Speech #980050427

Mr. Speaker. in yesterdays New York Times there is a chilling further example of an oppressive regime blaming the victim for oppression. The Soviet Union. in its latest outrageous disregard for basic human rights. has formed a committee which announces that the reason there are fewer requests for emigration from the Soviet Union on the part of its Jewish population is that the Jews in the Soviet Union are now happy. This is a classic example of adding insult to injury. To the injury of forced detention against their will in the Soviet Union. a large part of the Jewish population now receives the insult of having the world told that it is because they like their prison. Mr. Speaker. there has been a dropoff of applications for emigration from Soviet Jews in part because in recent years it has been clear that the penalty for asking for emigration is a tightening of the screws and a further degree of oppression for that religious minority in Russia. For the Soviet Union to continue to deny the basic human right of emigration to those who simply want to follow the tenets of their religion and their culture is in itself outrageous. For the Soviet Union to compound this outrage by announcing to the world that the victims of oppression are in fact willing conspirators in their own imprisonment makes it even worse.