VERKSAMHETSBERÄTTELSE FÖR SAMORDNINGSGRUPPERNA

Algeria Coordination
At the moment there are 15 AI-groups working with Algerian action-file cases in Sweden. Three groups have started their work at the end of the year. I have received written reports from ten groups.

Hundreds of letters (with copies to the Algerian Ambassy in Stockholm) have been sent by the Swedish AI-groups to the authorities in Algeria. Some groups have also sent letters to prisons in Algeria. No one has received answer. One group has written to Nasera Dutour in France.

Two groups have been in touch with AI-groups abroad having the same case.

Four groups have received answers to their letters from the victims´ families. Contacts with the families have been very encouraging to the work of these groups.

One group was not satisfied with the information in the action-file when they started. They have now received more details regarding their case from IS.

Group 77 that works with AF 99/99, Nacera Koudri Lazreg, has found detailed information about Nacera Koudri´s death on internet . According to this information N.K.L. was extrajudicially executed one month after her arrestation. She had been cruely tortured and mutilated. She is buried in a certain massgrave as ”X-algerienne”. The Group believes that this information is true and has sent letters to the authorities asking them to declare N.K.L. officially dead and to allow her family to identify the body and bury it customary. They have not received any answers from the authorities. In their report the group writes that they do not feel very motivated to go on writing letters about her disappearance.

Group 251 in Härnösand keeps an Amnesty-shop (selling secondhand cothes etc.). They have published two articles in the local press, about their case and asking people in Härnösand to protest against the human rights situation in Algeria (which they described ) by signing letters to M.Bouteflika in their shop. They collected 106 signatures under a letter to M.Bouteflika.They have invited to one of their group meetings an Algerian, who lives in Sweden, to talk about the situation in Algeria. They are planning to organize a feast with Algerian music in a local theatre and an exhibition about their case in the shop.

Group 350 has organized a birthday party for their case Abderrahmane Nekkaa. They served cofee and cakes to people passing the place where they informed about A.N. and about Algeria. They asked people to sign written appeals. Twenty-five letters were sent to Algeria and a lot of people were made aware about the human rights situation in Algeria. This group also organized an exhibition about their case in a cultural centre where they collected 110 signatures under a letter to M.Bouteflika.

Group 82 in Uppsala had an information table in connection with a bookfair where they sold written appeal letters to the president, the prime minister and the minister of justice in Algeria.

As an Algeria-coordinator I have regularily sent information letters to the groups. I have also
been in touch with some groups by phone.

In March North Africa- coordinators (Algeria, Egypt,Tunisia and later Marocko) started to meet regularily in order to discuss what we could do together. We decided to organize a seminarium about human rights situation in North Africa. This seminarium took place in October. Many group members who participated in the seminarium have told that they found it very inspering.

In April I attended a seminarium in Paris organized by the North Africa- coordination of the French Section.

In November I was invited to participate in a seminarium organized by the Swedish Section for new coordinators. I talked about my work as Algeria-coordinator and about the North-Africa-seminarium in October.

In connection with the Algeria-Action which started in November I have written, in Swedish, background to the action and a model letter, in French, to be sent to the participating groups.

Leena Edström, Algeria-coordinator

Kenya, Tanzania and EAFRAN.
This report extend activities carried out by AI-groups in Sweden during year 2000 according to Action Files for Kenya and Tanzania, Urgent Actions and RAN-actions for countries belonging to EAFRAN.

KENYA
-AF 101/95 Death Penalty. Group 119 and has been working on this AF and they have sent 3 faxes and 1 letter.

-AF 3 /97 Torture, ill-treatment and death in custody of political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. No activities has been carried out on this AF. The reason is that the group have not had resources enough to work with this AF and had not notified the Section-office about the situation.

-AF 72/97 Torture, ill-treatment and death in custody of women. Group 69 has been working explicit with Jane Wambui, Virginia Nyambura Wambui, Trumphena Obwaka Shirako and Rosemary Nyambura. They have sent letter to KHRC and FIDA and 17 letters to the President, the vice president , members of the government and the parliament and also to the Commissioner and Commander for prisons in Kenya.

