Amnesty International Group 22 Pasadena/Caltech News Volume X Number 10, October 2002 UPCOMING EVENTS Thursday, October 24, 7:30 PM. Monthly Meeting 414 S. Holliston, Caltech Y Lounge. Help us plan future actions for Tibet, the abolition of the death penalty, campaign against torture and more. Sunday, October 27, 10:15 AM. Briefing on Human Rights in Asia. All Saints Church, 132 N. Euclid Avenue in the Seminar Room. Basil Fernando, executive director the Asian Human Rights Commission and winner of the Kwangju Human Rights Award will address the broad issue of how human rights are conceptualized, contested and accommodated in East, South and Southeast Asia. His organization recently released a report on torture in custody in Sri Lanka. See inside for a current action on Sri Lanka. October 25-27. Western Regional Conference: Human Rights and the Arts. Speakers include General Jose Gallardo, former prisoner of conscience form Mexico, Sister Diana Ortiz, author of The Blindfold's Eyes: My Journey from Torture to Truth and AIUSA Executive Director William Schulz. Plus workshops on a wide variety of human rights issues. Conference begins at 9:30 AM Saturday and ends at 3:30 PM on Sunday. Location: Executive Tower Hotel, 1405 Curtis Street, Denver CO 80202. 800-525-6651. Registration fee is $20, $15 Limited income/Student. Contact the Western Regional Office for registration information: 310-813-0450. Tuesday, November 12, 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, November 17, 6:30 PM. Rights Readers Human Rights Book Discussion Group. Vroman's Bookstore (695 E. Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena) This month we discuss Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. (See inside for more information.) Thursday, November 21, 7:30 PM. Monthly Meeting 414 S. Holliston, Caltech Y Lounge. Just a head's up that our next meeting will be a month early due to Thanksgiving. COORDINATOR'S CORNER Hello everyone! I would like to introduce myself. My name is Kathy Hansen, I live in Pasadena, and Lucas Kamp and I are now the "new regime" (no invasion required!) - co-coordinators of Group 22. I have been an active member of this group for the last 2-3 years and have helped Martha with the book group. I will be writing this column and helping Lucas with other tasks as needed. On November 24, 2002, Group 22 will once again be participating in Pasadena's Doo Dah parade! Our theme is "Animals for the ethical treatment of people" and involves street theater in which animals rescue someone who is being beaten or tortured. So pick your favorite animal, don a colorful mask, and join us as we act out our little vignette! If interested, please contact Lucas Kamp at 626-795-1785 or lwkamp@cs.com. This promises to be great fun and if you've never been in the Doo Dah before, it's a real experience! It was started a number of years ago as a humorous spoof of the parade Pasadena is famous for - the Rose Parade - and attracts large crowds. Another upcoming activity is the Western Regional Conference in Denver on October 26-27th. The theme is "Human Rights and the Arts" which explores the connections between the arts and human rights activism. The 30th anniversary of the Urgent Action Network will also be celebrated. The keynote speakers include General Jose Gallardo, former prisoner of conscience from Mexico, Sister Diana Ortiz, who was detained in Guatemala and has written "The Blindfold's Eyes: My Journey from Torture to Truth", and Bill Schultz, the National Executive Director of AIUSA. Contact the Los Angeles Region Office at 310-815-0450 for information. I recently attended a meeting at the LA Regional Office on AI's new mandate, and ISP (integrated strategic plan). This plan is intended to extend AI's mandate to cover the "full spectrum" of economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR). Currently AI focuses on certain civil and political rights (CPR). This new mandate would allow Amnesty to work on a broader range of issues, such as access to land, food or medicine, in addition to issues such as the death penalty and the right to freedom of expression and conscience, which AI has always worked on. The membership has been given a survey to complete with their rankings of different human rights, organizational, and financial goals and strategies. The input from these surveys will be used to help Amnesty leadership decide the direction AI is to go in for the 6-year period from 2004-2010. Please join us at any of the monthly events Group 22 holds. See the Upcoming Events section in this newsletter for more information. Newcomers are very welcome at any of our meetings. Hope to see you there! Kathy Hansen aigp22@caltech.edu SRI LANKA Torture victim threatened by police Please see Upcoming Events for an chance to learn more about the toture in Sri Lanka! Meanwhile, please use this letter as a model to send on behalf of Nandini Heart. President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga Presidential Secretariat Colombo 1 SRI LANKA Your Excellency: It is very troubling to read that police officers on trial for torturing a woman in their custody are reportedly trying to intimidate her, her family, her lawyer and a human rights defender who has been involved with her case. Nandini Herat was arrested in March 2002 by police in Wariyapola, near Kurunegala. While in police custody, she was reportedly subjected to sexual torture. Although a magistrate ordered that Ms. Herat