Dr. William Korey director of international policy research of B’nai B’rith, gave an optimistic report here yesterday of developments at the Madrid conference to review compliance with the 1975 Helsinki human rights accords, which” he attended from November 13-December 2.
Korey, on international authority on Soviet Jewish affairs and human rights, told an audience to a B’nai B’rith luncheon that “progress has been made” and “Madrid has achieved an historic break through.” He said, “Our aims and purposes were in two contexts: the aims of the United States government and the West and secondly, specific objectives with regard to Soviet Jewry.”
Korey felt that the conference was successful because Soviet efforts to keep human rights off the agenda were defeated. He noted that the cases of nine of the foremost refusniks and prisoners-of-conscience in the Soviet Union were mentioned in specific discussions; the presence of the wives and mothers of the prisoners at the conference; and the hunger strike by Jews in several-Soviet cities that coincided with the conference opening.
AN IMPORTANT OBJECTIVE
He also said it had been an important objective of the U.S. to link Spain, the best country, with NATO. “Spain is not part of NATO and it was important to the U.S. government to involve Spain in a direct way; to isolate the Soviet Union and to establish rather clearly and distinctly that there would be a third review conference from which the Soviet Union cannot escape,” Korey said.
He stated: “All of these objectives were fulfilled or are in the process of being fulfilled. This is extraordinarily impressive. Indeed, in the course of the preparatory talks, not only did the U.S. find that the NATO allies were totally on its side, but all of the neutral countries felt that their destiny was linked with the West and to some degree, even elements within the Soviet camp, Warsaw Pact powers, were sympathetically disposed to the Western posture.”
Korey added, “In the process, perhaps, the overriding objective of the U.S. and of the Western world was fulfilled. That overriding objective was a consciousness-raising objective. What had to be done was to sensitize the world to violations of human rights, to the Helsinki process and to make the issue a concrete and visible one for masses of people everywhere. This has been fulfilled to a remarkable degree that could never have been anticipated.”
He observed that press attention to the Madrid conference “has been extraordinary, to a for better degree than at Belgrade.” The Belgrade Helsinki review conference was held in 1977. Korey praised Max Kampelman, the Washington attorney who was No. 2 man in the U.S. delegation at Madrid, for his “perceptivity, understanding and knowledge.”
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