>because of the worldwide interest in the case.
>
>The judge's decision is extraordinary because the extent of
>public interest is actually one of the determining factors
>that courts regularly use in considering whether amicus
>briefs would be beneficial. Abu-Jamal has worldwide support
>and public interest about his case is growing on every
>continent.
>
>Yohn further claims that it is in Abu-Jamal's interest to
>deny the briefs because they might delay his hearing. But
>faced with a death sentence, a delay is hardly a primary
>source of concern for a petitioner in a capital punishment
>case.
>
>"People need to be aware that Judge Yohn lied and
>manipulated the law in order to throw these briefs out," Pam
>Africa, leader of International Concerned Family & Friends
>of Mumia Abu-Jamal, told Workers World. "It is urgent that
>people understand the conspiracy to kill Mumia that is going
>on here that is no different than what Sabo did.
>
>"People need to look at these briefs and see what they are
>saying," Africa explained, "particularly about the side-bar
>discussion between Mumia's attorney Jackson, Sabo and the
>prosecutor, where it is clear that it was Jackson's idea to
>have Mumia thrown out of the courtroom."
>
>The Chicana/Chicano Studies Foundation and the British
>Parliament members will appeal Yohn's decision with the U.S.
>Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in early September.
>Kamish told WW, "We are looking forward to the day when this
>innocent and courageous man, Mumia Abu-Jamal, will be
>freed."
>
>All four amicus briefs are available at the International
>Concerned Family & Friends Web site, www.mumia.org. For
>information on protests at the upcoming hearing in
>Philadelphia, visit www.mumia2000.org.
>
>- END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
>From: "WW " <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Eyewitness south Korea: Students defy repression, demand
>reunification
>Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2000 22:12:55 -0400
>Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Sept. 14, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>EYEWITNESS SOUTH KOREA:
>STUDENTS DEFY REPRESSION, DEMAND REUNIFICATION
>
>By Phebe Eckfeldt
>Seoul, south Korea
>
>For three days in mid-August, Hanyang University here in
>Seoul, south Korea, was the site of rallies, meetings,
>cultural events, press conferences and demonstrations at
>which tens of thousands of left and progressive students
>marked the 55th anniversary of the liberation of Korea from
>Japanese occupation.
>
>They are too young to remember the end of World War II, but
>their parents and grandparents can recall those days. They
>have related to these young people how their joy soon turned
>to anger as the Pentagon, which claimed to have sent troops
>only to help the Koreans liberate themselves from Japanese
>rule, stayed on to divide the country at the 38th parallel.
>Ten million Korean families were ripped apart. U.S. military
>occupation led to the suppression of the anti-imperialist
>movement in the south and, in 1950, to a war with the
>northern part of Korea.
>
>This August, the sentiment to reunite the country was so
>strong that the students openly defied the onerous National
>Security Law to show their admiration for the north, singing
>revolutionary songs and displaying the flag of the
>Democratic People's Republic of Korea. All this is illegal
>in south Korea and can bring long jail sentences.
>
>The event at the university was called the 2000 Great
>Festival on Reunification for Implementation of the South-
>North Joint Declaration, National Self-Determination and
>Great Unity. South and north Korea have been holding
>discussions on how to break down the painful division of the
>country. The south is still occupied by 37,000 U.S. troops.
>
>LIBERATED TERRITORY
>
>Although the perimeter of the university was surrounded by
>thousands of south Korean troops, the university area
>itself, which sits on top of a hill overlooking Seoul, had
>been taken over by the students. Every walkway, road,
>stadium, building, courtyard and stairway was filled with
>political banners, photo displays, murals, flags and
>literature tables.
>
>They depicted struggles by workers and students all over
>south Korea. There were pictures of Maehyang-ri, a small
>fishing village near a U.S. bombing range where the people
>have been demonstrating to stop the U.S. Air Force from
>using their land for target practice. There were banners
>about the Lotte Hotel workers, who were brutally beaten by
>police earlier this summer when they demanded better working
>conditions.
>
>Some literature exposed the massacres of civilians by U.S.
