Political prisoners’ lives in da By JIM LEECH re are : Stark indicati President k indications es Thieu is plotti cailate aS many oe gus South Vietnamese es before elec- fines efore international hi €s Can come to grips MS skulduggery, is woe grim judgement ead Session: on Poli- inh S in South Viet- * enced at the Vietnam- aes meres events in To- mbes ss ee Ann Buttrick, mittee te € International se Polite ree South Viet- a Mical Prisoners from i On, Torture and Death. t 0 to’ Possible that the 0,000 political pri- rs j fan? d ftom pus jails may be . ae futther torture, even a tt action includeg eo Commit | ae Mittee to Free the Mglicann up of members and United church- Beles, Voice of hesty Interna- Dison Tought the plight of lament ep efore Members of the da Nd others concerned Nd man nger to men, women ect : children — who are h Viet 0 daily Outrage in me Namese dungeons. ie ¥ Elimination’ tin park Times, Jan. 26 b one fed International, Memberg Teal danger that Se non co the South Viet- WhO are qemunist opposi- ds! thee’ ained will be Selectiy, © 18 evidence . Select i ition oe elimination Meare Addition 1S has begun.” lation, the.t® Selective an- S Such ag -° ae mass. kill- beoeent Massacre Feb, 17 work- S . > sndochina Resourc- ons were set hes, Sto €n gunned down, €N tryin speed that they e 1 ene ae escape. This is, ° Vietnamec™. ‘“ictators, ; Comn:2 > IM over 80 Wor, --™m, by Tk fop thee have taken do W Preparation of hy N De, ; ; “ ay and Ric Repub- tang Bust, Commi ; . eng: ission of Rake eal, Preparatory tents that on all p's esti any POgrecc: sttval move- thimpegeSsing in the spirit Ic Perjay; and frist Solidarity, for aiting dship — a move- Nizar © YO 3, ‘tions, a and students’ Pe all political an: 18) . ify; 2m rin thee is currently an Sutin festival] program no oa with national P rnittees, A de- © festival pro- Submitted in drag It 9 th, wil a FORMER INMATES CALL FOR ACTION Between 200,000 and 300,000 political prisoners languish in Thieu's jails — men women and even little children . . . Documentation of the inhu- man conditions in the prisons and particularly the tiger cages of Con Son prison, comes from Jean Pierre Debris and Andre Menras of France, two former inmates; Don Luce, an American familiar with Vietnam, who ex- posed the holding of prisoners in tiger cages, in 1970; the Thieu regime’s own documents, inter- views with a host of Vietnam- ese, messages smuggled out of prison, and from discussions with other observers. (Don Luce will make a speak- ing tour of Canada, beginning in Toronto, Feb. 27-28 and March 4; and Debris and Menas will visit this country, under auspices of the Canadian Friends Service | Committee, around March 20.) Procf of Results. The value of efforts by masses of people, each one con- scious of playing an important role, has never been better de- monstrated than in the words of Jean Pierre Debris and Andre Menras, who were held in Thieu’s prisons from July 25, 1970 till Dec. 29, 1972, then re- leased as too hot to be caught with and “too foreign’ to ex- ecute. 4 On their report hinges a plan by which every concerned Can- adian can help to wrest innocent victims from the clutches of the U.S. puppet, Thieu. Menras writes: “|. we want to say, that if we are still alive, Jean Pierre and I, if we can talk to you, it’s thanks to a campaign launched by the Secours Populaire Fran- Cais, it is thanks to thousands of people who sent us letters, who were conerned about us. “From the time that thousands of people decided to pressure the Saigon faction, from that moment on, we saw a difference in the attitude of our jailers. They stopped beating us and they took precautions with us. “We also saw how the tortur- ing of the students had been de- nounced and how the New York Times, and the Daily Mirror in England, printed articles which spoke of this torture. At that roment the torturers stopped 2 Pe eee oe eee ; oe Se ee ee theit work. They permitted families to see their children who, up to that moment had been kept in unknown prisons. Tortures Again “Then we saw how silence moved in again in the newspa- pers and the tortures started again.” Out of the- workshop