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AMNESTYimtiroutiotal-,*

Iq

AN AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLICATION

AMNESTY IN1ERNATIONAL is a worldwide human rights movementwhich is independent of any government, political faction, ideology,economic interest or religious creed. It works for the release of men andwomen imprisoned anywhere for their beliefs, colour, ethnic origin orreligion. provided they have neither used nor advocated violence. These aretermed "prisoners of conscience".

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL opposes torture and capital punishment inall cases and without reservation. It advocates fair and early trials for allpolitical prisoners and works on behalf of persons detained without chargeor without trial and those detained after expiry of their sentences.AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL seeks observance throughout the world ofthe United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UNStandard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL has 1,650 adoption groups and nationalsections in 33 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, NorthAmerica and South America and individual members in 74 countries.Each adoption group works for three prisoners of conscience in countriesother than its own. The three countries are balanced geographically andpolitically to ensure impartiality. Information about prisoners and humanrights violations emanates from Amnesty International's Research Depart-ment in London.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL has consultative status with the UnitedNations (ECOSOC) and the Council of Europe, has cooperative relationswith the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organizationof American States, is recognized by UNESCO, and has observer statuswith the Organization of African Unity (Bureau for the Placement andEducation of African Refugees).

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL is financed by its national sections through-out the world, by individual subscription and by donations. Its income andexpenditure are published annually.

CONTENTS

Cover:Cartoon in La Maitana,Montivideo, Uruguay, 20 February 1976, twodays after Amnesty International launched a worldwide campaign against theuse of torture in Uruguay.

Introduction 2

Africa 4

The Americas 7

Asia 11

Europe 13

The Middle East 22

Epilogue 24

© Amnesty International 1976First published May 1976ISBN: 0 900058 27 7Published by Amnesty International Publications, 53 Theobald's Road,London WC1X 8SP, England. Telephone: 01-404 5831, Telex: 28502

Printed in Great Britain by The Russell Press Ltd, Gamble Street, Nottingham NG7 4ET

It is impossible to please everybody and his father. . . But whether I am blamed or praised,Whatever Is said or not said about me,

I shall go my own way. . .Jean de La Fontaine

3A juxtaposition of some of the comments might tell its own story,

for example rightwing comments on pages 6, 9, 10 and 22 and left-wing comments on pages 13, 14, 20 and 21.

But because Amnesty International is concerned with individuals,not political systems, we ourselves prefer the following two quota-tions. The subject of one is a former prisoner of conscience in theSoviet Union, the other a former prisoner of conscience in the UnitedStates. Both were adopted by Amnesty International.

Intro uction

.. instrument of communist terrorism—Brazil

. . .in a leading position among organizations whichconduct anti-Soviet propaganda—USSR

. . .this imperialist body—Ghana

...this espionage agency—Min

Amnesty International's work for human rights has consistently andinevitably brought angry reactions from all bands of the politicalspectrum over the years. The very impartiality of our work almostensures criticism from all sides, however baseless such attacks asthose quoted above are.

The men and women throughout the world for whom AmnestyInternational campaigns profess a variety of contrasting political,social, economic and religious beliefs. Amnesty International itself,however, takes no political or ideological sides: it does not defendwhat people say, only their right to say it freely, no matter whatcounty they live in or the political system of that country.

The following is a selection of some of the statements made aboutAmnesty International by newspapers of the world and governmentofficials. The selection is by no means comprehensive—we haveomitted, for example, all straight reports of Al's work and thosewhich cite AI as an authority on a particular situation.But we believeit reflects accurately the broad range of often critical and occasionallyfavourable comments that have been made about the organization inrecent years.

The quotations are arranged alphabetically according to the countryof origin within each continent. In each instance the quotation ispreceded by a note about the circumstances which gave rise to it.

0 Martin Sastre was falsely convictedin the United States of selling heroin andwas sentenced to 40 years' imprisonmentin 1968. Many people felt he had been"framed" because of his political activi-ties on behalf of black Americans. On24 December 1975 Governor HughCarey of New York State granted himexecutive clemency.

Gov. Carey's decision to grantclemency to Martin Sostre is avictory for the conscience ofmankind and, more specifically,for the dedicated efforts of everyhuman being associated withAmnesty International.

An editorial in the New York Post, NewYork, 28 December 1975

0 Leonid Plyushch, a mathematicianunjustly detained for years in a Sovietpsychiatric hospital, was granted anexit visa from the USSR after a pro-longed international campaign on hisbehalf.

First of all I would ask the pressto convey my gratitude to allthose who played a part in myrelease... to the InternationalCommittee of Mathematicians,to Amnesty International, tothe workers' syndicates ofFrance, to the Ukrainian organ-izations throughout the world,to the British, French andGerman psychiatrists, to thecommittee against the use ofpsychiatry for criminal ends inthe USSR...

Extract from news conference given byLeonid Plyushch, Paris, 3 February 1976

45

lion which pokes its dirty nose in theaffairs of other countries...

Editorial entitled "Amnesty and Detainees",The Daily Graphic,Accra, 7 May 1973

LIBYA0 See Federal Republic of Germany,page 15.

fric4

0 The Amnesty International AnnualReport 19 74175was published inSeptember 1975,

For AI, in fact, totalitarianism anddictatorship should be fought every-where, whatever may be the ideologywhich they expound. That is itsprincipal merit and that is also whatgives it its force, even if this principleof universality allows several gaps toappear. The Annual Report of Al inparticular remains strangely silenton the repression to whichPalestinians in Israel are subjected ...

Jeune Afrique, Paris, 26 September 1975

had sent him three months earlier.

... We know of no previous efforton the part of Amnesty Internationalto advise any previous governmenton the best way of treating politicaldetainees. That this imperialist bodynow feels it its duty to prescribe themanner in which our present Govern-ment should treat political detaineesnot only amounts to a wantoninterference in the internal affairs ofGhana, but also proves that KofiAbrefia Busia [ousted head of theprevious government] is pullingstrings somewhere within the frame-work of Amnesty International ...Ghana does not frown on advice butadvice of such diabolic nature canonly breed confusion and disaffec-tion and must therefore be rejectedoutright with deserving contempt ...Imperialists offer advice and servicesonly when their selfish ends are atstake. The Government must beaware of the wolves that come insheep? clothing.

Editorial entitled "Keep Out Amnesty" inThe Weekly Spectator, Accra, 18 November1972

,

* * *0 A commentary on the same reportby an African magazine published inBritain.

By supporting all "non-violent"political prisoners Amnesty hasseemed at times to be tacitlyadvocating a certain specific sort ofliberal democracy as practised in thelong-established states of westernEurope. Many developing nations,on the other hand, might argue thatnot only was such a form of govern-ment unsuitable for their politicalconditions, but, again citing Ulster,

SENEGAL0 In April and October 1975 a numberof people went on trial in Senegal, .several of them in connection with thepublication of an "underground" news-paper critical of the government ofPresident Leopold Senghor. AmnestyInternational arranged for Maitre Marie-Claire Piccard, a French lawyer, to attendthe trials as an observer. In a newspaperinterview, President Senghor commentedon the trials.

