Penning Letters For Imprisoned Writers
Every year, thousands of writers and journalists speak out on subjects like corruption, tyranny and discrimination with the belief that they can make a difference. But often these brave acts come at price, costing writers’ years of their life. Jack Durack is the Chair of Sydney PEN’s Writers in Prison Committee and says there are over one thousand writers on International PEN’s case list who are languishing in jails around the world. Bonny Symons-Brown spoke to Mr. Durack about the work of the Committee and the plight of imprisoned writers.
International PEN began in 1921 and started their first Writers in Prison Committee (WIPC) in 1960, almost 50 years ago. Having written thousands of letters to governments and authorities all over the world during this time, the collective PEN community has experienced both the joy and the heartbreak that comes with human and civil rights advocacy. Sometimes their letter-writing campaigns make a difference, but it is not uncommon for their requests to go unanswered and ignored.
Jack Durack is the Chairman of the Sydney PEN WIPC and says the letter writing campaigns “are part of International PEN’s longstanding commitment to intervening on behalf of writers who are oppressed all over the world.” Currently there are over 1,000 writers on International PEN’s case list with new cases being added weekly.
While Mr. Durack says Sydney PEN’s WIPC initially tried to respond to all the cases, with new requests coming every few days it became unpractical to deal with them all. Instead, Sydney WIPC now concentrates on the Asia-Pacific region and places where Australia has vested interests, e.g. Afghanistan.
“We think this is a more efficient way of operating and more likely to help these people than if we tried to look after people from Mozambique to Columbo to darkest Africa and most distance South-America,” says Mr. Durack.
The Sydney PEN Writers in Prison Committee consists of a core group of five members, each of whom is responsible for one particular geographical area. Mr. Durack oversees Afghanistan and Vietnam and says that under this system, “we become familiar with the writers who are in trouble, with the policies that are responsible for putting them in jail and we also become familiar with the offices in our own Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, who will be prepared to intervene at our request or support our interventions.”
The WIPC had a recent victory with the release of Dr. Pham Hong Son, who was made an Honorary Member of Sydney PEN. Electing imprisoned writers as Honorary Members is one of PEN’s most successful strategies for raising their profile and sometimes winning their release. You can read more about the Honorary Members’ Program here.
Dr. Pham was arrested on 27 March 2002 on charges of espionage, related to his pro-democracy activities including using email to “translate and send anti-Party documents and anti-government documents” to colleagues abroad. On 18 June 2003 he was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment which was later reduced to eight years on appeal. Three of those years were to be served under house arrest. Dr. Pham’s prison term was due to expire on the 26th March 2007; however he was released early under a Presidential Amnesty to mark Vietnam’s National Day on 2nd September, 2006. He is still required to serve the three years house arrest.
“Pham Hong Son’s release was great but it’s not as if he didn’t serve most of his sentence – he did. And he’s still under house arrest so you might say that the campaigns are not very effective. However they also serve the purpose – and a number of writers’ who’ve ultimately been released from prison say this is incredibly important to them – of showing these writers they haven’t been forgotten. Some poor bastard who’s sitting in his cell in Cuba or Hanoi or wherever it might be, he knows (because the prison guards are likely to tell them) that there have been more letters written about him or her. I think that it’s an encouragement to them not to give up hope. It has that dual function,” says Mr. Durack.
During their time in prison, many of these writers have no contact with the outside world. Dr. Pham’s family travelled across Vietnam to see him but were refused upon arrival, and Derek Whitehead (Dr. Pham’s Sydney PEN representative) has no direct contact with him at all.
Jack Durack says that although they are political prisoners, these writers do not receive any better treatment than common prisoners. While serving their sentence – usually in squalid conditions – many of the writers suffer serious health issues, as Dr. Pham did.
Despite such punishment being inhumane, Mr. Durack says that the reason it is allowed to continue without international uproar is because of economic imperatives. “Most countries, including our own, regard maintaining good trade relations and perhaps foreign relations as more important than criticising another government for what appear to be human rights abuses. I think also there’s a feeling – and the Australian government might be as guilty of this as any other government – that if we criticise them they can feel entitled to criticise us, and there’s plenty of things we can be criticised for. We mightn’t be throwing writers in jail because they write about democracy but we do other things that are equally indefensible. It’s a combination of pragmatism and expedience.”
While the letter-writing campaigns may only make a difference in a limited number of cases, Mr. Durack says “that doesn’t mean its not worth attempting to do what you can and this is something that we know does sometimes work.
“The reward is in seeing someone get some benefit like Dr. Pham. We cant take anymore credit for it than that we’ve contributed to it, because Dr. Pham was also an Honorary Member of French PEN and Canadian PEN and the likelihood is that its all of our joint efforts that made a difference.”
