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Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation Marks 20th Anniversary
Momentous day of events highlights Foundation’s mission, award for human rights advocates, bipartisan support for remembering 100 million victims of Communist regimes
WASHINGTON D.C. – The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) yesterday hosted a day of commemorative and celebratory events. The Foundation celebrates its 20th year, seven years since the opening of its Capitol Hill memorial to the Victims of Communism, and 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. In addition, the foundation awarded its highest honor, the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom to Ukrainian human rights advocate and former political prisoner Myroslav Marynovych. Distinguished guests – including Members of Congress, human rights leaders, Ambassadors from roughly 20 countries, and survivors of communist regimes – gathered for the occasion. The morning ceremony, held in front of the memorial in downtown Washington, featured remarks from Rep. Dana Rohrbacher (R-CA); Ms. Annette Lantos, Chairman of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice; Ms. Liliia Muslimova, spokeswoman for the Crimean Mejlis; H.E. Vaclav Klaus, former president of the Czech Republic; Dr. Yang Jianli, Founder of President of Initiatives for China; and Dr. Lee Edwards, Chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Nearly 20 countries, roughly 18 non-profit and ethnic organizations, and several individuals laid wreaths in honor of the victims of communism around the world. Nearly 300 people attended the event. The ceremony was about “one thing-the brutal bloody reality of communism which over the last century has taken the lives of more than 100 million men, women and children and which controls the lives of over 1 billion people today,” said VOC Chairman Dr. Lee Edwards.
Following the ceremony, VOC co-hosted a luncheon at the Library of Congress with the Embassy of Austria and the Embassy of Hungary. The luncheon celebrated the triumph of liberty that came with the fall of the Iron Curtain a quarter-century ago. Speakers included Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT); Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH); Congressman Andy Harris (R-MD); and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX); Congressman Dennis Ross (R-FL); H.E. Hans Peter Manz, Ambassador of the Republic of Austria; and H.E. Gyorgy Szapary, Ambassador of Hungary. A panel discussion of the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe followed. Panelists included Dr. Maria Schmidt, Director General of the Terror House museum in Budapest, Hungary; Dr. Richard Pipes, Professor Emeritus of History at Harvard University; Dr. Stephen Szabo, Director of the Transatlantic Academy at the German Marshall Fund; and Myroslav Marynovych.
VOC ended the day with a rooftop reception, featuring remarks by Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL); Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL); and speakers from earlier in the day. Truman-Reagan Medal recipient Myroslav Marynovych spoke about the need for justice for communist crimes: “Unrepented wrongdoing,” he said, “inevitably serves as a source of new problems.” He went on to argue for genuine reconciliation, hoping that “we may transform the former Bloodlands into the place of true reconciliation” through honest accusation, sincere confession, and real forgiveness.
For more information or to schedule an interview with VOC Executive Director Marion Smith, contact Vanessa at vanessa@javelindc.com or 202-997-1289.
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Speech at Wreath Laying Ceremony Remembering the Victims of Communism June 11, 2014 By YANG Jianli
Dr. Edwards, Distinguished Guests, and Dear Friends, Thank you for your wisdom, your tenacity, your moral courage and your passion that gave birth to the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation 20 years ago. I salute you for your prophetic vision in the selection of the Goddess of Democracy as the icon for this memorial to more than 100 million victims of Communism including those heroes who died in Tiananmen Square 25 years ago. As we gather here, I am struggling to find a fitting way not only to recognize the sacrifice of the Tiananmen victims, but also to ask ourselves what pledge that remembrance requires of us today. I can think of no better words than Abraham Lincoln’s famed Gettysburg Address. His call for renewed commitment might just as well be read today in Tiananmen Square. Lincoln said: ” We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power. . . . . It is rather for us to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that these dead shall not have died in vain . . . . “ Today, 25 years after the Tiananmen massacre, China’s leaders remain obsessed to force amnesia about that cruel crime. They strive to erase it from all discourse and published history and, even as we speak, to imprison and torment those citizens who dare to remind China what took place and what it stands for.
But China’s leaders will fail. The bipartisan events here in Washington a quarter century later — and similar events around the globe — make clear that, as Lincoln correctly predicted: “The world . . . . can never forget what they did . . . .” The people of China are obviously experiencing revolutionary change. Above all else we must maintain our faith in my compatriots that we can and will join the vast majority of the world’s peoples who now live in free or at least partly free countries. An opening for change could come in the next few months or it may take a few more years. As the legendary defender of freedom Congressman Tom Lantos said of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution in his dedication speech exactly six years ago, “the 1956 Revolution was not crushed, its victory was only delayed”, I stand here today, 25 years after Tiananmen, to tell you that democracy will and is coming to China. It will come with our relentless collective efforts, including those from the international community. Let us pray that all the peoples that still suffer under communist’s rule — of whatever ethnicity, whatever faith, whatever region — shall have, in Lincoln’s words “a new birth of freedom.” And let us commit our renewed efforts to that goal. “It is, for us the living,” our sacred duty.
