Dear Friends:


Please help the Phil Berrigan Family by writing to Attorney General Janet Reno on their behalf as indicated at the end of this story from today's Boston Globe.

Thank you.
Francis A. Boyle
Professor of International Law
Law Building, 504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, Illinois 618200
Phone: 217-333-7954
Fax: 217-244-1478
fboyle@law.uiuc.edu
Board of Directors, Amnesty International USA (1988-92)

________________________________________________________________
US STRIPS BERRIGAN OF VISITING PRIVILEGES AFTER
WOMAN'S SIT-IN


By Bob Hohler, Boston Globe Staff, 04/01/98


WASHINGTON - Philip Berrigan, the former Catholic priest and peace activist who has spent a decade of his life in prison for civil disobedience, has lost more than his freedom in a federal penitentiary in Virginia.

Berrigan, 74, who is serving a two-year term for damaging a Navy last year at the Bath Iron Works shipyard in Maine, recently was banned from seeing visitors, including his wife and three children, for a year.

The federal bureau of prisons imposed the punishment after Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Northern Ireland, recipient of the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize, staged a nonviolent sit-in at the prison in Petersburg, Va., on Feb. 16, after visiting Berrigan.

Thirty years after Berrigan began his career of civil disobedience by pouring bottles of blood over Selective Service files in Baltimore during the Vietnam War, he was segregated from the general population the federal prison for over a week after Maguire's demonstration. A prison hearing officer then found Berrigan guilty of ''disruptive conduct'' for not alerting authorities about Maguire's planned protest. The finding and punishment have outraged Berrigan's supporters. Maguire, in recent letters to federal prison officials and Attorney General Janet Reno, called Berrigan's punishment ''illogical, unjust, and unfair.''

''Philip Berrigan is being punished for something that he did not do, but for something that I did,'' Maguire wrote. She said she had never met Berrigan before the visit, which she made a month after nominating him for the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize.

Todd Craig, a spokesman for the federal bureau of prisons, said Berrigan was obligated to inform authorities about Maguire's intended sit-in so order could be maintained in a ''safe, secure and humane way.''

Maguire, 43, who said she staged the three-hour sit-in to show solidarity with Berrigan and to protest the possible attack on Iraq by the United States, was arrested by police from nearby Richmond, Va. She was charged with trespassing, jailed overnight, then freed the next day after a federal judge dismissed the criminal complaint against her at the request of prosecutors.

However, prison officials pressed the matter. ''The incident did disrupt the orderly operation of the facility,'' Craig said. ''Therefore, Mr. Berrigan was appropriately sanctioned with the loss of social visiting privileges for a year.''

Berrigan is appealing the sentence, although it is unclear whether the appeals process will be completed before his earliest possible release date of Nov. 20. He was awaiting a date for the first of several administrative appeals he would need to exhaust before asking a federal judge for relief.

Berrigan and his family could not be reached for comment. But his friends said Berrigan believes his loss of visitation privileges is particularly unfair to his relatives.

''He certainly feels his family is being deeply punished,'' said Sister Ardeth Platte, a friend of Berrigan who lives with his wife, Elizabeth McAlister, and their children in the Jonah House pacifist community that Berrigan helped to form in Baltimore in 1973.

Platte said Berrigan testified at his disciplinary hearing that Maguire informed him of her planned demonstration. Platte said Berrigan testified that he told Maguire ''to follow her conscience.''

Maguire shared the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize with Betty Williams, also Northern Ireland. At the time, they were Roman Catholic housewives who had withstood death threats and physical attacks to form a woman's movement to try to stop the sectarian killing in the province. They began the effort after Williams saw a terrorist's runaway car run down three children, killing them. Maguire was the children's aunt.

Berrigan, who has been jailed repeatedly for civil disobedience, led five other religious peace activists in secretly boarding a nuclear-capable Navy destroyer in Maine on Feb. 12, 1997, Ash Wednesday. The protesters hammered to damage the control panels and poured bottles of their blood on the ship before they were arrested by military police.

