CZECH REPRESSION

To the Editors of The Crimson:

The following document, from the Czech Socialist opposition, was smuggled out of Czechoslovakia earlier this year. We feel it speaks for itself, and in view of the fact that today, May 9, is the 30th anniversary of the liberation of Prague by Soviet troops, we urge that telegrams be sent to the Czechoslovakian embassy in Washington, D.C., asking that Ivan Dejmal be granted amnesty:

"One of the victims of the present regime in Czechoslovakia is Ivan Dejmal, 28. Repression against him started in early 1970 when he was arrested and charged with being a member of the Revolutionary Socialist Party. At that time, he was about to complete his studies at the Prague School of Agriculture.

He spent a year and a half in cruel conditions of investigation custody, before being brought to trial. His conduct was exceptionally courageous and he failed to give in to the psychological blackmail or to the physical torments inflicted by the Czechoslovak secret police. Equally courageous was his behavior when facing the court in the summer of 1971. He refused to testify or to participate in its pre-arranged farcical proceedings. He was sentenced to two years in prison.

"The indomitable character and courage of Ivan Dejmal resulted in further repression. He suffers from consequences of hepatitis and has a gall-bladder condition; nevertheless, soon after completing his prison term he was drafted into the army. There he was treated not in the usual manner but as a politically unreliable element.' He was kept under close supervision, and his two years in the army amounted for all practical purposes to a continuation of his prison term.

"The loss of perspective in life, constant curtailment of his personal freedom, spying and harrassment by superiors, informers who followed his 1every step--all this drove Ivan Dejmal to a suicide attempt, in the summer of 1974. The psychological terror had apparently achieved its goal.

"But even this tragedy did not appease the authorities. Ivan Dejmal was "treated" for several weeks in a closed section of the Psychiatric Ward of the Military Hospital in Prague in conditions only marginally better than in prison. Then he was sent back to his unit. In less than a week, the secret police concocted a case for arresting him again. Dejmal's next trip led to the infamous Ruzyne prison in Prague, where he is held now.

"This time around, he is charged with defamation of the Soviet Union and other friendly countries and of their leaders and with 'corrupting the morale and the military and political preparedness of soldiers (articles 100 and 288 of the Czechoslovak Penal Code). Each count carries the maximum penalty of three years in prison. Given the present conditions in Czechoslovakia, there is no doubt that Dejmal will be found guilty. The verdict, the sentence, and even the type of prison conditions are usually determined in advance; the authorities will easily find as many witnesses as necessary.

"Fear for the life of Ivan Dejmal is inspired not only by the pending sentence but also by the psychological pressure he is facing daily. It is unclear how long he will be able to resist, all by himself, the methods of the Czechoslovak secret police. He would not be the first Czechoslovak political prisoner of the seventies to surrender his life "voluntarily," either in investigation custody or upon returning from prison. Fear for his life is further enhanced by the tenacity with which Ivan Dejmal has been persecuted long after he was barred from any political or academic activity, even when he was reduced to waiting passively for any further repressive measures his tormentors might choose to subject him to." Harvard Chapter of the Committee Against Political   Repression in the USSR and Eastern Europe