Latvians demanding sovereign State

Press, 6 October 1988, Page 45

Latvians demanding sovereign State

NZPA-Reuter Moscow Latvians united in a new Popular Front have demanded their Baltic homeland be declared a sovereign State with full economic autonomy and veto power over Soviet decisions that affect their interests. The Front’s draft programme, printed in the Latvian Communist Youth newspaper “Sovetskaya Molodezh,” said residents of the republic must be granted Latvian citizenship and Latvia itself the right to direct relations with foreign States.

It also demanded that the deportation of tens of thousands of Latvians to other parts of the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin in the 1940 s be declared “crimes against humanity” and that those responsible be named and stripped of privileges. “The Popular Front of Latvia opposes any monopolisation of power,” the programme stated in what appeared to be the boldest challenge to date by a broad-based grass-roots movement to the primacy of the ruling Communist

Party. It was issued against a background of burgeoning national sentiment in the other two Baltic republics — Estonia and Lithuania — where Popular Fronts have also been formed. The Latvian programme was printed in the September 8 issue of “Sovetskaya Molodezh.” Its appearance in the communist newspaper signalled it had official support and a sizeable membership. Among other innovations, the programme would give Latvians: © The right to fulfill their military obligations in an autonomous armed force in Latvia; © The right of access to information gathered about them by the authorities and to challenge its veracity in court; @ The right to travel abroad and meet foreigners freely; © The right to serve prison sentences in Latvia. “The Latvian people must be masters of their land and decide all questions autonomously,” the

programme declared. It sketched a programme for economic autonomy which would free Latvian industry from control by Moscow and, in a move taking the Latvian Front beyond that of Estonia, to virtually privatise agriculture by giving farmers 99-year leases to land.

Responding to public concerns which brought thousands of Balts to the coast to protest sea pollution this month, it demanded strict environmental control laws which would punish industrial offenders.

Decrying the influx of Russian and other nonLatvian workers, which has made Latvians a minority in their homeland for the first time, it called for limits on migration.

It said a “serious threat” to cultural traditions must also be met by making Latvian the official language of the republic and by creating an autonomous Latvian education system.