Speech #1000090958

Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in the IranIraq War. Within the Soviet Union. issues previously considered offlimits are now openly being debated. Countless prisoners of conscience have been released. and a number of prominent refuseniks have received permission to emigrate. While these steps taken by the Soviet Government are indeed encouraging. they are not enough. The Soviet Government continues to unjustly detain too many of its citizens. Soviet Jews are still subject to religious discrimination. Although the rate of emigration has increased in comparison to the last 2 years. it is not nearly what it should be. Since January 1. 1987. approximately 4.700 Soviet Jews have been allowed to emigrate. At the current rate. a total of 10.000 to 20.000 Jews will be given permission to leave the Soviet Union in 1987. But there are an estimated 350.000 to 400.000 Jews left in the Soviet Union who have indicated that they want to emigrate. In 1979. approximately 51.000 Jews were allowed to leave. A return to such levels would be a significant sign that the Soviet Government is committed to improving its treatment of Soviet Jews. After much fanfare about a new. supposedly more liberal policy of emigration. the Soviet Union enacted a new highly restrictive emigration decree. in effect since January 1. 1987. The decree limits letters of invitation to emigrate to individuals who have close relatives in other nations. It thus effectively excludes thousands of Jews wanting to leave the Soviet Union. Lastly. there is an apparent increase in the number of emigration visas refused by Soviet authorities on the basis that the individuals involved were privy to "state secrets." Such claims are absurdone woman was refused a visa because she had worked parttime studying lowtemperature refrigeration in a chemical institute! In short. despite glasnost. the Soviet Government has yet to fulfill its obligations to preserve the basic human rights of its citizensobligations which is voluntarily accepted when it signed the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1975 Helsinki Final Act. I ask my colleagues today to join me in sending a strong message to Foreign Minister Shevardnadze that we will not cease in our demands that the Soviet Government take further steps toward the fulfillment of its obligations to protect human rights.