Eesti keeles: http://www.just.ee/et/uudised/kaheksa-riigi-esindajad-votsid-vastu-uhisavalduse-kommunismikuritegude-uurimiseks
Joint Statement of the Conference for the Day of Remembrance for Victims of Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes
On this pan-European day of remembrance for victims of totalitarian regimes, we commemorate all victims of those regimes.
We must stand together against totalitarianism, no matter on what ideological basis and in whatever form it is expressed.
The education system’s task is to promote historical justice and provide the younger generation with adequate knowledge about ideologically motivated genocides and crimes against humanity committed in the past, as well as their causes.
The memory of victims of totalitarian regimes compels us to condemn the display of the symbols of totalitarian regimes where they serve the attempts to justify and heroise the acts of those regimes.
All the totalitarian regimes, as the Nazi regime and the Communist regime systematically restricted people’s freedoms and violated their rights, in their most extreme forms as ideologically motivated crimes against humanity. Many of the crimes committed by totalitarian regimes were genocidal in their nature.
Genocide and crimes against humanity are crimes that do not expire.
Victims of totalitarian crimes have the right to justice. Unfortunately, the practice of investigating and prosecuting the crimes of Communist regimes has been insufficient and inconsistent across countries.
The basis for conciliation and building a future is justice. The competence of the existing supranational courts does not include the investigation of past crimes committed by Communist regimes and the punishing of those guilty of them. We find it necessary to investigate the possibilities of a supranational co-operation in order to give consideration to forming a special institution to investigate the crimes of totalitarian regimes including Communist regime crimes, like the crimes of the Nazi regime were condemned and the guilty parties were punished. It is important to form an expert working group to study the issue.
We find it necessary to stress that public access to archives containing information about the crimes of all totalitarian regimes must be ensured in all countries.
We call for the governments of all European countries to provide both moral and material support to the investigation of the history of totalitarian regimes thus preventing manipulation of historical facts and to the introduction of the results of those investigations.