Adamkus: history will see Nazi and Soviet crimes as equal

Nazi and Soviet crimes against humanity committed in 20th Century Europe will one day be equally condemned, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said on Saturday speaking in an international forum marking 75 years since Ukraine's famine of Holodomor.

"It is the last indispensable precondition for Europe's moral and spiritual unity on the road towards mutual openness and genuine solidarity among the nations", Adamkus said in a presidential press statement.

Adamkus said that history should not put the blame on specific nations, but rather on totalitarian regimes.

President Adamkus said that there will come a time when no one will "ever attempt to deny the cruelties of the Soviet regime unleashed in Ukraine and claim that 25 thousand people were starved to death per day by a mismanaged economy or poor harvest."

Admakus also asked people to remember the past crimes, lest they repeat themselves.

"We will never forget the genocide that killed tens of millions of people in Europe and worldwide: the brutal Soviet policy that doomed hard working Ukrainians to famine seventy five years ago, and Communist repressions against the peaceful inhabitants of the Baltic States, Hungary, Poland, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Russia, and many other countries", Adamkus said.

The Great Famine of Ukraine, the Holodomor, began in April of 1932 and lasted until Nov. 1933.

The parliaments of 14 countries have recognized the great Ukranian famine of Holodomor to have been a genocide. The European Parliament (EP) has also recognized Holodomor as a crime against humanity.

The Lithuanian Seimas recognized the Holodomor as a genocide back in 2005.

Ukraine's president declared year 2008 to be a year of remembrance for victims of the 1932-1933 Holodomor.