MOSCOW. July 4. KAZINFORM Representatives of Belarus, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan made a joint statement at the 20th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 3 July. The statement is timed to the 71st anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War. The document was published on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. It reads that cynical attempts of some political forces to bury in oblivion the lessons of the Great Patriotic War are overt disrespect for the memory of millions of people who died on the battlefields fighting against Nazism, BelTA said.

"We admire the valor of those who fought against Nazism at the front line, in the rear, on the territories occupied by the Nazis. We commemorate millions of people of different nationalities and confessions who sacrificed their lives in the name of freedom and justice. The memory of them will be preserved and transmitted to the next generations," the statement reads.

The draftsmen stated that these days we see continuous cynical attempts of some political forces to bury in oblivion the lessons of this horrible war, to distort moral and legal assessments of its results, give equal rights to victims and torturers, liberators and aggressors and try to place in doubt the rulings of the Nurnberg tribunal. The delegations of the CIS member states think that such speculations are overt mockery of the memory of millions of people who died on the battlefields fighting against Nazism, who were monstrously martyred in torture chambers, burned or choked off in concentration camps. "Such political demagogy creates favorable conditions for those who try to spread new man-hating extremist ideologies. Such statements cannot be ignored, we should vigorously fight against them," the draftsmen believe. 

The delegations of the CIS member states called on other states not only to declare their commitment to combating racial, ethnic and other hate crimes but also to take effective measures. The countries should introduce or reinforce criminal prosecution of persons accused of such crimes.

"We think that these problems should receive a close scrutiny from the international community and the UN Human Rights Council in particular. Our common duty is not to allow the Nazi ideology that sows the seeds of enmity between the countries and peoples, to be instilled in people's minds," participants of the Geneva meeting emphasized.