Moscow regrets some countries deny support to resolution against Nazism glorification
MOSCOW. Nov 28 (Interfax) - Moscow regrets that the United States, the European Union and Ukraine have denied support to the UN General Assembly resolution on the unacceptability of glorifying Nazism, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
"We are perplexed and upset that the United States, Canada and the Marshall Islands were against and EU states abstained in the vote on the draft resolution, which gained approval of the majority of UN member countries," it said.
"The position of Ukraine, which once again preferred to abstain from condemning Nazism glorification instead of paying tribute to the memory of those who died fighting that evil, is also regrettable," the ministry said.
"Hopefully, the resolution will send a clear message to the countries, which should have taken resolute measures long ago, to suppress the intensified attempts at glorifying Nazism, including Waffen SS veterans," it said.
"The resolution "the inadmissibility of certain practices which contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance" was adopted at a meeting of the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly in New York City on November 26 at the initiative of Russia. Some 120 states voted for the resolution, three were against (the U.S., Canada and the Marshall Islands) and 57 abstained.
The Russian draft was co-authored by Belarus, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Venezuela, Vietnam, Gabon, Guinea, Zimbabwe, India, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Cote d'Ivoire, Cuba, Laos, Lebanon, Mauritania, Myanmar, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Rwanda, the Seychelles, Syria, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Sri Lanka, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia and South Sudan.
The resolution expressed profound concern about the growth of extremist movements and political parties advocating racism, ethno-centrism and xenophobia. The resolution condemned glorification of the Nazi movement and Waffen SS veterans with monuments and public events containing Nazi and neo-Nazi propaganda.
Such actions defile the memory of numerous victims of the Nazis, have a negative effect on the younger generation and are totally inconsistent with commitments of UN member states. The draft was particularly topical in the light of the latest unveiling of a new monument to Nazi criminals in Bauska, Latvia.
"Particularly important is the provision, which expresses concern over the ongoing attempts to vandalize or destroy monuments to anti-Hitler fighters and to conduct illegal exhumation and reburial of their remains," the ministry said.
The document stressed the impermissibility of definition of former Nazi, Waffen SS members and "those who fought the anti-Hitler coalition and collaborated with the Nazi" as participants in national liberation movements, it said.
"In the light of recent incidents - sacrilegious commercials speculating on sufferings of Nazi death camps' inmates released in the Baltic countries, the resolution expressed profound concern over the attempts to use in commercials the sufferings of victims of WWII, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Nazi regime," the document said.