Nearly 200 dissidentstwice as many as in 1979are arrested each year and convicted either for actions related to their religious activities or the usual trumpedup charges of treason or espionage that are often used as excuses to isolate. banish and imprison Soviet Jews. 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." the trials of these "criminals" are a cruel farce. proper counsel is rarely. if ever. provided. verdicts are often delivered within a matter of minutes. and sentences of up to 13 years of hard labor and exile are routinely handed down. 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. 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. For the first quarter of 1986. only 216 Jews emigrated. At this rate. Soviet Jewish emigration will not even reach last years appallingly low level. Although we rejoice at the release of Anatoly Shcharansky. his emigration must not be just an isolated incident. but rather as Shcharansky himself said. "the beginning of a long process of an improved situation for emigration and human rights. a policy which will give the Soviet Union new opportunities in other fields." Mr. Speaker. as Members of Congress. we have a duty to take every opportunity to pressure the Soviets into changing their reprehensible treatment of Jews. which is surely one of the most shameful wholesale violations of human rights in the world today. Thus. we must send a clear signal to the Kremlin that we shall continue to be deeply concerned about the treatment of these Soviet citizens who are punished daily for the "crime" of wanting to live freely as Jews.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration emigrated