Wharfedale Amnesty Scrap Book: March 2009

Thanks to the generosity of Martinez Wines, in inviting Wharfedale Amnesty Group to co-host their annual wine tasting event at the Winter Gardens in Ilkley, £2452.50 was raised for AIUK.

Amnesty Works

‘I will never forget what Amnesty did for me. I will remember it all my life. Even here in prison, people were coming up to me and saying, “I know who you are, I’ve seen you in Amnesty publications and in the news”. They even said, “I’ve signed your petition”. It’s encouraged me so much.’ Dorgelesse Nguessan, 2022 .................................................................... Bernardo Caal Xol was released in March, after being imprisoned for peacefully protesting against the destruction of his ancestral lands. On his release, Bernardo said: “I... am very grateful to each and every one of you... Amnesty International gave me hope for release and now I am free. Now I am back with my family...” ............................................................... Egyptian human rights defender and prisoner of conscience Ibrahim Ezz el-Din was released in April after 34 months of arbitrary detention - which occurred after his arrest for his peaceful human rights work. On his release Ibrahim said: “I especially thank Amnesty International, and all its employees and members: you were the rays of sun in pitch dark... thank you all" ........................................................... British National Anoosheh Ashoori was finally released in March after more than five years in prison in Iran, having been arbitrarily detained after a grossly unfair trial. ................................................................

Your support gave us comfort and helped Dad return to London (from Iran). Over 29,000 Amnesty Supporters, wrote Urgent Action letters, signed Amnesty petitions and wrote lovely birthday messages for Dad which were delivered to the Iranian embassy as part of peaceful protests. We are so grateful to you.

Kamran Foroughi

I was greeted by a mountain of letters. I cannot thank all of you individually, but you are on my mind. You are the thing that keeps me going.

Sakris Kupila, standing up for transgender rights in Finland

2015 Update
Nigeria: After pressure from AI, Shell paid out over Nigeria Delta spills.

Myanmar (Burma): Dr Tun Aung Sung, jailed for trying to calm a crowd during riots in 2012, released in January 2015.

El Salvador: Woman released and pardoned, after imprisonment for a miscarriage.

Hong Kong: Employer found guilty of abuse of migrant workers.

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In December 2010, Amnesty supporters took urgent action (letter writing) to prevent the forced eviction of thousands of people living by the railway in Accra, Ghana. The action was a success, as the proposed eviction did not take place and is not expected to in the near future.

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ZIMBABWE - February 2010 - Thousands of people in Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, are no longer facing eviction from their market stalls and homes. As a result of an Urgent Action, Amnesty International has received formal notification that the threat of forced evictions had been withdrawn.

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BRAZIL - The NGO that supports the families who settled on the Quirino farm in Paraiba, sent the following message to Amnesty International on 20 July 2009.

"Amnesty International's campaign, had [an] immediate effect. As a consequence of the Urgent Action a special police investigator was appointed to follow the investigations into the attack on the Silva family. This appointment was the consequence of steps taken by federal and state authorities which had received letters from Amnesty members from around the world."

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"Being put under house arrest is nothing to be happy about…I feel a bit depressed. With a little hope, I tried to open my mail box, and found nearly a hundred letters and post cards. I held them in my arms and took them home, and opened them one by one slowly and preciously… I saw rock mountains, icebergs, castles, beaches, yolks, birds, churches, streets in somewhere of the world… All these colourful wonder worlds, bounder-less nature never leaves us even during the political darkness, or when human rights abuses happen. On these cards carried your messages in English and Chinese and other languages: ‘You are not alone and we think of you…Be strong, we fully support you, everything to be all right, so stay positive, I send bundles of love’. Dear Amnesty International Members, thank you so much for the courage and love and blessing, thus me and my family are no more alone!"

Amnesty received the letter (above) from the wife of Hu Jia, a Chinese human rights defender sentenced to 3½ years in prison for speaking out about China’s human rights record.

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"The greeting cards that made it through from the British school children in the winter of 1998 gave me a strong feeling of hope. They may not have known much, but they knew that I was there… You were my light in the darkness of my jail, you were my hope that pushed me to survive."

Antoinette Chahin, tortured and sentenced to death for a murder she had nothing to do with. Release from Lebanese prison in 1999.

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"Words are too poor to express the gratitude and thanks of my mother for the return of her son, my wife for the return of her husband, and of my children for the return of her father… You were the only organisation outside and inside the country (as far as I know) which raised its voice for the rights of citizens unjustly denied by the government in power."

Timosheno Pekemezi, Albanian prisoner of conscience, released by presidential decree, following pressure from Amnesty International, after serving three months of a two-year sentence.

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"We need organisations and people like you who will let the killers know that the entire world sees their actions."

Bertha Oliva de Nativa, human rights defender whose husband ‘disappeared’ in Honduras.

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"Thirteen years in prison was like a long dark tunnel which had no end. Sometimes it was exhausting and sometimes lonely, but Amnesty’s work consoled and encouraged me…"

Kim Song-man, South Korea, campaigned for by Amnesty International and released in a prison amnesty in August 1998.

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Viola Hernandez was a journalist in El Salvador, jailed for writing the truth. There were fears that her son, Alfonso, would be killed by government death squads, so, to save his life, his grandmother kept him indoors for over two years. After world-wide appeals by Amnesty International, both the mother and her little boy were freed. "I’m so happy, I could kiss everybody!" said Alfonso.

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"It is impossible to paint an accurate picture of (my) reactions as I sat in that tiny cell, the floor carpeted with cards and envelopes, generated through Amnesty’s efforts… I knew that I was not alone… Maybe you just sent one card – but all these cards are like little drops of water that combine to create an avalanche of pressure."

