Subject: Amnesty International Group 22 Pasadena/Caltech News - May 2006


Amnesty International Group 22 Pasadena/Caltech News
Volume XIV Number 5, May 2006


UPCOMING EVENTS

Thursday, May 25, 7:30 PM. Monthly Meeting Caltech Y is located off San 
Pasqual between Hill and Holliston, south side. You will see two 
curving walls forming a gate to a path-- our building is just beyond. 
Help us plan future actions on Sudan, the War on Terror, death penalty 
and more.

Tuesday, June 13, 7:30 PM. Letter-writing Meeting at the Athenaeum. 
Corner of California & Hill.  Look for our table downstairs in the 
cafeteria area.  This informal gathering is a great way for newcomers 
to get acquainted with Amnesty!

Sunday, June 18, 6:30 PM. Rights Readers Human Rights Book Discussion 
Group. Vroman's Book Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena.  This 
month we read Ma Jian's The Noodle Maker (More below.)


COORDINATOR'S CORNER

Hi everybody! Group 22 has been busy since our last newsletter. Another 
Camp Darfur was held in Hollywood last weekend and Lucas Kamp was at 
the Amnesty table. Unfortunately, attendance was sparse as it was at 
the Camp Darfur in Lennox earlier in April. All Saints Church in 
Pasadena is going to have Camp Darfur at the end of June, according to 
Lucas. Hopefully that will be better attended and more of us can help 
out.

Also a few weekends ago, several Group 22 members met at the Laemmle 
Playhouse Theatre next to Vromans to see "Water", a film by an Indian 
director about the plight of widows in India, one of whom is a young 
child. This film is recommended and supported by Amnesty USA. The 
director was threatened by Hindu fundamentalists in India during 
filming so the majority of it was filmed in Sri Lanka. I found this 
movie to be profoundly affecting and I highly recommend it.

Thursday May 11 was Day of Action regarding Dow Chemical to get them to 
do something re the clean-up of the Bhopal disaster that occurred 22 
years ago. Group 22 members Paula Tavrow, Joyce Wolf and others called 
their hotline. More info on Bhopal can be found on 
http://www.amnestyusa.org. There is an excellent booklet you can print 
out called "Clouds of Disaster" for more information.

Good news! Congress has passed legislation condemning the murders of 
women in Juarez, Mexico. This resolution calls on the secretary of 
state and US ambassador to Mexico to take specific steps to ensure that 
addressing these horrendous murders becomes a part of the US-Mexico 
bilateral agenda.

Hope to see you at future events. Now it's time to get back to reading 
"George Orwell in Burma" to finish it on time for this Sunday's book 
group!

Take care,
Kathy				aigp22@caltech.edu


OUTFRONT
Investigate Torture of Gay Prisoners in Mexico

In 2004, Hiram Oliveros and his partner Mario Medina, a US citizen, 
were arrested and charged murder in Mexico. The men believed they had 
been arrested because they were a gay couple who could be forced to 
make a confession. They alleged that after their arrest police agents 
coerced them into confessing through the use of torture. Medina died 
after being stabbed by an inmate 88 times. Join Amnesty in demanding a 
serious and impartial investigation and a guarantee of safety for Hiram 
Oliveros.

Please write a politely-worded letter in English or Spanish to the 
Mexican authorities using the letter provided as a guide.
Director of Human Rights- Interior Ministry Ricardo Sepúlveda
Secretaria de Gobernacion
Reforma 99, PISO 21, PH, Colonia Tabacalera
C.P. 06030, México D.F., México

RE: Guarantee Safety of Hiram Oliveros

Dear Director of Human Rights- Interior Ministry Sepúlveda

I am writing to express my deep concern for the safety of Hiram 
Oliveros, whose partner Mario Medina, a US citizen, was murdered on May 
13, 2004 at the Nuevo Laredo prison in Tamaulipas State. Oliveros and 
Medina have been accused of involvement in the murder of journalist 
Roberto Javier Mora and coerced to confess the crime through torture. 
Although the Tamaulipas State Human Rights Commission effectively 
dismissed the allegations due to a lack of evidence, it appears that 
not all the evidence was considered. Specifically, the Human Rights 
Commission has neglected to take into consideration a video of Mario 
Medina indicating to his lawyer the injuries he sustained during 
torture. I urge you to review this evidence and revisit the allegation 
of torture made by Oliveros and Medina.

