A prominent Jewish human rights organization has criticized the Ukrainian president's decision to give a posthumous award to a nationalist leader it describes as a Nazi collaborator.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center said in a statement Friday that Stepan Bandera and his followers were linked to the deaths of thousands of Jews in World War II’s early stages.
President Viktor Yushchenko on Wednesday bestowed the Hero of Ukraine award to Stepan Bandera for his role in fighting for an independent Ukraine. Wednesday was Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Mark Weitzman, the center’s government affairs director, says it was a travesty to grant the honor as the world paused "to remember the victims of the Holocaust on Jan. 27."
A Yushchenko spokesman declined comment.
