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Last update - 22:00 15/11/2007
Ukraine President defends posthumous honor to alleged head of pogrom
By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz Correspondent, and The Associated Press
Tags: Ukraine, Yushchenko 

Visiting Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko on Thursday defended his country's award of a top honor to a man accused of murdering thousands of Jews during World War II, while pledging to work to eradicate anti-Semitism in his country.

The controversy over the award cast a shadow over a visit that otherwise was devoted to improving relations between Ukraine and Israel. Yushchenko spoke out against anti-Semitism several times, especially during a speech in Israel's parliament. Yushchenko left Israel Thursday evening.

Speaking before the Israel Council on Foreign Relations of the World Jewish Congress in Jerusalem, Yushchenko said Ukrainian nationalist leader Roman Shukhevych was posthumously named a Hero of Ukraine last month for his role in fighting for his country's independence.
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Holocaust researchers and Jewish groups have charged that a force under the command of Shukhevych took part in pogroms in 1941 in which 4,000 Jews were killed.

Yushchenko had this reply: "I have materials, documents, saying that in the course of grander context of Ukrainian rebellion, Shukhevych signed a petition that prohibited massive persecutions (of civilians)," he said, adding that no Ukrainian nationalist movement targeted Jews.

During his three-day trip, Yushchenko repeatedly said he regretted the massacre of 1.4 million Jews in Nazi-occupied Ukraine and that he would work to preserve their memory.

On Wednesday, Yushchenko presented President Shimon Peres with documents from Soviet KGB archives detailing the location of mass graves from the Holocaust in Ukraine - many of them unknown up to now, Israeli officials said.

On a visit Tuesday to Israel's Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, Yushchenko donated soil and a rock from the site of the Babi Yar massacre, where 33,711 Jews were rounded up and executed at the edge of a ravine in Kiev between Sept. 29-30 1941. Survivors were beat with shovels while others, including children, were buried alive.

Despite the gestures of goodwill and a promise to memorialize Ukrainian Holocaust sites and preserve Jewish cultural sites, Yushchenko was dogged during his visit by criticism of Shukhevych.

At Yad Vashem a top museum official confronted Yushchenko, saying he has documents implicating Shukhevych as the leader of squads who massacred thousands of Jews.

"Sometimes you can be both a hero of Ukrainians and a murderer of Jews," said Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, a former Israeli justice minister and a Holocaust survivor from Yugoslavia.

Yushchenko also announced plans to ease visa restrictions for Israeli visitors and the abolition of trade tariffs between the two countries.

Referring to his country's political upsets he said they would be resolved peacefully and democratically.

"The most important test is if democratic Ukraine can respond to critical challenges," Yushchenko said. "We have sufficient democratic tools on how to find the correct solution for the existing problems."

Yushchenko: Anti-Semitism a marginal problem in Ukraine
Yushchenko told the Israel Council on Foreign Relations of the World Jewish Congress Thursday that the number of anti-Semitic incidents in his country is minimal and sporadic.

In a speech to committee members, Yushchenko reviewed the ties between the Jewish and Ukrainian people, and said the two nations have friendly relations and a shared history.

With regard to the incidence of anti-Semitism, the president said, "there are those instances, and we are dealing with them. People who have expressed themselves in an anti-Semitism manner have stood trial and have even been punished, but we must treat this unemotionally and remember that they are marginal."

Professor Dina Porat, head of the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism at Tel Aviv University disagreed with Yushchenko and said that anti-Semitism is still a centrak problem in the Ukrainian society, and in the past year 183 anti-Semitic acts were recorded.

According to statistics, Porat maintains, this is a rising phenomenon.

Related articles:
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  • Ukrainian president condemns anti-Semitism in Knesset speech
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      1.   Ukraine & antisemitism. Like bread & butter. 16:24  |  bat yam 15/11/07
      2.   shared history 16:32  |  jehiel chaleff 15/11/07
      3.   Jewish AntiUkrainianism 16:52  |  Joe Joe 15/11/07
      4.   #3 Joe Joe, The Ukrainian people are true heirs of their land and 17:09  |  Max Zinger,P.Chimist 15/11/07
      5.   Anti-Semitism in Israel 17:32  |  100% Semite 15/11/07
      6.   Ukrainians are not Anti-Semites !!! 20:10  |  Alex 15/11/07
      7.   Naivete regarding passive-aggressive behavior 20:29  |  5th generation 15/11/07
      8.   In the hot seat 20:40  |  TB 15/11/07
      9.   Well, well somethings just never change... 20:57  |  bat yam 15/11/07
      10.   book recommendation to understand background 21:03  |  Otto 15/11/07
      11.   Ukranians 21:12  |  siegfried buchwalte 15/11/07
      12.   Ukrainians 21:18  |  siegfried buchwalte 15/11/07
      13.   Ukrainians 21:24  |  siegfried buchwalte 15/11/07
      14.   Ukrainians 21:35  |  siegfried buchwalte 15/11/07
      15.   siegfried buchwalte 22:29  |  Ask a Ninja 15/11/07
      16.   Ukrainians 22:41  |  siegfried buchwalte 15/11/07
      17.   To Alex 22:47  |  NYC Jew 15/11/07
      18.   Ukraine and anti-Semitism 22:48  |  Thomas 15/11/07
      19.   Ukrainians 22:51  |  siegfried buchwalte 15/11/07
      20.   Ukrainians 22:55  |  siegfried buchwalte 15/11/07
      21.   6 Alex is quite right. Ukrainians are not anti-Semites! 22:55  |  Moh.Amin al-Husayni 15/11/07
      22.   Ukranians and Nazism 23:01  |  KUTW 15/11/07
      23.   #15 Missed a step in the history, Mr. Turtle 23:13  |  5th generation 15/11/07
      24.   Ukraine honors its national heroes - antisemites. 23:13  |  common sense 15/11/07
      25.   Ukrainians 23:14  |  siegfried buchwalte 15/11/07
      26.   siegfried buchwalte 23:17  |  Ask a Ninja 15/11/07
      27.   Ukrainians 23:51  |  siegfried buchwalte 15/11/07
      28.   6 Alex is quite right. Ukrainians are not anti-Semites! 23:56  |  Moh.Amin al-Husayni 15/11/07
      29.   joe joe 00:01  |  amnon 16/11/07
      30.   Babi Yar 03:38  |  Walter 16/11/07
      31.   #3 Joe-Joe , anti-semitism personified 04:23  |  Judith 16/11/07
      32.   Alex 04:27  |  Judith 16/11/07
      33.   ask a Ninja 05:15  |  metallist73 16/11/07
      34.   You Know What I Would Do... 05:15  |  Yosemite 16/11/07
      35.   Ukrainians are NOT NOT anti-semitic! 08:59  |  Roman 23/03/08
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