Soviet protest over U.S. case

Press, 15 August 1980, Page 6

Soviet protest over U.S. case

NZPA-Reuter Moscow The Soviet Union protested yesterday to the United States over the decision by a Chicago court to look into 12-year-old Walter Polovchak’s request for political asylum. ■ In a Note delivered to the United States Charge d’affaires in Moscow, Mark Garrison, the Soviet Foreign Ministry demanded that the Ukrainian-born Walter be allowed to return to the Soviet Union with his father and mother.

A. United States Embassy spokesman said of the diplomatic exchange: “We told the Soviets that in our view there is no basis in the Polovchak case for a protest to the embassy.” The Note, which was summarised by the official Tass news agency, said the Chicago court’s decision to make Walter a ward of the state of Illinois while his asylum plea was investigated was "illegal and inhuman” and an “overt at-

tempt to disunite the family and tear children away from their parents.” Walter’s parents, Michale and Anna Polovchak, emigrated from the Soviet Union last January, but decided to return to their native Ukraine. Walter and his 17-year-old sister, Natalie, opted to stay in Chicago and applied to a juvenile court for political asylum. “The true motives of the entire unseemly undertaking are shown by the unprecedented and absurd decision taken with the knowledge and agreement of the United States State Department to grant ‘political asylum’ to 12-year-old Vladimir (Walter),” the Note said. Tass quoted the protests as saying the court decision was a political act that ran counter to the laws of all civilised nations. Walter is due in court again on September 9 when Illinois social-welfare ■ authorities will report on his asylum request.