UN designates Jan. 27 as annual Holocaust day

UNITED NATIONS - The 191-member UN General Assembly has established Jan. 27 as an annual commemoration day for the 6 million Jews and countless other victims murdered in the Nazi Holocaust during World War 2.

The watershed resolution, agreed to by acclamation after two days of speeches, is aimed at making the new "International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust" a symbol against genocide for future generations.

"I feel moved and privileged to present this historic resolution today, as an Israeli, a Jew, a human being and the child of Holocaust victims," Israel's UN ambassador, Dan Gillerman, said in introducing the resolution.

The Assembly has often been accused of anti-Semitism and persistent concentration on the plight of Palestinians. The Holocaust was largely ignored until last January when the assembly held a session to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Russia's liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.

A total of 104 nations from around the world sponsored the measure. An exception was countries in the Arab Middle East.

Several Islamic nations, including Egypt, Indonesia and Malaysia said they supported the resolution but atrocities against Christians and Muslims deserved equal attention.

Jordan's UN Ambassador Prince Zeid al-Hussein called the Holocaust "a crime of the most colossal proportions" that was inflicted on European soil by Europeans against Europeans.

But he said it should not be used as a moral justification for the "continued domination of one people by another", an obvious reference to Israel and the Palestinians.

The resolution, first proposed by the United States, Israel, Russia, Australia and Canada, rejects any denial that the Holocaust took place. It also urges members to "inculcate" future generations with the lessons on the genocide.

In a speech US Ambassador John Bolton recalled the recent comments of at Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that sparked international condemnation.

"When a president or a member state can brazenly and hatefully call for a second Holocaust by suggesting that Israel, the Jewish homeland, should be wiped off the map, it is clear that not all have learned the lessons of the Holocaust and that much work remains to be done," Bolton said.

Germany's UN Ambassador Gunter Pleuger called the Holocaust "the very darkest chapter in the history of Germany". And Austria, Romania and France all recalled their history of collaboration with the Nazis.

"We feel the agony of knowing that our country lost so many of its Jewish citizens to the Holocaust," Austria's UN Ambassador Gerhard Pfanzelter said. "At the same time we feel the pain of realising that far too many Austrians took part in this greatest of all crimes."

The resolution asks all countries to reject any full or partial denial of the Holocaust and condemn "all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence".

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is to establish an education programme, called the Holocaust "a unique evil, which cannot simply be consigned to the past or forgotten".

China used the occasion to recall atrocities committed by Japan's invasion before and during World War 2, with its UN Ambassador Wang Guangya saying he hoped "the country concerned will draw on lessons from history".

Japan responded later, saying that mistakes made in its past must be remembered and that the country had changed from being a military power to an economic power. Both China and Japan were sponsors of the resolution.

- REUTERS