Now. Mr. Speaker. as we know. the House went on record. as did the Senate. to suspend the MFN Treaty. the MFN arrangement that we currently have with Romania because of the oppressive nature of what it is doing in the area of human rights and emigration. The Romania regime. under President Nicolae Ceausescu. has violated basic human rights. converting bibles into toilet paper. bulldozing churches and synagogues. while parishoners were still on the premises. persecuting Hungarians and other ethnic minorities. political dissidents and religious believers. including the torture. harassment. and beatings which led to the death of a Catholic priest. Father Palfy. after he stated publicly that Christmas should be a national holiday. As we are approaching Christmas. it is important that we know in Romania it Is not considered a national holiday. and yet when Father Palfy asked that it be a national holiday. he was beaten to death by the secret police in Romania. And yet we continue to give the Romanian Government special trade rights. Emigration was expected to improve under MFN. however Jewish emigration prior to MFN was 300.000. Since MFN. that total has dropped to 23.000. Those who were allowed to emigrate did so at a price per person. a clear violation of the "free emigration" premise on which MFN was founded. A former high ranking intelligence officer who defected to the West reported extensively of Romanias ties with the Palestine Liberation Organization. the PLO. and Yasir Arafat. Lybia. and has pointed out that Romania has provided training and arms to these groups.
Keywords matched
emigrate emigration Emigration