Sunday, 31 May 2015

June meeting – experiences of Syria

We are very pleased to welcome two speakers for our June meeting, with very different personal perspectives on Syria.

• Ronahi Hasan is journalism student whose family have experiences life as Kurds under the Assad regime.

• Hussam Allahham is a doctor from Syria who has worked in hospitals within Syria as well as in a Red Cross refugee camp since leaving the country.

Each will talk about their personal experiences of life under Assad and give their views on the situation there today as it affects their families still in the country facing the twin threats of Assad and Islamic State.

Monday 8th June at 7.30pm
Quaker Meeting House
43 Charles Street
Cardiff

Thursday, 16 April 2015

Campaigning for the Human Rights Act is underway…

Tuesday, 14 April 2015

Where do you stand on human rights?

At our April meeting we looked at the two issues that Amnesty wants to raise with candidates in this year’s election.

Stop TortureFor more than 50 years, Amnesty International has been fighting to stamp out torture. Torture is banned under International law, but all over the world people continue to be tortured.Over the last five years, Amnesty International has reported on torture and other forms of ill-treatment in at least 141 countries from every region of the world. The secretive nature of torture means the true number is likely to be higher still.Torture prevention is currently a priority for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). The FCO’s Torture Prevention Strategy includes a campaign to press countries to sign up to international agreements such as United Nations Convention against Torture.There is no guarantee that our government will prioritise this issue. We need to get as much support from Prospective Parliamentary Candidates as possible to ensure this issue is a priority for the next UK government.Human Rights ActThe Human Rights Act is a UK law passed in 1998. It means that you can defend your rights in the UK courts and that public organisations (including the government, the police and local councils) must treat everyone equally, with fairness, dignity and respect.The HRA is an excellent example of human rights protection and has had a positive impact for many individuals and for UK society generally, in a number of ways. For example a couple who used the HRA to challenge a decision which would have separated them after 65 years together.The HRA brings human rights into all state decisions improving government and public authority actions and policies. If someone feels their rights are not being respected, they can challenge the government in court. But in the vast majority of HRA cases, the issue is settled out of court i.e. the government/public authority comes to an agreement about how to respect the individual’s rights and this can have a positive impact on policies affecting hundreds or even thousands of people.The HRA brings human rights home – it allows people to turn to UK courts and UK judges if they feel their rights are not being respected by the government. It gives us power to challenge the decisions made by politicians and Local Authorities here in the UK.And yet the Conservative Party and UKIP want to repeal the Human Rights Act. It begs the question – which of our rights do they propose are taken away?For some excellent background have a look at these articles from the Liberty website.

https://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/human-rights/what-are-human-rights/human-rights-act

https://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/news/latest-news/legally-illiterate

Taking action

Our next steps will be to e-mail our local candidates (our April meeting had members living in 5 different constituencies across Cardiff and Caerphilly) and to use Twitter and Facebook to raise the campaign profile and using pictures (see right) to ask our candidates “Where do you stand on human rights?”

Tuesday, 7 April 2015

I Stand for Human Rights

Tuesday, 10 March 2015

March meeting review – Mama Telema

Wednesday, 4 March 2015

International Women’s Day

February meeting review – experiences of Rwanda

Wednesday, 28 January 2015

2015 Programme

Friday, 21 November 2014

Write for Rights 2014

Monday, 3 November 2014

November meeting – Undercover with Rob Evans of The Guardian

Monday, 22 September 2014

Thursday, 21 November 2013

Cardiff Book Talk

Thursday, 21 November 2013

Write for Rights

Wednesday, 13 November 2013

November meeting report – Human Rights in Pakistan

Our November meeting was in the grand surroundings of the Wallace Lecture Theatre in Cardiff University, where we held a joint meeting with members of the Cardiff University Amnesty Group.

Our guest speaker was Muhammad Younas, a journalist from Pakistan but now based in Cardiff and an active member of our Amnesty group.  Younas has campaigned widely for the rights of the Hazara community of Pakistan, notably alongside Alan Johnson MP who has taken up their cause in the House of Commons.

Younas started by giving an overview of Pakistan in political and religous terms.  Pakistan is a strongly Muslim country with 80% Sunni Muslims, 15% Shia Muslims and 5% non-Muslims.  The latter are often persecuted and even face the death penalty as a result of Pakistan’s strict blasphemy laws.  Many also suffer attacks from extremists.  These minorities include:

• Christians (1.5% of the population) – on 22 September this year at least 85 were killed in an attack on a church service in Peshawar;
• Hindus – since Pakistan’s independence in 1947, 6 million of Hindus have left the country with the proportion of the population falling to just 1.3% today.  Many Hindu women have been the victim of kidnap and coercive conversion to Islam.
• Ahmadis (2% of the population) – Ahmadis are Muslims, and are recognised as such in many countries in the world.  However since 1974, Pakistan has legally declared them non-Muslims.  As a result they face charges of blasphemy for preaching, praying or even sharing the traditional Muslim greeting.

