Speech #960154322

Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of House Concurrent Resolution 202. which calls upon this body to urge the Soviet Union to allow Soviet refusenik Ida Nudel to emigrate to Israel. The plight of Ida Nudel is but one more demonstration of the Soviet regimes utter contempt for human rights. Ida Nudel has been an active and vibrant force in the Aliyah movement in helping Jewish prisoners of conscience to emmigrate to their homeland of Israel. When she demonstrated her own desire to obtain an emigration visa. she was arrested by the Soviet KGB and was sentenced to 4 years in exile in Siberia. Subjected now to the cruelty of Siberian winters and severe living conditions. Ida Nudelonce a pillar to strength and an inspiration to others in the Aliyah movementis in extremely poor health. Despite international protests. the continued Soviet rejection of pleas to allow Ida Nudel to emigrate to Israel to spend her remaining years with her only living relatives smacks of the total disdain with which it regards its own signature on international covenants guaranteeing human rights. As a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. and more recently the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. signed at Helsinki in August of 1975. the Soviet Union joined 35 other nations in declaring that every citizen has certain basic rights including: The right to leave any country. including ones own. and return to that country. the right to be reunited with their families living in other countries. and the right to pursue their own cultural identity and practice their own religion. Though the overall rate of annual emigration from the Soviet Union remains at a record 50.000. the Soviets have done little to resolve hundreds of longstanding emigration cases and to release prominent dissidents jailed for publicly monitoring Soviet compliance under the Helsinki accords. Oftentimes. these Jewish prisoners of conscience are even denied their basic rights under the Soviet penal code. such as visitors rights. Mr. Speaker. these cases demonstrate to the world the inability of the Soviet regime to tolerate any internal debate or dissenta sure sign of its lack of confidence and weakness. This resolution offers the Congress of the United States an opportunity to state even further our total opposition to Soviet emigration policies. and to demonstrate our clear resolve in this important case of Ida Nudel. Let this be an example of our full support for Ida Nudel. and the many others like her. and an expression of the American peoples belief that she and others are guilty of no other offense than seeking to exercise those very rights accorded them by the Soviet Government and the international covenants subscribed to by that government. Thank you.