-AF 49/99 Restriction of Freedom of Expression and Assembly. Group 119 and 318 has been involved in this AF. They have during the year sent 8 faxes and 10 letters to government authorities and to Commissioner of Police and to the Attorney General.

TANZANIA
-AF 170/99 CUF 17 Prisoners of conscience. Group 327 has been working with this AF. They have sent letter to members of the Swedish Parliament, The European Parliament and also to the Commonwealth and to OAU. Letter has also been sent several times to the Government in Tanzania. To the prisoners has postal card been sent via the lawyer. Special appeals has also been made for the groups ”own” prisoner.

EAFRAN
-Group 93 has carried out activities, primary letter-writing on EAFRAN 8/0, EAFRAN 15/0 and several different UA.

Bo Danielsson/Co-ordinator for Kenya, Tanzania and EAFRAN.

Malaysia-Singapore
As there are no Amnesty-groups in Sweden with prisoners from these countries, this is a very short report.

All information comes via internet, from London and from Canada, Margaret John. I am writing to the authorities in both countries, I am also in contact with Chia Thye Poh in Singapore, now and then. Another contact is LOW THAI THONG, imprisoned in Singapore from 1956 - 1969, now living in Hongkong with his wife and son, Peter Boon Swee, who was born some years after Thong was released from prison in Singapore. We visited them in Hongkong two years ago.

So - I have been living with Singapore and Malysia since 1966, when our Amnesty-group adopted Low Thai Thong.

Rona Morän, co-ordinatior Malaysia-Singapore

WERAN
Only two Swedish groups, 167 and 215, have worked with ordinary WERAN cases. We have dealt with the following cases:

01/00 Finland- Conscientious objectors. Both groups worked on this case. Letters to Minister of Labour, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Defence, Minister of Justice in January, March, June, November
Letter to Finnish Union of Conscientious Objectors
Letters to the editors of Hufvudstadsbladet and Helsingin Sanomat
Letters to 11 MPs in November
Letters to conscientious objectors in prison

Replies: from Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja in July and December from Minister of Labour Tarja Filatov in August, from the office of Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen in December

05/00 France – The alleged ill-treatment of Corneille Chappuis by Roubaix police officers
Group 215: 1 letter to the juge d’instruction, copies to the Minister of the Interior and Embassy in Sweden. No replies

17/00 France – Death in custody of Mohamed Ali Saoud, Toulon
Group 215: 1 letter to the juge d’instruction, copies to the Minister of the Interior and to Embassy in Sweden. No replies

10/00 Switzerland- The alleged ill-treatment of Rashid Abdul-Ackah by officers of the Zürich Municipal Police
Group 215: 3 letters Swiss authorities, 1 letter to Rashid Abdul-Ackah
No replies

14/99 Switzerland – Clement Nwanko
Group 167. No replies

18/00 Belgium – the death of Semira Adamu
Group 167 No replies

8/99 UK – Robert Hamill
Group 215: January - letters to Prime Minister and Minister of Northern Ireland
February - letter to the Robert Hamill Justice Campaign
July – Letters to Prime Minister, Minister of Northern Ireland, Ronald Flanagan and ICPC; reply in August from ICPC

6/00 UK –
Group 167. No replies

19/00 Spain –ETA’s killing campaign and acts of street violence
October – 3 letters. No replies

Extra 10/00 Germany – Forcible return
Group 215 - Letters to the Minister of the Interior, Federal Border Police; copies
to Foreign Minister and Embassy in Sweden. No replies

AMR 51/130/00 UK – Civilians in Iraq
Group 215 – letter to Prime Minister, copy to Embassy

Group 167 cannot give more details as they have lost all notes due to computer error.

ACTION FILE 12/0 Austria - Alleged ill-treatment of detainees – Johannes G and others
First allocated to group 351, from 31 October to group 179 who have written 4 letters. No replies

Austria – campaign against torture and allegations of police ill-treatment
The death of Marcus Omofuma, the alleged ill-treatment of Johannes G, racist attitudes among police officers. Groups 59, 71, 106, 178, 215 took part in the campaign. Replies concerning the case of Marcus Omofuma to some of the groups.

