Speech #1000113566

Mr. President. I rise today to express my happiness for Vladimir and Mariya Slepak upon his receipt of notification that Soviet officials have granted permission for them to emigrate to Israel. This permission comes 17 years after Vladimir first applied to emigrate. after years of suffering and of struggle on behalf of Soviet Jewry. and 12 years after he first became a member of the Moscow Helsinki Monitoring Group. As a former chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. better known as the Helsinki Commission. I am especially pleased to see the resolution of his case. As a member of the Moscow Helsinki Monitoring Group. he was one of a handful of courageous Soviet citizens who decided. in full knowledge of the risks involved. to attempt to hold the Soviet Government to the promises it made when Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev signed the final act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in Helsinki on August 1. 1975. Like the other members of the group. he suffered greatly for his actions. Vladimir Slepaks career. since he first applied to emigrate in 1970. spans major areas of concern for human rights advocates in the United States and abroad. Vladimirs leadership for Soviet Jewry and for human rights and fundamental freedoms is widely admired. The Helsinki Commission raised his case on more than one occasion. seeking for him the emigration permission he has now received. The cause of Soviet Jewry has mustered substantial support here in the United States and elsewhere in the West. While emigration figures for 1987 are already well ahead of the total for 1986. they still do not come close to meeting the Soviet Unions obligations under international declarations and accords to which the U.S.S.R. is a party. Last years Soviet Jewish emigration level of under 1.000 has already been eclipsed by this years total of more than 5.000 who have either left the Soviet Union or who have been granted permission to leave. However. that improvement must be assessed in light of the fact that the 1979 emigration total was in excess of 51.000. So. in terms of levels the Soviet Union achieved in the past. this years total is worthy of note but not of acclaim. It must also be assessed in light of Natan Shcharanskys estimate that approximately 400.000 Soviet Jews have taken some action indicating that they wish to leave the Soviet Union. Vladimir Slepak himself highlighted the core of the issue in comments reported in a Washington Post article by Gary Lee. which was published on the front page of todays edition. I quote: "Slepak said. however. that the recent resolution of a cluster of cases of Jews long refused permission to leave the U.S.S.R. is not a solution to our problem. The problem will be solved when anyone who wants to leave can do so." (Emphasis added.) When discussing this issue. people take it for granted that it is somehow reasonable for the Soviet Union to prohibit its citizens from emigrating or even from traveling outside their country. It is not reasonable. It is outrageous.