The American and French Ambassadors received petitions from a group of immigrants from the Soviet Union today urging intervention on behalf of their relatives who are prevented from emigrating from the USSR. The envoys promised to convey the petitions to their countries’ representatives at the Belgrade conference on compliance with the human rights agreements in the Helsinki accords.
U.S. Ambassador Samuel Lewis invited a group of 40 emigres into his office at the Embassy. He said he would relay their request to Arthur Goldberg who is heading the 25-member U.S. delegation at the Belgrade conference which opened yesterday. He said that the question of human rights in the Soviet Union is one of the most important problems claiming President Carter’s attention.
The petitioners asked that pressure be exerted on Moscow to permit the emigration of Jews imprisoned because they applied for exit visas to join their families and to every Jew in the USSR who wants to come to Israel.
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