Forthcoming events
For more details contact the name in italics.
January Sat 6th - Mandate Seminar London, details tba. Contact Alex Siddall
Thurs 11th - Group Meeting 8pm RISC:
Sat 20th - Regional Meeting Multicultural Centre, Aylesbury, 1-5pm. Meet
Amnesty’s new Groups Officer Philippa Stonebridge.
April 6th -8th - AIUK AGM, Edinburgh. Booking now open. Contact secretary
Anthea West for a booking form.
Barn DAnce: This is a super event to bring your friends to for relaxation and fun. Live band Berkshire Tragedy play great traditional music, there’s lots of leaping around and learning dances with the help and encouragement of all. Plus food and bar. Tickets £8/£4 concessions from Sue Bingham or on the door. Do come - you’ll love it!
Event ReviewS
Poetry and food a recipe for humour and profit:
Susan Utting, Don Barnard, Rob Evans and Christine Coleman are a group of poets collectively known as Late Shift. On Sunday 22nd November, they gave a reading of their poetry about food - 'What's for Afters?' - at RISC in aid of Amnesty, as part of Reading International Festival. Philip Wright organised the event with quiet efficiency.
The evening went very smoothly and was a financial and artistic success. About 40 people attended and enjoyed a mix of poems that combined humour, insight and occasional sadness. Poems about food can also be about families, memories, and places: the meals our grandparents gave us, the food we cook for our children, the romantic dinner and the garden produce left to rot. We heard poems about eating oysters, curry, chestnuts, and rattlesnake; about drunken cooking disasters, and men as culinary raw material for women. It was a pleasure to hear not just the individual poems, but the way the four performers worked together and linked their themes to balance the evening. There was something for everyone to enjoy.
The estimated profit on the evening was £180. We also had a celebrity guest in Clarissa Dickson Wright, who was so inspired by Sean O'Leary's excellent speech about Amnesty's aims and values that she signed a membership form on the spot, contributing not just her subscription but also a £100 donation.
… EVent ReviewS
Judge sparks controversy on asylum issues
AI Reading Group member Gordana Stankovic, who was visibly angered by our speaker at the October group meeting, writes:
“Last month Amnesty Reading Group guest was Mr Rodney Oliver, immigration adjudicator, who came to discuss human rights legislation and asylum seekers with us. I believe that most of the group members were shocked by Mr Oliver’s rhetoric regarding asylum seekers. According to Mr Oliver UK is flooded with the asylum seekers, who come to this country because of generous benefits that they are being given by the UK Government. The actual fact is that benefits are not so generous, “under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, asylum seekers receive just 70% of basic income support (the subsistence level payments received by UK benefit claimants). Moreover, they are mainly paid in vouchers rather than cash, which means that asylum seekers can only shop in designated outlets, do not receive change, and are stigmatised in the eyes of the local community.” (AIUK Briefing Paper “Asylum Seekers and Hostile Media Coverage”, 2000). Also what Mr Oliver seems to be forgetting is the fact that most of the asylum seekers come to this country in order to flee human rights abuses in their own country. To be fair to Mr Oliver, I must say that he managed to leave an impression that he is level-headed, thorough and conscientious in his work. What worries me though is, that we were presented with a picture where every asylum seeker is presumed ‘bogus’ until proven ‘genuine’ rather than other way round. In my understanding of things this is prejudice and we can only hope that when deciding the future of asylum seekers Mr Oliver relies solely on his expertise and conscience and not on his prejudices.”
AI Poland AGM: ‘small but dynamic’
Poland is a ‘High Priority Country’ in Amnesty’s terms - in other words, there are great benefits to the organisation in seeing a strong AI presence developing there. I went to the recent AI Poland AGM, and found a small but dynamic organisation. There was an impressive piece of street theatre to launch the torture campaign, a very impressive speech by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, and an extremely impressive hatful of activists and staff working to spread the human rights message in a country which has a strong sense of democracy, but not a lot of disposable income. So Amnesty has a long way to go in Poland, but is already beginning to make an impact.
