Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 98 Part 1.djvu/292

 98 STAT. 244

PUBLIC LAW 98-318—JUNE 15, 1984 Public Law 98-318 98th Congress Joint Resolution

June 15, 1984 [S.J. Res. 296]

TQ designate June 14, 1984, as "Baltic Freedom Day", f

Whereas the people of the Baltic Republics of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia have cherished the principles of religious and political freedom and independence; and Whereas the Baltic Republics have existed as independent, sovereign nations belonging to and fully recognized by the League of Nations; and Whereas the people of the Baltic Republics have individual and separate cultures, national traditions, and languages distinctively foreign to those of Russia; and Whereas the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) in 1940 did illegally seize and occupy the Baltic Republics and by force incorporate them against their national will and contrary to their desire for independence and sovereignty into the U.S.S.R.; and Whereas the U.S.S.R. since 1940 has systematically removed native Baltic peoples from their homelands by deporting them to Siberia and caused great masses of Russians to relocate in the Republics, thus threatening the Baltic cultures with extinction; and Whereas the U.S.S.R. has imposed upon the captive people of the Baltic Republics an oppressive political system which has destroyed every vestige of democracy, civil liberties, and religious freedom; and Whereas the people of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia find themselves today subjugated by the U.S.S.R., locked into a union they deplore, denied basic human rights, and persecuted for daring to protest; and Whereas the United States stands as a champion of liberty, dedicated to the principles of national self-determination, human rights, and religious freedom, and opposed to oppression and imperialism; and Whereas the United States, as a member of the United Nations, has repeatedly voted with a majority of that international body to uphold the right of other countries of the world, including those in Africa and Asia, to determine their fates and be free of foreign domination; and Whereas the U.S.S.R. has steadfastly refused to return to the people of the Baltic States the right to exist as independent republics separate and apart from the U.S.S.R. or permit a return of personal, political, and religious freedoms: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Congress of the

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