HC Deb 25 June 1979 vol 969 cc75-83W
Mr. Sims

asked the Lord Privy Seal what progress has been made in the implementation by the USSR and Eastern European countries of the provisions of the Helsinki Final Act during the first six months of 1979.

Mr. Blaker

During the period since last December, progress in implementation of the Helsinki Final Act by the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries has in general been slow; useful forward movement in some areas has to some extent been offset by slowing down or regression in others. In Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union in particular, individuals involved in monitoring implementation of the Final Act, dissident intellectuals and other critics of the regime, as well as certain groups of religious believers, have continued to be arrested or harassed. In the German Democratic Republic, action against prominent dissidents has been stepped up at the same time as more restrictive measures have been introduced affecting the working conditions of Western journalists; and in the Soviet Union individual foreign journalists have come under various forms of pressure, including expulsion. On the other hand, considerable progress has been made by Hungary in easing restrictions on foreign travel; in the Soviet Union Jewish emigration has continued to run at a higher rate than in the past; progress since Helsinki in the resolution of family visits, bi-national marriage and family reunification cases has largely been sustained, though in some cases these are now being resolved at a slower rate than previously and cultural and scientific exchanges have generally proceeded satisfactorily.

Basket I—Security in Europe: Principles Guiding Relations between Participating States, and confidence-building measures and certain aspects of security and disarmament.

Principles

In public statements the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries have maintained their commitment to the full and balanced implementation of the principles of the Helsinki Final Act, though their statements have emphasised the military and international rather than the humanitarian aspects of the document. There remains a marked divergence between Eastern and Western interpretation and implementation of the relevant humanitarian principles, in particular principle VII—respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. In the Soviet Union 19 members of Helsinki monitoring groups have so far been brought to trial. The Soviet authorities have also taken action of various forms against other groups of dissidents and believers including Crimean Tatars, several Seventh Day Adventists and members of the Free Inter-Professional Association of Workers—known as SMOT. Two leading members of the latter, L. Volokhonsky and V. Skvirsky, were recently given sentences in prison camp and internal exile. A positive feature has been the continued increase in the rate of issue of exit visas to Soviet Jews, currently running at over 4,000 per month—the April figure was reportedly a record 5,000. In April, 10 Soviet dissidents serving various penal sentences were released in two groups of five and permitted to emigrate. The release of the second group was, however, in exchange for that of two Soviet citizens convicted of spying in the United States last year. Most of the dissidents were Jews who had been sentenced in 1970 and 1971 following an unsuccessful hijack attempt. The second group also included A. Ginzburg, a prominent human rights activist and a member of the Moscow-Helsinki monitoring group convicted last year, a Baptist leader and a Ukrainian nationalist.

In Czechoslovakia the harassment of signatories and spokesmen of the Charter 77 movement has recently increased. One of the leaders, Jaroslav Sabata, who was already serving a nine month sentence, had a further 18 month suspended sentence confirmed on him in May; and 10 members of the movement's "Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Persecuted" were arrested at the end of May and reportedly charged with offences carrying sentences of up to five years or more. In the German Democratic Republic action against a number of prominent intellectuals has been sharply stepped up in recent weeks; two of the best known, Stefan Heym and Robert Havemann, have been heavily fined for technical offences against exchange control regulations arising out of the publication of their work in the West, and Heym and eight other writers have since been expelled from the German Democratic Republic Writers' Union. In Romania, leaders and supporters of a free trade union group and members of a committee for the defence of religious and spiritual freedom have recently been arrested. Human rights in Romania were the subject of a recent Amnesty International report based on information obtained by a fact-finding team which received a large degree of co-operation from the Romanian authorities. However, the Romanian authorities have since sentenced Nicolae Dascalu to 18 months' imprisonment for his association with Amnesty International and the free trade union group. There have also been reports of increased official harassment in Poland of members of the so-called "flying university" and rural dissidents. In the case of the former, lectures have been infiltrated by organised groups which have disrupted discussion and on occasion broken up meetings by force. The activities of the "flying university" have now been suspended by the organisers until further notice.

In Hungary, the right of individuals to travel abroad freely has been given greater recognition in a decree law on foreign travel which was announced last October and duly came into force on 1 January. Although permission to travel remains subject to certain security and currency requirements, in future relatives of Hungarians living abroad "illegally" may find it easier to obtain permission to travel, and Hungarian nationals living abroad who wish to visit Hungary will no longer require special passports.

In contrast with the continuing practice of harassment and discrimination against believers in some countries of Eastern Europe, there have been improvements in Church-State relations in Hungary and the German Democratic Republic, both of which received visits from the Archbishop of Canterbury during the period. The Pope's visit to Poland earlier this month was an event of importance which speaks for itself.