I think it would be great fun for AIUK groups to ‘twin’ with groups in Poland. Sharing campaign ideas would benefit both organisations, and it might be possible to help out in other ways, eg with campaign materials etc. Anyone interested in this idea, contact me. AIUK is already helping Poland with training and in other ways. Note that Amnesty is short of Russian speakers to help with training in eastern Europe, so if you have expertise in this area, please let us know. Alex Siddall
Regional meeting: focus on Sri Lanka and Saudi Arabia
Two good speakers addressed the regional meeting in Welwyn Garden City: Prins Gunasekara, human rights lawyer from Sri Lanka who had been the subject of Urgent Actions at the height of the crisis in his country in the early 90’s. Then Paul Dawson, Saudi co-ordinator, gave us feedback on the Saudi campaign. This campaign was unusual in that it met or exceeded the campaign aims - possibly because, in the climate of secrecy which characterises Saudi Arabia, Amnesty had underestimated how responsive they would be to our campaign. However, the country is a long way from human rights respectability.
EVent ReviewS
AI director Kate Allen visits Reading
Amnesty UK’s new director Kate Allen came to our September meeting, and outlined her view of the movement, and her vision for the future. In the face of the changing nature of human rights violations, Amnesty needs to change to continue to be relevant. She also answered a number of questions on campaigning and other issues, such as when will Amnesty launch a campaign on female genital mutilation?
She struck us as a down-to-earth person, who is working hard to appeal to the grass-roots of the organisation. She has already made herself many friends in Amnesty by spending her first few months getting out and meeting activists around the UK. She is also popular with the staff. The impression she gives is of someone practical, down-to-earth, energetic - and a safe pair of hands.
How does our mandate grow?
Reading Group was represented at the Policy Discussion Day in Salisbury on 4th November. Led by Amnesty Press Officer Richard Bunting and International Issues Committee chair Judit Arenas, the debate focused on Amnesty’s mandate, sanctions, and how we campaign. The movement is deciding how to redefine our mandate, which has become increasingly complex and hard to explain. The two choices basically are: do we free ourselves to work on all human rights issues covered by international laws and agreements, or do we continue with our current mandate, updating it as we go along, as always?
As our campaigning and other work will always be limited by funding, it seems sensible to be able to work on whatever human rights abuses become the key issues of the day. It seemed awful that we were limited in speaking out about the situation in Rwanda - but at that time, genocide was excluded from our mandate. Now, when slavery is increasingly an issue of concern, with humans bought and sold more cheaply than ever before, we cannot as an organisation make any comment - even if we have incontrovertible evidence put before us. And our hands are tied over the suffering of the Iraqi people because the issue is so bound up with the sanctions - on which Amnesty can’t comment.
These are knotty issues. If you would like to hear the arguments for yourself, either to learn more or to have your say, it’s not too late to book for Birmingham on Sat 18 Nov, or London on Sat 25 Nov. For more details contact Diane Morant, 4 Cheyne Court, Flood Street, London SW3 5TP.
People
Maresa’s ’cook-up’:
During her lucid outline of the Tougher Arms Controls campaign to the University Group, campaign co-ordinator Maresa Pitt made a slip in referring to the Foreign Secretary as ‘Robin Cock’. Collapse of stout parties all round. In view of the absence of any perceptible ‘ethical dimension’ to the government’s position on anything much, let’s all cook a snock at the Cabinet…
New Baby:
Anna and Bill Sumner, former stalwarts of AI Reading Group, have just had their first child, a boy. Congratulations to both. Bill chaired Reading group, and Anna was a dynamic campaigner, including masterminding our involvement at WOMAD a few years back. They now live in Ealing. Best wishes to all three from AI Reading Group!
Group News
Fundraising 1: Society of Friends appeal raises £138
Bob Brown reported that his annual appeal for donations at his church this year brought £138 to AI Reading group funds. If you are a member of a church in Reading, would you be prepared to ask for donations to Amnesty?
Fundraising 2: Sponsored Walk
On Sunday 17th September, 12 group members and friends walked 5 miles, with only two carrying on for the full ten - treasurer Bob Brown, of course, and newsletter editor Alex Siddall. Altogether, the walkers raised over £274 for Amnesty Thanks to walkers and sponsors alike.
