amnesty OCTOBER 1984 Volume XIV Number 10 international newsletter PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE WEEK The Forgotten Women

A Buddhist nun in Viet Nam, a ber of the unofficial Moscow Helsinki Guatemalan feminist and a univer- monitoring group, set up to monitor compliance with the human rights pro- sity law lecturer in Malawi—these visions of the Final Act of the 1975 three women have one thing in com- Helsinki Conference. Most of its mem- mon. Each is a political prisoner. bers have since been imprisoned. The Vietnamese nun, Thich nu Since Tatyana was sent to a labour Tri Hai, has been held incommuni- camp in 1981, she has been on hunger- cado in police custody since her strike at least twice, demanding to meet arrest in May this year. her husband, who is also a prisoner of Alaide Foppa of Guatemala has been conscience and is held in another camp missing since 1980 when she was abducted some 1,000 kilometres away. During a from her home, apparently by plain- hunger-strike that lasted from December clothes security agents. 1982 to March 1983, she lost 25 kilo- Vera Chirwa, 44, and her husband, grams, and was reportedly handcuffed Orton Chirwa, are serving life sentences while being forcibly fed. It is not yet in Malawi after their conviction in May known whether the authorities have per- 1983 on charges of treason—they were mitted her to see her husband. not allowed legal representation at their Ana Vujic, 23, a Yugoslav resident in Activism on behalf of women's rights trial. They were originally sentenced to Paris, was arrested while on holiday in may have been one of the reasons behind death and spent more than a year facing Yugoslavia in 1983 and is now in jail there the "disappearance" of Guatemalan execution, before being granted clemency after being sentenced for making "hostile feminist Alaide Foppa, who has now in June this year. propaganda" (see page 2). been missing for four years. She was Each is among a series of cases high- abducted when she returned from exile lighted in this issue of the Newsletterto citizens: political imprisonment, deten- in Mexico to visit her sick mother. Armed coincide with Prisoners of Conscience tion without trial, "disappearances" men forced her into their car and drove Week, which is being observed from 15 and extrajudicial execution. away. Like thousands of other Guate- to 20 October. The theme this year: A Chilean trade union leader, Reinalda malans abducted in the same manner, Women in Prison. Pereira Plaza, who was taken into she has never been seen again. custody eight years ago, has been "miss- The plight of the Forgotten Women While living in exile, she had become ing" ever since. She was five months needs international attention. Prisoners an active member of Al, campaigning pregnant at the time. A leading member of Conscience Week has previously high- for the release of prisoners of conscience, of a South African women's organiz- lighted the plight of other categories of fair trials for political prisoners and an ation, Florence Mkhize has been repeat- prisoner: trade unionists, children, long- end to torture and executions. term detainees, human rights activists. edly detained without trial or restricted One woman who has direct experience under banning orders over a period of This year Al points out that many of the of Al's efforts is Farkhanda Bukhari, a world's political prisoners are women, more than 20 years. women's organizer for the banned their cases spanning a wide range of The reasons for the victimization of Pakistan People's occupations, countries, ideologies and women cover a broad spectrum. Some Party now living cultures. are detained for their faith. Others have abroad. Imprisoned become involved in opposition political Women have suffered from the full three times after movements. Some have played a role in variety of injustices to which govern- the latest imposi- ments in recent years have subjected their their countries' trade unions or have tried to help organize the urban or rural poor. tion of martial law in Pakistan, she Some women have become victims because they themselves were active in was held in solitary Aboutthis issue . . . exposing human rights abuses in their confinement in the This issue of the Amnesty countries. In many countries, ranging Farkhanda Bukhari old Lahore Fort and tortured. She was deprived of sleep, International Newsletter from Argentina and El Salvador to , The Philippines and China, beaten and burned with lighted cigarettes. focuses on women in prison— When she was sent into exile, Al con- the theme of this year's women have been deeply involved in the human rights effort—and have faced the tacted her. The organization arranged a Prisoners of Conscience consequences. medical examination and hospital treat- Week, which is being observed ment and then worked to get her accepted Tatyana Osipova, a 35-year-old com- from 15 to 20 October. Appeal puter operator, is now serving a sentence as a political refugee. cases are included on pages 2 of 10 years' imprisonment and internal "I and my family cannot forget the help that was given to me", she says. and 3. Other news items are exile in the Soviet Union, accused of "The local members of Amnesty Inter- on page 4. "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda". A human rights activist, she was a mem- Continued on page 2

• This month's File on Torture is on Women and Torture 2 OCTOBER 1984

