Estonian justice minister urges public to condemn communism as criminal ideology
TALLINN. June 14 (Interfax) - Estonia's acting Prime Minister and Justice Minister Urmas Reinsalu proposed on Sunday that communism be condemned as a criminal and inhumane ideology.
Reinsalu urged the audience at a meeting commemorating the victims of the 1941 deportation, to never forget the victims of deportation and political reprisals.
"Estonia and other countries must jointly continue the struggle for getting communism condemned as a criminal and inhumane ideology," he said.
"Let us mark the 100th anniversary of the Estonian state by building a universal monument to all victims of communism," he also said.
"A state that remembers the communist crimes must not allow symbols popularizing the inhumane ideologies to appear at public events," he said.
Estonian lawmakers, government officials and foreign diplomats on Sunday laid flowers to the monument to the Estonian epic character Linda that symbolizes the Estonian people's grief over the lost Estonians. The ceremony was followed by a memorial religious service
Memorial ceremonies are being held in other Estonian cities, as well, on Sunday.
By tradition, private pilots performed flights above the Tallinn airport at 6 p.m. in memory of the killed compatriots.
The Soviet leadership conducted an operation early on June 14 1941 to deport about 10,000 Estonians to Siberia. Almost 6,000 children, women and men were killed, or starved to death. Estonia has rated the 1941 and 1949 deportation as a crime against humanity that has no statute of limitations.