>troops during the Korean War. There were placards about the
>plight of student political prisoners.
>
>The main themes running through all were to demand U.S.
>troops out of Korea, reunification of Korea and self-
>determination for the Korean people.
>
>A visiting delegation of U.S. activists invited by the Korea
>Truth Commission of the National Alliance for Democracy and
>Reunification of Korea (NADRK) felt like we were in
>liberated territory. And in fact, we were. Under south
>Korean law these activities are illegal and outlawed.
>
>The students, through their strength, unity and tight
>organization, kept the troops at bay. The two main student
>groups--Hanchongryon (South Korean Federation of University
>Student Councils) and Ponminryon (National Alliance for the
>Unification of the Fatherland)--are banned under the anti-
>communist National Security Law.
>
>In fact, during the day on Aug. 14 our delegation attended a
>militant student rally at Meyung Dong Cathedral in downtown
>Seoul when it was attacked by riot police after
>demonstrators burned a U.S. flag. Students fought hand to
>hand with the police. Many were seriously injured and
>arrested.
>
>50,000 AT ALL-NIGHT RALLY
>
>That night 50,000 students and their supporters filled a
>huge outdoor stadium for an all-night rally. They sang
>revolutionary songs from north Korea, flew the north Korean
>flag, and shouted praise for Kim Il Sung, the late leader of
>the socialist north. A huge hand-painted mural acted as a
>backdrop for the stage. It depicted the struggle of the
>Korean people to reunify their country.
>
>Any of these activities just a few months earlier would have
>meant life imprisonment, torture and sometimes death under
>the National Security Law. The NSL defines north Korea as an
>"anti-state entity" and forbids any acts praising the north
>or mentioning its leader.
>
>Korean activists pointed out that this was the largest rally
>of the student left since 1994. In recent years similar
>events had attracted about 10,000. However, an effort to
>unify the two student groups and a more relaxed political
>atmosphere created by the June summit between south Korean
>leader Kim Dae-jung and north Korean leader Kim Jong Il have
>encouraged student organizers to be proud and defiant about
>their support and admiration for the socialist DPRK.
>
>Amidst militant speeches, student organizations from all
>over the country flew their flags, choruses sang, and the
>audience chanted slogans with their fists pumping.
>
>Several of the student leaders who addressed the rally had
>to slip away from the university afterward and return to a
>clandestine existence.
>
>Most of the leaders of the progressive movement in south
>Korea were once student leaders. Many have spent years in
>jail and have been tortured.
>
>The audience cheered as leaders of groups from all over
>south Korea were introduced, including the Korean
>Confederation of Trade Unions, the National Farmers
>Association and the NADRK. The U.S. solidarity delegation
>was also warmly received.
>
>More than 40 long-term political prisoners were welcomed as
>heroes. These are people who spent 30 to 40 years in jail
>and were just recently released. They had come from the
>north to the south during the Korean War to organize
>people's committees and were captured by south Korean
>troops. They were finally allowed to return to the north at
>the beginning of September.
>
>The night before the mass rally, an awesome cultural
>spectacle took place. Student cultural groups competed
>against each other with revolutionary songs, dance and music
>that they had written, choreographed and composed. Some
>songs were put to rock music, others were slow, but all had
>the unmistakable qualities of exhilaration, commitment and
>dedication exuded by the youth in the struggle for the
>liberation of the people of south Korea.
>
>The U.S. delegation felt we had glimpsed the future at
>Hanyang University.
>
>- END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
>From: "WW " <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [WW] Peru: Berenson retrial spotlights political prisoners
>Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2000 22:14:30 -0400
>Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the Sept. 14, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>PERU: BERENSON RETRIAL SPOTLIGHTS POLITICAL PRISONERS
>
>By Greg Butterfield
>
>On Aug. 28, Peru's Supreme Military Justice Commission
>retracted Lori Berenson's life sentence and ordered her
>retried by a civilian court. Berenson, a young North
>American journalist and progressive activist, was convicted
>of treason by a secret military court in 1996 on charges
>that she aided the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement
>(MRTA).
