I have personally urged that the Helsinki Conference give special attention to the fate o the Soviet and East European members of the groups formed to monitor compliance with the Helsinki Accords. The members of these watch groups are suffering special persecutiontoday. more than 40 of these heroic individuals are imprisoned or exiled. I also have called for a rallying of public attention at the Helsinki Conference to the rights of Jews and others to emigrate freely. As Dr. Sakharov points out. the Helsinki Accords affirm the right "to choose ones country of residence (and not just within the context of family reunification)." Yet recently there has been a serious drop in Jewish emigration. deliberately managed by Soviet bureaucratic maneuver. For long we have known that thousands of wouldbe emigrants are unable to apply. that Soviet officials simply will not talk to them. Those who are able to apply are often refused on grounds of security because they have worked with. or done military service which allegedly gave them access to. state secrets. This pretense is used even when the access was so long in the past as to render the supposed secrets of no significance. Now we learn of individuals in Kharkov who. once refused. are told that they may not reapply. Kharkov seems to be the city where new restrictions may be first introduced and from which they spread to other cities. It was in Kharkov and Odessa that officials first severely tightened family relationships as grounds for family reunification abroad. Now. only parents. children. siblings and spouses are considered closely enough related to qualify to apply for emigration for family reunification. Even before such new restrictions. Jews and others were condemned to exile or prison or the dread "strict regime" camps for persistence in claiming the right to emigrate. I am thinking of Anatoly Shcharansky. Ida Nudel.
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emigrate family reunification emigrants emigration