U.N. Asked To Condemn Deportations

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28130, 20 November 1956, Page 15

U.N. Asked To Condemn Deportations

(Rec. 11 p.m.) NEW YORK, Nov. 1» The United Nations General Assembly will be asked today to condemn the Soviet deportation of Hungarians. Cuba, which is sponsoring the resolution before the assembly this morning. has dropped its charge that the Soviet deportations violate the United Nations Convention against Genocide The convention forbids specific acts timed at extermination of a national facial or religious group. Cuba’s amended resolution now merely recalls its “principles,” particularly the clauses against subject ln g a group to unbearable conditions and against transferring its children to another group. The Cuban Ambassador. Mr Emiiio Nunez-Portuondo, said last night that the change would allow countries to vote for the proposal even if they had not ratified the Convention since “the principle is effective fo r •very civilised nation.” Hungary and the Soviet Union are *mong the 54 countries that have ratified the agreement. The resolution notes their ratifications. Mr Nunez-Portuondo said ne expected the resolution to pass by a substantial majority in the assembly. .He said Cuba would be joined by •ix or seven co-sponsors from “all Farts of the world —Asia. Africa. America and Europe.” Russia and . the present Hungarian Communist regime have insisted th a* the assembly has no right to discuss the situation in Hungary, where Soviet troops were used to crush a revolution.

They say it is strictly a domestic matter.

Cuba’s rewritten resolution is the third version of one originally submitted last Thursday and -evised on Friday. The new version aims to please some delegations that felt that the earlier two made the charges too specific while basing them on world press and Budapest radio reports rather than on official information.

The resolution originally said that the Soviet Government was “forcibly deporting Hungarian prisoners to Siberia.” • It now says that the Soviet Government is deporting “Hungarian men. women and children to places outside of Hungary.” The old resolution cited press and radio reports on deportations. The new draft says the assembly has received information on deportations. Besides the Genocide Convention the present proposal also recalls human rights provisions of the United Nations Charter and of the 1947 Hungarian Peace Treaty.

The resolution urges the Soviet Government to stop the at once and to return those already deported. It asks the Secretary-General. Mr Hammarskjold, to report to the assembly later on what has been done to carry out its terms and of the assembly’s four previous resolutions on Hungary. These were all passed in a recent emergency special session.