session in Toronto, came proposals for implementing a letter campaign aimed at bringing to bear the joint pressures of Canada, (as a responsible party there), . the U.S. (the puppeteer whose dic- tator on a string is an insult to humankind) and the Interna- tional Red Cross (who must be pressed to assume more respon- sibility). The Committee to Free the Prisoners has prepared a limit- ed list of prisoners, (available The incarceration of a large number of prisoners has always been characteristic of the Saigon government. Over 50,000 political prisoners were held. by the Diem regime . . . But successive gov- ernments have arrested more and more people for their poli- tical beliefs. As the struggle in- tensified and the desire for peace increased, the number of political prisoners grew dramatically. The method of sentencing is design- ed to jail everyone the govern- ment wants to get rid of. oe ee Re eG ee aR oe from 52 Elgin Ave., Toronto) Mrs. Buttrick reported, and is urging Canadians to launch the kind of campaign experienced by Debrisand Menras “... the torturers stopped their work.” Canadians are urged “to take a name and act as his or her ad- vocate—and there are children, lots of children, among them, and students .. .” It is ‘“... . vitally important for Canadians to undertake this task,” the Committee is con- vinced, and “... it must be kept up in order to be helpful.” Prisoner Rescue Operation The Committee urges that ‘Gndividual names of prisoners be given immediately to as many people as possible and that let- ters start going out from all directions.” Letters demanding informa- Appearing Dates TORONTO Tuesday, Feb. 27 Wednesday, Feb. 28 Sunday, March 4 OTTAWA Thursday, March 1 Friday, March 2 VANCOUVER Monday, March 5 Tuesday, March 6 CALGARY Wednesday, March 7 EDMONTON Thursday, March 8 SASKATOON Friday, March 9 WINNIPEG Sunday, March 11 HALIFAX Monday, March 12 MONTREAL Tuesday, March 13 CADAI-- tion about the prisoner as one would about a family member, should be sent to one’s own Member of Parliament; Michel Gauvin, Canadian Commission- er, International Control Com- mission, the Senate, Republic of Vietnam, Saigon; President of Saigon (air mail); and Kurt Waldheim, Secretary General, United Nations, N.Y. Letters should ask: Where is this per- son? How is he, or she? What are the charges? Under what conditions is the person held? When will he or she be re- leased? Can mail and visitors be received? If released, where is the person now? And any other information one would ask about a family member. External Affairs Minister Sharp and other MPs have been shown the documentation and the need for action and, said the Committee spokesman, «- , we've been told by MPs that letters to the House of Commons are exceedingly im- portant right now . . . from all over the country.” Deal with. the Present Other proposals came out of the urgent discussion — that a delegation go to the United Na- tions, that demonstrations con- front newspapers such as the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail who have steadfastly re- fused to publish the evidence supplied to them. Letters to the editors should demand an end to this blackout, participants stated. The majority opinion at the workshop was for meeting the situation as it is, with relen- tless pressures on the Canadian government, the UN, the United States puppeteers, and the mass media; on the other hand re- quests for every possible im- mediate action should go to or- ganizations of the Canadian people—labor, church, fraternal —to come through in the same selfless way they did to stop the monstrous U.S. bombing. Lives still are at stake. DONALD LUCE first went to Vietnam in 1958 as a volunteer agriculturist with International Volunteer Services, of which he became South Vietnam director until his resignation in 1967. He - returned to Vietnam again in 1968 for the World Council of Churches. Mr. Luce made world headlines in 1970 when he dis- covered the notorious tiger cages in Con-Son prison. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1973—PAGE 7 ee ee » 2S oe " . Oe A ae Ct Se a se a ne CE ES YRAUE AI VACHas tsi eias