Irvine : Amnesty International to Write Appeals Today
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The Irvine Chapter of Amnesty International will conduct a “Write-a-thon for Human Rights” from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today at the Holiday Inn, 17941 Von Karman Ave., Irvine.
The event, held in conjunction with National Human Rights Day observed last Wednesday, is a fund-raiser for human rights work, said Mitsuye Yamada, an Amnesty member and professor of English at Cypress College. Members will write letters on behalf of prisoners of conscience, or those held by governments solely for their political, ethnic or religious beliefs.
Amnesty members, who have obtained monetary pledges in advance for each letter they write today, will focus on two men, one being held in the Soviet Union, the other in Benin in West Africa, Yamada said.
She said they will also write urgent-action letters, or letters on behalf of prisoners throughout the world who are in danger of losing their lives.
Six prisoners--from Tunisia, Zaire, Malaysia, Uruguay, Namibia and the Soviet Union--have been released since 1979 when the Irvine group began writing letters on their behalf, according to Yamada.
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