WELWYN HATFIELD & EAST HERTS AMNESTY    GROUP NEWSLETTER

March 2006

Contacts

 

Chair/ Newsletter - Vicky

Woodcraft 01707 326109

Publicity - Dennis Hawes - 01707 332263.

Secretary - Sue Friend

01707 273894

Treasurer - Roisin Toole

01707 322193

Membership/Churches

Roisin Toole - as above

Action Network - Reg Pyne 01707 320510

GETTING SHOT FOR AMNESTY!

Thanks to everyone who helped at our joint photoshoot with Oxfam in the Howard Centre on March 25th. We added over a hundred photos and drawings to the Control Arms Million faces petition, which finishes this June. Photos can now be sent from mobile phones and Vernonne had the brilliant idea of taking the leaflets explaining this into both Vodaphone and Orange shops. Both were happy to give them out! If you - or your friends - have somehow escaped adding your picture to this vital petition, contact Reg or Vicky for details - or come to the AGM. There are less than 100 days left!

GROUP AGM

Wed May 3rd from 7.30pm in the Focolare Centre, off Parkway, WGC. Access and car park are via The Cloisters.

Veteran Amnesty star, Dan Jones, will be coming from AIUK to talk about current Amnesty issues.   If you’ve heard him before you will know what a charismatic speaker Dan is so don’t miss this opportunity. There will be other activities and chances, as always, to take action for human rights. . Put this date in your diary now! Any queries to Vicky.

We will also report on the outcome of the worldwide debate - in which we took part - on whether AI should retain its position on the Use of Force and on a new debate now facing the membership. Come along on May 3rd to find out more.

SUBSCRIPTIONS for the coming year are now due and can be paid to Roisin Toole at the AGM or by sending a cheque made out to Amnesty International to 116 Sweet Briar, WGC AL7 3EA The cost is £5 per household. This mainly covers the production and postage of this newsletter, so if you wish to go on receiving it, please let Roisin have your sub. 

BURMA PETITION

Did you see the item on News at 10 about displaced Burmese people fleeing the military? These poor people need all the help we can get and with this newsletter you will find a copy of a petition to the Burma authorities which will be presented, with others, late morning of May 2nd by an all party group of MPs and others. Please gather signatures and return to Reg at 3 Lodgefield WGC by April 29th at the latest. If you would like to join the May 2nd party, phone 320510 or email reg.pyne@btinternet.com

PLANT SALE         

Sat May 13th, 10 -12.30 at 19 The Reddings, WGC, hosted by Ann, John and Peter Simons in their lovely garden. Please bring plants to sell in aid of Amnesty or at least come prepared to buy! There will be refreshments and a chance to meet other members socially.                                    For more details phone Peter on 01707 326970 (w/e or evenings only) or email peter@crinklecrags.co.uk

 Plants for sale can be left in the front garden of 19 The Reddings any time before the event.

STREET COLLECTION All day on Saturday June 17th. Please let Barbara Foster know, before she rings you, if you can or cannot help. (01438 813388)                                    On the same day we will have an action on Zimbabwe.

SIXTH FORM CONFERENCE.

This took place at Monks Walk School on Friday March 10th and was a great success. Around 200 sixth form students took part in a varied programme of activities which included an introduction to Amnesty, presentations on Child Soldiers, Burma and our adopted prisoners and the Stop Violence Against Women campaign, discussions on the Death Penalty, Refugees and Guantanamo Bay (which, worrying few students had even heard of!) and the chance to see a compilation of AI videos and to be photographed for the Control Arms campaign.                     

James Savage from AIUK spoke about gun violence in the favelas of Brazil, illustrated by video footage and a recorded testimony from Rodrigo, a young human rights activist from the area, who was supposed to come in person but had to return home urgently as his mother and sister were receiving threats and needed his protection. We announced this on the day as it vividly illustrated  how much safer and easier it is to be a human rights activist in Hertfordshire than in Brazil.

The final session was a reading by members of Monks Walk AI group of a play for voices based on the writings of Ariel Dorfman.

Many thanks to Reg for the immense amount of work that went into the preparation of such a stimulating morning. Thanks also to everyone who helped beforehand, especially Rob and Vernonne Allan who produced the programmes, Sue Friend, Vicky Woodcraft, Barbara Foster, Sandra Ward, Robert Harvey, Phil Jaggar, Dinny Hawes, Margaret Dolan and Ian Skidmore who helped on the day.

NEWS OF LEONARD

You may remember our visit three years ago from Leonard Rwodzi, who was forced to flee from Zimbabwe after threats from the Zanu PF party, attacks on his home and the deaths of two of his colleagues.

At the Regional conference in January Leonard updated us on his situation. In some ways this has not changed. He is still ‘in limbo’ in the UK as the Home Office has taken no further, perceptible action on his case.

However he and his wife and new baby are now able to live together and he is still working - now as head gardener. They want nothing more than to return to Zimbabwe, when it is safe for them to do so. Their two older children are still being cared for by relatives there.

At the moment no-one is being returned to Zimbabwe but they are aware that this could change at any moment. We were all horrified to hear that when asylum seekers were being deported their papers were handed to the aircraft pilot, so that they were always the last to leave the plane at Harare airport and thus easily picked up by the CIO - Central Intelligence Organisation - the secret security service protecting President Mugabe.                                Thus most returned asylum seekers simply disappeared - helped by the fact that the UK authorities did not inform relatives that they were returning, or follow up to see what had happened to them.                     We continue to campaign on Zimbabwe - for the sake of Leonard and thousands like him - especially at Letter Writing evenings.

DIARY DATES

ALL MEETINGS START AT 8PM UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED.   

Letter writing meetings are on the 2nd Wed. of every month - except December - in the Backhouse Room, 116 Handside Lane, WGC.

Wed April 12th Letter Writing at the Backhouse Room.

Tues May 2nd  Petition at Burma Embassy in London.                                

Wed May 3rd 7.30pm, Group AGM. Focolare Centre, The Cloisters, WGC.

Sat May 13th  10 - 12.30 Plant Sale,  19 The Reddings, WGC.

Wed May 19th Letter Writing at the Backhouse Room.

Wed June 14th Letter Writing at the Backhouse Room.

Sat June 17th Street Collection.

Wed July 12th Letter Writing at the Backhouse Room

Sat July 15th Stall at Kaleidoscope multi-ethnic festival at Stanborough Lakes.