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Worldview

Political Prisoners

Who is a political prisoner? Is it anyone whose freedom or movement is restricted based on his or her beliefs and actions? Is it also persons held because of who they are? From August 12 through August 15, 2002, Worldview explored these and other questions. Host Jerome McDonnell talked to former political prisoners from Burma to Northern Ireland. And, Worldview explored cases of political imprisonment that continue to this day.

Along with new interviews, Worldview revisited past conversations about political prisoners and then updated those situations. Audio of the programs in this series is provided on this webpage along with additional audio and outside links.

 
Listen to Programs in This Series

Egypt: Human Rights Worker Imprisoned
Update on the case of Dr. Saadeddin Ibrahim
Dr. Barbara Lethem Ibrahim — Wife of Saadeddin Ibrahim and the regional director for West Asia and North Africa at the Population Council
Revisiting Northern Ireland's Hunger Strikes (First aired on August 3, 2001)
Laurence McKeown — Participant in the 1981 hunger strike at Northern Ireland's Long Kesh prison and the author of Out of Time: Irish Republican Prisoners Long Kesh 1972-2000
See outside links on this topic
Hunger Strike in Turkey:
Visiting the Hunger Strikers
(First aired on October 29, 2001)
Scott Anderson — Author of a New York Times article about Turkey's hunger strike and author several books including The Man Who Tried to Save the World and Triage
See outside links on this topic
Update on the Hunger Strike in Turkey
Jonathan Sugden — Human Rights Watch researcher for Turkey
Political Prisoners in China (First aired on July 24, 1998)
Wei Jingsheng — Chinese pro-democracy activist who was active during Democracy Wall movement, imprisoned from 1979 to 1993 and then from 1994 to 1997, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, author of The Courage to Stand Alone: Letters from Prison and Other Writings
  2001 map of Burma
Map Courtesy of The General Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin
Political Prisoner in Burma
James Mawdsley — British human rights activist who was sentenced to 17 years in jail last year for distributing pro-democracy leaflets in Burma and spent 415 days in solitary confinement before international intervention resulted in his release, author of The Iron Road: A stand for truth and democracy in Burma, international representative for Christian Solidarity Worldwide
See outside links on this topic
Korean "Comfort Women" Interview (First aired on October 10, 2000)
Jerome McDonnell with guests
Soon-Duk Kim — Kim was one of fifteen plaintiffs in the first ever class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. against Japan for war crimes in WWII and was a "comfort woman" for the Japanese army. She was taken as a slave in 1937 and forced to accompany Japanese soldiers as they advanced through Northern China.
Hyejin — A Buddhist monk and co-founder and executive director of the House of Sharing in Seoul
Remarks were translated by Inhe Choi from KANWIN (Korean American Women in Need)
Writing Letters for Political Prisoners
Jonathan Power — Journalist and author of Like Water on Stone: The Story of Amnesty International
   
Additional Audio
This program provides another perspective on political prisoners.

School of the Americas Protester (see outside links on this topic)
First aired on June 12, 2001
David Corcoran — Chaplain at Loyola University Medical Center who was arrested at a protest against the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (formerly named the School of the Americas) at Fort Benning, GA

   
Outside Links
  General political prisoner links
  Amnesty International: Prisoners of Conscience
  Human Rights Watch: Prisons
Remembering the Northern Ireland hunger strikes
  Hunger Strike Commemoration Committee
  Bobby Sands Trust
On-going hunger strike in Turkey
 

Northern Ireland Solidarity with Turkey

  Human Rights Watch: Isolation in Turkish Prisons Continues
School of the Americas protests
  School of the Americas Watch
  Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (formerly known as "School of the Americas")
  "We are all one body" David Corcoran's testimony to a U.S. District Court, the testimony explains why he crossed the line at Fort Benning to push for closure of the School of the Americas
Korean "Comfort Women"
  The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan
  The Comfort Women Project
Political prisoners in Burma
  Free Burma Coalition
  The Burma Project
  Aung San Suu Kyi Pages
  WBEZ is not responsible for content of outside sites.


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