With most longtime refuseniks expected to be allowed to leave the Soviet Union in the near future, the United States will now concentrate on pressing Moscow to grant exit visas to the hundreds of thousands of other Soviet Jews who want to emigrate, a senior State Department official said Monday.
“The challenge before us is to see whether we can persuade” the Soviets “to live up to their international commitments” under the Helsinki Accords, Richard Shifter, assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs, told more than 150 persons attending the United Jewish Appeal’s Washington Connection III.
Shifter, who accompanied Secretary of State George Shultz to Moscow, said he personally discussed emigration during a working session on human rights with Soviet officials, and that it was the first issue raised by Shultz in his meetings with Soviet Foreign Secretary Eduard Shevardnadze.
‘HANG IN THERE’
Shultz dropped in at a meeting of some 60 refuseniks last Thursday night and, with his eyes “glistening,” told them “hang in there because you know we’ll hang in with you,” according to Shifter.
The secretary of state has expressed confidence that progress is being made on emigration, particularly toward a systematic method of dealing with applications. The Soviets have set up a commission to review the cases of those refused emigration visas.
But Shifter said that while progress is being made, it is moving slowly. He said the Soviets accepted a list of refuseniks from the United States last January and since then have been allowing an average of 800 Jews a month to leave. While this is almost as many who left in all of 1986, it is less than half the monthly emigration figures in the 1970s, Shifter stressed.
He said the Soviets also published a list in January of those who would “never” be allowed to emigrate, the most prominent of them being Vladimir Slepak.
SLEPAKS ARRIVE IN VIENNA
Shifter said that last Thursday he also attended a farewell party for Slepak and his wife, Maria, who had been granted permission to leave after an 18-year effort. The Slepaks arrived in Vienna Sunday on their way to Israel.
“Never say, never,” Shifter said.
The assistant secretary said that about 8,000 Jews have emigrated from the Soviet Union so far this year, of which 25 percent went to Israel. Asked about the U.S. position on the Israeli demand that Soviet Jewish emigrants be denied refugee status in the United States so that they would have to go to Israel, he replied, “we are in support of freedom of choice.”
The Washington Connection is a major gifts event of the UJA with those attending pledging a minimum of $10,000.
The participants attended a black tie dinner at the Israel Embassy Sunday night and had lunch at Capitol Hill Monday where they were addressed by senators and House members.
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