a277  2017  11 Jan 87
AM-Britain-Sakharov,0350
Dissident Says West Should Encourage Soviet Openess
    LONDON (AP) - Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov was quoted Sunday as
saying the West should encourage the Soviet Union to move toward
greater openness, but also should pressure the Kremlin to improve its
human rights record.
    The Observer newspaper said corresponent Nicholas Bethell
interviewed Sakharov in Moscow after the Nobel Peace Prize-winning
physicist returned to the capital from seven years' internal exile in
the closed city of Gorky.
    Sakharov, 65, and his wife, Yelena Bonner, 63, were freed in
mid-December and allowed to return to Moscow. He since has said
repeatedly he hopes the government's decision to release them and his
freedom to speak to foreign journalists were not propaganda but
genuine moves toward more openness under Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev.
    The Observer quoted Sakharov as saying he will continue to seek the
release of the estimated 1,000 to 2,000 Soviet political prisoners.
    He insisted Western leaders such as President Reagan and British
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who have been outspoken on Soviet
internal policy, must intensify their efforts, the weekly newspaper
said.
    ''The West should encourage Gorbachev and pressure him at the same
time,'' it quoted Sakharov as saying. ''Openness must become a
fundamental part of Soviet policy.''
    ''The West should insist on improvements. I mean as a first step a
full amnesty for all prisoners of conscience and the repeal of those
laws ... that make it an offense to criticize the authorities,'' he
continued. ''Reforms of this type, not arms reduction, would be the
best guarantee of peace.''
    ''Any sensible political leader ... must want a more stable world.
And part of the stability is a more open Soviet society,'' he was
quoted as saying.
    ''It also means a more stable Soviet Union...'' Sakharov said. ''But
Mr. Reagan and Mrs. Thatcher should not be afraid of that. . .. I
think it is better to live next door to a man who is strong and
healthy than to live next door to a sick man, even if the sickness
makes him weaker. A sick man is likely to act unpredictably.''
    
AP-NY-01-11-87 2316EST
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