Mr Chairman of the Commission,
Members of the Commission,
Mr Minister of Transportation,
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press,

In the name of the Republic of Estonia, in the name of my fellow countrymen, and above all in the name of those who perished aboard the Estonia or were rescued from the Estonia, it is my first duty to thank the members of the investigation commission for the work that has lasted over a period of three years. Here in Tallinn today it has come to an end. Nobody but yourselves knows the heavy moral pressure you have felt during the three years of work, in an endeavour to sift through hundreds of thousands of items of evidence in order to separate what the Chairman of the Commission, master mariner Uno Laur, has called the truth, all the truth and nothing but the truth.

I also want to thank the members of the Commission for making the report on the sinking of the Estonia and her passengers available in the form of a book. It is with impatience your report has been waited for, although to date three books have already been published in Estonian on the shipwreck of the Estonia, and outside Estonia at least one film has been shot, which claimed to be a documentary, but rather reminded of a cocktail of Jules Verne and Agatha Christie. Your report, precise and dispassionate, does not contain a single name. The Commission's task was to compile only facts that would provide an account of the tragic night of 28 September 1994 as truthful as is possible with the modern means of investigation, so as to forestall and prevent any recurrence of similar serious accidents. The Commission's report is not a verdict. This is why the Commission's report contains no single name.

Thank you for coming to Tallinn in full strength. The Estonia bore the Estonian blue-black-and-white flag. She was part of the Republic of Estonia. Therefore it is first and foremost our own responsibility to find out how we have managed to fulfil our rights and duties at sea. I am sure the report gives an objective answer to that question as well.

I am aware that the public and the relatives of the perished will want to ask thousands of questions. The answers to all those questions have been assembled between these covers here.

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