From 1971 on, BATUN lobbied the delegates of the UN Member States during most of the annual sessions of the Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) in Geneva. Compared to 1966-70, the lobbying efforts between 1971 and 1982 became a greater part of BATUN’s activities directed toward the UN Member States and Western including Baltic exile, audiences.
The authors of the BATUN Report on Visits for 1968/69 made a recommendation, based on the advice received from UN diplomats, “that BATUN seriously consider the human rights approach.” In regard to this human rights approach, which would have limited effects, the authors noted that:
- it might “offer small and partial, but real, protection for the rights of our compatriots in the Baltic countries;”
- “increased rights in turn means that they are better able to defend themselves against Russian domination”
- “exposing the real situation on human rights in the Baltic countries, also exposes as a sham the Russian claim that the Baltic peoples have self-determination;”
- “it may be possible to base a long-term strategy for action at the UN on the issue of human rights.”
BATUN began to notify the Commission on Human Rights of the Soviet violations of the human rights of Balts soon after the Economic and Social Council established procedure 1503, called the “Procedure for dealing with communications relating to violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms” and this continued until early 1991. For every session of the Commission on Human Rights BATUN prepared a memorandum dealing with a characteristic, recent human rights violation in the Baltic States. BATUN also attempted to get other exile organizations and individuals to report human rights violations to the Commission on Human Rights. The responses to BATUN from the UN’s Division of Human Right recognized the Baltic Question as an admissible human rights question and recognized BATUN as an organization that was eligible to provide information on the Baltic Question. BATUN provided information in more than 80 communications related to the 1503 procedure between 1971 and 1991. The information provided by BATUN was accessed by dozens, and possibly hundreds, of diplomats and members of the UN staff.
The delegates for the first Geneva visits were recruited by the board in Europe. The first visit in 1971 was conducted by Baltic exiles living in Sweden (Andres Küng, a prominent Swedish-Estonian journalist and politician), Geneva (Arnolds Skrēbers, a Latvian diplomat living in Geneva) and Germany (Walter Banaitis, editor for the Lithuanian news agency ELTA in Germany). Later, the delegate was Gatis Mastiņš, BATUN’s part-time office manager at the time, assisted by Arnolds Skrēbers. In 1977 the delegates – Juta Ristsoo (formerly Virkmaa) who had left New York for Munich and Pauls Kļaviņš came from Germany. There was no visit to the Commission on Human Rights session in 1978, but Ristsoo visited the Human Rights Commission session held in Geneva in October. In 1979 the delegates to the Human Rights Commission session came from Germany: Ristsoo, Jūlijs Kadelis, the director of PBLA Bureau of Information, and the dissident Olafs Brūveris. In 1980 the delegates were board member Fr. Casimir Pugevicius and alternate board member Vija Siksna Klīve. In 1981 and 1982 the delegates were Ristsoo, Kadelis and Narcizas Prielaida the Swiss-Lithuanian journalist residing in Geneva. The experience that the four delegates – Ristsoo, Kadelis, Brūvers, Prielaida – acquired by attending two and more sessions, may have increased the efficiency of BATUN’s Geneva visits after 1978.
During 1971-82 BATUN undertook one to three lobbying campaigns each year, for a total of 31 in twelve years. The subject of each lobbying campaign, such as in the bodies dealing with human rights – the Commission on Human Rights or the Third Committee of the General Assembly – was determined by BATUN’s access to the increased knowledge about the current events in the Baltic countries (and the Soviet Union) in the West and among the Baltic exile resulting from the availability of dissident-produced documents and the reporting of Western journalists stationed in the Soviet Union.
BATUN prepared materials to educate and provide instruction for the BATUN delegates prior to their participation in lobby visits. The available information was used to prepare three types of materials: a) the instructions for BATUN’s lobbyists, b) the informative documents delivered to the UN, and c) BATUN’s news releases. The instructions packets for Geneva were adapted for both the novice and experienced delegates who conducted visits to the Permanent UN Missions in NY. During 1971-82, the informative documents that BATUN delivered to the UN Member States and institutions can be divided into three categories: a) Baltic dissident documents; b) non-BATUN exile materials; c) BATUN-prepared materials.
