UPCOMING
EVENTS
Thursday, March 22, 7:30 PM.
Monthly Meeting 1052 E. Del Mar. Avenue, Top Floor.
Monday, March 26, Mini conference at
Calstate Fullerton. See below.
Monday, March 26, 8:30-10:00
PM, Program at 9:00 PM. Execution Vigil. All Saints Church 132 N.
Euclid Ave., Pasadena. All are
welcome.
Tuesday, April 10, 7:30 PM. Letter-writing Meeting at the Athenaeum. Corner of California & Hill in the basement recreation
area. An informal meeting, a great
place for first-timers to ask questions!
Sunday,
April 15, 7:30 PM.
Rights Readers Human Rights Book Discussion Group at Borders Books on S. Lake Avenue. This month we
discuss House of Splendid Isolation by
Edna O’Brien.
AMNESTY MINI-CONFERENCE
Network with area activists on
March 24!
Saturday
24 March 2001
Hosted by
Los Angeles and San Diego Area AI Groups
California
State University, Fullerton, CA
AI
activists will gather for one day to discuss effective methods in Human Rights
work currently used in Southern and Baja California areas. We will
share successes
and develop strategies for working together. Let's educate ourselves, our
fellow activists, and our communities about Human Rights. Join us and add your
voice!
How to Get
to Cal State Fullerton: Cal State Fullerton is located west of the
Orange (57) Freeway
in Fullerton. The university is bordered by Nutwood Avenue to the south, State
College Boulevard to the west, Yorba Linda Boulevard to the north, and the 57
Freeway to the east.
Coming from
either the south or the north on the 57 Freeway, exit at Nutwood Avenue. Go
west on Nutwood past the main campus entrance at Commonwealth Avenue and then
past Titan Drive to the entrance to Parking Lot C.
The
registration desk is outside McCarthy Hall Room 121, which is in the northwest
corner of the building. This event is free!
Contact
the Western Regional Office, (310) 815-0450
or aiusala@aiusa.org for more info
or visit
http://www.aiusa.org/events/03242001_conference.html.
Tentative
Program:
9:30am - 10:30am
Opening Plenary
Workshop (1st Set) 10:40am - 12:00 pm
Intro to Amnesty International, Mandate Review Workshop, Border Issues/Operation Gatekeeper, Restorative Justice and the Death Penalty
12:00 - 1:30pm Lunch/Caucuses
Workshop (2nd Set)1:30pm - 2:50pm
International Treaties, Conflict Resolution, Amnesty Campaigns
Workshop (3rd Set)3:00pm - 4:20pm
Use of the Internet, Group Health - How to
retain members, Direct Action Workshop, Legislative
Workshop
Workshop (4th Set)4:30pm - 5:50pm
Leadership Skills for High School Students, International Criminal Court, Women's Issues, Building Coalitions - Grassroots/Locally
6:00pm - 6:30pm Closing Plenary
RIGHTS
READERS
Human
Rights Book Discussion Group
Borders Books &
Music
475 South Lake Avenue,
Pasadena
Sunday, April 15, 7:30
PM
|
|
House of
Splendid Isolation by Edna
O’Brien In this novel, Edna
O’Brien’s signature theme of womanly love is worked out once more
in her signature style--beautiful writing that cascades and
pirouettes like the
rollicking, invigorating rush of |
rush of a mountain stream a strong role
here, in the form of an IRA terrorist loose in the Irish Republic, searched for
by the forces of law and scurrying under and around like an evasive rat. With a
dual sympathy that gives this narrative its heart, O'Brien follows him as he
locates a refuge in the house of an old woman whom he takes hostage; O'Brien
backtracks and tells us the woman's story, and it's one of aloneness and
heartbreak. Through their brief and tragic intersection, the reader sees both
sides of the historical conflict.
A splendid novel by a superb writer. am.
Politics plays
LETTER
COUNT
Prisoner of Conscience (Ngawang Pekar): 2
Death Penalty:
2
Campaign Against Torture
2
Just Earth
43
Urgent Actions:
16
Total:
65
Want to add your letters to the total? Get in touch with lucas.kamp@jpl.nasa.gov
REFUGEE ACTION
Women Asylum Seekers'
Treatment Worsens As US Government Fails to Protect Them
Women asylum-seekers are facing ill-treatment, at times serious
ill-treatment, in a Miami, Florida jail where they were transferred following
allegations of sexual
abuse at a US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) detention
center in Florida. Amnesty International believes
that the move has effectively resulted in the women being "punished"
through more restrictive detention
for the US Government's failure to protect them.
Summary.
