1ST  SESSION

S. RES. 169

Supporting the efforts of  Dobroslav Paraga to bring about increased respect for human rights in Yugoslavia.

I N  T H E  S E N A T E  O F  T H E  U N I T E D  S T A T E S

August 4 (legislative day, January 3), 1989

Mr.RIEGLE ( for himself, Mr.SIMON, Mr.DIXON, Mr.HELMS, Mr.LEVIN,        Mr.KENNEDY, and Mr.CHAFEE ) submitted the following resolution;

which was considered and agreed to

R E S O L U T I O N

Supporting the efforts of Dobroslav Paraga to bring about increased respect for human rights in Yugoslavia.

Whereas Dobroslav Paraga, who has twice been adopted as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International, has endured hardship for openly calling on the Yugoslav Government to honor its commitments under the Helsinki Accords to respect the fundamental human rights of all the citizens of Yugoslavia;

Whereas Dobroslav Paraga has been tried on three occasions by Yugoslav courts, the initial charge being that, in 1980, he, along with a Jewish Croatian student, Ernest Brajder, authored a petition opposing torture in Yugoslavia and calling for the release of political prisoners;

Whereas, as a result, both men were arrested and, three days later, Ernest Brajder died under what the Department of State calls " mysterious circumstances " ;

Whereas, in 1986, Mr.Paraga sued the Government of Yugoslavia for injuries, both physical and psychological, inflicted on him by prison authorities during his imprisonment;

Whereas the regime and court in Zagreb denied him a fair and just trial, an account of which was set forth in the Department of State 's annual Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1987;

Whereas the Yugoslav Government forbade Mr.Paraga in 1987 to speak out publicly in any way about his experiences as a political prisoner;

Whereas in violation of that order of silence, Dobroslav Paraga has come to the West to speak about human rights abuses in Yugoslavia; and

Whereas, upon his return to Yugoslavia, Dobroslav Paraga risks imprisonment again because of his open criticism of the Yugoslav Government 's human rights abuses; Now , therefore, be it

Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that-

(1) the Government of Yugoslavia, in recognition of the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, should guarantee its citizens fundamental human rights and freedoms;

(2) the Yugoslav Government should grant unconditional amnesty to all political prisoners;

(3) the Government of Yugoslavia should dismiss the charges currently pending against human rights activist Dobroslav Paraga, allow him and his family to return to their home in Croatia, and end all forms of harassment against him and his family;

(4) the Government of Yugoslavia should conduct an investigation into the death of Ernest Brajder, who, according to the Department of State, died under " mysterious circumstances ", and should make its findings public.

HRVATSKA STRANKA PRAVA - l86l. Zagreb .March.l997. President: MR.D.Paraga