Political prisoners’ lives in da

By JIM LEECH

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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

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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

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