Speech #1000104570

Speaker. during my recent trip to the Soviet Union. I had the privilege of meeting with Naum Meiman. former member of the Moscow Helsinki Watch Group and a refusenik since 1975. Naum passed letters on to me which I would like to place in As one who has been refused permission to emigrate for over 10 years. Naum Meiman presents an astute inside portrait of the Soviet emigration system. As Americans we must continue to make our Nation stand out as a shining beacon of justice and compassion. We must not forget the words of Martin Luther King. Jr.: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." We must fight for freedom until justice rolls down like waters. and international compassion as a mighty stream. VIENNA. There is much talk in the Soviet Union about change. but unfortunately. nothing has much affected Jewish emigration. Emigration figures are far lower than in the time of Brezhnevs "stagnancy" in the 1970s. The first ever emigration regulations. introduced this year. simply legalize the prohibitive practices of the 1980s. In some substantial respects. the regulations extremely worsen possibilities to emigrate. They make a demand for "invitations" to leave the country only from blood relatives. amounting in practice to an almost total ban on emigration. Another obstacle to emigration is the demand for notarized permission to leave from everyone in the applicants family. The prominent Jewish leader. Mr. Bronfman. was promised by Soviets. he reported. that part of the veteran refuseniks would be released. but this by no means solves the problem of Jewish emigrations though there actually was a slight rise in the number emigrating this year. The method employed extensively to block emigration on the pretext of "secret knowledge" is particularly odious. In the years just prior to glasnost. the emigration office customarily refused people permission to leave for "lack of reason to emigrate." Now the same people are refused for supposedly possessing secret information. The method is effective because there is no procedure in the Soviet Union for complaining or appealing against refusal to leave for reasons of "secrecy." Under secret instructions issued to ministries and establishments. entire categories of scientists. engineers. and other personnel are classified as secret. regardless what work they actually do or knowledge they possess. It is difficult in the extreme to break free from the "secrecy" label. Freedom can only be won through a decision by a secret commission. With no due process of law in the Soviet Union. it is almost impossible to get rid of the label. General Secretary Gorbachev said in an interview for French TV in 1985 that the security risk label used to deny refuseniks emigration requests may be appropriate for up to five years. The Secretary said one could assume that after ten years. the security risk could no longer be applied realistically as a reason for denial of emigration. the rapid progress in science and technology would make any past knowledge of sensitive data irrelevant. except in the occasional case with unusual security implications. Nonetheless. Foreign Ministry spokesman Gerasimov censored Mr. Gorbachevs statement in an unprecedented move last February 19. he said I. for one. would never be allowed to emigrate. Following Mr. Gorbachevs interview on French TV. national emigration chief Kuznetsov told my seriously ill wife that her visit abroad for treatment would be a security risk for the Soviet Union because she had lived with me too long. We married in 1981. a full 26 years after I had any contact whatsoever with sensitive work. U.S.