Your Excellency President Dalia
Grybauskaitė,
Mr Prime Minister,
Your Eminence Cardinal,
Speakers and Prime Ministers of
Estonia and Latvia,
Your Excellencies Ambassadors,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
By the whim of our destinies we
had the luck of not only watching the contemporary history of Lithuania but of
taking part in it too. Even though our roles vary some are directly involved,
others are supers in history we witness it and participate in it. Today we
write the history of those recent times.
Our memory classifies events by
dates and by significance. This is a subjective exercise as we have our own
views, beliefs and feelings. However, the 23rd of August 1989 is no
doubt the day that has left its imprint of good feelings and special warmth on
our memories. That is the day of the Baltic Way.
On the 15th of July
1989 the delegates from the three Baltic liberation movements met in Piarnu,
Estonia, and decided to stage a joint action of solidarity the Baltic Way: to
make a human chain extending from Vilnius via Riga to Tallinn and to
demonstrate time and again to the Soviet administration and to the world the
Baltic unity and resolution in aspiring to freedom and independence.
The invitation of the Lithuanian
Reform Movement Sąjūdis runs, People of Lithuania, come to the highway Vilnius
Riga in the evening of the 23rd of August, where the Human Chain
will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the day when two great
world powers divided Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania between them. The Human
Chain will remind the world which has come to terms with the disappearance of
the three sovereign states that the three nations are not only alive; they are
determined to decide their own destiny. Lets us come to the highway mapped as
the 12th Europe Highway. And when we are part of the Chain, we will
understand that we are many and united. Even though we speak different
languages, we live by the same sea and we are united by our common future that
we must live up to.
The word took us to the highway.
That was the word we were learning to say loudly and fearlessly, the word
chanted by thousands of people in rallies in the Baltic capitals. Vabadus, brīvība, laisvė the word embodies
the meaning and goal of the Baltic Way. The Baltic way to freedom and
independence the name stood for the idea.
The human chain of two million
people from Gediminas Tower in Vilnius via the Freedom Monument in Riga to the
Tikk Herman Tower in Tallinn, about 600 kilometres, connected the capitals of
the three Baltic States and symbolically separated Lithuania, Latvia and
Estonia from the Soviet Union.
The news about the aspiration to
freedom of the three Baltic neighbours resounded in the world and found its way
to the front pages. Millions of TV viewers watched the Baltic Way. The unity of
the three nations proved to the world that the organisers of the event: the
Lithuanian Reform Movement Sąjūdis, the Latvian and Estonian Popular Fronts
were not a gang of extremists, as the Soviet Union alleged, but the
organisations speaking on behalf of their respective state citizens.
Foreign states and their citizens
heard the peaceful but firm voice of the three Baltic States demanding freedom
to their countries.
When I look through the photos of
those days, I dont look for familiar faces. They all seem to be my kin.
People, simplistically dressed, radiant concentrated faces. Thats what the
world saw too. We stood there in silence, but they heard us.
No one can count how many times
the Baltic Way crossed the ways used by the rebels of the 1831 or 1863
uprisings, by clandestine schoolteachers and book carriers. The Baltic Way
tells the history of our resistance to occupations. Those who participated in
the June 1941 uprising as well as Siberia deportees and political prisoners,
ghetto and concentration camp victims, emigrants they were on the Baltic Way.
Pupils from Ariogala who supported the insurgents after WW II, and those who
attended the rally near Adomas Mickevičius Monument, Members of the Helsinki
Group, and the victims of January 13th. The Baltic Way was the event
held by the three national movements; moreover it was our history on the
highway that day.
Is there anyone, who can better
than we do, understand the price of independence and freedom? No, because we
have experienced occupations, humiliation, wars and the Holocaust of our
citizens. There are lots of conflicts, wars, racial and religious hatred and
xenophobia in the modern world.
That is why Lithuania is
concerned about still existent worship of totalitarian regimes, the Nazi and
Stalinist past included, and initiated the adoption of the Resolution on
Divided Europe Reunited: Promoting Human Rights and Civil Liberties in the OSCE
Region in the 21st Century at the OSCE PA Session in Vilnius, which
recalls the initiative of the European Parliament to proclaim the 23rd
of August, when the Ribbentop-Molotov Pact was signed 70 years ago, a
Europe-wide Day of Remembrance of Victims of Stalinism and Nazism in order to
preserve the memory of the victims of mass deportations and exterminations.
That is why the Baltic Way must
never be the past. As a symbol of freedom, as a flag it must remain with us to
stop anyone from pushing us away from our way to the margins of European
history.
Vabadus! Briviba! Laisvė! Thanks
for your attention.
