European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 10, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 8 c the stars and stripes monday february 10, 1992 All gulag dissidents free officials say monday february 10,1992 Moscow up a the 10 men freed from a notorious siberian prison Camp were the last political prisoners being held in the infamous gulags russian officials said. But human rights groups contend that More remain behind bars. Gulags once scattered across Russia were used to imprison opponents of soviet authority. President Boris n. Yeltsin said last week during his . Visit that russian jails would no longer hold political prisoners. The Warden of the notorious gulag Perm-35, Andrei Rotinov told the news Agency Tass that the 10 men freed Friday were the last dissidents at the prison. But Yelena Sadikova a human rights activist who works with the Helsinki group in Moscow said her group has a list of 25 political prisoners still imprisoned in various russian Camps including two in the Perm-35 facility. And Alexander Goldovich a former political prisoner released after the failed August coup said he believes that up to several Hundred political prisoners May be languishing in russian prisons. He said the confusion May Stem from a common practice of soviet authorities to fabricate Ordinary criminal charges such As theft As a pretext for sending political dissidents to prison. On paper they appear As Ordinary criminals said Goldovich and it is difficult if not impossible to prove otherwise. Thus political prisoners remain a hidden a he said. A no one can Ever know that their world crimes were fabricated a Goldovich said. A a it a very difficult to find these  the 10 prisoners released Friday from Perm-35 a which was reserved for political dissidents a were pardoned by a Yeltsin decree. The longest serving had been there since 1983. The most recent was sent to Perm-35 in 1990 under then soviet president Mikhail s. Gorbachev. Some of the prisoners including two soldiers were sent to the Camp after being caught trying to flee across the soviet Border into neighbouring China and Afghanistan. Others committed More elaborate offences. One Yuri Pavlov 57, was charged with espionage after he claimed foreign Patent rights for his idea of producing artificial diamonds using underground nuclear explosions. Another Vladimir Potas Hov 43, was arrested for expressing his personal views on superpower detente to the Cia. Two soldiers were convicted of hijacking airliners in a desperate attempt to flee the soviet Union. Most of the 10 were also charged with treason under the infamous article 64 of the soviet criminal code. Those deemed traitors could be punished by years in prison or the death penalty. Human rights activists argue that article 64, which is still on the books should be abolished because the offence is ambiguous and still could be used to punish political dissent. The 10 political prisoners leave the gulag carrying their meager belongings. A they talk about the need to change meanwhile Perm-35, which contained the criminal code they be been talking Over 100 political prisoners As recently As about it for five years but they done to do 1988, wont be going out of business. It a Sadikova said. Russian legislators have drafted a More Liberal criminal code though it retains provisions for treason that make some human rights activists nervous. Goldovich who spent 6vi years in Perm-35 for trying to flee across the Black sea to Turkey in a Small rubber boat said the facility was now being used to House Ordinary  Leader shot dead outside s. African eatery from wire reports Durban South Africa a an african National Congress Leader was shot dead outside a restaurant in Pietermaritzburg in Natal province an apparent retaliation for a spate of attacks on regional leaders of the inkatha Freedom party the South african police said sunday. Sikh Buzo Ngwenya of the Ancus i Bali Branch and a member of the Ancus regional National executive committee was shot to death in his car in a parking lot outside a restaurant where he had dined saturday night said police spokesman capt. Henry Budhram. In the past week More than 22 people have been killed As a result of violent political conflict Between supporters of the Anc a leading anti apartheid group and followers of the inkatha Freedom party in  emergency Algiers Algeria apr the army backed ruling Council on sunday declared a 12-month state of emergency to quell spreading violence prompted by its crackdown on Muslim fundamentalists. The decree was issued by the five Man High state committee and announced on National television at 8 . The announcement did not give details of the emergency provisions. In two previous emergencies in the past four years Security forces were granted Broad Powers of arrest and detention. The move came hours after police seized the Headquarters of the fundamentalist party the islamic salvation  refinery working Nicosia Cyprus a the Dora refinery near Baghdad is processing 95,000 barrels of crude Oil daily equivalent to its prewar capacity the state run iraqi news Agency said saturday. The Agency monitored in Cyprus quoted Kamel Jafar director of the refineries department As also telling the state run Al jump Oriya daily the facility had reached a full  Allied bombers heavily damaged the strategic Dora refinery during the persian Gulf War. Party Leader May have endorsed abandonment of Mussolini troops by the Washington Post Rome a three italian historians Are heading for Moscow in the next few Days to verify the authenticity of a letter in which former italian communist party Leader Palmiro Togliatti reportedly supported the abandoning of tens of thousands of Mussolini a soldiers leaving them to die in soviet prison Camps. Italian president Francesco Corsiga ordered the Trio of historians to examine the newly opened archives of the communist International comintern in which the letter was found. News of Togliatti a alleged role has shocked italians and is dominating the italian press. As an italian Corsiga said a i desperately Hope the letter is not  the february 1943 document which came to Light last month As another italian historian was carrying out research in the Moscow archives apparently was signed by Togliatti one of the founding fathers of the deadly Snow blankets Eastern Mediterranean Amman Jordan apr storms dumped More Snow throughout Eastern Mediterranean Mountain regions sunday covering the regions cities and feeding floods that drowned nine people in Jordan. In Turkey a Snow slide killed two More people bringing the Avalanche death toll to More than 200 in eight Days. A blizzard dropped 2 feet of Snow on Amman and 10 inches on Damascus Syria overnight As the Region faced its harshest Winter in More than 40 years. In Jordan the new onslaught hit the kingdom even As Rescue teams continued their struggle to Clear roads and repair damage from an earlier storm. Schools recently reopened after a previous storm abated were closed again. Police warned of landslides along the roads leading to the Jordan Valley where More than 7,000 acres of agricultural land along the israeli Border were flooded. In Syria the Snow kept most Damascus residents at Home away from their jobs and from schools. The main Highway to Beirut Lebanon was closed and another leading to the jordanian Border was nearly blocked. Syrian children in the capital decorated snowmen and forecasters were predicting More Snow for today. Italian communist party. Togliatti who is still widely revered in Italy spent much of world War ii in exile in the soviet Union to escape imprisonment by italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. He died in 1964. In the letter Togliatti apparently turned Down a request by fellow italian communist Vincenzo Bianco to intervene on behalf of italian prisoners of War in Russia saying their deaths would help persuade the italian people to reject fascism. As part of the Axis War pact More than 200,000 italian soldiers went to the russian front Between 1941 and 1943, on the orders of Mussolini to fight alongside nazi troops. Nearly 90,000 of them never came Back. Some 26,000 died in Battle ill fed badly equipped and fighting in temperatures of 25 degrees below Zero. Of the remainder tens of thousands died in the soviet pow Camps most from hunger disease and  Bible top seller at Havana Book fair Mexico City apr christianity a sacred Book the holy Bible is the top seller at the fifth International Book fair in officially atheistic Havana the mexican news Agency no Timex reported saturday. The Book fair also Marks the first time in 20 years that the Bible is widely available in Cuba. Also popular Are illustrated dictionaries and encyclopedias by the famous Spanish publisher aristos. In a nation where paper has become scarce and electric lights to read by Are severely rationed 20,000 people have thronged to the fair since it opened feb. 4 and have bought 2,400 books and pamphlets. The report did not say How Many copies of the Bible had been sold. Although Many cubans continue their Catholic Faith they have no Freedom to practice it. Churches were closed and clerics were expelled from the country after Fidel Castro came to Power in 1959