Draft bill would remove the word genocide from the Law on Holodomor
National Deputy Vasyl Kiselyov has tabled a draft law on making amendments to the Law on Holodomor 1932-1933 in Ukraine. These would remove the word genocide. Article 1 would be worded as follows: “Holodomor 1932-1933 in Ukraine was a crime of the totalitarian regime, a tragedy for the Ukrainian people”.
Its author is convinced that the adoption of this legislative initiative “will help to raise Ukraine’s authority on at the international level”.
It is interesting that Kiselyov, now formerly unaffiliated to a faction, although until fairly recently a member of the Party of the Regions, recently tabled another draft law, proposing the reintroduction of criminal liability for defamation. Judging by recent comments from people in the ruling coalition, there might be more support for that initiative than during the last attempt. The draft bill on Holodomor comes almost exactly a month after President Yanukovych stated in Strasbourg that Holodomor had not been an act of genocide. He did not mention that this was his view which did not concur with Ukraine’s legislation