United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim has been asked by 62 members of the House of Representatives to speak out against the imprisonment of Anatoly Shcharansky, Alexander Ginzburg and other Soviet citizens who had campaigned for human rights.
Rep. Robert Drinan (D. Mass.) released a copy of the letter by the Congressmen to Waldheim. Copies also were sent to President Carter, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young. The Congressmen wrote Waldheim that the Soviet trials of Soviet Jews and others is “the culmination of a calculated effort” by Moscow “to demonstrate to the world its immunity to criticism of its massive human rights violations.” They added: “Failure to respond in an international forum will only demonstrate to the Soviet government that it has been successful in its attempt to intimidate democratic nations into silence.”
Sen. Richard Schweiker (R. Pa.) again asked the Soviet Union to permit nine-month-old Jessica Katz to come to the United States for treatment of the rare digestive disorder known as malabsorption syndrome. Schweiker wrote to Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin reminding him that he had called the envoy’s attention to the Soviet Jewish girl’s serious illness in a letter on June 6.
On July 24, Schweiker received petitions signed by more than 4000 Americans calling on the Soviet Union to issue exit visas to Jessica and her parents to come to the United States for the child’s treatment. These petitions were sent to Dobrynin with the Schweiker letter.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
