SEUIREVLI GS OCU ILES tals DM Firsthand report from Chile TORONTO — “Our principal hope is the unity of all Chileans of goodwill against the assas- sins,” Fernandez Martinez told an audience at the Ontario Insti- tute for Studies in Education last week. He had come from Rome as the representative of Chile De- mocratico — the headquarters of Chilean resistance abroad — to attend an Ontario conference of the Canadian Committee for Solidarity with Democratic Chile, and to address public meetings in Ontario centres, Montreal and Vancouver. “Six months ago,” Martinez said, “we in Chile had a difficult but real democracy,” that was striving to meet the basic econ- omic needs of the people. The copper mines and all other im- portant monopolies had been na- tionalized. The greatest land re- form ever undertaken in Latin America was being carried through. The 10% of the work force who had been unemployed in 1970 had been put to work. And all this had been done with- in the Chilean constitution. Victory at Polls The speaker described the combination of international and internal forces that were ar- rayed against Chilean democracy —the subversive role of the CIA, the manipulation of the copper market by the great U.S. mono- polies to force the world price down from 80 to 40 cents ‘a pound, the constant sabotage of mines and industries. : But with all this the forces of Popular Unity could not be de- feated at-the polls as the Con- gressional elections of March 1973 showed. “Nevertheless,” said Martinez “I would not be honest with you if I did not tell you that reaction succeeded in bringing on to its side a section of people — small businessmen and industrialists, and profes- sionals for ideological, not econ- omic. reasons.” Thus it became possible to bring the greater part of the armed forces out. against the constitution. “Now in my country,” Martinez told his audience, “killings are a daily affair, there are 20,000 political prisoners, the unions and all political parties are abol- _ished. Even the paper of the Christian Democrats can no longer publish. Inflation is run- ning at 600%.” Ask Support He described how these con- ditions are causing many who at first supported the coup to realize their mistake. “I can tell you now, responsibly, that 90% of my people are now against the junta. It is now necessary, Martinez declared, to isolate the junta ex- ternally and internally. “We ask you to support our fight against the junta for an end to all viola- tions of human rights. We ask you to demand the freeing of all political prisoners; to receive our refugees and to give material as- sistance to our fight. “You can be sure my people will fight. It will not be a simple, short fight. We are sustained by all those who don’t want for the world’ what happened in- Chile.” The speaker was introduced by Donald MacDonald, NDP member of the provincial legis- lature, and the national chair- man of his party. ; MacDonald denounced the role of the United States in Greece, Vietnam and Chile, and spoke of the great need to get to Can- adian people the facts about what was and what is taking place in Chile. This was the pur- pose of the visit of Fernando Martinez who is vice-president of the Chilean National Students Federation and a member of the Political Commission of MAPU— the Workers’ and Peasants’ Party which is part of Popular Unity. Could Happen Here In making the appeal for con- tributions, William- Stewart, On- tario leader of the Communist Party stressed that freedom is indivisible, and that what hap- pened to Chile could happen to Canada. He particularly remind- ed his audience of the U.S. eco- nomic occupation of this coun- try through control of our. re- sources. : Also present on the platform were representatives of the Com- mittees for Solidarity with De- mocratic Chile at York and To- ronto universities, the Canadian Peace Congress, Toronto Asso- ciation for Peace, Voice of Wo- men, United Jewish Peoples’ Order, United Electrical Work- ers’ Union and Young Commun- ist League. The meeting was opened by Mark Sydney, Co-ordinator of the Canadian Committee for a Democratic Chile, and was chair- ed by Gloria Montero of the Canadian Committee for a De- mocratic Spain. The Canadian Peace Congress has issued a call to its biennial conference to be held April 6 and 7 at the Lord Simcoe Hotel, Toronto. A covering letter over the signatures of John Morgan, pre- sident, and Jean Vautour, organ- izational secretary, points out that 1974 is the 25th year of ac- tivity for peace by the Canadian Peace Congress, “the oldest and most consistent peace organiza- tion in Canada. It is affiliated to the World Peace Council which initiated the great World Con- gress of Peace Forces Oct. 25-31, 1973.” The April conference .which will be based on the participa- tion of delegates and observers “will be dedicated to finding ways to carry out in Canada the decisions of the World Congress of Peace Forces ... the larg- est and most representative as- sembly of peoples from around the world, dedicated to working together for peace.” The call is headed: “Peace Can Be Won by People in Action.” The call draws: attention to the victory won by the people of Vietnam in the signing of the ceasefire accords, and to the agreements reached in Europe between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German De- mocratic Republic, the Soviet Union and other socialist coun- tries. It says in part: “There are still many areas of serious. conflict in the world. “There is no slackening in the arms build-up. Sto nuclear weapons ha reduced. Since WO! the USA has spent $1,000 billion, more previous arms budge gether, including the Wars. “The main task 0 dian Peace Congress ever-growing numb dians for the lifeé that peace is imperal! survival of humanity; tice and economic @®, that, joined together! mon struggle with ples of the world, stable world peae achieved. : “The central, thrv struggle for peace | undertake a program to change Canada’s ¥ icy away from do United States imperia