Confidence-Building Measures (CBMs)

Advance notification was given of two major exercises, one involving joint Soviet/Czechoslovak manoeuvres in Czechoslovakia in February and the other an exercise in the Carpathian military district of the Soviet Union from 2 to 7 April. Notwithstanding the provisions of the Final Act whereby the participating States undertook voluntarily to invite other participants to send observers to such exercises, none was invited on these occasions, nor has any been invited to any exercise involving Warsaw Pact troops since February 1978. In addition, Hungary announced, shortly before its start, a small-scale Warsaw Pact military exercise in May, prior notification of which was not mandatory under the provisions of the Helsinki Final Act. No other notifiable exercises have been announced in the rest of Eastern Europe, nor to the Government's knowledge, have any taken place. Over the same period NATO countries gave prior notification and invited observers to two exercises involving more than 20,000 troops and notified one smaller scale exercise.

Following a meeting in Budapest on 14–15 May, the Warsaw Pact Foreign Ministers issued a communique in which, inter alia, they declared their readiness to negotiate further confidence-building measures—CBMs—on: the notification of large-scale military movements and air force exercises, as well as naval exercises near the territorial waters of participating States; and the extension of confidence-building measures to the Mediterranean. The communique also endorsed a suggestion made by President Brezhnev in an address on 2 March that there should be an agreement between CSCE participants outlawing the first use of nuclear or conventional weapons against one another; and proposed a conference of participating States to begin negotiation on such measures this year. Though the communique speaks of the proposed conference as likely to contribute to the success of the CSCE review, meeting in Madrid, the Warsaw Pact countries have not been more specific about its exact relationship to the CSCE process. NATO Foreign Ministers, at the North Atlantic Council meeting in the Hague on 30–31 May, noted with interest recent Eastern European statements regarding the development of confidence-building measures on the basis of recommendations contained in the CSCE Final Act and expressed the hope that it would be possible to achieve concrete progress at Madrid.

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

Trade and Industrial Co-operation

The Eastern countries have continued to emphasise the importance of long-term agreements and have in some cases appeared to favour countries with which they have these agreements in the awarding of contracts. They have also continued to complain against alleged Common Market protectionism: their own foreign trade policies prohibit or restrict large groups of imports from the West and constitute a major barrier to trade. In a number of countries hard currency difficulties have given rise to a wider and more restrictive application of counter-trade policies. In recent months, however, some mutually beneficial joint venture agreements have been signed between United Kingdom companies and Eastern European countries involving co-operation mainly in the Third world. In February, Poland published a new decree on joint ventures which could improve the prospects for Western investment and infrastructure projects in that country.

Business Contacts and Facilities

There has been no significant improvement in the easing of contacts between foreign businessmen and end users or in their working and living conditions. In the Soviet Union, officers of Western companies operating from Intourist hotels had their rents increased by an average of 64 per cent. with effect from 1 February. In most cases notice of this increase was given only three days in advance. In addition, a new taxation decree due to come into force in July this year could put at a competitive disadvantage businessmen from countries which do not negotiate bilateral tax exemption agreements with the Soviet Union.

Economic and Commercial Information

In the Soviet Union, publication of monthly industrial production statistics ceased for a period at the beginning of 1979 but has now been resumed. In Bulgaria the scope and timeliness of available statistics has been particularly poor; and the published foreign trade statistics of the German Democratic Republic have continued to be incomplete and obscure. Poland, however, in connection with a $500 million loan from a consortium of Western banks, has supplied more detailed balance of payments information than had previously been made available to such institutions. Hungary has continued to publish relatively comprehensive data.

Other Areas

The 34th Plenary Session of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, designated under the Helsinki Final Act as the appropriate body to give effect to basket II provisions, took place in March-April 1979. As a result of a Soviet initiative the session resolved to hold a high-level meeting on the environment in November 1979 and to select activities in the environment field for special consideration in the commission's work programme. The session also decided to establish a permanent body of advisers on energy with a priority task to undertake exchanges of information between member States on general energy problems.

An Anglo-Hungarian agreement on co-operation in the field of medicine and public health was signed in Budapest on 1 November 1978 and brought into effect on 23 March 1979. In addition, a United Kingdom/German Democratic Republic Convention regarding legal proceedings in civil matters was initialled in March.

Basket III—Co-operation in Humanitarian and Other Fields.

