SOVIET 'PEACE' PANEL JEERED IN MINNESOTA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000201140105-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 30, 2010
• Sequence Number: 105
• Publication Date: May 26, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/30: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201140105-7
ARTICIM
ON Pl=
WASHINGTON TIMES
26 MAY 1983
Soviet pea~~'
By Wesley Pruden
WASHINGTON TIMES STAFF
f1esaid he consoled himself "with the
knowledge that this same thing has hap-
MINNEAPOLIS - Soviet .delegates
to a privately sponsored "Minneapolis
Peace and Disarmament Conference"
-were introduced to the real -world - of .
.American hard-ball politics -yesterday,,
:when they were jeered, heckledl:ind
mercilessly interrogated at public
:forum at the University of Minnesota at
St. Paul.
Worst of all, from the Soviet point of
'view, nearly all the questions were about
Soviet mistreatment of Jews and-other
religious minorities, dissidents and
Soviet citizens who tried to leaveRussia
- just the sort of human rights ques-
tions the Soviets insist they won't talk
about.
The Soviets were furious at-the day's
events. Their American colleagues
were, with one stated exception, mor-
tified.
"i
m
ur
s
m
f th
l
a
s
e
o
eo
e peop
e we saw
there today were Nazis," said Vitaly I. Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and even,
Kobysh, an officer in the Department of "Peru "whenwe bring up Poland land
Information of the Soviet Communist Afghamstan. We are here trying to talk
Party.
Mikhail Milshtein, a senior fellow of
a Soviet research institute, blamed Har-
rison Salisbury, the journalist who
" ---- one American delegate called "imperti-
nent questions"atthemornin forum
aged the forum and gave the floor to 8 ti-
certain elements;' Milshtein said. "Cer- held at the Hubert H. Humphrey Insti-
tain rules of behavior were not followed. tote of Public Affairs on the university
campus.
Can you imagine if some of you came "I can attest to the fact that those who
to the Soviet Union? Would the audience
say that every one of you were members showed up there do have honest convic-
of the CIA?" This was his first exper- lions," he said. "In political life we must
ience in such a forum where anyone was recognize not only numbers, but. the
allowed to speak. "We can assure you intensity of feeling." He was sorry that
that nothing like this ever happens in the the Soviet guests had been made to feel
U.S.S.R." - bad; the mayor said, but he was pleased
Another Soviet delegate brushed ! -they got "a glimpse into one aspect of
aside a private apology by one-of the community sentiment."
American delegates. "It was nothing. ?. Fraser's defense of the interrogators,
They were Jews, after all." Other t - some of whom identified themselves as
American delegates grumbled that' Jewish, was greeted with silence.
"better control" was not exercised over Kobysh, the Soviet delegate, told the
who got to ask questions. American delegates the incident was, in
"Since they don't have a free press;' fact, useful in just the way the mayor
said one American, "they -honestly described it. "We have suddenly found
didn't know what some of the demon- ourselves with concrete reality;" he said.
'strators were talking about" He was pleased that the St. Paul forum
"I am deeply ashamed," said the Rev. was filmed, he said, because it would be
Paul Moore, Episcopal Bishop of Wash- shown to Soviet audiences as "the rea-
ington, to the ringing applause of the ' son why America is not yet ready to say
Americans at a discussion later. "I am it will not make a nuclear first strike.
deeply humiliated."
7 ' nately, this is part of what can happen in
8-public forum.,,
I.. Erwin,'* Salk, ?,a businessman..and'.
American delegate to the conference,
'which is sponsored by the Institute for
.-'Policy Studies;-a liberal Washington
think tank,-and the Soviet Institute -of
the U.S.A. and Canada, was equally mor-
tified. ? .
"I thought about sending notes to the
Soviets," Salk said, "telling them of
Andrew Young's description of the thou
sands of political prisoners in American
prisons, of the blacks, Hispanics, and -
native Americans who are on our death
rows-,I thought about telling them of the
sterilized Puerto Rican women:'
Americans _were 'Wrong to try to "lay
down the ground rules" in discussions
-of human rights, Salk said, because the
"
Soviets
could talk about Guatemala
about making a contract to stay alive.
Then, after that, we can get on with sell-
ing things back and forth to each other."
Only Don Fraser, the mayor of Minne-
apolis, defended those who asked what
. "Democracy is good, as we know. But
? democracy has its limits. Hitler, after
all, stayed in-power. How did he do this?
He stayed in power through elections.
"We know that several hundred Nazis
are here in the United States, and they
are not 'punished" Kobysh said that
since he is Ukrainian, perhaps some of
the Nazis in America were among those
who killed his fellow Ukrainians-tduring
World War II, and perhaps some of these
Nazis "were among the demonstrators
today?
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/30: CIA-RDP90-00806R000201140105-7