Speech #990194281

I am pleased to participate with the distinguished gentleman from New York in this special order on the plight of divided families in the Soviet Union which Is part of the Fourth Annual Congressional Fast and Prayer Vigil for Soviet Jewry. Like many other Members of Congress I am convinced that this type of vigilance and pressure are necessary and help to focus world public opinion on the Soviet Government and may cause them to live up to the human rights agreements they signed at Helsinki in 1975. Then the Soviet Union pledged to respect human rights Including the right of citizens to emigrate freely and to pursue family reunification. Since then however the Soviet Unions record on emigration and reunification has been dismal. Hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens have expressed a desire to emigrate but only a handful have been allowed to leave the Soviet Union for a better life. Earlier this year I traveled to the Soviet Union and visited with refusniks and their families and Soviet Government officials in Moscow and Leningrad. The situation was bleak but not without hope for all those I visited. yet none are included on the lists of those invited to apply for emigration visas by the Soviet Government. When I was meeting and visiting with the refuseniks and their families I carefully tried to find out information about Alexander Kushnir. the brother of one of my constituents in Cincinnati. Alexander Kushnirs case is indeed sad but It is a typical example of the divided family. Both of his parents and his sister have been allowed to emigrate. Yet he has been refused this right on the basis that he has been in the military and is said to know state secrets. His family reports however that Alexander Kushnirs only employment was in a bakery! Religiously. every 6 months for tile past 8 years. Alexander Kushnir has applied for an exit visa to Israel. Supposedly it is easier to emigrate there than to the United States however he has been turned down repeatedly and subsequently fired from the job he then holds for the "traitorous" act of applying for a visa. The case of the divided Kushnir family is indeed sad and I am grateful to Congressman MRAZEK for holding this special order so that I can help focus public awareness on the plight of Alexander Kushnir whose only crime is to want to rejoin his family.