Despite assurances of his safety by Tamaulipas State prison authorities 
to a US consular official, Mario Medina was brutally stabbed 88 times 
by another inmate. It gravely concerns me that such a violent murder 
could be committed under the close watch of officers who assured his 
safety to the U.S. consulate. I urge you to conduct an open, impartial 
investigation into the death of Mario Medina in the hopes that the 
prison officers responsible for his safety be held accountable for 
their neglect and implication in his murder. Further, I urge you to 
guarantee the safety of Hiram Oliveros while in the custody of the 
Tamaulipas State prison.

In addition, I urge you to open an impartial and thorough investigation 
into Oliveros and Medina's claims that they were wrongly imprisoned in 
connection with the murder of El Mañana reporter Roberto Javier Mora. 
The two claimed in a March 30 press statement that they were tortured 
into confessing to the murder by Tamaulipas State judicial police 
agents. Furthermore, Oliveros and Medina claimed that they were accused 
of the murder on account of their sexual orientation.

In conclusion, I insist that you conduct independent and exhaustive 
investigations into both the circumstances surrounding the death of 
journalist Roberto Javier Mora and the murder of Mario Median while in 
the custody of Tamaulipas State prison, and guarantee the safety and 
fair trial of Hiriam Oliveros.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter. I await your reply.

Sincerely,  Your NAME and ADDRESS


 LETTER COUNT
Urgent Actions	10
Death Penalty 	6
Stop Violence Against Women	1
Total:	17
To add your letters to the total contact lwkamp@sbcglobal.net


RIGHTS READERS
Human Rights Book Discussion Group
Vroman's Bookstore
695 E. Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena
Sunday, June 18, 6:30 PM
Keep up with Rights Readers at http://rightsreaders.blogspot.com


The Noodle Maker
by Ma Jian

 From the highly acclaimed Ma Jian comes a satirical and powerfully 
written novel--excerpted in The New Yorker--about the absurdities and 
cruelties of life in post-Tianamen China.

Two men, a writer of political propaganda and a professional blood 
donor, meet for dinner every week. During the course of one drunken 
evening, the writer recounts the stories he would write, had he the 
courage: a young man buys an old kiln from an art school and opens a 
private crematorium, delighting in his ability to harass the corpses of 
police officers and Party secretaries while swooning to banned Western 
music; a heartbroken actress performs a public suicide by stepping into 
the jaws of a wild tiger, watched nonchalantly by her ex-lover. He is 
inspired by extraordinary characters, their lives pulled and pummeled 
by fate and politics, as if they were balls of dough in the hands of an 
all-powerful noodle maker. Ma Jian's masterpiece allows us a humorous 
yet profound glimpse of those struggling to survive under a system that 
dictates their every move.


CORPORATE ACTION NETWORK
Sound off to Google & Microsoft on Censorship
Early in 2006 Google launched a self-censoring Chinese search engine, 
google.cn, that blocks search results for topics such as human rights, 
political reform, Tiananmen Square and Falun Gong, among others. 
Amnesty International is concerned about the ways Google is aiding the 
repression of freedom to information and expression in China, and the 
implications this may have for the way the company operates everywhere 
in the world.

You may wish to contact the Google Help Center with your complaint. 
Visit http://www.google.com/support/bin/request.py and select "I have a 
general question about Google." In the next menu, select "Reporting a 
problem," "Suggesting a new feature," or "Other." In your message 
express your concern about Google aiding human rights abuses in China, 
and request that Google 'feature' respect for universal freedoms 
everywhere they operate.

Express your concern to:
Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
Tel: (650) 253 0000
Fax:(650) 618 1499

Dear Mr. Schmidt:
I am alarmed that in the pursuit of new and lucrative markets, your 
company could be contributing to human rights violations, in particular 
abuses to freedom of expression and information. This issue is 
especially evident in China, where Google has agreed to willingly 
restrict search results for topics such as human rights, political 
reform, Tiananmen Square and Falun Gong, among others. As a result, 
websites and webpages dealing with human rights, including many of 
those of Amnesty International and other human rights organizations, 
are inaccessible to internet users in China.