should be given a medical examination, which Ms. Herat wanted, no gynecological examination was conducted. In early August, five police officers, including the officer in charge of the Wariyapola police, were charged with the torture Nandini Herat. However, these officers remain in their posts. Nandini Herat's father was threatened with death by police at Wariyapola station when he tried to obtain a copy of a document connected with his daughter's case. Nishantha Kumara, a human rights defender who has taken up Nandini Herat's case, also received threats. In one incident, two men accosted him with a knife, reportedly saying, "Are you the human rights dog who is trying to send my brother-in-law to prison?" Fortunately, Mr. Kumara managed to escape. There are concerns that Nandini Herat's lawyer, Priyantha Gamage, is being intimidated to make him drop the case. I am very concerned for the safety of Nandini Herat, her family, her lawyer, and for Nishantha Kumara. I urge you to see to it that the alleged threats made against these people are investigated immediately. I ask you to ensure that adequate protection is provided to the abovementioned individuals, and I urge you to see to it that police officers charged with serious crimes such as torture be suspended from duty while they are under investigation. I thank you. Sincerely, YOUR NAME and ADDRESS copy to: Mr. Jayalatha D.A. Wijewardena Embassy of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka 2148 Wyoming Avenue N.W. Washington, D.C. 20008 fax: 202-232-7181; email: slembassy@starpower.net DEATH PENALTY Mentally Ill Inmate in Texas to be Executed James Colburn, white, is scheduled to be executed in Texas on 6 November 2002. He was sentenced to death in October 1995 for the murder of 55-year-old Peggy Murphy in June 1994. James Colburn has an extensive history of paranoid schizophrenia, a serious mental illness whose symptoms include delusions and hallucinations. His mental condition may have been exacerbated by childhood sexual abuse at the hands of relatives as well as a homosexual rape he was subjected to by a stranger when he was 17, the age at which he was first diagnosed with schizophrenia. James Colburn was arrested on the day of Peggy Murphy's murder after he told a neighbor to call the police because he had killed a woman. James Colburn waited until the police came, and at the police station gave a videotaped confession. He told police that he suffered from schizophrenia, and during his statement there were indications that he was struggling with his illness; he paced back and forth when standing, rocked to and fro when sitting, lost control of his bladder and had to be given dry clothes, and the interrogating officer noticed that he was shaking uncontrollably. Referring to the murder of Peggy Murphy, James Colburn told police that he had experienced 'this flash that I was going to hurt her' and said that 'this one impulse come over me said to kill her... I couldn't stop myself'. At the time of the murder, James Colburn was being treated on an outpatient basis, although his care was irregular. For periods in pre- trial detention, the Montgomery County Jail withheld his medication when Colburn refused to pay for it. Consequently, in October 1994, he was suicidal, and urinating and defecating on himself. Two weeks later, he was 'very agitated and contemplating suicide' and was placed in restraints. In May 1995, for example, he was again put in restraints as he reported having auditory hallucinations telling him to kill himself. During his trial in October 1995, James Colburn received injections of Haldol, an anti-psychotic drug that can have a powerful sedative effect. A lay observer, a nurse with experience of mentally ill patients, has stated in an affidavit that Colburn appeared to fall asleep on frequent occasions during the proceedings. In her opinion, his 'lethargic state prevented him from participating in his defense or even paying attention to his own murder trial'. The defense lawyers have stated that they believe that Colburn was competent to stand trial, that is that he had a rational understanding of the proceedings and could assist in his defense. However, at one stage of the trial one of the lawyers had to ask for (and was granted) a recess in order that he could 'walk my client around the room a little bit. He's snoring kind of loud'. In an affidavit, the lawyer acknowledged 'Mr Colburn dozed occasionally during the trial'. The appeal courts have upheld the conviction and death sentence, rejecting evidence that James Colburn was not competent to stand trial due to his mental illness and the sedative effect of the Haldol injections. In May 2002, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit wrote: 'We need not determine the number of times Colburn fell asleep during trial because whether Colburn fell asleep once or slept through most of his trial is not dispositive of Colburn's competence'. Before the trial, the court appointed a psychologist to evaluate whether James Colburn was sane at the time of the murder, and whether he was competent to stand trial. The psychologist concluded that he was both sane and competent. However, his examination of Colburn was conducted 10 months before the trial. In a post- conviction affidavit, the psychologist said that having learned of the Haldol injections and the apparent sedative effect they had on James Colburn, 'it is my opinion that during the trial itself, as