participation in NORAD, to an indep eign policy for det peaceful co-existem norm for relation states. “The 1974 Confe Canadian Peace C0 be called upon to” cies and action meet these objective™ The 1974 Confere’ Canadian Peace © mark.a new ali stage in the st Canadian people {0 pendent foreign polit and security thro world.” Q Saigon’s prisons —terror for thousand SAIGON (LNS) — (Editor’s note: The Nixon Administration had intended to spend almost $20 million to bolster South Vietnam’s police and prison sys- tem alone in the year 1974. The Hatfield Amendment, attached to the recently passed Foreign Aid Appropriations bill, should prevent Nixon from spending a little over $9 million of that. But the Hatfield ban does not apply to the Pentagon’s declar- ed contribution of $10.6 million and it is likely that the Defense Department will do its best to send the remaining funds through other disguised or— un- disguised — appropriations. There are thousands upon thousands of victims of Thieu’s prisons; prisons which simply could not exist without the United States’ massive backing. The following story describes the plight of just one — a young -woman paralyzed from the waist down from torture because she would not confess to the “crim- es” the police charged her with. The information comes via Jayne Werner, who recently vi- sited Saigon to do research on a doctoral dissertation for Cornell University. All names have been changed to protect those in- volved.) % * This is the story of Le Thi Hoa, a 24-year-old Vietnamese wo- man who has been imprisoned in South Vietnam since her ar- rest. on October 21, 1973. On that day, Hoa was approached by a former acquaintance in a Saigon marketplace. The acqu- aintance pointed to Hoa, saying “This is the one.” Immediately several policemen arrested Hoa and took her to an interrogation centre — a nice word for a tor- ture chamber. Over the next few hours a group varying from five to ten men tried to extract some con- fession of guilt out of Hoa. She was accused of being part of a “Communist communications network” (Political activities are not a crime according to the Paris Peace Accords. In fact, Article 11 specifically guaran- tees “freedom of political activ- ities”). When Hoa said she was guilty of nothing, they fastened down her hands and attached wires to her fingers. At the other end of the wires was a hand-cranked generator. The Americans used to call this tor- ture device ‘The Bell Telephone Hour.” But Hoa maintained she was guilty of nothing. Then beatings, so severe Hoa fell to the floor..She was pulled up by her hair and beaten again, crashing to the floor. Then soapy water was forced down her nose and into her stomach until she was bloated. They beat and kicked her stomach until the soapy bile was forced back up through her nose and mouth. No confession acquired, they resumed their beatings. Down and up by the hair. Or some- times left down, two men hold- ing her legs apart and another man kicking. But this time Hoa ~ PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 1974—PAGE 8 Thieu’s prison system could not exist without massive United States backing... was unable to confess to any- thing even if she had wanted to — they had beaten her to un- consciousness. In the middle ‘of January she was taken by stretcher to a hos- pital in Saigon. There an Ame- rican nurse named Judy noticed the paralyzed woman handcuff- ed to a stretcher and guarded by police agents. The nurse wanted to treat Hoa but the police would not unhandcuff her. Judy noticed “Made in USA” imprinted on the hand- cuffs. The nurse asked Hoa how she came to be paralyzed and then heard her story. At that point Judy asked a friend, Steve, who spoke fluent Vietnamese, to come to talk to Hoa to see if there..was anything they could do for her. But shortly there- after Hoa was transferred out of the hospital. Steve speculated that Hoa had been taken back to the interrogation centre which was, located in a province south of Saigon. He travelled there with the young woman’s mother who had only discovered her daughter’s whereabouts when Hoa arrived at the hospital and was able to get word out to her. The mother, a Saigon street vendor, had been worried sick. She had made in- quiries at various hospitals and ‘police stations, but had never been able to find out where her daughter was. Once at the interrogation centre Steve met with a Mr. Ma, who was in charge of political suspects in that province. ‘Some people told.us she was involv- ed,” replied Ma to Steve’s ques- tions about Hoa. “It’s true that so far we have not received a confession from Miss Hoa. But then we do not have access to all the modern equipment like you have in the United States . . . like lie detectors and so forth. And of course, you know we would not beat or torture suspects so sometimes it is dif- ficult to secure a confession of ° guilt.” When asked if Hoa had had a trial yet, Ma said that she had. Her sentence: .two years, sub- ject to renewal. Asked exactly what that meant, Ma replied, “Well, it’s really an open-ended sentence.” When Ma left the room for a moment Steve asked Ma’s associate if, ‘in‘a situation such as Hoa’s regu’ was not consider “Yes, that’s right,” had a secret trial. When Steve went Ma too suggested ™ arrange to intervené “but you would have | the money.” Wher 0 much, Ma replied, oi tres (about $600) ¥ minimum.” Steve then relayed mation on to Hoas a Saigon street vel bably makes about # 30,000 piasters is 2° “But if it means ” will be freed,” said “somehow I will | piastres. I love ™Y want her legs 1 again.” “a But when they ~ relay this messag®, deal had changed. that the committ whi istry of Interior these sentences 15 © five men and that © quired the $600. St ized that further would be fruitless. Soon after this transferred out. 0 tion centre and het unable to find ov f had taken her. AS a ary, there was st Hoa and her mother frantic. She felt th# not even find ovt was and at least BY food or some “ig that it was hop® daughter was goin’