Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-10-22-Speech-3-461"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20081022.24.3-461"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
"Madam President, artificial, man-made famines were used systematically as a tool by Communist totalitarian regimes. Seventy-five years ago, Stalin decided to uproot the Ukrainian national identity and resistance by creating such a famine in the very bread-basket of Europe.
Regions struck by famine were not merely denied assistance. Even worse, hundreds of villages were cordoned off by the Red Army. Starving people were denied the most elementary human right – the right to escape from certain death. People who tried to flee were hunted down like wild animals and shot. Only today are we reacting to one of the most appalling crimes by the Communist dictatorship. An authoritative assessment of such crimes is long overdue.
All victims of the crimes against humanity deserve the same status. There cannot be first-class Nazi victims or second-class victims of Communism just because Europe still lacks an integrated approach to all totalitarian regimes and has hesitated to take a concrete stand on crimes that took place in the eastern part of the continent.
We have a duty to know what happened under Stalin just as well as we know what happened under Hitler. We need to extend not only our solidarity to the Ukrainian nation and, indeed, to all nations that have suffered under totalitarian crimes, but also to pass a moral verdict. Only in this way can we reach the goal of these debates: to guarantee that this monumental, destructive disregard for human lives and dignity will never be repeated in any part of Europe.
We need an all-European reconciliation, a reconciliation that can result only from truth and justice. Our duty is to make sure that the famous ‘never again’ will equally apply to the Ukrainian nation."@en1
|
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata | |
| lpv:videoURI |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples