Speech #970142730

The subcommittee has begun a series of hearings pursuing the matter of religious persecution. I wish to commend our colleagues for their diligence and continuing commitment to the spectrum of human rights issues. The subjects of emigration and religious persecution have been raised at the Madrid meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. In that forum. U.S. officials have strongly condemned Soviet antiSemitism and religious intolerance. House Joint Resolution 373. now before us. urges that the Soviet Union strengthen its commitment to human rights concernsspecifically emigration and religious freedom. and additionally. that these matters be raised at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights currently underway in Geneva. During consideration of House Joint Resolution 373. by the Committee on Foreign Affairs. an amendment to that measure was approved. The text of the amendment inserted emigration figures to exemplify the present situation in the Soviet Union. The statistics are grimand steadily worsening. There has been a measurable decline in the number of Jews permitted to emigrate from the Soviet Union. Exit figures are at a 10year nadir. The number of Soviet Jews allowed to emigrate has dipped from its 1979 high of 51.331 to only 9.400 during all of last year. The backlog of hopeful Jewish emigres in the Soviet Union is tremendousan estimated 200.000 Soviet Jews have received letters of invitation from Israel. Such documents are deemed. by Soviet officials. as prerequisites to enable eligibility to emigrate. Jews are not the only Soviet ethnics confronted with restrictive Soviet emigration policies. Armenians and Germans are targets of such discriminatory policies as well. As we are all aware. oppresive emigration procedures are not the extent of Soviet human rights violations. Restrictive Soviet practices pervade many areas affecting the lives and wellbeing of the Jewish community in the Soviet Union. Religious assemblies are prohibited. and Jews are singled out for harsher discriminatory policies than other elements of the population.