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November
17, 1975
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NOBEL LAUREATES PLACE CALL
TO ANDREI SAKHAROV IN MOSCOW
At a
press conference in San Francisco on Monday, November 17th, Nobel Laureates
Owen Chamberlain (Physics, 1959), Robert Hofstadter (Physics, 1961) and Emillo
Segre (Physics, 1959) placed a call to Moscow to Andrei Sakharov to focus
attention on the denial by the Soviet Government of his travel application to
go to Oslo on December 10th to receive his Nobel Peace Prize. The
Laureates and their colleagues who were unable to attend sent a cable urging
the Soviet Government to reconsider their decision.
Sakharov¹s
application was denied according to the Soviet chief of the Department of Visas
and Registration because he possesses "a knowledge of state secrets."
The national security aspect is invoke frequently in denying Soviet citizens
permission to travel abroad or to emigrate.
"I
look on the trip to Oslo as my duty," explained Sakharov last week.
"It's a highly responsible and very difficult trip for me, but I believe I
should insist on it and should insist on certain guarantees for my return.
"The
solution of this question has great significance for the defense of free
convictions, the defense of the principles that were adopted at the conference
in Helsinki, Finland, to which the signatures of Soviet representatives were
affixed."
At
Helsinki in July, 35 nations signed a European security document that included
a pledge by its signers "to facilitate freer movement and contacts,
individually and collectively, whether privately or officially" and to
"respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of
thought, conscience, religion or belief.²
Three
weeks ago in Moscow, Sakharov asked Regina Bublil, Executive Director of the
Bay Area Council on Soviet Jewry (BASJ) to appeal to his fellow Nobel Laureates
to support him in his insistence that the decision be changed if his
application was denied. He reaffirmed this request on Saturday, November 15
with Mr. Edward Kline of New York in a telephone conversation. Mr. Kline is a
member of the Board of Amnesty International.
Amnesty
International (AT), a highly respected international organization dedicated to
the freedom of prisoners of conscience, joins the BASJ in bringing the Bay Area
Nobel Laureates together. This conference coincides with the release by Amnesty
International Secretariat in London of the illustrated report, ''Prisoners of
Conscience in the USSR: Their Treatment and Conditions,² showing how many of
the legal and penal abuses are directed particularly against political and
religious dissenters in the Soviet Union.
The
report, one of the most detailed Amnesty International has ever produced on
violations of human rights in a single country, is being published
simultaneously in English, Dutch, German, French and Swedish.
Also
appearing at the press conference was Victor Sokolov and his wife Barbara. Mr.
Sokolov, 28, a dissident writer from Moscow, moved to the Bay Area a week ago
with his wife, an American graduate in Russian History from U.C. , Santa Cruz.
Sokolov met with Sakharov on October 25th. Sokolov also was a member of the
Amnesty International group in Moscow, two of whose members, DR. SERGEI
KOVALYOV and group secretary ANDREI TVERDOKHLEBOV, are presently in detention
in Moscow.
The
publication of the report is especially appropriate today as the day after
SAKHAROV won the Nobel Peace Prize, SAKHAROV expressed concern that the West at
times paid too little attention to the plight of Soviet political prisoners.
Joining
Drs. Chamberlain, Hofstadter, and Segre in their cable and support of
SAKHAROV's request to travel to Oslo are:
Dr.
Felix Bloch, 1952, Physics
Dr.
Arthur Kornberg, 1959, Bio-Chemistry
Dr.
Salvador Luria, 1969, Medicine
Dr.
Donald A. Glaser, 1960, Physics
Dr.
Edwin M. McMillan, 1951, Chemistry
Dr.
Charles H. Townes, 1964, Physics