The Guardian of Liberty - Nemzetőr, 1985 (8. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)
1985-09-01 / 5. szám
12 24-Year Wait for Exit Visa A fter spending the last 30 years as a reluctant inhabitant of the Soviet Union 55-year-old Kobert Mitiakov returned to France recently. The Air France flight which brought him from Moscow to Paris took only a few hours, but it had taken Mitiakov 24 years of hardship and frustration before he eventually managed to obtain an exit visa from the Soviet authorities. Just before leaving for France, he described his experiences to the Moscow correspondent of the influential French daily, Le Monde, and the reason why he had gone to the USSR in the first place. Mitiakov was born in Toulouse in 1930 to Russian parents who had left Russia after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution and settled in France, which Robert and his four brothers always looked on ás their homeland. His father, however, was overcome by a longing to see Russia again and in 1955 uprooted the family and took them off to live there. In the USSR the Mitiakovs were immediately treated as Soviet citizens and subjected to the dictates of officialdom which sent them to Kustanay in the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan to work as manual labourers on the Virgin Lands scheme. Robert Mitia- BIBLICAL LAVATORY PAPER Factories in Romania have been using the pages of imported Bibles to make lavatory paper. Toilet rolls on which fragments of Biblical verses are still legible have been taken out of the country and examined. It has been found that the paper is from Bibles sent from the United States by the World Reform Alliance in the late 1970s and early 1980s. During that period the Romanian Communist authorities were anxious to silence widespred foreign criticism of their persecution of religion. They therefore consented to the import of 20,000 Bibles for the Reformed Church in Transylvania, whose members are ethnic Hungarians. Labels on the lavatory paper bear the names of the paper and pulp combine at Braila, and the Bistrita paper and pulp factory at Prundul Bargaului. There is an acute shortage of toilet paper (and many other household goods) in Romania. The need for recycling paper and much else is often emphasised in the official Press. For example, the Romanian Communist Party daily, Scinteia, published an article on July 13 whosse headlines said: „Nothing must be lost! Everything must be recycling and reused in the economy." Romania is not the only East European country where toilet rolls are scarce. The Poles solve the problem by recycling old copies of Communist Party newspapers. kov recalled having to queue for three hours for a slab of black bread. The family endured appalling conditions there for three years before being moved to the Kazakh capital, Alma-Ata, where life was slightly less harsh. By then Robert Mitiakov had only one aim — to get near to Moscow and apply to the French Embassy for repatriation. On September 15, 1961, he wrote to the embassy saying that he wished to return to France: during the years that followed he renewed his application 116 times but it was repeatedly blocked by the OVIR, the department in the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs which issues visas. He had to produce extensive documentation on each occasion. To begin with, he had to provide papers from his parents agreeing to his request to emigrate. Their permission was necessary according to Soviet law, although he was an adult by then, and when this document finally reached him his parents had died. So he was asked for their death certificates, but when he received these papers he was told that his original application was out of date. Meawhile, in 1962 Mitiakov had managed to move into Moscow itself where he worked as a stevedore. He then tried to find employment at the Cosmos factory, and later with Intourist, but although in other circumstances he was officially regarded as a Soviet citizen, Cosmos and Intourist refused to employ him because he had been born abroad and they “could not take on foreigners“. It was not until 1982, when he was given the job of gardener at the French Embassy, that his hopes of returning to France were raised. Visiting French officials saw him at the embassy and in June, 1984, President Mitterrand heard of his efforts to leave the USSR. When the President took up Mitiakov’s case during his visit, the Kremlin promised that he would be allowed to go, but it has taken more than another year of Soviet delaying tactics before Mitiakov was free. In August OVIR made a final attempt to detain him by demanding papers proving that he had paid the rent at his lodgings when, in fact, no such papers were ever provided by his apartment block. On this occasion, however, „high-level orders“ were issued and a KGB officer instructed OVIR officials to give Mitiakov his passport and „stop making difficulties“. Three of Mitiakov’s brothers also want to leave the Soviet Union, while the fourth has given up hope 15 years after applying for an exit visa. According to the French Embassy in Moscow, there are still 216 people who want to leave the USSR for France, including many who first applied for permission 20 or even 30 years ago. AN OPPORTUNITY FOR YOUR FRIENDS: IF YOU HAVE friends who you think would be interesed in THE GUARDIAN OF LIBERTY (Nemzetőr) we will gladly «end specimen copies free of charge. All you need do is to fill ie names addresses below and send them to us. We will do the rest. Please send specimen copie* of THE GUARDIAN OF LIBERTY (Nemzetőr) to the following: THE GUARDL Of UB€»TY Sals Erscheint 2monatlich. Einzelpreis für Deutschland DM 4,— Edited by the Editorial Board Verleger, Herausgeber und Inhaber TIBOR KECSKÊSI TOLLAS Journalist, Schriftsteller, München Ferchenbachstraße 88, D-8000 München 50 FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY Verantwortlicher Redakteur (Editor): MIKLÓS VARY Ferchenbachstraße 88, D-8000 München 50 Druck (print): DANUBIA DRUCKEREI GMBH Ferchenbachstraße 88, D-8000 München 50 AFRICA REPRESENTATIVES & SALE CAMEROON: L. T. JOHNSON, Divisional Inspectorate of Education, NKAMBE, North West Province, Republic of CAMEROON. EAST AFRICA: (2.— Sh, by air) (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania): General-Representative: International African Literary Agents. P.O. Box 46055 NAIROBI, Kenya; NIGERIA (2.— Sh): Yemi OYENEYE, P. M. B. 101, Agege, Lagos. SIERA LEONE: (10 Le. c.; annual: 60) 1. Alusine B. Kargbo, c/o 2 Alusine St., Newsite Kissy, Freetown; SOMALIA: (2.— Sh., by air) Haji Jama Ali, P.O.B'. 248, Hargeisa. MAURITIUS NALANDA Co. Ltd., 30, Bourbon Str., Port-Louis. GREAT BRITAIN F. Szabó, 100 Liddel Gardens, London N.W. 10 U. S. A. Béla H. BÁCSKAI, P.O. Box 102, Audubon/Pa. 19407. AUSTRALIA Mr. Jenő Beák, 3/50 Warrandyte Rd., RINGWOOD 3/34 Vic., Australia PRICES: Surface mail: 1 copy AFRICA 1.80 Sh (100 CFA), Britain 60 P, Australia, USA, Canada: $ 2,— Germany: DM 4.— Annual subscription: AFRICA Sh 10 (500 CFA), Britain 3.—£, Germany /Europe: DM 20.-(or equivalent) Australia USA, Canada: $ 10.— For air mall add 25 •/• For students 50 */o discount Our BANK ACCOUNT: No. 2605756 Commerzbank AG. Munich, Federal Republic of Germany. SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1985 Police Beat Priest Members of the Securitate, the Romanian seoret police, recently beat with sticks 29-yearold Father János Csilik, a Roman Catholic priest on the staff of the cathedral in Oradea, (Nagyvárad) Transylvania. He was unable to use his hands for several weeks after the assault. Earlier, the Securitate had failed to compel Father Csilik to make incriminating statements about individual religious believers. The secret police were particularly interested in his association with members of the family of Attila Ara-Kovács, a Catholic philosopher who had actively supported the rights of Romania's Hungarian minority before he emigrated to Hungary in 1983.