Stop torture campaign: Marcus Omofuma is one of the cases. Group 12 Stockholm has received a reply dated 22 December from Dr Michaela Pfeifenberger of the Bundesministerium für Inneres.

Birgit Savolainen, WERAN coordintaor

Kuba
In Sweden all together eight groups have been working with cases in Cuba during the year 2000. As we will see one of the prisoners also was released. At the end if the year Henrik Björnsson and Ulrica Nilsson started working as Cuba-coordinators. They also participated in an educational weekend arranged by Amnesty to inform new coordinators about the task.

Following are the reports from the groups working with Cuba-cases:

ACTION FILE REPORT BY AI GROUP 172
Action File no: AF 63/98
Country: Cuba
Individual:Cecilio Monteagudo Sanchez
Group: 172
Group secretary: Anna Brynell, Gribbylundsallé 70, S-183 65 Täby, phone 08-756 28 11
Responsible for AF: Gabi Björsson, Urbergsvägen 10, S-187 50 Täby, phone 08-768 37 60
Report period: January-December 2000

We sent about 10-15 letters to Head of state, Ministers and the prison governor in February, April, June, August, September and November. In October, in connection with the start of the Campaign against torture, we had an exhibition and a lecture about Amnesty, the campaign and our case in the local library. We wrote letters about Cecilio to Dr Castro and the Minister of justice and asked visitors to sign. We collected about fifty signatures. We sent copies of the September letters to several newspapers in Cuba and copies of the September and November letter to the Cuban embassy in Stockholm. We sent New Years greetings to Cecilio. We have not received any kind of response or answer.

We hope to be able to make Cecilio the case of the Week, an activity on the Swedish sections homepage on the Internet. We also have plans to make more efforts to contact the Cuban media during the year 2001. We have now contact with the Swedish Co-group for Cuba and we hope to get some advises for those actions.

Gabi Björsson

ACTION FILE REPORT BY AI GROUP 199
Action File no: AF 8/98
Country: Cuba
Individual: Julio César Coizeau Rizo
Group: 199
Report period: January-December 2000
Reported by: Ulrica Blomqvist, Midsommargården, Box 32010, 126 11 Stockholm

Prisoner, the sentence and the country: Our prisoner of consciences name is Julio César Coizeau Rizo. He was imprisoned in Cuba during three years. In october 2000 he was released. We have not heard anything concerning how he was treated and how he has coped with the time in prison, and not what state he was in when he was released either. The news that he was released reached us from Lucy Baker, Caribbean Team, 18/01/2001, International secretariat 20/12/2000.

Swedish coordinators: Anna Norberg was in charge of Cuba by the time that Rizoís imprisonment. We had no contact with Norberg exept for one time when I via e-mail asked if she knew anything more about the prisoners condition, which she didnít.

Action: We have only sent letters to the authorities and media in Cuba. Our groupsecretary formulated the letters plus copied. The rest of the members have signed and sent copies. A couple of times members in the group have sent postcards to Rizo. We have not received any letters from Cuba; not from Rizo, not from familymembers, the authorities or the media.

New steeps: We will continue to work within RAN and receive a new case within this network.

Ulrica Blomqvist, groupsecretary and former responsible for AF 8/98.

ACTION FILE REPORT BY GROUP 182
Action File no: AF 63/99
Country: Cuba
Individual: Jesús Joel Diaz Hernandez
Group: 182
Group secretary: Gunilla Wikström, Övre hantverksgatan 25 F, S-831 36 Östersund
Report period: February-December 2000
We started working on this case in august 1999.

During the year the group have sent letters to the authorities in Cuba (17 letters) and also mass-letters to the authorities (90 letters). We have also sent letters to Hernandez, at least one but it could be more. We have sent 2 letters to a group in Portugal and one to a group in France, thatís working on the same case as us.

We have also received some answers, one from a Human Rights organization in Florida and two from the groups in France and Portugal.

During an exhibition arranged by UN-congress in Östersund in may 2000, the group informed and letters appealing for the release of Hern·ndez. The group also arranged an exhibition, also with letters appealing for Hernandez, at the central library in Östersund. We also produced a folder about Hernandez, that we use as information.

