Captive Nations Week, 1999

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Part IX

The President

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Proclamation 7209--Captive Nations Week, 1999

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Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 7209 of July 16, 1999

Captive Nations Week, 1999

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

This month Americans mark 223 years of freedom from
tyranny. We celebrate the vision of our founders who,
in signing the Declaration of Independence, proclaimed
the importance of liberty, the value of human dignity,
and the need for a new form of government dedicated to
the will of the people. As heirs to that legacy and the
fortunate citizens of a democratic Nation, we continue
to cherish the values of freedom and equality. Many
people across the globe, however, are still denied the
rights we exercise daily and too often take for
granted. During Captive Nations Week, we reaffirm our
solidarity with those around the world who suffer under
the shadow of dictators and tyrants.

Americans have expressed their devotion to freedom and
human rights through actions as well as words, having
fought and died for these ideals time and again. In
World War II, we battled the brutality of fascism. In
Korea, Vietnam, and throughout the Cold War, we stood
up to the despotism of communism. In the Persian Gulf,
and in partnership with our NATO allies in the skies
over Serbia and Kosovo, we have fought brutal and
oppressive regimes.

Thanks to our strength and resolve and the courage of
countless men and women in countries around the world,
we can be proud that the list of captive nations has
grown smaller. The fall of the Berlin Wall a decade ago
finally enabled us to pursue democratic reform in
Central and Eastern Europe and to lay the firm
foundations of freedom, peace, and prosperity. And in
countries around the world, from South Africa to South
Korea to South America, democracy is flourishing, and
citizens enjoy the liberty to seek their own destiny.

The post-Cold War world, however, confronts us with a
new set of dangers to freedom--threats such as civil
wars, terrorism, and ethnic cleansing. There are still
rulers in the world who refuse to join the march toward
freedom, who believe that the only way to govern is
with an iron fist, and who rely on reprehensible
practices like arbitrary detention, forced labor,
torture, and execution to subjugate their people.

As we observe this Captive Nations Week, let us once
again reaffirm our profound commitment to freedom and
universal human rights. Let us continue to promote
tolerance, justice, and equality and to speak out for
those who have no voice. Let us rededicate ourselves to
the growth of democracy and the rule of law; and let us
resolve that in the next century we will foster the
further expansion of the rights and freedoms with which
Americans have been blessed for so long.

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, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, do hereby proclaim July 18
through July 24, 1999, as Captive Nations Week. I call
upon the people of the United States to observe this
week with appropriate ceremonies and activities and to
rededicate ourselves to supporting the cause of
freedom, human rights, and self-determination for all
the peoples of the world.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
sixteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord nineteen
hundred and ninety-nine, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and twenty-
fourth.