UNITED NATIONS, November 13 (Itar-Tass) - Russia submitted a draft resolution against the glorification of nazism to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. Almost 40 countries, including Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Syria, co-authored the document, which was expected to be set for vote before the end of the year.
Speaking at the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly Russia’s representative to the UN Grigory Lukyantsev drew attention to the fact that World War II events “cannot be rewritten and it is blasphemous to deny them or diminish their importance.” “Unfortunately, today we continue to see attempts of falsifying history and reassessing the triumph of justice in 1945,” the diplomat said.
“In our opinion, it is absolutely inadmissible to glorify those who are involved in Nazi crimes and to whitewash former members of the SS, including Waffen SS. They participated in destroying the civilian population without taking mercy neither on babies nor on old people and therefore were recognized as criminal by the Nuremberg Military Tribunal,” Lukyantsev said.
Co-authors of the draft resolution “do not call upon the UN General Assembly to look into the past.” “They focus on modern and very dangerous manifestations of racism that must be counteracted both at the national and international levels,” he said.
As compared to the document sponsored by Russia in 2012 this year’s draft resolution calls on member-states “to take into consideration the resolution’s provisions within a process of the Universal Periodic Review at the United Nations Human Rights Council,” the diplomat said.
Last year 120 of the 193 UN member-states voted for the similar resolution. Three delegations - the United States, Canada and the Marshall Islands - said “no” to the document, while another 57 countries, including Ukraine, abstained.
Lukyantsev called on these countries “to reconsider their position and support this initiative.”