Speech #990194288

Speaker. last year I took the opportunity presented by the 1985 Congressional Vigil for Soviet Jewry to call my colleagues attention to the nightmarish plight of the Soviet refusenik family of Alexander. Leah. and Faina Maryasin of the city of Riga. The Maryasins have been separated from their daughter Rita since she was allowed to emigrate to Israel in 1972. Since 1974. Alexander. Leah. and Faina have tried in vain to gain exit visas so they could be reunited as a family in Israel. The three family members still within the Soviet Union have been subjected to every imaginable harassment and persecution tactic by the state. Their existence is a difficult and harrowing ordeal. They do not deserve to be treated as criminals for wanting to live free outside the Soviet Union. They should have been afforded the basic human right of emigration and family reunification years ago. The Maryasins are a living example of the deprivation of internationally recognized human rights by the Soviet Government. There are many Soviet Jews in similarly tragic situations. Alexander and Polina Paritsky have just recently received another devastating refusal to their request for permission to obtain exit visas. Alexander endured debilitating solitary confinement as a prisoner of conscience so savage that it is difficult to understand how he survived. We must continue our efforts to gain freedom and justice for these embattled families. Their incredible bravery and immense suffering demands no less. If the Soviets earnestly want to decrease world tensions and gain respect in the international community. they should realize that persecution of Soviet Jews and other dissidents must end. Nothing can be gained by imposing inhumane restrictions on the right to emigration. and on the right of its citizens to observe and practice their religion and culture. The Maryasins. the Paritskys. Ida Nudel. and all the refuseniks in the Soviet Union know that we in the West have not forgotten them.