Berlin Wall's fall inspires campaign for justice

The Brandenburg Gate and the dominos are illuminated on November 9 in Berlin during the celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former Polish President Lech Walesa pose at the Boesebrucke bridge during the celebration while a file photo shows people climb on the Berlin Wall while it was pulled down in 1989. PHOTO: AFP, Internet

A Berlin Wall anniversary plea by world leaders for a new fight against 'tyranny' was hailed on Tuesday as Germany cleared away its dominoes of freedom.
"Even the sky was weeping with joy," screamed a headline in the mass circulation Bild -- a reference to the driving rain throughout the "Freedom Party" on Monday which drew more than 100,000 revellers to the route of the Berlin Wall that was torn down 20 years ago.
November 9 "was the happiest day in recent German history," Chancellor Angela Merkel said in parliament on Tuesday. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said November 9 had become the new unofficial national German day.
In emotion-charged speeches evoking the night when the Wall, a symbol of the Cold War division of Europe, was torn down without a shot fired, world leaders said Berliners' spirit should inspire a new campaign for justice.
In a surprise video address that delighted the cheering crowds, US President Barack Obama said: "Today, there are still those who live within the walls of tyranny, human beings that are denied the very human rights that we celebrate today."
"That is why this day is for them as much as it is for us."
"The fall of the Berlin Wall is an appeal, an appeal to all to vanquish oppression, to knock down the walls that throughout the world still divide towns, territories, peoples," said French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the world's oppressed should draw inspiration from the East Germans who broke the shackles of their communist regime and forced their way peacefully to freedom.
Merkel, who grew up in East Germany, called for a new "world order" to combat global problems such as climate change and crises on the financial markets.
The global leaders of today and luminaries of 1989 including the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Solidarity trade union chief Lech Walesa joined the leaders to watch the fall of more than 1,000 styrofoam dominoes which traced the Berlin Wall route.