Younas then went on to talk more from personal experience of life as a Hazara in Quetta City.  The Hazara are a distinct Shia group, noticable for their different racial background and Mongolian features.  As Younas pointed out, he looks very different from most Pakistanis, and this makes the Hazara a visible and easy target for religious militants in Pakistan who oppose Shia Islam.  Since 1999, when the Hazara in Afghanistan supported Western forces against the Taliban, the community has faced persistent attacks, with around 1,300 killed and 3,500 injured. 276 have been killed this year already.

Quetta is a city of around 2.8 million people, including nearly all of Pakistan’s 500,000 Hazara.  The city is largely segregated into distinct areas for different religious or tribal groups, with most Hazara living in Hazara Town and Mehr Abad.  Attacks are now making travel outside these areas, and between them, increasingly dangerous.  Nearly 100% of Hazara are educated but access to schools and colleges is curtailed by the threat of attacks.  Traders are no longer able to safely reach the city’s wholesale markets and therefore face higher prices for their goods.  Non-Hazara avoid shops for fear of being caught up in attacks by extremists.

While all this goes on, the regional and national governments have done very little to ensure the protection of Hazara citizens and thousands have fled the country.  No one has been convicted of a single attack.

Amnesty International said earlier this year

“These attacks demonstrate Lashkar-e-Jhangvi’s [terrorist group] utter disregard for human rights and basic principles of humanity,

“Also shocking is the continued failure of the authorities to bring to justice any of those responsible for committing these killings, or inciting others to carry them out.”

Futher reading
Amnesty International press release http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/pakistan-bombings-quetta-hazara-community-2013-02-18 

Article by Younas in the Express Tribune http://tribune.com.pk/story/564437/quetta-bleeds/

Younas’s blog can be found at http://myounas.com/ and includes a range of articles on Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Hazara.

Thank you!

 

Thank you to everyone who supported our first Amnestea Party on Saturday – we raised £197.05 by eating cake and drinking tea!

The winners of our in augural Great Amnesty Bake Off were:

–  Best Sponge – Megan
–  Best (and only!) Chocolate Brownies – Maria
–  Best (and only!) Scones – Maria
–  Best Decorated Cupcakes – Lowri

Maria’s brownies also claimed Best Cake in Show!

Thanks to everyone who came along, brought cakes and everyone who helped on the day.

Special thanks go to Delyth Liddell for judging the cakes and Spillers Records for donating raffle prizes.

Our next fundraising event will be…

Featuring the Great Amnesty Bake Off!

Our next event is a fundraiser on Saturday 9th November.  Come along to Cathays Methodist Church from 2.30pm and buy a cup of tea (or coffee or hot chocolate!) and a slice of cake to support Amnesty International.

We will also have a baking competion – the Great Amnesty Bake Off – please bring cakes along for judging at 2.00pm.

Categories will be:

– Best sponge cake (any flavour)
– Best plate of chocolate brownies
– Best scones
– Best plate of 6 decorated cup cakes
– Best student cake
– Best cake in show

There will also be a raffle to win the best cake in show and other prizes.

Amnesty International Cardiff Group

Friday, 4 October 2013

Wednesday, 25 September 2013

Student Group’s Comedy Night

Thursday, 19 September 2013

Thursday, 5 September 2013

Sorting Out

As part of the handover of secretary from Paul to Hannah I seem to have ended up with the infamous Amnesty “stuff” – boxes of leaflets, posters, magazines and other Amnesty resources.  As Hannah has no room, these are starting their new life in my loft.  Fortunately Paul has sorted and boxed everything so after one final cull I thought it would be useful to share what we have in case anyone needs anything…

Posters
Long Amnesty banners in English and Welsh with string attached
A selection of general Amnesty posters
50 Years anniversary poster set
Women’s Rights poster set

Placards
I Stand for Human Rights /Dw i’n Sefyll Dros Hawliau Dynol (x5)
In Solidarity, In Defiance (x4 English and x2 Arabic)
Free Burma’s Political Prisoners (x8)
Love is a Human Right (x1)
Set of 4 famous people with placards
Diogelu Dynolryw (x4)
Demand Human Rights, End Poverty (x1)

