From: thietaniemi@cc.helsinki.fi (Tapani Hietaniemi)
Subject: Human rights in CIS and the BALTICS
Organization: University of Helsinki
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 11:21:02 GMT


Of course, the eager readers of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
have already read this piece of news. But anyhow, here it's again:
The US State Department annual report on the status of human rights.


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> HUMAN RIGHTS IN UKRAINE, BELARUS, MOLDOVA, . . . In its annual
> report to Congress on the status of human rights around the world,
> the US State Department says Ukraine made "significant progress"
> in 1992, including establishment of a multiparty system and
> legislation to protect the civil and political rights of
> minorities--and despite many bureaucratic obstacles, the lack of a
> constitution to replace that of the Soviet era, and the inability
> of the legislature to function independently of the executive
> branch.  Specific human rights problem areas mentioned in the 19
> January report are ethnic tensions, especially in the Crimea,
> cases of intolerance between religious groups, and limitations on
> freedom of expression. In Moldova too, the situation has generally
> improved, the report says, but questions concerning ethnic
> minorities "remain pressing," and complaints of job discrimination
> in the government against nonspeakers of Romanian have been
> raised. Widespread allegations of human rights abuses in the
> contested Transdniester region are difficult to verify and are
> probably exaggerated by both sides, the report says.  Despite what
> the report called "the limited extent of political reform" in
> Belarus, the country has progressed in human rights.  Two problem
> areas singled out were freedom of the press and the continuing
> high level of dependence of the Belarusian economy on that of
> Russia.  Charles Trumbull, RFE/RL, Inc.
>
> .. .  .  AND THE BALTICS. The State Department report notes that
> the three Baltic States have all reestablished themselves as
> sovereign, independent, and democratic states since 1991 and have
> moved to end Soviet-era human rights abuses.  All three states,
> however, are grappling with the problem of keeping their native
> languages and cultures predominant while not stepping on the
> rights of minorities, notably the large number of Russians who
> settled in the area after World War II. Estonia, the report notes,
> reinstituted its 1938 citizenship law under the terms of which
> most non-ethnic Estonians--some 38% of the population--were not
> able to qualify for citizenship at the time of the constitutional
> referendum and parliamentary elections. Similarly, in Latvia, the
> State Department finds the unresolved status of the Russian
> residents, possibly numerous enough to control the balance of
> power in the country, to be the paramount human rights issue and
> the cause of "exacerbated tensions" among ethnic groups there.
> Both here and in Lithuania, new language laws are cited as
> potential levers for discrimination in jobs and elsewhere.  In
> addition to the Russians, Lithuania is grappling with its sizable
> ethnic Polish population with whom relations "remain strained,"
> the report says.  Charles Trumbull, RFE/RL, Inc.
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Tapani Hietaniemi, Universitas Helsingiensis
                   urbs fennorum