1948 :
La Nation
lettone doit-elle périr?
Un appel urgent du Conseil National Letton au monde civilisé
Joint Appeal of the Baltic States' National Councils to the United States and Great Britain 1944
“A joint appeal of the three countries' National Councils was addressed in 1944 to the United
States and Great Britain which read as follows:
"In 1939, our Governments concluded a Friendship and Mutual Aid Agreement with the Soviet Union.
In this agreement, the Soviet Government undertook to respect our sovereignty, our social and
political structure. In 1940, contrary to the obligations undertaken, Soviet troops attacked our
countries. Our Nations Diet elections took place under the pressure of Soviet bayonets. The Diets
were forced to pass a resolution that our Republics should become members of the Soviet Union.
"Our peoples disapproved of this, but our protests were suppressed by reprisals unprecedented in
the history of civilised peoples. Tens of thousands of our people were murdered without trial,
more than 100,000 were deported in cattle trucks to Siberia or to Central Asia. This deportation
was carried out in a particularly inhuman manner. Families were torn apart - wives separated from
their husbands, children from their mothers. The forcible Sovietization of our countries was
carried out by depriving us of all our movable and immovable property. Our people have become
proletarians.
"After the invasion of our countries by the Germans, the Soviet Government repeatedly declared
that it would liberate the Baltic States. The moment has come when the Soviet Government must
redeem its obligations towards the Baltic States, resulting from the agreement made in 1939.
This liberation cannot be made dependent upon the subjugation of our peoples and the
incorporation of our Republics into the Soviet Union. The plebiscite of 1940, as it took place
under foreign pressure, is regarded as null and void by our people.
"With the re-occupation of our countries, the Soviet armies do not bring us the promised freedom,
but fresh oppression with more murders committed on thousands of our best citizens and the mass
deportation of our population by which, under the 1941 NKVD Plan, our peoples were to be
annihilated.
"As the Soviet Union is a party to the Atlantic Charter, which guarantees the people's
sovereignty and free choice of government, the peoples of the Baltic States appeal to the
Government of His Britannic Majesty and the Government of the U.S.A. to set up an inter-Allied
Commission of British, U.S. and Soviet representatives, with the object of preventing Soviet
impositions and promoting the formation of our Governments on a democratic basis.. We implore you
to save our peoples from complete annihilation."
Source:
Embassy of Latvia, Washington 1947
Commentaires:
, Suisse Romande, 06 février 2001,
Mise à jour: 06 février 2001
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