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Skriven 2007-06-12 23:31:24 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0706122) for Tue, 2007 Jun 12
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President Bush Attends Dedication of Victims of Communism Memorial
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For Immediate Release Office of the Press Secretary June 12, 2007

President Bush Attends Dedication of Victims of Communism Memorial
Washington, D.C.

˙ /news/releases/2007/06/20070612-2.wm.v.html ˙˙Presidential Remarks
˙˙Audio


10:35 A.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all for coming. Please be seated. Dr. Edwards,
thanks for your kind words. Congressman Lantos -- no better friend to
freedom, by the way; Congressman Rohrabacher, the same. Members of the
Czech and Hungarian parliaments; ambassadors; distinguished guests; and
more importantly, the survivors of Communist oppression, I'm honored to
join you on this historic day. (Applause.)

And here in the company of men and women who resisted evil and helped bring
down an empire, I proudly accept the Victims of Communism Memorial on
behalf of the American people. (Applause.)

The 20th century will be remembered as the deadliest century in human
history. And the record of this brutal era is commemorated in memorials
across this city. Yet, until now, our Nation's Capital had no monument to
the victims of imperial Communism, an ideology that took the lives of an
estimated 100 million innocent men, women and children. So it's fitting
that we gather to remember those who perished at Communism's hands, and
dedicate this memorial that will enshrine their suffering and sacrifice in
the conscience of the world.

Building this memorial took more than a decade of effort, and its presence
in our capital is a testament to the passion and determination of two
distinguished Americans: Lev Dobriansky, whose daughter Paula is here --
(applause) -- give your dad our best. And Dr. Lee Edwards. (Applause.) They
faced setbacks and challenges along the way, yet they never gave up,
because in their hearts, they heard the voices of the fallen crying out:
"Remember us."

These voices cry out to all, and they're legion. The sheer numbers of those
killed in Communism's name are staggering, so large that a precise count is
impossible. According to the best scholarly estimate, Communism took the
lives of tens of millions of people in China and the Soviet Union, and
millions more in North Korea, Cambodia, Africa, Afghanistan, Vietnam,
Eastern Europe, and other parts of the globe.

Behind these numbers are human stories of individuals with families and
dreams whose lives were cut short by men in pursuit of totalitarian power.
Some of Communism's victims are well-known. They include a Swedish diplomat
named Raoul Wallenberg, who saved 100,000 Jews from the Nazis, only to be
arrested on Stalin's orders and sent to Moscow's Lubyanka Prison, where he
disappeared without a trace. They include a Polish priest named Father
Popieluszko, who made his Warsaw church a sanctuary for the Solidarity
underground, and was kidnaped, and beaten, and drowned in the Vitsula by
the secret police.

The sacrifices of these individuals haunt history -- and behind them are
millions more who were killed in anonymity by Communism's brutal hand. 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. They include Chinese killed in the Great Leap Forward and the
Cultural Revolution; Cambodians slain in Pol Pot's Killing Fields; East
Germans shot attempting to scale the Berlin Wall in order to make it to
freedom; Poles massacred in the Katyn Forest; and Ethiopians slaughtered in
the "Red Terror"; Miskito Indians murdered by Nicaragua's Sandinista
dictatorship; and Cuban balseros who drowned escaping tyranny. We'll never
know the names of all who perished, but at this sacred place, Communism's
unknown victims will be consecrated to history and remembered forever.

We dedicate this memorial because we have an obligation to those who died,
to acknowledge their lives and honor their memory. The Czech writer Milan
Kundera once described the struggle against Communism as "the struggle of
memory against forgetting." Communist regimes did more than take their
victims' lives; they sought to steal their humanity and erase their memory.
With this memorial, we restore their humanity and we reclaim their memory.
With this memorial, we say of Communism's innocent and anonymous victims,
these men and women lived and they shall not be forgotten. (Applause.)

We dedicate this memorial because we have an obligation to future
generations to record the crimes of the 20th century and ensure they're
never repeated. In this hallowed place we recall the great lessons of the
Cold War: that freedom is precious and cannot be taken for granted; that
evil is real and must be confronted; and that given the chance, men
commanded by harsh and hateful ideologies will commit unspeakable crimes
and take the lives of millions.

It's important that we recall these lessons because the evil and hatred
that inspired the death of tens of millions of people in the 20th century
is still at work in the world. We saw its face on September the 11th, 2001.
Like the Communists, the terrorists and radicals who attacked our nation
are followers of a murderous ideology that despises freedom, crushes all
dissent, has expansionist ambitions and pursues totalitarian aims. Like the
Communists, our new enemies believe the innocent can be murdered to serve a
radical vision. Like the Communists, our new enemies are dismissive of free
peoples, claiming that those of us who live in liberty are weak and lack
the resolve to defend our free way of life. And like the Communists, the
followers of violent Islamic radicalism are doomed to fail. (Applause.) By
remaining steadfast in freedom's cause, we will ensure that a future
American President does not have to stand in a place like this and dedicate
a memorial to the millions killed by the radicals and extremists of the
21st century.

We can have confidence in the power of freedom because we've seen freedom
overcome tyranny and terror before. Dr. Edwards said President Reagan went
to Berlin. He was clear in his statement. He said, "tear down the wall,"
and two years later the wall fell. And millions across Central and Eastern
Europe were liberated from unspeakable oppression. It's appropriate that on
the anniversary of that speech, that we dedicate a monument that reflects
our confidence in freedom's power.

The men and women who designed this memorial could have chosen an image of
repression for this space, a replica of the wall that once divided Berlin,
or the frozen barracks of the Gulag, or a killing field littered with
skulls. Instead, they chose an image of hope -- a woman holding a lamp of
liberty. She reminds us of the victims of Communism, and also of the power
that overcame Communism.

Like our Statue of Liberty, she reminds us that the flame for freedom burns
in every human heart, and that it is a light that cannot be extinguished by
the brutality of terrorists or tyrants. And she reminds us that when an
ideology kills tens of millions of people, and still ends up being
vanquished, it is contending with a power greater than death. (Applause.)
She reminds us that freedom is the gift of our Creator, freedom is the
birthright of all humanity, and in the end, freedom will prevail.
(Applause.)

I thank each of you who made this memorial possible for your service in
freedom's cause. I thank you for your devotion to the memory of those who
lost their lives to Communist terror. May the victims of Communism rest in
peace. May those who continue to suffer under Communism find their freedom.
And may the God who gave us liberty bless this great memorial and all who
come to visit her.

God bless. (Applause.)

END 10:47 A.M. EDT

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