In December 2000, the Immigration and
Naturalization Service (INS) moved 90 female detainees (as many as 60 are asylum-seekers) from Krome Service
Processing Center to Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center (TGK). The move
followed the publication of a
report by the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children detailing
widespread sexual, physical,
verbal and emotional abuse by guards of the female detainees at Krome. Women
had consistently described an
atmosphere of fear and intimidation in the Krome facility. Women who cooperated
in sexual activities were made false promises of release from detention. Threats of deportation,
transfers to county jails, or even death were levelled at women who dared to resist or complain of such
abuses. Reports of sexual misconduct range from rape to molestation to trading
sex for favors.
According to reports received by Amnesty International, the
treatment of female detainees at TGK is in many respects far more severe than at Krome. Women have
complained of being treated as criminal detainees rather than
asylum-seekers.
According to the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, which has been
monitoring the move, the women's medication and other personal belongings were reportedly confiscated upon
being transferred to TGK. The women, some of whom are pregnant, complain of insufficient food,
inadequate medical care and very cold cells. A detainee alleged that they are
told repeatedly that they are
inmates and will be treated as such. The women are frequently locked up in
isolation, sometimes arbitrarily;
they have poor recreational facilities; are awakened frequently throughout the
night for prison counts or for blood tests; are not allowed pens; and are
subject to arbitrary rules. According to one detainee, the women were
stripped-searched on arrival and
ordered to squat three times naked.
Although the women are now supervised by female guards at TGK
complaints of sexual harassment and abuse continue to be received. Just two days after their
arrival, a male trustee -- a prisoner who is part of a work crew - allegedly
"exposed himself" to a
group of women. That same day another male trustee allegedly kissed and fondled
a female detainee while a male guard stood by. On the following day another male trustee exposed
himself to a woman, who had reported sexual abuse by an officer who remains at Krome. The women
are now placed in "lockdown" whenever a man is in the cell unit, thus
effectively "punishing"
the women further.
Legal service providers report significant barriers to attorney
access at TGK, and detainees are only allowed one personal visit per month, in comparison to the two
visits a week they were allowed at Krome. Moreover, they are only allowed to
make collect calls, which calls
many phones do not accept.
Amnesty International is also concerned that some women who have
already passed their "credible fear" asylum interviews (and are thus eligible for release)
still remain in detention. Moreover, those who are eligible for release are
reportedly told that they will be
denied release if they complain about conditions. Some detainees are reportedly
threatened with "file review" denials, transfer or lockdown for expressing concern about
their treatment. They are also handcuffed when taken to Krome for asylum interviews or immigration
court hearings and stripped searched numerous times.
Please write to the INS District Director and the INS Commissioner
raising all or some of the following points.
-
Explain that
you are writing as an AI member to express concern about the INS' decision in
December 2000 to move all the female detainees at Krome Processing Center to
the Turner Guildford Knight Correctional Centre (TGK), a local jail
in Miami.
-
Point out
that the transfer has not been a solution to the problem of sexual abuse but
has resulted in an entirely new set of problems. According to reports received
by AI, the treatment of detainees at TGK is, in many respects, far more severe
than at Krome and the women should not be made to suffer more for the
authorities'
failure to protect them.
-
State that
the women have complained of being treated as criminal detainees rather than
asylum-seekers. Mention some of the abuses reported by the female detainees at
TGK. Urge that the INS takes immediate action to ensure that the women
detainees are not locked up in isolation or otherwise treated punitively while
in detention and that they receive humane treatment
-
Also raise
concern about continuing sexual harassment and abuse and the fact that the
women are "locked down" whenever a man is present.
-
Urge that
INS takes steps to ensure that male guards and inmate trustees do not have
unsupervised access to female facilities which create opportunities for abuse.
Preventive measures should be in place so that women are not afraid to report
abuses through fear of reprisals and to protect women from sexual
abuse.
-
Mention that
international standards state that the detention of asylum-seekers should
normally be avoided. Women who have passed their "credible fear"
asylum interview and are eligible for release, however, have still still
remained in detention at Krome or TGK.
-
Urge that
the INS consider alternatives to detention. Non-custodial measures, such as
half-way houses or monitored release with periodic reporting requirements,
should always be considered before resorting to detention.
-
Call on the
INS to ensure that detainees are not held in local jails. In those limited
circumstances where detention of asylum-seekers is justified, they
should be detained
in a facility appropriate to their status as asylum-seekers, in line with
international standards.
-
Ask to be
informed of the outcome of the internal investigation carried out by the TGK
Office of Public Affairs into the allegations reported.