Fundraising 3: Street collection raises £385:
“Can you put a note in the next newsletter reporting on the result of the street collection in Broad Street on Saturday 14 October. We collected £385.77 as compared with £421.60 in Friars Street in 1999. It may be that Broad Street is getting so crowded it is difficult to collect. I would hasten to add that it is still a very good result and well worth the effort. Thanks to all those who helped with the collection. Our collection represents £16 per collector per hour on the SCRI (Siddall Collection Rate Index).” Bob Brown
Fundraising 4: Three Peaks climbers hit the jackpot:
The final total of funds raised by the participants in the Three Peaks Challenge - despite the fact that only two peaks were climbed in the time -has exceeded £3,500, which is a tremendous boost to group funds. We are likely to top £7,000 this year for the first time ever. Well done all!
Secretary speaks to the United Nations
Group secretary Anthea West attended the International Evening organised by Newbury United Nations Association (UNA) and gave a brief talk about Amnesty (since no-one from the Newbury group was able to do so.) Torture Campaign materials were distributed and people were asked to send postcards for the campaign. The evening was much brightened by a group of A-Level students from Padworth College, who wore national costumes and gave short speeches of greeting from their countries of origin.
University Group news
The University Group was host to local MP Martin Salter on 17 October 2000, when he gave a talk entitled 'This Government's approach to Human Rights', focusing in particular on arms export controls. He admitted to no specialist knowledge in this area, but read out some sections of a document relating to forthcoming legislation. He gave no commitment to major changes such as parliamentary scrutiny of export licence applications however. Students were vigorous in their questioning, particularly on the sanctions against Iraq, the bombing of Serbia and 'Humanitarian Intervention' in general, and the role of the UK as a last court of appeal for those subject to the Death Penalty in Trinidad.
The town and Uni Groups got together for a bit of mutual help at the Ed Byrne show in the Town Hall on 25 October, collecting signatures on postcards supporting two Burmese comedian prisoners of conscience, U Pa Pa Lay and U Lu Zaw (focus of our Big Petition at WOMAD last year). Comedian Ed gave us a big build-up before the interval and we collected nearly £120 and sent off 84 postcards.
The Amnesty Student Speakers' Tour included Reading University this year. Imen Derouiche and Nouredine Ben Ticha are students from Tunisia who were tortured by the authorities for demonstrating about conditions of study. Amnesty adopted them as prisoners of conscience. They spoke at the Uni group meeting on 7 November. Sean O’Leary
Campaign News
Tough Arms Controls: Government’s lukewarm response
So far as the likelihood of new legislation on arms controls in November’s Queen’s Speech is concerned, the position remains unchanged. According to press reports, due to the impending general election, the Government has designed a legislative programme to include measures which it believes have the widest appeal to the electorate and which therefore excludes tougher arms controls.
However, the Queen’s Speech will not take place until the end of November and there is still time to persuade the Government otherwise. We should continue to write to our MPs asking them to raise our concerns with Tony Blair, and to send campaign postcards to Stephen Byers. Reading AI Group held a stall in town at the end of September, at which over 120 cards were signed by members of the public.
If the Queen’s Speech fails to include the necessary legislation, Amnesty will campaign for this to be an election manifesto pledge and a priority in the next parliamentary session. The good news is that Stephen Byers has indicated that the Government is committed to introducing a system of licensing for arms brokering. There are however some serious shortcomings in his proposals. It is not clear how comprehensive the licensing system will be and there are no specific proposals on licensed production and end-use monitoring. Martin Salter MP has agreed to obtain clarification from Stephen Byers and may be able to table a parliamentary question on this issue.
Whatever the outcome, the Government’s lukewarm response to this campaign has been extremely disappointing, and evidently a considerable amount of further campaigning will be necessary before we see adequate arms controls on our statute books.
Maresa Pitt, campaign co-ordinator
Urgent Action
As part of the Urgent Action Pledge Scheme, two telexes have been sent on behalf of AI Reading Group, as follows:
· UA 279/00, Russian Federation: Fear of torture and ill-treatment/incommunicado detention/“Disappearance” - Ruslan Alikhadzhiyev, the speaker of the Chechen separatist “Republic of Ichkeria” parliament, was taken from his home in the Chechen town of Shali on 17 May by a Russian armed force. He is reported to have been tortured in a Moscow prison, and possibly to have died as a result. The Russians now deny having him in custody.
