Prisoners of conscience
Claire Ranyard reflects on fifty years of the Prisoners of Conscience Appeal Fund
Alain, a Pentecostal Christian from Eritrea, was imprisoned because he was following a ‘banned’ religion. Originally captured by military police while praying, he was placed in an underground cell that was two metres long by two and a half metres high. It was not possible to straighten his legs and he was only allowed to come out once in the morning to eat or to go to the toilet. The food he was given was inedible. He was regularly tortured.
Alain was kept in these conditions for three and a half years, with no outside contact. He was regularly asked to sign a letter renouncing his religion. This action would secure his release – but he refused. He was transferred to several other prisons for a further three years and was regularly beaten and left in unbearably hot and unsanitary conditions. His wounds from the beatings were left untreated. Finally, he managed to escape with some fellow prisoners and crossed into Sudan to a refugee camp, but was incredibly weak on arrival. He now lives in exile in Kenya.
Peaceful heroism
When we think of heroes or heroines, who springs to mind? Sports personalities perhaps? Indeed, who could have failed to admire the incredible strength, dedication and skill of the Olympic athletes and not be proud of Team GB this year?
2012 may be an Olympic year but it also marks the fiftieth anniversary of a remarkable organisation – the Prisoners of Conscience Appeal Fund. Alain, in Kenya, is being helped with his accommodation and food with a grant from the Fund. All around the world ‘ordinary people’, like Alain, are exhibiting extraordinary courage standing up for what they believe in against repressive governments and regimes. These ‘prisoners of conscience’ are individuals who have dared to speak up for their beliefs and oppose cruelty and arbitrary power. They do so by using entirely peaceful means, without using or advocating violence. The Fund assists them on a daily basis.
Sonam, a nun from Tibet, wanted to show her support for Tibetan independence. She walked for two days to Lhasa, the capital, raised the Tibetan national flag and chanted slogans in the street. She was very quickly arrested by the Chinese authorities and taken to an interrogation centre where she was beaten, attacked by dogs and electrocuted, and then sentenced to three years in prison. Undeterred, Sonam continued to express herself by singing patriotic songs from her prison cell – for which she was sentenced to a further eight years in prison. Finally, she was released and escaped to India where she lives in exile in Dharamsala. A grant helps her pay for daily essentials.
In 1961 two similarly brave Portuguese students, who raised a toast to freedom and were imprisoned as a result, originally inspired Peter Benenson and his good friend and Quaker, Eric Baker, to launch the ‘Appeal for Amnesty 61’ and for Peter to write his now famous Observer article ‘The Forgotten Prisoners’, which lit the conscience of the world. It drew attention to a forgotten people – men and women who were being persecuted and imprisoned all over the world for no greater crime than a determination to stand up for what they thought to be right and to fight for it by nonviolent means. They were ‘prisoners of conscience’.
This was how Amnesty International was born in 1961, but because it was a campaigning organisation it could not obtain the benefit of charitable status. This is why, sixteen months later, the Prisoners of Conscience Appeal Fund was created as a charitable trust.
Financial support
The Fund was set up with a very specific mandate: to provide financial assistance to prisoners of conscience and their families in times of need. This remit remains true to its original purpose fifty years on. Grants might provide a warm blanket and a nutritious meal for someone in prison or a longed-for visit from a family member. They may assist someone who has had no choice but to leave their family, friends and community and flee to a place of safety. People also need help to rebuild their lives in exile.
The Fund was established against a backdrop of cold war tensions and post-colonial independence struggles, where violations of human rights were commonplace. From the widespread use of torture in Algeria to the severe human rights abuses endemic in apartheid South Africa there were countless examples of the everyday repression of civil and political rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights had been adopted by the UN General Assembly but was yet to develop into the binding covenants of the International Bill of Rights.
The hope was that with advances in international human rights protection and movements for peace there would be a time when financial support for prisoners of conscience was no longer needed. Sadly, this was not the case. Over the past five decades more than 10,000 prisoners of conscience from every corner of the globe have been helped. In certain countries, namely Burma and Zimbabwe, the needs of prisoners of conscience became so great that partnerships with local organisations had to be established to deal effectively with the number of requests for assistance. In Burma after the ‘Saffron Revolution’ in 2007, for example, there were over 3,000 recognised prisoners of conscience languishing in Burma’s decrepit jails.
One such prisoner of conscience is Ko Min, who had previously spent seven years in prison for his role in the mass democracy uprising of 1988. In 2007 he was arrested again for leading peaceful protests that led to the Saffron Revolution. He was sentenced to an incredible sixty-five years in prison. He suffered extreme ill health and was persistently denied medical care. His wife was allowed only thirty minutes visiting time each month, for which she had to make a very arduous two-day journey across the country. A grant from the Fund paid for food, travel costs and the essential medicine that helped keep Ko Min alive. His story, thankfully, has a happy ending. He was finally released under a presidential order in January 2012. Ko Min continues his peaceful struggle for justice with an unbroken spirit, actively campaigning for the remaining 216 political prisoners still behind bars in Burma.
Ordinary people
Throughout the tumultuous global political events that have occurred during the past fifty years, the one thing that has remained constant is the strength and courage of ordinary people to stand up to injustice and tyranny. Just like the early Quakers, who defied discriminatory laws by continuing to hold their Meetings and who were persecuted and imprisoned as a result, there are, today, countless numbers of spirited people of principle who risk their lives and liberty to stay true to their beliefs.
For more information: www.prisonersofconscience.org
Names have been changed.
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