Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 99 Part 1.djvu/109

 PUBLIC LAW 99-49—JUNE 13, 1985

99 STAT. 87

Public Law 99-49 99th Congress Joint Resolution Designating June 14, 1985, as "Baltic Freedom Day".

Whereas the people of the Baltic Republics of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia have cherished the principles of religious and political freedom and independence; Whereas the Baltic Republics have existed as independent, sovereign nations belonging to and fully recognized by the League of Nations; Whereas the people of the Baltic Republics have individual and separate cultures, national traditions, and languages distinctively foreign to those of Russia; Whereas the Union of the 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.; 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 Baltic Republics, thus threatening the Baltic cultures with extinction; 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; Whereas the people of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania find themselves today subjugated by the U.S.S.R., locked into a union they deplore, denied bsisic human rights, and persecuted for daring to protest; Whereas the U.S.S.R. refuses to abide by the Helsinki accords which the U.S.S.R. voluntarily signed; 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; 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; Whereas the U.S.S.R. has steadfastly refused to return to the people of the Baltic States of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, 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; and Whereas the U.S.S.R. conscripts Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians into the Soviet Armed Forces compelling them to serve in Afghanistan, Vietnam, and Cuba: Now, therefore, be it

June 13, 1985 [S.J. Res. 66]

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