Scargill's response 'More people are dying in El Salvador

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statement made by the NUM apart from saying that I only wish Nicaragua where nore people are dying in a day than have been attitudes and actions are directed on request of Nikitin is it that people have not heard of the American intervention, two people do not appear strongly about the nature of I complaining about their -secution, had been dis-eed from their jobs, there* the new union had to ill-embracing. long with the "Appeal' te issued the statutes of I FTUA signed by the 43 final members. There te another 160 whose names, various reasons, were published. Members 'the FTUA '...should be hual and non-manual wor• whose rights and inter• have been illegally flouby the administrative, -iet, Party and judicial pans.' Unlike the official dons', the FTUA officials rom top to bottom are ited by the members and accountable to them' -the final section (4) stated: -As soon as the FTUA is Lagnised by the ILO or trade tons of foreign coutries, isoon as it receives moral I financial support, the Sta• will be reviewed in the It of the special situation working people in our counThe review will be carrI out not earlier than one * after the foundation the Association' The promised 'review' er happened. The FTUA • stamped out by the KGB tost as soon as it made its t public appearance. As , of the leading figures the FTUA, Klebanov was lof the first to be arrested.

© 1983 MacNeily—Chicago Tribunt On February 10th he was taken by the KGB to a Moscow Police Station where a psychiatrist was waiting for him. He was accused of placing a bomb in the Moscow Metro. He was then sent For 2 months to No. 7 Psychiatric Hospital in Moscow.

On his release Klebanov and his comrades in the FTUA held their first press. conference, to which journalists from the West attended. Further arrests followed.

The owner of the flat where the conference was held was arrested and Klebanov and 2 colleagues were arrested on 19th December while walking down Gorky Street in Moscow. Klebanov was separated from his colleagues and again taken to No. 7 Psychiatric Hospital. From here he was taken South to Donetsk.

Protests from fellow FTUA members and supporters secured his release and Klebanov soon returned to Moscow. Another attempt was made to arrest him on January 28th, 1978, again in Gorky Street, Moscow. A fight followed in which Klebanov with the aid of some FTUA members and passers-by beat off the KGB. Around this time Klebanov went of his own free will to be examined by an independent psychiatrist, Dr. Alexander Volashonovich who was also a consultant to the Working Committee to Investigate the Use of Psychiatry for Political Purposes.

In a 6 page report Dr. Voloshonovich reached the following conclusion about Klebanov's state of health: -'On the basis of my quesone can draw the concluSoviet prison hospital!

Andropov sion that Victor Alexandrovich Klebanov has an underdeveloped personality which shows -a degree of hyper sensitivity not amounting to psychiatric not disturbance, at the present time, as during the period of the offences he was charged with (1964, 1968) he has been aware of his actions and has been able to direct them. . He is responsible for his actions.' Obviously Klebanov was not, in any sense, insane.

This was not the end however, on 7th February the KGB pounced him again. This time they succeeded and Klebanov was taken to Donetsk Psychiatric Hospital, later being transferred to the Special Psychiatric Hospital in Dnepropetrovsk. While in either Donetsk or Dnepropetrovsk he was tried in his absence by the Donetsk Court. Even his wife wasn't allowed to be presene Dnepropetroysk Klebanov was" subjected to intensive 'treatment' by behaviou modification drugs and his mental condiATTe tion deteriorated to such an extent that grave fears were expressed as to his future.

One of the last reports to come out of the Soviet Union, reported in the Sunday Observer in November 1980 stated that he had been administered large doses of behaviour modification drugs intended for use with severe His face was severely swollen and his features distorted, his complexion was yellow and physical movement was impaired. As well as suffering all this Klebanov was forbidden to walk in the hospital and allowed out onl for i hour's exercise a day. Dear Arthur, I am writing to you about the Ukrainian miner dissidents Vladimir Klebanov and Alexei Nikitin. It is some time now since anything has been heard about their wellbeing or whereabouts - certainly I have made enquiries and even Amnesty International don't know where they are. Would it not be possible for yourself to raise the question with the appropriate USSR body?

I know the issue has been discussed within the NUM in the past and I am aware that it was decided that enquiries could go no further, but that was over two years ago and I understand that Mr Effremenko who was then the Soviet Miners leader has since been expelled from bis post. Would you therefore be good enough to make some enquiries afresh?

It is a difficult issue to raise + know, particularly when 80 many right-wingers are waiting to jump on any anti-Soviet bandwaggon they can find (witness Bernard Levin and the recent antics of Mar Butler here in Sheffield) but I don't believe any service to socialism is rendered by ignoring the fact of repression within the USSR and particularly the abomination of consigning dissidents to so-called 'pyschiatric hospitals. What's more, when all is said and done Mr Nikitin and Mr Klebanov are miners - our people, if we can't speak out for them who can?

