Communist and nazi crimes under discussion in Europe.
At the opening of this week’s Strasbourg plenary session, European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering made a declaration on the 60th anniversary of the deportation of thousands of citizens of the Baltic states to Siberia by the Soviet regime. He told the House “This week we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the deportation of some 100 thousand Baltic States citizens. This enormous wave of Soviet deportation started during the night of 24 to 25th March 1949 and resulted in tens of thousands of Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians being forcefully moved from their home, deprived of their civil and human rights and often losing their lives due to harsh and inhumane conditions in the Soviet prison camps. Nearly every family in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, as well as in other former Soviet Union republics, was affected by the cruel force of the totalitarian communist regime. In nearly every family you will find traces of people who perished in Siberia, who were persecuted by the KGB or imprisoned and harassed by the totalitarian regime. This is not a distant and obscure past; it is still very much a living memory in the minds of many people who are citizens of the European Union. Therefore, it is our moral obligation and a fundamental duty as Europeans, rooted in our common values, in honouring the memory of those many victims, to reiterate our strong and clear condemnation of those horrific crimes committed by the totalitarian communist regime in the Soviet Union. Moreover, the victims deserve nothing less than an objective, in-depth and thorough evaluation of the past, because there cannot be reconciliation without truth and remembrance.”
Declaration condemning these crimes will be presented to the Parliament tomorrow. This is important achievement as European Socialdemocrats tried till the last minute to get it out from agenda. Hearings on the crimes of communist last week in Brussels nevertheless had strong impact on Parliament and helped the case happily forward. Czech Presidency and President Havel played important role supporting the condemnation of communism. Looking on year 1968 they know what the communism is.
It is symbolic, that this declaration will be discussed on the day, when 60 years tens of thousands Baltic people were deported to Siberia. Today Estonian Parliament (Riigikogu) passed its declaration, condemning communist crimes and remebering victims of communism.
Dear Mr Mart Laar,
With reference to your article “The Estonian Economic Miracle” published August 7, 2007 in the Backgrounder published by The Heritage Foundation. I wish to draw your attention to the specific sections titled “The Rule of Law” and “Property Reform”.
For over 17 years thousands of Estonian citizens have suffered and are still suffering serious economic hardship and emotional distress as a direct result of the Estonian government’s refusal to resolve the issues involving Property Reform.
Tens of millions of kroons, of taxpayers money, have been spent by the Estonian government on not resolving this problem.
Estonia has a people’s constitution, national laws, has ratified to the Human Right Convention and the refugee Convention. All these provided a lawful and finite resolution to the property reform as early as 1992 and absolutely as of 1997.
In 1992 the Estonian government failed to regulate the documents which could be relied upon to correctly determine the status of applicants; this being either a refugee or a contractual resettler.
As of 1997 this issue was resolved. Estonia had ratified to the Refugee Convention and with the Estonian Constitution’s article 123 lg 2 and the conventions article 12 in mind this decision was no longer for Estonia to make.
If either an applicant or sunduurnike was unhappy with a decision made by the OVVTK, based on the German Government documents of 1939 – 1949 then they would have to take the German government to court to have the applicant’s status changed.
The Estonian courts or commissions had no legal right to determine a person’s status in any other way as this is a violation of Germany’s sovereignty, Estonia’s Constitution and foreign treaties; yet over 125 (information provided by the Estonian rahandusminiteerium) decisions were made here in Estonia by the Estonian courts and commissions.
Why was the rule of law not followed? It is obvious that not to resolve this issue has been, and still is, a powerful political election tool for many parties; but is it right that political parties place their political ambitions above those of the very people they are elected to serve?
Every citizen of Estonia suffers as a result of the passive corruption demonstrated by the Government of Estonia in not using the rule of law to resolve this issue.
This would have saved the Estonian economy millions of kroons and produced millions of kroons of revenue which would be helpful in today’s economic climate.
Currently the Estonian government faces millions of kroons worth of damage payouts to the people whose lives have been put on hold or destroyed over the last 17 years, and still counting.
This right for compensation is guaranteed under the Estonian Constitution, whether the properties are returned or not, privatised or not as the cause is directly due to the Estonian Government not intervening in the actions of the OVVTK commissions; despite the fact that they are state government appointed organs.
During the 8 years that I have dealt with this issue I have provided crucial German Government documents, of that period (Himmler, Internal Security Police and Immigration Department Orders and Directives), to the Estonian government.
Estonia also had an active Embassy in Berlin as of the early 1990s and these documents were available as of pre 1990.
Despite corresponding with numerous Government Ministries up to and including the President of Estonia not one Ministry requested further information, made enquiries or demonstrated any concern. All replied within the mandatory 30 days stating why they cannot assist with the primary reason being article 154 of the Estonian Constitution.
When will Estonia commence to become a democratic state where the interests of the citizens are a concern for the politicians above and beyond their own political ambitions?
When will Estonia become a democratic state where the rule of law is applied equally and not just to the less influential and lower class citizens?
Article 13 of the Estonian Constitution accords The Right to Protection by the state to all its citizens. This however does not apply when the citizen’s Constitutional, legal and human rights are being violated by the totalitarian and arbitrary actions of the Tallinn City Council.
More that 25% of my late father’s life, 30% of my life and 50% of my children’s lives have been seriously affected by this corruption and after 17 years is not time the Estonian Government practices what it preaches? Or is all this ‘self praise’ and ‘chest beating’ only a show for the world?
Cialis drug….
Compare levitra cialis. Viagra cialis. Cialis. Levitra cialis viagra….