The group in France has received an answer from Hernandez and the group in Portugal has received an answer from his mother. Both of them have sent us copies of these letters.

A youth-group has recently started here in Östersund. They have received the action file and they will start working on it.

Gunilla Wikström, Groupsecretary, Östersund.

ACTION FILE REPORT BY GROUP 152
Action File no: AF 28/99
Country: Cuba
Individual: Victor Bressler Villazan and Emilio Bressler
Group: 152
Group secretary: Harriett Svensson, Hasselvägen 1 C, S-374 52 Asarum
Report period: January-December 2000

During the year the group has sent some cards and a couple of letters. They have not received any answers and they don´t have any contact with other groups. They have tried e-mailing a relative to the Bresslers who was supposed to be in Canada, but they haven´t received any reply from him either.

ACTION FILE REPORT BY AI GROUP 232
Action File no: AF 68/98
Country: Cuba
Individual: Bernado Arévalo Padrón
Group: 232
Report period: January-December 2000
Reported by: Solveig Nihlén

The group have been working with the case since 1998. This year we wrote 46 letters and postcards to Padrón. We never recieved any answer from Cuba.

ACTION FILE REPORT BY AI GROUP 21
Action File no: AF 54/98 - case closed 2000-12-05
Country: Cuba
Individual: René de Jesus Gomez Manzano
Group: 21
Report period: January-December 2000
Reported by: Sven Bäckman

All in all, 14 letters of appeals have been sent during this period, plus one letter to the prisoner after his return to freedom, and one letter to the authority - General expressing our positive reaction to the reliase of Jesus Gomez Manzano. We have also sent one letter to Cuba Free Press. None of the letters were replied. The case was closed. The IS has been remarkably slow in it´s reactions, e.g. to the release of the prisoner on May 23, which we didn´t hear of until in late July.

ACTION FILE REPORT BY AI GROUP 129
Action File no: AF 75/98 - case closed
Country: Cuba
Individual: Orestes Rodriguez Horruitiner
Group: 129
Report period: January-December 2000
Reported by : Anita Grünbaum

We have focused on appeals to General Abelardo Colomé Ibarra. It´s diffucult to estimate the number of cards sent from Sandviken but we think it´s between 25-50. We hasn´t recieved any replies. We did a small local campaign in the end of 1999 and went on in the beginning of 2000. We haven´t sent any letters to Horruitiner. We tried to get the newspapers intrested in the Cuba campaign but did not succed.

We haven´t done any publicity activities because we have been afriad of disturbing the releaseprocess.

When we got information from R Gillespie about harassment of Horruitiner, we sent money from the Swedish Amnesty Fund, from the district and our group (about 16 000 skr) to the spanish group for transport to Cuba.

We still stay in e-mailcontact with group 7 in Spain about the relief assistance being brought to Cuba. We would like information about Horruitiner and his family.

We always find the case-sheets and country inforamtion excellent.

In the beginning we found it less inspiring with som many groups involved in our case. But in the end we found it very useful with seven groups because of the cooperation around relief assistance. We have only been in contact with Spain 7 and R Gillespie-group in UK which have been organazing the activites. We think that 8 groups involved are the double amount of groups needed.

ACTION FILE REPORT BY AI GROUP 244
Action File no: AF 16/99
Country: Cuba
Individual: Marcelo Amelo Rodriguez
Group: 244
Report period: January-December 2000
Reported by: Ylva Wessman

We have written every month to five differnet persons in Cuba. We have tried to get in contact with the group in Holland but we didn´t get any respons from them.

CASARAN
Three groups have beeen working actively on the CASARAN actions during the year of 2000.

All these groups have been working for several years and are mainly writing letters to persons, organizations and authorities recommended in the recieved actions.

One group also has its own contacts with HR-organizations in Mexico.

So far the groups have been rather stable and are working in a very serious and responsable way.

I think there should be more groups working with the CASARAN action but it is evidently difficult to recruit new groups.

