Two leading Soviet Jewry organizations said Wednesday that while the Soviet Union has made improvements in its human rights practices, they are not enough to justify allowing Moscow to host a human rights conference.
The White House announced that the United States has agreed to attend a human rights conference in Moscow in 1991, as well as similar conferences in Paris this year and Copenhagen in 1990.
“The president decided to agree to this schedule, including the Moscow conference, as a means of encouraging continuation of the significant progress in human rights that has taken place in the Soviet Union over the past three years,” said Roman Popadiuk, a White House spokesman.
Micah Naftalin, national director of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, expressed disappointment with the decision.
It means “that just as Vienna has been the international human rights capital for the last two years, Moscow would be the human rights capital for 1991,” Naftalin said.
“They clearly have not come close to earning that distinction on the basis of any performance so far,” he stressed. “They are not yet in compliance with 1975 Helsinki Final Act.”
Shoshana Cardin, chairwoman of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, said it was “not yet time to reward the Soviets.”
“While we acknowledge the improvements made by the Soviet government in emigration of Jews, much remains to be done,” she said.
Cardin stressed that the National Conference wants “fully guaranteed” access to the Moscow conference, as it has had at the other follow-up conferences.
U.S. COULD RECONSIDER DECISION
While President Reagan has agreed to the Moscow conference, Popadiuk said “the president recognizes that there is much yet to be done in the Soviet Union before that nation meets acceptable and universal human rights standards.
“We will make it clear to the Soviet Union that the lack of future and institutionalized progress or a reversal of progress made to date will cause us to reconsider our decision to attend a Moscow conference in 1991.”
Popadiuk said that the agreement to attend the conference, made after consultation with the other Western countries attending the 35-nation Helsinki Final Act follow-up conference in Vienna, was made in the belief that it “may be the best. way to encourage and support future improvements in Soviet human rights performance.
“The Soviet Union now has a unique opportunity to take further action to demonstrate its continuing and irreversible commitment to achieve commonly accepted human rights standards,” he added.
The White House and the two Jewish leaders urged the Soviet Union to promulgate new laws institutionalizing the improvements in human rights. Naftalin said Soviet officials have continually promised such laws, but keep pushing the date forward.
Naftalin said that despite the increasing emigration “the numbers are still low.” He said while some 19,000 Jews were allowed to emigrate in 1988, there about a half million who want to leave, and “the Soviets have hardly made a dent in the problem.”
The White House announcement was made as the Vienna follow-up conference was nearing agreement on a concluding document. There were reports that Secretary of State George Shultz, who recommended approval of the Moscow conference, wanted to attend the final ceremonies Jan. 17 to 19. The conference would end the day before George Bush is sworn in as president.
But State Department spokesman Charles Redman said that no concluding date has been set, since negotiations are continuing on several important issues, including the Soviets’ use of state secrecy restrictions to bar emigration.
He said the United States is prepared to stay in Vienna “as long as it takes.”
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.
