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04 December 1998

TEXT: RFE/RL PRESS RELEASE ON COMMENTS BY RUSSIA'S YELENA BONNER

(No progress on human rights seen) (390)
Washington -- Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty issued a press release
about comments that Russian human rights activist Yelena Bonner, widow
of Nobel laureate Andrei Sakharov, made on the human rights and
political situation in Russia.
Following is text of RFE/RL's press release:
(Begin text)
BONNER: NO PROGRESS ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN RUSSIA
Washington, DC -- 4 December 1998. Despite Russian President Boris
Yeltsin's declaration of 1998 as "the year of human rights" in honor
of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, the Russian people have not seen any progress in the
defense of human rights in the army, Yelena Bonner told a roundtable
discussion at RFE/RL's Prague headquarters yesterday.
The longtime human rights activist said that the Russian constitution
provides what she called "paper" safeguards of human rights, but that
the Russian government has not created "a mechanism for defending
human rights in practice."
Bonner argued that the 1999 Russian Duma elections were likely to
prove more important to the cause of human rights in that country than
would the presidential vote now scheduled for the year 2000. But she
said that two recent developments could weaken any chance for
improvement: the union of center-right parties as proposed last week,
and the inclusion of politicians most Russians view as "unacceptable"
in a coalition with Grigory Yavlinsky and his Yabloko Party -- a group
Bonner said was credible and electable on its own.
But even the coming to power of more committed democrats would not
solve the problems Russia faces in the area of human rights, Bonner
said. She called for significant changes to be made to Russia's
constitution to safeguard human rights. But she said that such changes
must be made in total compliance with Russian law rather than on the
basis of a demand from only one of the branches of government.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a private, international radio
service to Eastern Europe and Southeastern Europe, Russia, the
Caucasus, Central Asia and the Middle East. More than 20 million
regular listeners rely on RFE/RL's daily news, analysis and current
affairs programming to provide a coherent, objective account of events
in their region and the world.
(End text)