The Leader, Márta 1989

THEPORT CENTRE Port Road, Letterkenny Tel: (074) 22689 Bingo Mon & Fri 9.00pm Bar and Snooker Bar Lunches Mon-Fri 12.00 - 2.30 Available for Parties, Weddings, Functions etc. Telephone: JOHN FOCUS ON "Who the hell is this prisoner, Jose Rodriguez ?" "He's just an illiterate peasant, Sir". amnesty international "He can't be, you idiot ! This guy has thousands of friends all over the world who keep writing to me asking for his release". In our January edition, we carried a brief report on Amnesty International. Here now is a more detailed look at this unique worldwide human rights movement. A South American journalist was hanging naked by his knees from an iron bar in the torture cell of a prison in Brazil. His wrists and ankles were tied together, while an electric current was intermit· tently run through his body. During a short break in the torture, he asked his "interrogators• why they were doing this to him. "Because•, they replied, "you write articles saying that in Brazil we torture people, and you know that is not true•. The journalist's laugh, as he realised that he finally understood the true meaning ofabsurd, was cut short as the current was switched on again. This incident was told in a recent report from Brazil by an official of Amnesty International. On Trinity Sunday last May, the bells of St. Clement Dane's church in London's Strand rang out 5000 times. Each peal represented the 5,000 prisoners of conscience throughout the world for whose release Amnesty International is campaig– ning at any time. But the bells were also tolling to celebrate Amnesty's 25th birthday. In late 1960 Peter Benenson, an English Catholic lawyer, read a newspaper report about two Portuguese students who were arrested in a Lisbon restaurant and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment for raising their glasses in a toast to freedom. His first reaction was to go to the Portuguese embassy in London and protest; but he realised that such an individual gesture would achieve little for the stu– dents themselves. Ruthless repression of dissent by many gov– ernments throughout the world was a problem that had long worried Peter Benenson. During the 1950s, he had attended political trials in Hungary, Cyprus, South Africa and Spain, either as a legal ob– server of as a defence counsel. He had also written and broadcast widely about the problem. Now he began to wonder how oppressive regimes might react to concerted worldwide pro– tests at acts of political injustice, rather than to the individual protest he had contemplated in the case of the two Portuguese students. Gradually he con– ceived the ideal of a one-year international cam– paign to drawworld attention to the plight ofpeople detained under all sorts of political systems for the peaceful oppression of their political or religious opinions. He discussed the idea with Eric Baker, a prominent English Quaker, and other friends . Their enthusiastic reactions led him to write an ar– ticle entitled The Forgotten Prisoners to The Ob– server newspaper. His article and a report in the Paris paper Le Monde the same day announced the launching of a one-year campaign called Appeal for Amnesty 1961. Its aimwas to obtain an amnesty for all political and religious prisoners of conscience. Part of the campaign was to establish an office in London for collecting information about such prisoners and publicizing individual cases. Peter Benenson, a devout Catholic, deliber– ately chose Trinity Sunday 1961 for launching Am– nesty International. He did so, he said, because the liberation of the spirit is at the heart of Christian belief and because there are three worlds ofmaking to be united in humanity. He proposed a threes net– work: each group of Amnesty supporters would adopt three prisoners and work for their release. One would be from a Communist country, one from the capitalist West and the third from the Third World. In his article The Forgotten Prisoners, Peter Benenson drew attention to the fact that a century after the abolition of slavery, man had found new ways of degrading man, that all over the world, in countries of every political persuasion, govern– mentswere imprisoning people because of their be– liefs, while torture and executions were also widespread. He put forward the simple idea that these prisoners could be helped; first get the facts about abuses of human rights and then use them to mobilize public opinion so as to persuade govern– ments to release prisoners of conscience - as well as to abolish torture and the death penalty. The reaction was overwhelming. Within a month, more than 1000 offers of help were received together with a great amount of information about thousands of prisoners of conscience. The week after Amnestywas founded in London, an Irish sec– tion was set up by Sean McBride. Soon the cam– paign grew into a worldwide movement. The first international meeting was held 3 months later, and Sean McBride became chairman of the Interna– tional Executive. Amnesty International now has more than 500,000 members and subscribers in over 150 coun• tries. It is independent of all governments, econ– omic interests and political or religious groups. Its specific role in the protection of human rights fo. cuses on the release ofprisoners ofconscience -men and women imprisoned for their beliefs, colour, ethnic origin or religion, who have not used or ad– vocated violence; it works for fair and prompt trials for all political prisoners and on behalf of such people detained without charge or trial; and it op– poses the death penalty and torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of all prisoners. Its work is based on the principles set forth in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Amnesty attaches great importance to accur– ate and impartial reporting of facts. Its research de- partment collects and analyses information from a wide variety of sources - hundreds of newspapers, transcripts or radio broadcasts and reports from lawyers and humanitarian organisations. It gets in– formation too from prisoners and their families, re– fugee centres, religious groups and other people with first hand experience. It also sends fact-find– ing missions for on-the-spot investigations and to observe trials, meet prisoners and interviewgovern– ment officials. The techniques it uses include long-term adoption of individual cases; campaigns on particu– lar countries or human rights abuses; mobilizing professional occupational groups on behalf of col– leagues; and, in cases where torture or death are feared, organising a network of volunteers to send urgent telegrams signalling international concern. Letter writing is one of Amnesty's most im– portant ways of working for prisoners. From the simple idea that ordinary people could, by letter writing, persuade governments to release prisoners of conscience, has grown a worldwide movement of over500,000 people. When Amnesty began, people said that individuals could hot hope to sway the minds ofgovernments. But it has shown clearly that the free individual can do something to reduce the abuses of state power. Today, many governments simply have to take note of what Amnesty says and does. The death penalty is still in force in 130coun– tries. Last year, 1489 prisoners were sentenced to death in 61 countries and 1125 of them in 44 coun– tries were executed. These included 137 in South Africa, 135 in China, 57 in Pakistan, 45 in Saudi Arabia and 18 in the United States. The number waiting on Death Row in the US reached 1600 last year and is still increasing. During the year, Am· nesty members wrote appeals for 68 prisoners µnder sentence to death. Last year, 4562 prisoners were either adopted as prisoners of conscience or investigated as such by Amnesty, and it reported detention with– out trial of political detainees in 50 countries. It stated the torture is still being used in one-third of the world's countries. Since it began, Amnesty has adopted the cases for more than 30,000 prisoners. In future editions of "The Leader•, we intend to feature the cases of some of Amnesty's "prison– ers of conscience• and hope that our readers will join the Letterwriting campaign on their behalf. And if you want to join Amnesty, there is a branch in Letterkenny which meets on the second Thurs– day of each month at 8pm. Venues vary. For en– quiries, ring Sr. Gabrielle Murphy at (074) 22896. And wouldn't it be nice to see more branches start– ing up in Donegal. If you're interested, ring Sr. Ga– brielle or contact Amnesty's Irish Headquarters at 8 Shaw Street, Dublin 2.