Amnesty International Newsletter
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amnesty international newsletter Vol. IV No. 3 March 1974 Founded 1961 as instruments in the suppression of political TORPORS' VICTIM WINS CiUE and religious freedom." NORTHERN IRELAND HIGH COURT AWARDS PATRICK SHIVERS £15,000 IN DAMAGES INDONESIA, GREECE, BRAZIL AND UK ON UN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION AGENDA Former Northern Ireland internee PATRICK AI is involved in submissions on three SHIVERS, whose ordeal by torture has been wide- countries whose cases are being considered ly publicized during AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL's by the United Nations Commission on Human Campaign for the Abolition of Torture, was Rights which began hearings in New York in awarded £15,000 in damages by the High Court in February. Belfast on 14 February. In 1971 a new procedure was introduced The court decision was the outcome of a suit whereby the Commission was empowered to Mr Shivers brought against the now defunct Nor- consider situations where there exists "a thern Ireland Ministries of Home Affairs and consistent pattern of gross violations of Defence for false imprisonment, torture and human rights and fundamental freedoms." assault after his arrest by security forces in In its first attempt to use this new ma- August 1971. chinery, AI has asked the Commission to He was one of the internees interviewed in consider the long-term detention of over December 1971 by kr's Commission of Inquiry in- 50,000 prisoners in Indonesia and to then to Allegations of Ill-Treatment in Northern "intercede with the (Indonesian) Govern- Ireland. His statement describing the physical ment ... to ensure the immediate trial or and mental torture he underwent in custody was release of all untried prisoners". contained in the Commission's report and was AI has also contributed factual material submitted to the British Government. to the submission on human rights viola- The £15,000 in damages was the highest such tions in Greece, Brazil and the United award ever made in Northern Ireland. Accord- Kingdom (Northern Ireland). ing to a Government statement, however, no action will be taken against those who were DETAINEES BRUTALLY BEATEN IN PARAGUAY responsible for Mr Shivers' ordeal. AI expressed grave concern 26 February at the arrest and reported brutal beating of between AI ACCUSES USSR OF VIOLATING COVENANT100 and 200 peasants in Paraguay who have de- IN TREATMENT OF POLITICAL DISSIDENTSmanded agrarian, social and economic reform. AI has accused the Soviet Government of vi- Secretary General MARTIN ENNALS said Paraguay olating its own international undertakings by was now second only to Haiti among Latin Ameri- expelling writer ALEXANDER SOLZHENITSYN and by can countries with the longest term political continuing its policy of detaining those who prisoners, some of whom had been held in the work for political and religious freedom. small, filthy, overcrowded cells linked to var- The undertakings are contained in the Inter- ious police stations in the capital of Asuncion national Covenant on Civil and Political Rights for up to 16 years without trial. which the Soviet Union ratified last October. "We deplore the Paraguayan Government's con- At the World Congress of Peace Forces in Moscow tinuing failure to observe the provisions laid the same month (December Newsletter), other na- down in the American Convention on Human Rights tions were exhorted to follow the Soviet exam- to which Paraguay is a signatory," Mr Ennals ple. said in calling for the release of all the de- A statement issued by kr's International Ex- tainees. "Within the Latin American social ecutive Committee on 20 February called on the context, the poor rural population is almost Soviet Government to restore the rule of law defenceless against miscarriages of justice and and to free all those detained for their poli- encroachments on their human rights." tical or religious beliefs. AI SUPPORTS 'AMNESTY' CAMPAIGN IN USA The statement said that the arbitrary arrest Secretary General MARTIN ENNALS has sent the and forcible deportation of Mr Solzhenitsyn and Committee on the Judiciary of the United States stripping him of his citizenship because of his House of Representatives a copy of theAI Sta- writings and public statements were irreconcil- tement of 22 July 1973 expressing support for able with its ratification of the Covenant. the campaign to secure a general, unconditional Among other things, the Covenant guarantees the amnesty for all Americans who refused to serve right of freedom of opinion and expression and in the war in Indochina. The House Committee • protection against arbitrary arrest, denial of is due to hold legislative hearings on the sub- a hearing and arbitrary refusal to allow a per- ject on 7-8 March. son to re-enter his own country. In a letter to Representative ROBERT W. MST- The IEC also noted "with growing concern the ENMEIER, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee's practice of the Soviet and other governments of Subcommittee on