Word: martialled
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...Martial law is lifted, but the government's powers increase
Without his forbidding dark glasses, speaking calmly, General Wojciech Jaruzelski seemed eager to soften his stony image as he began addressing the Sejm, Poland's rubber-stamp parliament. "The introduction of martial law was not a universal medicine for our illnesses," he declared. "It was an act of defense, a necessity." The general then made a long-anticipated announcement: after 19 months, martial law would be lifted the next day, Poland's National Day. But Jaruzelski also issued a stern warning: "Any attempts at antistate activity will be curbed no less aggressively than during martial...
...human rights concerns. Yet many Western diplomats now describe the Helsinki agreement as "a mess." Despite the restrictions contained in the accords, notably clauses respecting national sovereignty and rejecting interference in the affairs of sovereign states, the Soviet Union has invaded Afghanistan and encouraged Polish authorities to impose martial law. Moscow has continued the energetic repression of its own dissidents, most of whom were inspired by the very declarations that Moscow endorsed in Helsinki...
...they met only to adjourn. Deliberations were limited by the fact that the conference operated by consensus. The objections of any one country were often enough to stall negotiations. Last year the Madrid conference held no sessions between February and November because of Western concern over the imposition of martial law in Poland. As a senior U.S. diplomat put it, "It's the only kind of international court we have in which to drag the Soviets into the docket on human rights...
...meeting's Spanish hosts, the obstructionist tactics eventually posed a logistical crisis. The building in which the conference was being held had been booked to accommodate journalists attending last summer's soccer World Cup. Thanks primarily to the East-West dispute over Poland's imposition of martial law, the conference site was left vacant all summer for the use of soccer fans...