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charges exist. A few prisoners, generally members of Marxist splinter groups who did not participate in the 1971 insurrection, are held for security reasons on orders of the Executive. They can be detained indefinitely under the Emergency Regulations. Al urged that the government review and possibly abolish provisions that keep such prisoners in detention without an independent machinery for review.
The Sri Lanka government has put considerable emphasis on the rehabilitation of prisoners during their detention and after their release. A number of restrict- ions, however, on freedom of movement, association and speech are presently in force on some released prisoners, the majority of whom have not been tried. AI recommended that such restrictions should now be reviewed. The report also made a number of detailed recommendations regarding prison conditions of political prisoners. The report concluded that there had been a large increase in the number of executions in Sri Lanka since 1972 (two prisoners, having taken part in the 1971 insurgency, were sentenced to death before the criminal courts), and recommended abolition of the death penalty.
Specific mention should also be made of the efforts of many Al groups who
AI worked for 35 prisoners of the Tamil minority, arrested in 1972 and 1973 and detained under the Emergency Regulations. The Minister of Justice informed the AI mission that all but three of the prisoners would be released. At the time of writing, however, 20 such prisoners remain imprisoned.
The continuation of the state of emergency now affects many areas outside the scope of the original reasons for its declaration. By way of Emergency Regulation 143/1, the government made it an offence to criticize Sri Lanka's constitution outside the National Assembly or the courts of law, thus depriving the Tamil minority of an important means of expressing its opinion democratic- ally.
Thailand
In December 1974, two months after the drawing up of a new constitution (an occasion traditionally marked by an amnesty), the interim National Assembly unanimously passed a bill designed to free more than 9,000 political prisoners. The prisoners, whose release under the terms of the amnesty bill took place in early 1975, had been jailed by decree under the old regime of Prime Minister Thanom Kittikachorn, which ended after student riots in October 1973.
According to the Ministry of the Interior in Bangkok, among those set free were 347 accused of involvement in communism, while others had been detained for a variety of reasons, including personal rivalry with, or in opposition to, the Thanom regime. Unofficial sources claimed that the great majority had been accused of communist activities. AI Secretary General Martin Ennals wrote to Prime Minister Kukrit Pramoj of Thailand on 19 May 1975 seeking confirmation that the release of the 9,000 political prisoners has been completed, and request- ing details of other categories of prisoners to whom the amnesty may not have applied.
Democratic Republic of Vietnam
Amnesty International groups continue to press inquiries about a small
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