Ulf Pernold, Swedish coordinator of CASARAN

WARAN
During 2000, four Swedish groups were active in WARAN. Unfortunately, one of these informed me towards the end of the year that they had decided to leave the RAN since the group had decreased significantly in size. It seems that they did not perform any work during 2000 regarding the RAN. From one of the other three groups I have not yet received an annual report.

In spite of the low and decreasing number of groups working with WARAN, last year still felt as somewhat of a turnaround in the work, especially towards the end of the year. More reports and action-focused material is coming from IS, and this is highly appreciated, both by myself and by the remaining groups (they had previously expressed frustration that there is so much happening in the region, but so little material for the WARAN groups to act upon). If this continues, I am confident that we will be able to recruit more groups
in the future.

In total, some 30 letters have been sent during the year on WARAN actions. Roughly a third of these concerned the Action on child combatants in Sierra Leone (31/08/2000 - 31/03/2001). The limited
action that came out on Nigeria in March was also acted upon, as was the recent RAN action on Mauritania, and the one regarding the assasination of Mainassara in Niger. I have not received any information about other activities than letter writing. I am afraid that so far, my own work has not gone further than maintaining the contact between the groups and IS regarding material etc. and keeping up to speed with the human rights abuses in the region.

However, our hope is that this will change. I have created a draft for a WARAN Sweden web site, which is soon ready to go on the net. I have also started to use the provisions that exist for posting information on the Swedish section's internal web site. Furthermore, the plan is to increase the co-operation between myself and the country co-ordinators for the region (one for Nigeria, SL and Liberia, one for Senegal). Finally, I will give a lecture on Human Rights in WA in May this year.

Please let me know if you require any further information. I want to end by thanking the IS WA team for doing a great job! When I have been in contact with you, your response has been rapid and informed.
The reports and actions (which as mentioned are finally coming often enough) are precise and detailed. Magnus Öhman

Brazil
In the Swedish section of AI there are five groups attending Brazil action files:
Gr 110, AF 333/91 José Pereira De Oliveira + 4 more
Gr 166, AF 156/91 João Canuto De Oliveira
Gr 293, AF P R Dos Santos Ferreira
Gr 313, AF Luciano Silva Dos Santos
Gr 344, AF Nativo da Natividade de Oliveira

During the year the action file on PR Dos Santos Ferreira was moved from group 195 to group 293.

Group 110 reported that they have written to the Governor of Pará, to authorities of the Comarca de Marabá and to other State authorities in Belém, Pará. They also wrote to authorities in Brazil in connection with urgent actions.

Group 166 reported that their members wrote almost every month to President Cardoso, to the Minister of Justice, to the Governor of Pará Almir Gabriel and to Dra. Marisa Belini from the Comité Rio Maria. They sent copies of the letters to the Embassy of Brazil in Stockholm and to two newspapers in Belém, Pará: O Liberal and A Provincia do Pará. They received replies in April 2000 from the Presidencia da República (only to say that they had received their letter) and from Comité Rio Maria. The group contacted group 220 of the dutch section to ask about their work on the Canuto case.

As Brazil coordinator, representing the swedish section, I participated in the International Brazil Coordinator meeting that was held in Washington D.C. in April 2000.
I have also taken part in a torture seminar in Lund, Sweden, in October 2000. I talked about torture and violence in prisons in Brazil.
I have helped groups with translations from portugese to swedish, especially group 166 with material from the Comité Rio María in Para.

Pedro da Cruz

USA
In August 2000 I volunteered as country coordinator for Amnesty International. The AI representative Kattis Hellström in Stockholm suggested the USA as my country since I have lived in NYC for three years. I agreed.

Amnesty mailed information about the organisation and about what I am expected to do as a coordinator. I read all diligently. During fall several phone calls reached me through the AI office concerning human rights abuse in the US. There were high school students with questions about capital punishment, a journalist writing about police abuse in Chicago, someone with special interest in statistics from Texas and others. I asked them all to e-mail me their questions in order for me to search for answers. In most cases I had a feeling the people who asked questions knew more about this field than I do. Never the less, all questions were answered.

A woman in Malmö, Charlotte Tjörnhagen, volunteered as coordinator for USCAN in November. Unfortunately she got sick during pregnancy and had to postpone her work for AI before she even got started.