Observers from Amnesty Internation-al were there. I do not have particul-arly warm feelings for them. Quiteoften, I find that their positions aremarked by racism, or at least paterna-lism. They protest rarely against theviolence exercised in developedcountries, and there are certainsilences which are cowardly.

President Leopold Senghor of Senegal, quotedin L'Unite, Paris, 7 November 1975

was incapable of dealing withentrenched political and social atti-tudes that were prepared to heedno compromise ...

In the Third World in particular,Amnesty also suffers from the un-deserved but inevitable taint of neo-colonialism ...

All the same, if Africa cannot inevery case congratulate Amnesty,the organization has every reason tocelebrate a year of Africa. Amnestyrepresentatives went to the sixthsession of the OAU [Organizationof African Unity]—sponsoredBureau for the Placement andEducation of African Refugees(BPEAR), to which Amnesty hassince increased its aid. In West Africaespecially, the tide of prisonersreleased has never been larger.

West Africa. London, 6 October 1975

GHANA0 In a statement, Al Secretary GeneralMartin Ennals had expressed concernat large-scale detention without trial inGhana and had reminded the presenthead of the regime, LK. Acheapong, ofa number of suggested improvementsin the treatment of prisoners which AI

0 The Secretary General of Al visitedGhana in May 1973 when he raised thequestion of detained members of theprevious regime and discussed reliefpayments by Amnesty Internationalgmups to their families.

... Can the Amnesty Internationalbe correct in its claim that it pays thefamilies of the detainees because thepoliticians are "prisoners of con-science"? ... By its action theAmnesty International has shown abias for Busia's followers and hasthereby identified itself as a danger-ous international political organiza-

SOMALIA

0 The following is an extract of astencilled reply sent to various AmnestyInternational groups who had written tothe government of the Somali Demo-cratic Republic on behalf of Somaliprisoners.

... I avail myself of this opportunityto express my personal amazement

•at the interest shown by yourdon and similar institutions for cast%

6

which certainly involve an inter-ference in the internal affairs of theCountry, whereas no evidence canbe found of your equally stronginterest in mobilizing the worldopinion against crimes which by-pass national frontiers, such as in thecase of South African apartheid orin the case of genocide affecting —like in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia,for Stance—the future of mankindand world people...

To say the least, the time andresources of your institution couldfmd much better investment andmore profitable returns in pleadingfor the removal of such factors ofhuman hatred and of open violationof the basic human rights, ratherthan in moving after and worryingfor the future of a few individualswho have been taking advantage oftheir political power to betray theircountry and to deceive their people.

Hoping that you will give dueand right consideration to these myreactions, I wish you good luck.May God illuminate you to theright and just path.

Yours faithfully,Captain Geilani Sufi Mudhir, Secretary toPresident of the Supreme RevolutionaryCouncil of the Somali Democratic Republic,29 August 1972

7

robbery, corruption and anti-government activities throughout theworld, the government-owned Voiceof Ugandanewspaper reported ...

The paper quoted the President ...as saying, "any leader collaboratingwith this organization is wasting histime. He will never control his pevsle".

Reuter report from Kampala, 24 September1975

•

reply as follows:It is interesting, although typical

of Amnesty International, to notethat exception is taken to theresettlement of black people in SouthAfrica but that the murder of 80,000black people in the Sudan, and else-where, is apparently condoned orshrugged off.

If you are really concerned aboutthe lot of underprivileged and oppress-ed peoples, it is suggested that youapproach certain prominent member-states of the Organization of AfricanUnity and your friends behind theiron curtain...

Letter from Mr Vorster's Private Secretary,Pretoria, 8 August 1972

ZAMBIA0 An Amnesty International newsrelease on 21 May 1975 urged PresidentKenneth Kaunda of Zambia to ensure fairand humane treatment for members ofthe Rhodesian African national move-ment ZANU (Zimbabwe AfricanNational Union) who were detainedafter the murder in Lusaka on 18 May1975 of ZANU chairman HerbertChitepo, The quote refers to TapsonMawere, ZANU representative in theUnited States.

... Alsojoining the chorus offoolish men like Mawere is theAmnesty International which hasits headquarters in London... Thisorganization has seen fit to insultthe people of Zambia. Withunparalleled insolence it has beenwriting to the authorities in thiscountry to investigate imaginarytortures of former ZANU officialsnow detained to help in the investiga-tions. We believe what this organiza-tion would like this country to dois to release these people beforeinvestigations are complete ... Inthe past Amnesty Internationalcommanded respect in this country.Maybe, we did not know at the timethe shady characters who now it callsthe reliable sources from which itgathers its information to interestthe international community...

Editorial in The Zambia Daily Mail,Lusaka,as reported by the British BmadcastingCorporation's Summary of World Broadcasts

e ericas

SOUTH AFRICA0 Amnesty International SecretaryGeneral Martin EnnaIs sent a letter toPrime Minister John Vorster of SouthAfrica protesting against the forcedresettlement of Black Africans.

Dear Mr EnnaIs,I have been instructed by theHonourable the Prime Minister toacknowledge the receipt of yourletter dated 27 July, 1972, and to

UGANDAAfter the publication of the Amnesty

International Annual Report 1974175,President Idi Amin of Uganda addressedthe United Nations General Assembly inNew York.

The London-based organizationAmnesty International continues topay lip service to the cause of justiceand, as shown in their recent publica-tion, has blackmailed over 100nations of the world as violatots ofhuman rights without mentioningBritain and her role in NorthernIreland.

Amnesty International are fed onrumours and concoctions fromdiscredited criminals in exile...

They have lent themselves as toolsfor the smear campaigns perpetratedby the colonial and imperialisticpowers that fund their existence.

President !di Amin of Uganda, 1 October 1975

Uganda's President Mi Amin hasaccused the London-based AmnestyInternational of promoting highway

cases of disregard for human rightsin the communist states, Al repliesthat it has to work where it can anddo whatever it lies in its power todo... But it hardly explains whyAl systematically accuses the govern-ment of countries such as Brazil andChile, demanding their removal bythe "people", while downplaying orcompletely omitting the undoubtedlyfar graver crimes against humanitythat take place in the communist-ruled states...

