Ukraine and Poland officially open cemetery for soldiers murdered under Stalin

At a ceremony in Kharkiv, Polish and Ukrainian Prime Ministers Jerzy Buzek and Victor Yushchenko paid tribute to thousands of Polish war dead at the official opening of a cemetery where the remains of Polish officers murdered in concentration camps in the Soviet Union in 1940 are buried. Over 300 representatives from the victims' families' organization Rodzina Katynska, army officials, police officers and border guards attended. The cemetery was blessed by religious leaders from catholic, protestant, Russian orthodox and jewish communities. Yushchenko said, "We are standing at a place which witnessed inhuman crimes committed under Stalin's regime. Let Kharkiv be a sacred place for both nations." At Kharkiv about 4,300 Poles were murdered by the Soviet secret police (NKVD), but the exact number of victims remains unknown, and it is likely more bodies will be found as excavations continue. (Rzeczpospolita, page A2) J.K.