Whilst the number of successfully resolved applications from citizens in Eastern Europe with relatives in the United Kingdom who want to visit or settle here continued to show a marked improvement over the pre-Helsinki situation, there has been some deterioration in the success rate and speed of handling applications in certain Eastern European countries over the period. Of the 25 different long-standing personal cases, mainly involving resettlement in the United Kingdom, which the British Government submitted to the Soviet authorities in September last year and in January this year only three—including the Voikhansky case—have been resolved satisfactorily.

Czechoslovakia has made some attempt to make family visits to so-called "illegal" émigrés easier, but tight foreign currency controls continue to be a major constraint against family visits abroad. The Bulgarian authorities continue to be difficult over a small number of personal cases where they allege some culpability in criticism of the regime. In Romania, all outstanding personal cases were resolved at the time of President Ceausescu's State Visit to the United Kingdom last year. Since then however several family reunification and bi-national marriage cases have arisen on which progress has been slow.

Information

Little or no progress has been made in improving the general availability of British and other Western non-Communist newspapers and periodicals in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In the Soviet Union sale of these continues to be mainly confined to selected hotels in major cities where they tend only to be available to foreigners and in very small quantities. At the same time, the number of British books on sale in Moscow and certain provincial cities has continued to show a gradual increase. After lengthy discussions, the British Government's proposal to publish an official information magazine in Bulgarian has been rejected by the authorities on grounds of insufficient demand.

Working Conditions for Journalists

In the German Democratic Republic the new press regulations introduced on 14 April, if applied, will seriously circumscribe the freedom of movement and access of resident Western journalists. These regulations require foreign journalists to give at least 24 hours' detailed notice of any visits outside East Berlin and to obtain official permission before conducting interviews or questioning "of any kind". The British Government have made it clear to the German Democratic Republic authorities that these regulations are not only contrary to the spirit of the Helsinki Final Act but, to the extent that they are more restrictive than the previous regulations, also constitute a serious failure of implementation. Despite such representations by the United Kingdom and other signatories of the Helsinki Final Act, the German Democratic Republic authorities have since expelled a Federal German television correspondent for alleged offences against the new regulations.

Elsewhere there have been instances of harassment of individual foreign journalists. In the Soviet Union in particular several Western journalists were criticised in the Soviet press—or in the case of United States correspondent, by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs itself—for allegedly impermissible activities. Two employees of a West German television channel were expelled in May after a personal attack on them in the Soviet Government newspaper. Mr. R. Knight, a British journalist working for an American news magazine was apparently drugged while on a visit to Tashkent in April and his wife was harassed. Our Embassy in Moscow has lodged a protest: the Soviet press gave a different version of the incident, derogatory to Mr. Knight.

Culture and Education

Implementation of the various bilateral educational and cultural agreements has been good, though increased difficulties have been encountered with the Soviet Union over visas for academic visitors and access to open archives. A German Democratic Republic/United Kingdom cultural programme was initialled in East Berlin in May In the Soviet Union an exhibition "Britain Today" was shown in Donetsk in February. An exhibition of British stage design opened in Moscow in February and an exhibition of the Oxus treasures from the British Museum in Leningrad in March and in Moscow in May, in exchange for the exhibition of treasures from Siberian frozen tombs held shortly before at the British Museum. A Soviet national exhibition was staged at Earls Court in London from 23 May to 10 June. In Hungary and Czechoslovakia increasing use has been made of the facilities of British cultural offices by private callers, though access for individuals continues to be difficult in the German Democratic Republic.

Other relevant CSCE Follow-up Activities

Further to the Mediterranean Chapter of the Helsinki Final Act, and in accordance with the mandate of the concluding document of the Belgrade meeting, a meeting of CSCE experts was held in Valletta in February-March this year to discuss co-operation in the Mediterranean in economics, culture and information. The experts agreed a series of recommendations to be taken account of as appropriate at the Madrid meeting.

Conclusion

With the disappointing outcome of the Belgrade Review Meeting in mind, the Government are convinced that some real progress in implementation must be made between now and the next Review Conference in Madrid in 1980 if the CSCE process is to maintain momentum and credibility. As I have indicated, there has been some improvement in implementation by the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries in certain areas and earlier progress has on the whole been sustained. But there are still many areas in which implementation has been disappointing or negligible. Together with its partners in the Nine and its Allies in NATO, the Government will direct their efforts over the next few months to studying and promoting, in consultation with the countries of Eastern European and other CSCE States, concrete ideas for improved implementation, particularly in areas directly relevant to the well-being of people in Eastern and Western Europe. As part of this process, United Kingdom Missions in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe have instructions to provide regular assessments of their host Governments' implementation of the Final Act.

Reports will continue to be made to the House on a six-monthly basis up to the opening of the Madrid meeting in November 1980.