Helsinki Final Act (Hansard, 24 July 1981)

§ Mr. Hurd

During the last six-month period there have been no significant changes in the record of Eastern European and Soviet implementation of the commitments made under the Helsinki final act, although there has been a deterioration on the part of some countries. In Poland, developments set in motion in August 1980 have continued, but it is premature to assess their effect on Poland's implementation record.

Basket I—"Security in Europe:

Principles guiding relations between

participating States:

Confidence Building Measures and certain aspects of

Security and Disarmament"

Principles

The Soviet Union has continued to maintain its forces in Afghanistan in breach of most if not all of the principles of the Final Act. In addition Soviet and German 259W Democratic Republic (GDR) efforts to influence developments in Poland by stressing the "Brezhnev doctrine" and by continuing hostile criticism in their press and media of events in Poland have been seen as a violation of principal VI in particular, ie, non intervention in internal affairs (by armed intervention, or the threat of such intervention, or any other act of military or political, economic or other coercion), and of principle VIII, self determination.

In the field of human rights and fundamental freedoms, repression of dissidents continued undiminished in the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. Several members of the Soviet Helsinki monitoring groups have been arrested in recent months. Several others have been put on trial and received sentences of from three to five years plus internal exile (reportedly 10 years in one Ukrainian case followed by a period of internal exile, but details are lacking). Active membership of the Moscow Helsinki group is now reduced to four by the arrest and sentencing of Tatyana Osipova who was given five years imprisonment followed by five years internal exile. Religious and non-Russian minority activists suffered from increased harassment. There is mounting evidence that the Soviet authorities are engaged in a further campaign of persecution and discrimination aimed at Soviet Jewish activists: the recent sentences imposed on Dr. Victor Brailovsky (five years internal exile), Vladimir Kislik (three years in labour camp) and Kim Friedman (12 months in labour camp) are examples. A specialised group which documented psychiatric abuse was completely suppressed.

In Czechoslovakia the Government increased their efforts to suppress the Charter 77 movement by harassment and arrests.

In Romania the internal security regulations were tightened and there is accumulating evidence of substantial interception of mail between Romania and Western countries. The authorities seem to be looking particularly for letters expressing dissatisfaction with the current internal situation. In other East European countries there were no significant changes.

Confidence Building Measures

In the context of the negotiations on a possible conference on disarmament in Europe at Madrid, President Brezhnev, speaking at the 26th Soviet Party Congress in February and in Tbilisi in May, said that the Soviet Union would be willing to accept the extension of the zone of application of confidence building measures to include the whole of the European part of Soviet territory as far as the Urals. He said however that this was provided the Western States also extend the confidence zone accordingly".

During the period under review no military manoeuvres were notified nor observers exchanged. Although the Warsaw Pact exercise Soyuz 81 gave rise to a certain amount of military activity, there is no evidence that it exceeded the notification threshold in the final act (major military manoeuvres exceeding a total of 25,000 troops).

Basket II—'Co-operation in the Field of Economics, of Science and Technology and of the Environment'

The most noticeable development over the past six months is a growing reluctance on the part of some of the Eastern countries, which were formerly in the forefront of 260W promoting East-West trade, to enter into further commitments, apparently owing to internal economic constraints.

On 1 January 1981 the GDR reorganised its foreign trade organisations. The change may benefit foreign business interests by facilitating more direct on-site contacts.

In accordance with the Government's belief that normal United Kingdom-Soviet trade should continue, a meeting of the Anglo-Soviet joint commission was held in London in May.

Basket III—'Co-operation in Humanitarian and other Fields'

Human Contacts

In the area of family reunifications and visits the performance of Hungary and Poland remain rather liberal. Czechoslovakia's performance in both areas showed improvement, although Czechoslovak citizens of working age encounter difficulties and are seldom permitted to travel to the West in the company of immediate members of their family. Bulgarian and Romanian performance in these areas remains unchanged, although there was some improvement in the ease with which British nationals obtained permission to marry Romanian citizens. The performance of the GDR and the Soviet Union deteriorated markedly.

Travel

Following the increase, in October 1980, of the minimum hard currency exchange requirement for visitors to the GDR from non-Communist countries, the number of visitors from the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin has continued to decline.

The number of permissions granted for foreign tourist travel by Soviet and East European citizens generally has also decreased, although there is some evidence that visits by Soviet citizens to sports events in non-Communist countries have increased. On 15 June the Bulgarian authorities withdrew permission for Polish citizens to travel to, or even transit, Bulgaria.

A development in Poland has been the announcement of new regulations for issuing passports for trips abroad. Forms have been simplified, processing time reduced and passports generally made valid for all countries of the world for periods of three years.

Information

The general picture of implementation in the field of information remains unchanged. Governments as a rule continue to exercise strict control. There has been a general relaxation in Poland, with more freedom for journalists and the media generally. Official approval has now been given for a weekly newspaper issued by Solidarnosc. A new more liberal law on censorship has also been introduced into the Polish Parliament.

The availability of Western newspapers and periodicals remains minimal in Eastern Europe, but is somewhat easier in Poland.

Jamming of the Russian language transmissions of the BBC, Deutsche Welle, Voice of America and Radio Liberty continues unabated in the Soviet Union. In Czechoslovakia jamming of the BBC has been sporadic in past months but has abated recently.

Working conditions for Journalists

No significant changes have been reported. In Poland the policy on admission of Western journalists became much more restrictive during times of heightened tension.

261W

Culture and Education

No significant changes are reported in this field, although there have been cancellations at short notice of practically all performances of East German artists in the Federal Republic of Germany. The renegotiation of United Kingdom cultural agreements and programmes with the Soviet Union, the GDR and Romania took place according to schedule and without any reduction in the volume of exchanges of people foreseen in these agreements, except in the case of Romania.