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From: charli@cylixd.UUCP (Charli Phillips)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory,net.politics
Subject: Re: Yugo automobile and human rights
Message-ID: <220@cylixd.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 23-Aug-85 17:09:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: cylixd.220
Posted: Fri Aug 23 17:09:31 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 25-Aug-85 00:10:09 EDT
References: <292@ubvax.UUCP> <28200051@inmet.UUCP> <163@gargoyle.UUCP> <911@mtuxo.UUCP>
Reply-To: charli@cylixd.UUCP (Charli Phillips)
Organization: RCA Cylix Communications , Memphis, TN
Lines: 44
Xref: watmath net.politics.theory:976 net.politics:10614
Summary: 

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