Speech #980205662

I rise today as I did 1 year ago to speak about a grave situationa situation that has. in fact. deteriorated since last years congressional call to conscience vigil for Soviet Jews. Last year I spoke of two Soviet Jewish families in particular whose cases I have been following. Both the Byaly and the Yakir families have made requests for emigration visas and have been repeatedly denied. Today. a year later. I am distraught by their condition. In November 1983 Mrs. Judith Byaly was refused a temporary visa in order to visit her mother in Israel. The same month her husband Leonard. suffered a second heart attack. The previous April members of the family had been called before the KBG. This past year has brought them only further and continued harassment by the Soviet Government with no hopes for emigration in sight for the future. Statistics on emigration reflect the increasing rigidity of the Soviet Government over the past few years. a trend that calls for drastic improvement. March 1984 brought devastatingly low emigration numbers. Only 51 Soviet Jews were allowed to emigrate. The number of emigrants in 1983 (1.315) was a 98percent reduction from the number that emigrated in 1979 (51.320). These numbers reflect the increased human rights violations being committed in the U.S.S.R. There is also evidence of statesponsored antiSemitic propaganda which has worsened recently. Active discrimiiation is evident in education along with heightened cultural repression of Soviet Jews in the first few months of The AntiZionist Committee of the Soviet Public claims that the Soviet Jews who wish to emigrate have already been granted visas to leave the country. But as we know and as Elliot Abrams. Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. has announced. there are hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews anxious to emigrate if given any opportunity. It is clear that we cannot stand by silently as the U.S.S.R. continues and indeed increases instances of human rights violations. Continued pressure by the United States. particularly by Members of Congress. is of the utmost importance at this time when conditions are gravely oppressive for Jews in the U.S.S.R.