Sergio Bitar, a former Allende cabinet minister, shuffled from one concentration camp in Chile to another. Institutionalized brutality there has produced "a sort of Gestapo autonomous from the central government," he says.

Sergio Bitar, a native of Chile, is now a fellow at Harvard's Institute for International Development. John Karefa-Smart left Sierra Leone to become a lecturer at the Harvard Medical School. Pavel Litvmov has been polishing his English at Manhattanville College in Purchase. N.Y., so he can resume the study of physics that he had to abandon in the Soviet Union. These men have one trait in common--all were political prisoners in their native countries, and all were aided by an organization known as Amnesty International.

"The purpose of Amnesty International is to free people who have been jailed for their consciously held religious, moral or political beliefs," says Pamela White, the 27-year-old Boston area director for Amnesty. She adds that candidates for Amnesty sponsorship must never have advocated violence or participated in espionage.

Amnesty officials estimate that there are upwards of a million political prisoners in the world, with almost every nation bearing some of the guilt. Only Holland, the Scandinavian countries, West Germany, New Zealand. Canada, and Australia have no political prisoners (Amnesty would classify England in this group if it weren't for uncertainties over the situation in Northern Ireland). The countries with the greatest number of political prisoners now are Chile. South Africa, Rhodesia, and Indonesia. Up until its liberation last spring. South Viet Nam would probably have won the prize for political repression.

Most of the approximately 100 political prisoners in the United States are draft resisters, while a substantial minority are civil rights cases. "Political imprisonment is a lot less heinous in this country than in others because we don't think that prisoners are being tortured and starved here as they are in Latin American counties," White explains.

Political imprisonment is reportedly far more widespread in the Soviet Union, where the KGB has reputedly used drugs and psychological torture on dissidents. Pavel Litvinov, a well-known physicist, spent several months in Siberia for his political beliefs untils he came to this country in March 1974. Lit-vinov hopes to have improved his English by next year to the point where he will be able to resume his research at Manhattanville College.

"Nobody thinks about these people [political prisoners]--they are outcasts," he says in a heavily accented but grammatically correct English. "Amnesty helps them to face their sufferings because they know that somewhere, others are caring about them." He comments that although a prisoner's release cannot be directly traced to Amnesty, the threat of adverse world-wide publicity has forced the Soviet Union to free many prisoners that it would not have otherwise. "This approach really works--especially with regimes like the Soviet," he says.

Sergio Bitar shuffled from one concentration camp in Chile to another until the military dictatorship there decided to release him in November. 1974. Former Minister of Mines for the Allende government. Bitar is now a visiting fellow at the Institute for International Development, where he is doing research on the political economy of his native country. He says that Amnesty has placed "much pressure" on the Chilean junta to curtail its repressive tactics. A recent Amnesty report on political imprisonment in Chile describes the situation in dry, detached language.

Consequently, political prisoners have stemmed from every sector of the Chilean population. Allende's cabinet ministers are in prison. At least 40 lawyers have been detained, many for having exercised their professional duties. Approximately 100 medical doctors were arrested (the majority of them now free), almost invariably accused of participation in "clandestine hospitals" which would have treated pro-Allende casualties in the event of a Civil War. Journalists who worked in pro-Allende newspapers, magazines, radio or television stations have been imprisoned, killed or forced to seek asylum. A similar fate has met all leaders of the now disbanded Central Workers Union.

Like Litvinov. Bitar notes that it is impossible to gauge the individual role of elements such as Amnesty, universities, and the church in gaining his release, saying that it was the combined pressures of world opinion that eventually won him his freedom. Many political prisoners are still languishing in Chilean jails. With a glint of anger in his eyes. Bitar remarks that the process of brutality has now been institutionalized in Chile, thereby producing "a sort of Gestapo autonomous from the central government." He describes the Chilean leadership as having "the most reactionary mentality in Latin America today," and concludes that a change will occur in Chile in the near future, due to internal instability and external pressure.

Dr. John Karefa-Smart, who turns 60 this year, now teaches preventive medicine at the Medical School. A former foreign minister of Sierra Leone, he was imprisoned in that country during the fall and winter of 1970. The government of Sierra Leone claimed at the time that a state of emergency warranted Karefa-Smart's imprisonment, but he was in tact detained for political reasons. Echoing Bitar and Litvinov, he cites Amnesty's apolitical nature as one of the keys to its success. "Amnesty is definitely helping the many political prisoners who are still in Sierra Leone," he says.

White describes prisoner conditions in most countries as "not to be believed." Political prisoners often undergo torture, she says, and some spend months in jail with no charges filed against them Most accounts of prison conditions come from escaped prisoners and the Red Cross. White adds that there are probably many prisoners in North Viet Nam, North Korea, and China, but Amnesty has no way of verifying this.

Amnesty International has spread all over the globe since it was founded by a group of British lawyers in 1961. With headquarters in London, the organization has over 1500 chapters throughout the world, although it is more active and better known in Western Europe than the United States. Motorists in West Germany and the Netherlands can even elect to pay their parking fines to Amnesty.

Amnesty operates through individuals and groups, who, White says, "actually adopt a prisoner as a long-term affair." Before Amnesty will sponsor a prisoner, the London headquarters investigates his case to verify that it is political, often sending observers to open trials. "We don't want criminals," White stresses. Amnesty groups consist of fifteen people who "adopt" three prisoners from different countries. Individuals usually "adopt" a single prisoner. In addition to the $5 per year dues required from every individual, groups are also expected to raise another $400 annually through functions like bake sales. Amnesty also conducts direct mailing campaigns to generate support.

"Adoption" means assuming responsibility for a prisoner until he is released or otherwise disposed of by his government. In its literature, Amnesty repeatedly invokes the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which White terms "a treaty more honored in the breach than anything else." Amnesty groups write letters to ministers and other key figures in the governments of their adopted prisoners. White says that although officials rarely reply the first time. Amnesty keeps pestering them "until the file on a particular prisoner has grown so fat that they cannot afford to ignore it." White mentions that it is more effective to be "courteous, rational, and apolitical" than overtly antagonistic to governments. In pleading a prisoner's case. Amnesty often reminds a country of a constitution that it may be disregarding. "We try to prick their conscience," she says, adding that the embarrassing weight of world opinion usually proves to be Amnesty's most effective weapon in dealing with repressive governments.