Please understand, I am not anti-Soviet, I am not a right-winger, nor do I ignore repression in other parts of the World (witness my recent article in the Yorkshire Miner on the repression of miners in Turkey) but these 2 men have suffered terribly for doing, what basically myself, you and countless other NUM members do every day, that is, defend, to the best of our ability, the living standards and conditions of our members.

I have been told that a delegation of Soviet miners is attending our annual conference in Perth this year. If this is true could you raise the question with them, I'm sure you could do this without in any way offending our guests or compromising ourselves as hosts.

Perhaps it would be possible for me to call in at the new HQ and have a chat with you about the matter, but I realise that your time is limited 8o I will understand if this can't be done. I work at Dinnington Colliery but am a Sheffielder, I'm on the Branch Committee at Dinno' and NUM delegate to the Sheffield DLP also on the GMC of the new Sheffield Central CLP -of course I'm writing this letter in a personal capacity.

I look forward very much to hearing from you.

fraternally, John Cunningham PS. Welcome to Sheffield - it's a great City!

Dear Mr. Cunningham, I am in receipt of your letter raising the question of V.

Klebanov and A. Nikitin.

I have nothing further to add to the previous public statement made by the NUM apart from saying that I only wish that the people who constantly inundate this office with letters about ine avuve LUTEVOL 1-11 --- dan ahnia The National Union of Mineworkers has accepted the official USSR story that Klebanov is insane. This is how NUM president Arthur Scargill responded to an attempt to re-raise the issue.

NATIONAL UNIO!

ST. JAMES' HI SHEFFIELD, Sou President A SCARGILL Please quote our reference in ropty: Telephone: 0742 700388 Your Pet:

Our Ret: N.0.01/AS/AO Mr. J. Cunningham, 4 Barber Place, SHEFFIELD; South Yorkshire.

S10 IEG Dear Mr. Cunningham, an in receipt of your letter raising A. SCAR PRESID Scargill to show any concern or very -little about the tragedy in Elsalvador and Nicaragua where more people are dying in a day than have been killed in the Soviet Union in the last ten years.

Could it be that there is some political bias and that attitudes and actions are directed on request-of Nikitin and Klebanov because they are citizens of the Soviet Union or is it that people have not heard of the American intervention, the terror that they are striking at Elsalvador and Nicaragua and indeed the whole of central and Latin America.

Yours sincerely, A. Scargill President Dear Sir,, I am in receipt of your letter (May 6th) in reply to my letter of 26th April.

I have no intention, in this letter, of pursuing the issue of Mr. Klebanov and Mr. Nikitin as you do not appear to be concerned by their plight. Intraver I do nintest most. your reply.

As well as totally ignoring my questions you suggest that I am acting out of politica bias and that I am either uncaring or ignorant of US intervention in Nicaragua and El Salvador - all of which is totally untrue.

I believe it to be a disgrace for a person in your position to treat a fellow NUM member in such an evasive, derogatory and insulting manner and I think I deserve an apology N OF MINEWORKERS OUSE, VICAR LANE, TH YORKSHIRE S1 2EX Secretary L 6th May 1983 IGILL 'ENT from you.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully, John Cunningham (Branch Committee, Dinnington NUM writing in a personal capacity)

Dear Mr Cunningham, I am in receipt of your further letter dated 15 May 1983 in which you suggest an apology is due from me for my previous letter dated 6 May.

I have no intention of issuing an apology for something that does not warrant one. I reiterate that the points made in my letter were in the context of the hundreds of letters I am receiving from various organisations and individuals about the cases of Klebanov and Nikitin, and it seems to me that there is an orchestrated campaign taking place directed towards my office.

It is well known that I have already made representations on behalf of Messrs Nikitin and Klebanov and my letter to the Russian Miners' President and his reply suddenly found themselves published in leading newspapers.

My letter to you was not evasive, it was not derogatory and it was not personally insultive.

My letter was certainly emphasising the concertive and orchestrated campaign, not on the. issue of Nikitin and Klebanov, but of directing letters to me as President of the National Union of Mineworkers after it is known what the NUM have done on this issue.

Yours sincerely, A Scargill President

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Sacialist Organiser no. 142, August 4.1983 Page 10 TV

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DOI HAVE I JOBFOR YOU! MAKE-UP

tioning and an objective exami- nation 1 of Vladimir Klebanov

killed in the Soviet Union in the last ten years. ind indeed the whole of central and Latin America. Wifine