Continued from page 1 VERA CHIRWA, Malawi national came to my home from time to Vera Chirwa, a 44-year-old university time and we share many common human law lecturer, is currently serving a sentence feelings, hope for the future and anger of life-imprisonment at Zomba Prison in at the insult that people, especially those Malawi together with her husband, Orton in Third World countries, have to face Chirwa, a former Minister of Justice and for their so-called insignificance." Attorney-General. "But," she adds, "above this, all the Vera Chirwa and her husband spent love that these sympathetic people have Communist Action, of which she was a more than a year under the death sentence given me and my family will remain a member. The party has faced periodic before they were granted clemency in late precious asset to our lives forever." suppression and many of its members June 1984 by Dr Hastings Kamuzu Her words echo those of another have been arrested, including Fatima al- Banda, Malawi's Life-President. They woman thousands of miles away—the Lazkani's husband. had been sentenced to death for treason former Soviet prisoner of conscience She is also a poet and novelist and was in May 1983 by the Southern Regional, Vulia Voznesenskaya. After her release, active in the promotion of women's Traditional Court in 1982 the Leningrad poet wrote to one rights. In 1977 she was arrested and briefly after a trial in of the Al groups that had worked for detained after leaflets on women's rights which they were over five years for her freedom: in Syria had been distributed on the denied legal repre- "Any letter or postcard addressed to campus of Damascus University. sentation. political prisoners, their families or to She left Malawi officials . . . plays an important role in soon after the the lives of the prisoners. It improves country became their position even if the letters never Vera Chirwa independent in reach their hands. ALAIDE FOPPA DE SOLORZANO, 1964. Orton Chirwa was then a cabinet "Sometimes in the camp, the camp Guatemala minister but a dispute within the govern- authorities and wardens would start to ment led him to go into exile in Tanzania be especially polite to me and they would On 24 December 1981 Vera Chirwa avoid ill-treating other women prisoners and her husband were detained by in my presence. I guessed something had Malawian security forces. The Malawi put them on their guard. Later on, quite Government alleged that they had entered by accident, I found out that a letter from the country clandestinely from Zambia abroad had come for me and caused this but the couple have stated throughout change in their behaviour." that they were abducted by force from As Al starts its campaign for the Zambia. Their son, Fumbani Chirwa, release of other women still held as was with them. He was detained without prisoners of conscience, hoping to engage trial for more than two years but was women's organizations in the drive and released uncharged in February 1984. to generate a worldwide deluge of letters and postcards to offending governments, the message from the front line of the struggle for human rights is unmistakable. "Even if you get discouraged by seeing ANA VUJIC, Yugoslavia no results from all your efforts," argues Ana Vujic, aged 23, was arrested while Yulia Voznesenskaya, "what you write on holiday in Yugoslavia in August 1983. makes a difference. We cannot live and She is serving a sentence of one and a half struggle without help from other years' imprisonment in Slavonska Pozega countries." Alaide Foppa de Solórzano was a lecturer prison, Croatia, for making "hostile in literature at the National Autonomous propaganda". University of Mexico (UNAM), and a She was born in Knin, Croatia, but APPEAL CASES well-known art critic and poet. She was her parents moved to Paris in 1969, where abducted on 19 December 1980 while she has lived ever since. She worked for Please send courteous letters visiting her native Guatemala to see her a travel bureau in Paris and was report- appealing for the immediate sick mother. Armed men believed to be edly active in the Croat Catholic Mission, release of the prisoners members of the security forces bundled which ministers to the spiritual and wel- whose cases follow. In the her into a car and drove away. fare needs of the Croat community there. cases of Alaide Foppa No thorough investigation has ever On 22 August 1983 she was summoned (Guatemala) and Reinalda del been instigated into her "disappearance" for interrogation by the police on the island of Pag and informed that she was and Al continues to press for those Carmen Pereira (Chile), under investigation on charges of having appeal for their detentions by responsible to be held accountable. She was one of Guatemala's most dis- engaged in hostile propaganda. the authorities or the latter's Her trial took place in Rijeka on 23 tinguished intellectuals, and had been agents to be acknowledged, December 1983. She was reportedly living in exile in Mexico City since 1954. accused of having visited Pag twice, once for full investigations into She was an active feminist, being one their "disappearances" and of the founders of the feminist magazine in 1982 as a tourist courier and again in 1983 on holiday when "she attempted for public statements on their Fern and the presenter of the radio pro- . . . to begin discussions with the aim of present whereabouts. gram Foro de la Mujer, Women's Forum. destroying fraternity and unity and Her abduction may have been prompted belittling the worth of Yugoslavia's by an interview she had recorded with achievements and the role of the working Indian women from the Quiche Province class". There was no indication that she FATIMA AL-LAZKANI, Syria of Guatemala, where opposition to the used or incited violence. Fatima al-Lazkani, 27, a former medical then government of General Lucas She was found guilty under Article 133 student at the University of Damascus, Garcia was strong. It has also been sug- of the Criminal Code and sentenced to is being heict without chat ge or trial in gested that it may have been intended as Kafr Sousseh prison, Damascus. She was a reprisal for the active opposition of her one and a half years' imprisonment. An appearance she made on French arrested in September 1981 while distrib- husband and her son, Mario, to the uting leaflets for the banned Party of government of the day. Continued on page 3