Two days of debate over the Baltic States
Each fall, before the beginning of the new General Assembly session, BATUN prepared a memorandum designed to apply to a specific item on the General Assembly agenda. In result, several representatives of various countries have mentioned the Baltic States in their speeches. The speech of Hon. Edward J.Derwinski, Member of US Congress and US Delegate to the 26th General Assembly to UN, in the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) on November 15, 1971 opened two days of battle royal between the USA and USSR over the Baltic States. The event also marked a change of the US attitude in the UN. Derwinski felt that the US has let the Russians get away with too much propaganda in the UN and that the UN is mainly a propaganda forum – “debating society”. When the time came for Derwinski to make a speech in the Third Committee, he decided to take a new approach. After every pro-Soviet statement he asked for a right to reply and patiently repeated the facts, only in a more elaborate way. This course of action ultimately led to the strongest pro-Baltic stance ever expressed by the US in the UN.
Derwinski went on to say that new forms of colonialism should not be overlooked –
” We must be ever mindful of those proud nations which have lost their freedom in this period as well as those brave people everywhere who are denied national dignity and the right of self-determination. (…) The Baltic States – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – represent a special case in point. They have been physically annexed by the Soviet Union and forcibly incorporated into the cluster of its ” Social Republics”.
On November 15, just a few hours after his speech at the UN, the Hon. Edward Derwinski came at the invitation of BATUN to the Estonian House in New York, to address members of Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian organizations.
The Prisoners of Conscience project
As information about Balts being imprisoned in the occupied Baltic States started to reach the West, BATUN started the Prisoners of Conscience (POC) program in late 1973, which sought to plead the case of the imprisoned Baltic freedom fighters.
The Baltic exile POC activities, in which BATUN played a prominent role, were a part of a larger movement in the West. In 1973, Uldis Blukis proposed that BATUN collect data on Baltic POCs in the USSR and establish Baltic POC support groups. The groups would be assigned the POCs known to BATUN, and they would gather information about the POCs, try to communicate with them and help them, and try to get publicity for them in the West. Whenever news would be received of another arrest, also BYFF reacted by immediately organizing a small demonstration at the Soviet Mission to the UN on East 67th Street. At one point, BYFF was there so often that the police from the police station, which was located across the street, who were charged with maintaining order would greet the BYFF protestors with shouts of “the Balts are here again!”
In the 1970s, BATUN started a campaign by sending postcards with artwork by three Baltic artists – an Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian –to people who had been held in Soviet concentration camps. Uldis Blukis was the initiator of this program and sent letters to dissident prisoners. The Soviet regime would not deliver the letters to the prisoners and they were returned to the senders from the detention center. The letters-to-POCs campaigns were held at Christmas events in the exile Baltic community around December 10th, UN’s Human Rights Day, i.e., the date when the General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. At the events, BATUN activists or supporters would set up tables where the names and addresses of a few POCs, as well as of the GULAG officials and other Soviet officials, were provided. BATUN suggested that Human Rights Day greetings to the officials include politely worded requests to explore the possibility of human rights violations in regards to POC being violated. The violations might include ones related to their right to adequate food and living conditions, or their freedom of communication, conscience, opinion, and expression. Pens, paper and envelopes, as well as postcards, were provided, that could be sent to both POCs and officials included by registered mail.
Those who wanted to regularly write letters to POCs and officials were offered assistance. The first campaigns were probably held in December 1979 at BATUN office and Daugavas Vanagi headquarters in the Bronx and possibly elsewhere. In New York, the campaigns were held annually until December 1987. The number of letters sent each year ranged from more than 50 to more than 100, and even the approximately 3,000 sent by Lithuanians in New York in 1980. In the early 1980s, BATUN collected samples of the registered mail that was returned to the senders for various official reasons. These were sent to the US Congress, which was investigating Soviet mail delivery. Only one letter from a POC was found in the archive of letters. It came from Ivars Grabāns, a Latvian farmer who was born in 1922 and became an anti-Soviet guerilla. He had been sentenced to 15 years in a “severe regime” prison (in Perm), and his release was expected on September 1, 1983.
