Speech #1000058706

President. I would like to bring to the attention of my colleagues the tragic fate of Alexander Ioffe and his family. Alexander is an internationally known mathematician who has been trying to emigrate from the Soviet Union for more than a decade. I first met Alexander during a visit to Moscow in 1978. Since that time. I have raised his case with Soviet officials at every appropriate opportunity. Unfortunately. all to no avail. I spoke to Alexander on the phone this week and he informed me that he will begin another hunger strike on June 22 to protest his most recent visa refusal by the Soviet Government. Furthermore. he was told he could not reapply until 1993. Alexander. who first applied to emigrate in 1976. has been continually denied an emigration visa on "state secrecy" grounds. This is an outrageous reason in light of the fact that Alexander voluntarily left the institute in question in 1972 and any information he may have acquired is now antiquated. Moreover. Alexanders work had only dealt with mathematical problems and his papers were published in academic journals within the U.S.S.R. and abroad. Surely. Soviet technology cannot be that stagnant that people are refused visas on their exposure to "classified information" obtained 15 years ago. Surely. Alexander cannot be a threat to his Governments security. I am deeply concerned about the Soviet Governments current policy of frequently using "state secrets" and "state security" as grounds for denying visas. This new decree. which went into effect in January of this year. fails to provide guidelines as to the limitations period on access to state secrets and. therefore. continues to permit Soviet officials to create their own arbitrary rules. based on nothing more than expediency. It is apparent that an applicant who is alleged to have knowledge of state secrets could be permanently denied an exit visa. What did Gorbachev mean when he stated at a Paris press conference on October 2. 1985. that the length of the declassification period lasts from 5 to 10 years. This is most certainly not the reality of the situation in Alexander Ioffes case. as well as many other Soviet emigration cases. What does Gorbachev mean when he speaks of "glasnost?" Do the new Soviet laws liberalize or prevent emigration? This issue was recently addressed by Ambassador Zimmerman. the head of the U.S. delegation in Vienna which is reviewing implementation of all aspects of the final act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. The cornerstone of this international agreement. commonly referred to as the Helsinki accords. is recognition of and compliance with fundamental human rights principles. Representatives from 35 nations. including the Soviet Union. signed this document on August 1. 1975. Although the Soviet Union was one of the strongest proponents of the Helsinki accords. its record of compliance over the last 12 years is abysmal. The following is an excerpt from Ambassador Zimmermans remarks made at a plenary meeting on May 5. 1987. which exemplifies in human terms the continued absurdities of Soviet emigration policy. There is no sign that the shameful official intimidation of all who apply to emigrate has lessened. Prospective emigrants continue to face job dismissals. social ostracism. and official harassment. In addition. the secrecy disqualification for emigration continues to be used and abused. Lev Elbert has not seen a secret since he completed his military service in 1972. Aleksandr Lerner ended his classified work in cybernetics 18 years ago and Ida Nudel was fired from her work in hygiene and infection control in the food industry 15 years ago.