OCTOBER 1984 3

Continued from page 2 appearance" case have been charged an application for permission to emigrate and not immediately amnestied, no other and had visited the permanent mission television when Pope John Paul II visited France may have antagonized the progress has been made in establishing of the Federal Republic of Germany Yugoslav authorities. Taking part in the the whereabouts of Reinalda del Carmen (FRG) in Berlin (GDR) in this connection. program as a representative of the Croat Pereira Plaza. All the available information indicates Catholic Mission, she reportedly replied that she has been imprisoned for exer- that she was a "Croat" when asked cising her right to freedom of expression, whether she was "Croat" or "Yugoslav". as set out in Articles 19, Universal FLORENCE MKHIZE, South Africa Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (to which the GDR is a THICH NU TRI HAI, Viet Nam party). Al considers that Article 219 of Thich nu Tri Hai, a Buddhist nun aged the GDR penal code is incompatible with 46, was arrested together with 11 other the freedom "to seek, receive and impart Buddhist monks and nuns when police information and ideas of all kinds regard- raided Gia Lam and Van Hanh pagodas less of frontier" (Article 19 of the Inter- on 1-2 April 1984. national Covenant on Civil and Political She is one of Viet Nam's foremost Rights). Buddhist scholars. She was chief librarian at Saigon's Van Hanh Buddhist Univer- sity before its dissolution in 1975, and was an active member of the peace move- APPEALS ment during the Viet Nam war. She was a former member of the An ADDRESSES Quang Buddhist sect, which continued to campaign peacefully against human The addresses for appeals on rights violations after the change of behalf of the prisoners of con- government in 1975 before being dis- Florence Mkhize has been repeatedly science included in this issue solved in November 1981. detained without trial or restricted under are: (the prisoner and country The whereabouts of Thich nu Tfi Hai banning orders over a period of more and the other monks and nuns arrested than 20 years. are named first, then the at the same time are unknown. In A t's In 1962 she was restricted for the first appeal address) experience, people arrested in Viet Nam time under a five-year banning order. Fatima al-Lazkani, SYRIA: for political reasons can be held incom- She was a leading member of the His Excellency Hafez al-Assad / municado without charge or trial for Federation of South African Women two years or more. Presidential Palace / Damascus / (FEDSAW) and an organizer of the Syrian Arab Republic. African National Congress (ANC) in Natal from 1955 until it was banned in Alaide Foppa, GUATEMALA: REINALDA DEL CARMEN 1960. General Oscar Humberto Mejia PEREIRA PLAZA, Chile In 1967 she was detained without trial Victores / Jefe de Estado y for several months after having organized Ministro de Defensa / Palacio Reinalda del Carmen Pereira Plaza, a a commemorative meeting for Chief Nacional / Guatemala / Guatemala. medical laboratory technologist and a Albert Luthuli, former President-General trade union leader, was violently abducted of the ANC and recipient of the Nobel Vera Chirwa, MALAWI: on 15 December 1976 by two armed men Peace Prize. She was again restricted His Excellency Ngwazi Dr H. who forced her into a car. She was five under a five-year banning order which Kamuzu Banda / Life-President of months pregnant at the time. expired in 1973 and a third five-year the Republic of Malawi / Office of She was one of 13 members of the banning order was imposed in November the President and Cabinet / Chilean Communist Party who "dis- 1981 after FEDSAW campaigned against Lilongwe / Malawi. appeared" after being arrested in Decem- the government's education policies and ber 1976. Investigations into the cases of official celebrations in 1981 commemor- Ana Vujió, YUGOSLAVIA: eight of the 13 people were closed within ating the 20th anniversary of the adoption Borislav Krajina / Sekretar / a week, after the government alleged that of a republican constitution in South Savezni Sekretarijat za Pravosudje/ they had left the country for Argentina. Africa. She was restricted to the magis- Bul. Lenjina 2/Beograd/Yugoslavia. An appeal was submitted and lawyers terial district of and Lamontville and relatives succeeded in gathering evi- township where she lives, required to Thich nu Tri Hai, VIET NAM: dence which revealed that the documents report to the police weekly, and subjected Pham Van Dong / Chu tich H6i used to show that the victims had left the to partial house arrest. d6ng B6 Truong / Hanoi / Socialist country had been tampered with. In July 1983 she was restricted under a Republic of Viet Nam. The investigations have been closed new banning order which is due to expire and reopened at least three times since on 30 June 1985. Reinalda Pereira Plaza, CHILE: the judge, Sr. Aldo Guastavino, was Sr. Sergio Onofre Jarpa / Ministro appointed in 1977. In early 1983, Judge del Interior/Ministerio del Interior/ Carlos Cerda was appointed to continue Palacio de La Moneda / Santiago / the work. In September 1983 a police SYLVIA GOETHE, GDR Chile. border official at the time Reinalda was supposed to have left the country-21 Sylvia Goethe, aged 