Free Vanunu now

national | anti-war / imperialism | news report

Wednesday August 06, 2003 14:18

by Justin `Morahan - Peace People

Sixteen Years spent in Israeli Jail as Prisoner of Conscience

The US Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu asks that vigils be held outside Israeli Embassies worldwide on September 30, the seventeenth anniversary of his imprisonment

Sixteen years and eleven months in jail - that's what Israeli nuclear
technician, Dr Mordechai Vanunu, has already spent for revealing to the
Sunday Times, as a matter of conscience, information that confirmed the
existence of Israel's plutonium separation plant. He is, I think, the
world's longest serving prisoner of conscience.
According to Mark Gaffney: "the plant is buried eighty feet below ground in
the Negev desert, and had long escaped detection. Since the 1960s it has
been used to recover plutonium from spent fuel rods from the Dimona nuclear
reactor, located nearby. The plant continues to be an integral part of
Israel's ongoing nuclear weapons program. Israel is believed to possess at
least 200 nukes".
Mordechai Vanunu spent the first eleven years and five months of his
sentence in solitary confinement. Amnesty International described the
conditions of his ordeal as "cruel, inhuman, and degrading."
In 1998 he was queried by Israeli officials about whether he would agree to
remain silent on the nuclear issue but he refused, saying that keeping quiet
on the issue was not an option for his release.
Dr Vanunu's message, to which he has remained faithful over the years, is
simply this: "No nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction in
the Middle East or anywhere in the world!"
Now, Felice Cohen-Joppa of the US Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu is
requesting vigils at Israeli Embassies throughout the world on or around
September 30, the seventeenth anniversary of his imprisonment. Also please
write to Ambassador Daniel Megiddo, Embassy of Israel, 122 Pembroke Road,
Dublin 4, expressing concern and requesting that your comments be made
known to Mr Sharon. (The Ambassador has, of course, no power himself to
effect the release).
Letters of support can be sent to this Prisoner of Conscience, Dr Mordechai
Vanunu, at Ashkelon Prison, Ashkelon, Israel.
Email the US Campaign (Felice Cohen-Joppa)at freevanunu@mindspring.com