>
>The reopening of her case highlights the plight of more than
>4,000 political prisoners in Peru's jails.
>
>Berenson was flown to Lima, the capital, Aug. 31 for her re-
>trial. Judge Romel Borda said, "it will take around two or
>three months until the final verdict." (Boston Globe, Aug.
>30)
>
>Peruvian human-rights attorney Grim aldo Achahui will
>represent her. Along with former U.S. Attorney General
>Ramsey Clark, Achahui has acted as Berenson's council since
>her arrest.
>
>However, the defense will have no say in the first part of
>the process. Judge Borda and the government prosecutor will
>decide Berenson's guilt or innocence behind closed doors.
>Then, if she is found guilty, the burden will be on Berenson
>to prove her innocence in open court.
>
>This time Berenson will be tried for "terrorism" and six
>other charges. A conviction could result in a sentence
>between 20 years and life.
>
>In Peru, the bourgeois opposition headed by U.S. favorite
>Alejandro Toledo condemned President Alberto Fujimori for
>even allowing the retrial. Toledo said Fujimori was merely
>trying to improve his image internationally after stealing
>the presidential election in May.
>
>Mark Berenson and Rhoda Berenson, the political prisoner's
>parents, have fought to keep their daughter's case alive and
>build pressure on a reluctant U.S. government to demand her
>release. In July they succeeded in getting 264 members of
>Congress to send a letter to President Bill Clinton urging
>her release.
>
>At a press conference the two said they were glad the
>Peruvian government had recognized its "mistake" in labeling
>their daughter a leader of the MRTA. But "it is not possible
>for Lori to have a fair trial in Peru under present
>conditions," Mark Berenson said.
>
>SECRET MILITARY TRIAL
>
>Fujimori seized dictatorial powers in 1992 with Washington's
>backing. With the aid of U.S. weapons, Pentagon advisors and
>death-squad leaders trained by the CIA, he sought to
>undermine two pro-socialist insurgencies led by the MRTA and
>the Communist Party of Peru, also known as the "Shining
>Path."
>
>On Nov. 30, 1995, Berenson was arrested along with several
>Peruvians in Lima. She was accused of masterminding an
>alleged MRTA plan to seize the Peruvian Congress.
>
>Berenson has always maintained her innocence.
>
>Her original trial, which lasted 72 hours, was presided over
>by a judge wearing a hood to conceal his face. Her lawyers
>were not allowed to cross-examine witnesses or present
>evidence in her defense.
>
>Over 5,000 Peruvians have been tried and imprisoned in
>similar fashion since Fujimori's 1992 coup. Some were
>guerrilla combatants, but many were civilians who had dared
>to speak out against poverty and the government's plan to
>sell off nationalized industries to U.S. and Japanese big
>business.
>
>Since 1998 about 1,000 who were framed up have been quietly
>released.
>
>For nearly three years Berenson was imprisoned at the
>infamous Yanamayo Prison high in the Andes Mountains in a
>cell lacking heat or running water. She began to experience
>bouts of blindness and bad circulation. After an
>international outcry, she was moved to a women's prison in
>Arequipa.
>
>Both revolutionary movements suffered serious setbacks
>during the mid- and late-1990s. But neither group has given
>up its goal of building an independent, socialist Peru.
>
>Commenting on the decision to retry Berenson, the MRTA
>National Directorate stated, "The Peruvian government is
>used to making political decisions, so long as those
>decisions allow it to maintain power and to improve its
>image before the international community.
>
>"It is the same dictatorship that with great self interest
>and in a usual act of revenge sentenced that journalist
>[Berenson] to life imprisonment, in a summary trial in
>which, like thousands of detained Peruvians, she did not
>have the right to defend herself.
>
>"This new trial has only one possibility of not becoming
>another mockery of justice, and that is if the human rights
>organizations and the international community make the
>dictatorial regime of Fujimori guarantee due process, a
>public trial with an impartial jury, and the right of self-
>defense, with the presence of international observers who
>can vouch for the legality of the proceedings and the
>autonomy of the judicial power."
>
>- END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>
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