Vanunu: 'I Have No Regrets'

Following is the text of a letter from Mordechai Vanunu to the 20th annual Right Livelihood Award meeting in Salzburg, Austria, June 1999:

by Mordechai Vanunu

Shalom.

I want to transmit to you today a message of hope.

My own situation to date has not changed at all. I still do not have any contact with the outside world, and am denied visits, mail and decent medical care. In prison I am not regarded as just an equal inmate, and each time I am treated in a different way.

I believe that what you do is very important, and can achieve things both on the personal level as well as that of principle. I would very much like to be with you here today and to know that I am among people who have done important and worthy things for humanity.

To you, members of the Foundation, I wish to thank you for your courage and daring in acknowledging my action as a just and deserving one, and for the conviction that what I had done was important.

I do not have any regrets, despite the heavy price I have been made to pay and continue to pay. My inner conviction is strong that what I have done was right.

I want you not to forget me and to continue with your important actions. I would like to encourage you to follow your road, despite not having any direct contact with me, and not hearing my own voice. I know this must be frustrating, but I beg of you not to despair and continue.

With all those present, I congratulate the award winners, and genuinely express my true appreciation of what you have done for the sake of society and the environment. I feel very proud to belong in such a company.

From my narrow cell here I call on you to continue your works, and to trust that the day will come when I will be among you. I very much hope, at your next conference. I also urge you to call upon Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak and President Ezer Weizman to bring about my release as soon as possible.

Thirteen years of suffering is more than enough.