Though I acknowledge the policies recently adopted by Google 
purportedly to address some of these issues, I remain deeply distressed 
by your company's evident willingness to directly contradict your 
stated vision to 'do no evil' by supporting censorship. The fact that 
the company acts in compliance with restrictive domestic law does not 
exempt it from its international human rights responsibilities if 
complying with such request contributes to human rights violations.

Internet companies have an invaluable role to play in the realization 
of freedom of expression and information -- it shocks me that Google 
would compromise this goal in pursuit of profit. Therefore I urge 
Google to:

-	Conduct its Internet business in China, and everywhere it operates, 
in a manner that respects human rights, abides by international human 
rights standards and avoids complicity in human rights violations.
-	Revise its policy to ensure the company does not unconditionally 
assist censorship of the internet but, on the contrary, challenges 
requests that are a violation of international human rights standards.
-	Put pressure on the Chinese government to:
1) Remove blockages on websites that deal with democracy, human rights, 
freedom, or that peacefully articulate opinions on religion or 
politics;
2) Stop the filtering of key words on the Chinese internet, including 
words such as democracy, human rights, freedom and Falun Gong;
3) Ensure the Chinese public have uninhibited access to the full range 
of information available on the web in line with international 
standards on freedom of expression and freedom of information.
-	Develop an explicit human rights policy, ensuring that it complies 
with the UN Norms for Business.

Thank you for your consideration of these demands.

Sincerely, Your NAME and ADDRESS

*****
Amnesty International is concerned about the ways Microsoft may be 
aiding the repression of freedom to information and expression in 
China. According to recent reports, Microsoft's search engine blocks 
searches under key words such as "freedom", "democracy", "human 
rights", "Falun Gong", and "demonstration", among others. Users of 
Microsoft Spaces are also prohibited from using these and other words 
on the weblogs they create.

Send a message to Bill Gates that corporations must respect human 
rights wherever they operate!

William H. Gates, Chairman
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052-6399
Tel:1-800-MICROSOFT (1-800-642-7676)
Fax: 425-708-0600 and 425-936-7329
E-mail: billig@microsoft.com If you are a MSN customer, visit their 
support webpage at: http://support.msn.com/  Click on MSN Search or MSN 
Spaces Abuses to send them a complaint about their active censorship of 
these products.  Sample Letter:

Dear Mr. Gates
I am alarmed that in the pursuit of new and lucrative markets, your 
company could be contributing to human rights violations, in particular 
abuses to freedom of expression and information.

This issue is especially evident in China, where according to reports, 
Microsoft cooperated with Chinese authorities to shut down the 
controversial blog of Zhao Jing, a Beijing-based researcher for the New 
York Times, who had posted articles critical of a management shakedown 
at Beijing News. As a result, websites and webpages dealing with human 
rights, including many of those of Amnesty International and other 
human rights organizations, are inaccessible to internet users in 
China. I was extremely disturbed by reports that Microsoft cooperated 
with Chinese authorities to shut down the controversial blog of Zhao 
Jing, a Beijing-based researcher for the New York Times, who had posted 
articles critical of a management shakedown at Beijing News.

Though I acknowledge the new policy recently adopted by Microsoft 
purportedly to address some of these issues, I remain deeply distressed 
by your company's evident willingness to contradict your own stated 
values and beliefs by supporting censorship. The fact that the company 
acts in compliance with restrictive domestic law does not exempt it 
from its international human rights responsibilities if complying with 
such request contributes to human rights violations.

Internet companies have an invaluable role to play in the realization 
of freedom of expression and information -- it shocks me that Microsoft 
would compromise this goal in pursuit of profit. Therefore I urge 
Microsoft to:

-	Conduct its Internet business in China, and everywhere it operates, 
in a manner that respects human rights, abides by international human 
rights standards and avoids complicity in human rights violations.
-	Revise its policy to ensure the company does not unconditionally 
assist censorship of the internet but, on the contrary, challenges 
requests that are a violation of international human rights standards.
-	Put pressure on the Chinese government to:
1) Remove blockages on websites that deal with democracy, human rights, 
freedom, or that peacefully articulate opinions on religion or 
politics;
2) Stop the filtering of key words on the Chinese internet, including 
words such as human rights, democracy, freedom and Falun Gong;
3) Ensure the Chinese public have uninhibited access to the full range 
of information available on the web in line with international 
standards on freedom of expression and freedom of information.
-	Develop an explicit human rights policy, ensuring that it complies 
with the UN Norms for Business.

