UKRAINIAN LAWMAKER DEMONIZES JEWS, THREATENS POGROMS
UCSJ Calls for Criminal Charges Based on Anti-Incitement Law
June 9, 2009
Contact: Nickolai Butkevich, (202) 641-7420; nbutkevich@ucsj.com
Washington, DC--UCSJ: Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet
Union today called for criminal charges of ethnic incitement to be
brought against a member of the Kherson, Ukraine regional legislature
after he threatened pogroms in a recent interview. According to a May
23, 2009 interview he gave to the Russian-Israeli news web site
izrus.co.il. Sergey Kirichneko, a former deputy in the national
parliament, made several statements that echo his past language
demonizing Jews.
“Artificiality and moral corruption are poured through the media
controlled by Jewish owners; Jewish directors and screen writers film
it, using Jewish actors,” he stated. “The people of Ukraine then get
depraved by drugs, alcohol, prostitution, homosexuality, lesbianism,
risking rates of homelessness and more and more orphans. Through
criminal gambling businesses, they take away our last kopeks.”
“The Jews are the ones who are guilty of the economic difficulties of
Kherson and Ukraine,” the regional lawmaker added. He threatened
pogroms if the Jews who supposedly run Ukraine don’t give up power: “I
would prefer that a just transfer of power from Jews to non-Jews in
Ukraine take place in a civilized and peaceful way. Resisting this
natural process would only incite tough consequences, examples of
which there are plenty of in history.”
“Mr. Kirichenko has a long history of violating laws against the
incitement of ethnic hatred,” said Dr. Leonid Stonov, director of
UCSJ’s international bureaus. “He often goes beyond the usual
antisemitic rhetoric of the far-right by employing terms like
‘genocide.’ Given the fact that antisemitic violence is a troubling
feature of Jewish life in modern day Ukraine, it is clear that such
statements are not only in violation of the law, but are also
extremely dangerous. We therefore ask the prosecutor’s office to begin
an investigation into his continual illegal incitement of ethnic
hatred.”
Earlier this year, Mr. Kirichenko publicly stated that: “Jews are
occupiers, they have occupied us, they have stolen our wealth and they
control us... They create the circumstances under which the genocide
of Slavs is made possible... Like in Gaza, where they kill women and
children, they destroy the Slavic nation from within… Jews think we
are an inferior race who ought to serve them, that's why they commit
crimes against us that they wouldn’t dare to commit against any other
people.”
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