For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
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.
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.
GEORGE W. BUSH
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