Appeals to:
Ms
Mary Ann Wyrsch
Acting
Commissioner
Immigration
and Naturalization Service
Department
of Justice
425
I Street NW
Washington,
DC 20536, USA
Robert
A. Wallis
INS
District Director
US
INS Miami District Office
7880
Biscayne Boulevard
Miami,
FL 33138, USA
Copies of your letters should go to the Attorney
General
The Honourable John Ashcroft
Attorney General
Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Room 440
Washington DC 20530-0001, USA
JUST EARTH
NETWORK
Urgent Appeal for Rodolfo and
Teodoro!
Jailed
Mexican environmental defenders Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera are waiting
to hear what the Attorney General's decision is on the amparo filed by their
lawyers. An amparo is a special appeal that is used to challenge an act of an
authority that violated an individual's constitutional guarantees. A
decision is
expected in the coming week. This is a critical moment to step up pressure on
President Fox. Attached below is a draft letter that you can send to him.
Please copy the Attorney General on the letters. His address is also
below.
Lic.
Vicente Fox Quesada
President
of Mexico
Palacio
Nacional
Patio
de Honor, Primer Piso
Colonia
Centro
México
DF CP 06067
Dear
President Fox:
I
am writing to express my concerns about Rodolfo Montiel Flores and Teodoro
Cabrera García, environmental activists currently in prison in Iguala,
Guerrero. In August a federal judge convicted them on drug and weapons
possession charges, and in October an appeals magistrate upheld the
conviction.
Amnesty
International believes the charges against them are not supported by the
evidence, and that Montiel and Cabrera have committed no crime. They are
Prisoners of Conscience who have been targeted because of their efforts to
defend Guerrero forests from destructive logging that threatens the livelihood
of their communities. They should be immediately and unconditionally
released.
On
May 2, 1999, Montiel and Cabrera were illegally arrested by members of the
Mexican Army's 40th Infantry Battalion in Pizotla, Guerrero. They were held in
military custody for five days, during which time they
were
tortured
and forced to sign blank pieces of paper later submitted at their trials as
confessions to drug and weapons crimes.
Montiel
and Cabrera are founders and members of the Organization of Campesino
Environmentalists of the Petatlán and Coyuca de Catalán
Mountains, which was formed in 1998 in response to the widespread and illegal
logging in that region. Their efforts have been recognized in Mexico and
internationally. Montiel has received the Goldman Environmental Prize and the
Sierra Club's Chico Mendes Prize for his struggle to protect the
environment.
In July 2000, Mexico's own National Human Rights Commission concluded that Montiel and Cabrera had been illegally detained and tortured by soldiers, and were not in possession of weapons or drugs at the time of their arrest.
Recently,
you issued orders that all necessary measures be taken in order to ensure that
no further human rights violations are committed against Montiel and Cabrera. I
urge you to make good on these promises by securing the immediate and
unconditional release of these men if the Attorney General should rule
unfavorably on the amparo.
Thank
you for your attention to my concerns.
Sincerely,
Send
copies of letters to:
Attorney
General of the Republic
General
Rafael Macedo de la Concha
Procurador
General de la Republica
Procuraduría
General de la República
Paseo
de la Reforma 65, esq.Violeta
Col.
Guerrero
México
D.F., C.P. 06300
MEXICO
Salutation:
Senor Procurador General / Dear Attorney General
PRISONER OF
CONSCIENCE
Ngawang Pekar, Tibetan Monk
Group 22 maintains its commitment to work on behalf of our adopted
POC (prisoner of conscience) Ngawang Pekar. He is a Tibetan monk who has been
imprisoned since 1989, when he was arrested for participating in a peaceful
demonstration in Lhasa.
We are planning some new actions this year. We have received
approval to write directly to Ngawang Pekar, and we will do this as soon as we
receive confirmation of the address to use. It is likely that Pekar will never
actually receive our letters, but he may learn that mail was sent to him from
abroad and maybe that knowledge will bring a ray of hope into grim Drapchi
Prison.. We also hope to undertake some cooperative email actions with other AI
groups who have Tibetan POC's. Currently there are 12 US groups working on 8
Tibetan POC's.
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) issued a
sad news release announcing the death of a 28-year-old Tibetan nun, Ngawang
Lochoe, in Drapchi Prison on Feb. 5, just a year before the completion of her
10-year sentence. She was one of the 14 imprisoned nuns who recorded songs on a
smuggled tape recorder in 1993 and consequently had their sentences increased.
Her relatives were prevented from seeing her in the weeks before her death, and
they were not informed of the cause of death. The executive director of TCHRD
stated that her sudden death was highly questionable and that 72 Tibetan
political prisoners have died directly as a result of
torture.
