On Saturday, June 14^th, President Valdis Zatlers participated in various events marking Remembrance Day for the Victims of Communist Genocide, emphasizing the necessity of continuing to actively inform the world about this period in the history of Latvia.

Opening a conference organized in connection with the exhibit "Children of Siberia," President Zatlers focused on the importance of collecting and publishing personal histories from the period and teaching them in the schools. "June 14^th, 1941, was a terrible day in the history of our nation, when 15,000 persons were brutally torn from their everyday lives. There were 4,000 children under age 16 among the deportees. The question is: why? For what? Why children? We all know the answer – it was necessary for the imposition of a brutal, merciless plan by an imperial power. It was necessary for the destruction of the Latvian state," the President said. He also reminded the audience that the Year of Horror began not on June 14^th, 1941, but on the 17^th of June in 1940, with arrests and murders. The President observed that these crimes were closely connected to an agreement between two great powers, and that Latvia was only a part of this plan. "We must tell everyone about what happened at the middle of the last century, explaining the tragedy we suffered. You – both you who stayed in Siberia and you who survived – proved perfectly clearly that the Latvian state cannot be destroyed," Dr. Zatlers said. "I bow my head before you in deep respect, for the fact that we have a country is your doing."

In remembering the victims of Communist genocide, the President placed flowers at the Freedom Monument and spoke to those present, again emphasizing what the nation suffered under two occupation regimes and the tragedy experienced by thousands of families on June 14^th, 1941. The President also participated in the unveiling of a statue called "The Orphan" in the square opposite Riga Castle.

President's Chancery