1989: A LOOK BACK: East-West relations (12/31/89)

1989: A LOOK BACK

East-West relations

The year began on a not-too-positive note when the Reagan administration announced on January 4 that it would support the holding of a human rights meeting in Moscow in 1991 as part of the Helsinki Accords review process. Adoption of the proposal, one of the last sticking points at the Vienna Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe meeting since November 1986, was long sought by the Soviets.

The administration's decision was criticized by those who felt that there had not been enough progress on human rights in the USSR to justify holding a human rights meeting there. Among the critics were members of the U.S. Helsinki Commission. However, the U.S. did place certain preconditions on the holding of a CSCE meeting in Moscow, including the release of all political prisoners, resolution of divided families cases, an end to jamming of Radio Liberty and easing of emigration restrictions.

Twelve days later, the 35 states meeting in Vienna agreed on a concluding document to that full-scale Helsinki Accords review conference. U.S. delegation chief Warren Zimmermann was quoted as saying that the Vienna document was "by far the strongest set of commitments on human rights that we have ever had in any East-West document."

Among its provisions were the creation of a formal mechanism via which countries may complain to others about human rights abuses and recognition that signatory states must "respect the right of their citizens to contribute actively, individually or in association with others, to the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms."

Richard Schifter, assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs said the agreement provided the most significant new guarantees of human rights since the Helsinki Accords themselves were signed in 1975.

First in a series of 10 special meetings mandated by the Vienna Concluding Document was the London Information Forum held April 16 to May 12, which focused on the free flow of information.

Next came the Paris Conference on the Human Dimension. The Paris meeting, held May 30 to June 23, succeeded in advancing human rights proposals which will be further discussed at the next two CHDs, in Copenhagen in 1990 and in Moscow in 1991. Several Ukrainian non-governmental organizations played a role in Paris by raising Ukrainian concerns through demonstrations, press conferences, meetings with delegations and similar activities. Among these groups were the World Congress of Free Ukrainians and Americans for Human Rights in Ukraine. Local Ukrainians also participated, as did Lev Lukianenko, head of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union.

Also as part of the Helsinki process, a meeting on protection of the environment was held in Sofia, Bulgaria, on October 16 to November 3. The 35 states were unable to reach consensus on a final communique due to the intransigence of a lone participant, Romania.

However, the proposed final communique co-sponsored by all other states did acknowledge "the importance of the contributions of persons and organizations dedicated to the protection and improvement of the environment" and reiterated the participating states' willingness to promote "greater public awareness and understanding of environmental issues." It recommended the exchange of information and coordination of efforts "to achieve closer harmonization concerning the management of hazardous chemicals" and proposed adoption of international conventions on "prevention and control of transboundary effects of industrial accidents" and "protection and use of transboundary watercourses and international lakes."

NGO access to the meeting was facilitated by the host country, an East-bloc state, which set an important precedent for the 1991 Moscow meeting on the human dimension.

Represented among the NGOs was the WCFU Ecological Commission.

The Soviet Union was readmitted, conditionally, to the World Psychiatric Association on October 17 after its delegation had acknowledged publicly that psychiatry in the USSR had indeed been abused for political purposes. The move was condemned by many observers who noted that such abuses continue, people under whose leadership Soviet psychiatry had been abused m the past remain in power in the Soviet psychiatric community and have not been censured, and that those formerly held in psykhushky for political reasons have not been rehabilitated.

The WPA's vote at its international congress in Athens was no surprise, as previously the WPA's six-member executive committee had voted for provisional readmission of the Soviet All-Union Society of Psychiatrists and Neuropathologists.

In a related development, the U.S. psychiatric team that visited the USSR earlier this year released its report at the July 12 hearing of the U.S. Helsinki Commission. The delegation, which had interviewed Soviet psychiatric patients and citizens formerly hospitalized, noted that Soviet psychiatry has a long way to go before it can be considered reformed.

On October 7, in his keynote address before the Leadership Conference sponsored by The Washington Group to assess developments in Ukraine, Rep. Steny Hoyer, cochairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, focused his remarks on the achievements of the Helsinki process and the principle of self-determination, saying that the latter is "one of the most pressing political problems facing the Soviet leadership today." He emphasized: "Just as we have stood forthrightly within the Helsinki process on the question of human rights generally, we must stand forthrightly on the issue of self-determination in particular. ...Our obligation is to support their (the USSR peoples') right to determine their own destiny."

During 1989 there were also a number of developments in Washington that affected Ukraine and Ukrainians.

On November 3, the House and Senate Conference Committee on the Foreign Aid Appropriations Bill adopted language which includes Ukrainian Catholics and Ukrainian Orthodox as Soviet groups presumed to be subject to persecution and, therefore, eligible for refugee status. The bill also provided for an allocation of 1,000 slots for admission into the U.S. of these Ukrainians. The adopted amendment replaces an amendment proposed by Sen. Frank Lautenberg which failed to recognize the two groups as persecuted. In the end, following vocal Ukrainian American community protests, a new amendment was negotiated by representatives of Sen. Lautenberg, Rep. Bruce Morrison, several Jewish organizations and the Washington Office of the Ukrainian National Association. The accepted amendment was based on legislation originally introduced by Rep. Morrison.

President George Bush signed the measure into law on November 21, along with another appropriations bill, the Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary Appropriations Act, which provided, among other things, $100,000 for the work of the U.S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine. Dr. James E. Mace, staff director, stated that the famine commission would now be able to complete its study of the famine of 1932-1933 and to publish its findings along with appropriate supportive materials.