a week ago, Lida was taken to Botkin Hospital in Moscow, where she is undergoing treatment for ailments resulting from her hunger strike. She is now away from her family, and away from American protection. Mr. Chairman, I am very much concerned about her safety, as I believe all of us are. While visiting the two familes in their small Embassy quarters, Lida Vashchenko gave my a carbon copy of a letter which she and her mother sent to Brezhnev and Gromyko. I would like to quote a part of her message, which she gave to me to bring out of the Soviet Union. "You already know that we are a Christian family and our Christian as ideas cannot be combined with communism. On the Christian basis we "We consider the hunger strike not a suicide of ourselves, but the "You can, if you wish, resolve the problem before our death, but if Mr. Chairman, I would like to propose the following recommendatio an update to the Frank Resolution. I believe that these ammend ments would help make this resolution a more effective one. I suggest that we include the fact that Augustina and Lida Vashchenko have been on a hunger strike since Christmas to protest their treatment by the Soviet government. I would also suggest that we include the fact that Lida Vashchen has been taken out of the American Embassy and transferred to a Sovie hospital. Her future is unclear, and I believe that we should make some provisions on her behalf. Mr. Chairman, I urge that this subcommittee accept my proposed ammendments. I thank you for your deep concern with such an important human rights issue. I look forward to the day when a free Vashchenko and a free Chmykhalov family can be with us here in the United States. APPENDIX 1 Moscow. Embassy of the US. To the Soviet Presidents Leonid Brezhnev and Andrei Gromyko. Appeal from the Vashchenko family. We have been written to you many times for permission to leave the USSR during the past 20 years. The total number of these letters is over 500. We never received any reply to these letters. It has been Just a vicious oiro eof the question of our emigration. Moscow authorities refer to the local, the hogorsk, and the local refer to Moscow's. You already know that we are a Christian family and our Christian ideas cannot be combined with Communism. Un the Christian basis we have been asking permission to leave this country. Beoause all our attempts to get emigration have not beenn We consider the hunger strike not a suicide of ourselves The Vashchenko Family. Питер. Августина Mr. SMITH. Mr. Chairman, it is my pleasure to testify before the Subcommittee on Human Rights and International Organizations on behalf of my close friend, Yuli Kosharovsky. Yuli is the subject of House Resolution 269, which is before this subcommittee for consideration this morning. Yuli Kosharovsky is one of the leading and most well-known figures in the large Jewish community in the Soviet Union. As a teacher of Hebrew and Jewish culture in Moscow, he has been the constant target of harassment by the KGB and other Soviet officials. Mr. Chairman, Yuli is one of the most remarkable men I have ever had the opportunity to meet. He is devoted to his wife and children, his community, and his religion. He is devoted to the basic fundamental principles of freedom of thought, conscience, religion, and emigration that he believes he is entitled to as a human being. Although he lives in constant fear, Mr. Chairman, Yuli Kosharovsky does not live afraid. The terror of KGB interrogations have become an accepted norm in his lifestyle. He has learned to live with their harassment. During one of the meetings that I had with Yuli and his family in their small Moscow apartment, I showed them some pictures that I had brought along with me from New Jersey. Yuli came across a picture of President Reagan, Vice President Bush, and myself-the standard photo that all of us get. He eagerly asked me if he could have it. When I gave it to him, he proudly placed the picture on top of his bookcase, along with the few religious books that have not yet been confiscated by the KGB. Then Yuli said to me: "The next time the KGB comes, this will be the first thing that they will take." This is Yuli Kosharovsky, Mr. Chairman. A brave, courageous man who has fought the Soviet Government for over a decade in his attempt to gain immigration to Israel for himself and his family, where he can practice the faith of his choice freely and without fear of harassment. But, Mr. Chairman, fighting the Soviet Government is not an easy thing to do when you are a Jew in Moscow. Since Yuli first applied for emigration in April of 1971, he has not had an easy time of it. Soon after applying for his exit visa, Yuli began to experience a series of problems which, unfortunately, continue through today. He lost his job as a radio electronics engineer, and has been forced to take on odd jobs to support his family. Yet, Yuli remains proud, Mr. Chairman, and he will not accept charity from his friends, both in the Soviet Union and abroad. And his struggle continues. On occasion, he has been placed under house arrest, spent time in jail on trumped-up charges, and has been taken away from his family without being given any type of explanation. Mr. Chairman, over the past 11 years, Yuli has had his home searched on many occasions, and such searches have increased rapidly over the past few months. He has had his books and religious materials confiscated, and his family suffers through continued harassment. Because of his stature within the refusenik community, Yuli expressed to me his fear that he may become the next Viktor Brailovsky. We must take action to prevent this from happening. We must let the Soviet Government know that we know about Yuli, and that we care about him. Mr. Chairman, the plight of Yuli Kosharovsky is well known within the American Jewish community. My friend, Rabbi Gary Charlestein of Melrose Park, Pa., traveled to Moscow in March of 1981, and met with Yuli and his family. Upon his return to the United States, be began organizing a campaign on behalf of Yuli. Rabbi Charlestein should be saluted for his actions, and the passage of this resolution will do just that. I first became