3) the Senate condemns the callous disregard for human 
        life, human rights, and manifestations of national identity 
        that characterized the Stalinist policies that caused the 
        Ukrainian Famine;
            (4) the manmade Ukraine famine of 1932-33 was an act of 
        genocide as defined by the United Nations Genocide Convention;
            (5) the Senate supports the efforts of the Government of 
        Ukraine and the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) to 
        publicly acknowledge and call greater international attention 
        to the Ukraine Famine; and
            (6) an independent, democratic Ukraine, in which respect 
        for the dignity of human beings is the cornerstone, offers the 
        best guarantee that atrocities such as the Ukraine Famine never 
        beset the Ukrainian people again.
                                 <all>