ARGENTINA

0 Extract from an article, written bythe Uruguayan office of an Argentinejournal.

To the not infrequent accusation thatAl takes great pains in the liberationof so-called "political prisoners" inthe western world—most of whomare not in jail because of theirbeliefs or race but because they werefound guilty of crimes—but oftenignores the much more blatant

8 9

...AI has also protested in GreatBritain against the training of specialcombat units that include real-lifetorture, with the view of helping thesoldiers to bear up against maltreat-ment when applied by an enemy.These casa were greatly publicized,but the public was protesting againstthem already before AI took up thiscause. The government decided todiscontinue the practice, but neverthe-less AI continued for many monthsto cite Great Britain as a countrywhere torture is practised systemati-cally.

The Review of the River Plate, Buenos Aires,31 March 1975

individuals—including women andchildren—of tortures and exiles...

El Comercio, Quito, 16 September 1975

...Was in league with Amnesty Inter-national, collaborating actively in thedefamation campaign against Brazilundertaken abroad by this foreignassociation...

Report on six alleged terrorists, Diario dePernambuco, Recife, 11 January 1973

GUATEMALA0 See Mexico below.

BRAZIL0 In September 1972, AmnestyInternational issued a major reportentitled Report on Allegations ofTorture in Brazil.Subsequent trials ofalleged terrorists have occasionally triedto link them with Amnesty International.The Ministry of Justice's censorshipboard also ordered Brazilian newspapersto ignore all Amnesty Internationalstatements on Brazilian issues.

...the famous Amnesty International,instrument of communist terrorismwhich, from London, aids guerrillasthroughout the world. This "Amnesty"promotes campaigns around the worldfor Amnesty terrorist criminals bymeans of lies and defamations againstdemocratic governments. It has con-ducted a systematic campaign againstBrazil, inventing tortures, assassina-tions and acts of violence, in order topromote communist objectives.

0 Cruzeiro,Rio de Janeiro, September 1972

... Pauline Reichstul "Silvana",native of Czechoslovakia... of theterrorist organization called VSRSP

pack trained by the world com-munist revolution to throw itselfagainst the peoples that detestmarxism...

Amnesty International barks onceagain with slander and lies, endeavour-ing to stain the honour and inter-national prestige of this great LatinAmerican nation, the heroic republicof Guatemala...Amnesty International can do nobetter than to aim its artillery of lyingverbosity against a people victoriousover communism, the republic ofGuatemala...

Replica, Guadalajara, September 1975

0 General article on the whole issue ofpolitical imprisonment, by one of thebest known journalists in Latin America.

...Only one organization functions inorder to defend prisonas of con-science: Amnesty International... Itmaintains solidarity with the vohm-tary sections of the silent masses whofeel represented by those who havevoiced their opinions and beenimprisoned for doing so, have suffered,and frequently are untried, exiled orheld incommunicado...

To donate one's time or money toAmnesty International does notnec y mean that one agrees withwhat such and such a prisoner ofconscience may have expressed, butthat one upholds his right to expres-sion...

Many prisoners of conscience haveeither been released, or their prisonconditions ameliorated, or theirexecution postponed: thanks to thecampaigns of Amnesty International.Torturers of every kind fear publicity.Amnesty International uses this oneweapon: publicity...

"The Idea as a Crime", article by Victor Albain Siempre, Mexico City, 23 May 1973

COSTA RICA0 A general article about AmnestyInternational.

This organization has studied thegrave problem of political prisonersin the world of today. Generally wesay that political prisoners exist andare tortured and murdered in placesruled by dictators. Then, accordingto our ideological background, wedenounce the jails and tortures ofthe communist countries, and the"fascist gorillas". But the truth isthat in this, as in many otherdimensions, the seeds have sproutedeverywhere.

Amnesty International seeks tocall the attention of all people to thisterrible evil; and it is succeeding. Itis a humanitarian organization thatmerits the recognition and supportof the democratic governments ofthe world.

Excelsior, San Jose, 4 April 1975

ECUADOR0 The Amnesty International AnnualReport 19741 75 was published inSeptember 1975.

A report of the organizationAmnesty International refers tohuman rights in Latin America, andon the basis of objective and utterlyprecise research, affirms that inLatin American countries there hasbeen a proliferation of kidnappings,the mysterious disappearance of

HONDU RAS0 The subject was an unidentifiedAmnesty International publication.

Throughout the western world anorganized campaign of attack andslander is being organized againstthree Latin American countries:Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay...The magnitude of the operations,the language used, the front organiza-tions that do the denouncing, revealthe communist origins of this camp-aign, which is constructed along linesspread recently through fellow-traveller circles or by useful puppets,and which is financed from fundsoriginating in Moscow. For someyears, an organization calling itself"Amnesty International" has existed,whose mission consists of publishingeach year a report about tortureinflicted on political prisoners...According to Amnesty International'sreport, torture in Brazil is notinflicted by police stooges, but byarmy generals and colonels. Theaccusers present no proof of this, andtheir assertions boil down to curses,insults and abuse...

Editorial entitled "The Communist CampaignAgainst Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay", LaPrensa, San Pedro Sulas, 23 March 1973

MEXICO0 A Mexican anti-communist journal,referring to Amnesty International'sassertions of violations of human rightsin Guatemala, calls the organization:

One of the bravest dogs of the red

10 11

URUGUAY0 President Juan Maria Bordaberiy,replying to a letter from a Canadianuniversity professor requesting therelease of opposition leaders, cited thereport of the joint ICJ and Al mission toUruguay in May 1974 which concludedthat political detainees lacked legal pro-tection and were systematically torturedduring the first period following theirarrest.

The joint report of Amnesty Inter-national and the InternationalCommission of Jurists offers absolu-tely no proof of mistreatment...

. ..I do not have much confid-ence in the testimony of these lasttwo organizations, because I do notrecall having seen them condemningthe crimes, the torture and thedenial of liberty for which the sub-versives were responsible, or thosewhich occur in the countries whichsupported them.. .

Thus, I believe that you have beenmisinformed as part of the inter-national communist-inspired camp-aign of falsehoods...

President Juan Maria Bordaberry, Montevideo,12 February 1975

St

national has either the competenceor the moral authority to report onthe internal affairs of Uruguay.

That it does not have nor willit have in future any kind of relationswith this same organization.

That it will not indulge inpolemics in any form or circumstancewith this association, because to doso would be degrading to our nationaldignity. . .

Foreign Minister Juan Carlos Blanco, at aspecially called news conference on the eve ofthe Al campaign, 18 February 1976

The action which this private organ-ization called Amnesty Internationalis trying to promote against Uruguaysurpasses all extremes yet reached byinternational propaganda campaignsagainst countries that defend them-selves against marxist-communistpenetration.. .

The fact is, on a fbced dateannounced in advance, AmnestyInternational launched a campaignagainst Uruguay, simultaneouslycalling international news conferencesin several major cities in Europe andthe United States, in order torelease all its poison, its slanders, itsdistortions, its one-sided views,managing to exploit the informationmedia as a channel for its aims—nota difficult feat, considering the newsagencies' notorious inclination forsuch attacks on anti-communistgovernments...

