1982: a look back: Madrid Conference continues (12/26/82)

1982: a look back

Madrid Conference continues

1982 marked another year of frustration and futility for the two-year-old Madrid Conference to review compliance with the 1975 Helsinki Accords on security and human rights in Europe. When the conference agreed to recess on March 12, the 35 participating states were still unable to hammer out a final communique, as East and West remained at loggerheads over such key issues as human rights and the particulars of a post-Madrid disarmament conference. The impasse was further exacerbated by developments in Poland and the continued Soviet presence in Afghanistan.

Just prior to the recess of the conference, then Secretary of State Alexander Haig outlined the basic position of the NATO allies when he told delegates: "Business as usual here at Madrid would simply condone the massive violations of the Final Act now occurring in Poland."

When delegates returned to the bargaining table on November 9, ironically the sixth anniversary of the suppressed Ukrainian Helsinki Group, both sides continued to haggle over the direction the talks should take.

The Western allies began by making fresh demands that martial law be lifted in Poland and called for the Warsaw Pact countries to accept free trade unions and the right to political self-determination.

A European Economic Community proposal also would have committed the signatory states to allow citizens to freely monitor compliance with the human-rights provisions of the Helsinki Final Act. The new proposals would also insert into a concluding document criticism of "actions hindering the effective exercise of the right of all peoples to determine, in full freedom, their internal and external political status and to pursue as they wish their political, economic, social and cultural development."

Needless to say, the Eastern bloc countries did not like the new proposals at all.

The conference was further complicated by the death in November of Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev an event which left the negotiations suspended in mid-air. It soon became clear that the Soviets would offer no new initiatives until Yuri Andropov, Mr. Brezhnev's apparent successor, stabilized his position.

Unable to break the deadlock, delegates agreed on December 17 to yet another adjournment, this time until February 8, 1983.

Many delegations are running out of patience. Just before this latest recess, the Swiss delegation requested that a timetable be set for the negotiations, asking that they conclude by the spring.

Yet, neither the Soviets nor the NATO allies want to be blamed for scuttling the conference and thereby putting a formal end to detente. Moreover, the West sees the conference as a huge propaganda defeat for the Soviets, and is willing to sit tight.

In a sense, the conference has become an elaborate and protracted staring contest, with each side waiting for the other to blink first. Meanwhile, Soviet citizens who set up groups in several republics to monitor compliance with the Helsinki agreement are either in prison or in exile.

If anything, 1982 showed that the Helsinki process, although tattered, remains durable. But for just how long is a question that will have to be answered next year when the conference resumes.

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