Leaflets
Get Involved (general membership leaflets)
Together We Are Powerful (student membership leaflets)
A Human Rights Revolution (Arab Spring leaflets)
Love is a human right (LGBT leaflets and stickers)

Magazines etc
Back issues of Amnesty magazine and group news
Campaign briefings including:
–  Sri Lanka
–  Women in Afghanistan
–  Poverty and Human Rights
–  Human Rights Defenders in Russia
–  Vedanta putting Human Rights at Risk in India
–  30 Years of Campaigning with Trade Unions
–  Tunisia
–  Women’s Human Rights

Education materials
My Rights Passports (bilingual)
Universal Declaration of Human Rights posters (English and Welsh)
Introduction to Amnesty DVDs (English and Welsh)
I Talk Out Loud (Youth Groups) DVDs
Poverty and Human rights pack (English 14+)
Learning about Human Rights in Primary Schools packs (English and Welsh)
Death Penalty pack (English 14+)
Your Street (human rights poster)

General resources for stalls and collections
Amnesty tabards
Amnesty stickers
Amnesty balloons
Clipboards and pens
Blue tac, tape and pins
Candle and barbed wire
Greetings cards (for annual greetings cards campaign)
Beer mats
Pin badges
Protect the Human badges
A smaller carrying box for taking materials to events
Collecting buckets and tins

Anti-Drones Demonstration in Aberporth

On Monday 9th September the Drones Campaign Network Cymru is holding a peaceful demonstration against drone warfare at Aberporth in West Wales.  Parc Aberporth is the main military drone testing, training and evaluation centre in Wales.

A group will be leaving Cardiff Central at 8.30am by minibus and returning at 17.00. Details available on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dronecampaignnetworkcymru

September meeting

Sunday, 25 August 2013

Côr Cochion 30th Anniversary

Friday, 9 August 2013

Summer Break

Urgent Action Network – report from our June meeting

Our speaker in June was our very own Elizabeth Jenkins, talking about Amnesty’s Urgent Action Network, which celebrates 40 years of work this year.  Elizabeth herself has been sending urgent actions for three quarters of that time!

Elizabeth is just one of thousands of Amnesty members who have signed up to take action by e-mail, airmail or fax when an immediate response is required where someone faces immediate danger, torture or execution or perhaps access to medical treatment.  Volunteers sign up for as many as they want to do, with Elizabeth typically sending 16-24 per year.  Currently the network has 165,000 members worldwide, 13,900 of them in the UK.

Many times you will get no reply.  In other cases you may hear from the ambassador, minister or other official.  In some cases you may even hear from the prisoner themselves (like the reply left from Taiwan).

Back in 1983, urgent actions came through the post and Elizabeth would then deliver them around Cardiff by bike to other volunteers in the group.  Now actions are via e-mail or text messages (see further down how to sign up).

The first ever urgent action

Elizabeth’s talk focussed around individual cases, starting with the first ever urgent action for Brazilian professor, Luis Rossi in February 1973.  Luis was taken by the security forces and was at risk of torture.  Unable to leave the house, his wife Maria Jose threw a note into the neighbour’s garden who informed the local priest and eventually, via the bishop and a Belgian Catholic college, the news reached Amnesty in London.  As the letters flooded in, Luis Rossi was released.
Elizabeth then moved on to talk about some of the more memorable urgent actions she had written.  Her very first was in 1983 on behalf of 22 Iranian Baha’i followers facing the death penalty.  Elizabeth received a reply from the embassy but 19 of the 22 were still executed.

Other memorable cases included:
•    1985 – writing on behalf of a Bulgarian pastor, Hristo Kulichev, detained for opposing the government interference with the church.  Following his release, Elizabeth met him in Ebbw Vale when he came to speak
•    1990 – writing on behalf of a Kenyan opposition leader at risk of torture.  In reply Elizabeth received a personal telegram from the Kenyan Attorney General
•    1992 – after writing to a South African newspaper about the Goldstone Commission into the shooting dead of 30 ANC demonstrators, Elizabeth received a personal reply from the (Welsh!) editor of the paper, Glyn Williams, with cuttings of supportive articles and editorials;
•    1996 – receiving a phone call from the Rwandan ambassador in response to her letter about the ill treatment of three journalists;

More recently Elizabeth has exchanged several letters and cards from a group supporting a Taiwanese prisoner, Chiou Ho-Shun, held on death row since 1999.  These have been extremely colourful with hand-drawn cartoons by his cell-mate showing his dreams of a life in freedom.

