Lukashenka hasn’t come to Holodomor events in Ukraine

These days memorial events dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Holodomor – “famine plague” – are held in Ukraine. It is known that Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko invited Alyaksandr Lukashenka to commemorative events too. However the Belarusian ruler like Russian president Dmitry Medvedev hasn’t come to Kyiv.

Moreover, Lukashenka still hasn’t publicly explained reasons for ignoring the invitation of the Ukrainian foil.

The Charter’97 press-centre has asked a political analyst Raman Yakauleuski to comment on the denial of Lukashenka to arrive to Kyiv and meet with Yushchenko.

“I personally think that if Medvedev hadn’t ignored the invitation to visit events marking the anniversary of Holodomor, it is likely that Lukashenka would have appeared in Kyiv. Firstly I think that Lukashenka is manoeuvring, and secondly, by inviting Lukashenka to events dedicated to the Holodomor anniversary, Yushchenko wanted to hold a bilateral meeting with him, and finally ratify the Belarusian-Ukrainian border demarcation. Lukashenka hasn’t accepted that. The foreign policy of Belarus in the post-Soviet space is to a great degree agreed upon with Moscow,” Yakauleuski is convinced.

The political analyst notes that the Belarusian ruler hasn’t used a possibility to communicate not only with Yushchenko, but with his guests, presidents of other neighbouring countries.

“Proceeding from moral and ethical motivation, Lukashenka could have been present at the Holodomor anniversary events, in this way paying the tribute to the memory of millions of innocent victims of our neighbouring country, our sister nation Ukraine. But we see that he hasn’t done that,” Yakauleuski said.

The memorial events dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the great famine in Ukraine, Holodomor, started on November 18 and are to last for 5 days, until November 22. At least seven leaders of different countries (Macedonia, Estonia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina) are to be present there.

As said by the first deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Yuriy Kostenko, participation of MPs and representatives of governments of more than 40 states and of large international organizations is expected.

Saturday, November 22, is to become the most eventful day. An international forum wit hparticipation of leaders of states and mass media representatives is planned in the building of the National Opera of Ukraine. Then there will be a mourning march and laying flowers to the memorials, an address of V. Yushchenko to the nation, a one minute silence, all-Ukrainian action :Light a candle!”, memorial services and prayer services.

A number of exhibitions opened in Kyiv yesterday. The Ukrainian President presented the National book of memory. It includes 800,000 names of victims of the 1932-1933 famine.

Currently parliaments of 14 countries recognized the Holodomor as genocide against the Ukrainian nation. Parliaments of five countries paid tribute to the memory of its victims. Besides, the European parliament recognized the Holodomor a crime against humanity.

Russia refuses to recognize the Holodomor in Ukraine in 1932-1933 as genocide aimed at an ethnic group, underlining that its victims included not only Ukrainian dwellers, but also people living in Volga Region and other territories of the Soviet Union.

It is also possible that Lukashenka does not want to be present at the events commemorating the Holodomor as there was a great famine in Belarus too, though at a smaller scale than in Ukraine.