Speech #1000019859

I rise today to focus attention on the Soviet Unions dismal human rights record. I want to focus particularly on the U.S.S.R.s repression of Soviet Jews. Each of us knows several cases where Soviet authorities have denied internationally recognized human rights to people whose only crimes are to want to learn their own language and culture. to teach their religion. and to emigrate. Recently. an article in the New York Times quoted Soviet officials as predicting that 10.000 to 12.000 Jews would leave the Soviet Union this year. I hope this prediction comes true because Soviet authorities have to date been very stingy with exit visas. which are required of Soviet Jews who want to leave the country. These people want to leave because they are consistently discriminated against not only as a religious group but also as a national group. For example. they are not permitted to study their own history. culture. and language. They are arrested for the crime of teaching Hebrew and for the dissemination of Jewish culture. Soviet Jews applying for exit visas are arrested. charged with having committed "crimes against the state." put in prison for "leading a parasitic way of life." and are generally mistreated and harassed. Mr. Speaker. I do not know the basis for the Soviet prediction of such a high level of Jewish emigration this year. but I do know that Soviet authorities have consistently looked for ways to make emigration ever more difficult. The new Soviet emigration law. for example. stipulates that invitations from immediate relatives. such as a spouse or a parent. are the only basis for granting an exit visa. Under the old law. which was restrictive enough. applicants for exit visas were required to obtain invitations from relatives abroad. including distant relatives. before being considered. Mr. Speaker. simply on the basis of the new emigration law it would seem unlikely that Jewish emigration from the Soviet Union this year would rise. Jewish emigration reached its peak in 1979 with the departure of 51.000 Soviet Jews. Under the old law. departures dwindled to less than 1 percent of that number. Why should we believe that the more restrictive new law will permit a larger number of the 400.000 Jews who want to leave to obtain an exit visa? Mr. Speaker.