Postcards with printed photographs of Estonian dissidents were distributed to Baltic exiles and organizations. The postcards contained a request for the dissident’s release and were addressed to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR or the Committee for the State Security Council of Ministers of the USSR. Source: LNA LVA F.2944:
The saga of Simas Kudirka
“No contracting state shall expel or return a refugee in any manner whatsoever to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened” /Article 33 of the 1951 “Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees” (Geneva Convention)/
Simas Kudirka’s story had a broad impact in the US and for BATUN itself. On 23 November 1970, a Lithuanian seaman named Simas Kudirka jumped from the Soviet fishing ship Sovetskaya Litva across the icy water onto the USA Coast Guardship Vigilant in a frantic bid for freedom. Kudirka asked for asylum, but after several hours, his request was rejected. After the Americans returned Kudirka to the Soviets, he was beaten and forcibly taken back to the Soviet fishing ship by Soviet crewmen. The event might have been forgotten had it not been for a Latvian-American, Robert Brieze, who was on board the Vigilant and alerted the American press. BATUN’s Executive Chairman K. Miklas sent a protest telegram to U.S. President Nixon on November 25th. The stories in the American press outraged Lithuanian-Americans who started to organize demonstrations in many US cities, including in New York at Times Square. The Times Square demonstration was organized on 28 November by the Lithuanian-American Action Committee and it was reported on a local TV news station. BATUN members participated at that event and BATUN president Ainso said the closing remarks. The article of demonstration appeared on the bottom of page 1 next day in America’s most influential newspaper The New York Times as U.S. Lets Russians Board Cutter to Seize Defector . The Times article outraged President Nixon and started a Congressional investigation. The result was new US guidelines to handle defectors and refugees and the demotion of the Admiral who had permitted the Soviets to come on board the US vessel and carry out their heinous deed. Both, the US personnel and Soviet sailors on Vigilant had violated the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Also, allowing such an action by foreign nationals on a US vessel undermined America’s sovereignty.
After the demonstrations, BATUN sent memoranda about Kudirka to the US President, UN High Commissioner of Refugees, Secretary-General Prince Sadruddin Aga Kahn, President of the General Assembly, Chairman of the Third (Human Rights) Committee, Chairman of the Commission on Human Rights, and many permanent missions. Responses were received from President Richard Nixon, the Ambassadors of Malta, the Federal Republic of Germany, UK, US and Australia. In April of 1972, the US delegate Wm. E. Schaufele Jr. used BATUN’s memorandum on “the right to leave” for a statement at Commission on Human Rights that mentions the Berlin wall and the Kudirka case. This demonstrated that it was not just Jews, which were much reported on in Western media, but Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians and Armenians, and actually all Soviet citizens that suffered from Soviet Government’s refusal to consider emigration as a right rather than a special privilege
BATUN Memorandum on the Simas Kudirka case, 1970. Source: LNA LVA F.2944:
After BATUN learned that Kudirka was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor, all the members of the Commission on Human Rights were notified of his unusually harsh sentence for attempting to exercise his right to leave his country. BATUN received a reply from the Chief, of the Communications Unit in the UN Division of Human Rights, saying that they were protesting Kudirka’s 10-year sentence. Kudirka’s luck began to turn in early 1974. Investigations revealed that Kudirka’s mother was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. and had been brought to Lithuania at a young age. The US Embassy in Moscow issued her a US passport. On the basis of her mother’s citizenship Kudirka was recognized as a US citizen. Once this became known, Kudirka’s supporters in the suburbs south of Chicago sought help from Congressman Robert P. Hanrahan, who introduced resolutions in Congress, met with State Dept. officials and attempted to meet with the Soviet ambassador in Washington. As a result of many efforts by many people, Kudirka was freed in November of 1974 and allowed to emigrate to the US with his wife, children, and mother. When the Kudirka family finally arrived in the United States on November 5,1974, Mr. Hanrahan told the Chicago Tribune that President Gerald Ford had talked with Soviet leader, L. Brezhnev, and personally intervened on Kudirka’s behalf. After landing in New York, BATUN arranged for him to visit the US Permanent Mission, since he wanted to thank the US head Human Right delegate Wm. E. Schaufele for his remarks at the UN and his release.
