Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

Mr. BONKER. We also have with us today Representative Smith from New Jersey, in behalf of his resolution, House Resolution 269,1 that concerns the immigration of Yuli Kosharovsky and his immediate family to Israel.

STATEMENT OF HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Chairman, prior to getting on to that, I would just like to make a few notes. First, I would like to commend Congressman Frank for his leadership on behalf of the Siberian Seven. I, too, have a resolution that is similar to it. It followed his, and he did take the leadership on that.

Having recently returned from the Soviet Union, after meeting the Siberian Seven and seeing the plight that they have faced, I want to add my feelings of urgency to the matter, that we have to move quickly on this. The Embassy has to, I think, become more accommodating to them. The small room that Sam Gejdenson and I saw is an example. When we met those people and saw the very cramped living conditions that they are under, we came to the realization that the Embassy can be doing more for them.

They are living in a room that is big as our own offices in there. You have seven people trying to live there and to go on with a semblance of normal life, and it is just not there.

Mr. BONKER. Mr. Smith, I want to assure both you and Mr. Frank that this subcommittee is fully aware of the situation in Moscow with the Pentecostals. Indeed, your resolutions are timely. The subcommittee is beginning today its series of hearings on religious persecution, and I think this stands out as a notable example of that persecution that exists within the Soviet Union. So the resolutions are timely.

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Chairman, I would ask for unanimous consent that my statement be included in the record on House Concurrent Resolution 100.

Mr. BONKER. Without objection, so ordered.

[Mr. Smith's prepared statement and attachment follow:]

[blocks in formation]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF CONGRESSMAN CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY

Mr. Chairman, as the sponsor of a similar resolution to House Concurrent Resolution 100, I am pleased that this subcommittee has chosen to take up the issue of the Siberian Seven. This is a timely matter of great concern to all of us, and the House must act quickly as the situations of the Vashchenko and Chmykhalov families grow worse every day.

While in the Soviet Union during our recess in January, I was able to meet the two families. They are a warm, sincere, and deeply religious group of individuals whose only request is that they be able to practice their Pentecostal faith freely.

Mr. Chairman, for twenty years now, Pentecostals from Chernogorsk, a small mining town 2000 miles east of Moscow, have tried to emigrate from the Soviet Union. There efforts have been unsuccessful. The Soviet authorities have been trying to eliminate

Stali

the Pentecostals since the Stalin era.

Members of the Vashchenko and Chmykhalov familes, Mr. Chairman, have suffered job discriminations, beatings, forced abduction of their children for reeducation in state orphanages, terms in labor camps and psychiatric hospitals, and mysterious deaths of family members all in an effort to secure the religious freedom they

--

justly deserve..

Since Christmas of

These two familes have been living in virtual captivity in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow for the past 31⁄2 years. 1981, Augustina and Lida Vashchenko have been on

protest their treatment by Soviet officials.

a hunger strike to And just a little over

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

ideas cannot be combined with communism. On the Christian basis we
have been asking for permission to leave this country."

"We consider the hunger strike not a suicide of ourselves, but the
last attempt to achieve the emigration of our whole family."

"You can,

if you wish, resolve the problem before our death, but if you will not want to pay attention to this, people of the whole world

will consider this case as a murder commited by you."

Mr. Chairman, I would like to propose the following recommendatio as an update to the Frank Resolution. I believe that these ammendments 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 Vashchenk 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 importan! human rights issue. I look forward to the day when a and a free Chmykhalov family can be with us here in the United States.

free Vashchenko

APPENDIX 1

Moscow. Embassy of the US.
January 6, 1982.

To the Soviet Presidents

Leonid Brezhnev and

Andrei Gromyko.

Appeal from the Vashohenko 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 of 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
guccessful during these 20 years we felt forced to undertake this
hunger strike that is lasting for 13 days already.

We consider the hunger strike not a suicide of ourselves
but the last attempt to achieve the emigration of our whole family.
You can, if you wish, resolve the problem before our
death but if you will not want to pay attention to this people of
the whole World will consider this case as a murder commited by you.
If these two great countries cannot find positive so-
lution of this small question how then they can solve big ones?

The Vashchenko Family.

Петр. августина

Lilya Aurgent. Linker
Лидия.

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.

« ÎnapoiContinuă »