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Amnesty International Newsletter amnesty international newsletter Vol. III No. 9 Se tember 1973 Founded 1961 OLIVE prisoner issue. Under the agreement 90,000 Pakistanis, mainly AI WELCOMES RELEASE OF PRISONERSmilitary prisoners of war, were to be released from Indian camps, 160,000 Bengalis were to be AND CALLS FOR PROBE INTO TORTUREallowed to leave Pakistan, and the possibility AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL welcomed President GE- was opened for about 260,000 Biharis from Bang- ORGE PAPADOPOULOS' announcement August 19 of an ladesh to go to Pakistan. amnesty for political prisoners in Greece but Some of the Bengalis and some Pakistani civi- expressed concern that those imprisoned before lians in India were adopted byAI groups. The the 1967 coup had not been included. International Secretariat said a further 260 AI Secretary General MARTIN ENNALS called for people arrested in Pakistan in May were about a tribunal of enquiry into allegations that ma- to be adopted when the accord was announced. ny of the released prisoners had been tortured. These cases were collected during a recent re- The Papadopoulos announcement, made on his search mission to the Indian sub-continent. accession to the presidency, resulted in free- Secretary General MARTIN ENNALS wrote last dom for about 350 prisoners, including many ad- January to Prime Minister INDIRA GANDHI of In- opted by AI groups. The president also ended dia and President ALI ZULFIKAR BHUTTO of Paki- martial law and pardoned his would-be assassin, stan urging the immediate release of all the ALEXANDROS PANAGOULIS, and the latter's broth- prisoners (FebruaryNewsletter). er, STATHIS PANAGOULIS (FebruaryNewsletter). Alexandros, although not adopted byAI because REPORT CONDEMNS BRUTAL TREATMENT he attempted to use violence, was known to have OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN SPAIN suffered terrible torture in detention. Political Imprisonment in Spain,a 36-page AI Excluded from the amnesty were about 15 pre- report published August 26, condemned the bru- 1967 detainees, among them ELENI VOULGARI GOLE- tality and discrimination suffered in Spanish MAS, who was arrested in 1966 and charged with prisons by opponents of the Franco government. an alleged offence committed 12 years earlier: The report was promptly attacked by a top Spa- harbouring and aiding her brother-in-law. Mr nish police official who called the torture al- Ennals said he hoped the amnesty would be ex- legations "a defamation". tended not only to these prisoners but also to The report, published in English and Spanish, Greek exiles who have been deprived of their says the system under which political prisoners citizenship and right to return home. are detained violates not only the Universal "We further hope that all those released will Declaration of Human Rights and the United Na- be reintegrated immediately into Greek society," tions' Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment Mr Ennals said. "Many former prisoners, for ex- of Prisoners, but in some cases laws on Spain's ample, have experienced great difficulty in own statute books. finding jobs." It details the machinery used by the regime to jail its opponents; the physical brutality RELEASED GREEK PRISONER THANKS AI many of them have endured, at times resulting Colonel NICHOLAS PAPANIKOLAOU, one of the in death; the illnesses prisoners suffer due to political prisoners freed in the Greek am- the cramped, unsanitary conditions in cells and nesty, thanked the people of Europe "and e- lack of adequate food and medical treatment; specially Amnesty International for helping and how political prisoners are denied the sta- in obtaining the releases," according to tutory concessions of conditional liberty and the Athens correspondent of the British remission of sentences. newspaper The Guardian. The report documents individual cases of bru- Wing Commander ANASTASIOS MINIS, who suf- tality and includes the biographies of four fered long periods of brutal torture in de- longterm political prisoners who suffered se- tention (March Newsletter),reportedly said vere damage to their health through lack of me- on his release: "I was for freedom before dical attention. arrest, but now that I have had the experi- In Madrid, a high official of the General Di- ence of interrogation and prison I have be- rectorate of Security, commenting on the torture come a hundred times more so." charges, told newsmen: "The accusation, made many times before, is a defamation." He claimed ADOPTEES INCLUDED IN THOSEthe FREEDAI report was inspired by Spain's Communist Party "to make propaganda against the govern- UNDER INDIA-PAKISTAN AGREEMENTment." India and Pakistan signed an agreement August AI sent the report to the Spanish government 28 to release all prisoners detained since the before it was published, urging it to take im- 1971 war over Bangladesh.AI welcomed the agree- mediate action to improve the lot of political ment which will mean freedom for a number of a- prisoners. dopted