Neither Eastern countries nor penalprocedures in Asia and Africa attractAmnesty's humanitarianism...

Editorial entitled "Amnesty in Defence ofCommunism", El Pats,Montevideo, 21February 1976

organization of the Left. ... .. Amnesty exhibits a disconcertingpropensity to exalt the rights of con-science to the exclusion of all otherlegitimate considerations—such asrespect for law, military order, andharmony in the community...

.The crucial test is simple: doesAmnesty display a greater zeal forexposing the sins of rightwingregimes than those of left*ing(particularly Communist) dictator-ships? Is Amnesty's work as trulydispassionate, objective, and evenlydistributed as it asserts?

After surveying the evidence, I donot believe that Amnesty practices asystematic double standard. To itsenduring credit, Amnesty's concernappears to be genuinely universal. ..

George H. Nash, National Review, New York,6 December 1974

USA

0 Cover article about Amnesty Inter-national.

... Evidence abounds, then, thatAmnesty International is destined tobecome the preeminent human rightslobby of our time, a force to reckonwith in international politics. Thisalone would justify scrutiny of itsprinciples and performance. But thetask acquires a special urgency foranother reason. Amnesty asserts—persuasively, I think—that it is"independent of any govermnent,political party, or religious creed".Regrettably, however, it is not freeof ideology, and one ideology aboveall: liberalism.

For despite its efforts to berigidly nonpolitical, AmnestyInternational is unmistakably an

sia

0 Amnesty International in February1976 launched a worldwide campaignagainst torture in Uruguay.

The Government of the Republic ofUruguay proclaims before nationaland international public opinion thata new stage begins today in thecampaign that strives to harmUruguay by presenting a falsifiedimage of our country...

hi view of these circumstances, thegovernment considers it necto emphasize:

1) That it does not recognize thatthe same organization Amnesty Inter-

political detainees of all rank andtariff being held incommunicado?

The Deccan Herald,Bangalore, 29 September1974

INDIA0 In September 1974, Amnesty Inter-national published a Report on Deten-don Conditions in West Bengal Jailswhich criticized the conditions in thejails.

Propriety often becomes its ownparody when do-gooder privateorganizations presume to become theworld's conscience and AmnestyInternational, in its apparent need tofind ghosts under every bushel,finally seems to have outdone itself.

How else can one explain its quiteabsurd and outrageous allegations thatWest Bengal jails are overflowing with

O The Indian government declared astate of emergency on 26 June 1975,suspending fundamental human rightsand detaining tens of thousands ofalleged opponents of Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi's regime. Amnesty Inter-national was one of a number of organiza-tions which sent protests to the govern-ment urging the release of the detainees.

We learn that the Socialist Inter-national and Amnesty International

12 13

are two organizations which are veryactive in the hate-India campaign.They are flush with funds. Onewonders from where these come.

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in an interviewpublished in her ruling Congress Party'sjournal, Socialist India, 13 Auguld 1975

political detainees from non-communist trends.

Editorial in Angkatan Bersenlata,IndonesianArmy Newspaper, Bandjermasin, 29 May 1971

disregard of the right to self-determination of the South Vietnamesepeople...

Press release issued at specially convened newsconference in London by the embassy of thegovernment of the Republic of Vietnam on 23February 1973.

published by that organization on thissubject... Furthermore, by urgingthe International Conference, which ismostly made up of foreign countries,to take action regarding a purelyinternal matter of South Vietnam,well before the expiration of the abovementioned limit of 90 days, AmnestyInternational shows an unexpectedThe Prime Minister had a dig at the

Amnesty International and theSocialist International. These organ-izations were not at all worried aboutwhat had been happening in thecountries where there was "openauthoritarian rule". They were notconcerned if people were killed butthey raised their voice if some peoplewere detained, she added.

Report in The Hindustan Times of a speechdelivered by Mrs Gandhi when inauguratingan educators' conference in New Delhi on19 September 1975.

uro e

Arief Budiman, one of the mostactive student leaders in Indonesia,published an article in a leading weeklynews magazine on the subject of theincreasing attention being paid outsideIndonesia to the question of its politicalprisoners.

If the Indonesian government ishostile to this organization [Al] andregards it as a communist group, thenthis attitude will bolster the com-munist groups which campaign forpolitical purposes. In Europe every-body knows that Amnesty Inter-national is a non-political organizationwhich is viewed with enmity by boththe Spanish and Greek governmentsand the governments in EasternEurope.

"Problem of Political Prisoners and How toHandle It", by Arief Budiman, Tempo,Semarang, 9 June 1973

See Netherlands, page 17.

CZECHOSLOVAKIAAt present [imperialist] circles con-centrate on supporting the activeopponents of the [Czechoslovak]regime. Under directives from these[imperialist] centers a number ofemigres have penetrated all kinds ofwestern organizations, associations andinstitutions, ie the Committee forNuclear Disarmament, the so-calledRussell Foundation, InternationalPen Club, and the specially createdorganization Amnesty International,working for the "pardoning" ofthose who were sentenced for acts ofsubversion.

Extract from the weekly Tribuna, Prague,8 January 1975

ance program, very considerably.The organization has a researchdepartment which probably today isin possession of the most compre-hensive material in the world con-cerning abuse of power, politicalpersecution and maltreatment ofprisoners.

Ambiguous—because the annualreport also shows that these effortshave not stopped the barbaricdevelopment.

Information, Copenhagen, 4 September 1974

DENMARK0 The Amnesty International Annual

Report 1973174was published inSeptember 1974.

What can be deduced from readingAl's annual report is impressive butalso ambiguous. Impressive becausethe organization since the sixties hasextended its information, and assist-

REPUBLIC OF VIETNAMAmnesty International statement

urging the International Conference onVietnam and Indochina to place theestimated 100,000 political prisoners inSouth Vietnam under United Nationscontrol.

On Thursday, 22 February, 1973,Amnesty International has issued anews release concerning the questionof civilian prisoners in South Vietnam.The Embassy of Vietnam, while itdoes not question the good faith ofAmnesty International, deems itnecessary to make the following reser-vations regarding the memorandum

INDONESIA0 Memorandum sent by the Chairmanof Al's International Executive Comm-ittee, Sean MacBride—who had visitedIndonesia in October 1970—to theIndonesian government drawing atten-tion to 90,000 political prisonersdetained since the 1965 coup attempt.

Sean MacBride SC is the Chairman ofAmnesty International.. . a frontorganization of the new left, whichhas its seat in London. Their work isto defend political detainees, especi-ally the communists who areimprisoned in various countries out-side the communist bloc, on theexcuse of h m, humanrights and the rule of law, normswhich are customarily not needed bythe communists themselves. Neverthe-less, in order not to be too transparentnow and again they also defend

FINLAND0 The exiled Russian author AlexanderSolzhenitsyn gave a news conferenceon 12 December 1974 in Stockholm atwhich he was critical of AmnestyInternational.