Do you speak Russian?

The latest reply that Elizabeth has received comes from Uzbekistan, but being in Russian, she has no idea what it says.  If you help with translation please e-mail amnesty.cardiff@btopenworld.com.

Most memorably, Elizabeth described a visit in 1991 to El Salvador, where she met people who represented three links in the urgent action chain:  nuns who forwarded information to Amnesty on human rights abuses; an army colonel who responded to appeals for individual prisoners; and a Baptist pastor, for whom she had sent urgent actions.  He spoke of being shown, on his release, a huge pile of letters sent by supporters and being told: ‘We didn’t know you were so important.’  He responded, ‘I’m not.  I just have a very large family!’

How can you get involved?

If you would like to sign up for the Urgent Action scheme, head to the website at http://www.amnesty.org.uk/ua where you can choose how many cases a month you would like to sign up to.  Even if it’s only one a month, that’s 12 people in urgent need that you’ll be helping every year.
Alternatively Amnesty has a new new SMS campaigning network called Pocket Protest (www.amnesty.org.uk/pocketprotest) – sign up by text and get urgent actions sent to you phone for an immediate response.  See some of the people that the network has helped already at www2.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/sms-action-network

Tuesday, 16 July 2013

Penarth Street Collection

Thanks to everyone who collected or donated at our street collection in Penarth.  We raised £115.33

We are planning some new fundraising events for the next year including an Amnestea Party in the autumn and a pub quiz in the spring.

Watch this space or e-mail amnesty.cardiff@btopenworld.com to volunteer to help with our fundraising for Amnesty’s vital human rights work.

Tuesday, 16 July 2013

Afghanistan – Report from our July meeting

Our guest speaker in July was Chris Usher, Amnesty International UK’s Afghanistan co-ordinator.

Afghanistan geo-politics
Afghanistan is the size of Texas.  It has a population of 30 million, 25% of whom live in urban areas.  Afganistan is a landlocked country: to the north, the former Soviet central Asian republics like Uzbekistan and Tajikstan; to the west, Iran; to the east, Pakistan.  So Afghanistan is at a crossroads: historically it has been a buffer state between major powers – Great Britain, Russia, the Soviet Union and latterly the US.

Afghanistan gained its full independence from Great Britain in 1919.  Ironically, given present circumstances, women in Afghanistan gained the right to vote in 1919, ahead of universal female suffrage in Britain in 1928!

Present day Afghanistan has had no respite from war: the Soviet occupation in the 1980s, the Taliban in the 90’s, and the US invasion in December 2001 just after 9/11.

The place of women in Afghanistan
Today Afghanistan is a pretty desperate place for women, but this has not always been the case.  Back in the 1960s the country was a haven for hippies.  In those days women wore mini-skirts in Kabul.  The country is said nowadays to be the worst place in the world to be a woman.  Maternal mortality is 50 times greater than in the UK.  The Taliban banned girls’ education when they ran the country.  In present-day Afghanistan a girl receives 5 years of education compared with 8 for a boy.  Life expectancy for a woman is 50.

Two case histories of Afghan women
‘Fatama’

(Fatama is not her real name; she was interviewed by an Amnesty researcher 18 months ago).

A poor woman, Fatama lived in Kabul with her husband and seven children before the Talban took over the country. He husband is mentally ill and is incapable of work, so Fatama has been the main family breadwinner.
When NATO invaded Afghanistan, the family fled to Pakistan, living in an UNHCR refugee camp. When the situation in Afghanistan improved, the refugee camp was closed and programmes of voluntary repatriation back to Afganistan were started.  When Fatama’s family came back they could not return to their old home, so they moved into an empty shop in Kabul and set up a home there.  But they lost this when the shop owner returned and claimed his property back.

Fatama tried to make ends meet by taking on laundering and cleaning.  She built a house from mud and corrugated iron in a Kabul shanty town. Somehow by these means she supported the whole family.  When AI researchers asked her what in a better life she would ask of the Afghan government in support of her family, she said on everything.  As things stand her home periodically falls down.  She has no help with school fees.  She doesn’t have a fridge.
Fawzia Koofi
Her background is very different from Fatima’s. Fawzia’s family had a middle class lifestyle.  Her father was an Afghan MP in the 1970s.  He had several wives, so Fawzia’s mother was desperate to give him a son, but instead Fawzia was born.  Fawzia’s mother was sidelined by her father because she failed to provide him with a son; so disappointed was the family that Fawzia was left out in the sun to die, yet somehow she survived.
She grew up in a big family of twenty children and several wives.  She managed to persuade her parents to let her go to school.  She wanted to become a doctor, but this dream evaporated when the Taliban came to power and closed down schools for girls.  She was sent by her family to Pakistan where she did receive an education.

