Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Friends,

Let me express my deep appreciation for the opportunity to appear before such respected audience. This is our first joint event but I am sure there will be more, if you will be interested to learn the new facts about my country and its at times very tragic history.

Dear Friends,                

On November 2013 Ukrainians commemorate the 80-th anniversary of a man-made famine in Ukraine or “Holodomor”. During the famine in 1932 and 1933 millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of Ukraine. The estimates of the number of died are more than 7 million.

For comparison: during the Second World War 8 million Ukrainians died.

Joseph Stalin is responsible for this crime.  Stalin ordered that all private farms would have to be collectivized.  During the process, according to Soviet sources, 200,000 Ukrainian families were dispossessed of all land.  By the summer of 1932, 70% of all Ukrainian farm families and 80% of all farm land had been forcibly collectivized.

Stalin imposed grain procurement quotas on Ukraine that were 2.3 times the amount of grain marketed during the best year prior to collectivization.  

Grain procurements continued even though it was clear to Soviet officials that more and more people were going hungry in the Ukrainian countryside.  

The Soviet government has preserved the greatest secrecy concerning the exact number of persons who perished in Ukraine during the Famine, but analysis of Soviet census data comparing 1939 with 1926 figures suggest that from 7 million to 10 million men, women, and children perished.  

Nowadays 17 states recognized Holodomor as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people.

On November 7, 2003 on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the Great Famine of 1932‑1933 in Ukraine in the United Nations was announced a Joint statement of 25 states, including Pakistan.

I would like to finish my speech by citation from the Joint Statement:

"In the former Soviet Union millions of men, women and children fell victims to the cruel actions and policies of the totalitarian regime. The Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine (Holodomor) took from 7 million to 10 million innocent lives and became a national tragedy for the Ukrainian people…

... We need that as many people as possible learn about this tragedy and consider that this knowledge will strengthen effectiveness of the rule of law and enhance respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms".

I would like once again to thank you for your interest to my country.

Thank you for your attention.