[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 139 (Friday, July 19, 2002)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 47677-47678]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-18556]



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Part V





The President





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Proclamation 7577--Captive Nations Week, 2002
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  Federal Register / Vol. 67, No. 139 / Friday, July 19, 2002 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

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                Proclamation 7577 of July 17, 2002

                
Captive Nations Week, 2002

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                The United States is proud to stand on the side of 
                brave people everywhere who seek the same freedoms upon 
                which our Nation was founded. Each year, during Captive 
                Nations Week, we reaffirm our determination to work for 
                freedom around the globe. Created against the backdrop 
                of the Cold War, the importance and power of Captive 
                Nations Week continues to resonate in today's world.

                In too many corners of the earth, freedom and 
                independence are the victims of dictators driven by 
                hatred, fear, designs of ethnic superiority, religious 
                intolerance, and xenophobia. These despots deny their 
                citizens the liberty and justice that is the birthright 
                of all people. Some governments, such as those in North 
                Korea, Iraq, and Iran, starve their people, take away 
                their voices, traffic in terror, and threaten the world 
                with weapons of mass destruction. In many other places, 
                from Burma to Belarus, Cuba and Zimbabwe, people are 
                denied the most basic rights to speak in freedom, and 
                their daily lives are haunted by the fear of the secret 
                police.

                This week, America reaffirms our solidarity with and 
                support for people living under conditions of 
                servitude. They are the nonnegotiable demands of human 
                dignity. History teaches us that when people are given 
                a choice between freedom and tyranny, freedom will win. 
                Recently, the world saw this in Afghanistan, where 
                people took to the streets to celebrate the fall of 
                their Taliban oppressors. Those in other lands seeking 
                to unshackle themselves from dictatorship will also 
                have America's support.

                Twenty years ago, President Ronald Reagan said before 
                the British Parliament at Westminster that ``our 
                mission today (is) to preserve freedom as well as 
                peace. It may not be easy to see; but I believe we live 
                now at a turning point.'' These words were a prelude to 
                the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Today, as the 
                events of September 11 made clear, we are at another 
                turning point, where the world faces the prospect of 
                dictators supplying the world's most dangerous weapons 
                to their terrorist allies. These terrorists aspire to 
                impose their brutal will on freedom loving people 
                everywhere.

                One of our greatest strengths in this struggle against 
                a world of fear, chaos, and captivity is our commitment 
                to standing alongside people everywhere determined to 
                build a world of freedom, dignity, and tolerance. This 
                week America affirms its commitment to helping those in 
                captive nations achieve democracy.

                The Congress, by Joint Resolution approved July 17, 
                1959, (73 Stat. 212), has authorized and requested the 
                President to issue a proclamation designating the third 
                week in July of each year as ``Captive Nations Week.''

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United 
                States, do hereby proclaim July 21 through 27, 2002, as 
                Captive Nations Week. I call upon the people of the 
                United States to observe this week with appropriate 
                ceremonies and activities and to reaffirm their 
                devotion to the aspirations of all peoples for liberty, 
                justice, and self-determination.

[[Page 47678]]

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                seventeenth day of July, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand two, and of the Independence of the United 
                States of America the two hundred and twenty-seventh.

                    (Presidential Sig.)B

[FR Doc. 02-18556
Filed 7-18-02; 11:23 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P