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The President of the Republic, the Chairman of the Riigikogu and the Prime Minister made a joint statement13.06.2002
Tomorrow, 61 years will be passed by since the June-deportation. On this occasion, President Arnold Rüütel, Chairman of the Riigikogu Toomas Savi and Prime Minister Siim Kallas made a joint statement today.
The statement reads:
''June 14 in Estonia is a day of mourning. We commemorate those thousands of people who, on this day in the year 1941, were torn from their homes and sent off facing unknown future. The major part of them did not make it farther than to nameless graves running along both sides of the railway leading to Siberia. There were many Estonians among those innocent people, but also representatives of other nationalities who with their daily work had built on and strengthened the Republic of Estonia. The only ''guilt'' of those thousands of people was that they had been citizens of independent Estonia.
The memory of people perished due to the deportations is sacred to us. We also share the deep grief and tribulations of those who had lost their dear ones, but themselves, in spite of everything, made their way back home, yet whose trust in justice had been shaken severely.
We have been capable of reinstating us as a nation, and today we are trying to put into effect plans which are feasible only to a people acting in accord and for the sake of common goals.
We cannot build our future on sufferings of the past, yet, we never must forget them either. Only while protecting our independent state and the democratic values forming its basis can we put up with attempts to turn round progressive developments. Be those attempts international terrorism, organized crime or emergence of fundamentalist ideologies.
Our people have paid a very high price for the freedom and democracy. So, let us be capable of remembering and commemorating, let us be capable of protecting freedom and democracy every day and everywhere.''
The declaration has been signed by Arnold Rüütel, Toomas Savi and Siim Kallas.
Press Service of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, June 13, 2002
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