Yesterday “Oscar” nominees were announced. Among foreign movies one of the most interesting is A.Wajda’s “Katõn” which describes the massacre of Polish officers in 1940-1941 in Katõn by NKVD. Current Russia is not recognizing the crimes committed by the Stalin regime and attacking furiously the Wajda’s movie. At the same time the evidence of Soviet crimes was presented soon by President Jeltsin. Unfortunately the Katõn massacre is not so much known in Western countries. Nazi-Soviet conspiracy in 1939, the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, start of II World War as a result of this and fate of Poland and Baltic countries has not been much discussed subject. Stalin joined in 1941 the Allied camp and his cooperation with Hitler during the first period of war was pardoned. At the same time it must remembered, that without Stalin and Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, II World War has probably never been started and Poland invaded from one side by Nazi-Germany and from other side by Soviet Union. This was reason why Wajda presented his movie in POland namely on 17. September 2007, remembering the day, when Soviet forces invaded Poland in 1939. Wajda’s movie is powerful story of forgotten crimes, memory and love. This is not autobiography, but tells story of these thousands of mothers, wives and children, who were not allowed to know truth what happened to their sons, husbands and fathers. Wajda’s movie deserves Oscar, let’s hope it would get it!
Yesterday I got mail from one Dutch friend, what I publish here. remember that last year you had some “problems” with the chairman of the Assemblee of the Council of Europe Mr Rene van der Linden. Van der Linden had some strange and incorrect ideas about the situation and rights of the Russian-speaking population in Estonia. Today, will be the last day Van der Linden is chairman of this Assemblee. Therefore the day before yesterday (19 January) there was an interview with Van der Linden on the Dutch stateradio. In this interview he said that 28% of the Estonian population is stateless. This is not true. He also said that a few times per year Estonian people are marching the streets in nazi-uniforms. This also is not true. For me as a Dutchman, it is painfull to see that a Dutch top diplomat on such an important position can spread around so much nonsense and lies about your country. It seems that he let himself be used as a puppet in the Russian propaganda against Estonia. But as chairman of such an important international organisation this is not acceptable off course. Maybe you can do something with this false information or maybe your collegue Tunne Kelam could ask some questions in Brussels about the spreading of desinformation of Van der Linden. Best I can do, is really to publish this letter here in my homepage and hope, that more people will stand up against the lies. It is one thing, when You make mistakes, when You do not know. As a former President of ENPA Linden knows situation in Estonia very well.
Recent elections in Georgia demonstrated that democracy still works in this part of the World. The basicly free and fair contest helps repair Georgia’s international image, which suffered when after November’s clashes between opposition protesters and police Georgian government declared the emergency rule. To really demonstrate its commitment to democratic values Georgia invited large amount of foreign observers to follow the elections. This was very different attitude demostrated by Russia practically blocking foreign observers from its elections. In this context it is specially interesting that namely Russia is only country which declared the Georgian elections un-democratic and rigged. Foreign observers in Georgia had different opoinion. They found several misgivings in elections, but concluded that these were not result of bad will and that elections represented the will of Georgian people.
The opposition has not agreed to this. This is not practical attitude either. The European Union rightly called on the opposition to recognize the results. At the same time, Mr. Saakashvili’s bloc must learn to work with the opposition, and before the parliamentary vote due this spring, address shortcomings that election observers have noted. This is all part of the process called democracy. The time of street policy must be over, time for parliament fights must come. Parliamentary elections held in some months propose for this excellent possibilities. There not accusations against eachother but different programmes and proposals can fight. It is now time for Georgia to look to the future.