It will be a difficult field to plough before many democratic countries join the chorus of disapproving Communism, and raise their hands to applaude this controversial move. Countries do not easily forget with whom they were allied in wartime, and a kickback for Russia now that it is in the G 8 club could mean a setback somewhere down the road. The USA wouldn't want to look like a shrinking violet, since she too was at one time an ally to Russia. Interesting to see if this decision goes beyond the discussion panel that initiated it in Brussels.

so does this mean only culpable nazi perpetrators should bear guilt ..."certain individuals should be held accountable, not the party" ... thus german collective guillt for the nazi crimes is excessive and a nationalist socialist party could continue to operate ?

The bad news is that the resolution apparently failed to get the required 2/3ds majority. See the English language section of Vaba Eesti Sona.

This is an important point that EKN might have seen fit to share with us but I suppose they wanted to put the best possible spin on it.

The good news? Well, EKN writes that "...the Assembly focused on the former totalitarian communist regimes of central and Eastern Europe as, without exception, massively violating human rights."

Since these regimes no longer exist they are no longer "massively violating human rights".

I wish EKN would get someone that knows the difference between past and present tense to edit their stuff.

The really bad news is the Maxim seems to be back. Wonder where his buddy Peter is. Maybe he is on winter break in some warm spot.

I must agree that this article is one of the most mealy-mouthed ones I have ever read.

Either Laas or Avo have had a bad day.

It strikes me that Aavo always puts his name on his articles and his stuff is invariably up to scratch.

LL seems to be having quite a few bad days lately. Hope he is not having health problems.

Are you feeling OK Laas? A few of us out there worry about you.

sorry, I was drunk when I submitted the my last commentary.

If one can't attack the essence of a story, then divert the reader to irrelevant issues, namely some vague grammatical or stylistic deficiencies. That's classical KGB-FSB psy-ops. But it's unlikely the FSB would keep electronic surrveillance on an ex-patriot Estonian language web-site. Then one can attribute some of these commentaries to ignorance, lack of self confidence, intellectual impotency, alcohol etc. I'm optimistic that the European Council's Parliamentary Assembly resolution, even though it took prolonged back-room negotiation and debate, is an important milepost in gaining universal condemnation of communist crimes.

Quite frankly Merilo drunk makes more sense than the article does.

The shortcomings in the article go far beyond mere style and grammar.

It wouldn't much matter if it was just some old guy with broken English scribbling on the back of an envelope, but this organization claims to represent all Estonian-Canadians. Surely a little better effort could have been put into this important piece of news.

I cannot see that the FSB would much bother with us, especially given the subject matter which is readily available in the media.

The days when it was convenient to deflect any criticism by suggesting it was KGB disinformation operation are gone so whoever posted this is obviously living in the past.

From the style of the posting and language error I would hazzard a guess that it might be the author of the article himself.

Yes, this was an important milestone. Let us hope that the resolution passes next time and that EKN puts a little more effort into properly conveying the message in this very public forum.

For those of you interested, the background material can be found at

http://assembly.coe.int

Now why coudn't EKN give us this in their article?

Hey there Merilo quite a few of us think you probably would do a better job. Are you willing to take over the honorary consul's job? Itdoesn't pay but you get a few perks such as cheap booze and smokes for parties a couple of times each year. As well, you and the wife get invited to some great parties with others of the same ilk. You also get some prestiege from the red plates on the car but don't for a moment think this is going to provide you or your wife with any type of diplomatic immunity even though some of the older generation may think otherwise.
Unfortunately, many of our community leadership roles lately get filled through acclamation so yes, we get the type of leadership we deserve.
So let us quit complaining and do something positive already.

important article, well written ...... some people can follow lucid thinking

Aside from the convoluted English and grammatical errors which should not be allowed to happen in a published newspaper article (even one published by "ex-patriots"), the most serious fault is that the article fails to note that the resolution did not receive sufficent support to be adopted.

As such, it appears to be dead in the water for some time yet and possibly may never get revived unless pressure is kept up.

This fact is most disheartening and significantly detracts from what would otherwise have been a significnat milepost in getting the free world to fully understand and accept the horrific extent of totalitarian communist regime crimes.

The work done by the Swede who put it together was excellent and should have been carried by the mainline media. Unfortunately, a quick web search indicates that except for EE only the communist organs gave the issue coverage which as can be expected was biased and self serving.

Furthermore, this article did not comment or provide any analysis on why this happened, namely that communists and their fellow travellers still have significant influence at the Council of Europe.

One easily gets an erroneous impression from reading the article that all is well and that communist systems will finally be recognized for what the evil regimes they were and what some still are.

This is not the case and the Baltic States and others that suffered terribly under Communsism are being marginalized because of political expediency and the need to keep the gas and oil flowing to Europe.

I would have expected that EKN being a political outfit would have somebody advising them on political issues such as this.

Come on EKN. We do appreciate your efforts but you can do somewhat better. You might even consider asking somebody with the requisite anylytical and literary skills to volunteer to help.

Go to the above site for a lot of good information on this theme.

Did you catch flak as the head of the TES from people unwilling to contribute, much like Laas has gotten it here?
Laas has his shortcomings, especially in the area of communications; and he can also be laughably pompous. But, can anyone nominate someone who will do a better job? Somehow, I doubt it.
I'd nominate you, Mr.Merilo, but I doubt that you'd consider such an appointment.

Whilst some people here kicked and punched as hard as they could, it seems that in hindsight Peter and Maxim made these columns among the most interesting that EE produced. Their passing is sorely missed, but no-one's really interested in building our Toronto community into a better organized network anyway. It's just sad that now all we have left are the dregs of our community flushing out stupid and petty comments that lead us nowhere.

Montreal Eesti Selts died and is reborn. We have small communities all over Canada and the US, that have survived near extinction yet have come out with new vigour.
I believe we can do it.
Just drop the negativity and back-stabbing!!!
How about a little round of "Eestlane Olen ja Eestlaseks Jään"?
... that's it... caught you smirking!

noh, eesti on nüüd taas vaba ja ikka baltimere idalrannal ... nii et kui soovite olla eestlased, siis ärge nurisege, hea võimalus onn ... tehke midagi !