Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 104 Part 1.djvu/109

 PUBLIC LAW 101-246—FEB. 16, 1990 104 STAT. 75 (5) the involvement of the United States, other countries, and international organizations in meeting the humanitarian needs of such persons. (b) RECOMMENDATIONS FOR LEGISLATIVE CHANGES.— The Secretary of State shall recommend in the report required by subsection (a) any policy or legislative changes he deems appropriate to meet the asylum, refugee, parole, or visa status needs of such persons. (c) DEFINITION.—As used in this section, the term "pro-democracy protester" means any person who has fled from the current military regime of Burma since the outbreak of pro-democracy demonstrations in Burma in 1988. SEC. 704. THE TREATMENT OF THE TURKISH MINORITY BY THE GOVERN- MENT OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA AND BUL- GARIAN REFUGEES IN TURKEY. (a) FINDINGS. —The Congress finds that— (1) the Government of the People's Republic of Bulgaria is a signatory to the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty, the Universal Declaration on Human Rights by the United Nations, and the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (also known as the Helsinki Accords); (2) the Helsinki Accords express the commitment of the participating states to respect the fundamental freedoms of conscience, religion, expression, and emigration, and to guarantee the rights of minorities; (3) the 1971 Constitution of the People's Republic of Bulgaria declares that fundamental rights will not be restricted because of distinction of national origin, race, or religion, and guarantees minorities the rights to study in their mother tongue and freely practice their religion; (4) despite its international obligations and constitutional guarantees, the Government of the People's Republic of Bulgaria has taken numerous steps to repress Turkish language and culture, including prohibiting the study of the Turkish langusige in schools, banning the use of the Turkish language in public, making the receipt and reading of Turkish publications a punishable act, and jamming the reception of Turkish radio and television programs in Bulgaria; (5) the right of the ethnic Turkish community to freedom of religion has been severely circumscribed by the Government of the People's Republic of Bulgaria, which has closed a number of mosques and barred the importation of copies of the Koran; (6) emigration by ethnic Turks and others has been banned with only a few exceptions; (7) beginning in December 1984, the Bulgarian authorities forced the Turkish minority to change their Turkish names to Bulgarian ones, and hundreds of ethnic Turks were killed, injured, or arrested by Bulgarian forces in 1984 and 1985 when they protested this new policy; (8) the Bulgarian authorities have used both force and coercion to resettle ethnic Turks from their local villages to areas in Bulgaria with small Turkish populations; (9) in May 1989, Bulgarian troops and police attacked ethnic Turks and others who were peacefully demonstrating against their discriminatory treatment in Bulgaria; (10) hundreds of demonstrators were killed or wounded in these attacks, and hundreds more were arrested; and

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