crimes committed by totalitarian regimes - Ministrstvo za pravosodje

Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes
the refusal of Russia to re-evaluate its responsibility in the role of communism and Bolshevism in 20 th
century history in Europe, and in Russia, is alarming. Russia is being transformed into an authoritarian
state where the idea of the identity of the people and the state is based on three concepts: the inheritance
of the Tsar’s Empire, the military power of Stalin and the status of great power in oil and gas. Russian
foreign policy uses confrontation more and more. In Russia’s relations with Europe, neighbouring states
and the United States, the elements of a strong-armed policy are reappearing.
On 12 June 2007, in Washington, the monument to the memory of victims of communism was
inaugurated. The President of the United States, members of both houses of Congress, the finest of
Washington’s political and academic elite were present. President George W. Bush declared: “We are
erecting this memorial because we have a duty to bear witness to future generations concerning the
crimes of the 20 th century and to ensure that they never happen again. In this sacred place, we recall the
great lesson of the Cold War: freedom is a precious value that is not guaranteed; evil is a reality and it
must be fought against; if they have an opportunity, men driven by hostile and pitiless ideologies will
commit ineffable crimes and will kill millions.”
We Europeans must also be conscious of our duty to bear witness concerning the crimes of the 20 th
century for future generations. I am convinced that the millions of victims of the Siberian Gulag,
those in Budapest, Prague and from Solidarity, have a right to a detailed and systematic investigation
establishing the political, legal and historical aspects of Soviet totalitarianism. That is why this European
hearing on crimes committed by totalitarian regimes must not remain a unique and isolated event. This
hearing must be the start of a process of investigation and evaluation of the most pitiful pages of 20 th
century European history.
To conclude the session today, we participants must send a petition to the European Commission
and to European politicians, inviting them to create an international Commission for the evaluation of
crimes committed by totalitarian communism. We must ask them to create an international research
institute that, in collaboration with the Member States of the EU, would study and document the
political, legal and historical aspects of totalitarian communism. Victims of this regime are still alive.
They can still give testimony, but it is very urgent to collect their testimonies, because their number
decreases every day. The studies of this institute will form the basis of a programme funded by the
European Union for education and the conservation of memory.
We, participants in today’s European hearing, must invite the European Commission and the
European Parliament to decide on the opening in Brussels of an Iron Curtain museum and the erection
of a monument to the memory of victims of totalitarian communism. The museum and the monument
must remind Europeans that we must not be naïve and believe that this could never happen again.
We must be conscious that if it happened once, it can happen again. Rwanda, Sudan, Srebrenica, and
Kosovo prove this. It happens each time that a group with an ideological stranglehold and its brutal
power de-humanises our fellow citizens, our neighbours, our opponents, demonising them into evil
beings that do not deserve their human rights.
Europe must take into account all our history, document it and prepare political and legal
processes on an international level to prevent recurrences of totalitarianism at the roots, without sparing
ideologies.
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