1 Scripps Howard News Service Release date: 4-14-88 Editorial _ Uzzell A DEATH IN THE GULA

1     Scripps Howard News Service
   Release date: 4-14-88
   Editorial _ Uzzell
A DEATH IN THE GULAG
   
   Unfortunately for Sacisuta Dasa, he belonged to an oppressed Soviet
minority that does not have millions of members and sympathizers in the
West. So the 23-year-old religious dissident's death in the Gulag last
December has failed to get the attention it deserves.
   According to Helsinki Watch, the human-rights organization,
Sacisuta was the only prisoner of conscience known to die in a labor
camp in 1987. The circumstances were suspicious: He was scheduled for
release just 11 days later, his body was not released to his family, and
no document was issued to explain the cause of his death.
   Sacisuta was an Armenian convert to the Hare Krishna movement. Many
Americans consider that sect weird, but its followers have the same
universal human rights as those of any other religion. The Soviet
authorities' treatment of Sacisuta shows that they continue to hold
those rights in contempt.