Thank you for your consideration of these demands.

Sincerely, Your NAME and ADDRESS


DEATH PENALTY
Urge Clemency for Mentally Ill Prisoner

Mexican national Angel Maturino Resendiz is scheduled for execution on 
27 June 2006. He was sentenced to death for the 1998 murder of Claudia 
Benton, a doctor in Houston. He is also believed to have committed a 
series of murders in several other US states. There is compelling 
evidence that Angel Maturino Resendiz suffers from serious mental 
illness, including paranoid schizophrenia.  His lawyers are arguing 
that he is incompetent for execution - that is, that he does not 
understand the reason for, or reality of, his punishment - and that his 
execution would therefore violate the US Constitution.

At the trial in 2000, the defence argued that Angel Maturino Resendiz 
was not guilty by reason of insanity, in other words that he did not 
know right from wrong at the time of the murder. For the defence, an 
expert testified that Maturino Resendiz was suffering from chronic 
paranoid schizophrenia, producing the delusion that he was an angel of 
God with a duty to destroy "evil people." The prosecution's experts did 
not dispute that he was mentally ill - and their testing found evidence 
of brain damage - but they testified that, in their opinion, he was not 
legally insane at the time of the crime.

No determination had been made of his competency to stand trial: the 
capacity of the defendant to understand the proceedings and to consult 
rationally with his attorney in presenting a defence. However, a 
pre-trial psychological evaluation reported that Angel Maturino 
Resendiz "stated with great vehemence that he wanted to be his own 
attorney, that he wanted to plead guilty and that he wanted to be put 
to death. He explained that if this course of events  occurred, he 
would be victorious because he would return to live on this earth 
whereas the judge, the jury and the executioner would all die instantly 
when he was put to death." Throughout the trial proceedings, 
antipsychotic drugs were administered to subdue the symptoms of his 
mental illness. After the jury rejected the insanity defence and found 
him guilty, Maturino Resendiz asked to be sentenced to death. He 
instructed his court-appointed attorneys not to make an opening 
statement at the penalty phase of his trial, not to cross-examine the 
state's witnesses and to present no testimony on his behalf.

In the six years that Angel Maturino Resendiz has been on death row, 
his mental condition has continued to deteriorate. He has been 
transferred to an inpatient psychiatric unit on eight different 
occasions, has mutilated himself more than 30 times, and has been 
placed on antipsychotic medication to control his auditory 
hallucinations and delusions. A recent assessment by a psychiatrist 
found that Angel Maturino Resendiz is completely delusional, convinced 
that as a "man-angel" he is immune from lethal injection and will 
awaken unharmed with a "renovated body" (cuerpo renovado) on the third 
day following his execution. A psychologist also recently concluded 
that the prisoner suffers from schizophrenia, and that he does not 
believe he will die as a result of execution.

In addition, Angel Maturino Resendiz - who suffered a childhood in 
Mexico marked by mental illness in his family and by appalling 
deprivation and abuse - was denied his internationally-recognized right 
to adequate legal representation on appeal.  His appeal lawyer filed a 
petition raising a single generic claim, failing to make any reference 
to the prisoner's mental illness, and not even mentioning him by name. 
It was later discovered that this petition was identical, 
word-for-word, to a brief filed in the appeal of another death row 
prisoner.  The appeal lawyer also missed a crucial deadline for filing 
in Angel Maturino Resendiz's case, with the result that under federal 
law the prisoner forfeited his right to further review of case-specific 
issues, such as his mental illness.

A petition has been filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human 
Rights, asserting that the execution of Angel Maturino Resendiz would 
violate the USA's international human rights obligations. On 1 May 
2006, the Commission responded by issuing "precautionary measures" 
calling on the United States to take the steps necessary to preserve 
the petitioner's life and physical integrity while his claims are under 
review.