cases and which follows sustainedAI Political Imprisonment in isSpain available pressure on all three governments to settle the from Amnesty International Publications, 53 2 Amnest International Newsletter Se tember 1973 Theobald's Road, London WC1X 8SP, England,tained for organizing local community work in at 50 pence ($US 1.25) per copy for illus-Seoul, some of it opposing government-approved trated English-language edition, or 30 programmes. pence (75 US cents) per copy for non-illu- In an interview with the leading Japanese strated Spanish edition, plus postage. newspaper Asahi Shimbun, Mr Ennals urged the Park regime to accede to the Japanese govern- BOLIVIA URGED TO FREE DETAINEESment's request to allow South Korean opposition AI urged President HUGO BANZER SUAREZ of Bo- leader KIM DAE-JUNG to return, if he wished, to livia to mark his second anniversary in power Tokyo where he lived in exile until kidnapped August 21 by releasing or bringing to trial all in August and returned forcibly to Seoul. political prisoners in the country and by end- ing the widespread use of torture. AI ASKS NORTH KOREA FOR DETAILS A letter from Secretary General MARTIN ENNALS OF 'ESPIONAGE' TRIALS also asked for an immediate enquiry into the MARTIN ENNALS wrote to President KIM IL- cases of 21 Bolivians who have disappeared with- SUNG of North Korea in August asking for out trace in the past two years and who are al- details of the precise charges against, and leged to have either been killed in custody or trials of, three alleged South Korean a- to have died as a result of ill-treatment by gents who were said to have been captured authorities. in North Korea while working with "unsound "In January of this year," Mr Ennals wrote, elements" for "subversive" ends. The SG re- "99 members of the church signed a document de- minded President Kim and other North Korean nouncing the killings and shootings carried authorities to whom he wrote of articles in out by the authorities; the physically and mo- the country's new constitution upholding rally degrading tortures, including the rape of the principle of fair and open trials. some women prisoners; the arbitrary detentions; the systematic intimidation of and threats.to families of the persecuted; the confinment of MORE ASSASSINATIONS IN GUATEMALA minors in internment camps; the systematic re- An upsurge in disappearances and assassinati- jection by the Ministry of the Interior of the ons has taken place in Guatemala recently in right of habeas corpus;and many other viola- the wake of labour unrest and trouble in rural tions of human rights." areas, according to reports reachingAI in Au- Mr Ennals pointed out that while 2,000 Boli- gust. The reports said at least three clandes- vians have been detained at one time or another tine cemetaries have been found so far this since the military coup which brought General year con-taining the bodies of many who disap- Banzer to power in 1971, not one had ever been peared. This is in addition to individual bo- brought to trial. In spite of frequent announce- dies discovered in isolated areas. Many bodies ments of prisoner releases in the Bolivian showed evidence of mutilation and torture. press, over 200 political prisoners are still A/ cabled President ARANA OSORIO August 15 to detained without formal charge. express concern for the safety of a number of teachers who were detained after a recent stri- LENIENCY SOUGHT IN MOROCCO TRIALke and asking him to guarantee full protection AI called on the Moroccan Permanent Military to all prisoners. Tribunal August 22 to show leniency toward the 157 persons on trial in Kenitra for alleged po- NEW DEATH PENALTY CALL TO YEMEN litical offences. The statement said serious AI cabled President SALEM RUBIA ALI of the breaches of human rights, including torture, People's Democratic Republic of Yemen on August have occurred before and during the trial (Au- 15 urging him to exercise clemency in the cases gust Newsletter).It cited the report of anAI of seven people sentenced to death for taking observer, West German Federal Court judge Dr part in an alleged plot to overthrow the gov- HORST WOESNER, who said that almost all the ac- ernment. AI made a similar pleas to the presi- cused had been tortured by the police. dent in July over six others sentenced to death (August Newsletter). STUDENTS CHARGED IN SOUTH KOREAA/ also cabled the Secretary General of the Secretary General MARTIN ENNALS wrote to Pre- Arab League, MAHMUD RIAD, asking him to inter- sident PARK CHUNG-HEE of South Korea in August vene to prevent further executions in Yemen. expressing AI's concern at the trial of 14 stu- dents accused of being members of a "campus es- AI WANTS URGENT RHODESIA ACTION pionage ring". Mr Ennals said information recei AI asked leaders of the Commonwealth nations ved by A/ indicated that the students were in who met in Ottawa early in August to take ur- fact being tried because they had been organiz- gent action to secure the release of all un- ing mine workers into trade unions.
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