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CONTENTS

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Appendix C.-Newsclip from the Los Angeles Times on the murder of
Valery Emelyanov's wife

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Status Report: "An Overview, prepared by the Ukrainian National Informa-
tion Service of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America.....

Report concerning the treatment of the Polish minority submitted by Mr. Jan

Nowak

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IMPLEMENTATION OF THE HELSINKI ACCORDS: REVIEW OF EAST EUROPEAN COMPLIANCE WITH THE HUMAN RIGHTS PROVISIONS OF THE HELSINKI FINAL ACT

TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 1980

COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND
COOPERATION IN EUROPE,
Washington, D.C.

The Commission met, pursuant to notice, at 9:30 a.m., in room 1202, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Dante B. Fascell (chairman) presiding.

In attendance: Commissioners Jacob Javits and Jonathan Bingham.

Also in attendance: Mr. Samuel G. Wise, deputy staff director.

OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN FASCELL

Chairman FASCELL. The meeting will come to order. One of today's most important issues is governmental policy toward ethnic groups. We only need look at ourselves, or at Africa, Iran, or Canada, at Belgium or at the Soviet Union to see how vital this issue is in the world arena.

We here in the West frequently refer to the Soviet Union as "Russia," thereby glossing over the fact that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is, according to the Soviet Constitution, a federation of 15 sovereign states, each with its unique cultures, and each having the constitutional right to withdraw from the U.S.S.R.

Principle VIII of the Helsinki Final Act addresses the right of national self-determination. There are, in fact, hundreds of ethnic groups in the Soviet Union: Eskimos and Kurds, Assyrians and Germans, Jews and Finns, Gypsies and Poles, Crimean Tartars and Greeks. By Soviet law and under Principle VII of the Helsinki Final Act all ethnic minorities in the CSCE signatory states are guaranteed the opportunity to preserve their ethnic heritage.

All too often, however, when a Soviet citizen puts these national or ethnic rights to test, the wrath of the Soviet system rains down. A new report on Soviet prisoners of conscience released by Amnesty International today reveals that most of the 400 new cases since 1975 are Soviet advocates of national and ethnic rights.

If present demographic trends continue, by the year 2000, one out of four Soviet citizens will be of Moslem ethnic origin. It will be interesting to see how the Kremlin can reconcile this demographic reality with Soviet official policies of russification.

A major Soviet conference last year on language policy called for even more stringent measures of russification. And, perhaps the

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