Speech #1000075404

Christians. and other religious minorities. it is important to ensure that the plight of these individuals is not forgotten. I am. therefore. pleased to join together with my colleagues in the congressional call to consciencewhich serve to renew our determination to fight against the persecution of Soviet religious believers. As important as we view the prospect of success in mutual arms reductions efforts. we must not permit our concern for the plight of those seeking to emigrate from the U.S.S.R. to be set aside by other developments in United StatesSoviet relations. We must stress to the Soviet leadership the importance with which Congress views this human rights issue as we assess relations between our two nations. Although the first 4 months of this year saw a substantial increase in the number of emigration visas granted. this trend has not been sustained. Figures from May and June indicate that the number of visas granted are on the decline. In light of these disheartening developments. urgent action should be taken by the Soviet leadership to reverse this situation. The Soviet leadership currently maintains that the policy of glasnost has loosened emigration requirements. However. many believe that new difficulties placed by the Soviet authorities on the filing of emigration applications mean an actual tightening of requirements. Having raised hopes of new breakthroughs in the backlog of emigration cases. it is vital that Soviet authorities not dash the hopes of those seeking to emigrate. Even as we talk of emigration numbers. it is important not to lose sight of the individual lives involved. Consider for a moment the case of Andre Efimovich Lifshitz. his wife. Viktoria Georgievna Ivanovskja. and their two children. Andre and Viktoria first applied for exit visas in April 1979. Viktoria immediatley lost her job. Andre. who worked as the head of a laboratory in a Moscow research institute was demoted to the position of engineer. He remains the sole staff member of the institute to have earned a Ph.D. Viktoria was denied permission to emigrate on the grounds of knowledge of classified information. However she had not worked in a military publishing house since January 1978. and it is likely that any information she may have learned is now obsolete. On behalf of Andre and Viktoria. I ask my colleagues to join me in the fight against Soviet religious persecution. reaffirming the right to practice and teach religion freely and to exercise their right to emigrate as provided for in the Helsinki accords. It is critical that we continue our efforts to aid these people who have suffered too long.e