29, was arrested in Florence Mkhize, SOUTH AFRICA: December 1976—was arrested and January 1984 and tried on 17 April by the Hon. Louis Le Grange / Minister charged with falsifying the record sheet regional court in Erfurt for "taking up of Law and Order / Union Build- used to show that she had travelled to illegal contacts" under Article 219 of the ings / Pretoria / South Africa. Argentina. Another border official was penal code, which proscribes the distribu- subsequently charged with a similar tion of material abroad which is "liable Sylvia Goethe, GDR offence relating to the case of another of to damage the interests of the German Erich Honecker / Chairman of the the 13. Both officials have since been Democratic Republic [GDR]". She was State Council / 102 Berlin / Marx released on bail. sentenced to 20 months' imprisonment. Engels Platz / German Democratic Although it is the first time that police She had been involved in peace activ- Republic. arrested in connection with a "dis- ities in Jena and Apolda, had submitted 4 OCTOBER 1984 CHINA: Call for reforms to protect human rights Al has urged wide-ranging reforms to protect human rights in the People's Republic of China and has called on the Chinese Government to free all citizens imprisoned for their beliefs, to guarantee fair trials for all political prisoners, and to abolish the death penalty.

Evidence of mass executions, of political Defendants can be brought to trial prisoners held for years without trial or mg, without being given a copy of the indict- convicted after summary proceedings, ment first. Appeal procedures have been of ill-treatment of prisoners is cited in a cut short; the report cites cases in which major Al report* published on 26 the accused were executed within six days September. of the alleged offence. The 132-page report includes detailed The report notes that "there is no case studies of prisoners of conscience recognition—either in law or in practice and a memorandum submitted to the —of the right to be presumed innocent government. Al offered to publish com- before being proved guilty in a court of ments from the Chinese authorities, but law". none have so far been received. Public executions were supposed to The report says non-violent dissent have stopped under the Law of Criminal has been suppressed in China by convict- Procedure which came into force in Jan- ing political activists of "counter- uary 1980. But the report cites evidence revolutionary offences" which carry that some executions are still carried out sentences of 10 to 15 years in prison. in public and the prisoners' bodies left Prisoners include workers and students on display. active in the "democracy movement" Executions are carried out by the tra- that emerged in China in 1978, Roman ditional method of shooting the victims Catholic priests loyal to the Vatican and in the back of the head while he or she Tibetans accused of supporting national- kneels. ist groups. * China: Violations of Human Rights— Some political trials have been held available in English and French from behind closed doors, with only selected A man convicted of murder kneels before local Al sections or from Al's Interna- audiences allowed to attend. In some being executed. The soldier standing tional Secretariat, price £3. A briefing cases, prisoners' families were not even behind him holds a gun to the nape of his on the report in English, Spanish and told trials were taking place. neck. The placard around the prisoner's Chinese is also available, price 0.600 In other cases, political prisoners have neck states that he is a murderer: his been held for years without charge or name has already been crossed out. trial, assigned to labour camps for "re- Taishan, Guangdong province, 23 Sep- education through labour". Some prison- tember 1983. Egypt—Jihad trial

In August Al sent a trial observation mission to Egypt led by Amand d'Hondt, ers are reported to have been held in a lawyer and Chairperson of Al mission visits solitary confinement, manacled day and Al's Belgian (francophone) Section. The delegates night for days or weeks, beaten or made camps in Mexico attended hearings before the (Emergency) to stand without moving for 24 hours Supreme State Security Court in Cairo of An Al delegation visited a number of without food. the trial of 176 defendants accused of Guatemalan refugee camps in Chiapas, Wei Jingsheng, editor of an unofficial illegal activities connected with the southern Mexico, from 3 to 16 May. magazine which has now been banned, is banned Jihad organization. The trial The delegation was able to go where it reported to have been held in solitary began in February 1984 and is s‘ished and collected first-hand testimony confinement since his trial in 1979, continuingi from Guatemalan refugees about human allowed out for exercise only once a rights violations in Guatemala. month. Reports reaching Al said he It also received information about an became mentally disturbed as a result and incident, which occurred just before its was twice moved to hospital in Beijing visit to Mexico, in which seven refugees (Peking) for treatment. Releases in Morocco at the El Chupadero refugee camp, near Al does not have enough information At least 32 Moroccans adopted by the Guatemalan border, were killed by for it to estimate the number of political AI as troops believed to belong to the Guate- prisoners now held in Chinese prisons prisoners of conscience are known to malan army. and labour camps. However, former have been released on 23 and 24 August. They are among 350 prisoners who were The delegation met senior officials of inmates say there are political prisoners the Mexican Government and its agencies, in most of the country's