After careful comments about thecase of Raoul Wallenberg [a Swedishdiplomat in Hungary taken prisonerby the Russians in 1945 and notheard of since then], he directedhard criticism against AmnestyInternational. He explained that

14

Amnesty incorrectly comparespolitical prisoners' conditions in theeast and west. It is not possibleto make such a comparison becauseconditions of political prisonersin the Soviet Union are moredifficult than anywhere else. It isalso more difficult to get informa-tion from the Soviet Union than anyother country. Amnesty doesn'trealize that, and that is why itdeceives itself and the others in acruel way.

Report in the Finnish newspaper Vasabladet.Vaasa, 13 December 1974

strictly impartial and not to appearcommitted to a particular ideology.

Marcel Niedergang in Le Monde, Paris,8December 1973

15Libya, unlike other Arab countriessuch as Egypt and Morocco, is a freeand happy country. Unfortunatelythis is not true.

Frankfurter Allgetneine Zeitung, Frankfurt,16 January 1976

FRANCE0 Amnesty International's December1973 Conference for the Abolition ofTorture was to have been held inUNESCO headquarters in Paris, but itwas cancelled by UNESCO at the lastminute. The conference was transferredto another site in Paris and took placeon schedule, 10-12 December 1973.

In the 12 yews of its existenceAmnesty International can claim someappreciable success: thousands ofpeople on four continents, in the eastas well as the west, have been snatchedfrom their jails by the untiring andstubborn, yet often discreet, effortsof "groups", each of which isentrusted by this non-governmentalo • tion with the concern of thefate of three political prisoners (onefrom the east, one from the westand one from a non-aligned country)..

The handful of lawyers broughttogether by Peter Benenson and SeanMacBride in 1961 gave birth to anorganization whose moral authorityis acknowledged by the east as wellas the west...

The [UNESCO] incident is reveal-ing. It is not easy nowadays to appear

GREECE0 An Amnesty International newsrelease reported from reliable sources inAthens that at least nine Greek navalofficers involved in an alleged mutinyattempt had been tortured.

Amnesty has repeatedly lied and doesso shamelessly again. The matter is anunbridled and malicious figment ofimagination.

Byron Stamatopolulos, the Greek Government'sPress Undersecretary, quoted in The AthensNews, Athens, 8 June 1973

FEDERAL REPUBLIC OFGERMANY0 In 1974 Sean MacBride, longtimeChairman of Anmesty International'sInternational Executive Committee,shared the Nobel Peace Prize with formerJapanese Prime Minister Eisaku Satowho also was a member of Al.

...The other candidate, SeanMacBride, is certainly moredeserving... he has lent the organ-ization an image. But the workwhich has made Al great and respect-ed has been carried out by itsnameless staff and members.

They take issue with the men inpower, name them, castigate racism,torture, concentration camps andtotalitarianism—whether it occurs inthe country of The Gulag Archipelagoor in states ruled by juntas... ThePeace Prize would have been a fittinghonour for the organization.

Commentary, Frankfurter Rundschau,Frankfurt, 10 October 1974

0 The Amnesty International Reporton Torturewas published in December1973.

Amnesty International's originalityis that it seeks not so much the moralsupport of well known people, asthe more effective contributionfrom supporters of all ages and alllevels who give their money andtheir work to develop this networkof solidarity which is unique in theworld. Unceasing specialist researchkeeps the organization informed ofarrests, of cases of torture and ofany violation of fundamental rights.Mnnesty International's informationis the most reliable which exists onthe treatment of political prisonerswherever they may be, and on whatmight be called the geography oftorture...

Amnesty International's reportrigorously analyzes [the practice oftorture].

Article entitled "The Century of Torture"by Pierre Emmanuel in Le Figaro, Paris,8-9 December 1973

GERMAN DEMOCRATICREPUBLIC0 Publication of series of AmnestyInternational reports on prison condi-tions in Portugal, East Germany andother countries.

•

...The report on Portugal is excel-lent, but it is absurd to focus onEast Germany, as there are nopolitical prisoners in East Germany;anyone looking for violations ofhuman rights in that part of theworld should concentrate on WestGermany...

Berliner Zeitung, East Berlin, 1966

0 An article about Amnesty Inter-national's work in Greece and othercount ries.

Greeks feel affection for theAmnesty International organization.During the years of dictatorship,news of its activities, the charges itbrought and its work of informingpublic opinion about the violationsof human rights and the tortures andpersecution practised by the tyran-nical regime, often reached their ears.Not only was there the consistentsupport which it gave to the Greeks,but its courageous representationsto the official authorities oftenproduced positive results.

Article in Kathimerittl, Athens, 25 January1975

0 The Libyan police brutally broke upa student demonstration in Benghazi on4 January 1976.

In Bonn and several western capitals,Libyan students have occupied theembassies. The young Libyanswere protesting against the brutal waythe police handle student demonstra-tions in their country... It is verydifficult to verify if, as the studentssay, several students were killed inBenghazi or if that claim is exagger-ated. Voluntary organizations suchas Amnesty International cannot betrusted as far as the violation ofhuman rights in Libya is concerned.Amnesty International has got itsinformation on Africa from verydubious sources for a long time andtherefore was continced that

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND0 Speech on general problems facingthe LIN and world, delivered by theIrish Minister for Foreign Affairs to the

16

30th session of the United NationsGeneral Assembly in New York.

We [the United Nations] have not,however, succeeded in making muchprogress in respect of individualhuman rights within nation states...It should be a source of shame toall of us in this organization that abody such as Amnesty International,widely respected, should have toreport that in the territories of100 members of this organizationbreaches of human rights occur andthat one member state, Chile, iscurrently refusing admission to aUnited Nations human rights studygroup.

Dr Garret FitzGerald, Irish Minister forForeign Affairs, 26 September 1975

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or superficial. The accusations arewell documented and Amnesty hasfound it proven that torture ispractised both in East European andwestern countries...

Dagbladet, Oslo, 3 December 1973

of the Soviets. Amnesty's activities inWestern Europe are to the benefit ofthe Soviet Union, because they takethe wind out of the sails of clear anti-communist groups who actually dosomething for the persecuted behindthe Iron Curtain. For that reason it isquite possible that the reports aboutarrests of Amnesty workers in Russiaare invented by the KGB to increasethe sympathy for AI in the west.

Getrouw, May 1975

LUXEMBOURG0 Amnesty International LuxembourgSection launched a national promotioncampaign in December 1975.

One can criticize Amnesty Inter-national for not naming the politicalcauses of which violence is an effect,like imperialism, but one may alsofear that Amnesty's activity enforcesthe passive self-content about thesocial order here. It gives those whohave always omitted to stand up forhuman rights an alibi free of charge.