At the arraignment, Maine District Court Judge Joseph Field called Berrigan ''a moral giant, the conscience of a generation.'' But a federal jury in Portland, Maine, convicted the group three months of conspiracy and destroying federal property.

Maguire, in her letter to Reno, lashed out at the prison sanctions. ''I am appalled that the United States, which prides and presents itself to the world as the model of democracy, should so unjustly remove such a basic right as all visitations to a prisoner,'' she wrote. ''This treatment of Philip Berrigan, which is really cruel and barbaric, is not acceptable behavior from any democratic country.''

Amnesty International joined the protest. ''The Bureau of Prison's vicarious punishment of Phil Berrigan constitutes cruel and inhuman and degrading treatment in violation of his rights under international human rights laws and treaties to which the United States government is a party,'' Francis A. Boyle, a director of Amnesty International, wrote to Reno.

As word spread of Berrigan's latest predicament, among his supporters were Catholic social justice workers who said they have long drawn inspiration from him. Said Kathy Shields Boylan, at the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House in Washington, ''She made a decision to protest. He should not be held responsible for the conscience of another person.''

This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 04/01/98.
(c) Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company.

PLEASE CIRCULATE



27 March 1998

The Honorable Janet Reno
U.S. Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Suite 4400
Washington, DC 20350
Fax No.: 202-514-4371
By Mail and Fax

Dear Ms. Reno:

I am writing to protest the decision by the Bureau of Prisons canceling all visitation rights for Philip Berrigan, who is currently incarcerated at FCI Petersburg, Virginia for his Prince of Peace Plowshares Act of Conscience against a nuclear-capable Aegis Cruiser in Maine. One of the judges involved in that case publicly called Phil Berrigan "the moral conscience of our generation." My sentiments exactly.
Phil Berrigan was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the distinguished Irish Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire, one of the Co-Founders of the Peace People Movement in Northern Ireland. Ms. Maguire cited Phil Berrigan and his brother Father Dan Berrigan, S.J., for a lifetime of dedication to the cause of promoting peace, justice and human rights around the world, and especially here in the United States of America. Ms. Maguire decided to meet personally with her Nobel Peace Prize Nominee at FCI Petersburg in order to offer her personal support to Phil Berrigan for his continuing work for peace. After the meeting was over, and in light of the impending bombing of Iraq by the United States, Ms. Maguire decided to stage a protest for peace by refusing to leave the prison. According to Ms.Maguire's Statement, a copy of which is attached to this letter, Phil Berrigan had nothing to do with Ms. Maguire's peaceful protest. I have never had any reason to doubt the word of the world-renowned Irish Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire.
Ms. Maguire was held overnight in Richmond City Jail, and brought before a judge the next afternoon. The Prosecutor recommended that all charges against her be dropped and the Judge immediately released her. Nevertheless, Phil Berrigan was punished because of Mairead Corrigan Maguire's peaceful, non-violent and non-criminal protest against an impending war, which was protected activity under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Bureau of Prison's vicarious punishment of Phil Berrigan constitutes cruel and inhuman and degrading treatment in violation of his rights under international human rights laws and treaties to which the United States government is a party.
In particular, Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states quite clearly: "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to protection of the law against such interference or attacks." The Bureau of Prisons has arbitrarily interfered with Phil Berrigan's family by terminating their visitation rights for one year because of Mairead Corrigan Maguire's peaceful, non-violent, non-criminal protest against an impending war. I should point out that the United States government has been in the vanguard of the international movement maintaining that basic provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights such as Article 12 constitute customary international law.

Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has now been codified in Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which the United States Government is now a contracting party. Covenant Article 17 provides as follows:"1.No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation.2.Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks." By terminating Phil Berrigan's visitation rights with his family for the act of Ms.Maguire, the Bureau of Prisons has arbitrarily interfered with his family. Moreover, as Attorney General of the United States of America, you are
obligated to protect Phil Berrigan and his family from such arbitrary interference by the Bureau of Prisons that falls under your domain. I should point out that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 17 thereof is a treaty to which the United States Government is a contracting party and therefore "the supreme Law of the Land" under Article VI of the United States Constitution, the so-called Supremacy Clause. For these reasons, I ask you to order the immediate restoration of Phil Berrigan's right to visit with his family.
I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
Yours very truly,


Francis A. Boyle
Professor of International Law
Board of Directors, Amnesty International USA (1988-1992)

Attachment

cc: Director, U.S. Bureau of Prisons
520 First Street NW
Washington, DC 20001

Stephen DeWalt
Warden
FCI Petersburg
PO Box 1000
Petersburg VA 23804-1000
Fax No.:804-863-1510
By Mail and Fax



Peace People, Friedhelm, 224 Lisburn Road, Belfast, BT9 6GE

March 14, 1998

To: Director, U.S. Bureau of Prisons
520 First Street, NW
Washington, D.C., 20001, USA

From: Mairead Corrigan Maguire

I am writing from Belfast, Northern Ireland to appeal to you to reverse the recent decision canceling all visitation rights for the internationally known, nonviolent peacemaker, Philip Berrigan, age 74, who is currently being held in the Petersburg, Virginia Federal Correctional Institution. I am appalled at this decision.

Firstly, let me say, that Philip Berrigan is being punished for something that he did not do, but for something that I did. This is unjust.

As I understand it, on March 10th, the Regional Supervisor of Virginia Prisons issued an order that Philip Berrigan is not to receive any further visits for one year. The Regional Supervisor is punishing Philip Berrigan not because of something Philip Berrigan did, but because of something I did. Three weeks earlier, on Monday, February 16th, 1998, while I was in the United States, I visited Phil Berrigan in the Petersburg prison. It was the first time I had met him, and I came to offer him my support in his work for peace.

At the time, the United States was threatening to bomb the people of Iraq, and so, in an effort to protest U.S. war preparations and ongoing U.S. nuclear weapons policy, I staged a peaceful protest in the Petersburg prison by refusing to leave--after my visit with Philip Berrigan had already concluded. My peaceful protest was an act of solidarity with this great man and his work for peace.

My action was solely my decision. I acted alone. This was not an action that Philip Berrigan suggested or talked me into. Why then punish Philip Berrigan for something that I did?

I was held overnight in the Richmond city jail and brought before a judge the next afternoon. To my surprise, the prosecutor recommended that all charges against me be dropped and the judge immediately released me.

Philip Berrigan should not be punished for something that I did, especially when the local judge and prosecutor decided that my action was not worthy of punishment. I was willing to take any punishment for my protest against United States war preparations, but none was given to me by the judge. It is illogical, unjust, and unfair then that Philip Berrigan should be punished for an action that I had taken, that he did not urge or take, that I was willing to be punished for, and that the courts decided was not worthy of punishment. Philip Berrigan's wife, children and friends should also not be punished for the next year because of my action. I am horrified by the Regional Supervisor's decision to cancel all visiting rights to Philip Berrigan for one year. To me, this is draconian punishment.

Secondly, let me say that I am appalled that the United States, which prides itself and presents itself to the world as the model of democracy, should so unjustly remove such a basic right as all visitations to a prisoner--and in this case, to such a noble, nonviolent person as Philip Berrigan. This treatment of Philip Berrigan, which is really cruel and barbaric, is not acceptable behavior from any democratic country. Philip Berrigan stands in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. He is one of the century's great voices for peace. I urge you to reverse this decision, and restore his right to regular visitations.

For my part, I will leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of Philip Berrigan's right to have regular visitations. Thank you very much for your immediate attention to this matter.

Sincerely yours,

Mairead Corrigan Maguire

(Co-founder, Peace People, Northern Ireland;
1976 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate) March 14, 1998