SILENCED VOICES

Hugo de Leon Palacios, Guatemala Teacher, law student. Abducted March 1984 by armed plainclothes men. Authorities deny knowledge of his whereabouts. Mr. Palacios not released in ``general amnesty'' declared by outgoing military authorities in January 1986. His case being worked on by CASA -- Amnesty's Central American Special Action network. Nguyen Chi Thien, Vietnam Poet. Has spent 23 years in prison for his writing. Arrested 1965, spent 13 years in ``reeducation'' camps. Released 1978, but denied employment. Continued writing until rearrest in April 1979. In 1985 presented with Netherlands' Poetry International Prize. ``Adopted'' by groups in Britain and the Netherlands. Thozamile Gqweta, South Africa President, South African Allied Workers Union. Arrested February 1985. Now on trial for high treason. Arrested for criticism of government and detained without trial at least seven times. Allegedly tortured in prison. ``Adopted'' by Amnesty groups in Finland and Baltimore. Tatyana Semyonova, Oslpova, Soviet Union Computer specialist. Serving 12-year sentence for activites with Helsinki monitoring group, documenting cases of human rights violations from 1977 until arrest in 1980. Husband Ivan Kovalyov, another Helsinki monitor, jailed in 1982. Tatyana ``adopted'' by Amnesty groups in West Germany and Netherlands. Lee Kwang Ung, South Korea Teacher. Arrested without warrant in 1982 for distributing copies of book by North Korean poet. Held incommunicado until indicted 1983. At trial, he said he confessed, after being tortured, to false charges of setting up subversive, pro-communist group. Now serving seven-year term. Admitted he held views critical of government, but denied supporting communism. ``Adopted'' by groups in Canada, Denmark, France. Riad Turk, Syria Lawyer, first secretary of political bureau of banned Communist Party. Held without charges or trial for nearly six years. Tortured on four known occasions. Suffers from severe health problems. Amnesty has asked Syrian authorities to allow Mr. Turk medical care, to make known his whereabouts, and to release him. To date, no government reply. ``Adopted'' by groups in Austria and Japan.