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these must perform alternative service. In other countries-Spain, Greece, Poland-there is no right to conscientious objection, and anyone who refuses to perform military service for any reason is liable to imprisonment. The positions taken by the conscientious objectors themselves range from refusal even to register for military service, to the classic pacifist position: refusal to bear arms, but willingness to perform non-combatant duties within the armed forces, or alternative civilian service. A new phenomenon is the selective conscientious objector who is not a pacifist, but who objects to fighting in a specific war, or to his country's particular defence agreements. It is this type of conscientious objector who provides most of Al's cases in countries which do allow conscien- tious objection of the more traditional variety. A report on this subject is being written.
Al's own position on conscientious objection (see Annual Report 1973-74) has been extended over the years, so that it now encompasses all the types of conscientious objectors referred to above. Al's adopted conscientious objectors include Jehovah's Witnesses in Greece and Spain, anarchists in Italy and citizens of France whose objection to conscription is essentially political.
Albania
During 1974-75 Amnesty International tried to obtain more information about political imprisonment in Albania but it proved extremely difficult due to the country's continuing isolation from the outside world. An approach by AI to the Albanian legation in East Berlin proved fruitless.
A Greek ex-prisoner, however, supplied more details about the camp of Ballsh, where 1,000 prisoners are held. He had spent more than a year in the camp after escaping from a Greek prison in the island of Corfu in 1972.
It is impossible to estimate the total number of political prisoners in Albania, but figures like 300,000, frequently mentioned by Albanian refugees, seem to be grossly exaggerated. The number of religious prisoners is believed to be particularly high in Albania where the performance of religious rites is illegal and severely penalized. Banishment to labour camps is common practice and is invariably applied to those who step out of the Communist Party line. In 1975 the names of six prominent Albanian writers and artists, still imprisoned or in corrective labour camps, reached AI. Albania, however, remains an almost closed society about which little is known in human rights terms.
Bulgaria
In June 1974, Dr Heinrich Spetter, a 53-year-old Bulgarian economist of Jewish descent and former United Nations staff member in Vienna, was con- demned to death for alleged economic espionage. Amnesty International arranged for Dr Werner Sporn, an Austrian lawyer, to observe his appeal hearing and twice protested to Todor Zhivkov, President of the Bulgarian State Council. Following a worldwide campaign for commutation of the death sentence, the Bulgarian authorities decided suddenly on 22 August 1974 to release Dr Spetter, who is now living in Israel but still waiting for his family to join him. A similar case taken up by AI was that of Solomon Ben-Joseph, a top official in the Bulgarian Ministry of Chemical Industry, punished in August 1974 with a 15-year prison
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