Community Schools Activist Al Decie 

Forbidden to Leave Russia

Excerpts from an article published October 31, 2000,  in the Newburyport (Mass.) Daily News under the headline "Port Native Forbidden to Leave Russia."

NEWBURYPORT--A Newburyport man who spent five years promoting democracy in Siberia is not being allowed to return home because Russian authorities have seized his visa, citing tax problems.

Al Decie, who graduated from Newburyport High School and earned a master's degree in Russian studies from Georgetown University, has not been imprisoned, but has not been allowed to leave Russia since July.

He had planned to leave Russia at that time and come home to Newburyport, where his father lives.
"I am very much in fear of my son's safety," said his father, Albert Decie II, who has appealed to federal authorities and national media for help. An aide to U.S. Rep. John Tierney would not discuss the status of Decie's case, but said, "We continue to work diligently on his son's behalf. Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe's staff is also helping the family. 

Decie, who turns 32 next week, worked for ECHO (Educational Choices Heighten Opportunity), a Yarmouth, Maine group that aimed to promote democratic principles and community building projects in Siberia. His father said that Decie, who speaks fluent Russian, singlehandedly started a center where Siberians could learn how to create and grow the organizations to promote democratic involvement. [CCSI ed. note: "Singlehandedly" is probably an exagerration due to parental pride.  Decie worked with Sara Lindemann and several Russians in Novosibirsk to build the ECHO program there.]

"I am accustomed to being questioned and even harassed by local authorities as the success of (the community building project), Americans and democracy itself are obviously not popular with everyone," Decie wrote in a letter to U.S. authorities. "Though I haven't heard of such an extreme case against an expat(riate), such harassment of foreigners working long-term in Russia on civil society issues is not uncommon," Decie wrote the group Human Rights Watch last week.

The father shared copies of his son's letters with the Daily News yesterday. After declining an interview several weeks ago, the elder Decie now hopes publicity will spur U.S. officials to act more urgently.
And he know this will be a delicate task. He believes the longer his son stays in Russia, the more uncertain his plight becomes. Yet he fears too much negative publicity might push Russian authorities into a corner and prompt them to drum up false chareges against his son and imprison him.

"That may sound absurd," the father said, "but it happens all the time. That's why we tried to get him out of Siberia and into Moscow," where authorities are thought to be less hard-nosed.

Neither Decie nor his father believe the Russian authorities are interested strictly in the tax dispute. A 1992 treaty with the U.S. should exempt technical advisors like Decie from Russian taxes, but the treaty was never ratified by the Russian legislature, and Russian tax agents are not honoring recent verbal negotiations to validate the 1992 agreement.

The younger Decie told Human Rights Watch that he has been "the target of harassment" by Siberian authorities since 1996. His finances were audited several times, his telephone may have been tapped, state-controlled media wrote critical stories about his work, his apartment was burglarized and personal financial papers were stolen, he says...

The father said he has run up hundreds of dollars in telephone bills trying to help his son, who has been forced to liquidate much of his savings trying to live in Moscow since July without work. The younger Decie was prepared to start a new job with another international agency, IREX, on Sept. 1, but he was forced to turn down the position because he could not leave Russia. 

The whole experience has left the elder Decie shaken and somewhat disillusioned with the system. He is proud of his son's hard work, and he's certain that his son has helped average Russian people build a better life. And yet, it all seems to command too high a price. "Personally," his father says, "I hope he never goes back again."

The item above comes from Johnson's Russia List #4615, 2 November 2000 <[email protected]>. It was submitted to JRL on Wednesday, 1 Nov 2000, by James Critchlow <[email protected]>.

Last updated:    November 2000

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