INSTRUCTIONS TO SUPPORT INSCRIPTION OF HOLODOMOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L STATE 112510

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/21/2018
TAGS: PHUM
SUBJECT: INSTRUCTIONS TO SUPPORT INSCRIPTION OF HOLODOMOR
ON UNGA 63 AGENDA

REF: A. STATE 85098

B. KYIV 1367

Classified By: IO PDAS Jim Warlick for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary: This is an action request. See the
objectives listed
in para 2. Department requests Mission to coordinate with
the Ukrainian Mission to the United Nations and offer support
to their efforts to inscribe an agenda item on the Great
Famine in Ukraine for the 63rd General Assembly, but to
privately encourage
the Ukrainians to delay their initiative until they have the
votes needed
to pass the motion in the General Committee. A decision on
the agenda will
be taken during the October 23, 2008, General Committee
Meeting.
Should the Ukrainians insist on proceeding to a vote in the
General Committee
meeting, Mission is instructed to speak in favor of
inscription, call the
issue to a vote if necessary, and to vote in favor of the
inscription of this agenda item. End Summary.

OBJECTIVES
--------------


2. (C) Drawing on background in paras 3 and 8 and the
suggested
talking points in paragraph 9, the Department instructs
Mission to pursue the following objectives:

- Coordinate with the Ukrainian Mission to the UN in advance
of
the October 23 General Committee meeting and encourage them
to delay their
initiative until they have the votes needed to pass the
motion in the General Committee.

-- Remind Ukraine of the U.S. position not to accept language
calling the tragedy "genocide"; Note that language clearly
implying genocide (for example, language taken directly from
the Genocide Convention to describe the Great Famine) will
also be unacceptable.

-- If Ukraine refuses to delay its initiative, offer U.S.
Support for Ukraine's
request to inscribe an agenda item on the Great Famine by
speaking during the
General Committee meeting and, if necessary, calling the
issue to a vote and voting
for the agenda item's inscription.

-- Encourage the Ukrainians to seek other countries to call
for a vote on this issue.
Inform the Ukrainians that while the U.S. supports Ukraine's
initiative in this regard,
the U.S. will only call the issue to a vote in the General
Committee one last time during
this General Assembly session.

-- Defer a decision on U.S. co-signature of the letter
requesting inscription, and instead encourage Ukraine to
focus on developing a core group of support for the action.
If pressed, note that to be persuasive a letter of
inscription would likely look quite different than their
proposed text.

BACKGROUND
--------------


3. (U) The Ukrainians are lobbying for support of their
efforts to inscribe an item on the UNGA agenda to
commemorate the 75th anniversary of Holodomor.


4. (U) During the General Committee meeting in July, the
Ukraine Mission to the UN requested the General Committee to
inscribe the item on the agenda of the 62nd UNGA. Azerbaijan
spoke in favor of the inscription and Russia opposed.
Immediately thereafter the chair closed debate on the issue
and pronounced there was no consensus. Ukrainian officials
in NY, Washington and Kyiv were disappointed that the U.S.
delegate did not speak in favor of the inscription. However,
the U.S.
subsequently agreed to speak in favor of inscription at a
September 13, 2008
General Committee meeting, but the Ukrainians ultimately
withdrew the resolution
from consideration at that meeting.


5. (U) Ukraine Foreign Minister Ogryzko has written a
letter to Secretary Rice requesting that the U.S. sign an
"explanatory memorandum" in support of inscription. Further
consultation revealed that UNGA rules of procedure require
that
requests for inscription be accompanied by an explanatory
memorandum
but that it is rare for the United States to co-sign such a
memorandum.
The current draft would need to be significantly re-written
before the
United States would consider co-signing.


6. (U) The "Holodomor", which means "death by hunger" in
Ukrainian, is what Ukrainians call the 1932-33 famine
orchestrated by Stalin. President Yushchenko has taken a
personal interest in promoting commemoration of the
Holodomor. Ukrainian nationalists and politicians consider
the event to be a defining moment in Ukraine's Soviet
experience that sets Ukraine apart from the rest of the
former USSR. The famine affected those living in what is now
eastern and central Ukraine as well as other ethnic groups in
parts of Russia and Kazakhstan.


7. (U) The artificial famine was created after Ukrainian
farmers fiercely resisted Soviet attempts to force peasants
into collective farms. Soviet authorities confiscated the
bulk of the food in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
to force the issue. Most scholars agree that 4-7 million
deaths resulted from the famine, while some politicians have
claimed even greater losses.


8. (U) In May 2005, the Ukrainian parliament passed a
resolution declaring the famine of 1932-33 a genocide and the
Ukrainian government has pressed other countries to join it
in designating the Holodomor as genocide. Ukraine is
officially marking the 75th anniversary of the Holodomor in
2008
with domestic and international events and is looking for as
much outside recognition as possible. The Ukrainian
Government has largely avoided mention of the word
"genocide" in order to gain support for resolutions in
international fora. We have co-sponsored resolutions that do
not include the genocide designation at UNESCO in October
2007, at the UNGA in 2003 and an OSCE statement in December

2007. Ukraine requested U.S. support for its draft
Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution, tabled at the
Council,s
ninth session (September 8-26) . While the U.S. policy of
non-engagement
at the HRC precluded our support for the resolution, the
language in
Ukraine's HRC resolution was not and is not acceptable to the
United States,
as it drew directly on the language in the Genocide
Convention.
Ukraine withdrew its resolution from consideration by the
Council when it
realized it did not have consensus on its draft, and Russia
used this
opportunity to make an intervention stating that 44 out of 47
countries
objected to Ukraine,s text. (Note: the U.S. cannot verify
Russia,s numbers,
but it was clear that the Ukraine,s draft resolution did not
enjoy wide support.)

SUGGESTED TALKING POINTS
--------------


9. (U) Mission may draw on the following points for its
statement during the General Committee meeting:

-- The United States supports the inclusion of an agenda item
commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Great Famine in
Ukraine.

-- The General Assembly exists in part to provide a forum for
debate and discussion on sensitive topics that cross national
lines.
The United States supports Ukraine,s request as a matter of
principle
and encourages others to do the same.

-- Given the clear debate the issue has generated here in the
General
Committee, it seems evident that this is an issue that
deserves to be
fully explored in the General Assembly.

-- Seventy-five years ago, the world witnessed a horrific
episode of manmade suffering and deprivation in Ukraine
and other parts of the former Soviet Union.

-- This anniversary is an opportunity to reflect on a tragic
chapter in human history. The United States agrees with
Ukraine that it is essential to reflect on this dark period,
a defining moment in Ukraine's history and one that offers
lessons to the world at large.

If needed:

(In 2003 the U.S. co-sponsored a resolution in the United
Nations General Assembly recognizing 70 years since the
tragedy of the Holodomor. And in this 75th anniversary year,
we co-sponsored a resolution on the Remembrance of Victims of
the Great Famine (Holodomor) in the United Nations,
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization this past
fall. The resolution calls for promoting awareness of the
Great Famine though educational and research programs.)

END TALKING POINTS

DEPARTMENT POINT OF CONTACT
--------------

10. (U) Should Post need additional guidance, Department's
point of contact is IO/UNP K.G. Moore, 202 647-0042,
moorekg@state.gov.
RICE