Subject: [CivilSoc] International Congress: Evaluation of Crimes of Communism
From: Dennis McConnell (D.McConnell@Massey.ac.nz)
Date: Fri May 05 2000 - 19:14:25 EDT
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With thanks to Dr. Val Samonis, a long-time list member at Toronto, I am
forwarding an International Congress announcement that may be of interest
to members of list. Dr. Samonis a member of the ICECC Steering Committee.
I am forwarding as received. Please direct inquiries to the contact noted
in the announcement.
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International Congress on the Evaluation of Crimes of Communism (ICECC)
Vilnius. Lithuania, June 12-14, 2000
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From: The International Steering Committee, ICECC
As we are approaching the end of the Millennium, it is clear that
Communism has been one of the two worst curses of mankind. While its twin
brother Fascism has been critically evaluated, condemned, and its major
perpetrators punished (e.g. Nuremberg Trials), so far nothing of this sort
happened to Communism which is responsible for even greater (sometimes far
greater) numbers of victims according to many international analysts. This
is not only a major gap in social/historical analysis but an injustice of
historical proportions as well.
Besides these analytical and moral challenges faced by all people, the
peoples of formerly (or still) oppressed countries of Europe, Asia,
Africa, America are suffering severe practical problems inflicted by
Communism, e.g. one or two generations long lags in socioeconomic
development. Moreover, finding and implementing solutions to these
problems is severely constrained by other communist legacies. For example,
despite the collapse of the "evil empire", its "praetorian guard" - red
nomenklatura - are still in control of many aspects of life in the
formerly Soviet occupied countries such as Lithuania. Unlike fascists
after the war, former or current communists are in perfect position to
misdirect, subvert, sabotage or discredit reform and democratization
processes by invoking "good old times", claiming their "expertise" in
management, Communism's alleged similarity to Christianity or committing
other such grand intellectual fraud to confuse the public opinion. A good
example here are the results of elections in the postcommunist world in
1992-93.
Although the West has declared the Cold War over, it has yet to denounce
or condemn Communism as a criminal enterprise as was the case with
Fascism/Nazizm. Given the above and many other reasons, we, the victims of
Communism, do believe that the system and its perpetrators should be
brought to account for all the crimes against humanity. There will be no
lasting peace or progress in the postcommunist world without a minimum of
justice!
Therefore, a coalition of Former Political Prisoners' organizations,
Former Political Deportees' organizations, and Former Freedom Fighters'
associations established The Communist Crimes Research Foundation. Since
in the moral sense we also represent millions of other victims of
Communism whose voices were brutally silenced by firing squads, in
prisons, gulags, etc, long ago, we feel this work must not be conducted in
obscurity or silence. Encouraged by a number of the world's most prominent
intellectuals as well as freedom loving political and moral leaders, we
are thus organizing The International Congress on the Evaluation of Crimes
of Communism (ICECC) to take place in Vilnius, Lithuania, on June 12-14,
2000. Given its "singing anticommunist revolution" a decade ago and the
long postwar period of active struggle for freedom, we believe Lithuania
earned the right to host ICECC.
Under the circumstances as mentioned above, we expect a well financed
opposition which will try to deride, discredit, deny, or even suppress our
work or dissemination of its results. The Steering Committee of the
Congress hopes that you will be able to help, be it via:
- advice to the organizers;
- active participation in the Congress, e.g. presenting a paper, etc;
- providing documentation, information, and/or testimony regarding
Communist crimes;
- financial contributions
- directing us to possible sources of funding and/or information;
- publicizing the efforts and results of the Congress.
We greatly appreciate any assistance that you may be able to render. We
have prepared a website that provides more details on how to participate
in the Congress: http://ok.w3.lt/2000/
Sincerely,
Vytas Miliauskas, Chairman
The Organizing Committee, ICECC
Please direct all questions and contributions to:
Ms. Agne Rudeniene, Gedimino Ave. 15, Vilnius LT-2001, Lithuania
Tel: +370 2 22 71 12
Fax: +370 2 22 71 11
E-mail: fsicc@rc.lrs.lt
URL: http://ok.w3.lt/2000/
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