[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 57 (Thursday, May 11, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E804]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


   THIRTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE MOSCOW HELSINKI GROUP

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                        HON. BENJAMIN L. CARDIN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 11, 2006

  Mr. CARDIN. Mr. Speaker, as Ranking Member of the Commission on 
Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Helsinki Commission, I note 
that tomorrow marks one of the major events in the struggle for human 
rights around the globe. Thirty years ago a courageous band of human 
rights defenders in the Soviet Union founded the ``Moscow Helsinki 
Group,'' dedicated to monitoring Soviet compliance with the Helsinki 
Final Act, an historic agreement containing important provisions on 
human rights.
  When General Secretary Brezhnev signed the Helsinki Final Act, or the 
Helsinki Accords, on August 1, 1975 on behalf of the USSR, Soviet 
officials believed that they had gained an important foreign policy 
victory. Indeed, there were some provisions that Soviet diplomats had 
sought assiduously during the negotiations among the thirty-five 
nations of Europe and the United States and Canada. However, the West, 
for its part, had insisted on certain provisions in the area of human 
rights and humanitarian affairs, including the right of citizens ``to 
know their rights and to act upon them.''
  With this commitment in mind, Professor Yuri Orlov, a Soviet 
physicist who had been involved in the defense of human rights in the 
Soviet Union previously, called upon several of his similarly-minded 
colleagues to join together in an organization to press publicly for 
implementation of the Helsinki Accords in their country.
  Eleven brave individuals answered the call, and on May 12, 1976, at a 
press conference called by famed human rights campaigner and peace 
activist Dr. Andrei Sakharov, the creation of the ``Public Group to 
Assist in the Implementation of the Helsinki Final Act,'' or as it 
became later known, the ``Moscow Helsinki Group'' was announced.
  The Moscow Helsinki Group committed itself to collecting information 
about implementation of the Helsinki Accords in the Soviet Union and 
publishing reports on their findings. During the first six years of its 
activity, they produced almost two hundred specific reports, as well as 
other announcements and appeals. More activists joined with the passing 
months. Similar Helsinki monitoring groups were established elsewhere 
in the USSR, including in Ukraine, Lithuania, Georgia and Armenia. 
Other groups focused on specific human rights issues such as 
psychiatric abuse or religious liberty joined the movement. The Moscow 
Group became an important source of information for individuals and 
groups seeking assistance in the area of human rights.

  Naturally, the Soviet leadership rejected such ``assistance'' and 
undertook to suppress the Moscow Helsinki Group. Members were fired 
from their jobs, ``persuaded'' to emigrate, castigated in the press, 
and subjected to KGB searches and interrogations. When such reprisals 
proved mostly ineffective, members were charged with political crimes 
and given lengthy sentences in labor camps of the Soviet Gulag, usually 
with an additional term of ``internal exile,'' forced resettlement, 
typically somewhere in Siberia or the Soviet Far East.
  Ten years after the founding of the Moscow Helsinki Group, 14 members 
had been sentenced to a total of 69 years in labor camp or prison, and 
50 years internal exile. Anatoly Marchenko, a founding member and 
veteran dissident, died during a hunger strike at Chistopol Prison in 
December 1986. By 1982, the Moscow Helsinki Group had been forced to 
suspend its activities in the face of intense KGB repression.
  But while Moscow had rid itself of some troublesome dissidents, the 
spirit of Helsinki was not so easily quashed. Ludmilla Alekseyeva, an 
exiled member of the group, testified in the U.S. Congress in October 
1985 that ``for victims of human rights abuses in the Eastern bloc, 
Helsinki remains the main source of hope . . . and a rallying point in 
their struggle for freedom and peace.'' Just a little over 4 years 
after she spoke those words, the Berlin Wall fell.
  The Moscow Helsinki Group was re-established in 1989. Reinvigorated 
through the work of new and veteran members, it is one of the most 
respected human rights organizations in the Russian Federation today. 
Alexeyeva, who returned to Russia in the early 1990s, following the 
demise of the Soviet Union, serves as chair of the group.
  Mr. Speaker, we would do well to heed the wise words of Andrei 
Sakharov when he noted, ``The whole point of the Helsinki Accords is 
mutual monitoring, not mutual evasion of difficult problems.'' A key to 
the ultimate success of the Helsinki Process has been the involvement 
of civil society--courageous human rights defenders like those who 
established the Moscow Group--willing to speak out on behalf of others. 
I remain deeply concerned over human rights trends in Russia, 
especially the adoption of regressive laws affecting fundamental human 
rights and freedoms.
  I join my colleagues on the Helsinki Commission in congratulating the 
Moscow Helsinki Group on the occasion of its 30th anniversary of 
dedicated service in the defense of fundamental freedoms and liberty.

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