From: sommar@enea.se (Erland Sommarskog)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.soviet
Subject: Re: BALT: 2565 No Nurembergs please...
Date: 28 Jul 92 20:55:16 GMT
Organization: Enea Data AB

The below is an article that was originally posted to BALT-L in
reply to the article from Juris Mazutis which was reposted to t.p.s 
by Robert Dambergs. Mazutis and Everson's articles spawned several
other followups which I am not relaying. However for the sake of 
balance I think Everson's good article should appear here when 
Mazutis' article did. I posted a reply to Mazutis on BALT-L myself,
but since I then didn't know that Dambers had chosen to share it
with t.p.s I didn't save my article, but I expect to post it when 
it comes back to me on BALT-L.
--
Erland Sommarskog - ENEA Data, Stockholm - sommar@enea.se
Dabras Laiks!

Broadcast to list 18 July 1992

Original sender: Michael Everson, everson@irlearn.ucd.ie

On Fri, 17 Jul 92 20:57:29 GMT Juris Mazutis said:

>We should be calling for 'occupation crimes trials' along the lines of
>Nuremberg, not working up sympathy--as though nothing has happened--for the
>'rights' of 'people' who profited during their stay in a colony 'prepared'
>for them by the NKVD and Red Army. These, and their Latvian collaborators,
>are NOT the kind of 'people' Latvia wants and never will be. We need no
>reminders about 'sirdsapzin'a' where they are concerned.

We most certainly should NOT be calling for "occupation crimes trials",
Juris. For pity's sake, haven't we learned anything from the last 100
years of human history? Two wrongs do not make a right. Retaliation is
not justice. After 50 years of occupation, russification, supression,
and yes even genocide the Baltics are now in the position of being free.
(Almost. The fact that the Russian ARMY is still there is chilling.)

I believe that we must do everything we can to encourage a mature transition
to freedom in the Baltic--once the bloody army has been forced to leave,
when we can really talk about freedom. There are a lot of directions Baltic
independence could go. Some of them are not good. What we must hope for
is that the Baltic countries as well as Russia and the other Independent
States will all succeed marvellously in whatever The New World Order is.
Should we hope that the Balts get off on the wrong foot of righteous
indignation, vindication of past harms, and a constant needling and
harrassing of the Russian minorities in the Baltic? Antagonizing the Russians,
whether Russian nationals in the Baltics or the Russian Government next
door, simply isn't going to do anyone any good. When did it ever?

I believe that in Eesti, Latvija, and Lietuva our best hopes for the Baltic
will be realized. We have been fortunate here on this list to read the
draft Constitution Barnabas has been working on with the Lithuanians.
It seems balanced, and just. Under no circumstances should the Balts be
discouraged from their language policies vis a vis citizenship. But
they must be certain to follow through on their promises. Estonia must
swiftly grant citizenship and voting privileges to all 5000 of those
who applied for citizenship and who qualify under the law. Corny as it
sounds, the Balts must show themselves to be one hell of a lot more
moral and just than their Soviet precedessors. If they do, than Russia
will not be able to make claims about the maligned rights of Russian
nationals there. (Doesn't it look like they want to? Isn't that why
their ARMY is there?)

Maybe the economic difficulties will blow over,
and the Russians in the Baltic will decide to go home to the Rodina of
their own accord. Maybe life will be so good in the Baltics that they
will want to learn Baltic languages and stay there to be a part of those
nations. Going on about how they as a collectivity are responsible for
the damage done in the Baltic is naive, Juris. They as a collectivity
are a large number of individual people no different from any of the
Ethnic Balts or from anyone else for that matter. I imagine they're
pretty scared about an uncertain future. Don't you think that righteous
"occupation crimes trials" is just going to make them that much more
frightened? Ever corner a rat?

You know I'm not arguing that things be forgotten, or that I think that
it's a great thing that 30-40% of the population in the Baltics is
Russian. Ma u%tlen eesti keelt, what do you think that means? But I can't
see that starting out a new nation by putting Vindication and Vengeance
on the agenda is the way to go. Perhaps I'm superstitious, but it seems
very inauspicious.

It's all very well for you and me, living in Canada and Ireland, to say
what they need. I hope that they stick to their guns about citizenship
and language. I hope they do so in AFFIRMATION of who they are and what
kinds of societies they want to create, rather than in NEGATION of
ill that came before.

In The European this week, Peter Ustinov wrote about the breakup of
Czecholovakia and Yugoslavia into little independencies--and about how
short-sighted it is from the point of view of the necessary interdependency
we all of us share in the world as it is today. I'm going to upload it
in my next posting to the net, but here's one thing he said:

"Independence does not only mean a national anthem to sing or a flag to
salute. It also means an ability to attract foreign investment and a valid
economic base for survival in a world lacking in tenderness."

In the Baltic nations there is a need for cool heads, common sense, and
a certain level-handedness in the way citizenship legislation is
devised and implemented. In the wake of the Soviets, the Baltic leaders
could do a whole lot worse than encourage a squeaky-clean, untarnished
image at home and abroad. Surely that is the way to encourage the
foreign investment which these countries need. We hardly need another
Nuremburg show.

Michael Everson
School of Architecture, UCD, Richview, Clonskeagh, Dublin 14, E/ire
Phone: +353-1-706-2745  Fax: +353-1-283-7778
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