H-1249.1          _______________________________________________

                             HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 4006

                  _______________________________________________

State of Washington              52nd Legislature             1991 Regular Session

By Representatives Padden, Heavey, Brough, Kremen, Hargrove, Beck, Grant, Mitchell, Fuhrman, Forner, Paris, P. Johnson, Morton, Casada, Nealey, Chandler, Mielke, May, Tate, Holland, Wood, Horn, Vance, Silver, Moyer, Wynne, Hochstatter, Broback, Jacobsen, Wineberry, Orr, Miller, Bowman, Betrozoff and D. Sommers.

Read first time February 7, 1991.  Referred to Committee on State Government.Requesting Congress and the president to call for a cessation of coercive tactics by the Soviet Union in the Baltic nations.

     TO THE HONORABLE GEORGE BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:

     We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:

     WHEREAS, President Gorbachev has deployed Soviet troops to the Baltic nations and has begun to use force to impose his rule in place of the democratically elected government of Lithuania; and

     WHEREAS, The United States has never recognized the forcible annexation of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia into the Soviet Union; and

     WHEREAS, These Baltic nations have been at the forefront of economic reform and real democratization among the people of the Soviet Union; and

     WHEREAS, The governments of the Baltic nations have responded with an urgent appeal for the immediate support of all democratic countries to protect the independence and democracy of the Baltic nations; and

     WHEREAS, Such coercive tactics are unacceptable among the community of democratic nations and especially so at a time when the world, including the Soviet Union itself, is united in opposition to the forcible annexation of another small nation, Kuwait, by its brutal neighbor, Iraq;

     NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully call on President George Bush and his administration to prevail upon President Gorbachev and the government of the USSR to stop the aggression and to protect the lives and human rights of the citizens of the Baltic nations in accordance with the provisions of the Helsinki Accords, to utilize diplomatic as well as economic means to stabilize the situation in the Baltics, and to support the restoration of independence and democratically elected governments of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia; and

     NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully call on our Washington State Congressional delegation to call upon President Gorbachev and the government of the USSR to refrain from further use of coercive tactics against the democratically elected governments of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia and the peaceful citizens of the Baltic nations; and

     NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully call on the citizens of the State of Washington to contact the President of the United States, and their Representatives to the Congress of the United States, to voice their concerns about the current situation in the Baltic nations.

     BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable George Bush, President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.