UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 14, Page 3
December 9, 1993
Peace on Earth; Faculty member returns home with words of hope

     When Edmunds V. Bunske returns to his native Latvia this holiday
season, he will be carrying a message from Nelson Mandela, urging his
fellow Latvians to come to terms with the past and live at peace with their
former enemy.
     Mandela, who will probably become South Africa's first black
president, and Bunske, associate professor of geography, recently met at a
reception in Washington D.C., honoring the Nobel Peace Prize recipient from
South Africa.
     "His hand was surprisingly small and narrow, but the palm was
unusually thick," Bunske said. "Some say that people who practice the
martial arts have such hands. Is that how he stayed sane during all those
years in prison?," Bunske wondered.
     A member of the Fulbright Association, Bunske paid close attention to
what Mandela said after receiving the J. William Fulbright Prize for
International Understanding.
     Speaking from his long experience as one of the leaders in the fight
to topple the apartheid government that denied political and economic
freedom to South Africa's majority black population, Mandela, Bunske
recalled, offered this observation: "Every nation is plagued by filth. You
have to shake hands with filth and make peace, otherwise there is no hope."
     When asked what message he could carry to Latvia, Mandela told Bunske
that while Latvians can never forget or forgive what Hitler and Stalin did
to the Baltic states, they should not undo the lives of others who were
uprooted and resettled in their country.
     This uprooting and resettlement in the Baltic states was the result of
mass deportations that took place in those countries before, during and
after World War II.
     Seeking to escape the deportation of 50,000 Latvians in 1944, Bunske
and his family were among the 300,000 refuges from that area that sought
freedom in the West.
     After escaping by boat to Poland, and eventually settling in the
British Zone in what was then West Germany, Bunske came to the United
States in 1950, at the age of 15.
     Although fond of his adopted country, Bunske still returns to Latvia
several times a year to lecture at the University of Latvia, and to prepare
cultural programs about Western history and political philosophy for
Latvian television.
     "Things are still bad in Latvia," Bunske said. "Many apartments in the
capital city of Riga are without heat."
     Latvia, a country slightly larger than Denmark, has seen a decline in
its population due to the mass deportations and resettlement that occurred
under the communists. "The population was about two million at the time of
World War I," Bunske said. "At present the population is about one and a
half million."
     Latvians, who now make up 52 percent of the total population, have a
strong dislike of the Russians despite a grudging admiration for the finer
points of Russian culture, he said.
     It is this tense relationship that has most Latvians believing that
their hopes for the future lie with the West, according to Bunske.
     "Estonia and Lithuania are associate members of the European Economic
Community," Bunske said. "The Baltic people feel their security is
dependent on being part of the Western European community. If Russia leaves
the Baltic states alone, the countries will prosper," he said.
     Although much has been written about the fall of communism and the end
of the Cold War, the evidence of Russian power and influence is still quite
strong in the Baltic states.
     Russian troops remain in Latvia and Estonia, despite a call for their
removal from U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher during his recent
visit.
     The continuing turmoil in the former Soviet Union cast a long shadow
over the Baltic area, and events in Russia are closely monitored in the new
Baltic republics.
     "It is ironic that the attack ordered by Russian President Boris
Yeltsin began on Oct. 3, just as the conference which Mandela and I had
attended was ending," Bunske observed."
     Bunske said it is now evident that the Russian Parliament was planning
to reconstitute the Russian Empire under some form of communist
dictatorship before Yeltsin intervened.
     Events in Russia, and the efforts at peace between the Jews and the
Palestinians, made it clear to Bunske that the only hope for Latvia was "to
shake hands with the filth that had plagued our unhappy land for over a
half a century."
     "In 1991, I suggested this to a Latvian colleague," Bunske said. "She
hissed, nearly spitting in my face, then walked away."
     While Bunske can understand such feelings, he still plans to bring
Mandela's message to Latvia: "That the most important thing is to have a
peaceful, democratic nation."
     "Carrying this message of benevolence toward the Russians is not
popular," Bunske said, "but the Baltic peoples don't want another
Yugoslavia."
                                                  -Jerry Rhodes