DANTE FASCELL. for bringing this measure to the floor. This resolution is about human lives and human freedoms. It strongly protests continued human rights repression in the Soviet Unionand especially the new emigration regulations that ultimately may restrict the basic human right to choose ones place to live. Many may question why such a resolution is so importantand necessarytoday. After all. we are told. this is the age of Glasnostor breathtaking change. liberalization. and openness. of an apparent thaw in the long Siberian winter of Stalinism. Dissidents have been released. censorship has been lifted a bit. and theres talk of secret ballot elections. And just recently. American Jewish leaders who have returned from the Soviet Union say they are encouraged by signs that emigration will increase this year and that restrictions on Jewish life will be loosened. So why a resolution condemning Soviet human rights and emigration practices? Because for years we have been hearing Soviet Human rights promises without seeing any real human rights results. Earlier this morning the Helsinki Commission heard testimony from Irina Ratushinskaya. the dissident Soviet poet who served time in prison simply for expressing her thoughts in poetry.
Keywords matched
emigration