penal institutions. to be released or have their sentences representatives of the United Nations reduced under clemency measures announced by King Hassan II on 20 High Commissioner for Refugees Mass executions August. (UNHCR) and a large number of Expressing concern about mass execu- A further 219 prisoners have been foreign and local groups working with tions that began with the launching of a granted remissions under a second refugees in southern Mexico. nation-wide anti-crime campaign in A 1 has continued to correspond with August 1983, the report points out that clemency measure to mark the Muslim the Mexican authorities about the find- 44 crimes are now punishable by death feast of Id al-Adha on 6 September n ings of its May mission and later reports in the People's Republic of China. These received by the organization about alle- include "counter-revolutionary offences", AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLICA- TIONS, 1 Easton Street, London WC1X gations of arrests, harassment and ill- theft, embezzlement, molesting women United Kingdom. Printed in Great Britain by treatment of Guatemalan refugees and and pimping. Shadowdean Limited, Unit B, Roan Estate, medical and religious personnel working Summary proceedings have been used Mortimer Road, Mitcham, Surrey. Available with them in the camps and in the capital, during the campaign in trials resulting in on subscription at .£5 (US$12.50) per calendar Mexico City E the death penalty. year. ISSN 0308 6887 FILE ON TORTURE

No. 4 October 1984 amnesty international Women and Torture "At one point, I realized that my daughter was in front of me. I even managed to touch her: I felt her hands. 'Mummy, say something, anything to make this stop,' she was saying. I tried to embrace her but they prevented me. They separated us violently. They took her to an adjacent room and there, there I listened in horror as they began to torture her with electricity—my own daughter! When I heard her moans, her terrible screams, I couldn't take any more. I thought I would go mad, that my head and my entire body were going to explode." —Testimony of a Chilean torture victim

Torture is being inflicted on men confessed, their wives, mothers and women alike in every region or sisters would be raped, tor- of the world in attempts by gov- tured or even executed. One for- ernments to suppress dissent. mer detainee told Amnesty Inter- Victims are being tortured to national how, while in prison, he extract information or "con- was ordered to speak to his sister fessions" or simply to punish or at home by telephone. She told intimidate them. The victims him that Revolutionary Guards themselves come from almost all had come to her house and would walks of life and include men, arrest her unless he confessed women and children. and gave his interrogator the names of his political associates. In Afghanistan, Farida Ahmadi, a 22-year-old medical student, Amnesty International has was continually interrogated, also received reports from Iran denied sleep for up to a week and of mothers being tortured in front subjected to electric shock tor- of their children. ture when she was detained by In Turkey women have been the state information police for Hilda Narcisco, a Roman Catholic tortured in front of their hus- six months in 1981. She also lay community worker in the Philip- bands, and their husbands in alleged that she witnessed the pines, says she was raped and sex- front of them: torture of other political prison- ually abused in other ways after "The next day I thought I heard ers. Those tortured have included being arrested without warrant on 24 my husband screaming ... (and women as young as 16. March 1983. (see Appeal Cases) then) I was again taken blindfold In Rwanda, lmmaculée to the torture room .... they took Mukamugema was confined in a off the blindfold, and, sure completely unlit cell (cachot noir) jected to sexual abuse and enough, it was my husband. in Ruhengeri prison. She was insults. Rape is common. In El "He was lying naked beside a never let out for exercise, and Salvador it is believed that many black tiled wall. His hands were became seriously ill. Her condi- of the women who have been tied behind his back and they tions improved only after she raped in prison will not admit it— were administering electricity to received a personal visit from the either because they want to block his genitals. Minister of Health and was trans- out the memory or because they "After showing him to me, they ferred to another prison. (see feel ashamed. In other countries, retied the blindfold and, in a voice photograph on page 2) women who were pregnant at my husband could hear, threat- Former women political prison- the time of their arrest have been ened to strip and rape me. ers in Pakistan are often very beaten with rifle butts until they reluctant to make known publicly, aborted. In some cases women Continued on next page or even to close relatives, the raped by their interrogators have details of their treatment in been refused abortions. detention. The rigorous interro- The close relationship between Appeal cases, gations, complete lack of privacy women and their families is often page 3 and constant supervision often exploited. In Iran former male by male guards is felt as a severe detainees have consistently How you can humiliation for women of Muslim reported that, in addition to being faith (see also page 2). physically tortured, they have help, page 4 Women victims are often sub- received threats that, unless they 2 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL FILE ON TORTURE