In December I participated in an informative and inspiring weekend course by the AI for new coordinators. I recieved a list of Swedish action groups with cases in the US. The list consisted of only three groups. Soon after I contacted them one closed down. Another group stated I was misinformed, they did not have a case in the USA. The third group said they needed no help from me! Since then a few things have happened but that goes under Annual Report 2001.

Charlotta Savander

Chad and Rwanda
Target countries: Chad and Rwanda
From section: Sweden
Coordinator: Lars Gröndahl
Date of report 2001-03-30

Action Files
1) Chad AF447/96 grp 205 Rape and sexual violence...

1) Rwanda AF254/97 lawyer grp Prisoners... in Kibungo...
1) Rwanda AF228/97 grp 167 Prisoners ... in Gitarama

1) No report delivered

2) Rwanda AF255/97 (returned by grp 340) Prisoners... in Byumba...
2) Rwanda AF228/27 (returned by grp 49) Prisoners...in Gitarama...

2) AF for reallocation ????

Coordinator service for Chad and Rwanda at present the subject of reorganization.

Lars Gröndahl

SARAN
Saran 1
India: 22 letters
Nepal: 15 letters (Dandapani,Neupane, Rajendra Dhakal, Mohan Lal Oli, Milan Nepali, Bishnu Pukar, Shrestra

Saran 2
Bangladesh: 23 letters

Saran 3
Nepal: 3 letters

Saran 4
India: 34 letters

Saran 5
Pakistan: 4 letters

SARAN work has been done by 5 groups : Group 9, Group 13, Group 168 (no report) and Group 270, one youth group U3 in Uppsala plus Kurt Blau (one.man group) . Kurt Blau has had an article published in a local newspaper Vestmanlands läns tidning about Honour Killings. The members of the youth group have occupied themselves with money raising to be able to afford stamps and quite a lot of letter writing, especially during the autumn term (no statistics though!). They have also distributed leaflets in town and administered a candle action. Group 13 has only been working with India, but from now on they are ready to work on the whole of South Asia.

The material the groups get from IS is extensive and very useful. Sometimes the recommendations for letter-writing are too many and perhaps they don´t have time to do all of it. Letter writing still seems to be the main activity. Group members point out that they try to keep their letters short and to the point, in order to make it easier for the recipient to read.

This is my last report as SARAN- co-ordinator. I thank you all at the South Asia team for your support over the years.

Gertrud Nordberg

Yemen
I started as co-ordinator for Yemen September 1, 2000, and thus not much activity has taken place so far.

Six groups work with, in all, seven Yemen action file. Two action files are on deathpenalty, five on disappearances. Four groups have submitted reports, covering five of the action files. No report has come from S 246 (AF 247/99) and from S 156 (AF 469/93).

The main activity of the groups is letterwriting to Yemeni authorities. Only one group (S 9 / AF 233/99) has done any outreach work. One group (S 157 / AF 241/93) suggests that the case either should be closed or the section should take over campaigning.

My comment to the suggestion from S 157 is that the disappearance files obviously are extremely pressing for the groups. This is one of the reasons for my suggestion for a seminar on Yemen later this year with participation from the IS. It is obviously essential for the groups to be able to discuss these files with IS staff that they may proceed with theses files.

Karin Almbladh

INDIA
Structure
Nine groups are working on different action files on India, of which four are working with State Action Files, three with "disappearences", and two with cases of torture (see attached group list). There are two co-ordinators. Seven groups have submitted their reports for the year 2000. Two groups (gr 26, gr 58) are new for the year.

During the year we have worked together with the Section and the Stockholm District of the Swedish section particularly in arranging seminars on India. The outcome of this co-operation has been very satisfactory.

Work done by groups
Letters
Most of the work has been letter writing, mainly to authorities, but also by some groups to human rights organizations, lawers, and victim´s families. State Action File groups (working on Orissa and Tamil Nadu) have made efforts to make contact with local NGOs with the aim to supporting them and also to get direct information from them. These NGOs are active in opposing discrimination. There has been no real contacts so far.

