martillo@mit-athena.ARPA (Joaquim Martillo) (11/14/84)
------> From the New York Times, 1984 Shultz Says Situation of Jews in Soviet Is Still 'Very Grim' Washington, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Secretary of State George P. Shultz said today that persecution of Jews in the Soviet Union appeared to be worsening and that Jewish emigration had come to a "virtual standstill." Mr. Shultz, speaking at a meeting of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, declared that the United States "will not stop our practice" of calling the Russians to account "for their abuses of human rights." "I wish I could use this occasion to bring you encouraging news about the condition of Soviet Jewry," Mr. Shultz told the American Jewish leaders, gathered for their annual three-day meeting. "But you know, at least as well as I do, that their situation remains very grim," he declared. "Emigration, meanwhile, has come to avirtual standstill." The Secretary of State said that only 1,300 Jews were permitted to leave the Soviet Union last year, equivalent to 2 percent of the 51,000 who left in the peak emigration year of 1979. This year, he said, "it looks like fewer than a thousand Jews will leave the Soviet Union." The Conference, a coordinating agency for national policy and action on behalf of some two million Jews in the Soviet Union, awarded Mr. Shultz its annual humanitarian award in recognition of his "strong stand for human rights." *********************************************** In his address, Mr. Shultz said that "Soviet persecution of Jews and other minorities has not only not diminished, it seems to be getting worse." *********************************************** In the last two months, he said, four teachers of Hebrew have been arrested "in what appears to be an intensifying campaign of repression aimed specifically at Jewish cultural activists." Speaking of the Jewish dissident Anatoly B. Shcharansky, Mr. Shultz declared that he had been "imprisoned on the blatantly false charge of spying for the United States, but his real 'crime' was to try to escape from Soviet tyranny so that he could lead * a full Jewish life * with his family in Israel." Moscow, Mr. Shultz said, "would have the world believe that almost all Soviet Jews who wanted to emigrate have already done so. "But clearly, this is not true," he said. He declared that Washington would "not be silent when the Soviets act in a way we consider dangerous or irresponsible, as they so often do in the human rights area."