On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of BATUN’s founding Kudirka expressed sincere appreciation on what BATUN did –
“I and my family sincerely appreciate all you did in my behalf after my unsuccessful attempt to gain freedom and during my grave days in Russia prisons. Your actions to save me were very important towards gaining my freedom. I will never forget this nor the help you gave me and my family since our arrival in America”
Leonid Brezhnev’s visit to the United States
In June of 1973, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev visited the US at the invitation of then President Nixon. BATUN, emboldened by the success of the 1970 rally, and led by the activists of BYFF, decided to organize mass gathering to demonstrate the Baltic exile community’s opposition. A charter bus was hired and decorated with large posters and placards and BYFF activists and friends were invited to make the bus trip from New York to Washington, DC to join the local Baltic demonstrators. The group left New York on June 18. 1973, and during the next three days, the bus and demonstrators traveled to all the places where Brezhnev and Nixon were meeting. The bus attracted the attention of the police and press in Washington DC.
Meanwhile, preparations were also being made in New York for a demonstration at the UN. And a publicity blitz targeting the Baltic exile press and radio broadcasts was underway, with the leaders of the Baltic exile community appealing to the community to participate. Fifty thousand leaflets were distributed throughout Manhattan. The rally took place on June 23, 1973, but the turnout was disappointing. Only 500 demonstrators answered the call, but they witnessed a new form of Baltic protest. A flatbed truck provided by a supporter was turned into a speaker’s platform. And it also served as a stage for a guerrilla theater performance depicting the silencing of a dissident at the Serbsky Institute near Moscow.
Support for the Baltic World Council leaders
In July 1973, BATUN organized an all-night vigil at the UN to support the Baltic World Council leaders who had been arrested in Helsinki, during a meeting of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). The meeting was discussing territorial integrity, i.e., fixing the borders of all the European countries as they existed at that time, which was in conflict with the concept of self-determination. The arrests were made at the request of the Soviet Union. BATUN demonstrators, carrying the flags of independent Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, demonstrated for 24 hours at the UN.
Australia and New Zealand rescinding the non-recognition the incorporation of the Baltic States
Other demonstrations were held in response to the announcement of the governments of Australia and New Zealand in August of 1974 that they had reversed their previous position and rescinding the non-recognition the incorporation of the Baltic States into the Soviet Union. Australia became the first nation to legally recognize the incorporation of Baltic States. BATUN with BYFF was among the first to protest. The Australians’ action provoked a swift response from the Baltic exile community throughout the world with BATUN leading the activities in New York. The first demonstration organized outside Australia took place on August 12th at the offices of Qantas, the Australian airline, in New York. Three more demonstrations followed: on August 17th in Time Square with a march to the Australian Consulate; on September 19th at the Australian Mission to the UN; and on September 30th in front of the UN during Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam’s speech to the General Assembly. BATUN played a major role in all of these demonstrations.
The Brūvers brothers
In the area of individual human rights, in 1975, BATUN helped to organize and carry out actions on behalf the Brūvers brothers – Olaf and Pavli — who had been arrested in Riga, Latvia, for gathering information for a public opinion poll which would reflect people’s attitudes towards aspects of life in Latvia that time. Olaf and Pavli came to mutual conclusion that the preaching of the nation was not possible, unless the freedom of Latvia was restored and democracy reinstated. BATUN helped their brother Daniels Brūvers to come to the US to appeal to the UN on behalf of his brothers, and organized and participated in his week-long vigil at the UN headquarters. In 1976, after a hunger strike and eight-month struggle, the Brūvers brothers were finally expelled from the Soviet Union, and they emigrated to the West. It was one of the first human rights victories in Latvia.
A three-day hunger strike
In 1978, from May 2 to 5, a three-day hunger strike was organized at the UN to protest the arrest of Victor Kalniņš in Latvia. Latvian journalist and member of a national resistance movement, Victor Kalniņš was arrested at the beginning of 1962. He was charged with “attempting forcibly to separate Latvia from the U S S R”, and got a 10 year sentence. He came out in 1972. In 1977, he was arrested for intending to form Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian national liberation committees and to establish an illegal magazine. His wife Helena was allowed to leave for Western Europe, but Kalniņš was detained to complete the interrogation. Due to international protests, he was allowed to leave in June 1978, and the both of them moved to the United States.
