Statement by participants of the international conference “Crimes of the Communist Regimes”
On 26 February 2010
, the last day of the Conference “Crimes of the Communist Regimes”, a statement was presented in which the participants respond to the situation of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes in connection with the election of a new Director, Jiří Pernes, on 17 February and the termination of the mandate of Director Pavel Žáček on 31 March 2010. The participants further react to the revocation of Dr. Marius Oprea, President, and the withdrawal of investigative powers from the Romanian Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes, which was announced while Mr Oprea was participating in the Conference and opening an exhibition of his Institute in Prague as a part of the antitotalitarian festival MENE TEKEL.
Statement by participants of the international conference “Crimes of the Communist Regimes”
We, the undersigned, and the institutions we represent, express our grave concern about recent events in the Czech Republic and Romania to weaken institutions dedicated to the investigation and exposure of crimes of communism, namely The Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes and The Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of Romanian Exile. We believe these institutions and their activities must be strengthened and supported to ensure that the crimes of communism are condemned and their perpetrators brought to justice. These institutions are essential to draw the lessons necessary to prevent similar or new totalitarian regimes in the future. We also regard it utterly important to raise the awareness and knowledge about the atrocities that took place in the name of communism in Europe, as well as those still taking place in countries where communism is at large.
Among more than 60 signatories are:
- Harry Wu (USA), Chinese dissident, Director, Laogai Research Foundation
- Sandra Kalniete (Latvia), former dissident, former Minister and European Commissioner, Member of the European Parliament
- László Tökés (Romania), former dissident, Bishop of Timisoara, Member of the European Parliament
- Tunne Kelam (Estonia), former dissident, Member of the European Parliament
- Göran Lindblad (Sweden), Chairman of the Swedish delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and Chairman, Sub-committee on External Relations
- Emanuelis Zingeris (Lithuania), Chairman of the Lithuanian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and Chairman, International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania
- Markus Pieper (Germany) – in the name of the Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former GDR
- Maria Dmochowska (Poland) – Institute of National Remembrance
- Nikita V. Petrov (Russia) – Memorial
- Toomas Hiio (Estonia) – Estonian Institute of Historical Memory
- Valters Nollendorfs (Latvia) – Museum of the Occupation of Latvia 1940-1991
- Pál Germuska (Hungary) – 1956 Institute
- Damyan Hemčič (Slovenia) – Study Centre for National Reconciliation
- Michiel Klinkhamer, Marcel van Hamersveld (Netherlands) – Netherlands Center for Totalitarian Studies
- Anders Hjemdahl, Camilla Andersson (Sweden) – Institute for the Information on Crimes of Communism
- Vasil Kadrinov (Bulgaria) – Hannah Arendt Centre
- Mehmed Shukri (Bulgaria) – Justice and Rights in the Balkans
- Marina Jelić (Serbia) – Center for Peace and Democracy Development
- Christoph Schäfgen (Germany) – former General prosecutor for the communist crimes in former GDR
- Jiří Navrátil, Zdeněk Boháč – Prague academic club 48
- Naděžda Kavalírová, František Šedivý, Jiří Málek, Ret. Col. Rudolf Macek – Confederation of political prisoners of the Czech Republic
- Stanislav Stránský, Václav Malec – Union of former political prisoners
- Jana Hybášková, Jaroslav Čapek – European Democratic Party