opposed to the date on which I examined him...it is not reasonably probable that... Mr Colburn was legally competent to stand trial'. He further suggested that proceedings should have been suspended to 'adjust Mr Colburn's medication so that he was oriented and aware'. A psychiatrist who conducted an assessment of James Colburn in 1997, and reviewed the records in the case, concluded that there were 'serious questions and concerns regarding [Colburn's] competency to stand trial at that time', and that Colburn had been 'seriously sedated during the time of his trial'. BACKGROUND INFORMATION. Repeated resolutions in recent years at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights have called on retentionist countries 'not to impose the death penalty on a person suffering from any form of mental disorder or to execute any such person'. The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, a nonprofit support and advocacy organization in the USA, opposes the death penalty against people with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses. Since the USA resumed judicial killing in 1977, 804 men and women have been put to death nationwide. Texas accounts for 285 of these executions. Texas has carried out 29 of the 55 executions this year. RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible: * expressing sympathy for the friends and family of Peggy Murphy; * noting that James Colburn suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, and has done since he was a teenager; * noting that the appeal courts have upheld the death sentence despite evidence that James Colburn may have been incompetent to stand trial including as a result of injections of the anti-psychotic sedative, Haldol; * noting that the power of executive clemency exists precisely to compensate for the rigidity of the judiciary; * noting the repeated resolutions at the United Nations calling for the death penalty not to be used against the mentally ill, and noting the position of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill; * calling for clemency for James Colburn in the interest of decency and the reputation of Texas and the USA. In your appeals, please quote James Colburn's death row number: 999169 APPEALS TO: Gerald Garrett Chairperson, Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles P.O. Box 13401 Austin, Texas 78711-3401 Fax: 1 512 463 8120 COPIES TO: The Honorable Rick Perry Governor of Texas State Capitol PO Box 12428 Austin, TX 78711 Fax: 1 512 463 1849 / 0039 / 1932 LETTER COUNT Urgent Actions: 12 Death Penalty 1 Ngawang Pekar 144 Total: 155 Want to add your letters to the total? Get in touch with lwkamp@cs.com PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE Ngawang Pekar, Tibetan Monk For the information of new subscribers to this newsletter, the Tibetan monk Ngawang Pekar is our group's adopted prisoner of conscience; that is, we have an ongoing commitment to work for his release. He has been held in Tibet's notorious Drapchi Prison since his arrest in 1989 by the Chinese authorities for participating in a peaceful demonstration for Tibetan independence. Our numbers look pretty good this month. We mailed 137 postcards (in small batches) to Chinese and Tibetan officials. We mailed our "giant petition", 12 feet long with nearly 100 signatures in various bright colors, to Chinese President Jiang Zemin, and we also sent him a petition in conventional format with 107 signatures. All those signed postcards and petitions represent a lot of hard work by our group members; special thanks to Martha, Robert, and Kathy for preparing materials and staffing tables this past summer at two major events hosted by Los Angeles Friends of Tibet. News Flash: On Oct. 17, China freed Tibetan nun Ngawang Sangdrol from Drapchi Prison, nine years before her sentence was due to end. Now about 25 years old, she had been imprisoned since 1992 for voicing her opinions and singing Tibetan freedom songs. The timing of her release, just before Chinese President Jiang Zemin visits President Bush in Texas on October 25, suggests that China is anxious to have this visit go smoothly. Let's see if we can get Ngawang Pekar's case mentioned while the mood is favorable. Please direct your action to President Bush, if possible by Oct 25, by email or phone. (Or both!) The White House Comment Line is (202)456-1111, M-F, 9-5 Eastern time. Try it, it's fun, it's easy. You get to speak to an actual live operator. Just be sure you are ready to spell Ngawang Pekar! (For the newcomers, it's pronounced naw-wan pee-kar.) Here's a suggested email that you can send or use as a guide. It would probably be good to include "Jiang Zemin" and "Ngawang Pekar" in the subject line, and a copy to the Secretary of State might be useful. To: president@whitehouse.gov Subj: ask Jiang Zemin about Ngawang Pekar cc: secretary@state.gov Dear President Bush, When you meet with President Jiang Zemin in October, please ask to review the case of Ngawang Pekar, a prisoner in Tibetan Autonomous Region Prison No. 1. He is a Tibetan monk who was arrested in 1989 for participating in a peaceful demonstration in Lhasa. He is reported to have been beaten and tortured and denied medical care. I welcomed the recent releases of Ngawang Sandrol and Jigme Sangpo and Gyaltsen Drolkar, and I hope that China will also consider Ngawang Pekar for early release. Thank you for your attention to this matter. RIGHTS READERS Human Rights Book Discussion Group Vroman's Bookstore (695 E. Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena) Sunday, November 17, 6:30 PM Note: If you plan to purchase the book at Vroman's look in the Current Events section or request it at Will Call. Nickel and Dimed: on not getting by in America By Barbara Ehrenreich Millions of Americans work for poverty-level wages, and one day Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that any job equals a better life. But how can anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 to $7 an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich moved from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, taking the cheapest lodgings available and accepting work as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart salesperson. She soon discovered that even the "lowliest" occupations require exhausting mental and physical efforts. And one job is not enough; you need at least two if you intend to live indoors. Nickel and Dimed reveals low-wage America in all its tenacity, anxiety, and surprising generosity -- a land of Big Boxes, fast food, and a thousand desperate strategies for survival. Instantly acclaimed for its insight, humor, and passion, this book is changing the way America perceives its working poor. "Barbara Ehrenreich . . . is our premier reporter of the underside of capitalism." -- Dorothy Gallagher, The New York Times Book Review "No one since H.L. Mencken has assailed the smug rhetoric of prosperity with such scalpel-like precision and ferocious wit." -- Mike Davis IRAN Chini Maqsoud and others sentenced to flogging Chini Maqsoud and an unnamed man may be at risk of imminent flogging for their involvement in a party deemed by judicial authorities to be "depraved". Entertainers at the party, which was held on 21 September in Mashhad, northeastern Iran, were also arrested shortly afterwards. Chini Maqsoud, a factory manager was reportedly arrested for organizing an annual office party in celebration of a religious festival. He was sentenced to 74 lashes and dismissed from his post for four years by a court in Mashhad. A singer, who performed at the party, was also sentenced to 74 lashes and banned from singing for two years. According to a report by the Baku daily Yeni M'Csavat (The New Equality), a group of artists from the Republic of Azerbaijan was arrested shortly after 21 September for performing at the party. They were detained and barred from leaving the country until further investigation. Their current status is unknown. BACKGROUND INFORMATION. In recent months, scores of men and women have been arrested after attending and dancing at "depraved" parties, including 88 people at two separate events in Tehran at the beginning of October. The 88, allegedly aged between 18 and 21, were reportedly sentenced to unspecified prison terms, fines and flogging. In 2002, Amnesty International has recorded at least 39 cases of flogging, many of them in public. The true figure may be significantly higher. In 1997 the United Nations Commission on Human Rights stated that "corporal punishment [such as flogging] can amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment, or even to torture". RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible: * expressing concern at reports that Chini Maqsoud and an unnamed man, may be imminently flogged; * requesting details of the charges against the men, and clarification as to whether they were tried according to internationally accepted standards for a fair trial; * calling for the artists from the Republic of Azerbaijan to be given access to their diplomatic representatives; for them to be charged with a recognizable criminal offence or immediately released; * urging all flogging sentences in Iran to be restricted in line with its obligations under Article 7 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Iran is a state party. Article 7 of the ICCPR states that "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment"; * urging the Foreign Ministry to issue an immediate and open invitation to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture to carry out a full review of court procedures and sentencing where flogging is involved; * urging the judicial authorities to implement a moratorium on the use of flogging, which is a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, with a view to its eventual abolition. APPEALS TO: Leader of the Islamic Republic: His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed 'Ali Khamenei, The Presidency Palestine Avenue Azerbaijan Intersection Tehran Islamic Republic of Iran Email: webmaster@wilayah.org ("For the attention of the office of His Excellency, Ayatollah al Udhma Khamenei, Qom") Salutation: Your Excellency President: His Excellency Hojjatoleslam val Moslemin Sayed Mohammad Khatami The Presidency Palestine Avenue Azerbaijan Intersection Tehran Islamic Republic of Iran Email: khatami@president.ir (please resend if your message is returned) Salutation: Your Excellency Iranian Interests Section Embassy of Pakistan 2209 Wisconsin Ave NW Washington DC 20007 Editor's Last Word: Read us on line: http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~aigp22 Martha Ter Maat, 626-281-4039 / rightsreaders@yahoo.com Amnesty International's mission is to undertake research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity, freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the context of its work to promote all human rights.