LIMA, Peru (AP) -- Amnesty International asked Peru's government Friday
                  to end the total isolation of an American woman serving a life sentence for
                  terrorism.

                  New York-native Lori Berenson, 29, has been held in solitary confinement
                  in Socabaya prison, 465 miles southeast of Lima, for almost four months.

                  So complete is her isolation that the guards who bring her food and escort
                  her during her one hour a day of yard time will not speak with her, an
                  Amnesty statement said.

                  "Prolonged solitary confinement can cause severe and lasting physical and
                  psychological damage and amounts to cruel, inhuman and degrading
                  treatment or punishment," the statement said.

                  Berenson, a former Massachusetts Institute of Technology student, was
                  transferred on Oct. 7 to Socabaya prison from Yanamayo prison 12,700
                  feet high in the Andes mountains for medical tests.

                  Doctors said that while in Yanamayo she suffered from arthritic hands,
                  bronchial and throat problems, and chronic gastritis from the prison food.

                  The London-based Amnesty International said Berenson has not received
                  the needed medical tests at Socabaya.

                  "The organization believes that the Peruvian authorities have singled her out
                  for punishment," the statement said.

                  Berenson, a former Massachusetts Institute of Technology student, was
                  convicted by a military judge in 1996 for helping leftist rebels of the Tupac
                  Amaru Revolutionary Movement plan a thwarted assault on Peru's
                  Congress.

                  U.S. officials have protested that she was denied a fair trial and have called
                  on Peruvian authorities to give her an open, civilian trial.

                  President Alberto Fujimori has said she is a terrorist and will not be given
                  special treatment.

                  Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.