: ELSPETH GARDNER ... in
+ 1975 demonstration.

Kashtan hits
FBI demands

| TORONTO — prime minister
Trudeau has. been asked to look
Into the circumstances surroun-
ding the demand by. USS.
authorities that the leader of the
Communist Party of Canada
Supply fingerprints and meet other
meaning requirements in order
to enter the U.S.
_After being instructed to supply
fingerprints to the FBI and RCMP
before he would be allowed ad-
Mittance to the U.S., CP leader Bill
Kashtan wrote to the prime
Minister and opposition party
' leaders:
_ “Frankly I fail to understand
why it would be necessary to send
My fingerprints to the FBI and to
the RCMP. I am not a criminal nor
am T entering the U.S. for purposes
| of undertaking some conspiratorial
| 8ctivities. Why then this request?
| Or is it standard procedure, an
 Indignity all Canadians have to go
through before entering the U.S.?
i If it is not standard procedure why
» US act of political discrimination,
) Particularly from a place where
/™uch is made about freedom of
' Movement and human rights? The
Ommunist Party of Canada is a
“gal political party. Why should
1S type of discrimination be
€xercised against it and against

_ Myself as its leader and general
Secretary?”

2679 E. Hastings St.,
Vancouver, B.C.
253:1291

Vancouver lawyer at Algiers inquiry
Commissioners indict Chile's junta

Seventy-five commissioners
from 40 countries heard the indict-
ment of Chilean fascism from eye-
witness reports, testimony by
experts and clandestine film
footage last month, as the Interna-
tional Commission of Inquiry into
the Crimes of the Military Junta in
Chile concluded its fifth session in
Algiers January 27 to 29.

The Canadian commissioner at
the Algiers inquiry was Vancouver
lawyer Elspeth Gardner, president
of the Canadians for Democracy in
Chile who was named to the
Helsinki-based International
Commission following the Toronto
Inquiry last October which she
chaired.

Gardner told the Tribune in an
interview last week: ‘‘We heard
testimony for seven hours a day —
from exiles, including those ex-
pelled from the country, from
people who visited Chile, and from
expert witnesses — and from that

evidence, the conclusion was
clear: under the junta, the
economic, the political, the

cultural life of the people of Chile is
being systematically destroyed.”’

The concluding statement
adopted by the Commission
dramatically underscored that
point. It noted that unemployment
is running at 20 per cent throughout
the economy, rising to more than
30 per cent in some sectors; that 21
per cent of the population is at the
verge of starvation; and that
drastic reductions have been made
in medical services with a
resultant increase in mortality
rates. Denationalization has
greatly increased the country’s
dependence: on foreign capital.

In cultural life, the junta has
established direct military control
over education while forcing out of
the country some 45 per cent of the
teaching and research staff in the
technical and natural sciences.

Gardner noted particularly the
Commission’s documentation on
violations of human rights which
showed that, in addition to de-
tention of political prisoners,
thousands of Chileans continue to
“disappear”’ following their arrest.

“The Commission regards it as
one of the most serious features of,
the present situation that people

continue to disappear after they ~

are arrested,’ the Commission’s
concluding document stated.
“The junta has also adopted a
new tactic,” Gardner noted. ‘‘The
military authorities pick people up,

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hold them briefly and subject them
to tortures and then release them
under surveillance.”’

A number of witnesses testifying
before the Commission reported on
that specific form of repression,
she said. It was devised by the
National Centre of Information
(CNI), the new name given to the
former Direcion de Inteligencia
Nacional (DINA), the junta’s
secret police.

Among the Chilean witnesses
appearing were Isabel Margarita
Letelier whose husband, the for-
mer Popular Unity justice
minister, Orlando Letelier, was
murdered by DINA agents in New
York, and Arturo Villabella who
was thrown from a helicopter by
the secret police but survived when
he landed in a river.

Martyred president Salvador
Allende’s sister Laura Allende,
also appeared before the Com-
mission.

In addition to the Chileans,
Gardner said, several other ex-
perts testified including the
Catholic Bishop of Madrid.

Film footage taken by British
filmmaker Jonathan Dimbler
whose program, This Week shows
to some 10 million viewers in

appears
before International Commission
of Inquiry into Crimes of the
Military Junta in Chile.

LAURA ALLENDE ...

Britain, was shown to the com-
missioners. Taken last year under
clandestine conditions, it has since
been made into a 27-minute
documentary entitled ‘‘Chile’s
Most Painful Hour’’.

The commissioners themselves
included lawyers, trade unionists,
university professors, writers, a
British Liberal MP and two British
Labor Party leaders as well as the
head of the U.S. National Lawyers
Guild, William Goodman.

