At its annual general meeting held in Bocholt, Germany on April 1, 2006, the Estonian World Council unanimously adopted a resolution on the issue of the activities of the Estonian Communist Party during the years of Soviet occupation. The following is a translation of the resolution.
……….In his choice of recipients for state decorations and orders, the President of the Republic of Estonia equated functionaries of the occupation with those who actually advanced the cause of Estonian independence.
Such conspicuous promotion of representatives of a foreign totalitarian regime is troubling for democratically minded Estonian citizens and is an insult to genuine freedom fighters, who risked their lives in the name of truth and justice.
Both the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Parliament of the Republic of Estonia have declared the occupying communist party as a criminal organization with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and its local affiliate, the Estonian Communist Party bearing responsibility.
Consequently, in a normal democracy, it’s necessary to disclose the activities of the individuals in power during the occupation in Estonia and if needed have the collaborators bear responsibility - not to reward them.
The Estonian World Council recommends that the representatives of the former occupation regime and its collaborators not vie for political office in the Republic of Estonia until a requisite, comprehensive cleansing has been completed.
JAAK JUHANSOO
President, Estonian World Council;
Association of Estonian Societies in Australia;
Estonian Association in the German Federal Republic;
Estonian Association in England;
Estonian Central Council in Canada;
Estonian Club in Czechoslovakia;
Estonian Federation in Sweden;
Estonian National Committee in the United States;
Estonian Societies in Ukraine;
Federation of Estonian Societies in Russia;
Latvian Estonian Association;
Lithuanian Estonian Association.
The above was based on a similar resolution adopted by the annual meeting of the Estonian Central Council in Canada on March 4, 2006 in Toronto.