Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 103 Part 1.djvu/107

 •--^•^^ PUBLIC LAW 101-39 —JUNE 19, 1989 103 STAT. 79 Public Law 101-39 101st Congress Joint Resolution Designating June 14, 1989, as "Baltic Freedom Day", and for other purposes. Whereas the people of the republics of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia (hereinafter referred to as the "Baltic Republics") have cherished the principles of religious and political freedom and independence; Whereas the Baltic Republics existed as independent, sovereign nations and as fully recognized members of the League of Nations; Whereas 1989 marks the 50th anniversary of the infamous Molotov- Ribbentrop Pact in which the Soviet Union colluded with Nazi Germany, thus allowing the Soviet Union in 1940 to illegally seize and occupy the Baltic Republics and to incorporate such republics by force into the Soviet Union against the national will and the desire for independence and freedom of the people of such republics; Whereas due to Soviet and Nazi tyranny, by the end of World War II, 20 percent of the total population of the Baltic Republics had been lost; Whereas the people of the Baltic Republics have individual and separate cultures and national traditions and languages which are distinctively foreign to those of Russia; Whereas since 1940, the Soviet Union has systematically imple- mented Baltic genocide by deporting native Baltic peoples from Baltic homelands to forced labor and concentration camps in Siberia and elsewhere; Whereas by relocating masses of Russians to the Baltic Republics, the Soviet Union has threatened the Baltic cultures with extinc- tion through russification; Whereas through a program of russification, the Soviet Union has introduced ecologically unsound industries without proper safe- guards into the Baltic Republics, and the presence of such indus- tries has resulted in deleterious effects on the environment and well-being of the Baltic people; Whereas the Soviet Union, despite recent pronouncements of open- ness and restructuring, has imposed upon the captive people of the Baltic Republics an oppressive political system which has destroyed every vestige of democracy, civil liberty, and religious freedom; Whereas the people of the Baltic Republics are subjugated by the Soviet Union, are locked into a union such people deplore, are denied basic human rights, and are persecuted for daring to protest; Whereas the Soviet Union refuses to abide by the Helsinki accords which the Soviet Union voluntarily signed; Whereas the United States stands as a champion of liberty, is dedicated to the principles of national self-determination, human rights, and religious freedom, and is opposed to oppression and imperialism; June 19, 1989 [S.J. Res. 63]

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