Soviets Chill U.S. Idea of Rights Link to Arms

A U.S. congressional delegation told Soviet officials Wednesday that progress on arms control is linked to improvement in Moscow’s record on human rights and emigration.

Soviet officials rejected any such linkage and expressed resentment that the American lawmakers even raised the issue, leaders of the U.S. group said at a news conference.

Despite the confrontation, however, the 10 visiting members of the House of Representatives said they received a warmer welcome than they had anticipated.

Rep. E. Thomas Coleman (R-Mo.) attributed the positive tone to a post-Geneva mood in Moscow. “I think they are looking for an opportunity to walk down a new road toward better relations with the United States,” he said.

California Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo) said, however, that the delegation he led reflected the mood of Congress when it pressed the human rights issue.

Shuns ‘Phony Euphoria’ “We did not come here to have phony euphoria or get the key to the Kremlin,” he said. “This issue will not go away.

“The (negotiating) climate will be poisoned if their human rights record is as bad as it is now,” said Lantos, co-chairman of the human rights caucus in the House. “There’s some feeling the Soviet Union is ready to move toward detente without a human face, and we don’t think we have to buy improvement in the overall situation at the expense of human rights.”

Lantos said the blunt message was delivered to all the Soviet officials the group met this week, including August E. Voss, chairman of the Council of Nationalities, a branch of the Soviet Parliament. The group provided Voss with a list of names of Soviet citizens who protested that their rights have been violated, and Voss agreed to respond to the complaints in writing, said Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman (R-N.Y.).

Linkage ‘Catastrophe’ However, Rep. Les AuCoin (D-Ore.), a member of the defense appropriations subcommittee and a specialist in arms control, said that any formal linkage of arms with any other issue, including human rights violations, would be a “catastrophe.”

The two nations face the danger of the development of weaponry that might allow both sides to make a first strike, he said, adding:

“One side or the other is going to decide to shoot before it’s shot.

“My sense is that the Soviets believe we have a technological edge over them (in space weapons) and they will try to correct the situation by arguing for a very high number of land-based missiles. I think it means we are in for protracted, difficult negotiations.”

When the delegation mentioned human rights in the Soviet Union, AuCoin said, the Soviets talked about U.S. treatment of American Indians, blacks and homeless people.

“Whenever we raised human rights issues, they got their back up and things got tense,” he said.

Despite the confrontation on that issue, Lantos said there was a surprisingly positive Soviet reaction to his proposal for a Soviet-American summit meeting to mark the 40th anniversary of the famous World War II link-up on the Elbe River between American and Soviet troops on April 25, 1945.

Several of the American lawmakers asked about the health of Soviet President Konstantin U. Chernenko but said Soviet officials met the questions with silence.