Amnesty’s telex to Vladimir Putin reads:
URGE IMMEDIATELY MAKE PUBLIC WHEREABOUTS/STATE OF HEALTH RUSLAN ALIKHADZHIYEV. URGE GRANT HIM ACCESS TO FAMILY/LAWYER/MEDICAL CARE. URGE RELEASE IMMEDIATELY UNLESS CHARGED WITH CRIMINAL OFFENCE.
· UA 317/00, Turkey: Torture and ill-treatment/unlawful detention/fear for safety for Fesih and Hatice Guler, reportedly held illegally by police in southeastern Turkey. They have been in custody for more than a month - the law allows the police to hold them for only ten days. Fesih’s father was allowed to visit him and said he was being pressured to turn state’s witness, and ‘was not in a good state’. The couple are accused of membership of Hizbullah. AI’s telex TO THE Minister OF the Interior, Mr Saadettin Tantan, reads:
CONCERNED FESIH GULER HELD IN POLICE CUSTODY IN EXCESS OF 10 DAY MAXIMUM/TURKISH LAW. URGE IMMEDIATELY TRANSFER TO PRISON OR RELEASE.
…Campaign News
Palestine: “Our children need to grow up in peace and security”
Group member Jim Penn, whose mother is Palestinian, sends this report:
"I visited the Hope Secondary School in Beit Jala in 1991 and have sent
them books etc. regularly ever since. In 1994 I was told by a British Council
Official that school books were banned! My efforts would be in vain because
the Israelis would confiscate them. These draconian measures are just one example
of the acute frustration felt by Palestine youth over many years. Happily this
situation has since been reversed and the ban lifted.
“I learnt from a lecturer at Bethlehem University, which is adjacent to Beit
Jala, that many students remain at the University all the time until they complete
their graduation for fear that should they ever go home to the Gaza Strip they
will not be allowed back. It seems so ludicrous because the actual distance
is no more than about 30 miles or so."
“Greetings from Hope School, Beit Jala, Bethlehem. 28 October 2000
“Your prayers are needed more than ever. Last night from 7:00 until midnight, Apache helicopters fired at the houses of Beit Jala with missiles and live bullets... The boarding students are especially afraid. They are far from their families and loved ones, and last night one helicopter hovered directly overhead. Every missile that was fired shook the windows, frightening them even more. Some of the younger ones were crying from fear. It will take a great deal of time for these young teens to overcome the psychological damage done by this violence… Because of the actions of a few radicals (five at most, according to general opinion), an entire town is held hostage to physical and psychological warfare.
“We pray constantly for peace with justice. Our children need to grow up in an environment of peace and security. ”
Solomon Nour, Director, Hope School
Amnesty issued a press release on 11 October 2000 which said:
"The events of the past two weeks, in which about 100 people have their lost their lives and hundreds of others have been injured, have created a climate in which human rights violations will flourish unless there is absolute respect for the rule of law, including fundamental principles of human rights and humanitarian law."
And on 26 October 2000: "’Human life is being cheapened by a mindset which seems to regard the killing of more than 130 Palestinians, including nearly 40 children, and the killing of two detained Israeli soldiers as an unavoidable and acceptable consequence of the current crisis’, said Claudio Cordone, the leader of an Amnesty International delegation visiting Israel and the Occupied Territories this week.”
If you would like to get involved directly on this issue, please contact: Medical Aid For Palestinians,33a Islington Park Street,London,N1 1QB. Registered Charity No 1045315. Donations welcome.
www.stoptorture.org
If you have access to the internet, visit the Amnesty site www.stoptorture.org and help in the positive ‘e-campaigning’ which has already had an effect. After thousands of people visited the site and sent an email in response to the information on torture taking place in the Lebanon, Amnesty received a message from the Lebanese government saying, ‘please don’t send us any more emails, we have got the message’. Apparently, their systems couldn’t handle the volume of emails being received, and kept crashing!
Torture Campaign message: “Don’t let torturers get away with it”
The national launch of the Torture Campaign took place in October. This is a major campaign, running from now until the end of next year. It is the third time Amnesty has run a worldwide campaign on torture, and the previous two campaigns have succeeded in getting torture recognised as an issue, and having international statutes created and ratified. The aim now is to get countries to take their responsibilities seriously.
Reading is seeing the campaign being introduced bit by bit, with letters to our MP’s, a letter from Bracknell group being published in the Reading Chronicle, and the University Group having a speaker meeting on 7th November with two young people from Tunisia who were tortured for calling for better conditions in their university. The room was packed with people anxious to hear their story.