Continued from previous page to pressurize their husbands or "They wanted us to reveal our other relatives being sought by address.... They said I could the authorities and were held for save my husband if I gave them relatively short periods. Other the address. women political prisoners have "On another occasion I was been detained for several months again suspended from the ceiling or longer, generally without trial, and electricity was being admin- often undergoing periods of istered to my toes. I was semi- rigorous interrogation. conscious when I heard them Amnesty International has received bring my husband in. They told reports of the torture and ill-treatment of women political prisoners in him that he could save me if he Lahore Fort, which is used as an talked." interrogation centre mainly by mili- —testimony of Sema Ogur, tary intelligence personnel. former prisoner in Turkey Amnesty International believes that during the period 1982/83 at There are many immediate and least a dozen female political prison- long-term effects of such intense ers were held there for periods of several weeks to one year. Some of physical and psychological Prisoner of conscience Immaculée abuse. In 1982 Amnesty Interna- them were held in solitary confine- Mukamugema, Rwanda, was con- ment, and many were denied access tional delegates medically exam- fined in a completely unlit cell in to their families or defence counsel. ined Adriana Vargas Vasquez, a Ruhengeri prison for several months There are reported to be no beds, and 31-year-old factory worker who in the second half of 1982. She has prisoners sleep on the floor. The was tortured in Chile in March been held since April 1980 and is cells are dirty, generally lack any 1980. now in Kigali central prison, serving proper toilet facilities and are open She said that she had com- a 10-year prison sentence imposed on one side, thus affording no privacy. pletely lost all sense of time after in late 1981 after her conviction on Two women held there during the one day's torture. After being tor- charges of distributing subversive second half of 1983 and now released documents. Amnesty International tured with electric shocks she have described their experiences.' believes she is imprisoned for non- The following is based on their had especially painful breasts, violently exercising her right to free- wrists and ankles. She had swell- accounts. dom of expression. a political activist from Lahore, ing and discolouration in places was picked up by police from her where she had received blows, Testimonies received by home in 1983 during a campaign of and there were small black scabs Amnesty International from "civil disobedience" initiated by the where electrodes had been women prisoners held in Punta Movement for the Restoration of applied. She lost about 6kg while de Rieles prison in Uruguay con- Democracy (MRD), a banned coali- in detention for four days. She firm that the majority of them tion of opposition political parties. had almost no appetite initially live in a constant state of inse- She was first taken to the Super- after her release and suffered for curity. They believe that intelli- intendent of Police in Lahore who interrogated her himself during the about 20 days from nausea. She gence information on the per- developed a urinary tract infec- first night. The following afternoon sonal lives of prisoners and par- she was sent to Lahore Fort. tion. Her genitals became ticularly on family relationships inflamed two months, and again Her interrogation began at once may be used as a means of and continued almost daily for a four months, after her release. pressure or emotional blackmail, Among other symptoms, she month. It was very cold in the Fort or to reinforce the prisoner's but she was not allowed more had abdominal pain and head- sense of dependency and conse- clothes—she had only the light gar- aches when she menstruated quent loss of self-esteem. This is ments she was wearing at the time (which she had not experienced particularly evident when prison- of her arrest. before), persistent headaches in ers are held for long periods in She was not allowed to see her the back of the head and around solitary confinement and ailing father, in spite of the repre- the temples, impaired memory, deprived of contact with their sentations of doctors at the hospital difficulty in concentrating, dizzi- families and fellow prisoners. where he was that this might improve ness, insomnia, nightmares, his condition. He died during her depression to the point of feeling detention. She was allowed to attend suicidal, proneness to weeping, his funeral, then had to return to the and anxiety attacks triggered Fort, where her interrogation recommenced. especially by loud noises. Women After two and a half months she Women are sometimes was sent to Kot Lakhpat Jail, from detained and tortured not detained where she was released after a fur- because of their own activities ther two months' detention. but because of the alleged activ- in Pakistan X stated that the constant verbal ities of their relatives and friends abuse and humiliation to which she who are sought by the police or Hundreds of women have been was subjected throughout her deten- for whose surrender the women detained in Pakistan at different tion in Lahore Fort had been more are held as hostages. In Syria, times since the imposition of difficult to bear than physical abuse. tortured prisoners have been martial law in July 1977 and the also from Lahore, was arrested shown to their families so that banning of political parties and on 7 August 1983 and taken directly to Lahore Fort. She was kept for two the latter would persuade them peaceful political activities. to confess to avoid further torture. Some were arrested as hostages Continued on page 4 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL FILE ON TORTURE 3

