Speaker. much has been made of Mr. Gorbachevs glasnost policy which is designed to bring change in some internal policies and an improvement of the Soviet Unions perception in the the West. Unfortunately. only 16 days following the glasnost initiative an announcement was made on February 12 by the OVIR. the Moscow visa office. that eight individuals were permanently proscribed from emigrating because of their past employment in fields which allegedly gave them access to state secrets. In actual fact. Mr. Speaker. most of these refuseniks had first applied for an exit visa over a decade ago and pose no threat whatever to the Soviet Union. In April. many of my colleagues cosigned a letter with me addressed to Secretary Gorbachev on behalf of these individuals. Mr. Speaker. we have seen absolutely no movement on the cases and are. like the refuseniks themselves. frustrated by the refusals. Today I am joined by 69 of my colleagues in introducing a resolution regarding these 8 refuseniks and their families. The resolution also calls on the Soviets to permit all Soviet Jews who are wishing to exercise their right to emigrate to be allowed to do so. The individuals which are specifically mentioned in the resolution include several longtime refuseniks such as Aleksandr Lerner. Vladimir Slepak. and Yul Kosharovsky. Mr. Speaker. I had the pleasure of meeting with these men during a trip to the Soviet Union in 1982. and was impressed by their abiding commitment to their religious and cultural heritage and their persistent attempts to emigrate to Israel. The other cases are Yakov Rahlenko. Valery Soifer. Yulian Khasin. Natasha Khasin. and Lev Sud. Refuseniks and their families continue to face difficulties once the application for an exit visa is submitted. Children of these applicants have become targets for KGB harassment and discrimination. Usually applications for visas become the catalyst for employers to demote or even fire the applicants. It seems. Mr.
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