The Helsinki Agreement on Cooperation and Security in Europe signed in 1975 by 35 states has been from the very beginning a new concession by the western democracies to the Soviet Union and its satelli es However the linkage between European security and tuman rights and regular review meetings to control compliance with these basic rights by each country established by the Helsinki Accord were viewed by its wester n promoters as a sufficient condition for peaceful coexistence of two political systems Human rights activists in the communist countries while mo re doubtful about the real intentions of their governments still considered that thess international obligatio ns can lessen repression and founded Public Groups to Promote Implementatio n of the Helsinki Agreement in Moscow the Ukraine Lithuania Georgia Armenia Czechoslovakia and Poland Ten years after Helsinki no one can assume that this ag ree n er1t ca 1 to any exte t rsatrict arbitrariness of the communis au ho rities They marked this decade by increasing expansion throughout the world including direct invasion in Afghanistan by an unprecedented military buildup by support of international terrorism by escalating repression against their people including arrests of almost all members of the Helsinki Groups by the exile of the Sakharovs by martial law in Poland by introducing new legislation virtually banning communications between people of the communist countries and the free world and by closing emigration The Helsinki Accord was perceived by Soviets as a good cover f e r this policy and was interpreted by them accordingly Western gover ments gradually accepted this inte rpretation The linkage between human ri ghts and security was first abandoned by continuing cooperation with Soviet authorities while they fragrantly suppressed those rights then by signing one after anot her the final documents of the Belgrade and Madrid review conferences without even entioning the ongoing repress i on and finally by separating human rights and security in furtier review conferences Unable to serve i t s ini t ial goal the Helsinki Ag reeme t failed even to rrotect the elsi nki cnitcrs people wh o sacrificed th e ir fr eedo m to make it serve peace and democracy We tri ed to persuade western governments t o make release of t ese people a necessary condition t o continue He lsinki process I t was not don e in tim e and t he situation is irreversible now Irre vers ible are the deaths of imprisoned He lsinki Monitors Oleks2 Tikhy Valery archenko and Yuri Litvin fr om the Ukraine and Eduard Arutyunyan from Armenia Irreversible are the many years spent in prisons and labour camps by the founders of the Hels i nk i Movement Yuri Orlov Anatoly Shcharansky and other prisoners of conscience Irr eve rsibl e are the deaths in Po l a nd and Afghan i stan We have done our best to ma e Helsinki Agreement serve peace and democracy However we can no longer associate ourselves with the agreement which not only failed to serve its humanitarian purposes but even to protect its most sincere supporters agreement which has turned into a repressive tool in the hands of Soviet authorities We appeal to the western governments to make the Helsinki Agreement null and void We still believe that peace can be and must be based on human rights Therefore untill The Soviets prove by concrete actions their readiness to observe these basic rights any peace or arms control agreement with them would be self deception It cannot be proved by them unless Helsinki monitors and other prisoners of conscience in communist countries are released