The trials of these "criminals" are a cruel farce. Proper counsel is rarely. if ever. provided and verdicts are often delivered within a matter of minutes. Sentences of up to 13 years of hard labor and exile are handed down without the benefit of anything even remotely resembling a fair trial. in open defiance of the intent of the Helsinki accords "to respect the right of national minorities before the law" and to "afford them the full opportunity for the actual enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms." As outrageous as these abuses of basic human rights are. perhaps even more disturbing is the inability of Soviet Jews to escape their living nightmare through emigration. Our joy in the release of the celebrated dissident Anatoly Shcharansky is tempered by the fact that although some 400.000 Soviet Jews currently have an invitationor "visov"-from Israel to emigrate. only 1.139 were allowed to leave in 1985. From an alltime high in 1979. the number of Jews permitted to emigrate since then has fallen by 97.8 percent. In January. only 79 Jews emigrated. At this rate. Soviet Jewish emigration will not even reach last years appallingly low level. Mr. Speaker. as Members of Congress. we have an obligation to call upon the Soviet Union to abide by its treaty commitments.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration emigrated