News

On 12 June Victims of Communism Memorial was dedicated in Washington D.C. U.S. President George W. Bush, Chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Tom Lantos, Member of House of Representatives Dana Rohrabacher, members of the diplomatic corps, witnesses of the communist repressions from all over the world took part in the ceremony.

U.S. President George W. Bush noted that Communism took the lives of about 100 million innocent men, women and children - tens of millions in China and the Soviet Union, and millions more in North Korea, Cambodia, Africa, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Eastern Europe, and other parts of the globe.

In his speech the U.S. President also honoured the inhabitants of the Baltic States who suffered from Soviet Communism repressions.

“They include innocent Ukrainians starved to death in Stalin's Great Famine; or Russians killed in Stalin's purges; Lithuanians and Latvians and Estonians loaded onto cattle cars and deported to Arctic death camps of Soviet Communism,” the U.S. President said.

During the reception in commemoration of victims of Communism Lithuanian Ambassador to the United States Audrius Brūzga remarked that in Lithuania as well as in Latvia or Estonia or Poland, as in Ukraine or Hungary or Romania, as in whole Eastern and Central Europe Communism finally was defeated.

“This became history that we cannot forget. The crimes of Communist dictatorships should be named, investigated and made public”.

Dissidents Monsignor Alfonsas Svarinskas and his sister Nijolė Sadūnaitė, representatives of American Lithuanian organisations took part in events dedicated to commemoration of victims of Communism in Washington D.C.

The building of the Victims of Communism Memorial began on 27 September 2006. According to Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, the cost of construction of the Memorial was about  $ 825 thousand. Lithuanian Government allocated 10 thousand litas for the memorial and Lithuanian Embassy in Washington – 1 thousand litas.

Additional information about the Memorial and activities of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation can be found at http://www.victimsofcommunism.org .