BACKROUND INFORMATION.  The US Supreme Court has provided 
constitutional exemptions for some categories of mentally impaired 
people facing the death penalty. In 1986, the Court ruled in Ford v.  
Wainwright that the execution of people who are legally insane violates 
the US Constitution's prohibition on "cruel and unusual punishments". 
In reality, this has offered only minimal protection. In 2002, in 
Atkins v. Virginia, the Supreme Court prohibited the death penalty for 
people with mental retardation. The Court reasoned that the impairments 
of defendants with mental retardation diminish their personal 
culpability and their ability to understand consequences, rendering the 
death penalty unjustifiable on grounds of retribution or deterrence. 
Amnesty International believes that there is a profound inconsistency 
in exempting people with mental retardation from the death penalty 
while those with serious mental illness remain exposed to it. The same 
rationale of diminished culpability, greater vulnerability and limited 
capacity applies to defendants afflicted with severe mental illness.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as 
possible:
-	expressing sympathy for the family and friends of Claudia Benton, 
explaining that you are not seeking to condone the manner of her death 
or to minimize the suffering caused;
-	expressing concern that Angel Maturino Resendiz was convicted and 
sentenced to death without a determination of his competency to stand 
trial, despite abundant evidence of serious mental illness;
-	noting that the mental health of Angel Maturino Resendiz has 
deteriorated further on death row and that he is now reported to have 
no understanding that his execution will result in his death;
-	expressing concern at the shocking quality of legal representation he 
received on appeal, and noting that executive clemency exists precisely 
to compensate for inequities that the courts are unable or unwilling to 
remedy;
-	calling for the commutation of this death sentence in the interest of 
decency and justice;
-	urging that the Texas authorities at a minimum grant a reprieve to 
allow the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights sufficient time to 
rule on the claims submitted on his behalf.

Please include the prisoner's inmate number in all appeals:  TDCJ 
Number 999356.

APPEALS TO:
Ms. Rissie Owens, Presiding Officer
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles,
P.O. Box 13401, Austin, Texas 78711
Fax:  1 512 463 8120

The Honorable Rick Perry
Office of the Governor, State Capitol,
P.O. Box 12428, Austin, Texas 78711-2428
Fax:  1 512 463 1849


DENOUNCE TORTURE
Sample Letter for Guantanamo Prisoner

Navy Rear Admiral Harry B. Harris
Commander Joint Task Force Guantánamo
Department of Defense
Joint Task Force Guantánamo
Guantánamo Bay, Cuba
APO AE 09360 	Fax: 305-437-1241
Email: harrishb@jtfgtmo.southcom.mil

Dear Rear Admiral Harris:
I am concerned about Guantánamo detainee Jumah al-Dossari, who 
attempted suicide in March 2006 by slitting his throat. According to 
Amnesty International, U.S. officials have refused to give his lawyers 
any information about his current condition.

Bahraini national Jumah al-Dossari was detained in Pakistan in late 
2001 and held for several weeks by the Pakistani authorities. U.S. 
agents flew him to Kandahar airbase in Afghanistan, and then on to 
Guantánamo. Jumah al-Dossari claims he has been tortured in U.S. 
custody, including beatings and death threats, prolonged isolation, 
exposure to extreme cold, and sexual assaults.

In an earlier suicide attempt, Jumah al-Dossari reportedly tried to 
hang himself on 15 October 2005 after going into the toilet during an 
interview with his lawyer. In November 2005 he told his lawyer that he 
had wanted to kill himself so that he could send a message to the world 
that the conditions at Guantánamo are intolerable. He added that he had 
tried to do it in a public way so that the military could not cover it 
up and his death would not be anonymous. This suicide attempt left him 
with a broken vertebra and fourteen stitches in his right arm. The 
March suicide attempt is the 12th time al-Dossari has tried to kill 
himself in detention.

I urge you to ensure that there is an independent investigation into 
allegations that Jumah al-Dossari has been tortured and ill-treated in 
U.S. military custody. I further urge you to give him access to 
appropriate independent medical care, and to provide his lawyers with a 
full report of the state of his health, as reported by independent 
doctors. I ask you to ensure that Jumah al-Dossari and other Guantanamo 
detainees receive fair trials in U.S. courts in accordance with 
international law and without recourse to the death penalty.
Sincerely, Your NAME and ADDRESS