Selected Responses to the 2002 Leipzig Award for Alain Vivien on May 11,
2002
I thank you for your letter of April 11, 2002 to the
German President
and for your
invitation to attend the Leipzig Human Rights Award on May 11, 2002.
The Leipzig Human Rights Award deserves high recognition. With
this award you are making a contribution that serves the public interest
and that
gives the public a stronger glimpse into human rights. The President
would
himself have liked to have added to this, but unfortunately his schedule
will not
permit it, despite the best of intentions.
For today, may I wish you great success with the Leipzig Human Rights
Award.
Cordially yours,
Rüdiger Frohn
Chief
of the Federal Presidential Office
First I would like to express my totally sincere appreciation for the
invitation
to attend the 3rd Human Rights Award in Leipzig. (...) In this way I
would
like to ask you to impart my heartiest congratulations to Minister Alain
Vivien
for his honor. I personally wish him and his dedicated team health,
all
manner of conceivable good and a surge of strength in continuing their
work, which
is important to everybody.
Wishing you all a pleasant stay in the City of the East German civil
rights movement,
I remain cordially yours,
Monika Schulz, Member of the
State
Parliament, political spokesperson of the CDU faction in the Brandenburg
State
Assemble for Welfare, Families and Women
Foto Ute Gandow |
Many thanks for your friendly invitation to attend the 2002 Leipzig
Human Rights
Award as a guest of honor. Unfortunately I cannot be there on May
11.
You have made a very good choice with French Minister Alain Vivien
I wish you continued success and great strength in your dedicated and
important
work in the realm of the Berlin Dialogue Center. Whenever I can be
of assistance
there, you can count on my support. I hope things go well for you at
the
human rights award ceremony on May 11.
Cordially yours,
Hans Peter Bartels (SPD)
Member of the German Bundestag
I wish for Alain Vivien, the award recipient, to have God's blessing
for this
day and for his continued work - and to you all a day of thanks to give
you courage
and strength for further progress in your work and in the struggle for
human rights.
Helga Tettenborn, Berlin
We at the former "Fürstenberg ohne Psychosekte" would like to send
a word
of thanks and greetings on the occasion of this year's 2002 human rights
award
for Minister Alain Vivien. We of the citizens initiative especially
owe
a debt of gratitude to Dr. Blüm and Rev. Gandow for their
contributions in
thwarting the plans of the TM movement to settle down in our Brandenburg
City
of Fürstenberg/Havel. We went as petitioners to last
year's award ceremony in June 2001 to ask Dr. Blüm for assistance
in
warding off the TM movement. The kind words of encouragement we
received
there served as motivation to once again make our way down the path of
dispute
with the TM movement in spite of all hindrances.
It was not until the end of 2001, after much information work and a
petition
operation, that enough public pressure was brought to bear on the city
representatives
so that they stopped looking at the millions in investments TM cult had
dangled
before them long enough to disapprove of it. Once again many thanks
for
your multilateral support.
Dr. Kerstin Schumann, R. Dazsenies, H. Altfeld
formerly the "Fü
rstenberg
ohne Psychosekte" citizens
In view of my involvement in human rights issues, I would have also
liked to
participate in the Leipzig Human Rights Award ceremony, and I was very
happy to
have received your cordial invitation as a guest of honor. Due to
prior
commitments on that date, however, I cannot participate in this solemn
occasion.
All the more reason for me to support the the award for Minister Alain
Vivien
at least by adding my name to the tabula gratulatoria. I wish you
and Minister
Alain Vivien especially a very enjoyable ceremony.
Cordially yours,
Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger,
MP Federal Minister, ret.
You have my heartfelt thanks for your letter of April 11, 2002, as well
as
for your cordial invitation to participate in the May 11, 2002 Leipzig
Human Rights
award for Minister Alain Vivien in the Old Stock Exchange in
Leipzig. I
was very happy to receive your invitation, for which I regret all the more
that
it will not be possible for me to attend due to prior commitments, for
which I
ask your understanding. In this way I wish everything goes well at
the award
ceremony and I remain cordially yours,
Dr. Angela
Merkel
Chairwoman of the CDU of Germany
In the name of the president of the Fédération
Européenne
des Centres de Recherche et d'Information sur le Sectarisme (FECRIS), Mr.
Jean
Nokin, I thank Mr. Alain Vivien for his farsighted pioneer work that he
did as
French minister and continued to do as founder and director of the
"Mission Interministerielle
de Lutte contre les Sectes" (MILS).
Mr. Vivien also had a decisive part in getting the associated,
precedent-breaking
law through the French legislature this last year.
He is also to thank for FECRIS being subsidized by the French state so
that
extensive work in coordinating measures as to the risks and warnings about
destructive
cults can continue in the majority of European states.
Other countries in Europe would do well to pursue the matter with the
same
energy and the same dedication by founding national centers based on the
MILS
model and by cooperating at the European level. This would be of
great importance
for all our futures.
FECRIS
As the private Austrian "Gesellschaft gegen Sekten- und Kultgefahren"
we, personally
and in the name of our President, Mrs. Prof. Dr. Brigitte Rollett, point
out how
important cooperation among state agencies is for us in public information
work
about the risks associated with destructive cults and also how much we
value the
international cooperation of these state agencies, in which Mr. Alain
Vivien,
as director of "Mission Interministerielle de Lutte contre les Sectes"
(MILS),
has doubtlessly played a leading role. Therefore you may include our
heartfelt
gratitude for his methodical courageous efforts.
Gesellschaft gegen Sekten- und
Kultgefahren,
Österreich
Many thanks for your kind words and for the invitation to the 2002
Human Rights
Award in Leipzig! I had resolved to participate. Unfortunately
I must
now cancel because I overlooked the fact that I have to be in Rostock as
committee
member of the Bundesschiedgericht of the Bü 90/ Greens on May 10
and
11. That obligation was made months ago. I wish you a good ceremony
and
many interesting guests! Perhaps we can make it next year?
Sincerely yours,
Katharina Doyé, board member of the state association
Brandenburg Bündnis 90/The Greens
Many thanks for your invitation for May 11, 2002. I would have
liked
to have gone and been at the ceremony, but regrettably I will not be able
to.
With best wishes, together with my hopes for continued success in the
Committee's
work, I remain cordially yours,
Reinhold Schaube
,
MdHBü (Mitglied der Hamburger Bürgerschaft) |