home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- <text>
- <title>
- Latvian Equal Rights Groups Warn Against Nationalism
- </title>
- <article>
- <hdr>
- Foreign Broadcast Information Service, February 5, 1991
- Equal Rights Group Warns Against Nationalism
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p>[Appeal issued by the "Equal Rights" faction to the peoples of
- Latvia, Riga SOVETSKAYA LATVIYA in Russian 18 Jan 91 p 1]
- </p>
- <p> [Text] Political and economic adventurism is destroying our
- republic. We are surrounded by calumny, lies, and provocation--minor and gross--endangering people's lives. The barricades
- in Old Riga and on the city's bridges are no less than a crime.
- </p>
- <p> Are those who have sent people to the barricades really
- expecting tanks. If so, will not a high price be exacted for
- these props which are fit only for a tear-jerking movie which
- will subsequently be sold for hard currency. If not, their
- crime still lies ahead.
- </p>
- <p> The alliance between the Congress of Citizens and the
- Latvian Republic Supreme Soviet is nothing more than an
- ordinary parliamentary coup. Affairs in the Supreme Soviet are
- now being run by a few dozen national-radical deputies, and they
- are playing for very high political stakes. In these conditions
- the "Equal Rights" faction deems it impossible to take part in
- the work of the republic Supreme Soviet.
- </p>
- <p> The formation of a totalitarian regime of nationalist
- persuasion which gives to some at the expense of others is
- under way.
- </p>
- <p> We deputies of the "Equal Rights" faction urge all political
- and social movements to halt. Confrontation on the streets of
- Riga could lead to bloodshed. The political ambitions of a
- group of political intriguers will be paid for with peoples'
- lives.
- </p>
- <p> It is sad that barricades have also been erected in people's
- hearts. The hysteria in the mass media has already so changed
- people's minds that the very idea of compromise seems
- impossible.
- </p>
- <p> Nevertheless, we do urge the opposing forces to sit down at
- the negotiating table for the sake of our Latvia's salvation.
- </p>
- <p> S. Dimanis, chairman of the "Equal Rights" faction.
- </p>
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-