[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 19 (Thursday, February 13, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H568-H569]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO THE PEOPLE OF LITHUANIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 7, 1997, the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Shimkus] is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the people 
of Lithuania, who, through tireless perseverance, are celebrating their 
independence on Sunday, February 16.
  Referred to as the crossroads of Europe, with the geographical center 
of Europe just to the north of the capital of Vilnius, Lithuania is a 
fascinating and diverse country rich in history and tradition. I am 
proud to be a descendent of a Lithuanian immigrant to the United 
States. My great grandfather, Casper Shimkus, came to this country in 
hopes of finding the American Dream. It is my pleasure to carry on his 
name and his Lithuanian heritage, a heritage strong in work ethic, 
personal responsibility, and the ability to overcome adversity.
  As Americans, there are certain rights we take for granted, all of 
which can be found in our Bill of Rights. Lithuanians have struggled 
for these rights, a struggle which has expanded the centuries.
  Since the founding of the first Lithuanian state in 1236, Lithuania 
has been occupied by czarist Russia for a majority of the time, an 
occupation which lasted continuously from 1795 to 1915. During that 
time, the people of Lithuania were subjected to many hardships, 
including being unable to use the Latin alphabet, lack of religious 
freedom, and desecration of their cultural identity.
  With the collapse of czarist Russia at the end of World War I, 
Lithuanians took advantage of the opportunity to regain their 
independence. On February 16, 1918, the Lithuanian National Council met 
and declared the restoration of Lithuania's independence. After 
defending itself against foreign armies traveling across the territory 
after the war, by the early 1920's Lithuania was a free nation 
rebuilding its own political culture and economic life.
  This freedom was short-lived for the Lithuanian people. On August 23, 
1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany entered into a pact which 
placed Lithuania in the Soviets' sphere of influence. On June 15, 1940, 
in violation of international law, the Soviet Union invaded Lithuania. 
The occupation by the Soviet Union lasted for about 1 year until Nazi 
Germany forced the Soviets out and then occupied this country.

                              {time}  1545

  It was during the next 3 years of Nazi occupation that most of 
Lithuania's 200,000 Jewish citizens were murdered. After the fall of 
Nazi Germany, the Soviets stepped in and again occupied Lithuania. 
However, the idea of an independent Lithuania never died. In the late 
1980's, as changes were taking place throughout the Soviet Union, 
Lithuanians organized a powerful independence movement.
  After four decades of suppression of their culture and heritage, the 
Lithuanian people rose up in peaceful protest. The continued protest 
and push for independence finally culminated in 1990, with 
proindependence candidates winning a clear majority in elections to the 
Parliament of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. On March 11, 
1990, the reestablishment of an independent Lithuanian State was 
proclaimed. After a final, unsuccessful coup attempt by a few Soviet 
military units in 1991, Lithuania took its rightful place in the 
international community as a vibrant, independent country.
  Now led by a parliamentary democracy, the determined Lithuanian 
people are beginning to feel the full benefits of freedom, religious 
freedom, a taste of democracy, and movement toward an effective free 
market economy. The United States must lend its full support to not 
only Lithuania, but to all the Baltic States now. This is not the time 
for our administration to waver on its position toward the Baltics.
  With the instability of the political situation in Russia, it is in 
the long-term interest of the United States to promote democracy and 
free markets

[[Page H569]]

