Speech #1000006729

GILMAN. Mr. MRAZEK. and my colleagues in again noting the continuing plight of thousands of Soviet citizens who wish to emigrate from the U.S.S.R. for the purpose of family reunification. Mr. Speaker. last November the Soviets announced a new decree on emigration. which. it was hoped. would put an end to their arbitrary and shameful approach to the issue of emigration. Their old policies have capriciously denied countless Soviet citizens their natural right to emigrate for family unification. repatriation. and other humanitarian purposes. Unfortunately. it took no more than a quick reading of the decree to determine that the new Soviet policy is utterly inadequate and. indeed. a step in the wrong direction. Rather than bringing Soviet practices into compliance with the provisions of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. and the Helsinki accords. to which the Soviet Union is signatory. the new decree codifies a severely limited set of criteria for emigration. Under the policy. only those seeking reunification with members of their immediate family will have 2706 CU] their emigration applications considered. Vague language on "state secrets" will continue to prevent many of those who meet even these limited terms from leaving. despite General Secretary Gorbachevs pledge in Paris that cases involving such secret information would be resolved after 5 to 10 years. Hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews. as well as practicing Christians. ethnic Germans. and others. will be ineligible to emigrate under these provisions. Mr. Speaker. there are numerous cases of devided families which call out for attention. and no doubt each of us could spend hours recounting many tragic stories here. Today. however. I would like to draw attention once again to the case of Vladimir and Mariya Slepak. who have been seeking to emigrate for over 17 years. Often called the grandfather of the Soviet Jewry movement. Vladimir has been harassed. fired from his job. arrested. jailed. and exiled to Siberia since his efforts began. His repeated efforts to emigrate have been denied on the grounds that he had access to state secrets. But Vladimir has not worked in his position in a radiotelevision laboratory since 1970. surely. given the march of technology and the arguable nature of such secrets in the first place. there is no reason to deny his request to join his sons Leonid and Alexander in the United States. Mr. Speaker. the nature of United StatesSoviet relations cannot improve until the Soviets live up to their humanitarian obligations and international agreements. Although it must be noted that the number of emigrants increased. on an average basis. in January of this year. much. much more needs to be done. I urge the Soviet authorities to give the Slepaks. and all Soviet citizens who wish to emigrate. the right and opportunity to leave immediately.