Vigil for Jüri Kukk
Upon learning of Jüri Kukk’s death, BATUN immediately organized a candle-light vigil in front of the Soviet Mission in New York. Jüri Kukk was an Estonian professor of chemistry. He was arrested in February 1980 for “disseminating anti-Soviet propaganda”, and died in a Soviet labor camp in Vologda after several months of being on hunger strike and receiving psychiatric treatments. Information about Juri Kukk was also provided to the media and the UN permanent missions. Based on this information, Carl Gershman of the UN Mission highlighted Jüri Kukk’s case in his speech at the UN on October 9, 1981.
40th anniversary of the occupation of the Baltic States
In 1980, the focus turned to the 40th anniversary of the occupation of the Baltic States by the Soviet Union and the demand to have the UN have the question of the Baltic States added to the agenda of the General Assembly. The date for the Baltic Freedom Rally was set for September 27, 1980. Senator Alfonse D’Amato of New York, Simas Kudirka and, chairman of the World Baltic Council, were invited to speak.
Simas Kudirka pointed out –
„Freedom in the world is under threat, something must be done to maintain freedom without compromise!”
But Lithuanian Vlads Šakalys, who has escaped to Sweden through Finland only month earlier, warned:
“Freedom cannot be expected, it must be fought for. The Baltic States were once members of the League of Nations, they should now have the same rights as the new lands. The UN must end its dual views!”
The rally was attended by about thousand participants of whom a large majority was younger people. Placards bearing photos of Baltic political prisoners in the Soviet Union were carried by the demonstrators. Although press releases and background information were sent to all the major media outlets, and follow-up telephone calls were made, media coverage was negligible. The Baltic Freedom Rally was the last mass public protest organized by BATUN. Times were changing. More information was arriving from the Baltic countries. And after 1981, BATUN’s efforts shifted to other ways of distributing information about the Baltic States and their people.
The Baltic Folk Festivals
The Baltic Folk Festivals became an integral part of BATUN’s efforts to increase its visibility in the exile community. The First Baltic Folk Festival was organized in August of 1970 at the Latvian-American cultural center called Priedaine in Freehold, New Jersey. The program included sports competitions, performances by folk dancers, gymnasts and singers, as well as ethnic food stands, raffles and dancing under the stars. A special festival program was published, which also included an introduction of BATUN and its activities to date, as well as advertisements and congratulatory messages from supporters.
The success of the first festival provided a template, which was used with mixed success, for all the subsequent festivals. The Second Baltic Folk Festival was also held at Priedaine in August of 1971 and was also a resounding success.
The Third Baltic Folk Festival, on August 12, 1972, was held at Preston High School in the Bronx. A new feature at this festival, which attracted a lot of attention, was the Baltic Art Raffle, with artworks donated by Baltic artists being raffled off.
The Fourth Baltic Folk Festival returned to Priedaine on August 18, 1973 and featured the appearance of the “Helsinki Three”, the leaders of the worldwide Baltic central organizations who had been incarcerated in Helsinki during the Conference on Security and Cooperation (CSCE) in Europe at the request of the Soviet Union delegation.
The Fifth Baltic Folk Festival was scheduled for August 24, 1974, also at Priedaine. Despite an excellent program with high-quality foods and games, as well as excellent weather, only about 500 people attended and it only netted the organization $500in profit, which did not justify the time and effort that had been invested.
The Sixth Baltic Folk Festival was moved to Plattdeutsche Park on Long Island, NY in the hope that the new location would attract a new group of festival attendees. However, the festival was a limited success as the weather was not very good, and attendance was poor. It was obvious that the idea had run its course and, in its current form, would not attract sufficient people.
However, the next year, a seventh festival was held nevertheless and the Plattdeutsche Park was again chosen as the venue. But the results did not improve and this was the last of the festivals.
