Double Standard

THE REAGAN ADMINISTRATION, it appears, has something of a double standard towards Soviet behavior While Soviet-sponsored political repression in Poland has drawn harsh condemnation from much of the West, the equally grave violations of human rights that the U.S.S.R. regularly commits within its own borders have received scant attention. Tonight, in a rally at Holyoke Center starting at 7:30 p.m., the Harvard community has a chance to dramatize the plight of Soviet political prisoners and--just possibly--to induce a more vigorous American response.

Specifically, the rally--sponsored by Harvard-Radcliffe Hillel--protests the five-year imprisonment of Soviet scientist Anatoly Shcharansky. Shcharansky today enters the 30th consecutive day of a hunger strike he started to protest his treatment at the hands of Soviet officials. No Western analyst knows precisely how many other prisoners of conscience are kept in the U.S.S.R. today, but the facts of Shcharansky's case and others that have come to light offer a dismaying picture of Soviet ruthlessness towards discontented citizens.

The Shcharansky saga began in 1974 when--a day after his wedding--his wife Avital was expelled from the country, while his application to emigrate was denied. Two years later, Shcharansky joined the underground Helsinki Watchdog Committee, which attempted to monitor Soviet violations of the Helsinki Final Act, a human rights charter signed a year earlier by 35 countries, including the U.S.S.R. If honored, that country would have permitted Shcharansky, along with other citizens with family in other countries to emigrate.

In March 1977, Shcharansky was arrested and held incommunicado and without trial for 16 months. Despite the Soviet government's nominal constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression and the right to criticize the government, Shcharansky was then convicted of "treason and espionage" and "anti-Soviet agitation." He was punished with a sentence of 13 years in prison and labor camps.

The Reagan Administration's posture of protesting the crackdown in Poland but remaining virtually silent on the human rights violations in the Soviet Union risks sending the wrong signal. It implies that the United States is only selectively concerned with human rights, thus putting no pressure on the Soviet Union to liberalize at home. Only loud protest by American citizens can spur the Reagan Administration to speak out. Tonight, at Holyoke Center, that protest can begin.