Tageblatt, Luxembourg, 28 December 19750 A special report called IndonesiaSpecialpublished by Amnesty Inter-national's Dutch Section in March,1973,contained a detailed and illustratedreview of the history and suffering ofthe 55,000 Indonesian civilians detainedwithout trial for more than sevenyears.

Amnesty International, a laudableorganization that defends the rightsof political prisoners all over theworld, is doing great work with itsaction for the tens of thousands ofpolitical prisoners in Indonesia...

In its special publication on thefate of political prisoners in Indonesia,Amnesty International-Holland givesuseful and generally reliable informa-tion. It is regrettable, however, thatthe role the communists played inthe coup of 1965 is portrayed ratherone-sidedly.

(let Parool, Amsterdam, 9 March 1973

An editorial, entitled "Violencepoisons", which mentions the variousforms of persecution against dissentersand civilians in different parts of theworld.

Hope for a peaceful world as long asmankind cannot agree to somethingas illusory as common moral rules, issomething which only the verybiggest optimists have. But organiza-tions like the Red Cross, AmnestyInternational and a few others are, inspite of everything, giving a certainhope. Highly neutral in religious,racial and political questions, theyhave on a purely humanitarian founda-tion managed to combine idealismwith realism.

Aftenposten, Oslo, 8 July 1974

ITALY0 An article about Amnesty Inter-national's work at the time of thepublication of the Italian edition of theAmnesty International Report onTorture.

It is sufficient to glance throughAmnesty's annual report to realizewhat an enormous contribution it[Anmesty] is making to a human

that has shown itself to be ofvital importance, since intolerance forpolitical and racial reasons is attun-ing the forms of state legitimacy. Itis, for example, because of Amnestythat the organ of Soviet dissent,"Chronicle of Current Events"secretly published in the USSR, andwhich denounces the arrest andpersecution of dissidents, has beenmade known in the west and trans-lated into many languages.

Article entitled "Torture, vergogna senzapassaporrs" [Torture, shame without apassport] in Corriere della Sera, Milan, 15lune 1975

NORWAY0 The Amnesty International Reporton Torturewas published in December1973.

Amnesty International has onceagain made the world aware of aninternational problem. The reportcannot be brushed aside as one-sided

NETHERLANDSGetrouw, the Dutch-language

monthly of the International Councilof Christian Churches, published acomment on the arrest of AI members inthe Soviet Union.

AI, the organization professing tofight for the interests of politicalprisoners in east and west, has beenexposed repeatedly in this paperas being without principles anduntrustworthy. The internationalsocialist and marxist ideas guidingAmnesty in a major way should deterChristians enough already. News aboutarrests of, and official troubles for,Amnesty workers in the socialist"paradise" Russia may seem to con-tradict this but they do not changeour position. Amnesty does notbecome trustworthy because theSoviet Union takes a turn against her.Communists also fight among them-selves.. . The regime in Moscow doesnot tolerate any interference, noteven from ideological friends.

For that matter, it is doubtfulwhether these reports are true andwhether they indicate that Amnestyreally has not found favour in the eyes

PORTUGALO In November 1972, a demonstrationwas held in front of the PortugueseEmbassy in The Hague, led by the headof the Portuguese Social DemocraticParty, Dr Mario Soares, to protest againstthe detention of political prisoners inPortugal. The following is a commentaryon the Reuter report of the incident.

...The anti-Portuguese demonstrationswhich took place in The Hagueabout a week ago, in front of thePortuguese Embassy, gathered about700 people in a simulated, symbolic"concentration camp". The demon-strators carried banners calling foramnesty for the prisoners.

This sad, inconceivable spectacle,

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whose "star was Dr Mario Soares(Professor at the University ofRennes), was dreamed up by AmnestyInternational, whose headquarters arein London and whose brains are inMoscow...

Diario de Noticias, Lisbon, 19 November 1972

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organization, as unqualified as anyorganization controlled by Moscowto judge Chilean events. ..

Letter from the Chilean ambassador,Francisco Gorigoitia Herrera, published inCambio 16. Madrid, 28 April 1975

0 After the release of political detaineesin April 1974 a quotation from theNational Committee of Aid to PoliticalPrisoners appeared in an article in aLisbon evening newspaper.

...We would like to thank all thosewho in one way or another have givenmoral or material help to the prisonersand their families who were cruellypersecuted by the previous regime—help which lasted for years. There isno doubt that for many politicalprisoners Amnesty International wasa ray of hope in the night of theirdespair.

Jornal Novo, Lisbon, 10 May 1975

0 The editor replied:

The Chilean ambassador appears tohave more accurate information inhis possession than Cambio 16 or theSoviet authorities themselves, whohave recently been detaining andimprisoning all of Amnesty Inter-national's representatives in theUSSR.

Carnbio 16, Madrid, 28 April 1975

See USSR, page 21.

0 Al's Secretary General wrote on 30January 1976 to Prime MinsterPinheiro de Azevedo of Portugal corn-mending his government on co-sponsor-ing the United Nations Declaration onTorture. A copy of the letter was sentto the Portuguese representative at theUN.

...May 1, in my own name, recallyour tireless efforts in favour of somany of the prisoners and detaineeswhom I had the privilege, as a memberof the Lisbon Bar, to defend in theyears prior to 1974.

Letter from Jose Manuel Galvao Teles,Permanent Representative of Portugal to theUnited Nations, New York, 11 February 1976

that the Athens sentences are tosatisfy leftist thirsts for revenge? Butthen, the condemned are only whitepatriots who tried to preserve theircountry from a Communist take-over.Does Amnesty International stand upfor the victims of bloody repressionby African tyrants or the oppressedand incarcerated victims of theegregious Mrs Gandhi? Does thatorganization intercede for thoselanguishing in East German prisonsbecause they tried to escape fromthat Red Paradise?

A letter from St Gallen, Switzerland, printedin the Thternational Herald Tribune, Paris,4 September 1975

0 Al's Swiss Section approachedteachers in Berne during a fundraisingcampaign.

If we now put Al's [Swiss Sectionpublicity—mainly attacks on govern-ments for violating human rights—under the microscope, we findincreasing proof of its one-sidedness.Al admits that it has conducted onepublicity campaign against easterngovernments and three against thewest... Nowadays, there is no signwhatever of AI's political neutrality.Let me give another two examples ofthis one-sidedness: has anybodyforgotten Al's furious attacks onSouth Vietnam? Its campaigns againstthe equally blameworthy communistspale in comparison. Although Al wasaware of the existence of 64,000political prisoners held by theVietcong, it never used this fact for acampaign against North Vietnam.

Letter to Berner Schulblatt, Beme, 9 November1973

SWEDEN0 In an address to the United NationsGeneral Assembly on 23 September1975, Swedish Minister for ForeignAffairs Sven Andersson discussed theneed for respect for human rights.

