WASHINGTON, BONNER CELEBRATE EXILED SAKHAROV'S BIRTHDAY
Author: By Adam Pertman, Globe Staff
Date: Thursday, May 22, 1986
Page: 7
Section: NATIONAL/FOREIGN
WASHINGTON -- With champagne toasts and emotional speeches about the
eternal quest for freedom, Washington yesterday celebrated the 65th birthday
of Andrei Sakharov, the human-rights activist who is in internal exile in the
Soviet Union.
"As you prepare to return to your homeland," President Reagan said in a
short letter to Sakharov's wife, Yelena Bonner, "I want you to know how much
we repect and admire Academician Sakharov's -- and your own -- courage and
dedication."
Reagan, who proclaimed yesterday Andrei Sakharov Day, went on to say that
Sakharov's "contributions to peace, and efforts on behalf of democratic human
rights are an inspiration to all mankind." It was the president's first
communication with Bonner since he recently refused to see her in person,
causing a minor flap in the dissident community.
Bonner, who came to the United States for medical treatment, is leaving in
a few days to rejoin her exiled husband in the closed city of Gorky.
At a congressional reception honoring her Nobel Prize-winning husband,
Bonner thanked Reagan for his letter -- which he sent to her daughter's home
in Newton, Mass. -- and hailed Sakharov as a champion of human rights and a
''spiritual leader."
"If it were not for Andrei Dmitrievich, I would not return there," she
said. "I would not even give it a second thought."
Several speakers at the reception offered somber words of praise for
Sakharov and assailed the Kremlin as violating the human rights of its
citizens. About 200 people attended the morning event in a House office
building, drinking imported Spanish champagne and sampling a variety of fruits
and cakes.
The celebration ended with the singing of "Happy Birthday to You."
Later, during a day of speeches, senators joined House members in assessing
Sakharov's plight and offering their feelings on a day set aside to honor the
Soviet dissident.
"Obviously, in many ways his birthday is not a day to celebrate," said Sen.
John Kerry, who along with Sen. Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) recently met with
Bonner.
"Dr. Sakharov is a prisoner of the Soviet system -- isolated and cut off
from the world," Kerry said, adding, "They may imprison his body, but they
cannot place this man's spirit behind bars."
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