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Please send in any articles note worthy on the subject illegal
property seizures.
Further information, please contact:
Ms. Alexandra Mareschi
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Subject: 23.01.2006, Press release, free for publication
Sender: Alexandra Mareschi, Secretary-General
Contact: www.projusticia.net
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On Wednesday 25th January 2006 the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe will discuss the need for international
condemnation of crimes of totalitarian communists regimes, Doc. 10765, www.assembly.coe.int.
There is no doubt in our minds that such a condemnation is necessary
given that since the Soviet Union's demise there has been a
noticeable absence of discussion over crimes of communism.
Nazi criminals were prosecuted in the Nuremberg Trials. But there has been
no such justice for the tens of millions of people killed by
communist regimes.
Communism meant in practice genocide, ethnic
cleansing, forced labour, deportations, show-trials and mass
confiscations. Therefore, we welcome the fact that the Parliamentary
Assembly is trying to address this issues once again.
However, we are exceptionally disappointed that Doc.10765 of the
Parliamentary Assembly has excluded the obligation to restitute
illegally seized property. In this respect the declaration seems to
aim merely at symbolic gestures, something we in the name of the many
millions of victims can and will not accept, since the violations
targeted their existence and survival and cannot simply be amended by
moral gestures. Therefore we request that the obligation to restitute
confiscated property be inserted in the document.
In the Parliamentary Assembly's deliberations over Doc. 10765 the
Parliamentarians should bear in mind though that impunity and
disregard for crimes against humanity (mass confiscations and mass
evictions constitute a crime against humanity) threaten the belief in
a democratic society.
The fact that those who are responsible for
past transgressions are not prosecuted, and the demand for justice is
denied, creates doubts and fears about democratic ideas and ideals.
The essential precondition for the commitment to democratic
transformation requires a serious attempt at dealing with the legacy
of the past, no matter how much time has gone by, since crimes
against humanity are not statute barred. Only Justice will ultimately
secure peace, entrepreneurship and investments in Europe.
The victims in time may pass away but their heirs will continue the
fight until Justice is done.
www.projusticia.net
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