“I don’t know how I could have prepared for the impact Imen Derouiche and Nouredine Ben Ticha made on me. When they dispassionately described the torture they had been subjected to, I felt detached. Sympathetic, yes - as one feels when a colleague tells of their illness or accident - but unengaged, as of something far away. Perhaps this was partly because it was so ludicrous: here were two economics students who had protested about the absence of suitable materials for their course, a result of government incompetence and mismanagement. They had been arrested and then tortured systematically and efficiently in a purpose-built torture centre staffed by experts, and then had been sentenced to terms of imprisonment by a magistrate who quite openly admitted that their fate would be decided by the police: he would do what he was told.
“What really struck me was that these two young, good-looking people were prepared to return to Tunisia after the end of their speaker tour of Universities in France, Belgium, the UK, and other western countries. They know that when they return, “Prison awaits us,” as Imen said. She had been subject to an experimental medical torture which had to be discontinued because her heart wasn’t strong enough to withstand it. The torture centre doctor said, “You’ll have to choose another method of torture, her heart can’t take this.” Nouredine had been hung up by his wrists for five days, then by his ankles, then in the ‘roast chicken’ posture, then had been beaten on the soles of his feet until he fainted. Yet these two were prepared to return to Tunisia, to the brutal and insecure regime which had tortured and imprisoned them, to carry on the struggle, knowing that they had been followed on this speaker tour and that they would face the same prisons again on their return.
“Where do people find the resources of courage and resolve to put their beliefs before their personal security? Perhaps part of the answer lies in knowing that Amnesty members across the world will stand behind them. It is humbling to meet people like this. And it makes me determined to carry on working to make torture a thing of the past.” -Alex Siddall
Two thirds of the world’s countries torture their own people.
Death Penalty:
The current action for the Death Penalty campaign is an optional one and involves publicising the cases of foreign nationals on Death Row in the USA. There are 80 such prisoners at the moment, most of whom were not informed of their rights to consular assistance.
Groups were asked to write to MEPs and Anthea has done this on behalf of the group. We were not asked to write to MPs, or for any other mass letter-writing campaign, only to publicise the issue as far as possible. Action was needed before 1st November and we have attempted letters to the national press, unfortunately without success.
Germany has brought a case against the USA in the International Court of Justice, demanding restitution for the execution of two of its nationals. The UK could sign up as an 'intervener' in this case, and Amnesty has urged Robin Cook to do so. However, most of the campaigning on the issue is being done at Section rather than Group level.
Amnesty Reading Group campaigns
Our current campaigns are:
Abd’al-Munim Gamal al’Din Abd’al Munim is an Egyptian journalist. His case was taken up by Amnesty in 1991 as one of torture/ill-treatment and is now one of arbitrary detention. We are calling for his release. This is the first time Amnesty has called for the release of an Egyptian political prisoner. Although he is detained under a legal ground (Article 3 of the Emergency Law), his detention is arbitrary as he has been acquitted twice by the courts.
Torture Campaign: Worldwide campaign against torture, running from October 2000 to the end of 2001.
SEAMRAN: South East Asia Mainland Regional Action Network - cases on human rights abuses in Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam.
Women’s Campaign, focusing on the abuses to which women are particularly subject because of their sex, co-ordinator Gordana Stankovic.
Death Penalty Campaign: continuing work for the abolition of the death penalty worldwide. We expect this to be the focus of our efforts at WOMAD this summer.
Greetings Card Campaign will run again next winter.
There will be other one-off actions as events unfold.
We also give financial support to the Urgent Action Pledge Scheme, and opt in to other Amnesty International actions and campaigns from time to time.
Reading University Group: Sean O’Leary, s.v.oleary@reading.ac.uk
Amnesty International UK Section:
99-119 Rosebery Avenue, London EC1R 4RE Tel: 0207-814 6200
AI-UK: www.amnesty.org.uk/ Reading Group: www.amnesty-volunteer.org/uk/smr/reading
Amnesty Reading Newsletter is produced independently by Alex Siddall, 3 Russet Glade, Reading RG4 8UJ. email: asiddall@altavista.net. Bylined items excepted, all opinions are my own, or shamelessly copied from my peers.