She was employed in Pakistan by the UN.  Her marriage was arranged, but her husband died at the hands of the Taliban, like her father.  She was left a single mother with two children.

Although from a middle class family, she had few resources.  In 2009 she took a big step and stood as an MP. 27% of Afghan MPs are women – a larger % than in the UK.  She was elected for a district in Kabul.
She is going to have an attempt to stand as President of Afghanistan in the 2014 election, even though there is strong resistance in Afghanistan to women having any role in its politics.

In 2012 no Afghan woman was allowed to speak at an international conference in Paris on the future of the country.  Around 40-50 women MPs have gained some influence in Afghanistan.
The number of women in the Afghan police is small.  There is a big drive to recruit more women: women in Afghanistan will not report instances of sexual assault or domestic violence to male officers.

Amnesty International’s efforts regarding the rights of women in Afghanistan
AI is pressurising the British Government to use its influence regarding proper provision for women’s rights in any negotiations about Afghanistan’s future.  Justine Greening, the International Development Secretary, has promised that DIFD will prioritise this issue.

Given that the Taliban don’t accept equal rights for women, AI in association with a number of NGOs has written ‘ Afghanistan: An Action Plan on Women’s Rights’, an action plan to protect women’s rights in the peace process.  AI have emphasised that you cannot make peace by sacrificing women’s rights.  It is now pressing the British Foreign Office and DIFD to ensure the plan is implemented.

Questions
1. What legal protections exist now for women’s rights?
There is notional equality. Some recent legislation to improve women’s rights was blocked in the Afghan Parliament.
The realities continue: 80% of Afghan women endure domestic violence.  There is no recourse for women experiencing sexual assault: they just won’t report incidents to their local police station.
Generally women are in a better situation in non-Pashtun areas and in towns.

2. Is the position of women the same across the whole of Afghanistan?
   No, the position is worse in the Pashtun areas where there are very few women activists.  But in other areas, for example in the Hazara and Tajik areas in the north the picture is much better.
3. Could Afghanistan break up?
   It is important to remember that over the last 200 years the Pashtun have dominated Afghanistan, although that has not been the case in recent years.  At present they are not dominant in the Afghan army.  After international combat forces withdraw from the country by the end of 2014, Afghanistan’s army could break up into tribal-based units.

A graphic portrayal of racism in Afghanistan is given in the novel ‘The Kiterunner’ by Khaled Hosseini.

4. To what extent can AI influence the US Government re women’s rights in negotiations with the Taliban?

AIUS has more limited influence with the US Govt compared with that exercised by AIUK with the British Government.  Kate Allen, AIUK Secretary meets William Hague about twice a year to discuss human rights issues.

Thanks were expressed to Chris for coming from London to give these illuminating insights into women’s issues in Afghanistan.

The Current Situation in Kashmir

Wednesday, 3 July 2013

It’s time to put Sri Lanka’s human rights in the spotlight

July Meeting – Human Rights for Women in Afghanistan

Monday July 8th 2013
7.30pm Quaker Meeting House, Charles Street, CardiffWhat does the future hold for the women of Afghanistan?  Will the advances made since the fall of the Taliban be under threat as a future is hammered out in negotiations?Come and hear about Amnesty’s campaign to protect and improve the human rights of women in Afghanistan with guest speaker Chris Usher, Amnesty UK’s Afghanistan co-ordinator.

All are welcome!

First post

For over 10 years the Amnesty Cardiff Goup has supported the campaign for a global arms treaty.  Since 2003 we have sent letters, signed petitions and, in my case, worn a Rheolwch Arfau t-shirt (Control Arms in Welsh!) as part of the joint campaign by Amnesty, Oxfam and the other members of the Control Arms coalition.

Successive UK governments have been a strong voice of support and in April 2013, the United Nations finally voted in favour.

Now the battle is on to get 50 countries to sign the treaty to bring it into international law.  It really feels like the home straight now!

Ian Cobain talk – February 2013

Our February meeting was jointly held with Cardiff University Amnesty Group and probably had a record attendance for a Cardiff Amnesty meeting, with over 150 people in Cardiff Law School to hear Ian Cobain, an investigative journalist with The Guardian.

