FOREIGN RELATIONS: Human Rights: Confrontation in Belgrade

The human rights issue has become the centerpiece of Jimmy Carter's foreign policy. His stand is popular at home; abroad it has won admiration mixed with puzzlement and even indignation. The policy ran into two major tests last week at diplomatic meetings more than 5,000 miles apart. In Grenada, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance found himself defending the Administration's criticism of human rights violations by various Latin American governments against a chorus of officials who argued that terrorism is more of a menace (see following story). In Belgrade, differences between the Kremlin and the White House over human rights abuses in the Communist world—though they might temporarily be papered over at the conference—threatened to become a test of wills and even of East-West relations.

There was one ominous note in Yugoslav Foreign Minister Miloŝ Minić's speech of welcome to the 150 delegates who assembled in Belgrade last week for the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Wishing the dignitaries a pleasant stay, Minic warned against "sinister forces" that oppose detente and engage in "propaganda campaigns" and "terrorism."

Delegates who checked the wire-service tickers in the press room of Belgrade's imposing new $30 million conference center could glean what the minister had in mind. On the conference's opening day, prisoners in Soviet camps and jails in Perm, Mordovia and Vladimir, east of Moscow, sought to draw attention to their plight by going on hunger strikes. In various Communist and Western countries, demonstrators organized protests or stood in silent vigil in support of human rights. When 15 women from nine countries appeared in Belgrade to demonstrate on behalf of Soviet Jews, the Yugoslav security police swooped down on them in their hotel and deported them before they could get near the conference hall. In Manhattan, three Croatian terrorists barricaded themselves inside the Yugoslav mission to the U.N. in an attempt to publicize their national aspirations.

None of these incidents, however, ruffled the tranquil spirit of the meeting. Its purpose is to hammer out a technical agreement on the date, duration, agenda and procedures of a larger session in Belgrade next October. There the U.S., the Soviet Union, Canada and 32 European states are to discuss how the signatories have complied with the 1975 CSCE accords proclaimed at the Helsinki summit.

Future Goals. Both the West and East blocs of nations seem determined to avoid an open clash on human rights —at least at the preliminary meeting. Still, even setting up that October meeting has its pitfalls. The Soviet team of negotiators in Belgrade—headed by Yuli Vorontsov, a sophisticated, tough-minded diplomat—wants to keep the October meeting relatively short, with a fixed "termination date" before Christmas. The obvious aim: to limit discussion on violations of the human rights provisions of the Helsinki accords. In addition, the Russians will press for what they vaguely term "positive criticism" that would stress future goals, rather than discussion of past abuses.