involved with Yuli's case when a constituent of mine, Mrs. Ernestine Urken of Trenton, N.J., wrote me and requested my assistance on behalf of Yuli. And through the help of the National Conference of Soviet Jewry, and their Washington staff, David Harris and Mark Levin, I was able to meet Yuli personally. Now I can speak of Yuli Kosharovsky as a friend. Mr. Chairman, I am happy to say that the response in the House to the plight of Yuli Kosharovsky has been tremendous. Since Congressman Ed Weber and I introduced House Resolution 269 on November 12, we have received over 60 cosponsors. I am pleased to say that Jim Shannon, who accompanied me to the Soviet Union and met with Yuli, has joined as a cosponsor of this resolution. Along with my testimony, Mr. Chairman, I would like to place in the record a statement by Mr. David Harris of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, and ask unanimous consent that his statement be accepted. Mr. BONKER. Thank you, Mr. Smith, for your statement and your continuing commitment to the plight of those who are incarcerated in the Soviet Union. [The attachment to Mr. Smith's statement follows:] STATEMENT OF DAVID A. HARRIS, DIRECTOR, WASHINGTON OFFICE, NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SOVIET JEWRY Mr. Chairman, the National Conference on Soviet Jewry represents a constituency of 39 national membership organizations and nearly 300 local affiliated community relations councils and federations. As the director of the N.C.S.J.'s Washington Öffice, I am pleased to have the opportunity to submit testimony on behalf of Yuli Kosharovsky, a central figure in the historic Jewish emigration and cultural movement in the Soviet Union. Yuli Kosharovsky first applied to emigrate from the Soviet Union in April 1971. His application was refused a month later on the grounds of the "secret" nature of his previous work as an engineer. In May 1980, Kosharovsky was advised that his period of "secrecy" had expired, but that he would not be permitted to emigrate for a new reason-the absence of close relatives in Israel. During the more than 10 years that Kosharovsky has been compelled to live as an internal refugee in the Soviet Union, he has been the target of unrelenting harassment and intimidation. Not being able to work in his profession because he is seeking to emigrate, he has been threatened with arrest on the unique Soviet charge of "parasitism." He was placed under house arrest during President Nixon's visit to the Soviet Union, and he has been imprisoned for 15-day periods on charges of "hooliganism" and "disturbing the public order," even to the extent of being led away from his home in chains on one occasion. Most recently, on October 15, 1981, the KGB carried out a search of his home and confiscated sackfulls of books on Jewish themes. Why has Kosharovsky been treated this way? Because he is committed to the study and teaching of the Hebrew language, because he is regarded with great re spect by other Jewish activists and is looked to as a leader, and because he has not feared to assert even those limited rights provided to Soviet citizens under Soviet and international covenants, including the right to study one's culture and language. Kosharovsky has recently been warned that he will face more serious charges if he persists in his efforts to teach the Hebrew language. I met Kosharovsky most recently in September 1981. He is a gifted teacher, a learned man, a modest, self-effacing person, a devoted father to his children. His wife, Inna, has never been permitted to work in her field of mathematics because of her desire to live in Israel and his step-son, Mikhail, has been the target of physical and verbal abuse in school. Kosharovsky's long-standing dream has been to live in Israel and to rejoice in the traditions of the Jewish people. For this "crime," he and his family have endured ten years of suffering and hardship at the hands of the Soviet Government. He and his family are part of a large and growing number of Jews across the U.S.S.R. who have come to realize that there is no future for them as Jews in their native country and who seek to establish new lives in Israel. Mr. BONKER. The subcommittee has before it two resolutions. Are there any comments or questions of the witnesses? Mr. GEJDENSON. I think that one thing that we have to keep in mind is that we are not asking the Soviets to live by an American standard of human rights or emigration. What we are asking the Soviets to do is to live up to the international agreements that they have signed as early as 1948, and as recently as the Helsinki accords. It is an interesting comment on a society that, whether it is a handful of Jews that we met with in Moscow or seven Pentecostals, in a country of 260 million with the military might of the Soviet Union, that one can find seven Pentecostals in the American Embassy somehow threatening to the entire structure. I was commenting to Congressman Rosenthal and Congressman Smith that we all seem to have come back with the same kind of just absolute amazement at the level of oppression, at the pervasiveness of the police state, and the institutionalization of KGB terror of the citizens. Mr. BONKER. Mr. Leach. Mr. LEACH. Mr. Chairman, I move the adoption of House Concurrent Resolution 100, with amendment. The amendment that I have before me is largely an amendment to update the resolution. It involves some of the language which has been suggested by Mr. Smith and it has been agreed upon by Mr. Frank. I think it is selfexplanatory and, frankly, it is probably in the nature of a technical amendment. Mr. BONKER. Mr. Leach has moved that the subcommittee adopt his technical amendment to House Concurrent Resolution 100. Before voting, the subcommittee will announce for the official record that we do have a quorum. Is there a second to the motion? Mr. GEJDENSON. I second the motion. Mr. BONKER. All those in favor will signify by saying “Aye.” Those opposed, "No." The amendment is agreed to. We will now entertain a motion on House Concurrent Resolution 100. Mr. ROSENTHAL. Mr. Chairman, I move the adoption of the resolution. Mr. GEJDENSON. I second the motion. |