Some groups have received answers to their letters. A mother of a torture victim through the family´s lawyer informed that they hed been granted compensation and that responsible police officers had been discharged. One group have received reply from the father of another torture victim, among other things concerning financial support for judicial expencies and rehabilitation. The group has tried to make it easier for the family to communicate by sending international postage coupon, and also conclude that cash money should not be sent to these regions. The National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, has replied they have requested a report from the Defence Secratary regarding the torure and the group has in their turn asked to get a copy of this report. Also, one group has received a reply from NHRC, although on a formal matter it still reveals that group´s activities are recognized.

One group has established contact with AI groups in United Kingdom and France.

Fundraising
One group has been specially successful in fundraising. They annually arrange a second-hand market, which last year yielded 12.000 SEK.

Campaigns
All groups are active in different campaigns, such as the campaign against torture, the HR Defenders Action.

Learning
Groups have been active in gaining more knowledge about India. Two groups working on Orissa have met with Indians now livivng in Sweden but who originates from this State. One group has subscribed for a local paper from the State. One group has formed an "Indian committee" which has arranged meetings for information on India. Members from most group attended a seminar on India in October arranged by the co-ordinators. A continuation of this seminar was held i March 2001. It must be recognized that the seminar was financially made possible not only through contribution from the Section and the Stockholm District but also from two groups (gr 8, gr 58). At different meetings three video films have been displayed, "the Tirunelveli massacre", "the Daughters of India", "Women in India".

Activities to develop
We need to practize more on writing articles, and what this is a part of, to become better on different kinds of outreach work - make contact with media, make contact with other organization in our own country and see how we can co-operate to achieve result on mutual interests, inform government and other authorities in order to arouse awareness on the human rights program. We believe we had a start for these kind of activities this spring (2001) in connection with the seminar, when with the help of our guest from India several interested doors opened. We will try to pursue and develope this.

Co-ordinators
Co-ordinators arranged a seminar on India held in October and with a continuation in March 2001. We have assisted the section in the HR Defenders action and are responsible for the campaign against torture concerning India. Co-o have made some letter suggestions for groups.

Problems
Some groups experience membership decline. It might be explained as normal changes over time, as the number of groups and members for the section as a whole has increased. Perhaps a more serious poblem is lack of time, which means groups have to prioritize and find it difficult in finding tome to develope their work. Another problem is the geographic dispersion of groups which makes it difficult for some to participate in seminars and other meetings. There is a tendensy to concentrate all or most meetings to Stockholm. We shall try to make a change

EERAN, East Europe Regional Action Network
There are three Swedish groups connected to EERAN. I started of as the coordinator for east Europe in late November last year, and before me the Danish coordinator Inger Sorensen had directed the groups’ activities regarding this area. As of my knowledge the groups never initiated any EERAN-work during this time. In December I received the AF (Action Ref: AF 100/0, AI Index EUR 65/016/00) concerning alleged ill-treatment of Vebi Zimeri and Basri Aliu by police in Tetovo. The groups received this AF in late December, and their work has continued ever since.

Group no. 21 (not an EERAN-group) have been working on an AF 68/0 regarding Disappeared and abducted persons in Kosovo. They initiated their work first October last year, and so far they have sent one round of appeals to the Kosovo Albanian Representation and UNMIK representatives (eight letters in all).

In late November last year I went to Croatia with the purpose to visit local NGOs. I established contact with the following individuals and organizations:

- ARK (Anti War Campaign of Croatia) Antiratna kampanja Hrvatske
- ATTACK- Autonomma tvornica kulture
- Amnesty International, Croatia
- B.a.B.e. (be active, be emancipated) Organization for Women’s Rights.
- The Centre for Peace Studies
- The Centre for Direct Protection of Human Rights
- Center za mir, nenasilje & ljudska práva, Osijek. Center for Peace,
Non-violence and Human Rights, Osijek.
- CESI, Center for the Education and Counselling of Women
- Kvinna till Kvinna, Erja-Lisa Petrova
- ZAP- Zagreb Anarchist Movement
- Alex Melbourne, University of Bradford, Department of Peace Studies

During this journey I also got the opportunity to visit war-torn villages like Osijek and Pakrac.

