Friday, Nov. 7, 1980.

The Other Press

rnational

your friend has been forced
to lie against you and that
you are totally innocent. Yet
even as you do so, you
suddenly realize that every-
one in the courtroom is
against you and have been
_ from the start of the trial.

You are sentenced to
imprisonment for 2 years
and a term of exile for 2
years. You are led from the
courtroom, still in a state of
disbelief.

By now, the reader may
have recognized the country
in which this takes place, as
the Soviet Union. The story
is of course fictional, but it
is based on actual cases of
political prisoners in the
Soviet Union.

Many of these case stu-
dies are compiled by Am-
nesty International. The
group recently made a pre-
sentation to students at
Trent University.

 

Amnesty International is
a world-wide human rights
movement which is inde-
pendent of any government,
political faction, ideology,
economic interest or reli-
gious creed. It works for the
release of men and women

imprisoned anywhere for
beliefs, colour, sex, ethnic
origin, language or religion,
provided they have neither
used now advocated vio-
lence. These are termed

‘‘prisoners of conscience’’.
Amnesty _ International’s
concerns are limited to the
achievement everywhere in
the world of: the release of
all prisoners of conscience;
fair trial for all political
prisoners; and an end to the
torture or other ill-treat-
ment of prisoners and to the
use of the death penalty.”’
Two women from Ottawa,
Angela Demsey and Gwen
Persaud, were present to

 

speak. Although Amnesty
International is concerned
with violation of human
rights in many countries,
the meeting dealt with the
Soviet Union and Eastern
Europe.

Angela Dempsey spoke

' first on the Soviet Union.

She stated that the total
number of political prison-
ers in the Soviet Union is
unknown, but that there is
undoubtedly a great many.
Amnesty International has
never heard of a single case
in the Soviet Union in which
someone accused of a politi-
cal offense was acquitted. A
prisoner would often be
held for one year, before he
would have a lawyer ap-
pointed to him and a trial
date set. The - prisoneer
would only see his lawyer
once or twice before the
trial. Although the trial is
supposed to be open, the
spectators are always hand
picked to side with the
state.

The harshest treatment
given to political prisoners,
occurs in the _ psychiatric
hospitals. Ms. Dempsey
states that some prisoners
have been there for de-
cades. Some of them re-
ceive forced drug injections
of a powerful anti-psychotic
drug called sulfazin. Such is
the case of 53 year old
Pentecostalist Anna Chert-
kova. She has been held
since 1973, because of her
religious beliefs. The infor-
mation on her is contained
in a ‘‘samizdat’’ (clandes-
tine bulletin) smuggled out
of Tashkent. This bulletin
claims that she is a sane
and good woman, and that
the drug is reported to have
harmed her health.

According to Ms. Demp-
sey, the recent Olympics in
Moscow, was a very bad
time for dissidents in the
Soviet Union. The streets of
Moscow were literally clear-
ed of dissidents. Although
the terms of confinement
were finished for political
prisoners, they were exten-
ded by the state on false
pretexts until the Olympics
were over.

The Soviet Constitution
supposedly guarantees free-
dom of expression and free-
dom of religion. But there
are several Articles in the
Soviet Criminal Code that
effectively stifle freedom of
Expression:

Article 70:

“‘Anti-Soviet Agitation and
Propoganda.

Article 190-1:

‘Circulation of Fabrications
known to be False which
Defame the Soviet State
and Social System.’’

Article 142:

“The violation of laws on
the separation of church
and state”’

Article 227

“Infringement of Person
and Rights of Citizens un-
der Appearance of Perform-
ing Religious Ceremonies.”’

Ms. Dempsey urged peo-
ple to join Amnesty Interna-
tional and write letters to
political prisoners. She out-
lined several reasons why
letters make the life of
political prisoners easier.
The more letters written to
a prisoner, the less likely it
is that he will be lost and
forgotten in the system or
that he will disappear en-
tirely. The letters also help
the _prisoner’s mental
health, because they will
indicate that a great num-
ber of people care about
what happens to him. It
also lets the authorities
know you are observing the
prisoner and the treatment
he receives.

There is a file kept on
each prisoner in a central
location. Copies of letters to
a prisoner are kept in this
file. The thicker his file is

with letters, the more likely ood sign, as it meant that
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he'is to receive better treat-
ment.

Gwen Persaud spoke nex
on Eastern Europe. Ms.
Persaud admitted that she
really specialized in Roman-
ia, which she claimed has
the most repressive and
brutal regime in E. Europe.
At the moment, the Canadi-
an chapter of Amnesty In-
ternational only has eight
prisoners in Romania to
write to, but they hope to
have more soon.

At the’ present time,
there are no prisoners to
communicate with in Po-
land, because of the turmoil
there, and none in Albania,
due to their ‘‘closed door’’
policy.

Ms. Persaud met recently
with the Romanian ambass-
ador, who admitted to pass-
ing on only 2 per cent of the
letters written, and trashing
all of the others as propa-
ganda form letters.

Therefore, Ms. Persaud
urged people to write their
Members of Parliament and
ask them to apply pressure
on the Romanian govern-
ment for better treatment of
their political prisoners, es-
pecially since the Romanian
Premier is scheduled to
visit Ottawa soon.

There was a question
period after both women
had finished their presenta-
tions in which, it was noted
that the Soviet news agen-
cy, TASS had spoken out
vehemently against Amnes-
ty International. Ms. Demp-
sey replied that this was a

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page seven

the pressure from Amnesty
International is getting to
the Soviets.

A girl from Hungary sta-
ted that her family had an
old woman living with them
there, who was related to
the Old regime. She claim-
ed that because of this, her
father was brought up on
false charges. The farm
they wefe living on was
situated on poor land, and
her father had not been
able to grow cotton on it,
though he had tried very
hard to do so. He was
pe

The harshest
treatment given to

political prisoners

occurs in the

psychiatric hospitals.

charged with parasitism (in
brief; not earning your
keep) and found guilty. Be-
cause of this, he was unable
to obtain a job anywhere in
Hungary.

If you are interested in
joining Amnesty Interna-
tional and writing letters to
political prisoners, contact
the Vancouver chapter of
Amnesty International at
732-7532, and they will pro-
vide you with all the neces-
sary information.

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