In their concluding statement the

Public invited to watch debate

commissioners outlined their
demands:

e That all disappeared persons
be brought immediately before a
UN-designated body to receive
rapid medical attention and to be
released. A complete accounting to
be made of all disappeared persons
who have been murdered or who
died in prison;

e That all political prisoners be
released; :

e That those people exiled

4 _ illegally from Chile be allowed to

return;

e@ That the UN resolutions on
human rights in Chile be im-
plemented.

The Commission also called for
the complete economic and
political isolation of the fascist
junta, for an end to all loans to, and
investments in, Chile, and for
international action to prevent the
sale of armaments and technical
equipment to the military junta.

The Commission, which has a
permanent secretariat in Helsinki,
Finland, will be pressing UNESCO
to make a special appeal on behalf
of Chile’s youth and children and
for the International Labor
Organization to take up the issue of
Chile’s workers.

at Communist Party convention

The 22nd provincial convention
of the Communist Party will begin
two days of deliberations over
party policy on February 25 in the
Plaza 500 Hotel, 12th Avenue and
Cambie St., Vancouver.

The convention will be open to
the public and will begin at 9:00
a.m. on February 25 with a
welcoming address by Vancouver
alderman Harry Rankin. At about
10:00 a.m., provincial leader
Maurice Rush will deliver the
keynote address to the convention.

Federal election candidates will
be introduced at 1 p.m., and
William Kashtan, the general
secretary of the CPC, will speak to
the convention at 4 p.m. on
February 25.

About 100 delegates are expected
to attend the biennial convention,

representing Communist Party .

organizations in the Lower
Mainland and in provincial points
such as Trail, Kamloops, Port
Alberni and Campbell River.

The main item before the con-
vention opening day will be the
discussion on the draft policy
statement that has been before the
party organization for the last two
months.

The 22-page document has at its
centre a characterization of the

Socred government in B.C. as.

“showing signs of internal strain
and divisions.

‘Public disenchantment with the
Socred government is rapidly
advancing,” the document asserts,
which has prompted the govern-
ment to attempt to introduce
reactionary electoral reform to
maintain power in the next elec-
tion.

The policy document reiterates
the CP’s long standing call for a
broad alliance of labor, democratic
and anti-monopoly forces to ‘‘halt
the drive to the right, to turn the
political situation around and place
B.C. on a left course.”

A major section of the policy
statement outlines a new economic
program for B.C., based on the
orderly management of the
province’s resource industries.
The program calls for the re-
assertion of public control over

B.C. forests and mineral resources
through a revamping of licensing

procedures and for the bringing
under control of the fishing’ in-
dustry through the nationalization
of B.C. Packers and the Canadian
Fishing Company.

February 26, the convention will

turn its attention to a_ special
resolution on _ organizational
questions. The draft report on
organization projects a more
public role for the CP, streamlined
organization and structure, and the
addition of staff. A short ‘‘in
camera”’ session is expected that
day to deal with some
organizational matters.

Visitors to the convention should
register at the door to the con-
vention and receive a visitor’s
badge to be admitted to the
visitor’s section of the convention.

BILL KASHTAN ...
provincial CP convention.

to address

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING

HALLS FOR RENT

COMING EVENTS

WEBSTER’S CORNERS HALL —
Available for banquets,
meetings, etc. For rates: Ozzie,
325-4171 or 685-5836.

UKRAINIAN CANADIAN
CULTURAL CENTRE — 805
East Pender St., Vancouver.
Available for banquets, wed-
dings, meetings. Ph. 254-3436.

MARCH 4 — Mackenzie-Papineau
41st anniversary social and
dance, Saturday, March 4 at 6:30
p.m., Russian People’s Home,
600 Campbell Ave. Admission $6.
Good music, refreshments and
smorgasbord. Dancing 9 p.m. on.

MARCH 11 — Film and Dance to
Flying Mountain at _ the
Ukrainian Hall, March 11 — 8
p.m. Tickets $3. Ausp.: Youth
Festival Committee.

BUSINESS PERSONALS

RUSSIAN PEOPLE’S HOME —
Available for rentals. For
reservations phone 254-3430.

NOTICES

OUR THANKS AND APPRECIA-
TION to all who came to our 50th
Wedding Anniversary
celebration. Your being there
made this once-in-a-lifetime
event a warm and joyous oc-
casion for us.

—Lil and Ben Margolese

Dressmaking and Alterations —
phone 434-3544.

MOVING? CLEANUP? — Wanted
articles for resale. All proceeds

to P.T. Phone 526-5226. “The
_ Goodie Bin.”
JEWELLERY REPAIRS, re-

modelling, appraisals at reason-
able charge. For appointment
phone 254-7678. Will pick up and
deliver in Vancouver at no extra
charge.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 17, 1978—Page 11