Mr. Speaker. once again I join my colleagues to urge Mikhail Gorbachev. General Secretary of the Communist Party. and every other member of the Communist Party Congress. who will be meeting in Moscow February 25. to end their policy of detaining Jews who desire to emigrate. I would like to remind the leaders of the Communist Party that in 1985. only 1.140 Jews have been allowed to emigrate. compared to 51.320 in 1979. We believe that 350.000 Jews have indicated a desire to leave the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union is a party to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. the Helsinki Final Act. and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. all of which guarantee the right to emigrate. The Helsinki Final Act demands that "participating States will deal in a positive and humanitarian spirit with applications of persons who wish to be reunit. ed with members of their familiy." and calls for special attention to requests of an urgent nature. Mr. Gorbachev. many of the pending Jewish requests to emigrate fall within this category. Allowing Soviets who desire to emigrate would help establish the trust the United States and the U.S.S.R. must develop before we can successfully negotiate arms reduction. The respect for the diversity of human beings and their religions has made the United States the strong democracy that it is today. Realizing differences and respecting them is freedom.
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