MOSCOW, 22 March, 2002 /Correspondent RIA Novosti/--First deputy
head of the right-wing Yabloko parliamentary faction Sergei Ivanenko
announced on Friday that the faction believed that members of
the SS Galichina division should not be rehabilitated.
In his opinion, the decision to rehabilitate soldiers in the
SS division, taken by the town council of Ivano-Frankovska, (Ukraine)
and place them on an equal footing with veterans of the Second
World War "does not have any rational explanation."
He said that equating those who freed Ukrainian soil from Nazism
to those who served in the SS was "unacceptable."
Ivanenko stressed: "the crimes of fascism have no statute
of limitations, and the danger that a criminal ideology could
emerge on post-Soviet territory is very real." This kind
of action, he said, could lead to protests in Russia and also
in other countries, above all in Europe.
In this connection, he reminded journalists about the negative
reaction in European countries and international organisations
to the attempts made in the Baltics to rehabilitate Nazism.
In conclusion, Ivanenko said that Yabloko was calling on all
Ukrainian politicians and parliamentarians to take immediate measures
to annul the decision as it presents a threat to the future of
Ukraine.
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