World Notes

Its aim is to secure freedom for all "prisoners of conscience." In that, Amnesty International is still fighting an uphill global battle, even though its 700,000 members in 150 countries do help make the world more aware of the prisoners. In its 1988 annual report, the London-based organization last week pointed to repression of one kind or another in 135 countries, the highest number since it began tracking such offenses 27 years ago. The 278-page report concludes that in at least half of the world's countries, "people are locked away for speaking their minds," and in at least one-third, "men, women and even children are tortured."

In keeping with Amnesty's policy of ideological impartiality, the report includes entries on the Soviet Union and Nicaragua, South Africa and Paraguay, as well as Israel, France and even Switzerland (for sentencing 600 people to imprisonment or suspended imprisonment for refusing military service). The U.S. is cited for executing 25 convicts in 1987 and for its harsh treatment of more than 2,000 Cubans detained in Georgia and Louisiana since the 1980 Mariel boat lift. The Soviet Union's black marks include sending at least 300 people to prison, into exile or to psychiatric hospitals. Explains Amnesty's U.S. executive director, John Healey: "Making people uncomfortable is part of our job."