WORLD : Group Monitors Soviets’ Rights
MOSCOW — An American Jewish organization opened the first independent office to monitor human rights in the Soviet Union today and vowed to defend all Soviet citizens in need of help.
David Waksberg, vice president of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, acknowledged that a major goal of the new bureau is to help Jews who want to emigrate from the Soviet Union, but he said it also has a wider purpose.
“The rights of Jews are intimately involved with the rights of all Soviet citizens (and) will be viewed in the context of general human rights in this country,” Waksberg told reporters. To underscore the point, the office will share space with the Moscow Helsinki Monitoring Group.
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