Biographies of Survivors

Mehdi Zana: A Kurd by birth, Mr. Zana was born in Turkish 
Kurdistan in 1940.  In 1977, he became the mayor of Diyarbakir the largest 
Kurdish city in the Middle East.  In 1980, he was thrown into Diyarbakir 
military prison like many other Kurds.  All were tortured.  In a span of two 
years, 54 Kurdish inmates would die as a result.  Many others would be 
crippled for life.

As Elie Wiesel puts it, "Solitary confinement, guards' insults, the obligation 
to salute the caption's dog, the beatings,..."  Mr. Zana has a book chronicling 
his ordeal in Turkish prisons titled, Prison Number 5.  His wife, Leyla Zana, a 
duly elected member of parliament in Turkey was given a sentence of 15 years 
in 1994.  A prisoner of conscience, the recipient of 1995 Sakharov Freedom 
Award, she is a candidate for Nobel Peace Prize.  Last year, 153 members of 
Congress signed a letter urging President Clinton to seek her freedom.  She 
remains in prison.

Sister Dianna Ortiz: Sister Ortiz was born New Mexico and is a 
member of Ursuline Community in Kentucky.  In 1987, she went to 
Guatemala to teach young children.  While there, Dianna began to receive 
death threats.  On November 2, 1989, she was abducted at gunpoint from a 
church retreat by two men and later transported in a police car.  She was 
detained for twenty four hours, burned more than 111 times with cigarettes 
and repeatedly raped.  While in detention, she heard and witnessed the 
torture of other Guatemalans.

Sister Ortiz's torturers responded to orders from a man who spoke heavily 
accented, broken Spanish, English with a perfect American accent and refused 
to answer when she asked him directly if he was an American.  He offered to 
take Sister Ortiz to a friend of his in the U.S. Embassy.  Dianna escaped from 
his car and continued to search for the truth about her abduction and torture.

Orlando Tizon: As a Catholic priest in the Philippines, Orlando 
Tizon was associated with the Bishops' Secretariat for Social Action.  Because 
of his activities on behalf of the people, he was arrested during the regime of 
Ferdinand Marcos.  During his three years in prison, "I was tortured as a 
prisoner, like so many others at this time."

Released by the Aquino government, Tizon came to the United States.  He is 
currently completing his doctorate in sociology in Chicago and hopes to 
become a teacher.

Darija Pichanic: was born and raised in Sarajevo, Bosnia and 
Herzegovina. Prior to the war in Bosnia she studied World Literature at the 
University of Sarajevo and worked at the Chamber Theatre 55 as a producer. 
During the war Darija continued working in Theatre helping put on stage 
performance such as anti-war musical "Hair'. She left the country in 
December 1993 as an escort to her mother who was evacuated from Sarajevo 
due to her illness. Since then she has been living in Atlanta, Georgia. She is 
presently working as a project coordinator for the Refugee Women's 
Network, Inc. in Atlanta, national organization of refuge women in the U.S. 
She has been active in international NGO coalition for establishment of 
International Criminal Court and is a Board member of Women's 
Commission for Refugee Women and Children.

Kifah Coleman:  I am from Somalia and I am a victim of torture.  In 
1991 civil war broke out in my country.  Tribe and clan have divided Somalia.  
I am from a very small mixed clan, so I am a minority.  Unfortunately, being 
a minority (I am  half Jewish), caused me to spend four years in a 
concentration camp.  I lost my husband and 39 family members.  When I 
arrived in that camp I was 19 years old.  I was a mother of 4 children and my 
last child was 3 weeks old.  My children and I were separated. I did not know 
for several years whether they were alive or dead.   In the c camp I was among 
70 women who were responsible for cleaning, cooking and other chores for 
the Mohammed Farah soldiers.  All night we were raped and tortured and all 
day were forced to work.

Virginia Anikwata: Virginia came to  the U.S. from Nigeria in 1986 
with her husband, who also was Nigerian and was attending university in 
the U.S.  Her daughter Sharon was born here in the U.S. in 1987.  Only eight 
weeks after Sharon's birth her father died of lung cancer at age 28, leaving his 
wife and American daughter without legal status here.  Virginia fought 
against deportation for several years because of concerns about the safety of 
herself and her daughter back in Nigeria, particularly the concern that Sharon 
would be subjected to female genital mutilation, as she had been as a girl.  In 
May 1998 she was ordered back to detention in the Dorcester County Jail for 
deportation, and arrangements were being made with the Nigerian Embassy 
for travel papers when Virginia, with the help of the World Organization 
Against Torture, filed a petition to withhold deportation under the 
Convention Against Torture.  It was granted in one day, and parole granted 
one day later, so that Virginia could be reunited with her daughter.  
Virgnina's case is important because it links FGM with the Torture 
Convention for the first time, and also exemplifies how the Torture 
Convention can be used to protect refugees who have run out of all other 
possibilities and claims.  

Sharon just completed the fifth grade at Garrett Park Elementary School.  
Virginia has worked as a practical nurse here in the U.S.  They have no other 
relatives in the U.S., so the deportation of Virginia would mean that Sharon 
would have to return to Nigeria with her, even though she is an American 
citizen.

Carmen Valenzuela:  Dr. Carmen Valenzuela received her medical 
degree from San Carlos de Guatemala University Medical School in 1980 and 
became a pediatrician in 1983.  She worked in Guatemala as a physician and 
professor of Pediatrics until 1990 when she had to leave her country after 
having been targeted for persecution by the Guatemalan army for her work 
with marginalized women and children in poor communities and for being 
opposed to the governing military regime.  On February 10, 1990, she was 
abducted by members of the Guatemalan G-2 intelligence unit and was held 
for eight days in clandestine detention centers.  During her detention, 
Valenzuela was physically and psychologically tortured.  After her release, she 
went into exile in the U.S. and studied International Maternal as a consultant 
for a Latin American child survival initiative in a United Nations health 
related organization in Washington, D.C.