Dominican Republic

"When the first 200 letters came, the guards gave me back my clothes. Then the next 200 came, and the prison director came to see me. When the next pile of letters arrived, the director got in touch with his superior. The letters kept coming and coming: three thousand of them. The president was informed. The letters still kept arriving, and the president called the prison and told them to let me go. "After I was released, the president called me to his office. He said: 'How is it that a trade union leader like you has so many friends from all over the world?' He showed me an enormous box full of letters he had received and, when we parted, he gave them to me."

--Julio de Pena Valdez, released prisoner of conscience from the Dominican Republic

El Salvador

"...if there's lots of pressure--like from Amnesty International or some foreign countries--we might pass them on to a judge. But if there's no pressure, then they're dead."

--former torturer from El Salvador

Malaysia

"Today I took all the letters and cards you sent me in the past, re-read them, looked at them again, and it is hard to describe the feelings in my heart. The number of these letters and cards is not many. I know that from 1977 on you certainly sent me a large number of letters and cards, but I received only 10; I don't know how many that you sent me were lost to me--these things that I regard as precious jewels. "Of the 10 items there are five that I received in 1977 or before while I was in 'the camp'. In anticipation that they might very well be taken from me, I had arranged to keep them in a place outside the camp, and so they have been preserved. There are three you sent to my sister which I was only able to see five or six years later. The other two are those you sent me at the beginning of this year. I cannot describe my gratitude towards you; as I re-read these letters I cannot control my own emotions."

--released prisoner of conscience from Malaysia

Paraguay

"For years I was held in a tiny cell. My only human contact was with my torturers. For two and a half of those years I did not experience the glance of a human face, see a green leaf. My only company was the cockroaches and mice. The only daylight that entered my cell was through a small opening at the top of one wall. For eight months I had my hands and feet tied.  "On Christmas Eve, the door to my cell opened, and the guard tossed in a crumpled piece of paper. I moved as best I could to pick up the paper. It said simply, 'Constantino, do not be discouraged; we know you are alive.' It was signed 'Monica' and had the Amnesty International candle on it. "Those words saved my life and my sanity. Eight months later I was set free."

--Constantine Coronet released prisoner of conscience from Paraguay

South Korea

"Thank you for your letter. When in prison, especially, I could not fail to forget your encouragement, which created my courage and power. Thanks to God and you, I have safely returned home from imprisonment of 54 months. Only looking at the blue sky, I have the pleasure of flying into the sky. I don't know how much I am delighted to be free. Up to now, I have treasured the pair of socks made of wool which you gave me in prison, which keep my feet as well as my heart now warm. I thank you from the bottom of my heart again."

--Park Chongsuk, teacher and released prisoner of conscience front South Korea in a November 1987 letter to the Dutch Amnesty International group that had worked for his release

Swaziland

"I was on the verge of total collapse and desperation before I was introduced to you, but you gave me strength and courage to go on."

--relative of released prisoner of conscience, Swaziland

FORMER USSR

"While I was in Severodonetsk I received New Year's greetings cards from Austria, but without any sender's address. Now I understand that they came from an Austrian group of Amnesty International .... "It is difficult to imagine where I would be and in what condition I would be if it were not for your work. There were not only your letters addressed officially to the CPSU Central Committee, the Procurator General and the director of the camp, but there were also the letters which you addressed to me personally especially a greeting card for my birthday, which touched me deeply.... "The administration subjects the prisoners to a very great moral solitude. Many efforts can be undertaken to defend him: demonstrations, petitions, letters to the authorities, etc.... but the prisoner himself cannot know about these in the midst of rot and stench. And if by chance he does learn of this, a break in space and time is created. Everything that happens, everything that is done on his behalf happens in a completely different world, on a different level, it seems to the prisoner.... "And the guard learns . . . that there is a certain V. in the zone who is receiving letters from abroad. And these guards will be a little cautious regarding me, because an ordinary citizen is suspicious about everything foreign. Because of this I will be protected from the gratuitous cruelty of this petty administration, which is characterized by aggressiveness: I won't be beaten, I won't be put in a punishment cell, etc.... Of course if the higher authorities give certain orders to the guards 'the machine' will take its course and I will be beaten anyway, put in a punishment cell and denied food. But I will have 80 percent protection from all that. And all thanks to an envelope!"

--released prisoner of conscience from the USSR, in a letter to an Amnesty International group

"When you are in confinement, you have no contact with friends, or anyone. You feel completely cut off, deprived of the outside world. Suddenly I got the letters [from Amnesty International members].  It is difficult to explain what that meant. These two letters I got gave me hope. I understood how important this human rights support, and the defense from the West was for me, because only thanks to it did I keep my mind and my brain alive."

After he was freed, Davydov was called into the office of the KGB colonel who had first investigated his case. The official pointed to a stack of letters sitting on the desk. "I want you to write to them and tell them you are free so they stop sending these letters" he said. The letters were from Amnesty International members and had been written to Soviet authorities appealing on Davydov's behalf.

"The only reason why I am not in a psychiatric hospital, why I was not arrested again, is the activity of human rights organizations and other activity in the West in defense of Soviet human rights."

--Viktor Davydov, dissident and released prisoner of conscience from the USSR who had been held in a special psychiatric hospital because of his "socially dangerous acts"