WHEREAS, The Soviet Union has asserted unprecedented force in the subjugation of the Afghan Nation over the past 11 years, and;
WHEREAS, The Soviet Union has, during that period destroyed all indigenous intellectual potential in the Afghan Nation including the ruin of historical sites and such library facilities as had existed in the cities of Heart, Kandahar, Mazar-e-Sharif and Kabul and plundered national archeological and historical wealth, particularly in the areas adjacent the border with the Soviet Union, and;
WHEREAS, That the Soviet Union continues to support these activities through its regime in Kabul, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the American Library Association, in line with Priority Areas A. Access to Information and C. Intellectual Freedom (Policy 57.1 1 and Policy 57. 1 2), respectively, and the Association’s adoption of Article 19 of the United Nation’s Declaration of Human Rights, fulfill its social responsibilities and its essential international proactive role in the cultural, educational and economic life of society by calling on the Soviet Union to make real the popularly perceived objectives or Perestroika and Glasnost, and be it further
RESOLVED, That the Association urges the Soviet Union to restore library service to the citizens of Afghanistan through the return and/or replacement of those intellectual and historical materials it has taken and reconstruct those facilities housing them to make them available to Afghan public, and be it further
RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be submitted to the President of the United States, The United States Department of State, UNESCO, IFLA, Soviet Library Associations, and the Soviet Embassy in Washington, District of Columbia.
ADOPTED BY THE
COUNCIL OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION
July 3, 1991, in Atlanta, Georgia
Linda F. Crismond
Secretary of ALA Council