Courts, Civil Liberties and the using deportation and removal of citizenship Administration of Justice, Mr Ennals said that 2 Amnest International Newsletter March 1974 it was particularly urgent that the wound caus- ed by the war, especially among American youth, IRAN EXECUTION FIGURE SOARS TO 198 be healed. The total of known executions in Iran "The provision by Congress for a universal, over the past 2i years has reached 198 fol- unconditional amnesty, that is, total exonera- lowing the execution of eight political tion, would be an indispensable component of prisoners 18-19 February. the healing process," Mr Ennals said. The two executed on 18 February were CALL TO EGYPT TO RELEASE PRISONERSamong seven persons sentenced to death in On 13 February Secretary General MARTIN ENN- January for their alleged participation in ALS wrote to President ANWAR SADAT of Egypt a plot to assassinate the SHAH (February requesting the release of a number of persons Newsletter). Two others had their senten- ces commuted to life imprisonment on appeal including NABIL EL HILALI, a prominent left wing lawyer, MOHAMMAD ALI AMER, a trade union- and the other three were reprieved by the ist, and ADIB DIMITRI, a Coptic writer. Shah and also had their sentences commuted They were arrested last April during the to life imprisonment. period of student and workers' unrest in Egypt, The six men executed on 19 February were said to have been found guilty of alleged on the grounds of endangering national unity. They were tried by a Special Court on 25 June sabotage, murder, robbery and anti-state activity. charged with attempting to reconstitute the Communist Party which is banned in Egypt, and sentenced to one year's imprisonment, renew- medical advice. It was further alleged that a able every year for up to 5 years. three-month punishment diet combined with sev- Nabil El Hilali had been arrested earlier, ere physical restrictions was then imposed on on 28 December, for allegedly inciting stud- detainees in both camps. Detainees had been on ents to riot, had been acquitted by the Court hunger strike since 29 December. of First Instance for lack of evidence, but SPANISH PRISONERS GO ON HUNGER STRIKE was re-arrested a few weeks later. A/ called on 18 February for an urgent inv- URUGUAY ARRESTS LEADING JOURNALISTSestigation into current hunger strikes by poli- AI cabled President JUAN MARIA BORDABERRY tical prisoners in Santander Provincial Prison of Uruguay on 20 February urging the immediate and Pontevedra Provincial Prison in Spain. release of the 71-year-old founder and chief All five of Santander's political prisoners - editor of the internationally-known weekly new- including three AI investigation cases awaiting trial since September 1972 - began a hunger spaper Marcha,three members of his staff and two well-known Uruguayan writers. Although strike on 14 February after the prison director they had been detained for a week at police called in machine gun-armed police to settle an headquarters in Montevideo, Uruguay authorit- altercation between guards and prisoners. Two ies had given no explanation for their arrest. of the prisoners involved were put into solitary Those detained are editor CARLOS QUIJANO, confinement. Marcha staff members JULIO CASTRO, GUILLERMO The hunger strike at Pontevedra began 27 Janu- CHIFLETT and HUGO ALFARO and writers JUAN CAR- ary after complaints by prisoners about restric- LOS ONETTI and MERCEDES REIN. tions on visits from their families and on lack AI's United States Section has already asked of proper sanitary facilities failed to improve United Nations Under-Secretary General BRADFORD the situation. At least seven of the prisoners are under adoption by AI groups. MORSE to inquire into the situation. AI said that while Marcha has had to adapt itself to Meanwhile, 31 Jehovah's Witnesses who have the narrowing of the freedom of press in Uru- been serving prison sentences in Santa Catalina guay this year, it has continued to criticize Prison, Cadiz, were reported early in February political imprisonment and torture. to have been released as a result of the new "We are concerned that those who have now legislation regulating the "refusal to do mili- been arrested may suffer ill-treatment despite tary service". Among those freed was ANTONIO SANCHEZ MEDINA, who has been in prison since the advanced age of some of them," anAI state- ment said. 1962. MALAYSIA ASKED TO PROBE ALLEGATIONSRHODESIAN PRISON CONDITIONS WORSEN AI has asked the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Secretary General MARTIN ENNALS wrote to the TUN HAJI ABDUL RAZAK, for clarification of rep- Rhodesian Government in February calling for orts that political detainees held under the an inquiry into the deterioration of conditions Internal Security Act have been ill-treated. in detention camps. The letter followed news A detainee in Taiping detention camp, Mr WONG of the death of KENNETH CHIASNGO, a political SUI SONG, who committed suicide on 29 December, detainee who was allegedly removed from Gwelo allegedly had been in bad health for some time Prison in a coma.