Speech #990074650

Yvengy Yakir and Leonid Byaly have been Soviet Jewish refuseniks since the 1970s. It is on their behalf as Individuals and as symbols of thousands of other Jews similarly persecuted. that I join my colleagues in todays Congressional Call to Conscience. Yvengy Yakir first applied for emigration privileges for himself and his family in October 1973. They were denied visas because Rimma. Yvengys wife. was employed as an engineer and allegedly had access to state secrets. Since they submitted their first application for an exit visa. Rimma can no longer find work as an engineer. Their son Aleksandr is also an engineer by training. yet he has never been permitted to work in his field. He is now serving a 2year sentence in a labor camp for alleged draft evasion. Military service almost always means access to state secrets and is thus another tactic of the Soviet Government to delay emigration. Like the Yakirs. Leonid and Judith Byaly are engineers who were denied emigration privileges due to alleged access to state secrets. Judith was forced to leave her job when her employers refused to issue the certificate required by the Department of Emigration. Although her mother lives in Israel and had written numerous ap-