Laar: Communist criminals must be brought to justice

Jun 22, 2000
By Jaclyn M. Sindrich

Undoubtedly, the vast majority of those standing had stories to tell
of their own painful pasts. But they gathered on June 14 to hear
international government officials, a Nobel prize-nominated author,
and political analysts speak about the crimes of an era that they
said must not be forgotten.

At the International Conference on the Crimes of Communism, held at
the Sakala Center, Prime Minister Mart Laar asked, "When and how will
communism stand trial in the moral and legal sense of the word? Why
has this evil regime gone unpunished?"

These are the questions the conference's speakers sought to answer.

Laar said he has taken the first steps toward setting up an
international foundation to investigate and raise awareness about the
crimes of communism during a recent meeting with his Hungarian
counterpart, Viktor Orban. Hungary and Estonia will jointly set up
the institution.

The Estonian leader declared an urgent need for the international
community to evaluate the crimes of communism, a regime which "has
done much more evil in the world than Nazism," he said, although
unlike Hitler's powers, it has yet to be punished.

"Without a trial of communism, a new human future is difficult to
imagine," said Laar.

Tunne Kelam, deputy speaker of Parliament, called for individual
trials of the regimes' criminals. Yet, that communism lives on today,
has made confronting its evils more difficult, as it has not been
completely discredited, he acknowledged.

"This system of repression is still useful for our hungry leaders in
China, Vietnam, North Korea and Cuba, and under the guises of names
such as 'leftist party,'" he said. "There is no repentance."

Kelam explained that once an international effort is launched to
document and prosecute the regime's crimes, Russia would finally be
pressed to confront and be held accountable for its past. He added
that Russia should also apologize - a point several of the speakers
emphasized, including Margaretha af Ugglas, former foreign minister
of Sweden.

Sergei Kovalyov, a prominent human rights activist and former
dissident of the USSR, agreed it is imperative that Russia apologize
to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for its forceful occupation by the
Soviet Union.

"Crimes of the communist era will remain untackled for as long as
Russia hasn't publicly offered its apologies to the Baltic states,"
he declared.

Others, however, never mentioned apologies, including President Lennart Meri.

Meri, himself a deportee, instead focused on the tragic symbol of
June 14, 1941, when "approximately 10,000 citizens of the Republic of
Estonia were imprisoned and deported to Russia in cattlewagons, the
heads of families separated from the rest of the families," he said.

"Today," the president's address continued, "let us ask ourselves and
the world, what conclusions must we make in order to keep the horrors
chained in the past forever?"

As the Baltics' historical experience has shown, abandoning the
principles of democracy has the harshest consequences for small
nations. It is for this reason that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
must follow international law, and punish violators of international
law - the perpetrators of communism - just as they would for any
other law, Meri said.

A message from Margaret Thatcher was also delivered to the Tallinn
conference. The former British prime minister praised the Baltics'
struggle for freedom and stressed that communism's crimes must always
be remembered.

Other speakers included Nobel prize-nominated Estonian author and
deportee, Jaan Kross, who discussed the tenacity of Stalinism, and
Lauri Malksoo, research fellow at Humboldt University in Berlin, who
spoke about international law regarding seeking damages from Russia
for the crimes of the Soviet era.

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