§ Sir Bernard Braineasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make representations to the Soviet Union about the treatment of 79-year-old Mrs. Oksana Meshko, who has spent 10 years in Soviet prisons and special psychiatric hospitals and is currently serving a sentence of five years' internal exile for the crime of promoting the Ukrainian language and culture.
§ Mr. RifkindMrs. Meshko's case is a further, and poignant, example of the abuse of human rights in the Soviet Union. We take every suitable opportunity to remind the Soviet authorities of their human rights obligations. My right hon. and learned Friend did so on his recent visit to Moscow. The Soviet authorities have been left in no doubt about the widespread concern felt in this country both about individual cases such as that of Mrs. Meshko and about the general deterioration in the Soviet performance in the field of human rights.