Free Mordechai Vanunu!

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SOCIALISTACTION DECEMBER 1992 11 Mordechai Vanunu is an embarrassment to the Zionist Israeli government.

Vanunu has been locked up in solitary confinement in an Israeli prison for over six years because he revealed Israel's nuclear weapons development program to the press.

In September 1986, Vanunu, who worked as a nuclear technician at the Nuclear Reactor Center at Dimona, Israel, briefed the London Sunday Times about Israel's "top secret" nuclear weapons program. For years, Israel denied possessing nuclear weapons, and inside Israel itself, public discussion on the subject was considered taboo.

Immediately after the story was published, an arrest warrant was issued for Vanunu by Israeli authorities charging him with espionage.

Only days after his interview with the Times, Vununu was lured from London to Rome by Israeli Mossad agents, SA: Does the same system exist today, or can independent musicians now earn a living?

VT: Today, independent organizations exist in every town, and they can organize concerts, and charge what they like. They just have to pay a tax to the government. It's business like in the West. But literature in Byelorussian is not profitable. It is possible to sell editions of 5 million of a book in Russian.

In Byelorussian, you get editions of five thousand. In Byelorussian even translations of classical literature have very slow sales. For example, a few years ago a translation of "Pan Tadeusz" [the most popular work of the Polish national poet, Adam Mickiewicz] was published in an edition of 12,000 copies.

In five years they have not been able to sell them all. Books in Byelorussian have no commercial interest. And the same was said of rock music in Byelorussian.

SA: Are there record companies today that produce recordings of Byelorussian music?

VT: There was a samizdat [underground] in cassettes. It is still true that cassettes are being made privately, and circulated with the musicians or song writers getting any royalties, without anybody paying taxes. This is a rather large-scale phenomenon.

SA: Do you have access today to TV?

VT: We are raising that question today. One clip of the rock group Bonda has been shown on TV once. The musicians payed the technicians themselves. Today, a festival of Byelorussian rock music is held in Poland. All the Byelorussian groups go there and come here from there. In Poland, there is a public and money. The TV goes there.

We journalists have been writing about the need for opening up a niche for Byelorussian on Byelorussian TV, since it is supposed to be Byelorussian TV. This should start with Belorussian mass culture, which is not generally well known. People are talking about Byelorussian culture, but it has not been getting on TV.

The problem is that the TV professionals here are people who couldh't make it in Moscow. We have a provincial Russian studio. drugged, and then kidnapped back to Israel, in total violation of international law. At his subsequent "closed" triallasting from August 1987 to March 1988 he was convicted of treason, espionage, and revealing state secrets. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison. In May 1990, an appeal against his conviction was rejected by the Israeli Supreme Court.

Virtually all the time Vanunu has served in prison so far has been in solitary confinement-2250 days in total isolation!

Vanunu's conviction and harsh treatment has triggered an international outcry of protest. As the newsletter published by The Campaign to Free Vanunu and for a Nuclear Free Middle East states, "Vanunu's kidnapping was illegal under international law; his trial was a travesty of justice; and his continuing detention under such degrading conditions is an affront to humanity."

Three resolutions demanding Vanunu's's release have been passed by the European Parliament and numerous scientists, editors, and civil libertarians have sent telegrams to the Israeli govemment. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize from 1987 thru 1990.

Vanunu's only "crime" is that he wanted the citizens of his own country to know that their government-behind their backs—was developing weapons of mass destruction—making it the only country in the Middle East with nuclear capability.

For more information, contact The Campaign to Free Vanunu, 6 Endsleigh St., London WCIH ODX. Tel./Fax 071 387-5096.

SA: What percent of Byelorussian youth do you think are interested in Byelorussian rock music?

VI: The most popular rock music is in Russian. There is no advertising for the Byelorussian groups, and so there is no comparison in record sales. On the other hand, one of the most popular Moscow groups can barely fill a third of a hall when they come to Minsk. But Mroya, which is not considered a popular group on the same scale, can fill halls here.

So, it is hard to give any statistics, because the Byelorussian rock groups are not a serious business. It is a purely voluntary thing, a hobby. It has a potential for reaching 70 percent of the youth. But now I would guess that about 10 percent of Byelorussian youth are influenced by Byelorussian rock music. There are only a few records in Byelorussian, but every day a dozen new Russian records come out. The influence of Byelorussian rock, therefore, is modest but already perceptible.

SA: In Ireland also the fans of traditional music are a minority, but a large minority. Anglo-American popular music predominates, but Irish music is not just listened to by nationalist intellectuals but by significant layers of the population.

VT: Here also after a mass meeting, not just youth went to a rock concert but also older people, and they enjoyed it. Rock music is not aimed at intellectuals; it also has a more emotional aspect. But here rock music appeals to intellectuals, and it may be for that reason that it is so distinctive and has such a high level. There are ideas in the lyrics, and often they could be published as poetry.

SA: That is like Welsh rock music. The performers say that there is a fundamental difference between music and poetry, but the fact remains that the lyrics are often good poetry, not like in ordinary rock music.

VT: Yes. The Byelorussian rock composers and performers want to influence their public. The performers try to make the words understandable. Rock poetry does differ from ordinary poetry. It has a high intellectual potential. But it has its own patterns and phrasing, which make things more understandable through music.