Details

THE COMMUNIST CRIMES AND EUROPE’S COMMON HISTORY

Sheraton Sofia Hotel Balkan, 28. 01. 2009, 09.00 – 15.00 h

9.00 – 9.30 Registration participants and guests to be seated

9.30 -10.00 Opening speeches

10.00 – 12.00 Panel A.

COMMUNIST CRIMES, RESPONSIBILITY AND MEMORY

Topics:

•Recognition that many crimes committed in the name of Communism should be assessed as crimes against humanity serving as a warning for future generations, in the same way Nazi crimes were assessed by the Nuremberg Tribunal

•European and international pressure for effective condemnation of the past Communist crimes and for efficient fight against ongoing Communist crimes

•Establishment of an Institute of European Memory and Conscience

•Adjustment and overhaul of European history textbooks so that children could learn and be warned about Communism and its crimes in the same way as they have been taught to assess the Nazi crimes

•Joint commemoration of 20th anniversaries of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the massacre in Tiananmen Square.

Speakers:

•Dimitar Penchev, former political prisoner, Bulgaria

•Vera Lengsfeld, former Member of The German Bundestag, Germany

•Sükrü Altay, Federation Justice – Bulgaria, representative of the Turkish minority, Bulgaria/Turkey

•Yavor Dachkov, Journalist, Glasove Newspaper, Bulgaria

•Hristo Hristov, Journalist, Dnevnik Newspaper, Bulgaria

•Ekaterina Boncheva, Member of the Commission for disclosure of the archives of the former totalitarian secret service Durzhavna Sigurnost, Bulgaria

•Gudrun Steinacker, Deputy Ambassador, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Sofia

•Moderator: Dimitrina Pandurova, Journalist, Europa TV, Bulgaria

Discussion: 11.15 – 12.00

12.00 – 12.30 Coffee break

12.30 – 14.30 Panel B

RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE NATIONAL PARLIAMENTS AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Topics:

•Many of the perpetrators committing crimes in the name of Communism have not yet been brought to justice and their victims have not yet been compensated

•Responsible attitudes of National Parliaments as regards acknowledgement of Communist crimes as crimes against humanity, leading to the appropriate legislation, and to the parliamentary monitoring of such legislation

•The need of introduction of legislation that would enable courts of law to judge and sentence perpetrators of Communist crimes and to compensate victims of Communism

•Adoption of Appeal of the Conference participants, addressing the political parties in the European Union not to nominate former agents of the communist secret services for candidates at the European Parliament elections 2009 and calling on the EU citizens not to vote for such candidates

•Adoption of Address of the Conference participants to the citizens of Bulgaria

Speakers:

•Gisela Kallenbach, Member of the European Parliament, Germany

•Vasil Kadrinov, Director of Hannah Arendt Center in Sofia, Bulgaria

•Petar Penchev, The Anna Politkovskaya Association for Freedom of Speech, Bulgaria

•Mimoza Dimitrova, Director of ACET – Assistance Center for Torture Survivors, Bulgaria

•Georgi Lozanov, Doctor in Philosophy, Bulgaria

•Stoycho Katsarov, Citizens Initiative Spravedlivost, Bulgaria

Moderator: Evgeni Genchev, ACET - Assistance Center for Torture Survivors, Bulgaria

Discussion: 13.45 – 14.30

14.30 – 15.00 Closing of the Conference