China recently appointed a new ambassador to the US, Yang Jiechi.
As this month's action, we ask that you write or email him and make him aware
of Ngawang Pekar's case. You may copy the following letter or use it as a
guide.
Your Excellency:
I am writing to express my concern for a prisoner being held in
Tibet Autonomous Region Prison No. 1. The prisoner's name is NGAWANG
PEKAR.
Ngawang Pekar, a Tibetan monk, was arrested in 1989 for
participating
in a peaceful demonstration in the city of Lasashi and sentenced to 8 years in
prison. Subsequently, his sentence was increased by an additional 6 years.
Amnesty International considers him to be a prisoner of conscience and I am
concerned that he has been imprisoned solely for the peaceful exercise of his
universally recognized right to freedom of expression. I am further deeply
concerned about reports that he has been beaten and denied access to medical
care since his arrest. I therefore respectfully urge you to request that
Pekar's
case be reviewed and that he be immediately and unconditionally
released in accordance with the international laws to which China is
signatory.
Thank you for your attention to this important
matter.
Sincerely,
(YOUR NAME AND
ADDRESS)
Please mail to:
Yang Jiechi, Ambassador
Embassy of the People's Republic of China
2300 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington, DC 20008
Or send email to webmaster@china-embassy.org. As always, please
notify Group 22 if you should receive a reply. Remember: Airmail postage is
now 80 cents!!
CAMPAIGN AGAINST
TORTURE
Torture and
ill-treatment in the name of honor
Take action for Kajal Kidhr in Kurdistan
In July 1996, 24-year-old Kajal Khidr was detained near the town
of Rania in Iraqi Kurdistan by six members of her husband's family. They
accused her of adultery and, although she was pregnant, tortured and mutilated
her. They cut off part of her nose, and told her that she would be killed after
the birth of her child. After receiving treatment at a hospital in Rania, she
managed to escape and received three further months of treatment at a hospital
in the city of Sulaimaniya, where she was kept under police protection. She
then spent a year in hiding before finding protection in a women's refuge in
Sulaimaniya. With the help of local human rights activists Kajal Khidr escaped
to Syria in February 1999 and was recognized as a refugee by the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees. In July 2000 she was resettled in a third
country where she lives with her daughter, now four years old.
Two of the men who had tortured Kajal Khidr were arrested by the
authorities in the area, which is controlled by the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK), but were released within 24 hours because it was argued that
they had acted to safeguard the honor of the family. No charges were ever
brought against them.
Every year, in countries around the world, girls and women are
brutally assaulted or killed - usually by members of their own family - in the
name of "honor". They are accused of bringing shame on their families
and community by their behaviour. This can range from simply having a
conversation with a male neighbour to having sexual relations outside marriage.
The mere perception that a woman has contravened the code of sexual behaviour
damages honor. Women on whom
suspicion has fallen are not given an opportunity to defend themselves and men
are encouraged to remove the "stain" on their honor by attacking the
woman.
Iraqi law allows male relatives to kill a female relative in the
name of honor without any consequent punishment.
Women's organizations and human rights activists in Iraqi
Kurdistan have reported that many thousands of women in the areas controlled by
the PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) have been tortured or killed
by relatives and others who claim they are acting to protect the honor of the
family. Women who have been raped, as well as those accused of adultery - or
any sort of contact with a man who is not a family member - have been among the
victims, as have women who have refused to marry the man chosen by their
family. Neither the KDP nor the PUK have denied that women have been the
victims of so-called "honor crimes". In April 2000 the PUK announced
that all laws allowing honor crimes would be abolished in the area under its
control. The Independent Women's Organization in Kurdistan says that up to
4,000 women have been the victims of "honor killings" since 1991,
although other groups have put the figure at 800. In October 1991, the Iraqi
government pulled out of parts of the provinces of Dohuk, Sulaimaniya and Arbil
in northern Iraq. This area, known as Iraqi Kurdistan, is now controlled by the
two main Kurdish groups, the KDP and the PUK, each of which has established its
own "government" within the territory.
Recommended Action. Please write to representatives of the PUK,
urging them to: take all necessary steps to bring the torturers of Kajal Khidr
to justice.
Please write to the representatives of both the KDP and the PUK,
urging them to:
-
firmly,
publicly and unequivocally condemn violence against women in the name of honor
and make clear that such violence will not be tolerated;
-
ensure that
so-called "honor crimes" are recognized as criminal offences and that
everyone taking the law into their own hands to injure or kill anyone in the
name of honor will be brought to justice;
-
investigate
all cases of "honor crimes" and other serious abuses against women in
Iraqi Kurdistan, and bring to justice those responsible;
-
take
immediate steps to raise public awareness about the issue of "honor
crimes" and other abuses against women.
