SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE
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Wiesenthal Centre to Ukrainian President: "Announce An End to Assaults on Jews...Living or Dead"

Paris, 6 March 2007

In a letter to Ukrainian President, Viktor Yuschenko, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels, recalled "the exhilaration of 'the Orange Revolution' and your own election, Mr President, as a democratic triumph that would, once and for all, exorcise the antisemitic phantoms of Ukrainian history."

Despite this, the letter echoed the Centre's members, including those in Ukraine, who have "expressed deep concern regarding the resurgence of antisemitic statements and acts in your country."

Samuels continued, "Sadly, the current devastation of the Jewish cemetery and Holocaust Memorial of Odessa is only the latest outrage," adding, "Mr President, the desecration of over 500 Jewish tombstones, the scrawl, 'We welcome you with the Holocaust' and the destruction of the alley in tribute to Righteous Gentiles is a direct message to you."

The Centre emphasized that this message "challenges you to strictly impose Ukrainian legal penalties on the perpetrators. Ukraine must live up to its commitment as a member, both of the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, to actively root out antisemitism and racism as hate crimes, and not as minor misdemeanours of vandalism or hooliganism."

Samuels noted that "Our Centre has trained over 90,000 law enforcement officers in sensitivity courses at our Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. Programmes have included delegations from Argentina, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. We would be happy to discuss with you the possibility of hosting their Ukrainian counterparts."

The Centre urged the President "to respond to last week's message of hate by a public statement announcing 'Enough is enough! Ukraine will no longer permit its image to be sullied by assaults on Jews - whether against the living or the dead!'"

Samuels warned that "silence would only encourage further violence, not only against Jews, but as a menace to Ukrainian democracy itself."

For further information, please contact Shimon Samuels at +33.609.77.01.58.