Shcharansky has been repeatedly punished. held in solitary. deprived of the right to have his family visit him twice a year. He went on a protest hunger strike from last Sept. 27 until Jan. The savagery of the treatment inflicted on a man whose "crime" was really to want to emigrate has made him a powerful symbol to the outside world. Even the French Communist leader. Georges Marchais. wrote to Yuri Andropov about the case. He announced last Jan. 24 that Mr Andropov had replied with an assurance that Mr. Shcharanskys "state of health is satisfactory." Why the relentless persecution of Anatoly Shcharansky? By all indications the purpose is internalto discourage the movement for Jewish emigration. Soviet authorities have cut that emigration to a trickle: only 421 persons in the first four months of 1983. But they are still working to intimidate those who have been refused exit visas. and thus to quiet the whole issue. Newspapers in Leningrad and Vilnius have recently carried antiZionist polemics of a vicious character. An official AntiZionist Committee was established. and it held a press conference in Moscow last week to say that Jewish emigration was down because few Jews wanted to leave. The chairman. Col.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration visas