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From: lkk@teddy.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory,net.politics
Subject: Re: Yugo automobile and human rights
Message-ID: <1208@teddy.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 27-Aug-85 15:30:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: teddy.1208
Posted: Tue Aug 27 15:30:58 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 29-Aug-85 22:40:10 EDT
References: <292@ubvax.UUCP> <28200051@inmet.UUCP> <163@gargoyle.UUCP> <911@mtuxo.UUCP> <220@cylixd.UUCP>
Reply-To: lkk@teddy.UUCP (Larry K. Kolodney)
Organization: GenRad, Inc., Concord, Mass.
Lines: 55
Xref: linus net.politics.theory:1017 net.politics:10013

In article <220@cylixd.UUCP> charli@cylixd.UUCP (Charli Phillips) writes:
>In article <911@mtuxo.UUCP> whg1@mtuxo.UUCP (w.georger) writes:
>>
>>Does anyone on the net have
>>any easily verifiable facts/opinions regarding the status of [human] rights
>>in the State of Yugoslavia?
>>Norm Andrews
>
>As far as Eastern Bloc countries go, Yugoslavia is bad, but not by
>any means the worst.  It allows more rights and liberties than, say,
>Romania or Czechoslovakia, but is more repressive than East Germany
>or Poland.  It is a one-party Marxist-Leninist regime, and consistently
>violates the Helsinki Accords, the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human
>Rights, and other agreements which it has signed.  It just doesn't
>violate them as often or as severely as some others.
>
>(I don't have any of my references on human rights here at work.  If
>you want information instead of just sources, send me mail.  I'd be
>happy to send it to you.)
>
>		charli


I'm skeptical of this synopsis of human rights in yugoslavia.  
First of all, Yugoslavia is NOT a member of the "Eastern Bloc".
The Eastern Bloc refers to the Warsaw pact., which
yugoslavia is not a member of.  Yugoslavia is NOT ALLIED WITH THE SOVIET UNION.

Many other things about Yugoslavia differentiate it from Warsaw pact regimes:


-  It has a rotating presidency, and there is no leadership cult.
-  Citizens are generally free to travel abroad.
-  It is not Marxist-Leninist, at least if you consider the USSR to be the
   prototype for Marism-Leninism.  The economy is DECENTRALIZED, and
   workers have a significant say in the way that factories are run.


I don't know what criterion you are using to compare it to East Germany, but
it certainly doesn't need a wall to keep its citizens there.

There is also some non-trivial amount of press freedom there.


There are cases of political dissidents being put on trial in Yugoslavia,
but these are rare, and the sentences are generally much more lenient
than in Soviet Bloc countries.


-- 

Sport Death,
Larry Kolodney
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