News In Brief

Soviets are challenged at antinuclear convention

A Soviet delegation to the Third European Convention for Nuclear Disarmament held here last week was jeered by some delegates protesting alleged repression of independent pacifist groups in the Soviet Union.

Gregory Lokshin, secretary of the Soviet delegation, said there was no repression of peace activity in the Soviet Union. If anyone was arrested, he said, it was for breaking criminal laws.

Protests also arose over the lack of independent participants from Eastern Europe. Government-recognized delegations from Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, and Romania are attending, but such groups as the Czechoslovak human rights organization Charter 77 are represented by exiles in Western Europe