Remembering victims with honor: two memorials--one in Lithuania and one in the United States--bear witness to the victims of communist atrocities, but the honor shown in Lithuania seems more sincere.(EUROPE)

The Vilnius TV Tower is an imposing structure. At more than 1,000 feet tall, it is the tallest building in Lithuania and the one reference point one can see from any place in Vilnius, the capital city. Like Seattle's Space Needle (but 400 feet taller), it features a revolving skyline restaurant with a breathtaking view. On a clear day, the visibility range is more than 40 miles.

For the people of Lithuania, however, the Vilnius TV Tower is more than a sightseeing attraction for viewing the cityscape and surrounding countryside; it is a shrine to the martyrs of January 13, 1991. Standing in the shadow of the tower on a bright, sunny day in June, with tourists in casual summer attire strolling by and a group of school children chattering brightly, this writer found the grim events of that cold winter day difficult to imagine.

This was the site of Lithuania's equivalent of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. On this hallowed ground 16 years ago, unarmed men, women, and children linked arms and refused to flee before Soviet troops armed with clubs, guns, and tanks. As in Beijing, the communist troops opened fire and tank treads crushed the life from heroic souls. On January 13, 1991, this ground was baptized in blood. Fourteen died, hundreds more were injured. The most famous of these martyrs is Loreta Asanaviciute, the only female victim to die. A beautiful 23-year-old seamstress who was engaged to be married, Loreta was run over by a Soviet tank. Her horrifying experience, captured on film by a news photographer, shocked the world. Film footage later showed the young heroine asking ambulance team members, "Am I going to die? Will I be able to have children?" She died hours later.

The series of events that led to the January 13 bloodshed began several months earlier, on March 11, 1990, when Lithuania declared its independence from the Soviet Union. This courageous action began a period of escalating tension between the small nation and the communist rulers in the Kremlin. On January 8, 1991, Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev sent the infamous KGB Alpha Group and the Russian 76th Airborne Division into Lithuania to restore "constitutional order." Yes, this is the same Mikhail Gorbachev who, in 1990, received the Nobel Peace Prize and world media adulation, and in 1988 was hailed as Time magazine's "Man of the Year."

With evidence mounting of Moscow's intent to forcibly retake control of the country, Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis called upon the Lithuanian people to surround the main government buildings. On January 11 and 12, Soviet military units began seizing buildings, focusing first on the national Defense Department, police stations, and media facilities. Thousands of people rallied to surround the parliament and the television tower, their media communications lifeline to the outside world.

Today, a museum on the ground floor of the Vilnius TV Tower commemorates the brave stand of January 13, while outside an assortment of large handcrafted crosses, carved in the traditional Lithuanian style, pay homage to those who sacrificed their lives. On the same day that I stood on that special ground, a half a world away these victims and a hundred million more like them were remembered at a ceremony dedicating the new Victims of Communism Memorial. The monument is a 10-foot bronze replica of the Goddess of Democracy statue erected by the students in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989. It is small by comparison to other memorials in Washington, D.C., and ...