Send your letters to: President describing their conditions in diaries

ID III Ferdinand E. Marcos / Malacanang or smuggled messages. They are Palace / Metro Manila / Philippines; vulnerable to arbitrary ill-treatment and to: Mr Juan Ponce Enrile / and are powerless to protest, being Minister of National Defense / confined in conditions of secrecy in Ministry of National Defense / Camp institutions which are often too Emilio Aguinaldo / Quezon City / remote for regular visits by relatives Metro Manila / Philippines. to be possible. Please send courteous letters: urging the immediate and uncon- USSR: Anna Chertkova ditional release of Anna Chertkova as a prisoner of conscience; The Philippines: Hilda Narcisco Anna Chertkova, aged 57, has expressing concern about the Hilda Narcisco, a Roman been held In Tashkent Special forcible confinement of prisoners of Catholic lay community Psychiatric Hospital since conscience in psychiatric hospitals worker, says she was raped 1973 because of her religious and urging the immediate and and sexually abused In other beliefs. She has repeatedly unconditional release of all such ways after being arrested with- been given Injections of prisoners. out warrant on 24 March 1983. Sulfazin, used In the USSR as Send your letters to: The Director an antipsychotIc drug. of Tashkent Special Psychiatric Hospital/Ms I.L. Andryakova/SSSR/ Some 30 military personnel raided Uzbekskaya / SSR / 700058 g. the house of a German Lutheran She is a member of a breakaway Tashkent / uchr. UYa-64 / IZ-1 / pastor in Davao City, Mindanao. She wing of the Baptist Church which is Spetsialnaya psikhiatricheskaya was then forced into a car, blind- not officially recognized by the auth- folded and apparently taken to a bolnitsa / Nachalniku Andryakovoy orities. She was denied living accom- I.L.; and to: The Procurator of the "safehouse"—a secret interrogation modation in Alma-Ata and perse- Uzbek republic/Mr Aleksei Buturlin/ centre. cuted for several years because of SSSR/Uzbekskaya SSR/g. Tashkent/ She was sexually molested during her religious convictions before Respublikanskaya prokuratura / the journey and again the next day, being sent to the special psychiatric Prokuroru / Burikhodzhayevu. when at one point her interrogation hospital in 1973. Such hospitals are was interrupted and she was taken officially designated only for people to another room and raped. who "represent a special danger to On 26 March she was moved to society". There is no evidence to Brazil: Raquel Clindido e Silva Camp Catitipan, Davao City. In suggest that she has ever posed August, a judge ordered charges of such a threat. Raquel Undid* e Silva, an subversion against her to be dropped elected town council official, on grounds of lack of evidence but it was arrested and tortured after was not until 6 September that she attempts by agents of the was released. Policia Militar (Military Police) While still in detention, she took to remove some 2,000 peas- steps to initiate a case against the ants from land under dispute military personnel who had sexually abused and raped her. After her in Eldorado, Porto Velho, on release she courageously tried to 18 March 1984. pursue the case with the help of local women's associations, in the belief She was taken to the Central Police that it would help to put an end to the Station in Porto Velho, where she was reportedly widespread sexual abuse allegedly assaulted by a doctor and of women political detainees. four police agents. She was later Forced to move home every month charged, refused bail and taken to because of fear of her unknown the Third Police Station. On 19 May assailants, she found it impossible she was threatened with rape, beaten to establish their identities because and had her feet burned with lighted of non-cooperation by the military cigarettes, before being moved to authorities. In December 1983 the the main barracks of the Policia Minister of National Defense Militar suffering from fever and blood informed her lawyers that there was in her urine. insufficient evidence to bring the On 20 May she appeared before case to court. the judge of the II Vara Criminal Although she is no longer willing Court, was examined by a doctor and to pursue the case actively herself, Over many years Amnesty Inter- transferred to the Hospital de Base she wishes it to remain open and national has continued to receive in Porto Velho, where tests showed hopes that international and domes- reports of prisoners of conscience that she had a displaced kidney as a tic pressure will result in her assail- being ill-treated in psychiatric hos- result of severe blows to the side of ants being prosecuted. pitals with excessive quantities of her body. Please send courteous letters: painful and disorienting drugs At the beginning of June she urging that the alleged ill- administered without medical received further treatment at the treatment of Hilda Narcisco be justification. Hospital de Servidor POblico Muni- impartially investigated and that Although the Procuracy is legally cipal, M) Paulo. anyone found to have been respon- charged with supervising such On 14 June she publicly denounced Camara sible be brought to justice; hospitals, in practice inmates are her ill-treatment to the Municipal (Municipal Council urging the authorities to issue unable to submit complaints about clear instructions to the Philippine ill-treatment. They may write letters Chamber) in Rio de Janeiro. Torture is widespread in Brazil and security forces that torture and ill- only at the discretion of doctors. All treatment will not be tolerated under letters are censored and many any circumstances. inmates have been punished for Continued on page 4 4 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL FILE ON TORTURE

