Speech #1010104410

President. I rise today on behalf of Mr. Mark Kotlyar and his family. who have been denied the right to emigrate from the Soviet Union since 1978. Based on his education at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and his position as an apprentice in the radio industry between 1972 and 1975. Mark has been denied an emigration visa for the last 10 years because of his alleged knowledge of state secrets. The absurdity of this excuse is blatant. The mere fact that Mark received a masters degree in physics and was an apprentice in the ministry of Radio industries over 14 years ago is hardly a credible reason for denying him the right to emigrate. It is difficult to believe that a university student and an apprentice in his first job would have had access to truly secret information. Mr. President. this is another painful example of Soviet authorities using the specious state secrets and poor relatives excuses for denying Jewish refuseniks the right to emigrate from the U.S.S.R. Once an individual is categorized as possessing secret information. it is a bureaucratic nightmare to be removed from this list. a prerequisite to being granted an emigration visa. Despite initial signs of reform in Soviet emigration policy. the denial rates on these grounds remain high. and all the bureaucratic obstacles to removing secret status remain. Such impediments fly in the face of President Gorbachevs reform efforts and discredit his attempts to establish greater openness. I deeply sympathize with the strrggle of SoIet Jews for religious and cultural freedom. I believe that the United States Government must continue to pressure the Soviet leadership to institutionalize emigration reforms. Moreover. in addition to basic emigration reforms. I believe that the Soviet Government must make every attempt to reverse the discrimination that Jews continue to suffer within the Soviet Union. especially since glasnost has contributed to a resurgence of antisemitism. I hope that President Bush will raise the issue of refuseniks with President Gorbachev at their upcoming minisummit meeting in Malta. In my view. we have significant economic leverage over Soviet policy. and we should use it constructively. In particular. before issuing a waiver of the JacksonVanik amendment. which would grant mostfavorednation trading status. the United States should insist that the Soviets codify in law the human rights and emigration reforms that are currently being discussed. We must have concrete evidence that they have eliminated the arbitrary practice of denying visas on the basis of state secrets and poor relatives before any serious consideration be given to a waiver of JacksonVanik. At a minimum the Soviets must seriously streamline the bureaucratic process currently required to remove secret status. While there is certainly a legitimate need to protect state secrets. the current use of this excuse to deny refusenik visas is exaggerated and appalling. Soviet assurances of future reforms and changes are not enough. Before providing the economic benefits of mostfavorednation trading status. we should therefore insist on irreversible reform of Soviet emigration policy. Mr. President.