His book, “Cruel Britannia: The Secret History of Torture” is the result of his enquiries into the UK’s involvement with torture since the Second World War.  For his work on torture, Ian has been awarded the Martha Gellhorn Prize and the Paul Foot Award for investigative journalism.

Before responding to questions on his investigations into the involvement of the British state in torture, Ian gave the meeting some insights into how he had come to take an interest in this issue.

His interest in the subject began when The Guardian asked him to report on a terrorism trial at the Old Bailey in 2006-7 in which a number of British Muslims were accused of planning a bomb attack on the Ministry of Sound nightclub in London.  Six men had been arrested in the South of England and one in Pakistan.  Over a 10 month period the latter was repeatedly tortured by the authorities in Pakistan.  It was claimed that two MI5 officers called Richard and Matt were asking the accused man questions between these torture sessions.  Some of these questions became the focus of subsequent torture sessions.

Later, Ian learnt of another man with dual British and Pakistani citizenship enduring similar treatment. Ian then encountered the case of a Rochdale man held in Pakistan who had been subjected to an alternating regime of torture and questioning by MI5 officers – there was no suggestion of MI5 involvement in the interrogations involving torture itself.

Shortly thereafter Ian was asked to investigate the case of Rashid Rauf who was suspected of involvement in ‘the airline plot’ in which 12 planes were to be brought down over the Atlantic.  Rauf had been born in Pakistan but raised in Birmingham.  In 2006 he was arrested in Pakistan and subjected, so it was claimed, to torture over a long period; again there were claims that British intelligence officers had questioned Rauf in similar circumstances to the previous cases Ian had encountered.  Quite extraordinarily, it was reported that Rauf had escaped from custody in late 2007, apparently from a mosque where he had been allowed to pray alone.  This disappearance was extremely suspicious.  Ian was in Pakistan at the end of 2007 and decided to investigate the Rashid Rauf case further.  He went to see Rauf’s lawyer in Islamabad.  When Ian asked the lawyer if torture was common practice in Pakistan the lawyer laughed, pointing out that torture is a matter of routine for anyone arrested by the Pakistani intelligence services.

Upon making further enquiries, Ian was told that four other British citizens were being tortured.

Ian started to consider whether these cases, if true, were random episodes, or whether there was a deliberate policy being pursued by the British authorities that condoned torture.  He initially found this difficult to believe.  Accordingly he decided to investigate whether the British state had been pursuing interrogation practices involving torture techniques in any other areas.

His first step was to look at the ‘London Cage’, a World War Two interrogation centre in Kensington.  As a result of his research in the Collingdale Newspaper Library and examining declassified documents at the National Archives in Kew, Ian uncovered evidence of systematic torture of Germans POWs held in the London Cage.

Bad Nenndorf in Lower Saxony was another British interrogation centre found to be using systematic torture techniques between 1946-7.

As the story unfolded, Ian uncovered evidence of a network of British interrogation centres in Hanover, Keele, Berlin, Casablanca, Algiers, Brussels and Beirut etc.

After this early research Ian saw the value in trying to ‘join up the dots’.  A picture soon emerged that gave ample evidence of the use of systematic torture in post-war colonial wars fought by the British State; abuses of suspects in Northern Ireland;  and allegations arising from the 2003 war in Iraq.  There were other common factors: the same individuals in the intelligent services seemed to link these abuses; the same interrogation techniques were being used in each instance; the same concealment methods were used to hide the truth concerning abuses of human rights.

Having explained the circumstances which led him to research and write the book, Ian asked for questions.

1. What were the common strands uncovered in the use of torture by the British state in the Second World War and after?

In May 1940 Winston Churchill became Prime Minister.  There was a pervasive fear that fifth columnists were active in the country and MI5 gave high priority to tracking them down. As a result the Home Office was persuaded to set up a secret interrogation centre in south-west London known as Camp 020.

This was run by a highly secret committee: its secretary was Kenneth Diplock, who produced the infamous Diplock Report in 1972.  It was this report that led to the establishment in Northern Ireland of special courts where those charged of terrorist offences were tried before a single judge without recourse to a jury.

Another figure providing continuity was Sir Richard ‘Dick’ White who was involved in the management of Camp 020.  White, who went on to be head of MI5 and MI6, was a firm believer in the utility of interrogation; for over thirty years he played a significant role in its use by the British State.

There was also continuity in the interrogation methods known as the ‘Five Techniques’.  These techniques combined  stress tortures: starvation; sleep deprivation; hooding; an incessant hissing noise (introduced later than the other torture methods); and ‘wall-standing’ in which the prisoner would be forced to stand with his or her legs spread wide apart, leaning forward with arms spread wide and high, with much of their weight supported against a wall on outstretched fingers.

