Protests to Back Refuseniks Still Denied Visas : Activists Plan Moscow Hunger Strike

A group of Jewish dissidents announced here Friday that they will hold a hunger strike during next week’s Washington summit meeting, in addition to a planned demonstration in central Moscow on Sunday.

Yuli Kosharovsky, one of the dissidents, told members of the Western press at a small Moscow apartment that 80 people will participate in the demonstration and 120 in the hunger strike.

The activities are intended to remind the world that there are still Jewish refuseniks in the Soviet Union who can’t get exit visas for Israel, Kosharovsky said.

The dissidents emphasized that they are not against the goals of the summit but see it as an opportunity to publicize their cause, tying it in with similar demonstrations to be held in Washington.

The group said its members will distribute protest leaflets Sunday declaring: “We are for peace without rockets, and we are for freedom to leave the U.S.S.R.”

Some of the Jewish dissidents pointed out that after a similar demonstration last month, eight members of the group were jailed after secret police broke up the meeting. Thus, they said, they are not sure if they will be allowed to demonstrate in a park across from the Foreign Ministry, since they have not received permission for such a protest.

On the other hand, Alex Kholmiansky, who is involved in the Jewish Information Center here, said that on Thursday, 73 Jewish refuseniks were notified that their exit permits had been granted.

This, he said, brought the number of Soviet Jews who have been given approval to emigrate in the last month to about 900. Members of the group estimated that 13,000 to 15,000 Jewish Soviet citizens who have applied for exit visas are still waiting for permission to go--some after 15 years.

Several people who are involved in divided spouse cases--involving Soviet citizens married to foreigners and seeking to join them abroad--also have been given approval to leave in the last few days, they said, and three dissidents have reportedly just been released from psychiatric detention.

Dissidents and refuseniks here said the granting of exit visas is a device by which Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev can point to progress on the human rights issue when pressed by President Reagan at the summit.