Moreover, let me emphasize thedeplorable lack of respect for politicaldissidents, of which we receive dailyevidence... people are being throwninto prison in a great many countries,their only crime being that they haveexpressed inconvenient thoughts.Amnesty International is an organ-ization that deserves much credit forthe way in which it has focused theattention of the world on the fate ofmany of these people.

Sven Andersson, Swedish Minister for ForeignAffairs, New York, 23 September 1975

SWITZERLAND0 The defendants in the first trial oftorturers under the former Greek juntawere sentenced in August 1975.

Where is Amnesty International now

TURKEY0 Amnesty International twice sentmissions to Turkey in 1972 to investig-

SPA I N...everyone knows that Amnestyis nothing more than a communist

ate allegations of torture of politicalprisoners. The second mission reported toa news conference in London inDecember 1972 that efforts to see allbut one of 32 prisoners on a listpreviously agreed with the TurkishGovernment had failed.

Ankara, January 25.A group of conservative members

of Parliament tonight tried to beatup the chairman of Turkey's mainopposition party on the House floor ashe was accusing the Prime Minister oflying on the issue of torture ofpolitical prisoners in Turkey.

Mr Ferit Melen, the Prime Minister,had been telling Parliament thatallegations of torture by westernnewspapers, "Amnesty what's-its-nameInternational" and some parliamentar-ians at the Council of Europe werepart of a slander campaign againstTurkey. The accusations were "alllies, all false", he said.

Mr Bulent Ecevit, Chairman of theRepublic People's Party, rose andshouted: "You are lying". He waspromptly attacked by about 15 mem-bers of the conservative NationalReliance and Democratic parties.

RPP members defended their leader,and curses and punches were exchangedwith Mr Ecevit in the middle of thescrimmage.

It was Mr Ecevit who first publiclyalleged the torture of politicalprisoners in Turkey. Continuing hisrebuttal today after order was restored,Mr Melen said that a representative ofAmnesty International who had seenleftist prisoners in Istanbul "hasbetrayed us". Such a mistake wouldnot be repeated.

...Newspapers, Amnesty Internationa'and such members of Parliament whoalleged torture were participants in "a

20

campaign of slander directed againstTurkey".

Report in The Times, London, 26 January 1973

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0 Byelorussia's party newspaper reportedthat several Roman Catholics had beenarrested for publishing notes on foreignbroadcasts and for trying to distribute"anti-Soviet literature" abroad.

...The paper also reported that theorganization Amnesty Internationalhad interceded on behalf of the chiefdefendant Evgeny Silchukov. Itaccused Al of defending "anti-communists" while, at the same time,doing nothing "for the thousands ofcitizens languishing in Chilean,Spanish, Israeli and South Africanjails, as these prisoners are not anti-communists".

Reuter report from Moscow, published in theSwiss daily newspaper Neue Zurcher Zeitung,13 August 1974

0 The Report of an Amnesty Inter-national Mission to Spain was publishedin September 1975.

Amnesty International has issued arevealing document... it comes toconfirm, with the authority of thishumanitarian international organiza-fion however, that the violation ofhuman rights, that arbitrarinessraised to the mark of the administra-tion of justice, and that repression asa form of government have not com-menced with the promulgation of theanti-terrorism law... All attempts byAmnesty International through adelegation to establish contact withthe Spanish government have failed. Butif the Francoite authorities think thatthey can continue with their repress-ive police in the shadows and insilence, they are wrong.

Radio Moscow broadcast to Spain on 18September 1975, translated in the BritishBroadcasting Corporation's (BBC) Summaryof World Broadcasts

UNITED KINGDOM0 Michael Tobin was adopted by aSwiss Amnesty International group as aprisoner of conscience, after being sen-tenced to 2 years' imprisonment inBritain for possession of copies of pro-Irish Republican Army leaflets offeringmoney to British soldiers who desertedor handed over their officers to the IRA.

...Tobin, only the second Englishprisoner to be adopted by AmnestyInternational, is presumably seen as asuitable candidate for martyrdom.But the organization's sympathy ismonstrously misguided... Tobinmight be as much a fool as a villain.But he is not worth shedding anytears over. And if Amnesty Interna-tional champions undeserving causeslike his it can only devalue theorganization's efforts to help victimsof repressive regimes like Russia andBrazil. If Amnesty International islooking for martyrs in the UnitedKingdom it might consider more than100 soldiers who have been killed inNorthern Ireland.

Editorial entitled "The Unlikely Martyr" inThe Chatham, Rochester & Gillingham News,Kent, 8 December 1972

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0 Letters sent by Amnesty Internationalgroups appealing on behalf ofvarious political prisoners in the SovietUnion. The following article called theletters "provocative" and the senders"do-gooders".

...The persons who send suchletters are ordinaty clerks in the localorganizations of this so-called"Amnesty International", which evenaccording to the bourgeois press is ina leading position among organiza-tions which conduct subversive anti-Soviet propaganda...

Amnesty International dissemin-ates falsified materials in capitalistcountries which are expected toconvince the public that believers arepersecuted in the USSR, that in owcountry the church is allegedly to betound •n the catacombs, and so on.In addition, the philanthropistsresort to crude slander.

Article entitled "Wrong Address, Gentlemen",Pravda Ukrainy, Kiev, 1 November 1970,reprinted in the Digest of the Soviet UkrainianPress, December 1970

0 Publication in November 1975 of Al'sPrisoners of Conscience in the USSR:Their Treatment and Conditions.

Amnesty International has some-times come under criticism forappearing to concentrate on countriesunder "Rightwing" regimes, such asGreece under the Colonels. With thepublication of its 150-page report on"prim:was of conscience" in Russia(s • • ed in The Daily Telegraph

yesterday), such criticisms, if theyever had any validity can never beraised again. It is one of the mostdetailed which Amnesty has everproduced on violations in a singlecountry. And its evidence and con-clusions are truly damning...

Editorial in The Daily Telegraph, London, 19November 1975

USSR0 Parcels and letters were sent toSoviet prisoners of conscience confinedto mental hospitals. There was accom-panying publicity on the subject.

Especially zealous is the notorious"Amnesty International", whoseunscrupulous methods we havealready related to you in the pagesof lzvestia. . . One of the reports ofthe British Section of this organiza-tion states that representatives of theintelligentsia in the Soviet Union aresent off to psychiatric hospitals"without any trial". Tales of "psy-chiatric isolation cells for healthypersons" are unfailingly accompaniedby a hypocritical refrain from"martyrs", condemned, apparently,to spend the rest of their days behindimpenetrable walls. In reality, we aredealing with persons who have corn-mitted socially dangerous actionswhile of unsound mind, or who have,during the course of the investigation,the trial, or after the sentence hasbeen passed, become mentally ill,thus making it impossible for them-selves to take account of their ownactions or control them... TheWestern ideological saboteurs whobabble all kinds of rubbish aboutmentally ill persons do not evennotice what a ridiculous position theyare putting themselves in.

