What we did know was this: Had they summoned up their courage \u2013 or let their desperation gain the upper hand \u2013 to use military force against a nation unarmed, we would have experienced a bloodbath on a horrendous scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
But if they could be restrained \u2013 at the brink of the abyss \u2013 we knew it would be the beginning of the end of empire; and the end of the beginning of the irresistable movement towards the restoration of freedom and independence for Lithuania and all of the Baltic countries.<\/p>\n
Now we know what happened.<\/p>\n
The rest is history.<\/p>\n
2.<\/b><\/p>\n
I arrived in Vilnius during the 3d week of January 1991 at the urgent insistence of president Landsbergis, who at that time feared for the worst. He insisted that the presence of a NATO foreign minister \u2013 as an act of solidarity \u2013 mattered.<\/p>\n
And what did I see?<\/p>\n
I saw the president of the Seimas on alert, day and night; I saw a few scores of volunteers inside this building with rifles, ready to sacrifice their lives against an expected and overwhelming force; I saw this building barricaded by blocks of stones and trucks, set up for resisting the coming onslaught.<\/p>\n
And when I wandered into the streets and squares of Vilnius \u2013 during those bleak winter nights \u2013 I looked into the eyes of the people \u2013 trying to keep warm by the bonfires \u2013 who calmly left me in no doubt, that despite the overwhelming odds, they would never give up. They would stand their ground, come what may.<\/p>\n
This was a moment of truth \u2013 and beauty. I shall never forget it, as long as I live.<\/p>\n
3.<\/b><\/p>\n
A decade and two years later we gather in this historic \u2013 and once beleaguered \u2013 building, to celebrate the rewards of freedom.<\/p>\n
To the guest\u00b4s eye the transfomation that has already occurred, is beyond our wildest dreams; knowing full well that we \u201eain\u00b4t seen nothing yet\u201c \u2013 compared to the as yet unrealized opportunities for reconstruction and developement in the Baltic Sea region. With the pace of reform so far achieved noone doubts that this region will see, in the near future, a profound transformation in the quality of life and the wellbeing of the people of the Baltic states.<\/p>\n
That is the reward of the courage of your conviction and the blessing of your hardwon freedom.<\/p>\n
At the historic NATO-summit in Prague in November Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were welcomed into the new security structure of a united and peaceful Europe. And in Copenhagen, a few weeks ago, another historic decision was made, meaning that the Baltic states will once again rejoin the European family of democratic nations.<\/p>\n
At long last the ghosts of the past have been laid to rest.<\/p>\n
Together we can now face the future with confidence and optimism, firmly based on new realities. It is indeed \u2013 a cause for celebration.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1.<\/b><\/p>\n
For someone who has been here \u2013 a few days after \u201eBloody Sunday\u201c,January 13th, 1991 \u2013 returning to Vilnius is still today an emotionally charged experience. The questions that were uppermost in our minds at that time were those: Would Stalin\u00b4s inheritors in the Kremlin make another attempt at turning back the clock of history? Or had they lost their nerve to use force to impose their will?<\/p>\n
At that moment we did not know. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-allar_greinar","category-articles-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jbh.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jbh.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jbh.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jbh.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jbh.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1453"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jbh.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2970,"href":"https:\/\/jbh.is\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1453\/revisions\/2970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jbh.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jbh.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jbh.is\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}