N the twenty-first of January 20 university students were, charged with “promoting subversion” and remanded in custody (bail is systematically refused in these cases). These students had, the political police claimed, been involved in subyersive activities mainly in promoting political agitation and unrest on behalf of the Communist party and the FAP (Front for Popular Action), another Marxist organisation. mee
offends
Left
by W. McLauchlan
of Cyprus will be able to choose independently, exercising their sovereign rights, any form for their state... They may also choose the federal form. It goes without saying that even this system presupposes the existence of a_ single centralised government, a single defence organisation, and also a centralised administrative and judicial system.” Despite his heavy qualifications, there was an immediate response from President Makarios, who lodged an official protest. He was followed by the Greek Government. Then the Gréek opposition party E.D.A. (United Democratic Left) said it disagreed with the proposal. This protest was regarded as expressing the opinion of the banned Greek Communist Party which, nevertheless, also made its opposition known. On January 26th, A.K.E.L. (the Cyprus Working People’s Party), which is the main working class party on the island, issued a statement on the matter. The party said that a federal form would breed suspicion and division, and help: “the divideand-rule policies of the imperialist.” It would result “in the transfer of populations, misery and hardship.” A.K.E.L., which approximates to the Communist Party of Cyprus, counterposed the offer of tangible safeguards
from a Portuguese Student for the Turkish minority. The brutality of the treatment the prisoners had been suffering and the severity of the decision — to charge people in Portugal for political crimes usually means having them sentenced to very heavy sentences if not practically for life—brought an immediate reaction from the students in the University of Lisbon. This took the form of a demonstration the very next day, in Lisbon, in protest against the arrests of their colleagues. Several hundred took part. About 26 new arrests were then made. At the same time, journalist Manuel de Azevedo protested to the Minister of the Interior against the treatment suffered by his daughter, Gina de Azevedo, age 20, at the Political Police headquarters during interrogation when she was kept 12 days and nights without sleep and later due to a nervous breakdown had to enter a mental hospital. During the evening of the 22nd the students went in large numbers to a special session held at the university and attended by all the professors. Ths solemn meeting had been called to commemorate the University Day: but the students protested so noisily that the session was prematurely ended. On Saturday, 23rd, a strike was started in protest against the arrests and Monday, 25th, new demonstrations took place when it was learned that one of the students in gaol had made an attempt to commit suicide. About 60 students were being held by this time. The information about the attempted suicide was confirmed and the name of the student is known. He was Mr. F. J. Baeta Neves, a law student well known as Vice-Chairman of the Students’ Union in his Faculty, and one of the students expelled from Lisbon University because of his alleged part in organising the Students’ Day celebrations last year. After his arrest he had been subjected to long interrogations, and on the morning of the 24th he attempted to commit suicide by breaking his glasses and swallowing the broken pieces. He had an emergency operation and is now out of the danger list, although under police. guard, Only his parents and fiancee are allowed to visit him in hospital.
During the 26th armed police
charged a crowd of more than five
hundred students near the advanced
technical institute. The students,
protesting against the arrests of their
colleagues, by now apparently totalling
70, fled with shouts of “murderers”
through a loudspeaker.
Among the students arrested are
boys and girls from the Secondary
Schools (Miss Ana Potier, Miss Ligia
Calapez, Miss Ana Margarida Mas-
sano de Amerim (15 years old), Miss
Manuela Loure (15 years old), Jose
Augusto (15 years old) and from the
university (Faculty of Law: F. J.
Baeta de Neves, Maria Antonieta
Coelho, L. F, Salgado Mates, Jorge
Neto Valente, Artur Alexandra Pinto,
Fernando M. Rosas, Alfredo Caldeira.
Faculty of Medicine: Aguinaldo
Cabral, Pedro Lemes, Filipe Rosas,
Maximino Vaz da Cunha, Pinho
Monteiro, J. M. Palminha. Faculty
of Science: Joao Teixeira, Rui
Pereira, M. Paiva Teixeira, Sara
Amancio. Faculty of Engineering:
Adolfo Steiger, Marie Line: Faculty
of Economics: Gabriel Morato, Fran-
cisco Chaves. School of Fine Art:
Miss Teresa Pacheco, Miss Ana Maria
Louro. Faculty of Arts: Miss Maria
Joao Gerardo, Antonio Morais.)
The great crime of these students
is that they keep on struggling for
freedom, for rights that most people
enjoy nowadays in the western world.
They want to chose their own union
officers, and they also want to express
their political opinions freely. They
would like all Portuguese to partici-
pate in the reconstruction of their
desolate country. Because they are
the only courageous, although despe-
rate, voice crying for our help and
support they deserve, I think, our
warmest sympathy.