1988: A LOOK BACK: East-West relations (12/25/88)

1988: A LOOK BACK

East-West relations

At the Vienna Conference reviewing implementation of the 1975 Helsinki Accords - which has been meeting since November of 1986 - Western states have held their ground, insisting on Soviet compliance with the human rights provisions of the 1975 agreement.

In late January, Western states stressed that the reductions of conventional arms desired by the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies will have to wait until these East bloc states liberalize the human dimension in their countries.

Then in March the conference went into recess, again, with very little progress on human rights issues. Ambassador Warren Zimmermann, chief of the U.S. delegation at the 35-state conference, charged that the Soviet Union had been "stalling and stonewalling," and that the spirit of glasnost was not in evidence in Vienna.

The talks continued through the end of the year, despite hopes that they would conclude by summertime. At last report, the Helsinki Accords signatories were working toward a concluding document and a Soviet-proposed conference on human rights had emerged as the principal stumbling block.

The USSR would like to host a human rights conference in Moscow in 1991 as part of the continuing Helsinki Accords review process. But the Moscow conference is still opposed by the U.S. and other Western states on the grounds that the USSR still falls far short of adherence to the original Helsinki Accords principles.

The French and the Germans, however, appear to be supportive of the Soviet proposal. The U.S., meanwhile, has listed four preconditions that the USSR must meet before it can hope to hold the Moscow conference: release of all political prisoners, resolution of divided families cases (involving U.S. and Soviet citizens), a halt to the jamming of Radio Liberty, and lifting of emigration restrictions. An additional requirement brought up by the U.S. and other Western states is that the Soviets agree to give access to the conference to non-governmental organizations and the press. At year's end, the USSR had halted jamming, announced that all political prisoners would be released by the conclusion of 1988 (what is unclear, however, is how the Kremlin defines "political prisoner") and was working on resolving emigration and divided families cases. Clearly, then, for the Kremlin, the Moscow conference on human rights is an important goal.

Also in 1988, the U.S. State Department noted some improvement in Soviet human rights performance. In its semiannual report to the Congress released in June, the department said Soviet authorities continued to release some political prisoners and that emigration figures had risen, but cited continued detention of political prisoners and restrictions on religion. Soviet authorities adopted a harsh attitude toward those demonstrations deemed "anti-Soviet" and cracked down to prevent such protests, the report noted. The report also said that restrictions and repressions were more severe in Ukraine and the Baltic states than in Moscow and Leningrad.

Also in June, Canada's House of Commons issued a report stating: "The countries behind the Iron Curtain have not lived up to the international human rights obligations to which they subscribed, and they have failed to secure the effective recognition, respect and encouragement of individual and minority rights."

The report focused also on religious repression, noting that the Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox Churches are not allowed to exist in the USSR and "are being denied the right to celebrate the Millennium of the baptism of Ukraine into the Christian faith." Also mentioned were Russification and the persecution of national rights activists in Ukraine and the Baltic states.

The nationalities issue emerged as a major problem for the USSR during this year, and the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the Helsinki Commission, on September 15 held a hearing titled "The Nationalities Issue in the Soviet Union - The Limits of Reform?" Testimony was delivered by recently freed Ukrainian national rights activist Petro Ruban; Armenian nationalist Paruir Airikian, who had recently been expelled from the USSR; Dr. Algirdas Statkevicius, a member of the Lithuanian Helsinki Group; and Dr. Valery Chalidze, a Russian-born in Georgia who had been stripped of his Soviet citizenship while visiting the U.S. in 1972.

Human and religious rights were the focus of President Ronald Reagan's pronouncements at the U.S.-Soviet summit meeting in Moscow on May 28-June 1. At a stop at the Danilov Monastery of the Russian Orthodox Church, President Reagan referred to the banned Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

At a meeting with 98 Soviet dissidents at the U.S. ambassador's residence in Moscow, Spaso House, President Reagan stressed human rights. Three dissidents were chosen to deliver statements representing various aspects of rights movements in the USSR. Although religious rights, human rights and emigration were covered, national rights were ignored to the disappointment of observers in the East and West.

Among the dissidents attending the meeting and afternoon tea were Vyacheslav Chornovil and his wife, Atena Pashko, Petro Ruban, Mykhailo and Olha Horyn, and Ivan Hel. Other invitees, Oles Shevchenko, the Rev. Vasyl Romaniuk and Lev Lukianenko, were not able to attend. Five Ukrainian Catholic activists - Bishop Pavlo Vasylyk, the Revs. Mykhailo Havryliv, Hryhoriy and Mykhailo Simkailo, and Zinoviy Krasivsky - had attempted to travel to Moscow for the meeting, but were forced off a train and sent back to Lviv, according to the Ukrainian Press Agency.

A 14-member delegation representing the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe was in Moscow on November 14-18 for substantive talks on rights issues with deputies of the USSR Supreme Soviet. The unprecedented talks were noteworthy for the participation of approximately 100 human, national and religious rights activists, as well as refuseniks - a group representing all shades of dissent in the USSR.

Among the activists present were 15 Ukrainians: Mykhailo and Bohdan Horyn, Mykola Horbal, Mr. Chornovil, Stepan Khmara, Mr. Shevchenko, Serhiy Naboka, Yevhen Sverstiuk, Ivan and Maria Hel, Bishop Vasylyk, the Revs. Havryliv and Hryhoriy Simkailo, Mykhailo Osadchy and Mykola Muratov. The Soviet rights activists participated in informal and formal meetings with U.S. congressmen, luncheons with U.S. and Soviet officials, and a reception at Spaso House.

Among the issues raised most forcefully by the U.S. legislators was the still outlawed Ukrainian Catholic Church.

On December 7, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev addressed the United Nations. While he was speaking, nearly 1,000 demonstrators, among them Ukrainians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Armenians, Jews, Poles and Afghans, expressed their concerns about continuing abuses of human, national and religious rights in the USSR.

The next day, President Reagan signed a proclamation noting the 40th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In his address the president noted that Ukrainians Lev Lukianenko and Mykola Matusevych still were serving sentences for their rights activity.

As regards the matter of a U.S. Consulate in Kiev, capital of Ukraine, there were hopeful signs mid-year, as reports indicated that the Kiev Consulate would be on the agenda of the U.S.-Soviet summit. However, the issue was never decided. As matters stand now, the U.S. is reluctant to proceed with the Kiev Consulate in view of the ill-fated new building of the Moscow Embassy, which reportedly is riddled with bugging devices and other security breaches.

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