The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, August 10, 1989-Page 5
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Ex Refusenik says he's baffled by Soviet tactics
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/;./■■■■ By:
JANICE ARNOLD
MONTREAL -
Alexander loffe, the former Soviet Jewish Refusenik who went on a hunger strike to finally receive permission to emigrate, is now pleading in the West for the release of his sister and her family who remain.
loffe, who is spending the summer in Montreal, said his sister Inessa Uspensl^r of Moscow, her husband Igor, their son Vyacheslav, and her mother-in-law Irina Voronkevich, received "verhal permission" from Soviet emigration officials July 20 that the family could leave, except
Voronkevkh.
Voronkevich, 77, is a former botany professor who retired 13 years ago. ioffe said his sister and brother-in-law were told the older woman could not leave for security reasons, without being specific.
This baffles loffe, who says he has no idea what secrets Voronkevich could have had knowledge of during her career and, in any case, points out she has been on pension for 13 years. Inessa is loffe's xmly sibling.
The Uspenskys, who are both entoaK>k)|^sts with the equivalent of doctoral degrees^ first applied to emigrate in July, 1979. they were refused in 1981 and June, 1988, at which time they were told they would have to wait until .:1997>.^ .
Ioffe, a nurtfaematkaan, said the family had previously beoi toM they couM not leave because of his aOeged access to classified infonnatkm yeprs eartia*. When he left for Israel m January, 1988, after waiting 11 years, loffe said there had been some hints from crfficials that Voronkevkh's past might be at issue, but this was
Alexander loffe (centre) speaks to his sister Inessa Uspensky hi the Soviet Unk>n, as Carole Moscovitch, director of the CJC National Committee for Soviet Jewry, and CJC executive vke-president Alan Rose stand by. [Howard Kay photo]
the first time it was explicit from Moscow's central visa offke.
He suspects it may be just iainother way of extending the refusal of the Uspenskys themsielves;
loffe said he finds it inconceivable that the Soviets would attempt to separate an elderly nrather ahd her family at this time when it is trying to improve its image in the West.
In addition to loffe and his wife Rosa, daughter Anna.and son Dmitri and his family \n^o live in Haifa, the Uspenskys have a daughter-in-law Alia (Vyacheslav's wife) and grandchild in Israel. She
left in April.
Barbara Stern, chairman of Canadian Jewish Congress's NatkMial Committee on Soviet Jewry, said the treatment of the Uspensky family case is a fb^rant viblatkm of the concluding document drawn up in Vkn-na in January by the signatories of the Hdsfaiki
Accords, at the end of this process formally abnost three years of known as the Conference foUow-up meethigs. The on Security and Cooper-Soviet Unkmis among the atk>n hi Europe (CSCE). 35 partkipathig stotes hi The document states that
participating states "will take steps to find solutions as expeditiously as possible, but in any case, within six months, to all applica-
tions based on the human contacts provisions" of the Helsinki accords and the previous Madrid concluding document "outstanding at the conclusion of the Vienna follow-up meeting." It also reaffirms the right of all persons to leave any country, including their own.
Stem said the Uspensky case runs counter as well to frequent statements by Soviet representatives at another CSCE meeting, the Paris Conference on Human Dimensions, that ended in June.
"The Soviets kept saying in Paris that all outstanding cases would be dealt with within six months of the Vienna concluding .document most of th^ positively," Stem said.
The news of the Uspensky's refusal came just days after the 6-month deadline, July 15, passed, she said.
■ 'It'snotonly incredible that the Soviets would keep a 77-year-old, it's stupid at a time when they are try-
ing to cultivate a good image. It sounds like something that could have • happened five years ago."
Stem said the CJC committee has launched a campaign in Canada on behalf of the Uspenskys, and is making representations to the Canadian government and the Soviet embassy.
Inessa and Igor Uspensky worked for over 20 years in the Institute of Medical Parasitology and Tropical Medicine of the Ministry .of-,..Jiealth, specializing in ticks. In 1982, they were dismissed from the Institute, and neither has been able to work professionally since then.
Igor now wori(S as a lift operator, and Inessa does occasional work translating EhgUdi to Russian, or
loffe, a professor at the Technion, his wife and daughter are spending two mondis in Montreal, where he is doing mathematics research at the University of Montreal.
NEW YORK (JTA) -
Argentina's new president has assured the leadership of the World Jewish Congress he would have "excellent relations with the Jewish community," the organization reported last week.
Carlos Saul Menem, the Peronist leader elected May 14 and installed as president last month, met in Buenos Aires with a delegation hieaded by Edgar Bronftnan, the WJC president.
The WJC leaders flew to the Argoitine capital to meet with Menem and other Latm American leaders, including the newly elected pre»dent of
Venezuda and re|M%sen-tatives of the Jewish communities of Argentina, BrazU and Vennniela.
But Argentine Jews of all political stripes are now optimistic that the new president will have good relations with the Jewish community. Elan Steinberg, WJC's executive director, said in a telqrfione interview from Sao Paulo.
He said the Argentine president greeted Bronfman with "Shalom" and spoke of the "commonality of the Jewish and Syrian reftigee experience."
Menem is the son of ■Syrian refugees who settled in Argentina. Bom a Moslem, he converted to
Catholicism, some say to comply with an Argentine
law that requires the president to be a Roman Catholic.
Bronftnan was acconq)a-nied by Steinberg and Israel Singer, the WJC secretary-general, as well as the president of the Argentine Jewish ccMnmunity, David Goldberg, in the 90-minute meeting with Menem at the Pink House, the presidential palace.
Their meeting with the president was followed by a news conference with the international media. Moreover, Menem had announced twice on prime-time television that he would be meeting with the
WJC leaders.
Steinberg described the Argentine president as "a highly charismatic figure who has psychologi^y energized the country to face the challenges."
Argentina is foced with a devastating rate of inflation that is rising geometrically by 200% per month. As a result, aliyah is up considerably, alth(Migh figures previously reported were exaggerated, Steinberg said. .
The matter was discussed at a privatemeeting with Israeli Ambassador Efiraim Tari and in a meeting with the DAIA, Argentine Jewry's representative body.
The WJC dklnot discuss Menem's recent statement that he seeks reconciliation with the military. There were three military rebellions last year that stqjped just short of a coup.
The Jewish community fared very badly during die "Dirty War" of the late 1970s, when a military junta ruled and abducted people variously suspected of leftist leanings,
Many Jews, particularly young people, were never seen again.
This subject, however, was not discussed with •Menem, Steinberg said. "That's a question that should be raised by the local Jewish community."
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