Lithuania: 1) Treatment of Lithuanian exiles who return from Siberia; 2) Treatment of Christians in Lithuania; 3) Possible penalties for overstaying exit permission abroad and making a refugee status claim abroad; 4) Possible consequences of failing to report for or declining a position which has been approved for someone by the government

1) Please see the attached excerpt from Nijole Sadunaite's book entitled A Radiance in the Gulag for information on the treatment of Lithuanians returning from exile in Siberia. No further corroborating information is currently available to the IRBDC.

2) Please see the documentation attached under the cover-sheet entitled "Question 2" for information on the treatment of Christians in Lithuania. No further corroborating information is currently available to the IRBDC.

3) For information on the exit controls as they have been applied, please see the U.S. Department of State publication entitled Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988. Further information is also provided in the attached excerpt from Hurst Hannum's The Right to Leave and Return in International Law and Practice and in the attached article entitled "The Impact of Glasnost on Soviet Emigration Policy", published in Radio Liberty's Report on the USSR. No further corroborating information is currently available to the IRBDC in published sources.

The Department of External Affairs states that it is not a criminal offense to overstay one's exit permission. As an administrative offense, a violation of the exit regulations may entail problems with future applications for travel documents. But the Department further notes that a Soviet citizen who wishes to stay longer than originally permitted can go to the Soviet mission in the country being visited and request an extension. Similarly, those who have overstayed exit permission can "regularize" their status at the Soviet mission. If, however, the person concerned were in the country on official business, or if the person were in the Soviet military or suspected of having participated in espionage activities while abroad, the penalties can be quite severe. The External Affairs spokesperson did not elaborate on these penalties. The information provided by External Affairs can not be corroborated in published sources at this time.

Regarding the possible penalties for making an asylum claim while abroad, a report published in Report on the USSR mentions that until now, the act of making "flight abroad or refusal to return from abroad to the USSR" has been considered as treason. The article, which is attached for your information, further mentions that many Soviet defectors who asked for political asylum in the West have in the past been tried in absentia and have received up to fifteen years of imprisonment or been sentenced to death. But the article provides information from an interview with Aleksandr Yakovlev, head of a section of the USSR Academy of Sciences Institute of State and Law, in which Mr. Yakovlev claimed that the Soviets will no longer consider "flight abroad" as treason, in keeping with international agreements that have been ratified by the Soviet Union. It is not clear to the IRBDC at this point if these new laws have been put into effect. No further corroborating information is currently available to the IRBDC in published sources.

4) No information on this topic is currently available to the IRBDC.