Statement by Principal
Deputy Press Secretary Speakes on Soviet Dissidents
Andrei Sakharov and Yelena
Bonner
We
are pleased to hear of Mr. Sakharov's release from
internal exile and the pardon of his wife, Yelena
Bonner, on charges of slandering the Soviet state. We welcome this as a
personal victory of courage for the principles of human rights that the two
have come to exemplify in the
While
we are pleased with these developments, we note that the system of abuses of
human rights continues. There are countless others who remain incarcerated for
no reason other than their desire to express their viewpoint. It is these
infringements of human rights that we call upon the
Note:
Larry M. Speakes read the statement to reporters at