The crimes of communism are well documented and yet, throughout Eastern Europe, justice and retribution have rarely touched those responsible. After 20 years since the fall of communism, most of the perpetrators are still at large while the memory of the murders, abuses, humiliation is slowly fading away. Various policies that were meant to exorcize this terrible past and hold the pillars of the system accountable have had a mixed impact.
Romania is the only country in the world where the criminal nature of communism was acknowledged officially by the country's highest political authority. In December 2006, Traian Basescu, the President of Romania, addressed the Parliament on this issue explicitly defining communism as a criminal system and thus triggering a series of unprecedented legal consequences.
The statement was based on the findings of a 600-page, much-debated Report put forward by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Communist Crimes, chaired by Professor Vladimir Tismaneanu of the University of Maryland.
Professor Tismaneanu, recently appointed President of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of the Romanian Exile, will discuss the many implications of condemning communism in Romania and elsewhere in Eastern Europe together with several respected scholars: Robert Service, Professor of Political Science at St Antony's College, Oxford University, Dennis Deletant, Professor of Romanian Studies, UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, and Dr John Gledhill of London School of Economics, specialist in Romanian politics.
The conference will benefit by the presence of HE Dr Ion Jinga, the Ambassador of Romania to the Court of St James's.
After the conference, we will offer a cocktail in honour of our distinguished guests.
When: Monday, 7 June 2010, 6.30pm;
Where: Romanian Cultural Institute, London
Admission is free. Please reserve your seats at T: 020 7752 0134, E: office@icr-london.co.uk.