In 1972 Edward Heath, the Prime Minister, banned the further use of these methods in Northern Ireland.  In practice, however, these ‘integration techniques’ continued to be used following secret guidelines drawn up by the Ministry of Defence but left in ‘draft’ form. As these guidelines have remained in ‘draft’ form the British Government has always been able to deny their existence.  Despite opposition from British Army lawyers, these techniques were resumed in the interrogation of Iraqi prisoners from 2003 onwards.

2. Were women involved in these abuses?

Ian had found one instance where a main interrogation centre in south-east Iraq was run by a female British naval officer.

3. What do we know about the use of torture during the Palestine Emergency?

Ian explained that the picture is unclear due to the lack of evidence.  A lot of documents were destroyed when the British withdrew from Palestine in 1947.  One detail he did note was that Sir Kenneth Newman was a member of the Palestine Police Force.  Newman was later to become Chief Constable of the RUC in the later 1970s when the Five Techniques were being systematically used in Northern Ireland interrogation centres.

4. Why did the British Government not destroy the documents which revealed these practices?

Sometimes records were forgotten. A case in point was an archive relating to the Mau Mau Emergency in Kenya that was discovered in an obscure country house in Buckinghamshire. Thanks to a historical consultant working for the Kenyan victims of British torture centres and to the good offices of William Hague, Foreign Secretary, these records were made public at the National Archives.

5. Is there any evidence of British intelligence officers participating in the torture of detainees in Guantanamo?

No, they were not involved directly in torture, but British intelligence officers were in Guantanamo very often. Guidelines were updated which allowed intelligence officer to question prisoners, but not in the interrogation sessions where torture was being used.

6. Were successive Governments unaware of what their security services were doing?

Despite the public ban he imposed on their use, Edward Heath knew that the Five Techniques were being used in Northern Ireland.

Today if a British agent thinks that someone is being tortured he or she must refer the situation up a chain of command. This chain ends with the Foreign Secretary for final resolution.  David Miliband claims that sometimes he said no to further British involvement in such a situation – which means that at other times he gave his consent.  There is no evidence that any effort was made by Miliband to investigate the fate of detainees where British officers were permitted to continue asking questions outside the torture sessions.

7. Why have so few investigative journalists looked into the issue of the British state and torture?

It is difficult to say.  In Northern Ireland there were Irish papers and The Sunday Times that took an interest.  To its shame, The Guardian at that time published an editorial supporting the use of torture.  ‘D’ notices became redundant years ago.  One practice that does continue is that the heads of the intelligence agencies have cosy lunches with newspaper editors.

8. Might it be the case that Ministers didn’t actually know what was going on at the time?

Northern Ireland Secretaries must have known about abuses taking place in the 1970s.  Equally, Winston Churchill must have known of abuses regarding the wartime interrogation centres; Attlee likewise about Bad Nenndorf 1946-7.

9. What, if anything, do we know about Jack Straw’s stance on these allegations?

As Foreign Secretary in 2005, Jack Straw appeared before the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee and stated that “there is no truth in the claims that the United Kingdom has been involved in rendition, full stop, because we have not been.”  He called the allegations a “conspiracy theory”.  When subsequently the UK Government faced civil actions on behalf of Guantanamo prisoners, documents became available which showed that the UK had been involved in extraordinary rendition.

We now know that in 2002 Jack Straw had sent a telegram stating that no objection should be made to the transfer of British nationals captured in Afghanistan to Guantanamo. The only stipulation was that these British citizens should not be removed from Afghanistan untill MI5 interrogators had questioned them.

Ian Cobain has tried to arrange an interview with Jack Straw but without success.

We know that Jack Straw was Foreign Secretary at the time when MI6 were rendering Libyan dissidents into the hands of the Gaddai regime.  This situation has come to light as a result of the recent publication of the ‘Tripoli documents’.  In a recent radio interview Straw argued that a Foreign Secretary cannot know everything that the intelligence services are undertaking.  This evasion did not go down well with the intelligence agencies involved in the Libyan renditions.  Scotland Yard is currently looking into the allegations of the Libyan dissidents.

10. Have you found any heroes in your researches into British involvement in torture?

Barbara Castle was vociferous in Parliament about abuses inflicted on Mau Mau suspects in Kenya. There was also a police inspector called Heywood who exposed abuses at Bad Nenndorf. In Northern Ireland a senior police doctor, Robert Irwin, exposed malpractice in interrogation centres. More recently Lieut. Colonel Nicholas Mercer, a senior army lawyer, repeatedly warned the British military in Iraq that prisoners were protected by the European Convention.

