Speech #990186117

Mr. Speaker. our Nation unites Sunday to commemorate Solidarity Sunday for Soviet Jewry. There is a time for the American people to join together and express our support for the thousands of Soviet Jews who are being denied permission to emigrate by the Soviet Government. Solidarity Sunday is a moving reminder of the continuing denial of the Godgiven human rights of these refuseniksSoviet Jews who have been refused permission to emigrate. Soviet leaders and their powerful propaganda and disinformation campaigns would have the world believe that the Soviets have a newfound commitment to promote human rights within their country. Soviet emigration figures. however. tell the true story. The Soviets. despite their rhetoric. show no interest in improving their human rights record. especially with regard to Soviet Jews. Soviet authorities deny thousands of emigration requests by Soviet Jews each year. Only 1.100 Soviet Jews were permitted to emigrate last year and just 900 were granted permission in Symbolic of the Soviet Jews continuing struggle for religious freedom is the plight of Nadezhda Fradkova. a 38yearold Soviet woman who repeatedly has been denied permission to emigrate since 1979. Throughout the years. I have followed with sorrow Nadezhdas personal difficult battle to keep alive her dream of one day being allowed to worship freely in the country of her choice. Upon applying to Soviet authorities for permission to emigrate. Nadezhda was fired from her job as a computer analyst. After waiting 4 years with no response from Soviet authorities to her request. she began a hunger strike in March 1983 to protest Soviet inaction. Her hunger strike lasted 6 weeks. during which time Soviet Jews inside the Soviet Union and abroad became aware of her situation and petitioned the Soviet Government to grant Nadezhdas request to emigrate. The Soviets responded on April 13. 1983. by breaking into Nadezhdas apartment and taking her to a hospital where she was drugged and force fed intravenously. Following her release from the hospital. Nadezhda renewed her request to Soviet authorities to grant her permission to emigrate. Her appeal met with inaction and on December 24. 1983. she began her second hunger strike. Ten days later. the Soviets responded by again breaking into her apartment and forcibly removing her.