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Speech at Reception for the 20th Anniversary of Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation June 11, 2014 By YANG Jianli Dr. Edwards and dear colleagues at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, I stand in awe of your wisdom, your tenacity, your moral courage and your passion that not only gave birth 20 years ago to this monumental Foundation, but that over the past two decades have served as a symbol of hope. Your work helps create a necessary place of remembrance in a world where many are forgetting the high price Communists exacted from their captive peoples, as well as the free world. As a former political prisoner of communist China and as a Chinese citizen who lost his grandparents and a sister during China’s three year great famine, I want to express my profound gratitude to you on behalf of hundreds of millions men and women in China who have lost their beloved ones and continue to live as everyday citizens under the oppressive Communist regime, who have suffered or are suffering as political prisoners, and who have raised the banner of liberty as dissidents and are struggling to defend fundamental human rights and build a free China. Thank you! To many people around the world, the Cold War is over, Communism has largely been defeated and is no longer a threat. But as we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of this Memorial Foundation, we all understand that Communism is never defeated, finally. It always makes a comeback in thoughts and words, as well as in deeds. The 2014 Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom was deservedly awarded to two leading Ukrainian human rights activists. This serves as a timely reminder of the rise of neo-Soviet imperialism, with the reanimation of the still-warm corpse of the Soviet Union as its ultimate goal. The specter is once again haunting Europe. Communism is truly the death of the soul, but it itself has not yet died. People in China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam and elsewhere still suffer under communist rule.
The Goddess of Democracy, that stood for one glorious moment in Tiananmen Square 25 years ago and that now stands as the icon for the memorial to more than 100 millions victims of Communism, reminds us every day of the terrible costs of the Communists’ rule in China. The CCP has conducted the cruelest theft of private property in the history of the world and has been responsible for the most bloody political turmoil, the most horrific starvation, and the greatest number of non-natural deaths. It has created the most numerous cases of injustice, and has perpetrated the most barbarous destruction of historic heritage, the natural environment, and religious beliefs. The CCP has carried out the most notorious crackdown on a student movement, and it continues to produce the most widespread human rights violations and government corruption. The Communist government that massacred its own citizens in the heart of its capital 25 years ago is the very same government which today continues to routinely imprison, torture, and exile its best citizens for no reason other than exercising the right to speak freely. It is the same government which pursues cultural genocide on Tibetans, Uyghurs and Mongolians; as well as religious purges on Christians and Falun Gong practitioners. It is the same government whose foreign policy and models of repression enable the morally bankrupt regimes of North Korea, Cuba, Iran, and Syria to suck the freedoms and dignities from their people. Its paranoia and insecurity drive it to extend its tyranny beyond its borders. Its disdain for human dignity now openly challenges the very foundation of civilization itself. Some may argue that Putin and his government are not communist. They may argue China is ruled by Communists, but without Communism. But we must not forget they are all rooted in the very idea and organization of Communism, which is committed to making tyranny universal. Whether the boot is red or covered with other colors, it’s still a boot, stomping on the human face. The world has to be ever on the alert against Communism and its variations. There can be no resting on our laurels. We must be resolved tonight that in this city, Washington D.C., human rights should no longer be the casualty of pragmatic diplomacy. Some believe that the United States cannot press China on human rights because it seeks Chinese cooperation on economic and national security issues. But even during the cold war, Washington negotiated arms-control and trade agreements with other countries, including the Soviet Union, while pressing for human rights reform. Let us learn from history. The fight for democracy and the end of Communism is not just the right thing to do, but a necessary engagement required for our own survival and security. Let us not forget that the persistent pressure of the United States ultimately freed Europe from the scourge of Communism and in so doing the U.S. preserved its own democratic way of life. We must apply that same tenacity with China. For China’s peaceful transition to democracy is not only in the interests of the people of China but also in the interests of a peaceful and stable world. The lessons are clear. Americans of conscience should insist that their Government confront China. They should demand that their Government openly condemn China’s violation of basic human rights and demand release its “prisoners of conscience.” They should express support for those in China bravely asserting or defending human rights. And they should support concrete action, including sanctions like those that the so-called “Magnitsky Law” now imposes on Russian human rights abusers. All in all, Communism has to be guarded against, opposed and rooted out – all the time. That is how we can truly honor the victims of Communism. |
