United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim has been asked to intervene with Soviet authorities on behalf of the human rights of Russian Jews when he visits Moscow next month. Jewish sources in the Soviet Union reported today that 40 Moscow Jews sent a message to Waldheim requesting an audience to discuss the problem of human rights as they relate to Soviet Jews who want to go to Israel. Earlier, 41 Jews from Minsk, Vilna and Kovno petitioned the Secretary General to investigate the curtailment of Jewish rights in contravention of Soviet law and international conventions to which the Soviet Union is a signatory. Dr. Waldheim is scheduled to arrive in Moscow July 17 on an official visit at the invitation of the Soviet government.
Jewish sources reported today that Mark Nashpitz has appealed from his prison cell in Moscow to Jews all over the world to work for his release. “I am to face a trial for a crime I never committed. I appeal for your help,” the message said. Nashpitz was arrested last month for alleged evasion of military duty. “He is a friend of Gavriel Shapiro, another Jewish activist arrested June 12, apparently on the same charges.
Nashpitz claimed in his appeal that he has been subjected to constant harassment by Soviet authorities since he applied for a visa to go to Israel six months ago. His parents and the parents of Shapiro have appealed to the international Committee of Jurists to investigate the cases of both men who, they say, are being brought to trial without having committed a crime.”
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