An appeal from a Ukrainian Jew, who was confined to a mental hospital March 4 after applying for migration to Israel, was presented today to Roberto E. Guyer of Argentina, Undersecretary General for Special Political Affairs, by Israeli Ambassador Yosef Tekoah, Informed sources here said Guyer reacted sympathetically to the plea from Yuri Brind, a 42-year-old master-engraver of Kharkov, whose smuggled letter was sent April 5–but apparently has not yet been delivered–to Secretary General Kurt Waldheim and to the Human Rights Commission. Waldheim is now in Europe.
Brind wrote that he applied for emigration Jan. 13, but on Feb. 1 his home was searched and thereafter he was “subjected to a series of harassments” until the KGB (secret police) took him forcibly to the asylum “although I am perfectly healthy in every respect.” Since being confined March 4, Brind said, “all my efforts to secure an interview with a doctor have been to no avail.” On April 3, he reported, he want on a hunger strike “in protest against the treatment meted out to me.” He concluded: “I repeat that I have committed no crime, and I appeal to you to help me get out of this hell.”
During the first half of 1971, more than 27,000 former concentration camp inmates requested identity claim forms, it was reported today by the International Red Cross in West Germany.
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