Reagan Accuses Soviet Bloc Of Holding Its People Captive

WASHINGTON-Portraying communist rule as a tyranny that puts itself above God. President Reagan said yesterday that the people of the Soviet bloc were taken captives by force and remain captives by force.

In a ceremony marking the observance of Captive National Week, the President said that the "ugly" sinister walls of the Soviet System Continue to deny for the millions trapped behind them the most basic yearnings of the human spirit.

He signed a declaration pledging the United States to renew efforts to encourage freedom and national independence for those countries struggling to free themselves from communist ideology and totalitarian oppression.

There is no difference between the weapons used to oppress the people of Laos and Czechoslovakia, and those sent to Nicaragua to terrorize its own people and threaten the peace of its neighbors Reagan said.

In a speech to an audience composed mostly of representatives of groups from Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and Cuba. Reagan called again on the Kremlin to allow outside observes to determine the condition of Nobel Prize winner Andrei Sakharov and his wife. Yelena Bonner He said they "are suffering severe persecution and are cut off from the rest of humanity."

"The world demands to know the fate of these two good and courageous people." Reagan said.

He also hailed a new $1 billion, six-year plan to upgrade facilities of the Voice of America Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe to beam Northern news and editorial to eastern Europe and elsewhere.

As he made his way out of the East Room after a standing ovation reporters asked Reagan how he felt about remarks by prospective Democratic vice presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro that his domestic policies are unfair and un-Christain.