POLITICAL PRISONERS STAGE HUNGER STRIKE
The Paris daily Le Monde reported April 21 that it had learned from "private sources" that a number of Algerian revolutionists, held in Boumedienne's prisons, had ended a hunger strike.
Fourteen began the protest action at Lambése on March 23. They were followed by sixty-two others at El Harrach on April l. Among the hunger strikers were Hocine Zahouane, Mohamed Harbi and Bachir Hadj Ali. The prisoners decided to go on’a hunger strike. to call attention to the illegal nature of their detention and the lack of competent medical attention which many of them require after undergoing sustained torture.
Although they are political prisoners, in: opposition to the Boumedienne regime, they have been denied the status normaily given persons imprisoned because of their views. Moreover, no charges” have been placed against any of them. :
The exact condition of the prisoners is not known, since Boumedienne keeps them incommunicado. Le Monde reported April 15. that the hunger strikers at El Harrach had been transferred to an "unknown" destination and that six had been hospitalized. A government official claimed those in the hospital had given up their’. hunger strike but this was denied by relatives of the prisoners.
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VIETNAM WEEK DESIGNATED BY NEW