Word: helsinki
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Orlov's "crime," in the Kremlin's eyes, was his role in organizing a Moscow committee to monitor Soviet compliance with the human rights provisions of the 1975 Helsinki accord on European Security and Cooperation. The committee prepared a number of documents, petitions and open addresses charging that "many hundreds" of Soviet citizens were "languishing in prisons and camps [for] political, ethical and religious beliefs." Free emigration and reunification of families, according to Orlov's group, were still being severely hampered, even though these rights were endorsed by the Helsinki accord. Introducing these reports as evidence...
Although the Soviet news agency Tass described the proceeding as an "open trial," Orlov's sympathizers were barred from the courtroom, as were foreign journalists and a representative of the U.S. embassy. Other members of the Helsinki monitoring group gathered outside the court building, frequently clashing verbally with the police and KGB security agents. Nobel Laureate Andrei Sakharov, the Soviet Union's leading dissident, and his wife Yelena were pushed by the police. They shoved back, were thrown into a van and taken to a police station, where they were held for several hours...
Orlov whom Bloembergen called a "self-appointed watch-dog" for violations of the 1974 Helsinki agreement on human rights, received a seven-year prison sentence to be followed by a five-year exile from Moscow, during which he is not allowed to work as a scientist...
...letter to the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Bloembergen stated that Orlov's trial, which the public and the press were not permitted to attend, and the harsh sentence he received "deliberately defy and violate" the Helsinki pact...
Experience proves that the Soviets make and keep agreements only when and so long as it suits their interests. One of too many examples is the Helsinki human rights agreement. How does Secretary Vance reconcile that record with his statement...