Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 103 Part 2.djvu/249

 PUBLIC LAW 101-167—NOV. 21, 1989 103 STAT. 1259 lowed by armed invasions of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia on June 16-17, 1940; (8) the occupation of the Baltic states was confirmed on July 14-15, 1940, with the irregular and illegal "election" of new parliaments, which then petitioned for admission into the Soviet Union, and these petitions were accepted by the Soviet Union, as follows: Lithuania's on August 3, 1940, Latvia's on August 4, 1940, and Estonia's on August 5, 1940; (9) the Government of the United States continues its policy of standing by the 1922 recognition of the de jure independent governments in the Baltic states, and of refusing to recognize the forced incorporation of the Baltic states into the Soviet Union; (10) the peoples of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania have never accepted the occupation of their native lands, and have dem- onstrated their resolve on numerous occasions since 1940, most notably in the last three years. The most striking demonstration of the desires of the Baltic people took place on August 23, 1989, the fiftieth anniversary of the Nazi-Soviet Treaty of Nonaggression, when nearly two million citizens of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania joined hands in a four-hundred-mile human chain stretching across the Baltic states from the Esto- nian capital of Tallinn, through the Latvian capital, Riga, to the Lithuanian capital of Vilninus; (11) the people of the Baltic states, through their elected representatives in the Popular Front of Latvia, the Popular Front of Estonia, and the Lithuanian Movement in Support of Perestroika "Sajudis", have declared their desire for the res- toration of independence in the Baltic states; and (12) even the Communist officials and regimes in each of the Baltic states have begun to respond to the drive for more autonomy. (b) The Congress urges the President— (1) to raise the issue of the political rights of the Baltic peoples in all diplomatic contacts with the Soviet Union including during the meeting between President Bush and President Gorbachev in December, 1989 and during the Presidential summit scheduled in 1990 between the United States and the Soviet Union; and (2) to call upon the Soviet Union— (A) to honor the international agreements it has volun- tarily entered into, such as the Final Act of the Helsinki Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, as well as the bilateral agreements it has voluntarily entered into with the independent governments of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, (B) to allow the people of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania their right of self-determination, as guaranteed by the RSFSR in 1920 as well as by the current constitution of the Soviet Union, (C) to recognize the human rights of all peoples both within the Soviet Union and under Soviet influence, and (D) to replace the policy of aggressive industrialization in the Baltic states, which has poisoned the land, air, and water of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, with one of environmental responsibility.

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