Ms. Chris Anyanwu, Nigerian editor, sentenced to fifteen years in prison but released after three, having been adopted as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International

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"I was being kept naked in an underground cell. When the first 200 letters came, the guards gave me back my clothes… The letters kept coming, 3,000 of them, and the President called me to his office. He showed me an enormous box of letters and said: How is it that a trade union leader like you has so many friends all over the world?"

Prisoner in the Dominican Republic, campaigned for by Amnesty International.

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"The hundreds of postcards that my husband and I received are the living proof of this effective solidarity from Amnesty International members… The pursuit of Amnesty International action is vital so that one day, all human rights abuses will end."

Radhia Nasraoui, a Tunisian human rights lawyer regularly harassed and intimidated by the security forces because of her work and campaigned for by Amnesty International.

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"The letters I was sent by your members from around the world were the greatest moral boost I ever had... At first the guards kept all the letters away from me. Then I was allowed to see one or two. Then I was given the hundreds which had been sent. I got hundreds! This intimidated the prison officials. They thought I had great influence, Because I was receiving letters from all over the world... It made my life a lot easier. I am very grateful."

Dr Biko Ransome Kuti, Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, released from prison in Nigeria in June 1998.

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"I do not know how to say this but let me just say it. I was so overwhelmed by the support from Amnesty members and I think that now I have a good idea of what a membership organisation can do. To all of the people who sent out appeals, I say a big thank you. I owe my release to their efforts....."

Njuguna Mutahi of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission sent this message after being released on bail in May 1998. Njuguna and journalist Wahome Karengo were arrested and held illegally in incommunicado detention before being charged with theft.

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"Your actions, combined with the chain of solidarity of activists all over the world, have led to my release… Without this chain of solidarity, I would still be in that regrettably well-known prison… I encourage you to continue working on behalf of the prisoners who, all over the world, are rotting in the jails of dictators… my warmest thanks and sincerest gratitude."

Ngarlejy Yorongar le Moiban. Chad prisoner of conscience, released Feb. 99.

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"I can never forget how I was moved to tears when unexpectedly I was handed, in a solitary cell, a brief letter from Amnesty International."

A former prisoner of conscience from Taiwan.

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"Please go on with your work, please don't give up, please never despair, please believe that you are doing a lot of good… I would like to urge you all to take stronger action to make human rights the issue for the next 50 years."

Aung San Suu Kye, message to the human rights defenders conference.

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"I would like to say thank you personally for all the effort every one of you has put forth. My thanks also go to the great organisation you belong to. Today, your commitment has paid off."

E-mail from the son of a man in detention in Mauritania, to say his father had been granted medical treatment.

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"Your work and voice encourage us to feel that we are not alone, and that we are part of a great collective of men and women that work day by day to make Columbia a land of peace; all those calls, faxes e-mails, all those resources and time spent on us, strengthen even more our commitment to help construct a better, just and peaceful Columbia."

Message from Colombian human rights organisation after the release of four members detained by paramilitary forces.

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"The prosecutor informed me that he received over 200 letters from Amnesty members, although he refuses to acknowledge that the letters played a role in his decision not to seek the death penalty…I believe that it had an enormous impact on the prosecutor's change of heart."

E-mail from the lawyer of juvenile Sean Dixon, accused of complicity in first-degree murder. (State of Nevada, June 1999)

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After appeals by Amnesty Urgent Action writers and wide media coverage, four members of the Yahia Latif al-Salihi family were granted safe passage to Syria from Jordan on 28 August 1999, following their arrest on 23 August 1999 by Jordanian authorities. The family was saved from forcible repatriation to Iraq, where, it was feared, they would be at risk of serious human rights violations.

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On 3 December 2008, Jestina Mukoko, director of human rights organisation Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), was abducted from her home by armed state security agents. Her whereabouts were not revealed until 23 December and she remained in custody in Harare for three months. Jestina and others who were arrested at the same time were victims of

enforced disappearance, unlawful arrest, detention, and torture by state security agents.

Jestina is now thankfully out of prison and she has sent us this letter to share with you all:

“Dear Amnesty International UK,

Thank you a million times for being there for me in my darkest hour. Your efforts went a very long way in having me where I am today. Let me therefore express my most sincere and deepest gratitude to you all for standing by me throughout my terrible ordeal. Thanks a million once again. Love Jestina”

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To find out more about:

• Amnesty International UK, visit their website http://www.amnesty.org.uk/ or telephone 020 7033 1500, or write to AI UK, 17-25 New Inn Yard, London EC2A 3EA.

• Amnesty International Wharfedale Group, see Contacts above.

• Letter Writing Groups, Contact Lynda East 01943 603434, or for the Otley group contact Gill Scott 01943 461784.

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If you wish to make a donation telephone AIUK on 020 7033 1500.

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Do you have an e-mail address, and a half-hour to spare every month or so? If yes, we need your help with Urgent Actions.

Every day Amnesty receives information about prisoners and other individuals in danger around the world. The urgent action network provides a swift worldwide mobilisation of people ready to take rapid action at short notice when someone is in immediate danger, or when there is a human rights crisis.

The network may be mobilised in an effort to protect a prisoner from torture or any form of ill treatment, medical neglect, unfair trial, the judicial death penalty or extra judicial execution.

To find out how you can help, contact ianhobsonuk@yahoo.com

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I was greeted by a mountain of letters. I cannot thank all of you individually, but you are on my mind. You are the thing that keeps me going.