Article in lzvestia. Moscow, entitled "Zealotsof Falsehood in the Slough of Slander",signed by K. Bryantsev, 24 October 1971

22 23

e i le astthe report—published in Londonearlier this month—was notobjective...

While Syria appreciated the aimsof the human rights organization, itcould not but note that the report"was not completely objective indefining responsibility for acts violat-ing the Geneva conventions andhumane and international traditions,"the spokesman said.

Report from Damascus published in The DailyStar, Beirut, 23 April 1975

artificial balance. The report hadpresented Syrian charges asauthoritative and had tended to glossover claims by Israeli prisoners.

Reuter report from Jerusalem, 10 April 1975

SYRIA0 Report of an Amnesty InternationalMission to Israel and the Syrian ArabRepublic to Investigate Allegations ofIII-Treatment and Torture was publishedin April 1975.

...the spokesman. .. said Tuesday

IRAN0 An article about Amnesty Internationalas a "colonial spying organ".

The International Amnesty Organiza-tion, a new puppet show that thecommunists have started, is busyinvestigating so called cases ofintrigues and plots.

Organizations like the internationalamnesty organization. .. instead ofdoing their original job, started inter-fering in the internal affairs of thecountries they visited on the pretextof investigating the cases of politicalprisoners.

Let the planners of the spy organiza-tion of international amnesty knowthat the time of their trickeries is overand the countries of the third worldare careful enough to see that theseorganizations are given no facilityto interfere in their internal affairs.

Rastakhiz, Tehran, 1 September 1975

•

igating the situation and well-beingof prisonersin the third world, hasbecome in effect the supporter andprotector of the stooges of reaction-aries and communists. It has used allits resources to publish false reportsabout the [third world] countries,as well as defending those who haveacted—according to incontrovertiblefact—as professional terrorists, proventraitors and lackeys of colonialismand communism, but who are nowin the hands of justice.

...The abuse of the freedom ofaction granted to representatives ofthis espionage agency in thosecountries, the distortion of thereports that it has spread and whichhave been proven false, as well asits participation in acts of armeddestruction and terrorism in some ofthese countries, has clearly revealedthe true nature of its affiliation withinternational communism.

Khandaniha, Teheran, Issue number 930 Article in a widely read weeklymagazine.

Amnesty International... has inrecent years employed intimidationand pressure of all kinds, includingthe sending of missions to thirdworld countries or to thosecountries which are affiliated withthe industrialized, developed count-ries and which are not sympatheticto communism.

...in spite of all internationallaws, it interferes in the internalaffairs of these countries, and haspublished lies and slanders aboutthem. Amnesty International, whichclaims to be responsible for invest-

ISRAEL0 Report of an Amnesty InternationalMission to Israel and the Syrian ArabRepublic to Investigate Allegations ofIll-Treatment and Torture was publishedin April 1975.

Israeli officials today disputed thefindings of an Amnesty Internationalcommission which accused bothIsrael and Syria of ill-treating theirprisoners during the October war of1973.

They said that the commission,in a report just published in London,had deliberately tried to reach an

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:9

"Never a moment of peace"Cartoon by F. Behrendt in Altenpcsten, Oslo. Reproduced by kind permission ot the artist

24

ilo ue AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLICATIONS

0 Following the publication of theReport of an Amnesty InternationalMission to Spain in September 1975,American author and journalist MarthaGelhorn, visited Spain in January 1976in connection with an article shesubsequently wrote for The New YorkMagazineon the political situation inSpain after the death of Head of StateFrancisco Franco.

On my first journalistic assignmentin Spain since the Civil War, everyoneI met in the democratic oppositionknew of Amnesty International andhad great respect for it. In poorBasque villages even teenage boysspoke of Amnesty International(perhaps the only English word theyknew) and a returned political prisonerexplained how much it meant tothem, in jail, to feel that this organ-ization existed, and they were notforgotten by the world. Where policetorture is routine, as in Spain andmost especially in the Basque country,Amnesty gives hope of being heard;Amnesty is the only place to sendword of such official crimes and—inthe simplest terms—Amnesty is seenas a friend by all those who sufferfor expressing their opposition tothe injustices and abuses of apolice state.

Martha Gelhorn, in a note to Al's InternationalSecretariat, 16 February 1976

Prisoners of Conscience in the USSR: Their Treatment and Conditions, A5,154 pages. November 1975: £1.00 (US $2.50).

Report of an Amnesty International Mission to Spain, A5, 24 pages, September1975: 35 pence (US $0.90).

Report of an Amnesty International Mission to Israel and the Syrian ArabRepublic to Investigate Allegations of Ill-Treatment and Torture, A5, 34pages, April 1975: 50 pence,(US $1.25).

Amnesty International Report on Torture, 246 pages. First published December1973, second (updated) edition January 1975: £1.50 (US $3.75).

Chile: an Amnesty International Report, A5, 80 pages in English, 88 pagesSpanish, September 1974: 85 pence (US $2.10).

Political Prisoners in South Vietnam, A4, 36 pages, July 1973: 35" pence(US $0.90).

Report on Allegations of Torture in Brazil, A5, 108 pages, first editionSeptember 1972, re-set with updated preface March 1976: £1.20 (US $3.00).

Report of an Inquiry into Allegations of Ill-Treatment in Northern Ireland, A4,48 pages, March 1972: 75 pence (US $1.85).

A Chronicle of Current Events (Journal of the Human Rights Movement in theUSSR), numbers 17, 18, 21, 24, 27 published individually: 65 pence(US $1.60); double volumes 19-20, 22-23, 25-26: 85 pence (US $2.10);numbers 28-31 in one volume: 95 pence (US $2.50); numbers 32-33, onevolume, £.1.95 (US $4.95).

Mission Reports. Also available are individual Al mission reports in A4 stencilledform on Republic of Korea and Sri Lanka. 50 pence (US $1.00) each.

SUBSCRIPTIONSAmnesty International Briefing Papers: a new series of human rights reference

booklets on individual countries, averaging between 12-16 pages in A5format. So far published: Singapore, Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, People's Demo-cratic Republic of Yemen. Subscription price for series of 10 briefing papers:£6 (US $15). Price includes postage and packing.

Amnesty International Newsletter and Annual Report. 12 monthly 6-pageNewsletters on Al's work for human rights, plus one copy of annual report(currently more than 160 pages), annual subscription price £6 (US $15)inclusive.

Many of the above publications are available in a number of languages. Ordersto Amnesty International national sections in your country or to AmnestyInternational Publications, 53 Theobald's Road, London WC1X 8SP, England.Please send payment with your order, adding 20% (minimum 20 pence—US $0.50) for postage and packing.

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