Open Letter to US Senator Frank Lautenberg

Senator Frank Lautenberg
HART Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC 20510

Honorable Senator Lautenberg,

We, members of American Association of Jews from Former USSR (State of Massachusetts), and of Boston Group Against Ethnic Cleansing are addressing you with the following issue. Hardly can we find a person so famous in the Jewish world of America as Senator Lautenberg and his "Lautenberg Amendment," helping Jewish people from Russia and former Soviet Union to immigrate to the USA for the past several years. Although the Jewish immigration is now diminishing, and some Jewish immigrants are even thinking about returning to Russia (from one site -they have difficulties with the language or in finding job; from another one -there are now many Jewish school and other Jewish institution in Russia), -the majority of Jews are still very thankful to you for the opportunity to escape from the unstable and unpredictable Russia and FSU countries. Moreover, new waves of anti-Semitism have been rising now in Russia, and it is provoked by a wave of xenophobia, resulted at the significant extent of the war in Chechnya.

The Lautenberg Amendment is also applied to Armenians who suffered from Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict (the Azerbaijani refugees didn't get the possibility as Armenians did). Now the US discuss about creating a program of immigration for another vulnerable ethnic minority from FSU, the Meskhetian Turks.

But the most vulnerable, saying it mildly, folk in the Caucasus that is under threat of extinction is Chechens. The genocidal war in Chechnya is continuing, taking more and more perverted and terribly twisted form. But the politicians put up a mask of ignorance and surprise at the word "genocidal". They play games or trade with Russia at the expense of the Chechen people. Every 15 minutes a Chechen disappears. It means that he abducted by Russian Forces, taken to "unknown direction" to be tortured or held in order to be released for ransom from his relatives, or secretly killed and buried in a concealed mass grave. Almost a quarter of one million of Chechens have been killed or tortured to death in concentration ("filtration") camps. They cannot all be terrorists.

Moreover, the Chechen refugees experience severe discrimination in entire Russia, but in every request to organize immigration for Chechens, but the US Embassy in Moscow and US Administration rejected this plea, having said that it was a political issue. America made taboo the whole Chechen nation refusing them immigration. Exactly, what happened with Jews during WW2 is now happening with Chechens.

The Jewish people are very sensitive to genocide. How can we bring some Chechen refugee families here? How can we create or expand the "Lautenberg Amendment" for Chechen people who are under threat of extinction? The Holocaust Museum in Washington put Chechens on the list of ethnic groups who are "under threat of extermination as a result of genocide". Why doesn't our brave President pay attention to the fate of Chechen nation? Why Mr. Bush spoke positively about the "referendum" in Chechnya as one more humiliation on the Chechen people who are still alive? The lie and cynics of that event are clear: terror in Chechnya is not at all diminished, Chechens are suffering the same disappearance at the Russian night raids, the same tortures and hunt on the male population beginning from 12 years old, as well as assault and rape of women and girls.

We, immigrants from the FSU, mostly Jews, urge you to do your best to extend the "Amendment" for Chechens to allow them to immigrate and to grant them a refugee status in our country.

Sincerely, Dr. Victoria Poupko,
President of Boston Group Against Ethnic Cleansing;
Member of Board of Directors of
The American Association of Jews from Former Soviet Union

Dr. Nadezhda Banchik, Vice-president of BGAEC;
Member of Amnesty International (California Group)

[30.05.2003 7:51]