The Senate passed a resolution yesterday expressing its desire to indicate to the Soviet Union and other states represented at the Belgrade conference the “official concern of the United States over the treatment of Anatoly Sharansky, who has been charged with treason, Yuri Orlov and others who sought to monitor compliance with the Helsinki accords.” The resolution was sponsored by Senators Edward W. Brooke (R.Mass.), Hubert H. Humphrey (D.Minn.) and Clifford P. Case (R.NJ).
In a speech to the Senate, Brooke said that many in Congress shared “a deep concern over the Soviet Union’s increased efforts to suppress expressions of dissent.” He added: “The Kremlin’s actions are in direct contradiction to the first paragraph of the principles adopted by the Helsinki signatories.”
The paragraph cited calls upon “participating states” to “respect human rights and fundamental freedoms including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.”
These would be no more than “hollow words,” Brooke said, unless the U.S. and others called attention to the flagrant human rights violations connected in the jailing of Sharansky, Orlov and others.
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