BBC NEWS    25 November 2005

Ukraine demands 'genocide' marked

A quarter of Ukraine's population was wiped out in just two years

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has called on the international community to recognise the 1930s Great Famine as Soviet-enforced genocide.

"The world must know about this tragedy," he said, at the opening of an exhibition dedicated to famine victims.

Millions of Ukrainians starved to death in 1932-33 as USSR leader Joseph Stalin stripped them of their produce in a forced farm collectivisation campaign.

A small number of nations have already recognised the famine as genocide.

Ukraine has designated 26 November as an official day of remembrance for victims of "Holodomor"--meaning murder by hunger--and other political crackdowns.

GREAT FAMINE Called Holodomor in Ukrainian-- meaning murder by hunger About a quarter of Ukraine's population wiped out Seven to 10 million people thought to have died Children disappeared; cannibalism became widespread

There are plans to mark the anniversary this Saturday by lighting 33,000 candles--representing the number of people thought to have been dying every day at the height of the famine.

The true scale of the disaster was concealed by the Soviet Union, and only came to light after Ukrainian independence in 1991.

Cannibalism is reported to have become rife as a whole nation starved.

The tragedy should "become a lesson for our nation as well as for the whole world", Mr Yushchenko said on Friday.

In 2003, marking the 70th anniversary of the famine, UN Under Secretary General for Communications and Publication Shashi Tharoor said it "ranks with the worst atrocities of our time".

Nevertheless, a UN declaration--while recognising the famine as Ukraine's national tragedy--did not include the word "genocide"--to the great dismay of Ukraine which lobbied hard for the inclusion of the term.