Wiesenthal slams Ukraine award to nationalist, alleged to be Nazi collaborator
— AP reports: “Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko once commanded such respect that hundreds of thousands of protesters poured into the streets of Kiev when he lost a fraudulent election.”
— “But the former hero of the Orange Revolution could hardly have sunk any lower. In his bid for re-election this month, he drew just 5 percent of the vote. And now his posthumous honor for a nationalist leader – who was also, according to some, a Nazi collaborator – has led many to say Yushchenko has disgraced himself in his last weeks in office.”
— “On Friday, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish human rights group, denounced the Hero of Ukraine award Yushchenko bestowed on Stepan Bandera last week. Bandera was a leader of Ukraine’s nationalist movement, which included an insurgent army that sided with Nazi Germany during part of World War II.”
— “The Wiesenthal Center said Bandera’s followers were linked to the deaths of thousands of Jews. It also noted that the award came shortly before International Holocaust Memorial Day, which was observed Wednesday.”