Austria adopts resolution declaring Holodomor genocide in Ukraine ‘a terrible crime’
The memorial complex in Kyiv, dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Holodomor in Ukraine (Photo:E. van M/Flickr)
Austria’s National Council, the lower house of the country’s parliament, has adopted a resolution recognizing the 1932-1933 Holodomor genocide in Ukraine as a "terrible crime" of the Stalinist regime, the Ukrinform news agency reported on Dec. 16.
The resolution, with the title “On the prevention of hunger and scarcity as a weapon of war against the civilian population,” was passed unanimously.
The proposal for a resolution mentions the commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor, which is called “a cruel famine that was deliberately and systematically provoked by the Soviet Union against the civilian population, mainly on the territory of Ukraine in 1932-1933 and which, according to various estimates, took the lives of 3.5 to 7 million people.”
It was also noted that in those days “this terrible crime” was ignored by the world public, and one of the few Western figures who protested against the Holodomor in the 1930s was the then Cardinal of Vienna, Theodor Innitzer.
The signatories of the document from various parliamentary parties declared their recognition of the “terrible crime of the Holodomor” and stressed the importance of the contribution of such recognition to the analysis of the crimes of the 20th century as a key element in understanding the past. The resolution also notes the “use of hunger as a weapon in the current Russian aggressive war against Ukraine.”
In the adopted resolution, the National Council suggests that the Austrian federal government, in particular the Federal Minister of European and International Affairs, “continue to advocate, within the framework of the proven Austrian path of dialogue (with Russia), that hunger and scarcity not be used as a weapon against the civilian population or as a means of pressure on governments, but also highlight the parallels between history and the present, and condemn the corresponding crimes.”
Before that, there was a discussion among Austrian MPs about whether to call the Holodomor of 1932-1933 genocide. The liberal opposition party NEO Sclearly supported terming the Holodomor genocide.
Also, the spokeswoman of Austria’s Greens party (part of the government coalition), Ewa Ernst-Dziedzic, stated that “from a historical and political point of view” this was a crime against humanity and genocide.
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