CT eRe TTT TT NEW OPPRESSIVE LAW IN SOUTH AFRICA PRETORIA — The Vorster government’s new law on the Promo- tion of State Security has been dubbed the ‘‘SS Bill’ by opposition groups in South Africa: The new law replaces that country’s anti- communist law, which made the Communist Party: and other anti- government organizations illegal. The new law gives the military and police the right to take any action to ‘‘fight terrorism’, protecting them from prosecution, allows for the internment without trial of anyone suspected of being a member or supporter of an illegal organization, and provides for all trials of those arrested under the law to be secret. SWAPO MEMBERS SENTENCED TO DEATH SWAKOPMUND, Namibia — Death sentences were passed May 12 on two members of the South West Africa Peoples’ Organization (SWAPO) by a South African government court here. The two, Aaron Mushimba, SWAPO’s national organizer, and Hen- drik Shikongo have been in prison since August of last year and have been subjected to brutal torture. The South African supreme court refused the two, and two women who received jail sentences at the same trial, any right to appeal the conviction or sentence. The four were convicted on trumped up charges of assassinating Chief Filemon Elifas, government appointed chief minister of Ovam- boland. The death sentences were the first passed under South Africa’s notorious Promotion of State Security bill. VAST CORRUPTION BARED IN ISRAEL TEL AVIV — Vast corruption in the Israeli government was re- vealed in the latest report by Israel’s State Comptroller, Yitzhak Nebenzahl. The corruption, ‘‘defects’’ and unexplained shortcomings involve millions upon millions of dollars, he said. In his 28th annual report, the Israeli State Comptroller warned that failure to clear up the corruption and to institute reforms was inviting “disaster.” Nebenzahl said: “‘The destiny of a free country depends on the moral level of its government and people.”’ He bitterly criticized Is- rael’s Treasury Department for permitting speculators to engage in profiteering on the regular devaluations of the Israeli lira (currency unit). He also attacked the Israeli Finance Ministry for refusing to institute any of the reforms Nebenzahl proposed in his report last year. He said that the non-implementation of the reforms allowed the FS and corruption to go on. PORTUGUESE ARMY CHIEF TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT LISBON — Portugal’s Army Chief of Staff has announced his candidacy for the presidential elections to be held next month. Gen. Eanes is backed by the Socialist Party as well as by the right-wing CDS and PPD parties, and says if elected, he would name Socialist Party leader Mario Soares as prime minister. Soares has repeated that, if called on to form a government, he would not include any other parties, but only some independents and military men. Final figures for last month’s elections for parliament have resulted in the following allocation of seats in the 263-seat assembly: Socialists 107, PPD 73, CDS 42, Communists 40,-UDP 1. CUBA ORDERS CANADIAN SHIPS HAVANA — Cuba has placed orders for 14 ships and four tugboats with shipyards in Canada, Yugoslavia, Finland, Denmark and Argen- tina, it was announced here-May 17. Six 14,000-ton cargo ships will be built in Denmark and three 15,000- ton ships in Yugoslavia. Three 10,000-ton tankers will be built in Canada. The ships are to be delivered before the end of Cuba’s first five-year plan in 1980. They will increase the total deadweight of Cuba’s mer- chant navy — the fourth largest in Latin America — to 710,000 tons. PORTLAND, Oregon — American Indian Movement leaders Dennis Banks (second from right) and his co-defendants, Russ Render (left) and Kenneth Loud Hawk (right) give a victory salute here after U.S. District Court Judge dismissed the fire-arms and explosives charged filed against them by the U.S. government. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 28, 1976—Page 8 POLITICAL DISSIDENTS? RELIGIOUS MARTYRS? Human rights in the USSR What is the state of human rights in the Soviet Union? A good place to look for the answer is in actual conditions of the Soviet Union. Enemies of the Soviet Union and its people, such as the monopoly-owned media in Canada, are hardly reliable, im- partial judges. Some startling revelations came out of a recent interview with Soviet Deputy Minister of Justice, Alexander Sukharev, by the Soviet magazine, New Times (available in English). We offer some _ much- condensed excerpts from Sukharev’s comments. Western media are charging that ‘“‘Soviet citizens are being persecuted and thrown into prison for political and religious reasons,’’ and the New Times re- porter asked Sukharev to comment. While involved for many years in justice, he said he still did not know of the existence of a single, Soviet law under which citizens. could be prosecuted because of their political or religious views. Followers of Marx His first major point in the in- terview went like this: ““We are Marxists, and any such law would run counter to the basic principles of our philosophy. We are followers of Marx, and it was Marx who said that ‘laws that make not his ac- tions as such but the way of think- ing of a person the main criterion are nothing but the positive sanc- tioning of lawlessness.’ ‘We were brought up and are bringing up new generations of lawyers in the conviction that a person can be tried only for his actions, for actual violation of the law, for crimes, and not for his views; views are not within the realm of jurisprudence. “The very concept ‘political prisoner’ is non-existent in our ~ country. Our code of laws con- tains a section dealing with crimes against the state, that is, crimes aimed at undermining or weaken- ing the Soviet state and social sys- tem. These crimes are treason, espionage, terrorist acts and sabotage, slanderous, subversive propaganda. In 1962 propaganda of war was added to the list. True, there has not yet been in our country any occasion to prose- cute anyone for the advocacy of war. And cases of other danger- ous anti-state crimes are rare. Have these crimes, or at least some of them, any relation to poli- tics? ‘‘Unquestionably. A member of a punitive detail who collabo- rated with the fascist invaders during the war (these are liable to prosecution to this day under the laws of our country and in con- formity with principles of interna- tional law set forth in documents like the UN-endorsed convention on the non-applicability of statut- ory limitations to war crimes and crimes against humanity) was of course prompted by a desire to change the existing system and murdered primarily Soviet activists. ‘**But the courts pass judgment on this type of individual not be- cause of his attitude toward the social system, but for murder and collaboration with the enemy. “‘In this sense the actions of the individuals who. are prosecuted Since the war, the annual number of convictions in the USSR hat fallen by more than half. Compare this with the capitalist world whe crime rates, violence and terrorism have become a veritable nightmalé in many big cities . now for their criminal activity, in particular for agitation and prop- aganda aimed at undermining the existing system, also have a polit- ical tinge. But these people are penalized not for being ‘dissi- dents’. They are liable to prosecu- tion — I want to underscore this once again —for definite anti-state actions, for voluntarily aiding subversion centers abroad such as the so-called popular labor allia- ance (NTS), whose purpose is the ovérthrow of Soviet power and all of whose activity is subordinated to this end. : Places of Detention About malicious allegations about camps for political prison- ers, the Justice Minister said: ““We make no secret of our places of detention ... our foreign col- leagues visit them under coopera- tive programs. For instance, the prominent criminologist and former UN social welfare official, Edward Galway, said he had seen an effective system of labor edu- cation combining moral influence with progressive administrative methods. “‘T would only like to add that the regime at places of detention is strictly regulated by law. The rights of those serving sentences are clearly set forth, their rations are specified, they are entitled to buy additional food on their earn- ings, to be visited by relatives and friends, to receive parcels and to correspond. Besides, for the in- mates there are schools and di- verse technical study circles. Officials are held strictly respon- sible for the scrupulous. obser- eve of all the stipulations of the aw. Sukharev made his second main point. He drew attention to the fact that ‘‘since the war the annual number of convictions in this country has fallen by more than half. Compare this with the growth of crime in many capitalist countries, with the fact that vio- lence and terrorism, as has been officially admitted in some coun- tries, have become a veritable nightmare in the big cities of the capitalist world.’? Social Conditions This drop in crime in the . USSR, he said, ‘‘stems. primarily from the different social condi- tions. The USSR has done away with ‘the fundamental social causes of crime and law-breaking. This is the crux of the matter. ‘*You can talk as much as you like about human rights, but if a person lacks work and means of livelihood, if he cannot find shel- ter, if society does not give his children an education and provide) his family with the most urgently needed medical aid, then society can hardly expect him to be el dowed with civic virtues. ‘Tn our country crime is on the downgrade and its character i changing (professional crime has disappeared, the number of thé more serious offences is declitr ing, etc.), because of the steady improvement of social living com ditions, the absence of ul employment, and the rising cul tural and educational level of thé population. Mass Legal Education Making his third point, the de puty minister referred to thé greatly expanded legal educatioll in the USSR. It “‘is being donés apart from the state system of laW schools, also by the press and TY (the popular journal ‘The Indi vidual And The Law’ alone has # circulation of more than three mil lion among the general public): Fundamentals of the law alé studied by more than seven mil} lion senior grade pupils of ou! general schools and students © vocational schools. We havé 3,000 public universities of la¥ and 19,000 legal consultation cel ters at the enterprises whet? everyone can obtain free advicé on any legal problem. ‘*No other country in the world can compare with us for scale purposefulness of the dissemin® tion of legal knowledge among the population.” The minister, who readily co cussed specific cases, noted th# anti-Soviet propaganda was 4 in the rut of ‘‘political dissident® religious martyrs,’ etc. But he pointed to the fact that the pro tests always originated with va ; lent anti-Soviet groups abro along with those they rope in. BK perts who visited the USSR to % for themselves found quite a difl@ rent set of circumstances. With reference to religious ma” ters, Sukharev concluded, ‘s4) ing: “Our country is visited a ‘ great many religious people, fro rank-and-file followers of th? church to members of the t9? hierarchy, from other countrie>: 4 They have obtained a first-ha! idea of what is happening in 0 country. But it is not from the that we hear complaints about ‘™ ligious persecution’. Such 2 cusations come from those wh? under a hypocritical mask of pi | ty, speculating on religious feel ings, seek to whip up hatred f° our country.”