Appeals
to
Jalal
Talabani,
c/o PUK United
Kingdom,
First Floor, 5
Glasshouse Walk,
Vauxhall, London
SE11 5ES, United Kingdom
Mas'ud
Barzani,
c/o KDP
- Europe,
PO Box 7725,
London SW1 3ZD, United Kingdom
CALIFORNIA EXECUTION
ALERT
Execution of Robert Lee Massie set for
March 27
Robert
Lee Massie is scheduled to be executed by the State of California on Tuesday,
March 27, 2001 at 12:01 a.m. If
the execution is carried out, he will be the ninth inmate killed by the State
of California since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1978, and the
first executed in California this year.
While
many of the past and upcoming executions in our country have been
controversial, with claims of innocence, mental retardation, and redemption,
Massie's case is perhaps more
disturbing for the lack of all final pleas. Massie is one of a small
minority of death row inmates that has chosen to give up all appeals. He is
volunteering to be murdered by the state. The act of state-assisted suicide has
been receiving substantial press lately, ever since Timothy McVeigh dropped his
appeals and was given an execution date of May 16, 2001. While both men state
that they do not wish to spend years on death row waiting for the inevitable,
the similarity ends there. McVeigh is accused of wanting more attention and has
in fact suggested that his execution should be broadcast-offering the world
more death of his making-and seems to be defiantly suicidal. Massie has stated
that he is protesting the living conditions of death row and, after nearly 35
years on the row, is ready to bring it to a quick, quiet end.
Massie
is 59 years old and has been on death row longer than any man in California,
which has earned him the nickname "Dean of Death Row." His path to
death row, like so many of those who receive the ultimate punishment, started
as a small child. He was born on Christmas Eve to a 15-year-old girl and the
man who married her to avoid a charge of statutory rape. Abused by his mother
and stepfather, Massie lived in five foster homes by age eleven. At one of the
foster homes he was disciplined by being whipped with a switch and by having
his head held underwater. At eleven, he was put into a home for runaway boys,
and at 17 he stole a car and was sentenced to adult prison. There he was
gang-raped by the older inmates.
Massie
is the only inmate on California's death row who was condemned to death prior
to the 1972 moratorium on executions, had his sentence commuted to life,
subsequently killed again and was resentensed to death.
In
1965, Massie killed Mildred Weiss outside her home in San Gabriel while robbing
her and her husband. He received the death penalty and once came so close to
execution that he had ordered his last meal. But in 1972, all 107 men and women
on California's death row had their sentences commuted to life. At that time,
the alternative of Life Without Parole (LWOP) did not exist. Massie was paroled
in 1978, after six years of good behavior in general population.
But
only months later, on January 3, 1979, under the influence of drugs and
alcohol, Massie fatally shot San Francisco liquor store owner Boris Naumoff and
wounded store clerk Charles Harris during another robbery. Pleading guilty
against his lawyer's objection, he received a second sentence of death. He
tried unsuccessfully to prevent his automatic appeals in state court-one of
which overturned his sentence when the California Supreme Court concluded it
was illegal for him to have pleaded guilty against his lawyer's advice (1985),
only to be reaffirmed by another jury (1989)-but in January, 2001, convinced
his attorney, Frederick Baker, and U.S. District Judge Charles Legge that he
was competent to withdraw his federal appeal.
In
addition to his continued insistence on pursuing a state-assisted suicide,
Massie has himself attempted
suicide twice while on death row. While the courts have declared him competent
to waive his appeals, it is abundantly clear to many close to him that there is
a serious issue of clinical depression.
Massie
insists that he is not committing suicide. He has repeatedly condemned
state-sanctioned killings and the conditions on death row, and the
institutional system that benefits when people are in prison and on death row.
After 29 years on death row, and many more in prison and juvenile facilities,
he believes there is no chance that he will escape his death sentence, and no
longer wishes to accept a lingering death. The conditions he faces at San
Quentin have never been worse, and as the population soars (579 are currently
on death row at San Quentin) they will continue to deteriorate.
See
Up-coming Events for information about the Execution Vigil in
Pasadena. Write to
Governor Gray
Davis and express your
opposition to the death penalty in all cases.
State
Capitol, Sacramento, CA 95814
E-mail: graydavis@governor.ca.gov
Phone:
916-445-2841
Fax:
916-445-4633
Editor's Last
Word:
Read us on line:
http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~aigp22
Martha Ter Maat, 626-281-4039 /
mtermaat@hsc.usc.edu
