whg1@mtuxo.UUCP (w.georger) (08/23/85)
REFERENCES: <292@ubvax.UUCP> <28200051@inmet.UUCP>, <163@gargoyle.UUCP> protection protection Some Americans will soon be buying the $4000 Yugo automobiles imported from Yugoslavia. I would not want to buy a product from any country that does not at least have free speech and free press. Does anyone on the net have any easily verifiable facts/opinions regarding the status of those rights in the State of Yugoslavia? Norm Andrews AT&T Information Systems Laboratories Building 114A Room HO1C325 Crawfords Corner Road Holmdel, New Jersey 07733 (201)834-3685 vax135!mtuxo!whg1 (temporarily better E-mail address) or: vax135!ariel!norm -- Norm Andrews AT&T Information Systems Laboratories Building 114A Room HO1C325 Crawfords Corner Road Holmdel, New Jersey 07733 (201)834-3685 vax135!mtuxo!whg1 (temporarily better E-mail address) or: vax135!ariel!norm
charli@cylixd.UUCP (Charli Phillips) (08/24/85)
In article <911@mtuxo.UUCP> whg1@mtuxo.UUCP (w.georger) writes: > >Does anyone on the net have >any easily verifiable facts/opinions regarding the status of [human] rights >in the State of Yugoslavia? >Norm Andrews Believe it or not, one of the best and most reliable sources of information on the status of human rights in Europe is our own government. As a party to the Helsinki accords, the United States carefully tracks violations of the provisions of that agreement. You would be interested in Basket Three (the Human Rights basket). For recent information, just write: Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe U. S. House of Representatives Washington, DC Ask for hearings and mark-ups related to human rights in Yugoslavia. They are free. (If you are really interested in human rights world-wide, you might ask to be put on their mailing list for all Basket Three hearings. My husband and I have done that.) If there is a depository of government documents at an area library, you might check there if you want the information fast. CSCE can be slow to respond, but they do send you the information eventually. Other reliable sources of information are Amnesty International (general human rights information) and Christian Response International (religious freedom). (There are lots of others; I can vouch for the reliability of these two organizations.) As far as Eastern Bloc countries go, Yugoslavia is bad, but not by any means the worst. It allows more rights and liberties than, say, Romania or Czechoslovakia, but is more repressive than East Germany or Poland. It is a one-party Marxist-Leninist regime, and consistently violates the Helsinki Accords, the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and other agreements which it has signed. It just doesn't violate them as often or as severely as some others. (I don't have any of my references on human rights here at work. If you want information instead of just sources, send me mail. I'd be happy to send it to you.) charli
gdvsmit@watrose.UUCP (Riel Smit) (08/27/85)
In article <220@cylixd.UUCP> charli@cylixd.UUCP (Charli Phillips) writes: > >As far as Eastern Bloc countries go, Yugoslavia is bad, but not by >any means the worst. It allows more rights and liberties than, say, >Romania or Czechoslovakia, but is more repressive than East Germany >or Poland. It is a one-party Marxist-Leninist regime, and consistently >violates the Helsinki Accords, the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human >Rights, and other agreements which it has signed. It just doesn't >violate them as often or as severely as some others. > In the light of the above (which is not new to me), and similar statements that can be made about a large proportion of African (and other third world) countries, can someone please explain why South Africa is singled out for the kind of treatment it gets? I'm not necessarily saying they (SA) should not be getting the treatment, I just want to hear peolpe explain why they do not become rabid over these other countries the way they do over South Africa. Why, sporting ties, investments, and what have you go on with hardly a whisper (and definitely nothing more than a whisper).
lkk@teddy.UUCP (08/27/85)
In article <220@cylixd.UUCP> charli@cylixd.UUCP (Charli Phillips) writes: >In article <911@mtuxo.UUCP> whg1@mtuxo.UUCP (w.georger) writes: >> >>Does anyone on the net have >>any easily verifiable facts/opinions regarding the status of [human] rights >>in the State of Yugoslavia? >>Norm Andrews > >As far as Eastern Bloc countries go, Yugoslavia is bad, but not by >any means the worst. It allows more rights and liberties than, say, >Romania or Czechoslovakia, but is more repressive than East Germany >or Poland. It is a one-party Marxist-Leninist regime, and consistently >violates the Helsinki Accords, the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human >Rights, and other agreements which it has signed. It just doesn't >violate them as often or as severely as some others. > >(I don't have any of my references on human rights here at work. If >you want information instead of just sources, send me mail. I'd be >happy to send it to you.) > > charli I'm skeptical of this synopsis of human rights in yugoslavia. First of all, Yugoslavia is NOT a member of the "Eastern Bloc". The Eastern Bloc refers to the Warsaw pact., which yugoslavia is not a member of. Yugoslavia is NOT ALLIED WITH THE SOVIET UNION. Many other things about Yugoslavia differentiate it from Warsaw pact regimes: - It has a rotating presidency, and there is no leadership cult. - Citizens are generally free to travel abroad. - It is not Marxist-Leninist, at least if you consider the USSR to be the prototype for Marism-Leninism. The economy is DECENTRALIZED, and workers have a significant say in the way that factories are run. I don't know what criterion you are using to compare it to East Germany, but it certainly doesn't need a wall to keep its citizens there. There is also some non-trivial amount of press freedom there. There are cases of political dissidents being put on trial in Yugoslavia, but these are rare, and the sentences are generally much more lenient than in Soviet Bloc countries. -- Sport Death, Larry Kolodney (USENET) ...decvax!genrad!teddy!lkk (INTERNET) lkk@mit-mc.arpa