11. Given that your book reveals how successive British governments have repeatedly broken international conventions, what should now be done?

There needs to be an absolute prohibition by the British Government on any involvement in torture. Those responsible for the post-9/11 abuses should be persecuted.

12. Do you have a view about the apathy of the general public about these cases?

Ian wondered aloud whether the British public were apathetic or content that terrorists should suffer on the basis that ‘they’ve got it coming to them’.

On behalf of Amnesty International, Owen Collins thanked Ian Cobain for his introductory comments on why he had written the book and for responding to such a wide range of questions.

Ian Cobain

Cruel Britannia – A Secret History of Torture

Portobello Books 2012

Amnesty International Cardiff Group

Lend a Hand for Burma – March 2012

On Saturday 24th March 2012, volunteers from the Cardiff Amnesty Group, university and local schools groups joined forces to call for the release of Burma’s political prisoners. We did this by asking the public to give us a hand – literally – by drawing around their hand and signing our petition wall. Hundreds of people signed and our wall and many were photographed showing their support.

On May 31st Stuart, chair of the Cardiff Group, took the petition to London, where he met Costa (our former secretary) to present it to the Burmese Embassy. Unfortunately (but not unexpectedly) the embassy refused to accept the petition.

Fortunately we had come prepared with a camera and a letter explaining our visit, so we took some photos and left the petition and letter on the embassy doorstep.

Photos of the day are on our Flickr page.

Where is Djamel? – May 2010

For several years we have worked on behalf of Djameleddine (Djamel) Fahassi, a journalist and married man, with one daughter, who was just 4 months old when he disappeared in Algeria on 6 May 1995. He was arrested outside a café in the district of al-Harrach (suburb of Algiers) by 3 men with walkie-talkies. He was forced into a car and has not been seen since.

Our focus has been three-fold:

• to write to the Algerian authorities to try to get information about Djamel, what happened to him, and where he is now;
• to try to draw attention in this country to the situation in Algeria;
• to support Djamel’s family in their fight for the truth.

We are in regular contact with Djamel’s wife, Safia, who is a member of a group of people in Algeria who all have ‘disappeared’ relatives or friends. Her e-mails paint a picture of everyday life and tireless campaigning which remain a constant inspiration for those working on his case.

On 8th May 2010, to mark the 15th anniversary of Djamel’s disappearance, we held an event in Cardiff city centre to publicise his case. We collected over 650 signatures and 100 photographs of shoppers with a “Where is Djamel banner” which we sent to the Algerian embassy and to Safia to encourage her in her work.  Even First Minister Carwyn Jones supported the petition and had his photo taken!

Before the event we received an e-mail from Safia saying:

“What you are planning to do for my husband is wonderful. I’ll be doing the same thing in Algeria.  I appreciate your help in sending me the petition and all that you will be doing so far in the anniversary.”

Past campaigns

Anas al-Shogre, “Disappeared” human rights activist in Syria

Syrian political activist Anas al-Shogre (born 24 October 1988) has been detained incommunicado since the night of 14 May 2011, when he was arrested, apparently for calling for and leading protests against repression of demonstrations in other parts of the country and calling for political reform and in the coastal city of Banias. He had been in hiding at the time, as a security operation was under way in the city.

The Amnesty International Cardiff Group has adopted the case of Anas al-Shogre and will be letter-writing and campaigning on his behalf.

Background

One of Anas al-Shogre’s brothers, who is living outside Syria, told Amnesty International in October 2011 that the family had learnt from an apparently reliable source that Anas al-Shogre was held at the State Security branch in Damascus, that he was unwell and had “lost a lot of weight”. This has heightened concern that he may have been tortured or otherwise ill-treated. The source provided no further information.The authorities have not said where he is being held.

Another of his brothers told Amnesty International that the family learned from some former detainees, who were also arrested during the security operation in Banias but later released, that initially Anas al-Shogre had been held in solitary confinement at the Military Security branch in the city of Tartus, south of Banias, before being transferred to the State Security branch in Damascus. They also told Anas al-Shogre’s family that while in the Military Security branch they heard him scream, “I don’t want to live, let me die,” raising fears he was being tortured.

His family visited that branch and asked for him on a number of occasions. Military Security personnel confirmed that he was being held at a security branch, but told the family they had no right to ask about him while he was held in such an establishment, and refused to provide further details.