EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is the first of a teal-lite diary of the group's investigation into the case of a prisoner whose diary was written by Williams. This Lidg a" details events from May to November, By SALLY WILLIAMS Group 66, Castlegar, is part of the based human rights u impartial and dent of any es ee inate igh ofthe india tvodom of ypeeh and political and religious beliefs, régardiess of ethnic origin, color or language. Members of Group 66 write letters all over the world on behalf of those whose human rights have been violated. May 1983 i bese ce ar te te len etter has gone out to the Canada living in Ottawa, e * August 1983 4! We have drafted a petition to Prime Minister Boths of South Africa expressing our concerns about Lazarus and after getting 150 signatures, most of them at the Peace of ‘the Kootenays Festival in Nelson, we sent the original petition to Botha with-a copy to the Administrator-General plies to our letters are starting to trickle in, (None the South African or Namibian authorities though.) ‘The Canadian Embassy in Pretoria writes: “We do not have any information on this individual.” The Department of External Affairs in Ottawa says: “Your concerns were conveyed to the South African author- ities in June of this year. We are still awaiting a reply to our Great excitement — our first case has been assigned to us. A great wad of papers arrived from the Research Division of Amnesty International in London, England. Lots of background information about the country in which he is being detained 4 Namibia (Southwest Africa), presently controlled illegally by South Africa — but very little about our prisoner. We know he's a black male, in early 20s, that he’s been in detention for five years without charge, trial or sentence and that his name is Lazarus Haukongo. We know nothing about his family or his state of health. Our mandate is to find out why he has not been charged, what his state of health is and confirmation that he is in Mariental Detention Camp in Namibia. June 1983 Started letter writing to the South African and Namibian authorities asking for Lazarus’ whereabouts, his health and asking why he has not been charged. Group members Tim Richards and David Healing are writing to the government officials, Dave Chisholm and Jim Hillson are igned to the and the Pp s. John Orr and Sally Williams are writing to the military and prison officials and to Lazarus himself. July 1983 We are over our first flush of enthusiasm — no replies to our letters but it may be premature to expect any yet. Lyle Kristiansen, MP for Kootenay West, is a member of our group and promises to do what he can federally to help us. A new member, Dr. David Bullock, writes to the Medical Officer of Health in Mariental Camp to find out Lazarus’ state of health. Tim Richards has written to the Canadian Ambassador in Pretoria, South Africa and to the George Richards has written to the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) from whose refugee camp in Angola Lazarus and 200 other individuals were abducted in May 1978 by the South African Defence Force and were taken to Namibia. September 1983 Morale is dropping in the group. We haven't been able ‘We haven't been able to confirm thet Lazarus Is still alive, let alone the place of his detention’ to confirm that Lazarus is still alive, let alone the place of his detention. We are wondering what sort of conditions he lives in. We have put an advertisement in the Classified Ad Section of the Vancouver Province asking for information about the camps in Namibia. We received no replies — didn't really expect to, but-we have. to do something. We have heard that in sending letters to Lazarus we may be depriving him of letters from his family so we haven't written to him this month. He is only allowed one piece of mail a month, probably. October 1983 We have finished our next round of letters to govern- ment ministers in South Africa and Namibia. “This is my third letter to you concerning the detention without trial or charge of Lazarus Haukongo.” . . . “I wrote to you on Aug. 25 and have yet to receive a reply.” ... “I must assume that my previous letter to you has gone astray therefore I write again.” Our letters are beginning to sound like a broken record. NNUAL DOUKHOBOR SPORTS DAY Don't Miss These Special-Events Women’s Plough Pulling Contest Races * Bingo Sunflower Seed Spitting Competition masa Women Hollering Oldtimers Ballgames Evening Talent Show With local and out-of-town talent. Food » Nail Driving Horshoe Tournament BRING THE WHOLE FAMILY! * +t HH FF Nad % PLENTY OF FUN! Map of (Cireted.) John Orr received a reply to a letter he wrote to the Leader of the Opposition in South Africa. “The activities of the South African Defence Force may not by law be published in any form.” In other words, to answer our letter providing aig grt about Lazarus’ de- would be ing the law! At this point we have vooehved a handful of letters to the more than 80 letters written by our sub-group of eight people (The post office must love us.) We are feeling quite depressed. We have written more than once to every possible contact given to us by the Research Division in London. In the case of the South African or Namibian authorities they do not want to reply. In the case of those more supportive they cannot reply for fear of reprisals or because their replies, are destroyed by the official censor. Somehow, we must break this barrier of silence. More than 80 letters and we still do not know whether Lazarus is alive and, therefore, whether there is any point to all this activity. Some Amnesty International groups work for years on prisoner cases without receiving information — how on earth do they keep up their morale? Mid-October 1983 At the end of our at eens es eee a scenario whereby we itary D ion Camp and asked after the health of tase Haukongo. We laughed a great deal about the improbability of ever making such a connection. We find these days that our hilarity borders close to despair, we are so frustrated at the lack of action. However, the idea takes hold so here we are at Dave Healing’s house late one Saturday night. George Richards is going to place the call to Namibia. We can hear the phone ringing thousands of miles away. _ADid, you know you can direct:dial to Namibia?) | Maybe Lazarus can even hear the phone ringing from his cell inthe early Sunday morning heat. A sleepy prison official answers, The line is very bad but George manages to find out that Lazarus is there at Mariental and that we can send money to him for Christmas. This $10 phone call has done what our 80 letters could ndt — it has confirmed that Lazarus is alive and that he is in Mari- ental Camp! Out comes the wine and we have a celebration. We should have thought of phoning before maybe, but it seemed so improbable. In any case it was probably better to go the “official route” first. Confirmation of the good news comes rapidly dn the heels of the phone call, this time from the Department of External Affairs. “Mr. Haukongo has been held in Mariental Prison in Namibia since May 22, 1979. 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