Note: Along with their letter-writing campaigns, the WIPC holds an annual Day of the Imprisoned Writer (coming up soon!), and is also involved with International PEN’s action against the use of defamation laws to curb the critical activities of writers, both abroad and in Australia.
Photo Courtesty of EastSouthWestNorth
International PEN began in 1921 and started their first Writers in Prison Committee (WIPC) in 1960, almost 50 years ago. Having written thousands of letters to governments and authorities all over the world during this time, the collective PEN community has experienced both the joy and the heartbreak that comes with human and civil rights advocacy. Sometimes their letter-writing campaigns make a difference, but it is not uncommon for their requests to go unanswered and ignored.
Jack Durack is the Chairman of the Sydney PEN WIPC and says the letter writing campaigns “are part of International PEN’s longstanding commitment to intervening on behalf of writers who are oppressed all over the world.” Currently there are over 1,000 writers on International PEN’s case list with new cases being added weekly.
While Mr. Durack says Sydney PEN’s WIPC initially tried to respond to all the cases, with new requests coming every few days it became unpractical to deal with them all. Instead, Sydney WIPC now concentrates on the Asia-Pacific region and places where Australia has vested interests, e.g. Afghanistan.
“We think this is a more efficient way of operating and more likely to help these people than if we tried to look after people from Mozambique to Columbo to darkest Africa and most distance South-America,” says Mr. Durack.
The Sydney PEN Writers in Prison Committee consists of a core group of five members, each of whom is responsible for one particular geographical area. Mr. Durack oversees Afghanistan and Vietnam and says that under this system, “we become familiar with the writers who are in trouble, with the policies that are responsible for putting them in jail and we also become familiar with the offices in our own Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, who will be prepared to intervene at our request or support our interventions.”
The WIPC had a recent victory with the release of Dr. Pham Hong Son, who was made an Honorary Member of Sydney PEN. Electing imprisoned writers as Honorary Members is one of PEN’s most successful strategies for raising their profile and sometimes winning their release. You can read more about the Honorary Members’ Program here.
Dr. Pham was arrested on 27 March 2002 on charges of espionage, related to his pro-democracy activities including using email to “translate and send anti-Party documents and anti-government documents” to colleagues abroad. On 18 June 2003 he was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment which was later reduced to eight years on appeal. Three of those years were to be served under house arrest. Dr. Pham’s prison term was due to expire on the 26th March 2007; however he was released early under a Presidential Amnesty to mark Vietnam’s National Day on 2nd September, 2006. He is still required to serve the three years house arrest.
“Pham Hong Son’s release was great but it’s not as if he didn’t serve most of his sentence – he did. And he’s still under house arrest so you might say that the campaigns are not very effective. However they also serve the purpose – and a number of writers’ who’ve ultimately been released from prison say this is incredibly important to them – of showing these writers they haven’t been forgotten. Some poor bastard who’s sitting in his cell in Cuba or Hanoi or wherever it might be, he knows (because the prison guards are likely to tell them) that there have been more letters written about him or her. I think that it’s an encouragement to them not to give up hope. It has that dual function,” says Mr. Durack.
During their time in prison, many of these writers have no contact with the outside world. Dr. Pham’s family travelled across Vietnam to see him but were refused upon arrival, and Derek Whitehead (Dr. Pham’s Sydney PEN representative) has no direct contact with him at all.
Jack Durack says that although they are political prisoners, these writers do not receive any better treatment than common prisoners. While serving their sentence – usually in squalid conditions – many of the writers suffer serious health issues, as Dr. Pham did.
Despite such punishment being inhumane, Mr. Durack says that the reason it is allowed to continue without international uproar is because of economic imperatives. “Most countries, including our own, regard maintaining good trade relations and perhaps foreign relations as more important than criticising another government for what appear to be human rights abuses. I think also there’s a feeling – and the Australian government might be as guilty of this as any other government – that if we criticise them they can feel entitled to criticise us, and there’s plenty of things we can be criticised for. We mightn’t be throwing writers in jail because they write about democracy but we do other things that are equally indefensible. It’s a combination of pragmatism and expedience.”
While the letter-writing campaigns may only make a difference in a limited number of cases, Mr. Durack says “that doesn’t mean its not worth attempting to do what you can and this is something that we know does sometimes work.
“The reward is in seeing someone get some benefit like Dr. Pham. We cant take anymore credit for it than that we’ve contributed to it, because Dr. Pham was also an Honorary Member of French PEN and Canadian PEN and the likelihood is that its all of our joint efforts that made a difference.”
Note: Along with their letter-writing campaigns, the WIPC holds an annual Day of the Imprisoned Writer (coming up soon!), and is also involved with International PEN’s action against the use of defamation laws to curb the critical activities of writers, both abroad and in Australia.
Photo Courtesty of EastSouthWestNorth
posted by Sydney PEN at 11:22 pm
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