If a government has locked up people unjustly. and in violation of international agreements it has itself signed. then it hardly deserves applause for opening the door a crack and letting 3 percent of the prisoners free. It was only 2 months ago that Nathan Shcharansky. whose courage is nothing less than an example for all time. predicted that General Secretary Gorbachev would do precisely what this mornings papers tell us he may now do. Shcharansky explained that a new emigration law forbids applications for emigration from people without immediate relatives abroad. For example. those with uncles and aunts outside the Soviet Union cannot apply. With the stroke of the pen then. the authorities reduced the hopeful among the standing applicant pool from 382.000 to some 30.000. "The next step for Gorbachev in his diplomacy of gestures" Shcharansky explained. "will be to use these 30.000 as investment capital . . . he will permit (them) to leave over 5 and 6 years. and it will look like a big improvement" because only 800 or 900 escaped during 1986.
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emigration