Gorbachev ‘Murders Me,’ Protester Says

While tears streaked the cheeks of his friends and associates, Mikhail Shirman, 31, a Soviet-born Israeli suffering from leukemia, told a news conference Friday that he had come to Iceland to meet “the man who is murdering me”--Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Although Shirman, a biologist who left the Soviet Union when emigration was relatively easy six years ago, needs a bone marrow transplant to save his life, the only possible donor--his sister, Inessa Flerova--has been unable to leave the Soviet Union with her husband to undergo the operation.

A crushing tangle of bureaucracy has held them back.

The case was one of many mentioned by Jewish organizations Friday, on the eve of the summit conference here between Gorbachev and President Reagan, to demonstrate what they regard as the cruel and anti-Semitic violations of human rights by the Soviet Union.

The procession of quiet and restrained Jewish news conferences defied an attempt by the Icelandic government to keep protest groups out of the small North Atlantic island nation during the summit.

Although some Jews held up pictures of Soviet Jews at a news briefing by Soviet officials, there were no loud protest demonstrations in the city. Reykjavik was notable for the absence of the mass protest parades and rallies--on every cause from gay rights to Soviet Jewry--that enlivened Geneva and tied up the Swiss police during the first Reagan-Gorbachev summit last November.

The Jewish organizations made their complaints while hints emerged that the Soviet Union may try to woo public opinion during the summit by interceding in some of the most embarrassing cases, including that of Shirman.

Shirman’s news conference was interrupted when a telephone call came from his sister in Moscow, who told him that she had been called to the Soviet visa office Friday. While Shirman dismissed this as a subterfuge on the part of the Soviet bureaucracy, the news held out at least some hope that the situation might change.

Shirman, bald from his cancer treatments, said that he would probably live only a few months unless he received the bone marrow transplant soon. His case has already advanced to a more dangerous stage from the time, almost a year ago, when he found out about the need for the transplant.

He described Gorbachev as “the man who could save my life” by permitting his brother-in-law Victor Flerov to leave with his sister. The Soviet government has agreed to let his sister leave for the operation, but only if she emigrates permanently. At the same time, it has refused to let her husband emigrate with her--making her choose, in essence, between her husband and her brother.

(Flerov’s wife said she was told Friday that her case could not be dealt with immediately, the Associated Press reported from Moscow.)

If his sister left without her husband, she might never see him again, said Shirman. “I would never agree to save my own life at the cost of my sister’s family’s destruction,” he added.

Father Won’t Sign

The Soviet government insists that it cannot let Flerov leave because his 75-year-old father, whom he has not seen for many years, refuses to sign a statement that he has no financial claim on his son. Shirman said the elderly man was too fearful of Soviet reprisals to sign the statement.

“I would like Mr. Gorbachev to call the father and say, ‘Don’t be afraid, nothing will happen to you if you sign the paper allowing your son to leave,’ ” Shirman said.

Although Shirman said he had come to Iceland to meet Gorbachev, it was obvious that his real aim, like that of the other Jewish protesters, was to attract attention to his cause. Shirman told journalists that he had not even put in a request to meet Gorbachev or other Soviet officials because he knew it was hopeless.

At another news conference, Morris B. Abram of New York, chairman of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, said that nearly half of the Jewish political prisoners in the Soviet Union have been “jailed or sent to internal exile since Gorbachev came to power.”

‘Refuseniks’ Named

Abram also said that his organization had supplied John M. Poindexter, Reagan’s national security adviser, with the names of 11,000 “refuseniks”--Soviet citizens, mostly Jews, who have been refused permission to emigrate. He said this contradicted Gorbachev’s assertion last year that all Soviet citizens who wanted to leave had already done so.

“We come here to stand behind our President,” Abram said. “This President, and his delegation at this meeting, is the best prepared and most motivated group who have ever met with the top Soviet representatives on this issue.”

Abram and seven associates flew to Iceland for six hours Friday to hold their news conference, in the wake of a controversy over Iceland’s attempt to keep protesters out. Charges of anti-Semitism were raised last week when the Icelandic government, intent on keeping the summit conference free of protest demonstrations, denied permission for a charter plane with 50 Jewish leaders to land.

Contradicts Spokesman

Seemingly intent on avoiding offense to the Iceland government, Abram, contradicting his organization’s own spokesman, told the news conference that he never intended to come with more than seven other Jewish leaders anyway.

“It isn’t necessary to have large numbers here to make our point,” he said. But journalists, with sharp questions, made it clear that they did not believe this new version of last week’s events.

A Soviet news conference Friday on what was called the Soviet “new reality” at the Saga Hotel was interrupted from time to time by relatives and friends of Soviet refuseniks who rose to ask questions about their individual cases or about Soviet emigration policy in general. Some even held up placards with photos of refuseniks.

Such confrontations between the relatives of refuseniks and Soviet officials are very rare. Most of the protesters gained access to the news conference by getting themselves accredited as journalists by the Iceland government--to the annoyance of some reporters who feel it compromises their profession. The dissidents say that have no other way of putting their views directly before senior Soviet officials.

Some Questions Ignored

The Soviet spokesmen at the news conference tried to reply to the protesters’ general questions but pushed aside other questions as personal matters outside the bounds of the conference.

“I think it is perfectly valid that we raise the question of Jewish emigration with Soviet officials,” said Gira Orlovski, one of the protesters who walked in front of the podium carrying photographs of their relatives.