Otherwise I’m an activist within Peace Brigades International here in Sweden and so forth I’ve exchanged external information with the persons responsible for their Balkan-project.

Carina Sondell
EERAN-coordinator
Sweden

Southern Africa
The Coordinating group 2000 was; Anna Lennartsdotter - Lesotho, Malawi and Zimbabwe, Katarina Hellström - SAN, South Africa and Swaziland, Karolina Henning-Pontén - Botswana, Zambia, Mika Nielsen, Namibia, L-G Nilsson - Angola and Carolina Strandberg, Mozambique and MAGRAN. We have had regular meetings every months.

On 10 - 12 April 2000 Polyana Mangwiro visited Stockholm. The coordinators for Southern Africa arranged her stay. In cooperation with Forum Syd, Gaystudents at Stockholm University, Swedish Church and The Swedish Federation for Lesbian and Gay Rights (RFSL) Amnesty arranged a seminar where Polyana Mangwiro was main speaker. The seminar was visited by 70 people.

When visiting Sweden in April, Nomfundo Walaza from Torture and Trauma Center in Cape Town met with the coordinating group for Southern Africa. She was on a fundraising trip and she also met with the Swedish Amnesty Fund.

On 20 - 22 October the Zambia, Zimbabwe and SAN coordinator participated in the international strategy meeting for coordinators, AISADC representatives and IS staff. The meeting was held in Denmark.

In December we organised a seminar about the land reform in South Africa and Zimbabawe, together with the Africa groups in Stockholm

Nine groups with varying activities are working on actionfiles and RANs on Southern Africa.

Two groups are working on AF 175/95 - Freedom of Expression

Four groups are working on AF 73/95 - Death Penalty
One group have written letters and e-mails to Zimbabwe; to the Director of Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in April 2000. One answer was recieved from AMANI trust 3 July 2000. Copy has been sent to Rosy Parsons.
Malawi; 11 letters were sent to the President, Ministers, Church of Central Africa, Presbyterian and Law Society of Malawi in May 2000. No answer has been recieved.
South Africa; 7 letters were sent to the President and Ministers in April 2000.
The second group working on Death penalty have concentrated their work on letterwriting to Zimbabwe.
The third group haven't been very active as most of the members have quit during the year.

Two groups are working on AF 122/98 - GALZ, where on of them are the Specialist group for LGBT
Neither groups have been very active partly because of what the group considered inadequate instructions.

One group were working on SAN.
They have participated in SAN 9/99 and 2/0 sending letters and faxes.

Bhutan
Group 309, AF No. 265/95
Name of prisoner: Neelam Rana
Date of release: Some time in 2000 (document lacking)
Activities: About 200 letters to officials/authorities in Bhutan.
Replies: None.
Outreach: Letters to all MP:s (13) in groop's county asking them to send letters to Bhutan's Prime Minister with an appeal to release the prisoner.
An article giving details of Neelam Rana's case was published in a local newspaper. Copies of the article were sent to Bhutan's government.

News on prisoner: After his release Neelam Rana was invited to Sweden at the expense of the group. The idea was that Rana should give a talk at a Youth Congress in Malmö, (southern Sweden). Rana however could not come, probably because he lacked travelling documents. Reports say that he is staying in a refugee camp in Pakistan.

Group 253, AF No.33/99
Name of prisoners: Taw Tshering, Samten Lhendup, Tshampa Wangchuk and Tshampa Ngawang Tenzin.
Date of imprisonment: February 1997.
Activities: in a letter the group's secretary wrote: "During year 2000 our group was not very active. We met twice and there were few participants. Unfortunately we have not yet sent our AF report but will do so in a few days. First of all we worked with letter-writing appealing to the authorities to release the prisoners kept in Bhutan".
Up to now no report has arrived in spite of unanswered tele-calls, letters and e-mail. An earlier contact with another group member said that a group in Denmark had sent a bunch of printed colored appeal cards which were distributed in Sweden. (cf specimen enclosed, coordinator's note).

Kurt Blau




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Skapat av : Tessi Fickendey	Index: ORG 51/003/2001	Kategori: Organisation - Årsmöten - Inför
Ändrat:	År: 2001	Status: Medlem

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