The Eighth Hungarian Tribe, 1982 (9. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1982-08-01 / 8. szám

^Cntieb -2>{aieÄ Senate

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20510

Honorable Nicolae Ceausescu President

Socialist Republic of Romania Bucharest, Romania

Dear Mr. President:

As you may know, our annual congressional discussion about whether to renew Most Favored Nation trading status for Romania is now underway. In this respect, we are sorry to have to report that we are much distressed by the continuing stream of information reaching us from numerous sources regarding the difficulties still being experienced by Christian groups in Romania, especially Evangelicals with whom so many Americans have a deep religious affinity, the ceaseless erosion of educational and cultural facilities for the Hungarian minority, and the startling decline in Jewish emigration from Romania in recent years to the current rate of one thousand persons annually.

In light of your Government's frequent declarations of support for the Helsinki Final Act, we look forward with great hope to the correction of these violations, which constitute serious obstacles to improved U.S.-Romanian relations. As emigration performance is so vital a part of MFN extension, we hope it will be possible to simplify Romanian emigration procedures, so to facilitate the reunification of long-separated families and affianced couples. We are particularly concerned that Romanian emigration to Israel during the first 3 months of 1982 has averaged only 54, a striking reduction from the 250 to 350 monthly averages in the years before Romania obtained MFN.

We would also draw your attention to Senator Henry Jackson's 1981 statement to the Senate Subcommittee on International Trade with which we are in total agreement:

It is necessary for the Romanian (authorities) to do much better with regard to emigration to Israel . . . ^ They should more than double the annual numbers they are approving for Israel.

We also support the view expressed to the Romanian Ambassado in a letter of August 3, 1981 from Members of the House of Representatives that the 1141 approvals for Israel in 1980 should be "more than doubled" and "long standing cases resolved."

We would like to emphasize that we write in a spirit of comity and hope that our differences can be reconciled. The review procedure established when Most Favored Nation trading status was first granted to Romania in 1975 offers an opportunity for a broad evaluation of all the relations between our two countries.