Speech #960102036

Rather than facilitating the freer movement of people and ideas as called for in the Helsinki agreement. the Government of the German Democratic Republic has decided to mark the Helsinki anniversary by enacting restrictive legislation that severely limits their citizens contact with the West. Czechoslovakia has chosen to commemorate the occasion by putting on trial 10 human rights activists and leaders of the Charter 77 movement. Emigration procedures in Romania have worsened since 1975 and the recent crackdown on dissident activity calls into question Romanias willingness to abide by its Helsinki commitments. Bulgaria has--in recent weeksreportedly arrested a number of Christian pastors for distributing Bibles and other religious literature. in the Soviet Union. 17 members of the Helsinki Monitoring Groupsestablished to promote Soviet compliance with the accordstill languish in prison or remote Siberian exile for merely attempting to exercise the rights guaranteed to them in the Final Act. While Soviet Jews have been allowed to emigrate in larger numbers. officially sanctioned and virulent antisemitism is on the rise. as reported recently in several major American newspapers and journals. Many longstanding family reunification and binational marriage cases remain unresolved and thousands of Pentecostals. Ukrainians. Baits. and members of other religious and ethnic groups have little hope of ever receiving permission to leave the U.S.S.R. despite the Final Acts reaffirmation of the universalhy recognized right of emigration. Such flagrant violations of the spirit and letter of the Final Act must be strongly condemned. As we look toward the next review meeting of the participating states. to be held in Madrid in 1980. it is clear that many CSCE signatories have a long way to go before the noble aspirations envisioned in the Final Act become reality.