in the region, in hopes that it may counteract possible instability. It 
is now time for the United States to recognize the struggle the 
Lithuanians have had for freedom and democracy, and support these brave 
people for their determination and moral principles they exemplify, 
rather than sidestep the issue so that we do not jeopardize our 
relationship with Russia.
  At this time, Lithuania is looking for an invitation for at least one 
Baltic country in the first round of NATO enlargement at the Madrid 
summit this July. This invitation would promote an alliance between 
Western ideas and the Baltic region, providing security so that the 
Baltic States may continue with their pro-Democratic reforms.
  As Americans in the post-cold-war era, we all should be trying to 
promote peace, democracy, and free-market enterprise in the region, 
which could be achieved with the NATO expansion, including part of the 
Baltic States. It is for these reasons that I am a strong supporter of 
the concurrent resolution offered by the gentleman from New York [Mr. 
Solomon], recommending the integration of Estonia, Latvia, and 
Lithuania into NATO.
  Most of all, Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate all 
Lithuanians on their independence, and ask that my colleagues join in 
supporting this proud Nation. The fate of their liberty now rests on 
the determination of the Lithuanian people to preserve and protect a 
democratic government. As Americans, we should not only congratulate 
this country for their newly emerging democracy, but support their 
efforts to become a member of NATO.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California [Mr. Cox].
  Mr. COX of California. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to join with my 
colleague, the gentleman from Illinois, and with my other colleagues in 
the U.S. House of Representatives, in recognizing Lithuanian 
Independence Day this Sunday.
  Lithuanian independence, of course, is not something that the people 
of Lithuania and the people of the free world won from the Soviet 
Union. It is something that Lithuania declared for itself 79 years ago, 
in 1918. What Lithuania did in my lifetime, and something in which I am 
proud to have participated, was to reassert successfully that 
independence, to do so at a time when the Soviet Union was not so 
vulnerable as looking back in history it might appear to us it was.
  At the end of the 21st century, it now must appear obvious to 
everyone that the Soviet Union was inevitably going to collapse of its 
own weight. But the Red army was very strong in the 1980's, and the 
Black Berets were very strong and intimidating in the 1980's.
  The truth is that even under those policies of glasnost and 
perestroika, that Mikhail Gorbachev advanced with such public relations 
flare throughout the rest of the world, the boot of the Red army was 
heavy and brutal indeed.
  I traveled to Lithuania just after what now is known by history as 
Bloody Sunday, and the Black Berets murdered so many Lithuanians who 
were working toward reestablishment of their independence that we will 
celebrate once again on Sunday.
  The truth is that the free people, now the free people of Lithuania--
and Freedom House has just rated Lithuania as a free nation 
objectively, using the standards they used to measure relative freedom 
throughout the world--the free people of Lithuania did something far 
more than establish their own independence, their own civil rights, 
their own civil liberties, their own human rights and personal 
liberties.
  They did something for all of us. They helped tip the balance at that 
very, very key moment in history against communism, against the Soviet 
Empire; and Lithuania, more than any other people, is responsible for 
helping topple the Soviet Empire. Lithuania was part of that empire, 
unwillingly, of course. It was a captive nation.
  Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia have enjoyed a special neighborly bond 
over a period of many, many years. This Sunday, on Lithuanian 
Independence Day, there will be hoisted in Vilnius not just the 
standard of the Lithuanian nation, but also its Baltic neighbors, 
Latvia and Estonia, to show Baltic solidarity. Lithuania wants very 
much to hasten its integration, its reintegration, into the community 
of Europe.
  As my colleague, the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Shimkus] has so 
properly pointed out, that should include Europe's security 
arrangements, and it should include NATO. He and I and many of our 
colleagues in this body, Democrats and Republicans, have been urging 
that this 1999 date be accelerated, that we not prolong a process that 
should be taking place much more quickly, and that Hungary and Poland 
and the Czech Republic, for starters, be admitted to NATO on a much 
more rapid timetable, and that the Baltics very soon afterward be 
admitted as well.
  Thinking back to the key events that led to the reassertion of 
Lithuania's independence, it is remarkable more than anything else to 
me to think of who was the unlikely general that led that battle 
against the Red army.
  The most inspiring image for me is that of a piano teacher, a piano 
teacher at the Conservatory of Music in Vilnius. His name is Doctor, 
because he is that, of course, by his educational training, Vytautus 
Landsbergis. Vytautus Landsbergis headed up Sajudis, fighting for human 
rights, fighting for freedom, fighting for democracy, well before the 
successful reestablishment of Lithuanian independence.

  I had a chance early on, after I got elected to Congress in 1989, to 
work with him in that fight. I had a chance to be with him on election 
night when he was elected President of Lithuania. It was a very, very 
inspiring thing. But it was not very easy for me to get into Lithuania, 
because I and the handful of congressional colleagues, that attempted 
to travel to Lithuania with me as observers of this election, were kept 
out by the Soviet Union.
  This was not some casual bureaucratic dismissal of the travel plans 
of some Members of Congress, this was a decision taken at the highest 
level by Edward Shevardnadze, who is the Foreign Minister of the Soviet 
Union, and by the Supreme Soviet, which voted to keep us out.
  We were held in East Berlin for a prolonged period, until finally, 
around midnight on election night, we were able to get in, and 
President-elect Landsbergis and all of the Sajudis leaders who were 
with him met us on the tarmac in the middle of the night, and we 
embraced. It was very, very emotional. It was a thrill for the reason 
that I mentioned earlier, not just because there had been a free 
election in Lithuania, and because the people finally had spoken after 
so many years of being made slaves by their Communist overlords, but 
because here was the official commencement of the collapse of the 
Soviet Empire.
  The rest of the world started to awaken to the fact that the Soviet 
Union was finished on that night. It has not been easy for Lithuania in 
the wake of that very emotional success. Lithuania has had to work hard 
to reestablish the rule of law and the fundamentals of free enterprise 
that make human prosperity possible. They have been doing a good job of 
it, but they can do a better job, and in future elections I think we 
will see the forces of democracy and the forces of free enterprise 
doing even better.
  Integration into NATO, in my view, is a way to institutionalize that 
movement. It is very important for us to keep raising that point, 
because in 1997, that is one of the significant ways that our foreign 
policy and the foreign policy of Europe and the foreign policy of the 
Baltics intersect.
  I will just remark to my colleague, the gentleman from Illinois, how 
proud I am to be here with a member of Lithuanian ancestry, direct 
Lithuanian ancestry, because it has been my privilege to be made an 
honorary Lithuanian. I have not done this by birth. But I am so proud 
of the associations that I have with Lithuanian-Americans and the 
people in Lithuania that I have met on my multiple trips there. I want 
to thank the gentleman very much, and offer my good wishes to him as he 
continues to be a leader on this subject in the Congress.
  Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.

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