Continued from page 3 is often used in police stations in the large metropolitan areas of S5o WHAT YOU CAN DO ... Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to extract Write the three letters you Urge that procedures for deten- signed confessions from suspects. are asked to send on behalf of tion and interrogation be kept In the countryside the targets are under regular review and that the three women victims cited often Indians and peasants who have there be regular independent resisted attempts by landowners in the Appeal Cases in this visits of inspection in places of and hired gunmen to force them off File on Torture. Address your detention. the land. letters as indicated or send Urge that all complaints and Despite persistent and well- them to the appropriate documented allegations of torture, reports of torture be impartially embassy in your country. and effectively investigated, and Amnesty International knows of only that the results of such investiga- a few cases in which police officials Please write a further have been convicted of the torture letter to the addresses pro- tions be made public. vided expressing general con- and ill-treatment of detainees. Give this File to women's Please send courteous letters: cern about reports of ill- organizations, trade unions, urging that the alleged torture of treatment and torture in each religious organizations and Raquel Cgndido e Silva be impartially of these countries. investigated and that anyone found nurses' associations in your to be responsible be brought to Point out that the United country and urge them to justice: Nations has banned torture in all publicize the File and take cases. urging the authorities to issue appropriate action. clear instructions to all members Urge the government to dem- of the security forces that torture onstrate its total opposition to Send a copy of this File to will not be tolerated under any torture and to make clear to all women's journals, suggesting circumstances. law enforcement personnel that that the editor publish a sum- Send your letters to: Presidente torture will not be tolerated. mary of it for readers. da Reptiblica Federativa do Brasil / Presidente / General Joao Baptista Figueiredo/Gabinete do Presidente/ the time of her mother's arrest but tional interviewed a deserter from Palacio do Planalto / 70.000 Brasilia the marriage was broken off once the the Uruguayan army, Hugo Walter D.F. / Brasil; and to: Sr. Ibrahim Abi- family of the intended husband Garcia Rivas, who testified to his Ackel/Ministro da Justiça/Ministério learned of Y:s arrest for political participation in the kidnapping and da Justiça/Esplanada dos Minis- reasons. subsequent torture of Lilian Celiberti. térios/Bloco B/70.000 Brasilia D.F./ Her two small children, Camilo, 8, Brasil. and Francesca, 3, were abducted 'You have been with her. She signed a false con- fession in order to secure their Pakistan: Continued from page 2 present all these release and was subsequently months in a cell with another woman. imprisoned in a military barracks Her interrogation began after the years ...' and tortured. first month. She told the interroga- Amnesty International adopted tors she was not active in politics, her as a prisoner of conscience. Her but was nevertheless shown a list of case was allocated to an Amnesty names and asked about those per- International group in Italy which sons' activities. worked ceaselessly on her behalf For the first 15 days she was inter- until she was released on 17 Novem- rogated by male police officers from ber 1983 after completing her sen- the Crimes Branch. After that, female tence. The Amnesty International personnel took over. group believes that its work contri- She was not allowed to sleep for buted to a reduction in her sentence 48 hours. She was threatened with —at her trial the judges sentenced being stripped and with having her her to five years' imprisonment relatives similarly treated in front of instead of the 10 years asked for by her. She was also hit. Y suffers from the Public Prosecutor. high blood pressure and fainted on A month later she wrote to the several occasions. Amnesty International group in Italy: The interrogation lasted for approximately three months, after "You have been present all these which she was transferred to Kot years with a constancy and dedica- Lakhpat Jail. Three months later she tion which has accompanied me in was released. the worst moments, giving me Both women still have to appear strength and joy. before a military court once a fort- "I remember clearly the emotion I night—although no formal charges Lilian Celiberti was sent to prison in felt on returning to my cell after one have been brought against them. 1981 by a military court in Uruguay. of the fortnightly visits, the only time The family lives of both have suf- She had been abducted from her talked to anyone, having learned fered as a result of their imprison- home in exile in Brazil and, after about your letters. The solidarity that ment. X is now separated from her being brought across the border is expressed over oceans of distance husband, while other family mem- illegally by security agents, was gives strength and faith in one's bers—her disabled son and late falsely charged with trying to enter solitude, and helps one confront the father—were also arrested at differ- Uruguay surreptitiously with "sub- repressive apparatus by keeping ent times and held as hostages. Y's versive" literature. one's human integrity and its essen- daughter was due to be married at In August 1980 Amnesty Interna- tial values intact . . ."