Amnesty group writes letters for liberty ( Portsmouth Herald ) December 10, 2002


options

Amnesty group writes letters for liberty

By Jesse J. DeConto
Portsmouth Herald, NH -(10-12-02)

PORTSMOUTH - Today is International Human Rights Day, and the local chapter of Amnesty International is inviting other Seacoast residents to join it in responding to human rights abuses around the globe.

This summer, Amnesty’s Seacoast chapter Group 550 connected with Amnesty International’s Urgent Action Network. Since then, members have written letters urging the release of dozens of political prisoners held captive by foreign governments.

In early October, Amnesty members and friends sent thousands of letters to the government of Myanmar, formerly Burma, which had taken 30 members of that country’s nonviolent resistance movement into custody.

Portsmouth resident Sara Steffensmeier, Group 550’s Urgent Action coordinator, received word of the arrests on Oct. 2.

Amnesty members around the world began sending letters to the Myanmar government urging the government to free the captives.

"They have it all coordinated so they all hit at the same time," she said. "You get a quicker response."

A week later, the Myanmar government released eight of the prisoners.

Group 550’s most recent Urgent Action campaign was not as successful. Since Dec. 3, they tried to protect a confessed murderer from the death penalty in North Carolina, but Steffensmeier said he’s already been executed. The AI Internet site describes the case and their opposition to the death penalty:

"He was sentenced to death for the murder of Helen Purdy. At the time of the crime he was reportedly intoxicated. Before the murder, a hospital refused him abuse treatment due to his lack of medical insurance coverage. He was also too poor to hire his own lawyer for the trial. Desmond Carter is black and Helen Purdy was white. Tell North Carolina to stop capital sentencing based on race and economic status."

Steffensmeier said Amnesty opposes the death penalty in all cases, but she’s conflicted on the issue. "Writing that letter, I had to do a lot of soul-searching," she said.But few Urgent Action cases concern human rights abuses in the United States and even fewer are this controversial, Steffensmeier said.

The Myanmar government is known for torture tactics and prison labor, she explained. This Thursday at 5:30 p.m., Group 550 plans to recognize the Kmart on Woodbury Avenue because the corporation is taking steps to eliminate products made in Myanmar from its shelves.

Since August, the Seacoast group has written Urgent Action letters to Iran, Sudan, Indonesia, Myanmar, Liberia and Colombia.

"Most of them are very clear cut," she said. "The basis of all these cases is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

The United Nations Human Rights Commission adopted this declaration on Dec. 10, 1948. Most nations have signed the document, and Amnesty often reminds their governments of this when violations occur.

Amnesty International has a trustworthy reputation for the research it conducts into human rights abuse claims, Steffensmeier said. "They double-check and triple-check information," she said. Most of these claims require an ongoing effort.

Group 550 is currently working on two main cases. Akbar Mohammadi and Ahmad Batebi are two Iranian students who were arrested during student demonstrations in Tehran in 1999. Both were tortured and sentenced to death. Those sentences were later commuted to 15 years in prison. The group is also working for the release of Leyla Zana, a Kurdish woman and duly elected member of the Turkish Parliament arrested in 1997 and sentenced to 15 years in prison for wearing traditional colors and speaking out for ethnic harmony during her inauguration.

Steffensmeier said cases like this may take years to resolve, but Urgent Action relies not on sustained commitment but a mass of mailings in a short period of time from thousands of concerned individuals in 78 countries around the world. That means Urgent Action reveals a problem and gives people something they can do about it, she said.

"It’s very overwhelming when you start thinking of all the things going on in the world that you can’t control," she said. "It’s so easy to do."

Volunteers wishing to participate should e-mail Sara Steffensmeier atsara_steffensmeier@yahoo.com or call (603) 436-5221 for more information.

Burma Today do not take any responsibility for news content. Copyrights of news articles remain with the respective news agencies or reporter[s].