Foreign Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
CENTRAL EUROPE
SHARON SPEAKS AT AUSCHWITZ MEMORIAL GATHERING
OSWIECIM, Poland – Prime Minister Sharon of Israel, addressing a Holocaust memorial gathering yesterday at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex, said people should remember that the world stood silent while 6 million Jews were murdered. Some 18,000 people – a number chosen to symbolize the Hebrew word for life, “Chai” – participated in this year’s March of the Living on a cold, gray day. It was the largest group to attend the memorial since it began in 1988. “Remember the victims and remember the murders. Remember how millions of Jews were led to their deaths and the world remained silent,” Mr. Sharon said in a speech directed to the many teenagers and young adults in the crowd. “The world stood aside then in silence. Remember. You are free Jewish youth,” he said. Mr. Sharon, accompanied by 20 survivors of the Holocaust and their grandchildren, joined thousands of people in the annual memorial for the victims of the biggest World War II death camp.
– Associated Press
EASTERN EUROPE
BUSH CALLS BELARUS EUROPE’S ‘LAST REMAINING DICTATORSHIP’
VILNIUS, Lithuania – President Bush told Lithuanian TV that Belarus is the “last remaining dictatorship in Europe” and that America will work with countries in the region to ensure that the next elections there are free. The former Soviet republic is run by its authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko. “One of the roles the United States can play is to speak fairly about the need for Belarus to be free … and make sure that the elections are free,” Mr. Bush said in an interview broadcast yesterday and recorded the previous day in Washington. “That is the last remaining dictatorship in Europe,” Mr. Bush said. The next presidential elections in Belarus are set for 2006. “We will work with you, countries in the neighborhood, the free countries in the world, to insist for the free elections,” the president said. During a visit to Lithuania two weeks ago, Secretary of State Rice met with Belarusian dissidents and called for change in Belarus, which Mr. Lukashenko has ruled for 11 years.
– Associated Press
